Venting (and a book list)

I need to write, but I don't know that I want to or what to write about - too many thoughts and ideas buzzing around in my head.  Not nearly enough of them game-related.

Frankly, the news keeps me anxious and depressed, but my typical response (retail therapy, my daughter calls it) brings guilt as I think I should be spending on more useful things.

Like ammunition.

Or food, booze, medical supplies, and books.

Just not RPG-specific books (despite there being many awesome kickstarters out there, right now).

RPG-adjacent books, though, I might can justify. 

But what to buy?

The Hesperian Health Guides are a solid start - not that I don't trust where the American health systems are headed, but I don't trust where systems as a whole are headed.  For me, at least, the popular Foxfire series of books are not the answer, as the varied contents of each book are too much a chore for me to read through. 

Dave Canterbury's Bushcraft books are neat and useful and well-illustrated, but I already own them.

From experience, the books from Paladin Press are always ... interesting.  I remember ogling the titles in the back of Soldier of Fortune magazine when I was a kid.

Then again, whatever Field Manuals and Training Manuals I don't own from a few terms spent in the military might be a useful pick-up.  Often dry reading, though.

All in all, I am trying to get past a writing block, and this post hopefully does it.  

Thanks for reading.

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Since you read through all that, here is my Joesky tax.  A d30 table of books for a kinda-modern game, be it The Morrow Project, Twilight 2000, Aftermath, The Walking Dead, maybe Car Wars, or something else along those lines.  The books are heavily US-centric, though, so there is that.

These books might be found in an old ammo can sealed in individual gallon ziploc bags; a footlocker under old uniforms and other military memorabilia; a bookshelf; the door, central console, or glove box of an abandoned vehicle; someone's backpack; or all of them together in PDF format on a thumb drive or external hard drive.  

Regardless, none of these are useful unless the reader can actually read English.  Each book may provide a skill bonus of some sort - I won't be suggesting any particular ones.  

1. FM 7-8 Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad - 100-mile-an-hour tape reinforces the spine, and a bookmark made of several pieces of 5-50 paracord attached to a grenade pin show this to be well-used book.  The name LT Smith is written in black sharpie, above several coffee rings that stain the cover.
2. FM 21-150 Combatives - hand-to-hand combat, the US Army way!  Remember, folks, the person that wins a melee is the first person to have a friend show up with a gun!
3. FM 21-76 Survival - a thick catch-all manual for pilots and others that may spend a long time far from friendly lines.  This copy shows wear and tear, and uses a variety of pine needles and leaves as bookmarks.
4. Where There is No Doctor - this book might be in any number of languages, but the illustrations ensure at least a small bonus; in fact, it might actually be any of the Hesperian Health Guides, depending on GM whim. 
5. Boy Scout Manual (1982 edition) - this dog-eared book has the name BEN JAMMIN stenciled on the inside cover.   The year of printing dictates the skills covered in the book.
6. The Human Powered Home - several illustrated suggestions for enhancing your homelife without electricity.  Bicycles and treadles feature in many of the ideas.
7. Ragnar's Ten Best Traps - more than ten, actually, for fish, fowl, game animals, and people.
8. Bushcraft 101 - if you are lucky, you might instead find the Bushcraft Boxed Set, likely without the box, instead.
9. The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs - a useful book for those forced into the outdoors, rather than having grown up in them.
10. Pocket Naturalist Guides - One (or more) pocket-sized illustrated foldables covering a range of information, from foraging to knot-tying to the birds of Northeast America, so they may not always prove useful. 
11. Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine: The Definitive Home Reference Guide to 550 Key Herbs with all their Uses as Remedies for Common Ailments by Andrew Chevallier  - this thick book is full of pictures and tips
12. FM 23-10 Sniper Training - it's not just how to shoot at a distance, but also infiltration and exfiltration and camouflage.
13. Storey's Basic Country Skills - from the label on the side and library card on the back cover, it is apparent this tome is well overdue from the North Shelby Library, located in Birmingham, Alabama.
14. The Anarchist's Cookbook - the first edition is from 1971 and is full of information that most folks probably should not really need to know.  Fun conspiracy - the explosives formulas in it are deliberately wrong and designed to blow up the would-be anarchist!  I lack the background (and desire) to test this conspiracy. 
15. The Joy of Home Distilling - a useful picture-filled guide to distilling spirits, either for drinking or fuel.
16. English-to-LANGUAGE, LANGUAGE-to-English Phrasebook - Polish is the linked example, but depending on the game's setting, most anything is possible.
17. AAA Road Atlas - while small roads and even road names may change, the major roads don't, and regardless of the age of the AAA road atlas, it can get you where you want to be, as long as you don't need to be there.
18. Foldable state maps - these may lack the grid squares of military maps, making calling for fire (and ordering pizza from drivers with a GPS) difficult, but these laminated maps make navigation all the easier.
19. FM 4-25.11 First Aid - despite the bloodstains, slight water damage, and tears, this book is complete and hella useful to those trying to save a life.
20. Propaganda by Edward Bernays - this thin paperback is notable for its marginalia relating to specific historical figures making use of different aspects of the book.  Studying this might enhance one's persuasion skills.
21. Carpentry for Dummies - this well-worn book always produces a bit of sawdust when shaken, and its spine is broken from being pressed flat numerous times.  Illustrated and presumes access to tools that might not be available.
22. The Art of War by Sun Tzu - just a translation of the basic book; The Art of War with Commentaries by Sun Tzu - this English translation also includes commentaries from the ages, making it a more interesting read than the basic translation.  Folded pages from a legal pad stuffed in throughout the book add the last owner's insights to the commentaries.   
23. TM 31-210 Improvised Munitions - this yellowing copy is older than you are and may have been used in Viet Nam.   
24. Mask of Command and Face of Battle by John Keegan - this pair of books addresses both sides of battle, and would-be combat leaders can benefit from reading them.  Weapons change, but the people fighting don't.
25. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - a textbook on Stoicism.  Studying and adopting this mindset may reduce stress and make it easier to survive torture or other stamina-checking extremes.  This particular copy is a well-read paperback with "key" lines underlined.
26. Cheap Shots, Ambushes, and Other Lessons by Marc MacYoung - reading this and putting it into practice makes life just a bit more survivable in urban environments.
27. FM 5-31 Boobytraps - when you need to protect somewhere or something, but lack the personnel for complete coverage.
28. The Trapper's Bible: Traps, Snares, and Pathguards - a useful mix of traps for game, fur, and people.  For protection only, naturally.
29. Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning - without food, people die.  This book shows a variety of ways to preserve food for the winter months.  It smells faintly of salt.
30. Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants:Eastern and Central North America, first edition - there are more recent editions of this book, and many more Field Guides, but this is one of few that might be useful in a game.

There are a wealth of other books and topics that can fit, but I think most of these would be easily gameable, especially in rulesets with skill systems.  

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Note that owning/researching some of these titles might put you on a list - but I am right there with you.  Also, I presume most established militaries have their own versions of the FMs listed, so replace as needed.  

If you're into particular timelines for your games, some of the items linked above may not have been printed yet, while others may just be more recent editions.  Either way, check edition and print date if you are into that level of authenticity.  

Speaking of food for thought, I found this foraging website aimed at those foraging in the UK.  Kinda neat.

DnDnDiversity

I may have ADHD.  I'm not officially diagnosed - yet - but several people I work with are and as my behaviors are their behaviors, we all agree that we know the answer to the inevitable testing I'll undergo.  

With that in mind, I have been watching videos to see how ADHD and RPGs overlaps, both for selfish reasons and to be able to tell others that may ask - and on FB, someone is often asking.

So here is a short collection of videos on how to run a game either for players with disabilities or as a Game Master with a disability.  

As an added bonus, several of these videos are from channels that are full of useful information, so everyone wins!

Spending Gold the Fun Way

Most DnDish games end the same: PCs have more money than they know what to do with.  

Even in games that don't use 1gp = 1xp, the PCs don't know what to spend things on, and DMs don't know what to offer up as options.  

Yes, in some campaigns, magic items can be purchased, but not all DMs provide that option.  

I know this because I spend too much time on Facebook, and this 'what to buy' issue pops up every week or two, so now I will have a solid answer that only requires a link, instead of lots of typing.

Treasure Trove, by Brian Despain

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I don't much consider which rulesets these various posts are aimed at, because it all works out the same - fun ways for players to make their PCs go broke. Note that some of these demand DMs that are willing to let PC actions affect the gameworld that the DM has constructed. 

Medieval Melodies addresses The Gold Problem in 5e. Flute's Loot goes in-depth, citing rules in published 5e books (mostly PHB and DMG) to support his recommendations.

World Builders Blog provides lists of items with prices attached.

Everyone's favorite cartographer has a list on his blog of items that have been purchased in his games.

RPG Stack Exchange has a great discussion on options for your gold.

The granddaddy of all carousing tables at Jeff's Gameblog converts gp into xp, and sometimes trouble.

Goblin Punch provides Bardic Services, which include letting the players design the next dungeon they explore.

Coins and Scrolls talks about Building Castles through stripping cleared dungeons of dressed stone - both of which are expensive enterprises.

Papers and Pencils goes in depth on Investments, Citadels, and Domains, all of which provide more interesting options than just buying another +1 sword.

The Things We Do for XP has a four-part series of posts addressing spending: Existing Options, Positions in Society, Places to Live, and Places to Increase Spellcasting.  The beauty of these posts are that they include links to related topics on others' blogs, providing a DM with more ideas.

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This is a sampling of what is out there, and I haven't even dipped into the growing resources on YouTube.

If after all this, there is still too much gold in your games, I don't know what to tell you, besides Good Luck!

Small Update

This has been an exciting month for me, as several Kickstarters have asked for their shipping.

Secrets of the Black Crag, Scourge of the Northland, and something else that I am not sure of.

That said, I did buy some add-ons from Barkeep on the Borderlands, and these add-ons (the coasters) can be used in my terrible beer-swilling YouTube channel, so I am extra happy.

It certainly wasn't the add-ons from City of Tears, because I picked those up today.  I added hardcopies of NGR rules, Gnomes of Levnec, and Gellarde Barrow.  Admittedly, I own PDFs of two of these, but hardcopies are hardcopies.  Now I can see and easily read my games!

Next up is hopping on the Yoon-Suin, Second Edition kickstarter before it goes away in about a week.  Yoon-Suin has always looked interesting, but I am a real-book junkie.  So now I can get my fix.

All the way from Britain.

So now I am international!

Last up for this month's budget is the Mutant Crawl Classics fan starter kit.  Granted, a hardback of the MCC rules would be better, but for this price, I won't complain, especially as it brings dice, rules, charsheets, and an adventure for a low price.

To be honest, these eat into March's budget, too, but I don't think I care all that much.

Anything to force me to not spend money on Magic singles - I don't play enough to justify buying all the admittedly awesome cards out there.

Even the cards I can afford!

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I reckon that this post means I need to go to confession for pride.

  

Gathering Resources for #Dungeon23

This list of #Dungeon23 resources is mostly for my use, but I am happy to share both influences and how-tos.  Several of these links come from crowd-sourced lists on Twitter and Facebook, but not all of them.  

The truth is I enjoy making lists of (somewhat related) links and sharing them.

The Haunted Keep from Moldvay Basic, 1981, by Erol Otus

The nifty part about all of these links is that they run to sites that are packed with usable information.  Furthermore, I am likely to add to this list as time and the project wears on.

EDIT 1: Andrew Duvall has done something similar to this post over on itch.io, but with better organization, better presentation, and more/different links, so go check it out!

EDIT 2 and 3: both Dragonsfoot and Knights and Knaves Alehouse have dedicated megadungeon forums.  Lots of knowledge therein.

Z.W. Garth's Dungeon Architect's Workbook

DiWata's Megadungeon Jam

Permanent Cranial Damage: Brief Brainworms: Megadungeon

Grognardia's Old School Dungeon Design Guidelines 

Missing Manuals at Necropraxis

Semper Initiativus Unum asked back in 2017: Why Build a MegaDungeon in 2017

Beyond Fomalhaut's Anatomy of a Dungeon Map

Roleplaying Tips has the Ultimate Guide to 5 Room Dungeons

Rise Up Comus has Dungeon Seeds, which is free if you subscribe to their newsletter

Traverse Fantasy features Bite Sized Dungeons

Map Crow addresses building a dungeon over several videos

As does the channel Bandit's Keep

All Dead Generations provides a dandy online worksheet and So You Want to Build a Dungeon

Prismatic Wasteland offers Megadungeon Malls & Collaborative Caverns

Goblin Punch's Dungeon Checklist, What is Tested, the last part of Popcorn Leveling, Comprehensive Guide to Secret Doors, and Dungeon Mastery.  Ghosts and Ghost Biology, too.

The Alexandrian has several: Jaquaysing the Dungeon, the Art of the Key, Goals in the Megadungeon, (Re-)running the Megadungeon.

d4 Caltrops also has several: What's at the Bottom of this Pit, A Hundred Clues and Tells for the Tersely-Detailed Trap, d100 This Secret Door Opens..., d100 Instigative Scenery and Interactive Decor, d100 Why is this Door Stuck?, - there are so many d100 lists at this site that I can pull ideas from, but these are the big ones.

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On top of these is my collection of partial dungeon keys, which I shall loot with impunity, and a handful of pdfs and actual books, notably the Dungeon Alphabet, the Monster Alphabet, Dungeoncraft (cheapish copies available used online), and both Artifices, Deceptions, and Dilemmas and Bestial Ecosystems Created by Monstrous Inhabitation. 

When the Monster Overhaul ships in early 2023, its contents will be used, as well. 

For the mapping, I am looking at DungeonScrawl to make transferring to the blog relatively simpler.  Here is a sample of the likely main entrance - I'd love to add a secret door and passage running under the stairs and to the north, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet, at least not in a noncluttered image.

New Feature: YouTube channel links

Good morning!

I've added another feature to Thalian Musings.  If you are in web view, there is a new collection of links to the right of screen: a collection of YouTube Channels.

They are a mix of DnD, MtG, and one beverage-related channel that might be my own.  Many of these you might be familiar with, but if not, you should be.

There is also one link that isn't a video link, and that is Blogs on Tape.  It is a collection of audio recordings of a wide variety of OSR blogposts, mostly narrated by Nick Whelan of Papers and Pencils (a fine blog).  It's kinda like mini-podcasts, honestly.  

So like videos, but for ears only.

As such, these links are worth checking out (well, except maybe the beverage one), and watching.  Granted, if you're immersed in the gaming world, you are likely aware of many of these, but if not, you're in for a treat.

If there are any channels you feel I should add, or at least check out myself, please tell me in the comments.

Happy watching!

Keep Watch, art by Fred Rahmqvist, WotC

Review: Downtime in Zyan

My favorite part about supporting a successful Kickstarter is forgetting that I did so, then finding something that is equal parts cool and unexpected in the mail. So it was for Downtime in Zyan.

Downtime in Zyan, art by Evlyn Moreau

Written by Ben Laurence, Downtime in Zyan is part of his ongoing Through Ultan's Door series, so if you are a completionist, be sure to pick it up.  If you haven't heard of any of this, go pick them up, if only to mine for ideas for your own games, because there are lots of useful bits to squeeze into your megadungeon.

Physically, Downtime in Zyan is a neatly packaged and printed 36-page book, staple-bound and digest-sized.  Art-wise, I took the prudish approach of the Molerats with Pants.  For those interested in such things, there is a pantsless version of the book, because after all, everyone knows that molerats don't wear pants.

As the title suggests, the book contains 10 different ways for a PC to spend their downtime, each with the basic mechanic of rolling 2d6 and maybe adding/subtracting a modifier.  Rolls below 6 (and sometimes Snake Eyes specifically) are not what you want.  7-9 is some progress, and 10-12 is a success.  

Downtime in Zyan differs from other such tables and rules I have seen in that all the results - good and bad - help build the DM's campaign world, rather than just providing a flat mechanical bonus or item.

It is this cooperative approach to world-building that makes this book so fascinating.  Granted, overly controlling DMs (or the amateur authors masquerading as DMs) probably won't care for player ideas messing up 'their world' or 'their story.'  But for the rest of us, this book is a goldmine guaranteed to not only improve your campaign world, but also to cement player investment in your game.

Given that little can damage the dreaded Scheduling Monster beyond player investment, this makes Downtime in Zyan and its options a valuable volume on the DM's bookshelf.

Having talked the book up in general, a glimpse of its contents seems fitting.

Ben discusses some of these rules on his blog, neatly captured here, for those wanting a deeper look.  Of all of them, though, my favorite is the Spellcraft options.  Not only does this section contain evocative writing (the whole book does, but this part especially), said writing keeps magic mysterious and dangerous, the way it should be.

Being something of a nerd (English degree, reads for fun, maintains a blog and youtube channel, plays DnD and Magic), the Further Reading portion of the book might be my favorite part overall.  It's a one-page listing of games and blog posts that inspired and/or further the concept of Downtime Activities.  

So it seems that after finishing today's tasks, I have some online shopping and reading to do.

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In short, thanks for the book, Ben Laurence, and your team - Evlyn Moreau, art; Lester B. Portly, layout; and Ava Islam, editing (and creator of the game Errant).  I am looking forward to using Downtime in Zyan in my game and seeing where the players take it.

Treasure Maps

Nothing excites the imagination like a map and the promise of treasure at the end!

Maps are the perfect adventure hook - either belonging to one PC that is smart enough to realize they need companions to help recover it, or each PC holding a part of the map and grudgingly cooperating.  Treasure maps provide a focused reason to go explore a specific area - especially if there is a decent idea of what is 'buried' at the end of the map.   

I grew up encountering treasure maps again and again in various media, from following maps in Sid Meier's Pirates, to watching Harrison Ford evade Nazis while seeking the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, to watching kids my age chasing One-Eyed Willie's treasure (while evading traps and finding a corpse) in the Goonies, to watching Elrond reading the Moon-Letters in the Hobbit on Thror's map.

Elrond and that map, from the Rankin-Bass cartoon, 1977.  Cool discussion on moon-letters.

As I got older, Treasure Island, Treasure Planet, the Pirates of Darkwater, and the various Pirates of the Caribbean films as inspiration joined my list of map-influenced adventure.  And honestly, can one run a pirate or oceancrawl campaign and not have at least one treasure map?

Even the popular video game Skyrim contains multiple treasure maps, although in my case, I stumbled upon some of the hidden treasures before I found the map leading to them.  THAT is the joy of an open world. 

DnD has a history of maps, as well.  The module X1: Isle of Dread kicks off with the PCs discovering a map of the edges of the fabled Isle of Dread.  The module B10: Night's Dark Terror (review) contains a map hidden in plain sight as an elaborate tapestry. Even the boxed set Dragon Mountain starts with a piecemealed map; chasing a few bits and putting them together leads to the titular Mountain.

All of these sources prove again and again that a treasure map provides a vehicle for all sorts of adventures, and with DnD being an adventure game, they are a perfect match.

With all this precedent, why not include a map of your own?

Thror's Map, to include the Moon-Letters under the hand

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You've decided to include a treasure map in your next adventure, which is awesome.

The best part is that said map provides something tangible for the players at the table - even if it is a digital table.  Giving the players a game artifact to fuss with and manipulate brings excitement to all.

A traditional map is an image and makes a great prop for the table.  That said, you can also use a verbal map, which is just a set of instructions, either written or spoken or sung, perhaps.  Both types lean heavily into the exploration pillar that some DnD games shun and others thrive on, but all need more of.

Verbal maps can take the form of diary or captain's log entries, letters, and tavern tales or bard songs - though I recommend the latter only if the players are tolerant of long read alouds.  Perhaps have a one-sheet ready for the players to re-read the tale or song for clues.

Actual drawn maps don't actually require great artistic skills.  Don't misunderstand - a pretty map is something beautiful to behold, but all you need is something that is clear enough to understand. 

At this point, the crafty DM can create a unique-to-table item, making use of a variety of invisible inks, aging paper, and (less than) remarkable art skills to bring it all together.  Fold it and/or roll it a few times to complete the appearance.  

Then present it to your players and let the session(s) roll, because one map can provide all sorts of player-driven stories, all in pursuit of that X at the end of the map.

Note that on occasion, you can turn a player-created map into a treasure map for later adventurers.  This happens when the PC mapmaker dies, and the rest of the party fail to grab their map before beating a hasty retreat.  That map gets added to the key as a well-deserved prize for the next PCs to head that direction.

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Below is Redbeard demonstrating how to age paper - essential for a solid prop.

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For those preferring videos to words, here is a video about Treasure Maps from D&D Homebrew.

I would love to hear about any great treasure maps you've used in your games.  Ideally, I'd love to see them!

Books, Libraries, and Magical Schools

A regular request on Facebook is book titles to populate the shelves of bookstores, libraries, and wizard towers. So this post is for everyone wanting such a list; it is incomplete, but still wildly useful.

Enjoy or ignore, as you see fit.

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Libraries are built of books, and with a bit of diligence, a searcher can find several lists of book titles online.   Or you can jump to these links:

Call of Cthulhu is perhaps the game for arcane books; here are the 'official' ones from various fiction.  Then there are the homemade collections.

Ars Magica and DnD are wildly different rulesets, but both involve wizards with libraries.  Here is a discussion and listing for an Ars Magica library, and here is another - I like how both Ars Magica and CoC make knowing specific languages important. EDIT: get a copy of Covenants, if only for the 20ish pages on books and libraries.  

Continuing the Ars Magica love is this list of 'official' books found in the various books.

Coins and Scrolls wrote about Wizard Libraries, which ends with a listing of additional book title sources - almost a dozen of them; most not listed here.

d4 Caltrops has One Hundred Grimoires and One Hundred Alternate Spellbooks; this latter is good for societies that don't use traditional books as we know them.  The blog also has What Works Are On That Bookshelf.

Wizard Thief Fighter has Demiwarlocks d100 Magical Tomes 

The DnD Wiki has this nifty table for generating Arcane Book Titles

Adventure-A-Week has d100 Book Titles

Dungeoneering: RPG Tools has its own d100 Book Titles

DnDSpeak has 100 Library Books - each with a brief synopsis.

Wampus Country has a downloadable table for generating d100 Arcane Books.

DM Dev has a collection of tables for when I Search the Bookcase!

Elfmaids & Octopi has several posts about books, my favorite being: d100 Worst Books in the World.

While not exactly books, Necropraxis has this to say about Sigils, Sages, and Libraries.

The Book of Six Circles can be found at Mazirian's Garden.

MORE books at Throne of Salt.  

SCP-1230 exists.

EDIT: the GM Binder has the Lich's Library - many of these books have mechanical effects beyond the clever titles. - 7/16/24

EDIT: Coins and Scrolls has a list of books from the film Prospero's Library. - 7/30/24

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My favorite game-based library is the Stygian Library.  That said, WotC has its own in Candlekeep Mysteries.  There are others, as this search on Adventure Lookup shows. 

A procedural dungeon, so no two visits are ever the same.  Go buy it.

Dyson has made a few library maps available on his site for private use: Athenaeum of the Lost upper level, Athenaeum of the Lost lower level, The Grand Library of Coruvan, The Great Library, and Beneath the Great Library.  It's still on you to fill the rooms and shelves, but these maps are a great start.

In the middle of this free 'zine by YumDM is a quick way to generate libraries.  The undead stuff in the issue is a bonus.

Over at the Things We Do for XP, this post on Labs, Libraries, and Shrines includes several book title listings, as well.  

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Books and Libraries are commonly found at Wizard Schools, so here are some for you.  My home campaign of Ironguard has one such University, found in the Italy analogue.  It happens to be run by vampire mages, but the lesser mages don't know this and are still mostly human.

Mostly.

Anyhow, some links for those wanting them:

Strixhaven is a WotC setting set at a wizard's school

Brewkessel is a better variant on the magical school, slowly growing with each Kickstarter.

Against the Wicked City features this lovely post regarding magical grad students; prowling through the backlog of posts may find more. 

The Loxdon University stuff from Coins and Scrolls is just awesome (particularly this post - honestly, just pick up a copy of Magical Industrial Revolution and be done with it).

Just buy it.  You won't be sorry.

Goodberry Monthly has Wizard City, which is more than just a school, but overlaps in so many places, I am mentioning it here, particularly the University Cults.

The 2e Wizard's Handbook features a variety of things necessary for a Wizard School, but it simpler to afford as a PDF.  2e also brought us the College of Wizardry, and the awesome Necromancer School in the box set Return to the Tomb of Horrors.

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Something of my own, mentioned in one of the Ironguard Keep Session Logs - the session 4 and 5 post.

The Black Library is a dark chamber with cryptically labeled niches in the walls, with a humanoid skull in each niche. 

In the center of the chamber is a stone table, upon which lies a headless skeleton made of some dark metal - inspection reveals a variety of arcane runes inscribed on every inch of this skeleton.  Placing a skull on the skeleton calls up the spirit of whomever the skull belonged too, who is compelled to answer three questions truthfully (though some may demand a service or provide incomplete truths; what happens if someone agrees to a service and doesn't follow through is as yet unknown).

Some spirits within the skulls are still capable of magic and may use their arcane knowledge to do far more than just ask questions.  Are those ancient bloodstains on the fingers of the metal skeleton?

So beware what you call up.  Perhaps making use of the Library's Index - a tome listing each skull, what it (may) know about, and in which niche it lies - is the safest plan.

A jerk might mix up skulls or replace them utterly.

The inspiration for the Black Library comes from this post at Goblin Punch, so thank you, Arnold K.

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EDIT: 3/12/23

EDIT: 8/20/23

EDIT: 8/26/23

EDIT: 9/4/23

Writing a Rumor Table

I am an advocate of Rumor Tables in the various DnD-related FB groups I am a member of, often linking back to this post I wrote last year.   While I think it does a good job of explaining Rumor Tables and how to make them work, it doesn't really explain how to generate the rumors on them.

Hence this post.

Markets are a fine place to hear rumors - Watermarket, by Simon Dominic, Wizards of the Coast

First I start with lists.  A list of individuals locals would know about, a list of locations locals would know about, a list of monsters in the area that locals would know about, and a list (or pile, if printed) of published adventures I think would be fun for my players.  

Second, I keep the area map (starting town, hex, hexes, whatever) available to help with placement, mostly for those published adventures.

Before I put pen to paper, I recall this definition on the purpose of rumors from the blog Alone in the Labyrinth (emphasis mine):

In an OSR/OS-adjacent sandbox rumours provide PCs with leads or hooks which are then investigated at their discretion. The purpose of this is two-fold:

To drive investigation and/or exploration of the sandbox

To present a simulacrum of a living world

(Note that this is distinct from the purpose of rumours in a "trad" campaign, where rumours are used to steer the party onto the railway tracks set down by the module or the GM's story "arc")

That in mind, I turn the map and lists into 20 or 30 actionable rumors.  If I get stumped before reaching 20, I just write out whatever crosses my mind, knowing I can use it as a false rumor or let it inspire me if the players pursue it.  That is key - accepting that the players won't go after every rumor, or perhaps any of them.  

Tools in hand, I write up my rumors.  Then I go back through and change bits of some (or all) of them to make them false or partially false.  Just like real world rumors - there is often a grain of truth behind them.  

Once I have my 20 or 30 rumors, all I need is players and the game is on. I strongly recommend that at the end of each session, the DM survey the players to determine their plans for the next session.  Don't be afraid to remind them of (some of) the rumors they have heard if the players don't know what to do. 

Good rumor tables are dynamic so need regular updating.  To do so, I remove things the PCs have investigated and add new bits using the same methods I started with, but adding two lists: PC activities and NPC activities.  

EDIT: a solid source of rumors comes from Courtney Campbell's book Bestial Ecosystems Created by Monster Inhabitation.  While the chapter headings are familiar (basilisk, djinn, ixitxachitl, and many others - 49 total if my math is correct), each entry provides a few known facts about the critter in question, followed by rumors about them.  Sometimes pages of rumors.  

Now that I own it, I can start making use of what's within for my rumor tables.  Give it a look.

With a cover like this, why haven't you gotten it in print already?

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That's my method of writing up rumors.

Or so I've heard. ;)

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EDIT 10/17/22: here are a few other methods to keep the rumor-mongers busy in your gameworlds:

Eldritch Fields

Alea Iacta Est

Delta's D&D Hotspot

Another Kickstarter Delivered: Axian Library

Another of my February Kickstarters has been delivered: Axian Library from Guiseppe Rotondo of Axian Spice, a fine collection of random tables organized by what aspects of DnD they cover.

From the introduction of the book: 

Axian Library is a collection of five zines: Wondrous Weavings Warped and Weird, Mysteriously Missing and Merrily Met, Notable Novices and Notorious Newcomers, Pious Prayers and Powerful Prodigies, and Deadly Dragons Dire and Daunting.

That list captures the essence of the table collections, and they are fun. 

I am particularly fond of the pair of 'What's Your Story?' Tables in the MMMM book - intended for when PCs with a past join the party, it provides a ready background.  The instructions being:

Roll 1d20 once for each character level and add the level. Example: for a 6th level character, roll six times: 1d20, +1, 1d20+2, 1d20+3, 1d20+4, 1d20+5, and 1d20+6.

From those tables a ready adventuring history springs, complete with a variety of rewards (and occasional curses), to include magical items.  To be honest, I intend to use this for the various NPCs that may be encountered, if only for variety's sake.

A few entries do seem cut-n-pasted from one table to another, either directly or with a slight change.  Not that it matters, because they are fun to read and promise to be useful in prep and play.   

Axian Library is available at DrivethruRPG and worth the $9.99 asking price.

Free DnD 'Zines

The neat thing with DnD and the internet is that some kind souls compile really nifty items into 'zines, then offer the pdfs for FREE on their various websites.

I've already downloaded all of these (and at least skim-read them), but maybe it's time for you to do the same.

Footprints - "Footprints, Dragonsfoot very own e-zine, is a wealth of material for any Original AD&D campaign, with variant rules, monsters, articles, cartoons, and a mini-module in every issue.  All original, never before published material, submitted by Dragonsfoot forum members, many of whm have been old-school AD&D fans since well before it was old-school!" 

Threshold - from the Vaults of Pandius to you.  Focused on the Campaign world of Mystara and the B/X ruleset.

& - "a fanzine for players of old school D&D, focused mostly on the AD&D Game"

d12 Monthly - themed issues for all sorts of D&D rulesets.

OD&Dities - for Original D&D, but full of great ideas.

I know, you're thinking, "I don't use those rulesets or campaign worlds, I don't need these."  I'd argue that you do, because good DMs pull ideas from everywhere.

Including from earlier rulesets.

 

Mail Call!

Back in February, I backed several Kickstarters.

They have begun to arrive, and I just want to share how awesome they are and how excited I am to make use of them!

Gig Economy by Colin Sproule

As the title and picture imply, Gig Economy is a book of retainers.  Products like this have been seen before, in the heyday of TSR with Rogue's Gallery and The Shady Dragon Inn, and elsewhere.  Aside from ruleset, Gig Economy's main difference lies in ease of use, through a nifty d20 mechanic, names, and short personalities.  

I've already made use of it in our most recent DnD session, and the players seemed to enjoy the NPCs.

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Through the Valley of the Manticore by Jacob Fleming, founder of Gelatinous Cubism Press

Though I missed his earlier kickstarter for the adventure In the Shadow of Tower Silveraxe, a print copy of it was an add-on I gladly added on.  While I have not yet gotten to use these (literally arriving yesterday), Jacob's reputation speaks for him, so I am confident it will be awesome.  If nothing else, they're an excellent model of what a published adventure should aspire to, format-wise.  

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Yes, this image is from the Bundle sale at Drivethrurpg.

Lastly is a trio of books by Courtney Campbell of the blog Hack & Slash.  I've been reading his blog for almost ten years, and have wanted to get print versions of these three compilations for some time.  As they were on sale at Drivethrurpg, I decided that the time is now, and am glad I did.  These also arrived yesterday, so all I have done is flip through them, but wow, fun and useful stuff, with the BECMI book being most immediately useful to me.  I took advantage of the bundle pricing and now have three fine hardbacks to add to my gaming shelf.

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I backed a few other kickstarters that are in various stages of readiness.  When they arrive, I will sing their praises, too.

Food for Thought

A guilty pleasure of mine is watching Corporal's Corner videos, addressing different camping/bushcrafting things.  Camping is a dream of mine, meeting my vague ideas of manliness, while also being a hobby I can truthfully say I lack time to pursue - Alabama weather encourages this.

Basically, these videos provide me an excuse for me to get cool outdoorsy stuff for my kids to inherit in 30+ years.  I know they'll thank me then.

These videos led to Townsends, a channel dedicated to the 18th century lifestyle, including recipes.  From there, I found Tasting History, particularly these episodes about mead and historical butterbeer.  This could make for an entertaining way to teach history - people remember food.

Given how many games are either pseudo-historical settings or actual historical settings, these are ideal videos, if only to set the mood.

I bring all this up because there are many folks who not only feed their gaming groups, but go out of their way to make thematically appropriate food - there is even an official DnD cookbook (and an unofficial book of DnD-themed drink recipes)!

So if you cook for your group, try some of these recipes.

Duergar Rations. Image from this lovely thread on Tumblr.  Note it details what this food actually is.

Inspirational Art

 Angus McBride is a noted artist in the realm of military history and fantasy.  His work is distinctive and its capturing of activities is what draws me in.  At some point a hardback collection of several pieces was printed, and immediately hit the realm of $60-$80+ on the collectible market.  

So I have gone without - until I checked it on a whim at Amazon, and found one for $20 and shipping.  I bought it without hesitation.

Now that it has arrived and I've gotten to flip through it, I am pleased.  This book is muchly reprints from the various military history books from Osprey Publishing, themselves a great series to own for the military historian, or just for the Game Master looking for art to explain something in game.

Speaking of games, there are two other collections of McBride's work.  The first is Legendary Beasts, illustrations from a magazine of yesteryear.  The second is all of the Tolkeinish artwork for I.C.E. MERP game (MERP deeper dive). 

Spend some time checking out the art and letting it carry your imagination away.  

It is well worth it.

Short Video on Adventure Design

I freely admit to being a fanboy of Bryce and his blog Ten Foot Pole.  Only my wallet knows how much money I have spent based on his adventure recommendations over the years.

There is even a useful forum attached to his blog where I have lurked and learned.

Now, though, he has an interview on the Dieku Games channel where he also discusses Adventure Design.  It is close to an hour long and worth the listen for aspiring DMs.

Full disclosure: my dream is to stop being lazy AND to actually publish an adventure that is not only reviewed by Bryce, but passes muster.

First though, I gotta not be lazy.

 

OA Family Backgrounds and Honor

Free time means delving into various books on my shelves, books containing rules and such that I intend to one day use.

In the case of this post, I suspect this might be the only time I use these, but still, it will be fun.

The AD&D Oriental Adventures hardcover contains several interesting bits, notably the chapters on Families, Clans, and Caste (p31-34), Honor (p35-36), and Events and Encounters (p107-114).  The last one is ideal for generating calendar events in the campaign world, broken down by year, month, and daily events. It reminds me heavily of the Battletech charts in ... one of the books.

Regardless, I want to play around with the first two chapters mentioned, so here are a handful of backgrounds using those tables, because rainy mornings are ideal for rolling dice and theorycrafting.

Since determining starting personal honor requires knowing the PC's lowest characteristic, I rolled them up using 4d6 drop lowest, then arranged to meet class requirements (pretty stringent requirements for several of them); furthermore, Comeliness is part of the stats for OA, and that roll is affected by Charisma score.  

All sample PCs are human, all names come from the OA name generator in Dragon #121 (which also includes a great article on the various lotus powders, for those wanting some drugs in their campaign).

Dragon #121 cover art by Jim Holloway

Note that some of the PC honor entries read X or Y.  This is because I rolled up families for all of these folk.  If a PC in OA has no family, they instead get a class-based bonus to starting honor (the higher number of the two), but lose ALL ancestry and birthright.  Personally, I would make the family-related things integral to a game, so would likely disallow loners. 

Miki Moroe, Samurai 1 - S15 D8 C14 I14 W13 Ch7 Co13 

10th rank; family honor: 15; PC honor: 22

ancestry: ancestral feud, none, land modest farm, none, common bloodline; birthright: none, none, none, none

Oshikoji Nagachika, Samurai 2 - S15 D9 C15 I14 W13 Ch6 Co10 

8th rank; family honor: 11; PC honor 19

ancestry: curse, none, small estate, none, common bloodline, none, famous holy man; birthright: none, none, none, weapon of quality, none, none

Wada Kauesue, Samurai 3 - S16 D10 C13 I15 W13 Ch18 Co17 

7th rank; family honor: 40; PC honor 52

ancestry: none, merchant fleet, ancestral feud, land in small town, none, ancestral alliance, ancestral feud; birthright: 2d6 cash strings, 2d6 cash strings, none, none, weapon of quality, none, none

Serizawa Yoshiyasu, Kensai - S15 D15 C13 I10 W14 Ch12 Co15 

middle class; family honor: 10; PC honor: 45 or 20

ancestry: land small farm; birthright: none, none

Yuasa Issai Bushi - S15 D16 C13 I12 W12 Ch9 Co10 

upper middle class; family honor: 16; PC honor: 37 or 27

ancestry: none, land in small town; birthright: property share, none

Tachibana Tampaku, Wu Jen - S9 D16 C13 I18 W15 Ch12 Co12 

upper middle class; family honor: 1; PC honor 25 or 10

ancestry: criminal, land in small town; birthright: none, none

Miruanosuke Keisai, Ninja - S9 D18 C10 I17 W12 Ch16 Co15 

upper class; family honor: 29; PC honor: 43

ancestry: small castle, none, land in large town, none; birthright: d4 horses, armor of quality, armor of quality

NOTE: ninja must split classes, so doing the math, I went with wu jen.

Table 38 is an interesting one, dictating which dice and how many are rolled on follow-up tables.

Table 39 is the first follow-up table; Table 38 tells what size die and how many times to roll it.  PCs do not start owning any of the results on this table, but living family NPCs do.

Table 40 is the second table; Table 38 tells us which die to roll and how many of them.  These are bonus items the PC may start the game with.

Using the above information, I can build quite the background for each of the PCs, but to be honest, the ones that intrigue me the most are the ninja and samurai 3; their Comeliness scores potentially make things more interesting, but to use them properly, I would need to know the wisdom scores of people checking them out, which sounds way too fiddly and math-related for my tastes.  Still, a smitten npc is almost a free henchmen, as near as I can tell from reading.  Having never actually used Comeliness, I cannot speak from experience.

All told, if I (or someone else) were to rework the tables to make it applicable to mainstream 5e (or other) DnD games, I think it could result in some pretty nifty PC backgrounds without going over the top.

Hexcrawling Youtube

Maybe a month ago, I began compiling hexcrawl resources on an irregularly-edited post.  Missing from it are YouTube videos.  This post addresses that.

A rather simplistic hexmap, source unknown.

I have given in to YouTube; typically, I am not a fan of YouTube gaming things, because I cannot watch them in meetings that are really just conversations between two people with mandatory attendance for the rest of the staff.  Despite this, there are several DnD-related channels and videos.

In today's edition, we look at various hexcrawl videos.  Not addressed are various videos on Sandboxes, a related term.

Bandit's Keep shares Building a Hexcrawl.

Dungeoncraft offers How to Design a Hex Crawl.

Matt Finch  RPG Studio interviews Bill Webb in the episode How to Run a Hexcrawl.

WebDM runs a two-part hexcrawl-related series: part 1 and part 2.

Bardic College provides Advanced Hexcrawling Kung Fu: Techniques and Tools.

Hexed Press has a variety of videos, including How to Play through a Hexcrawl, Designing a Random Encounter System for your Hexcrawl, Prepping Your Hexmap for a Hexcrawl Campaign, and a Dungeon Master's Intro to Running a Hexcrawl.

It appears that Hexed Press is a prolific hexcrawl video maker; Hexcrawl Tools: d30 Sandbox Companion part 1 and part 2.

GFC's DnD posted How to Hexcrawl.

For now, here is the search I ran on youtube.  Most of the above are there, plus a few more, if 105 minus the above is a few.

Is there overlap across these videos? Assuredly.  Is it still worth watching them all? Also yes, if only to learn or better understand hexcrawls, or at least discover new resources for your own games.

Latest edit: 11/7/21