This is actually an experiment that came to mind when I was making World Works Games’ (WWG) ”Sea Maiden,” but instead I decided to try out someone else’s papercraft – I went with the “Sea Dragon” by Fat Dragon Games. The idea is this: instead of printing the ship out in full color, could you create a simple ghostly effect just by printing in black and white?

I think the answer is yes – of course, one could achieve a more ghostly effect by adding details, but those kinds of details aren’t something the consumer can add without a lot of extra effort. In my mind, black and white does the job nicely (scroll down to see the black and white ghost ship next to the full color Sea Maiden).

Ok, so there was one bit of detail work that I did to make it look like a ghost ship: the sail is a freebie I got from the Fat Dragon site. After I put it together, I cut holes in it, and “shredded” the bottom. I think that one very easy bit of detail work really makes it clear that this is a ghost ship.

By the way, one tip I got from the WWG Sea Maiden instructions: when you glue your sail front to the sail back, if you bend the sail in a backward sweeping form while the glue dries, it will stay that way. It really gives the sail the illusion of being full of wind.

Here are a few build notes about this model:

I absolutely love the way the mast works. The WWG ship’s masts have to be inserted carefully through all three decks, so you have to make sure the holes are lined up perfectly. When you need to separate the decks, you have to pull the masts out completely. Big pain. This Fat Dragon model, however, has the mast separated into two sections. So you don’t have to remove the mast from the ship when lifting off the main deck to reveal the lower deck. The mast comes off with the main deck, and there’s a second short “mast” piece marking where the mast attaches to the lower deck. Extremely elegant.

The sail also works really well. I don’t like the way the sails hang on the WWG Sea Maiden – they use tabs that fold over the masts. I ended up using paperclips to keep them in place because they kept slipping off. Instead of this method, the FD Sea Dragon uses a ring that slides onto the mast. It’s no harder to remove than the WWG model, but stays on much better.

Unfortunately, the Sea Dragon had its own frustrations for me. The forecastle was needlessly complicated to attach. In fact, I ended up gluing the tabs on wrong way (on purpose) and blacking out the white that was showing. Honestly though, that’s my only complaint, and I was able to work around it.

Overall, this was a really quick build. 2 hours cutting, 2 hours assembly. Compared to about 5 times that for the Sea Maiden. No, seriously, the Maiden took me about 20 hours. In fairness, the Sea Maiden is much bigger. Below is a side by side comparison:

In the end, I don’t think that the difference in size is that big of a deal. Yes, it’s really cool to have a huge ship on hand, but it would also be cool to have four smaller ones; based upon the time the Sea Dragon took, I might just do that.

So next Friday, I’ll be posting a Two Page Mini Delve that uses this ghost ship, and also incorporates some lessons I’ve been learning about horror gaming from H.P. Lovecraft and Ryan Macklin. But first, this ship needs a name. Below is a survey using names I got from Twitter, as well as a few I came up with myself. Vote on your favorite, the winner will become part of the Two Page Delve!

Related posts:

1. Weekly Roundup: Papercraft Dragon Edition
2. Merry Christmas and Free Papercraft!
3. Large Scale Naval Conflict – Post Playtest

There was a great article at The Illuminerdy this week about how to make cons more fun. Everyone needs to add the phrase to their vocabulary, so that we all have more fun at cons.

Steve Winter at The Howling Tower mused upon the random encounter. Once a staple of D&D, it has in recent editions gone away. Steve takes on what a random encounter should be, and how to make them a good part of your game.

The Dungeon’s Master this week addressed the use of torture by PCs. Also, how intimidate is not the same thing. We have also addressed this subject (from a different angle) here.

Alex Schroeder, the guy who runs the One Page Dungeon Contest, wrote up a cool little post on how he strung together some of his favorite one page dungeons from the contest to make a campaign out of them.

We haven’t linked to The Labyrinth in a while, but they’re still making some beautiful, free world maps over there!

From The Sorcerer’s Skull posted the true story of a cave that was found in North America, full of skeletons and treasure. Complete with a map just begging to be dropped into a game.

The Retro Roleplaying blog talked about why some OSR players reject improvements to the D&D system. We disagree to an extent, and feel that the author cherry picked some of his examples, but it’s still worth a read.

Finally, in Wired this month, there was a very interesting article that I think absolutely should have talked about D&D. But it didn’t. Apparently the author, Clive Thompson, doesn’t know what we do. Check it out, and here’s a quote – email the author if this sounds familiar:

Paracosms are the fantasy worlds that many dreamy, imaginative kids like to invent when they’re young. Some of history’s most creative adults had engaged in “worldplay” as children. The Brontë siblings, in one famous example, concocted paracosms so elaborate that they documented them with meticulous maps, drawings, and hundreds of pages of encyclopedic writing.

Blast From The Past (Weekly Roundup: Last Call For Dungeon Geomorph Dice Edition)

Initiative Or What? had a cool article this week on different found objects that were useful as props for their D&D game.  We especially like the idea to use novelty ice cube trays for casting 3D terrain decorations.
(5/14/11)

Related posts:

1. Interesting Encounters: The Shaman’s Unhallowed Grove
2. Weekly Roundup: New Homebrew Campaign Edition
3. Weekly Roundup: End of Campaign Edition

This particular encounter has been kicking around in my head for a while now, but it was too… unformed for me to feel comfortable publishing. Fortunately, the May of the Dead blogfest gave me a kickstart; by applying an undead theme to the encounter, it now had purpose and flavor.

I’m not going to dictate the specific background to the encounter in order to give you the opportunity to take it in your own direction. However, the very basic setup is this: a shaman is attempting to use lightning to animate or raise a body. He has converted a ring of standing stones into a primal conduit to channel a storm’s energy into the body, which lays in the center on a slab of stone. His motivations, backstory, and the plot leading up to the encounter, I leave up to you. Sounds very “Frankenstein’s Monster”? Yup, it’s supposed to. Except in this case, instead of using science, the Good Doctor is using primal power.

When the PCs enter the scene, there is a storm raging. Four of the standing stones have metal spikes attached to them. The spikes are glowing with St. Elmo’s Fire. The shaman is working some sort of ritual over the body while his spirit companion stands watch.

Features

Rain: Because of the storm and driving rain, any squares more than two away are considered lightly obscured (granting partial concealment).

Standing Stones with Spikes: Divide the map into four quadrants. One standing stone with a spike should be in each quadrant. At the top of each round, roll a d4 to determine which of the standing stones is struck by lightning. Every creature in that quadrant will also take Med Damage (by level)*, and any trees in that quadrant gain a surge of the primal life force the shaman is channeling – they can also attack on their turn. Finally, 1d4+1 elementals appear in that quadrant and attack the PCs directly after the standing stone attack is resolved (storm/air elementals are suggested, though a water elemental could be formed out of the rain as well). If you need to tone down the encounter at some point, you can make these elementals appear with 1/2 normal hit points.

Trees: At the end of the initiative order, trees have a placeholder. Any trees in the quadrant that was struck by lightning this round can make the following attack: Melee 4; 5+lvl vs. AC; High Damage.

Shaman: The shaman will stay out of combat unless defeat or disruption seems imminent. It is DM’s discretion whether he simply flees the scene or tries to keep the PCs from disrupting the ritual and lightning rods.

Spirit Companion: Recommended to be some type of elemental of the PC’s level +3.

Disabling the Standing Stones

Of course, any clever group will decide that the standing stones are the real threat in the encounter. They generate monsters every round, do auto damage, and grant the TREES attacks. So they’re going to want to disable them, or at the very least, avoid them. Here are some skill uses for the encounter:

• Nature: No action difficult DC check to half the damage done to self and allies the next time lightning strikes. (The PC tells allies they need to take cover)
• Athletics: Move action moderate DC to climb a standing stone. If the standing stone has a spike, the PC is now adjacent to that spike. *If a stone with a spike is struck while a PC is adjacent to it, that PC takes triple damage from the strike.
• Arcana: If a PC is adjacent to a spike – TWO standard action moderate DC checks to disable a spike. Also, a no action aid another can be made to shout instructions to a PC that is trying to diable the spike.
• Acrobatics: Move action moderate DC to hop between the tops of stones. A PC must have already climbed the stones to use this skill.

The End Game

Much of the encounter end conditions will be dermined by you based upon the story background. It is suggested that a certain number of lightning strikes completes the shaman’s ritual. Whether that new (flesh golem perhaps?) monster then enters the fray, or whether the shaman disappears with it (and the storm subsides, and the elementals disappear) is up to you. Keep in mind that the PCs may simply decide to go straight for the shaman or even hack the not-yet-animated body to pieces before the ritual is complete. Prepare for those possibilities.

A Map

This map has patches of sparser grass along the edge of the map to delineate the quadrants. Characters that are standing on the line are in two quadrants at once. Also, the stones with the spikes have a blue dot on them.

So there you have it. A somewhat fleshed out encounter with a great undead theme. Just add level appropriate monsters, and a good dose of story, and you’re ready to go!

Related posts:

1. Interesting Encounters: Disorienting Cataclysm

I originally asked Dice of Doom to kick around this idea in one of their podcasts. I kind of forgot about it until The Angry DM posted this tweet, and got me thinking about the topic again. Someone else tweeted this in response to a comment I made that both groups of adventurers should be actual play groups. This got my brain churning even faster.

So, the idea: two groups of D&D players, both entering a dungeon from different entrances, and both looking for the same MacGuffin. The delve happens in real time, so the team that works together most efficently will most likely come out on top. Which party will get there first? Will they encounter one another? And what happens to the “losing” party?

There’s even a certain amount of abstraction that can be used in a scenario like this. For example, the backstory, and even the MacGuffin itself, could be different at the two tables. The “game” could simply be to beat the other team through the dungeon to the “MacGuffin room.” At the end of such a scenario, the two DMs determine what the outcome means for their particular campaign, and move on. On the other hand, something like this could become bigger. The losing team may will probably decide that the only way to move the campaign forward is to retrieve the lost item from the other party. How will the winners cover their tracks or otherwise evade their pursuers? There is plenty of potential for intrigue.

So, here are some random specifics that came to mind:

• Slow play will hurt a group. DMs could even decide on scenarios where time penalties are appropriate. Pressure from the other group will incentivize quick decisions and fast play. This is only a good thing, and could even begin to teach your group how to move things along in solo games.
• Even though I hinted earlier that intrigue, and maybe an overland chase could ensue, I think such a scenario is initially best suited to a dungeon where “paths” are defined, and the end goal is confined. So there should be two entrances (one for each party), the possiblity that paths cross at some point in the delve and a definite end point. Truly, a dungeon is the best way to achieve all three of these things.
• Of course, if you’re going to build the dungeon to allow for the possibility of party run-ins, you need to decide how to handle PVP. I think the answer to this is largely dependent on the two groups. You could abstract it in some way (one roll determines the outcome) or let them play it out. This second option would probably require a webcam and Skype, or possibly something on Maptool. The former solution is probably more simple and elegant, but some players would only be satisfied by the latter. That’s fine.
• For something like this, I like the idea of old school style play – someone at the table has to map the dungeon as the party moves along. This way, the group has to positively identify their path through (and back out of) the dungeon. It also rewards attentive play.

Years ago – not that many years ago, really – something like this would indeed have to be run at a con. How else could the two DMs collaborate in real time while still paying attention to their game? But now, with internet tools as robust as they are, DM collaboration in real time is easy. All the DM needs nowadays is a laptop at the table and an internet connection.

For a scenario like this, I actually think Facebook is a great tool. The two DMs could set up a private group, and start a discussion thread for each room. As the PCs move through rooms, the DMs would add notes below that room as to what happened – was a chest looted? Is there a dead monster now on the floor? Then, if the other party comes to that room, the DM has up-to-date notes on what the room should look like. But why Facebook, and not another forum? Two reasons: the updates in Facebook notify the other DM in real time (no constant refresh needed), and Facebook also has built in chat. So not only could the two DMs be updating rooms in the group threads, they could also have a chat box open to notify one another of which room each party is in.

Do I think this would work? With the right groups, yes. The DMs also have to plan for what will happen afterwards. Will they allow further interaction between the groups, or turn the “other party” into NPCs? And how will the campaign progress if their party is the “second ones” to the goal? These are small things though. Overall, I think this is a great idea, and would love to see it, or hear about it, in action.

What do you think? Are there obvious flaws in my idea? How would you execute it?

No related posts.

First up this week is not a blog article, but a fun little choose your own adventure game that we thought we’d link to in honor of the May of the Dead carnival going on over at Going Last. It places you in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

We were pleasantly surprised to see Legend4ry DnD begin a conversion of the old school Dyson’s Delve. We’re excited to see the final product. The original Dyson’s Delve (here) was written by Dyson Logos.

With the public playtest of D&D Next coming up on May 24th, Greywulf’s Lair tackled the issue of playtesting, and what it is (and isn’t).

Every once in a while, we see an article that really sparks our imagination. DMG 42 hit the ball out of the park this week. He described a system in which worldbuilding between the DM and players was collaborative in a really hands on way. We really really want to try this.

Dungeon’s Master did a little thinking this week about the fate of the Character Builder.  Has it become as necessary as the PHB? Do you hope it sticks around?

Finally, at Cinerati this week, a mystery of gaming history was brought to our attention. Who was Gigi D’arn? Even if you’ve never heard of her, by the end of the article, you’ll probably want to figure it out…

Blast From The Past (Weekly Roundup: D&D Perfume Edition)

At-Will had a discussion of what sorts of challenges you should throw at your epic tier players.  No, not what sorts of monsters.  What sorts of challenges.  Check it out if you’re struggling with your epic tier storyline.

Related posts:

1. Weekly Roundup – D&D Perfume Edition
2. Weekly Roundup: Departing Player Edition
3. Weekly Roundup: May Of The Dead Is Coming Edition

Zombie Horde by The Meat Grinder at DeviantArt

This post is part of the May of the Dead blogfest being run by the guys at Going Last. There are a lot of other bloggers contributing all sorts of undead content for all sorts of RPG games. For more of this May of the Dead goodness (badness?) you can click through to the blogfest homepage here.

Haven’t zombies been done to death? (Pun intended) In the compendium, we have 61 zombies. 61! of just one type of creature. What more can I add to the mix? I don’t suppose too much, but let’s take a crack at it anyways. It is, after all, May of the Dead…

Zombies lend themselves to the minion role very well. I think of them coming in hordes, and the PCs mowing through them without too much effort. So that’s where we’ll start. I also think of them as being able to take blows that might incapacitate a living being. In fact, that is one of the most terrifying aspects of zombies, and undead in general; their ability to keep going even after you think you’ve dealt them a killing blow.

Imagine the nervous looks from your players when the wizard destroys a whole swath of zombie minions, but you don’t take the markers from the mat. And then on the zombies’ turn, you start rolling a d6.

Of course, there are several ways to overcome this trait, but my favorite is to “put another one in him to make sure he’s really dead.” You might want to hint at this because once players figure this out, it creates an interesting combat choice for them – risk the zombie minion getting back up on its turn, and focus attacks on bigger threats, or spend that standard action to make sure that they’re really not getting back up?

This trait could really be applied to any undead creature. In fact, I’ve written the power that way. After all, isn’t that what an undead creature is? It’s already dead. It should be kind of hard to kill it.

Another aspect of zombie hardiness is their ability to shrug off attacks that would kill a mortal creature, so let’s turn these zombies into two hit minions.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about two hit minions, but I’ve never seen a stat block that put mechanics to it. Here’s a little mechanic that does it, and can be applied to any minion. Just replace Zombie Resistance with Kobold Resistance or Orc Resistance or whatever.

By adding two non-attack features, we have a zombie minion that’s new and different, and hopefully reminds your players of all the zombie movies they’ve ever seen. Plus, they’re hardy! Between their ability to get back up once they’re down and their ability to shrug off the first attack, your players should have a lot of fun hacking through a whole horde of these.

We haven’t added any attacks, so we haven’t made them more complicated on their turn. The first hit bloodies them, so that’s easy to track. And rolling to find out when the zombies get back up and start fighting again should add quite a bit of suspense to the combat.

Here are the two powers applied to a level 3 minion.

You can download the .monster file here. Use it as is, or just strip the two new powers off it and apply them to the baddies of your choice!

And that’s it! Let me know what you think!

Related posts:

1. A Review of the New Gamma World Novel, “Sooner Dead”

True history is rife with stories and plot arcs that we can take for our own game. I was reminded of one such story this week; I may turn this into a series, I may not, but for now, enjoy the true story from Israel’s history of Athaliah and Joash.

It’s interesting to me how many campaign worlds have a stable government. I believe this is a by product of the world many of us live in today. We enjoy the luxury of stable rulership, and the peaceful transfer of power. For much of history however, this was not the case. History is splattered with the blood of kings, queens, and princes who died at the hands of those they trusted, all so someone else could seize power. Then there are vengeance killings following the coups. The struggle for power was turbulent, filled with intrigue, bloody, and endless.

One such story from the history of Israel, tells of a grandmother who tried to exterminate the royal family when her son died.

Here is a TL;DR synopsis of the story from Wikipedia

Athaliah, as queen of Judah, tried to have all possible successors to Ahaziah executed; one, however,a grandson of hers named Joash was rescued from the purge by Jehosheba, Ahaziah’s sister, and was raised in secret by the priest Jehoiada. Six years later, Athaliah was surprised when Jehoiada revealed Joash and proclaimed him king of Judah. She rushed to stop this rebellion, but was captured and executed.

And here is the full story from the Bible (2 Chronicles 22 & 23 The Message). Words in square brackets were added for clarity.

 When Ahaziah’s mother Athaliah saw that her son [the king] was dead, she took over. She began by massacring the entire royal family. Jehosheba… [Ahaziah's sister], took Ahaziah’s son Joash, and kidnapped him from among the king’s sons slated for slaughter. She hid him and his nurse in a private room away from Athaliah. So Jehosheba… saved Joash from the murderous Queen Athaliah. He was there with her, hidden away for six years in The Temple of God. Athaliah, oblivious to his existence, ruled the country.

In the seventh year the priest Jehoiada decided to make his move and worked out a strategy with certain influential officers in the army. He picked Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zicri as his associates. They dispersed throughout Judah and called in the Levites from all the towns in Judah along with the heads of families. They met in Jerusalem. The gathering met in The Temple of God. They made a covenant there in The Temple.

The priest Jehoiada showed them the young prince and addressed them: “Here he is—the son of the king. He is going to rule just as God promised regarding the sons of David. Now this is what you must do: A third of you priests and Levites who come on duty on the Sabbath are to be posted as security guards at the gates; another third will guard the palace; and the other third will guard the foundation gate. All the people will gather in the courtyards of The Temple of God. No one may enter The Temple of God except the priests and designated Levites—they are permitted in because they’ve been consecrated, but all the people must do the work assigned them. The Levites are to form a ring around the young king, weapons at the ready. Kill anyone who tries to break through your ranks. Your job is to stay with the king at all times and places, coming and going.”

All the Levites and officers obeyed the orders of Jehoiada the priest. Each took charge of his men, both those who came on duty on the Sabbath and those who went off duty on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest hadn’t exempted any of them from duty. Then the priest armed the officers with spears and the large and small shields originally belonging to King David that were stored in The Temple of God. Well-armed, the guards took up their assigned positions for protecting the king, from one end of The Temple to the other, surrounding both Altar and Temple.

Then the priest brought the prince into view, crowned him, handed him the scroll of God’s covenant, and made him king. As Jehoiada and his sons anointed him they shouted, “Long live the king!”

Athaliah, hearing all the commotion, the people running around and praising the king, came to The Temple to see what was going on. Astonished, she saw the young king standing at the entrance flanked by the captains and heralds, with everybody beside themselves with joy, trumpets blaring, the choir and orchestra leading the praise. Athaliah ripped her robes in dismay and shouted, “Treason! Treason!”

Jehoiada the priest ordered the military officers, “Drag her outside— and kill anyone who tries to follow her!” (The priest had said, “Don’t kill her inside The Temple of God.”) So they dragged her out to the palace’s horse corral and there they killed her.

What a story! A king is killed, and instead of mourning her son’s untimely death, the mother instead usurps the throne by systematically killing off all possible heirs. Or so she thinks. Unbeknownst to her, there is one son of the king that she has missed. He has been hidden in the temple by his aunt until he is old enough to rule. The priests take care of him along with his nurse as the boy prince grows. Then, as a six year old boy, he is given an armed escort and presented to the people as the true heir to the throne; the usurping queen is dragged into a horse stable and killed.

So, there are some obvious plot threads here that we can steal for our games. A usurping parent who murders her own grandchildren simply to gain power for herself. One member of the family – a baby - escapes the purge, and is hidden, only to appear years later as the true king. But where exactly would the PCs fit into such a story arc? Here are a few ideas:

• The characters, apprised of the situation, are charged with ”abducting” the baby prince and finding a safe place for him until he is old enough to take the throne.
• The characters live in the land of the wicked queen. They hear rumors that the dead king had a son no one knew about, and must be found to take the wicked queen’s place.
• The characters are tasked with keeping the young king safe during his coronation – organizing his security force to prevent assassination attempts on the 6 year old during the ceremony.
• For players who are more into intrigue, you could have the would-be usurper hire the characters as “enforcers” purging the land of “a great evil.” Unwittingly, the characters are carrying out the execution of the royal family so that there is no one to threaten the usurper’s rule.

But wait, there’s more! There is a strong divine element to this story. In 2 Samuel 7, God promised King David that his “…house and kingdom shall endure… forever; your throne shall be established forever.” You also see this in the text above, when the priest presents Joash and says, “Here he is—the son of the king. He is going to rule just as God promised regarding the sons of David.” Since Ahaziah (and therefore his sons) were in David’s family tree, in order for God to keep his promise, at least one of Ahaziah’s sons needed to survive. So one last hook for the divine characters:

• The divine character’s deity warns them that one of the princes needs to be rescued from imminent danger and hidden away somewhere, with no further information. That prince happens to be a 3 month old baby… and he doesn’t seem to be in any immediate danger.

Knowing the back story helps, but can you see how some players might struggle with something that feels a lot like the kidnapping of a royal baby because “god told me to”? Only after they follow through with the plan (or not!) do they find out about the executions of the throne’s heirs going on behind the scenes.

What hooks did I miss? What would you add?

Related posts:

1. Creating an Investigative Adventure

The biggest news this week was the departure of Monte Cook from the D&D Next team. The announcement at his blog was short and vague, and others had thoughts as well. (The previous is, of course, only one opinion. We’re sure with a search, you’ll turn up more speculation than we care to read.)

Rules as UNWritten this week posted some thoughts about the Alchemy rules, both for the current edition and the next. Should all consumables simply be alchemical items, or is there something to be gained by categorizing some as magic?

Over at Geek’s Dream Girl we got a little advice on bringing non-gamers to the table. Great advice for that inevitable game night when you’re one short and your mom is the only one around.

Then there was the announcement this week at Larval Subjects of a new book coming out entitled Dungeons & Dragons & Philosophy. Might be worth checking out.

RPG Athenaeum is doing a lot of great work bringing true medieval  history to your D&D game. For example, this week’s article on real professions that you’ve probably never given to an NPC.

Finally, don’t forget about the two contests going on – Stuffer Shack‘s Site of the Year contest has its winner announced tomorrow, and tomorrow is also the deadline to get your One Page Dungeon in! (There’s still time. Really. It’s just a page. Get on it!)

Blast From The Past (Weekly Roundup: Gamma World Thoughts Edition)

Intwischa (like this: Int Wis Cha… get it?) posted some tips on how to run a better 4e game.  Caution: if you’re a “play by the rules” type, this article may make you angry.  Or shake your head.  That’s ok, there’s plenty to think about there, and everyone could take to heart one or two of the tips.
(4/30/11)

Related posts:

1. Weekly Roundup: Coming Up On 200 Edition
2. Weekly Roundup: Winter is Coming Edition
3. Weekly Roundup: One Last Winter is Coming Link Edition