Alternative character creation and advancement rules for D&D

I've been playing tons of Bloodborne and Dark Souls in my spare time so it's time for me to impose another souls-borne-inspired blog post on you.  In DS/BB you get to choose a class for your character which determines your starting equipment and stats.  Some of the classes are objectively more powerful than others, some are geared towards beginner players and some are only good if the player is experienced and knows what they are doing.  Often TTRPGs worry a lot about balance between classes and will try to make them all pretty evenly matched at level 1, but I thought it might be cool to have classes that are less balanced for more variety of play experience.

The 'balance', or probably better called 'fairness', comes from classes being randomly selected instead of chosen by the player.  I've written up d10 classes, which I've decided to call 'backgrounds', along with rules for character creation and advancement.  As you'll see, ability scores are sometimes rolled with a different formula to 3d6 depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the background.  I have roughly based this off of LotFP but with the key difference that I'm using d8 skills instead of d6.  This is because skills are improved each level in a similar way to the CoC/Runequest roll-over mechanic, and using a d8 will make skill progression a bit slower.

The 'Hedge Knight' background is sort of like an easy mode while the 'Nobody' background is like a hard mode (similar to the 'depraved' class in DS).

Character Creation

Roll 1d10 to get your background then refer to the relevant tables for your abilities, HP, skills, starting equipment, saving throws and levelling speed. Attack bonus for level 1 characters is +1 unless otherwise stated.

1. Hedge Knight
2. Cutpurse
3. Cultist
4. Lord's Bastard
5. Galley Slave
6. Hermit
7. Merchant
8. Barbarian
9. Graverobber
10. Nobody

Character Advancement

Upon gaining a new level, your character will gain 1d6 + Con mod hit points and may improve saving throws. Any skill that your character has used in a dangerous situation since the last time you gained a level has a chance of being improved. Roll 1d8 for each of these skills, and if you get a higher result than your skill, increase the skill by 1. Do the same for attack bonus, which caps at +8.

Hedge Knight

You were once a knight but fortune has left you without a lord to serve or lands to protect. You wander the land subsisting with little more than your martial skills.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 2d6+6 Con: 2d6+6 Dex: 3d6 Int: 3d6 Wis: 3d6 Cha: 3d6	1d8 + Con mod	Bushcraft 2-in-8 Attack +2 All others 1-in-8	Any two weapons Chain mail Backpack 2d6 x 10 sp	Paralyze – average Poison – good Breath – average Device – average Magic – poor	Very slow

Cutpurse

You were probably born on the streets. You have survived this long only by pilfering the valuables of wealthier folk.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 2d6+1 Con: 3d6 Dex: 2d6+6 Int: 3d6 Wis: 3d6 Cha: 3d6	1d6 + Con mod	Search 2-in-8 Sleight 2-in-8 Stealth 2-in-8 Tinker 2-in-8 All others 1-in-8	Dagger Simple clothes Backpack 1d6 x 10 sp	Paralyze – average Poison – average Breath – good Device – good Magic – average	Slow

Cultist

Regardless of where you came from, at some point in your life you were seduced by the promise of eldritch power.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 3d6 Con: 2d6+1 Dex: 3d6 Int: 3d6 Wis: 2d6+6 Cha: 3d6	1d6 + Con mod	Languages 2-in-8 Search 2-in-8 All others 1-in-8	One random spell book Robes Backpack 3d6 x 10 sp	Paralyze – average Poison – average Breath – average Device – good Magic – good	Average

Lord's Bastard

Even though you were born of noble blood you are of a lower social rank than your brothers and sisters and will never own land or inherit great wealth.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 2d6+1 Con: 2d6+1 Dex: 3d6 Int: 3d6 Wis: 3d6 Cha: 2d6+6	1d4 + Con mod	Architect 2-in-8 Languages 2-in-8 All others 1-in-8	Any one weapon Leather armour Backpack 5d6 x 10 sp	Paralyze – poor Poison – poor Breath – average Device – average Magic – average	Average

Galley Slave

Years of gruelling toil have hardened you and now that you have your freedom, anything is possible.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 2d6+6 Con: 2d6+6 Dex: 3d6 Int: 2d6+1 Wis: 3d6 Cha: 3d6	1d6 + Con mod	Bushcraft 2-in-8 Climb 2-in-8 All others 1-in-8	Club Simple clothes Backpack 1d4 x 10 sp	Paralyze – average Poison – average Breath – average Device – poor Magic – poor	Fast

Hermit

You have spent a considerable amount of time by yourself away from civilisation. While you have little to your name, you have learned much in your private studies.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 2d6+1 Con: 3d6 Dex: 3d6 Int: 2d6+6 Wis: 3d6 Cha: 2d6+1	1d4 + Con mod	Bushcraft 2-in-8 Tinker 2-in-8 All others 1-in-8	One random spell book Simple clothes Backpack 1d6 x 10 sp	Paralyze – average Poison – good Breath – poor Device – poor Magic – good	Fast

Merchant

You have travelled far and wide, making a living from ripping off customers and avoiding tax collectors.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 3d6 Con: 3d6 Dex: 3d6 Int: 3d6 Wis: 3d6 Cha: 2d6+6	1d6 + Con mod	Languages 2-in-8 Tinker 2-in-8 All others 1-in-8	Any one weapon Decent clothes Backpack 4d6 x 10 sp	Paralyze – average Poison – average Breath – average Device – average Magic – poor	Average

Barbarian

You are not from here. Your customs are mysterious and your language might as well be gibberish but you know how to survive in the wild.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 3d6 Con: 2d6+6 Dex: 3d6 Int: 2d6+1 Wis: 3d6 Cha: 2d6+1	1d6 + Con mod	Bushcraft 2-in-8 All others 1-in-8	Axe or club Primitive clothes Backpack 1d6 x 10 sp	Paralyze – good Poison – good Breath – average Device – poor Magic – poor	Average

Graverobber

Work begins for you at nightfall. You have lived off selling the nice things that people bury with their loved ones. It's not like they need them anyway.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 3d6 Con: 2d6+6 Dex: 3d6 Int: 3d6 Wis: 3d6 Cha: 2d6+1	1d6 + Con mod	Climb 2-in-8 Search 2-in-8 Stealth 2-in-8 All others 1-in-8	Crowbar Dirty clothes Backpack 4d6 x 10 sp	Paralyze – good Poison – good Breath – average Device – average Magic – poor	Slow

Nobody

No one knows where you came from. You were born with nothing and have only ever had nothing your entire life, but you are destined for great things.

Abilities	Hit Points	Skills	Equipment	Saves	Levelling
Str: 2d6 Con: 2d6 Dex: 2d6 Int: 2d6 Wis: 2d6 Cha: 2d6	1d4	All 1-in-8	Wooden pole Wretched clothes Backpack One lucky silver coin	Paralyze – poor Poison – good Breath – average Device – poor Magic – poor	Very fast

Character Advancement Chart

Level	Saves			Experience Points Needed (Levelling)
	Good	Average	Poor	Very Slow	Slow	Average	Fast	Very Fast
1	11	14	16	0	0	0	0	0
2	11	14	16	3,000	2,200	2,000	1,750	1000
3	11	14	16	6,000	4,400	4,000	3,500	2000
4	11	12	14	12,000	8,800	8,000	7,000	4000
5	9	12	14	24,000	17,600	16,000	14,000	8000
6	9	12	14	48,000	35,200	32,000	28,000	16,000
7	9	10	12	96,000	70,400	64,000	56,000	32,000
8	9	10	12	192,000	140,800	128,000	112,000	64,000
9	7	10	12	384,000	281,600	256,000	224,000	128,000
10	7	8	10	576,000	422,400	384,000	336,000	256,000

Giant Castle setting/adventure - Backstory overview and The Cult faction

This is the first follow up to my post from the other week about designing a campaign setting based around a giant's castle. I am going to make a few posts over the coming weeks and months fleshing out the various factions and NPCs present in the setting. Before that, a brief overview of the back story of the setting for context.

Few records of human history in this region have been kept, but the following is what everyone in the land knows about our heritage. Once upon a time, mankind ruled over this region. The best wizards, clerics, builders and politicians from around the land built or uncovered something very important on a hill in the centre of the region. Scholars disagree as to the nature and function of this place; some believe it was a site of religious significance, others claim it was a place of arcane power, and others say that is was merely a huge vault to store treasure. The truth has been lost to time, or deliberately suppressed. One day, out of nowhere, the Giants appeared. They laid waste to our relatively tiny towns and villages and took over the structure on the hill, building a huge castle on top of it before enslaving the thousands of people who lived in the area. After generations of living under the rule of the Giant King (name tbd), a group of powerful wizards hatched a plan to rid the land of their oppressors. They infiltrated the great castle and used their magic to open a number of portals to other dimensions, summoning various bizarre and dangerous creatures from alien planes. The Giants were killed or driven out by the extra-planar monsters and humanity was free from them at last. The castle still remains though, and it is still plagued by demons and other creatures to this day.

Faction - The Cult

Humanity's tragic history is enough to ruin any belief in a higher power looking out for our interests, but people will almost always gravitate towards beliefs systems that give them comfort about their inevitable death and downplay the meaninglessness of their existence.  Members of the The Cult believe not in gods, but in a peaceful afterlife in the Eternal Kingdom In The Sky.  If to live is to suffer, than surely to be dead is to be in bliss?  Believers in The Cult's teachings comfort themselves with the knowledge that they will go to heaven when they die, but they can't seem to shake that little niggling bit of doubt that tells them that their doctrine is rubbish and can't be proven.  So they are always searching for proof that their beliefs are justified.  This is what has brought them to the castle.  They believe that the Original Site that the castle was built on was a temple, and would surely contain the proof of eternal life they so desire.

Members of the Cult act gentle and saintly when speaking to outsiders but tend to be completely fanatical once you get to know them.  They wear greys, whites and blues - the colours of their Eternal Kingdom In The sky and like foggy and cloudy weather.  They absolutely hate wizards and will often brawl or skirmish with them if they run into them on expeditions.  They also claim to be hunters of demons, although nobody seems to have actually witnessed them defeating anything other than demon's lowly minions.  

Typical followers

• Level 0 commoners, mildly armed
• Do low-risk reconnaissance or look after their base
• Friendly, won't try to convert you straight away but will try to lure you back to their base to talk to a priest who will
• Silently judgemental

Typical priest

• Level 1-2 priest (see previous blog post)
• Do the same stuff as typical followers but also explore for artefacts, perform ceremonies and give spiritual guidance
• Wear robes and carry vials of holy water
• This holy water, when shaken, will evaporate into a gas that hangs in the air and can burn/choke undead
• Want to convert you

Typical knight

• Level 1-3 fighter
• Wear metal armour with white or grey surcoat
• Kind and 'chivalrous' until they learn that you are an enemy of the church, then openly hostile and potentially violent
• Hunt demons, wizards, thieves and vampires - usually badly
• Want to die a good death

Important NPCs

Archmissionary Carlin

• Level 5 priest
• In charge of the whole operation in the castle
• Younger than you expect
• Tries to get you to convert by telling you about how much of a great community they have in the church
• Likes to carve wood for a hobby
• Dresses like a typical priest but is armed with a mace and wears chain armour under his robes
• Questioning faith but doesn't let on because he doesn't want to fail at his job

Quartermaster Lisa

• Level 4 priest
• Low-key total nutcase
• In charge of the base
• Practically worships Carlin, but will turn on him if she finds out his wavering belief
• Avoids talking unless to proselytise, punishes people by cutting their tongues out
• Wears gambeson instead of robes, armed with hand axe

Sir Kleland of the stone fields

• Level 8 fighter
• Captain of the knights
• Ripped
• Claims to have killed a demon once, won't stop talking about it
• Doesn't talk about his past, generally assumed to be traumatic
• Pretends to be devout but is really only in it for the money and excuse to kill stuff
• Sword expert, will spa with you just so he can humiliate you when you get rekt by him
• “I came from the mud”
• Basically just a high school jock with a sword and full plate

Blacksmith Smith

• Level 2 specialist
• Level-headed (in comparison to everyone else)
• Makes and repairs weapons/armour/horseshoes etc.
• Secretly buys and sells enchanted runes
• Filthy
• Speaks in a way that assumes you believe in the same stuff as the cult even if you aren't one of them
• Looking forward to a nice peaceful afterlife
• Modest

Base

• Re-purposed from a giant stable
• Contains:
  • Chapel
  • School
  • Sleeping/dining space
  • Blacksmith
  • Armoury
• Fairly well-guarded
• Occasionally bothered by minions of the Apiary Demon who lives nearby, no one has been able to slay it yet so mostly everyone just pretends it doesn't exist
• Hole in the wall behind Smith's workshop leads into the kennels, only gives access to one pen which is locked and barred with metal

Multiple dungeons in close proximity - campaign setting concept

I'm sort of going to jump on the recent Dark Souls bandwagon here and talk about some stuff I liked about Dark Souls 1.  In addition to all the cool level design that has been discussed on other gaming blogs and forums extensively, one thing I thought was really nice was having a central 'hub' area of the world (Firelink Shrine) where the player can access multiple different areas.  This has got me thinking about how something like this might work in a TTRPG setting or adventure.  Imagine a campaign setting where there are several large dungeons all in close proximity to each other with a central safe area that the players can use as a base.  This allows them the option to basically explore multiple dungeons at the same time, as there would be nothing wrong with them exploring a few rooms of one dungeon before moving on to the next one and coming back to the first one later.  In adventures where a dungeon is the only interesting thing for miles around, the players are just going to try and explore as much of it in one go as they can.

There are lots of different ways you could implement this, e.g. the central hub is a city, and the multiple dungeons lie beneath the city.  I came up with an idea for this concept that I think could be really cool, but would be a lot of work to design and write.  The idea is that the adventure/campaign takes place in a castle that was built by giants.  All the buildings and fortifications are at least 3 times bigger than human-sized ones, meaning that the whole thing would be the size of a small city.  The giants have long since been driven out but other equally-unsavory creatures have moved in to the abandoned buildings.  The enormous bailey and maybe some other parts of the castle are relatively safe, there might even be other civilised humans living there, but the major buildings, underground tunnels/sewers and especially the great keep are all highly dangerous dungeon environments.  Since the buildings are enormous compared to the human PCs, each one would be sizable dungeon that the beasties now inhabiting them would have built their own structures on top of.

There are a few things about this concept that would make it an interesting and unique setting.  The different dungeon areas could be interconnected in a number of ways due to their proximity, adding to the Dark Souls vibe.  Since most of the structures in a castle complex are above ground, there's a lot of room for player creativity in finding different entry points into the dungeons.  The setting would also function to an extent as a megadungeon, but without the players being confined to the dungeon for the whole campaign and having the option of leaving to pursue other adventures and coming back later.  I can just imagine the players getting deep into one of the dungeons and discovering a passage or section that can only be accessed with something they have to go into a completely different dungeon to retrieve.

A huge project like this has a number of major issues that might be easy for an experienced game designer to solve but difficult for an amateur like me, so here's some problems and possible solutions:

Problem: Size and scope of the project.  Something like this will require a huge amount of time dedicated to not only mapping out each area but designing interesting NPCs, monsters, factions and puzzles to fill them with.
Solutions:

• Collaborate with other people to increase the amount of work done over time.
• Do one area at a time and release each one sort of like a little zine.  The issue with this is that the whole concept of the multi-dungeon layout won't come to fruition until after the first few areas are completed.
• Reduce the scope of the project, have only a small number of dungeon areas and have each be fairly small in size.

Problem: Backstory and realism.  There has to be a reason for why the players will want to explore the castle and for why there are hostile entities residing there.  The standard monsters that just live in dungeons because it's their natural habitat (oozes, undead etc.) will get boring very fast if that's all there is in the whole complex.  The setting needs to feel realistic and not as if all the monsters are just placed there for the sake of killing or getting killed by the PCs.

Solution:

• Start the project by designing the history of the castle and surrounding lands.  This is a whole lot of extra work but will lead to a more organic layout of the areas and relationships between NPCs, factions and monsters.  Will probably make another post soon with my basic ideas for this if I go ahead with the project.

Problem: Where do I start?  With a project as big as this I don't really know what to tackle first.  Broad strokes and then fill in the details?  Or start small and work my way out?

Solution:

• Make an action plan before starting anything else.  This will ensure that I always know what I need to work on next.  Here's my basic idea of an action plan for this project:

1. Work out history of the setting.
2. Identify important NPCs and factions.
3. Make a list of dungeon areas.
4. Assign themes and purposes to all areas, keeping in mind the factional interplay.
5. Identify the most important features of each area, including locations and inhabitants.
6. Design a very simple layout of the whole complex and the major points of physical connection where you can get from one to the other.
7. Begin mapping each dungeon, starting with basic layouts and locations of important features and progressively adding more complexity and detail.
8. Before each dungeon is fully stocked, begin adding features that are narratively or functionally connected to features in other dungeons.
9. Finish stocking each dungeon, and make sure there are reasons for the PCs to want to explore every part of each area.  Treasure, knowledge, shortcuts, access points, special items, important NPCs, you get the picture.  Make sure the existence of these things are hinted at in other parts of the complex.
10. Write up any random tables that are needed; a lot of stuff can be left up to random rolls such as monster inhabitants of less important rooms and mundane treasure.
11. Play test.

If I find the time to get started on this massive undertaking I will post my progress on here.  At this point I've only gone as far as surfing through google looking for information on medieval castles, but I don't think that is really going to help me get this project off the ground.  Now is the time to stop procrastinating and start writing!  Wish me luck.

Melanic Moors Random Tables

So my LotFP group have had enough of Deep Carbon Observatory and have decided to gather up all their weird treasure and head to the nearest city.  I decided to use some stuff out of one of Patrick Stuart's other books, Fire on the Velvet Horizon, to flesh out the nearby areas.

The thing about FotVH is that it's basically a campaign setting, but instead of having each location clearly laid out and described in simple English it forces you to decipher little bits of information given to you in the text, and you have to put all these tiny puzzle pieces together to get a full picture of the universe.  The two locations that seem to recur in the text the most are Jukai City and it's neighbour the Melanic Moors.  I'm planning to run Jukai using a lot of stuff from Vornheim, but in order to run the Melanic Moors I felt the need to condense all the information I could find about them into some random tables.

And here they are:

Random encounters d12

1-4.  2d4 swamp drunks
1 - Dismals
2 - Singers
3 - Morokie Men
4 - Fluke Boys

5.  Bog Elves

6.  1d6 Eel Amaranthine (only at night)

7. 2d4 Potemkimen

8. Blathering Bird

9. Sanguine Crane

10. Hornbills

11. 1d4 (explodes) Snapkegs

12. The Catastrophe Tree

Random landscape feature d6

1.  Island made of reeds

2.  Black lake

3.  Floating island

4.  Abandoned watchtower (50% chance occupied)

5.  Sunken forest

6.  Acidic mangrove

Random import d10

1.  Tools
1 - Machetes
2 - Axes
3 - Weapons
4 - Misc

2.  Pots/pans

3.  Lamps

4.  Fuel

5.  Candles

6.  Sheets

7.  Clothes

8.  Fast shallow draft boat

9.  Sail

10. Drugs or booze

Random export d20

1.  Woods
    1 - Gaharu
    2 - Sandalwood
    3 - Sappan
    4 - Hhorn

2.  Puccoon silk

3.  Virid steel

4.  Caged fruit hound

5.  Catastrophe tree leaves

6.  Bird feathers
1 - Blathering
2 - Sanguine Crane
3 - Hornbill
4 - Peacock or Kingfisher

7.  Snapkeg (parts)

8.  Treasure
    1 - Rare art
    2 - Rubies
    3 - Sapphires

9.  War-puppets

10. Medicine
    1 - Bezoar Stones
    2 - Dried swamp fauna organs
    3 - Aloe wood

11.  Hostages

12.  Edible bird nest

13.  Honey + Beeswax

14.  Diseased spines

15.  Rice

16.  Opium

17.  Riddles  

18.  Liquid shadow in snail shell

19.  Spices

20.  Hex dragoon services

Random source of navigation d6

1.  Strong booze

2.  Psycho on a leash

3.  Neurosyphilis

4.  Narcotics

5.  Hallucinogens

6.  Sleep deprivation

Random Wetland Passage d20

1-3. Dry passage (walk)

4-6. Shallow water (wade)

7-8. Lake blocking path (go around or boat)

9-11. Deep water (swim or boat)

12. Running water [d6]

1-4. South

5. East

6. West

13-14. Sea of reeds (push thru or go around)

15. Roll again + Man-made passage

16-18. Thick grass (slow walk)

19-20. Soft mud (keep moving or sink)

This is by no means a complete kit for running a Melanic Moors adventure but it should help with making travelling through there a bit more interesting. I might post an adventure hook table as well sometime soon. Hopefully someone out there finds this interesting!

LotFP or B/X Homebrew class - Priest (non-casting Cleric)

I have some ideas swimming around my head for an adventure/campaign in a low-magic setting.  Instead of having PC classes dedicated to spell casting, I want magic to be something that anyone can access as long as they have the knowledge and equipment and are willing to pay the price.  This rules out Magic-Users, Elves and Clerics.  Most players will want to play as humans and this leaves them with only two choices - Fighter or Specialist/Thief.

To give players a bit more choice in character creation, and to allow for more diverse party make-up, I have thrown together some ideas for Cleric without spells.  I want this class to have the flavour of a Cleric and to fill the same roles in the party as a Cleric, but without all the magic attached.  I decided on three things that make the Cleric unique and define their role in a D&D game: Healing, Turning Undead and Creating Holy Water.  This new class, which I am calling the 'Priest', is based around these three abilities.

All these things are done using magic in the standard Cleric class, so I have found ways to make them more grounded in reality.  Adventurer Priests know how to provide medical care for wounded characters, exploit weaknesses in undead creatures and synthesise a substance that mimics holy water.  Below is a link to a pdf of the nitty-gritty rules for the Priest class.

Priest Class

Method of Room Description Layout, for Dungeons in Adventure Modules

Disclaimer: I am relatively new to the world of published adventures so I am far from an expert on this subject. This post is merely my opinion on how adventure modules could improve their layout, based on the handful of modules I have read so far.

Last weekend I ran Kiel Chenier's 'Blood in the Chocolate' for some friends. The adventure is really well written and the layout of the book is done in a very thoughtful way, with ease of use at the table in mind. One problem I found myself having was that I had trouble finding the information I needed upon entering a room, and had to stop and skim through until I found stuff that needed to be told to the players. I also have similar concerns about the way dungeon rooms in Patrick Stuart's 'Deep Carbon Observatory' are described (I am preparing to run this adventure in the near future). I have come up with some ideas for how to improve on this and make modules (particularly dungeons) easier to run.

For descriptions of dungeon rooms, the following is my suggestion for how to lay them out

Room number and Name (in bold)

What the players see when they first enter the room. Important features are written in bold. Anything in italics can be read aloud to the players.

Exits: List what directions (north south east west, ceiling, floor) there are exits and if they are unusual (e.g. locked, stairs, ladder)

Connections: List what rooms are connected to this one and if the connection is unusual (e.g. locked, stairs, ladder). Written in the same order as the corresponding exits.

• Important Features. These are described in more detail in dot points. The most important information is in the lower level dot points,
  • while more trivial information is in the higher level ones.

I also suggest using abbreviations for certain things and having an easily accessible key to tell the reader what they mean.

Below is an example of this method using the first two levels of a dungeon I am designing.

Key

1, 2, 3, ...	Level number starting top going down
a, b, c, ...	Room number starting south going clockwise
NESWCF	North, East, South, West, Ceiling, Floor
[s]	Stairs
[l]	Ladder
[x]	Locked

1a. Entrance Hall

A cosy corridor with a staircase leading down. The wall directly to the East is decked with large oil paintings.

Exits: C [l], W, N, F [s]

Connections: Roof [l] (0a), Wardrobe (1b), Guest Room (1c), Hall Two [s] (2a)

• Paintings. These paintings all depict mages working miracles, except for the one farthest from the ladder which depicts a centaur. The centaur painting covers up a small, barred window into the Pre-Op Cells (1d).

1b. Wardrobe

This room is filled with racks of clothes. There is a huge wooden cabinet on the north wall.

Exits: E

Connections: Entrance Hall (1a)

• Clothes. There are 10d6 items of clothing in this room excluding the cabinet. They range from exquisite and expensive looking to plain and cheap. About 80% of the clothes are made for women, while the other 20% are for men or unisex.
• Cabinet. The cabinet contains around 20 fur coats made from various animal skins. On the floor there is a small vial of blood with a label. It smells bad in here. The label has the name of a random animal on it, and contains this animal's blood. The fur coats are enchanted so that their wearer appears as the animal they are made from.
  • To activate this magic, the coat must be bathed in the blood of the relevant animal. While worn, onlookers will see the wearer as the animal, but this is an illusion. Touching the wearer causes the illusion to break. The coat must be washed in blood once every day to continue working.
• The back panel of the cabinet can be easily folded out to reveal a secret area behind. This holds coats made from spliced-animals.
  • They work the same as the other coats, but require the blood of the relevant spliced-animal.

1c. Guest Room

A decent sized bed chamber.

Exits: S

Connections: Entrance Hall (1a)

• There is a bed, bathtub, desk (with stationary) and dresser (empty) in here. Not much else.

1d. Pre-Op Cells

This room is divided up into cells with iron bars. There are skeletons in some of them.

Exits: F [s]

Connections: Splicing Room [s] (2c)

• Cells. The skeletons are of animals.
  • These cells were used to hold test subjects prior to splicing. There are 6 cells and they are all locked. The key to the cells is in the Splicing Room (2c).
• There is a small barred window on the west wall. It is covered up from the outside. The window is covered up by a painting in the Entrance Hall (1a).

2a. Hall Two

A simple hall with a staircase and one door on the west wall.

Exits: C [s], F [s], W

Connections: Entrance Hall [s] (1a), Workshop [s] (3a), Tailoring Room (2b)

2b. Tailoring Room

There is a man-sized wooden construct in this room. There is also equipment for tailoring in here, including some tables, a mannequin, and various tools and thread.

Exits: N [x], E

Connections: Splicing Room [x] (2c), Hall Two (2a)

• Wooden Construct. The construct has three legs with wheels for feet. For hands it has scissors and a needle with a spool of thread attached. This is a Wood Golem designed to aid Phoebe in her fashion projects. It is non-aggressive unless provoked.
  • It knows where the key to the Splicing Room is but will not leave its station to fetch it.
• The north door leading to the Splicing Room (2c) is locked. The key is found on the Bone Golems in the Workshop (3a) and the Guards in the Guard Room (4a).

2c. Splicing Room

(If entering from east side) There is an archway opening up to a large room, where you can spot a construct built from bits of organic tissue. There is a window in the outer wall with a sink underneath it. (If entering from west side) This is a large room containing medical equipment and two large wooden tables. There is a construct in the corner and it is built from bits of organic tissue. In the very centre of the room is a queer cage.

Exits: S, C [s]

Connections: Tailoring Room (2b), Pre-Op Cells [s] (1d)

• Construct. The construct looks like it is comprised largely of human body parts stitched together. It has long bony fingers. This is a Flesh Golem designed to aid Phoebe in splicing operations. It is non-aggressive unless provoked.
• Window. The window is for disposing of dirty water from the sink. It is just big enough that someone could climb in or out of it.
• Sink. There is a bucket of water and some soap nearby. This is for sanitation before operations.
• Medical Equipment. Located on shelves mostly. Scalpels, bandages, saws, sutures etc. can be found here.
• Wooden Tables. These are used for operating. One of them has the key to the Cells on level 1 lying on it.
• Cage. It is made out of iron and has an unlocked door. In the middle are two thick cables that attach to a wheel on the ceiling of the room and disappear into the floor. This is a mechanically operated lift. It is not able to be used right now as the mechanism that drives it is disconnected and located in the Engine Room (5b).
  • The cables are able to be cut, sending the lift plummeting down into the ground floor.
  • When the lift is operational, speaking the number of the level you wish to travel to will make the lift take you there.

Compared to just a block of text, this layout is easier to read, and makes it easier to find the information you need. I'm sure there are further improvements that can be made to this method, and I'm sure there are lots of adventure modules out there which have much better layout than this, but this is just my best attempt at cleaning things up.

The Drowned Lands as a hex crawl

I'm planning to run Patrick Stuart's Deep Carbon Observatory this year.  As much as I adore Scrap Princess's artwork, I find the maps in DCO to be very difficult to use.  So I have gone ahead and used Hex Kit to turn The Drowned Lands into a hex-crawl type map.  It's not perfect but I think it does the job.

Deep Carbon Observatory
Hex Kit

The Path-Monster

Imagine you have been trekking through wild, untamed forest for several days, seeing no signs of civilisation and navigating by the sun only. The sun is low in the sky now and soon you will have to choose between making camp for the night and risking ambush, or attempting to carry on using your limited knowledge of the stars to find your way. You notice something in the distance – a thin brown line cutting through the forest. You are filled with relief to have finally found a path through the forest. It isn't quite going in the direction you were heading, but you are so thrilled to have found an even surface to walk on that you decide follow it anyway.

It goes on for hours, maybe even days. You realise soon that you will not reach your destination by this route, and start backtracking. After a while the terrain becomes unfamiliar. Was that big rock there when you first passed through? You panic, and begin to walk faster. You have become utterly lost, but continue to follow the path since it is your only hope of finding your way back. You never will.

The Path-Monster was created by some long dead sorcerer as a way to keep pesky travellers away from their hideout. It takes the form of a dirt path, but unlike a path it can move along the ground like a great snake. It exists only to carry out the will of the sorcerer who created it – and that is to lead travellers astray. In the deep, dark forest there are few paths to tread, and so the appearance of a nice flat path to follow is almost irresistible. Travellers would follow it, and the Path-Monster would lead them in circles, or into a dead end, or off a cliff. If they tried to turn back the road would change position and lead them even further awry. Once this happened there was little chance of them finding their way back.

The Path-Monster continues to do its duty, long after its master has passed on, and will continue to do this forever. Locals and adventurers who are familiar with the area know that there are no true paths through the bush. When they spot an alluring road ahead, they turn and go the other way.