30 Minutes: Monsters

(Okay, I actually spent 60 minutes writing...)

CW: death, drowning, body horror.

I'm updating the seed to 2d6, aka 11 possibilities!  Better bell curve.

2: Essay: "Concerning ________" (roll again; on this result, Concerning Players) 

3: Dungeons

4: Tricks

5: Treasure
6: Npcs
7: Gods
8: Adventure Hooks
9: Monsters
10: Traps
11: Dungeon Rooms

12: Diseases or Poisons

The Dice Roll:

2d6 result: 9: Monsters

Incrementing the Chart

For next time:

2: Diseases or Poisons

3: Essay: "Concerning ________" (roll again; on this result, Concerning Players) 

4: Dungeons

5: Tricks

6: Treasure
7: Npcs
8: Gods
9: Adventure Hooks
10: Monsters
11: Traps
12: Dungeon Rooms

Monsters

The average monster stat block fails to inspire me pretty significantly.  The average monster description isn't much better.  I've been trying to think about what it is about some monsters that light my fire, while many don't!  I think perhaps the thing about monsters is they're only as scary as their fictional positioning- and most modern Monster Manuals don't deliver on the promise of the Monster, from a fictional positioning perspective.  Slender Man isn't scary because he has 15' reach and if he hits he strangles for 2d6 damage each round.  Slender Man is scary because of where he lives, and how he expresses threat, and the targets he chooses- because of his fictional positioning.

Especially when so many monsters are just... intelligent races that attack the "Good" races?  Why am I killing these goblins and orcs again?  Shouldn't we send some emissaries to negotiate with them?  Establish trade?  Help relieve their environmental pressures so they stop attacking us?

Is a goblin just a "short green humanoid with sharp teeth, sharp nose, sharp ears, and sharp eyes?  They favor sharp daggers and love to pretend they're surrendering, before redoubling the attack?"  

"They shout Bree-Yark?"

Goblins

Or is a goblin the manifestation of greed- the greed humans feel for the things other humans own?  Living things, mostly.  First they come for small working animals- cats, dogs.  Vanished in the night, stolen from the edges of civilized land.  Sometimes they show up later, slain- a warning.  The first sign of goblin infestation is often, in fact, rats- an overabundance of rats, where cats and small dogs would once have kept them at bay.  But goblins don't stop there.  An untreated goblin infestation grows- one goblin is a threat, five an atrocity.  

After pets, livestock are stolen away at night- prized cows, sheep, goats disappeared or slain, their meat spoiled.  After livestock... children... and then adults.  You might catch glimpses of them in the woods- their pale white almost translucent skin flashing as they duck into the brush.  At night, the glow of their eyes can make you think that lost pet is just lurking out of sight, maybe a bit feral now.  You might approach, hand held out, a treat extended to coax Whiskers back to you... this is a mistake.

Goblins never attack unless they are sure of the kill, and they are excellent at staying hidden.  Their needle sharp fangs drive straight for the throat, their claws razor sharp to rend skin.  They don't eat or drink from what they kill- nobody knows how they subsist.  The infest the dark crevices of the earth, yes, but where possible, they prefer the abandoned remnants of humanity.  They act out mock plays of life in there, small rituals, cooking eating, spats and feuds, ritual without substance, almost like clockwork.  If they are ever seen engaging in this, they fly into a frenzy- they will accept no evidence of their secret pantomimes.

"Okay" you might say.  "So a cat goes missing, the town gets their torches, and flushes the goblin out of the woods and slay it.  No big threat."

Right?

Only, Goblins have an instinct for choosing their targets.  The farmer who had a bad year, the one everyone looks down on?  The man trying to raise his two boys, who everyone whispers about?  The hedge witch whose services everyone needs, and resents needing?  When these people run through town, tears on their face, pleading and panicked... who listens?

The pain of the Goblin is that they target those who are the most genuinely attached to what they hold dear- and also the least likely to elicit sympathy from their peers.  In this way the Goblins grow, drip fed, until it is too late...

There are rumors of occasional towns who have had Goblin infestations vanish- usually after some wide-spread common outcry, mock trial, and sentencing of someone very well established and connected.  Usually the person who, for some reason or other, is benefiting the most as a byproduct of the attacks and uncertainty.  The Coveter In Chief.

But we all know how likely that is.

Monsters

Monsters, then, aren't just "apex predators" or "bad people-things"- monsters are inextricably tied to our humanity.

The Tentacleel

There is a stream in the woods where once lovers lay.  They would meet there, and whisper sweet songs into each others ears.  A popular spot, spoken of behind hands, in shadow.  Where the sun shines bright on the banks, and a strong tree grows out over the swift and deep currents- perhaps a rope hangs from its bough.

We all know the place.

Swift, cold water hides many dangers, but is it not the folly of youth to believe their invincibility?

"You should have been more careful"

"I warned you that boy was nothing but heartbreak"

"I told you not to go to the stream"

The tentacleel wants nothing so much as warmth and companionship.  It is drawn to the places where such things are on display, and it waits.  It waits, until that joyous moment when a companion deigns to join it, deep in the dark waters, so warm and soft.  The tentacleel holds on tight, as long as it can- days, certainly- sometimes weeks.  Until there's nothing left to hold, until everything has sifted out, washing downstream.  

But that's okay.  Mourners so often pay it visits, that it's just a matter of time, really.

Death Adder

It is a fact of life that life is finite- and this the Death Adder understands above all.

A hunter may occasionally come across the carcass of some wild beast, slain or fallen as a result of its natural circumstances.  At first glance, everything may seem normal- but a sharp eye will spot a pool of shadow under the creature's mouth.  A thick, scaled skin, shed- winding back into the corpse.  The Death Adder's leavings, coated in a contact venom that causes a hot, searing pain, and leaves behind a wicked burn, small at first, which grows with the years.

The Death Adder is no threat, unless accosted.  Its bite is an aging venom- the skin dries, the hair greys, the eyes wrinkle.  But it bites only under duress.  Humanity hates the Death Adder, because humanity hates death.

The Death Adder finds comfort in the presence of those who are near to death.  It will often be found coiled underneath a newborn's crib, an invalid's bed.  Around the bell of a church's tower; in the dark corner of an infirmary basement.  Wallowing in the mud of an impending battlefield.

Those who have seen it insist that the doomed can be saved if the Adder is removed... but this is rarely achieved.  It is a stubborn beast.  Many make the attempt- fire, sword, axe, pitchfork... the sick bed is moved, the invalid encouraged to take air.  The Death Adder desires nothing so much as to remain in its chosen locale... waiting.

After the beloved passes beyond the veil, the only sign that remains of the beast is often a long, gossamer skin, dried and crinkly.

Of course, humanity hates the Death Adder for a second reason as well.

Nobody enjoys watching a newborn serpent shedding, sliding out of the mouth of a recently deceased loved one.

20 Minutes: Tricks

Today's 2d4 Seed:

2: Treasure
3: Npcs
4: Gods
5: Adventure Hooks
6: Monsters
7: Traps
8: Tricks

Roll result: 8: Tricks

Tricks

Tricks are odd encounters in dungeons.  Some rooms contain treasures, and that's good.  Some rooms contain traps or monsters, and that's bad.  But some rooms contain tricks... and who knows what's going on with them?

Tricks are the things that make the players stop and proceed with caution.  The 30 seconds of prep you spend writing a line that starts "A creepy doll sits on a chair..." that turns into two hours of gameplay.  So let's see what we can come up with in 20 minutes?

1. Blood stained letters scrawled on the far wall: "WAS I NOT WORTHY?"  In the center of the room, channels gouged into the rock of the floor, in the circle-and-runes shape of some arcane ritual, connecting four small basins at the cardinal directions- currently dry.  A faint magic aura can be detected.
• If the four basins are filled with blood, the channels also fill.  When the blood flows to the center and fills the channels, a Sleep spell discharges on everyone in the area.  Anyone who sleeps in this room (at any time, spell or no) has dreams of intense disapproval from whichever god they worship.
2. A door with a gaping demon-maw forged in bronze in the center of it, where a doorknob should be.  Deep in the mouth, about a forearm-length back, you can juuuust make out the latch for the door.  A faint magic aura can be detected.  The handle must be grabbed and manipulated in order to open the door.  There's a clasp on the back that a finger has to pull.  Each time the player says "okay, I press the clasp," describe how another clasp pops out- requiring another finger to pull it.  
• Secretly roll 1d4+4: that is how many clasps pop out.  Every time beyond number 5, the player who is manipulating the door grows one additional finger to press the next clasp that has popped out.
• These new additional fingers live for 24 hours.  Having extra fingers gives advantage on sleight of hand, picking locks, disarming traps, or other tasks requiring manual dexterity.  One finger falls off at the end of each subsequent 24 hour period, and then begins inching in the direction of the closest undiscovered treasure.  No two fingers will head for the same treasure stockpile- they split up.
• When a finger reaches its selected treasure stockpile it pupates; if left alone overnight, it morphs into giant mucosoid fingers defending the goods (fight as a Carrion Crawler).
3. An ornamental cigar humidor of mahogany and oak- well polished.  Has- would you believe it??- just enough cigars for the current adventuring party.
• Once a cigar is lit- any one of these cigars, no matter where the players are- a spectral ghost appears, forming out of the smoke!  They are a jovial creature, delighted to see the players, and ravenous for news of the world- after all, it has been so long since they've had any.  They light up their own cigar, invite everyone else to join in (insist, really- they refuse to proceed with niceties until everyone is well situated and participating)- and then beg for details and news- of course, they promise to tell the players all manner of interesting and quest-relevant details once they're satisfied.  Once details and news are exhausted, they beg for performances and showmanship.  Once performances and showmanship are exhausted, they are ready to tell the players anything they might want to know.
• ... It's a shame all the cigars burn out JUST before the jovial spirit is able to say the most important words the players want so desperately to know.

That does it for our 20 minute (okay, 16- I had to seed the random table first) sprint of brainstorming!  I'll see if I can't come back often and make a new roll for a sprint brainstorm.  Cheers!

Seeding the Table

For next time!

2: Tricks

3: Treasure
4: Npcs
5: Gods
6: Adventure Hooks
7: Monsters
8: Traps

Of Roles and Rolls

There is a certain kind of roll in Dungeons & Dragons that I personally dislike- a roll which eliminates both rich, in-character play, and also eliminates the skill, creativity, or cleverness of the player herself.

This tends to happen more heavily with a subset of skills:

• Deception
• Investigation
• Persuasion
• Search

The simplest way to talk about it is to showcase examples of play from the two perspectives:

Rolls vs Roles

Deception Roll

DM: The medusa stares at you furiously, holding back her stone gaze for the briefest moment.  "Why have you come here, fools?"

Player: "Oh great medusa, we are here to worship you and serve as your bodyguards!" I roll my Deception skill.... 18!

DM: That's a success!  "Fascinating... no sooner do I have a need than you appear.  What skills do you have that can be of service for me?"

etc.

Deception Role

DM: The medusa stares at you furiously, holding back her stone gaze for the briefest moment.  "Why have you come here, fools?"

Player 1: Okay wait.  What do we know about this medusa so far?

Player 2: She eats ash and drinks smoke?

Player 1: Awesome, but I don't know if it helps us right now...

Player 3: She's had graven images of Cadixtat, the Chaos Titan all through her halls!

Player 1: Hmm yeah, and we heard from the Knowspider that she's pretty paranoid- and all those traps sure prove it.

Player 2: Hey wait, didn't we kill some priests of Cadixtat earlier?  I stole one of their holy symbols thinking we could sell it... are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Player 1: Awesome!  We've got it.  Follow my lead.  "Ohh great medusa!  We suffered a plague of nightmares sent by the Chaos Titan, Cadixtat, exhorting us to come to your aid and protection!  We bear his mark, and show it now as a sign of our faith and service!"

DM: Her tension visibly relaxes!  Her shoulders relax and her serpents move in slow sinuous waves.  "So.  The titan himself has heard my need?  This bodes well.  Come forward..."

etc.

Search Roll

DM: The room is centered around a wooden parquetry table, with a blue-and-white china vase sitting on top of it.  On the far wall is a blackened stone fireplace, with candleholders on each side.  What do you do?

Player: Hmmm, I smell a trap.  I want to search the room.  ... I rolled a 21!

DM: Okay!  Yeah, you examine the table and sure enough, there's a tripwire under the vase, connecting to mechanisms running down the central column of the table...

etc.

Search Role

DM: The room is centered around a wooden parquetry table, with a blue-and-white china vase sitting on top of it.  On the far wall is a blackened stone fireplace, with candleholders on each side.  What do you do?

Player 1: Okay, I raise my torch good and high so I can see clearly.  How does the floor around the table look?  Anything unusual or distinctive about it?

DM: Nope!  The whole floor in here is the same uniform black stone.  No markings or scuffing.

Player 1: Okay, I'm going to walk over next to the table.  ... Do I die?

DM: Not this time!

Player 2: I want to go look around the fireplace!  I'm walking over next to it, and examining one of the candlesticks.

DM: Which one?

Player 2: The right one.  I'm just looking right now!  Seeing if I see anything!

DM: Okay!  While you do that, Player 1, what are you doing next to the table?

Player 1: Oh I'm totally messing with this vase.  Carefully!

DM: How are you doing that?

Player 1: I guess I'm... putting my fingers on the lip of the vase and gently tilting it, looking under it for any kind of, like, pressure plate or whatever.

DM: Okay!  Yeah, as you tilt the vase and peer under it, you see a tiny wire being stretched taut under it, disappearing into a hole in the table.

Player 1: I put the vase down!  I put the vase down!

Player 2: Do I notice anything about these candlesticks?

DM: Well the right one you're looking at now?  Its candles are unburned- and you notice the left one's candles are burned about half down.

Player 2: Hmmmm... what do you all think?  Should we try lighting some candles?

Player 3: But which ones?  The burnt ones, or the new ones?

etc.

As you can see, asking players to engage in the fiction- to actually find out what kind of lies or persuasions might be effective against their target, or to actually fictionally engage with the contents of a room- gives many more chances for play.

Though I'm half inclined to simply remove these skills from my game, I can see a possible middle ground- keep the skill, and let a successful roll against a fairly challenging DC represent the character's intuitive knowledge about the situation.

Search: "I rolled an 18!"  Hmm okay, yeah!  Your astute senses draw your attention to the wardrobe at the back of the room.  It'd be a great place to hide some loot.... or a deadly threat.

Persuade: "Hey hey!  A 21!"  Rad.  You can see that the nobleman is checking his water clock regularly, and you remember overhearing a whispered conversation between the servants earlier as you passed- something about "making sure it's ready in time."  He seems pretty nervous about timing, specifically...

Of course, on the DM's side, this asks more work of us!  In the case of the medusa example above, elements of the wider dungeon tied into her characterization- her paranoia, her worship of Cadixtat.  In the trapped vase example, the DM should know how the trap functions, what physical evidence it leaves behind (a nearly invisible black ash coating over the black floor?), how it can be deactivated... you as the DM must invest your world with the authenticity the players will need to discover these things by engaging!

For elements of the environment, ask yourself:

• What tells might there be?
• What is the most interesting?
• What is the most valuable?
• How sensitive is the danger here?
• How could it be negated?  What evidence is there of that?

For elements of personalities, ask yourself:

• What does this personality claim to want?
• What does this personality really want?
• What does this personality fear?
• How could the players present effective leverage?
• What is there about the surroundings, or other personalities, that can give insight into these answers?

What do you think?

On the Nature of The Dungeon

On the subject of the dungeon, there is but one comfort, and it is this: the dungeon is an entity, and, like all entities, it can be described.

The nature of the dungeon is that of subversion.

If you are lucky, the dungeon has been a known place.  It was your place once, a place that belonged to you, or to people like you.  Even if they were a very different people, they were far more like you than not, and their place was far more like the places you know than it has now become.  It was very likely built for a purpose, to be used and to exist in ways that are familiar to you.  It was a home, or a workplace, or a storage space; a defensible location, a place of strength and purpose.  The people and creatures in it were known, they operated by rules and laws that you intuit, that you can feel in your bones.  Rules and laws that wrap around you in a bustling marketplace- you feel them in a lecture hall- you feel them walking down the street, sitting in the theatre, pouring a glass of wine, pulling bread out of the oven.  Even when you pick the lock, when you slice the throat, when you lift the vase- even then, the rules and laws of the known blanket you in a soft comfort.  You are at home.

In the dungeon, you are not at home.  It may look like home- it may even try to convince you that you feel at home.  But you are not, and if you believe its lies, you will die.  The dungeon is anathema to you.  The creatures that live in it are not like you, the people in it follow a life at angles to your own.  But do not make the mistake of believing the dungeon has no rule, for if you believe that, too, you will die.

The dungeon follows a rule and a law that is utterly alien to you.  It is the rule and law of the abandoned school, of the marketplace suddenly empty and silent, of the zoological park at night as the animals stare you down, their eyes saying "we know what you are."  The entities that exist there, they move through the space in ways you can't.  They occupy hallways as if they were rooms, and move through rooms as if they were stairs.  They sleep in the lavatory, and eat in the study.  Their needs are wholly different from yours.  Perhaps they feed off of salt, slowly accruing it in vast pockets of alkali venoms stored in their pallid grey flesh.  Perhaps they desire only to insert themselves into a thought, returning and returning until no other thought remains.  But mostly, mostly, they have nothing to do with you at all.

The dungeon does not care about you, for the dungeon is beyond you.  It has become.  It is new, whole.  It is its own entity now, where once it was only a place to be used by you.  And make no mistake, like all entities, the dungeon lives.  It breathes, it eats, it produces waste.

It grows.

Above all, it grows.  The dungeon seeks ever to expand.  First, the worms move in, slowly opening cracks in walls where there were no cracks, creating doors where no doors should be.  The dungeon opens into the earth, reaching out, seeking to touch its companions.  Seeking to join with its kind.  Then the dungeon seeks sustenance.  The scavengers and hoarders move out, stretching across the land, stealing, devouring, returning, collecting.  Food, yes- but more importantly, power.  The power of gold, of capital- the power to bend the weak minded to its will, the power of greed.  The raw power of arcana- the ancient, the mystic, the reagent, the solvent.  It needs this to fuel its continual becoming.  Finally, the wastes begin to flow.  Inhabitants of the dungeon that straddle the boundaries between the known world and the dungeon begin venturing out.  They seek violence, predation, dominion.  And the psychic effluvia of the dungeon infests everything around it.  Ordinarily satisfied men and women turn their heads, looking at the horizon, unknowing, in its direction.  Surely, they think- surely it will be different for me.

It never is.

Let them come, says the dungeon.  They, too, are a part of me, now.

All this, of course, if the dungeon was, in fact, known.  There is another face of the dungeon, too- that which has never been known, but instead, was merely hidden, locked away.  It is the dungeon's oldest face.  After the known parts have been sacked, the treasures removed, the magics stolen away, the creatures slain, their blood sprayed across the walls, holy rituals intoned, mountains of earth and rock and mortar and blood sealed into place.  After the known has been reclaimed, erased, made clean, the fears soothed, calming words spoken, griefs expressed, and tears shed.

After all this, the dungeon yet lives- behind the wall, in the crack, in the blood and in the stone.  It grows away from its momentary defeat, opening itself inside the earth, reaching, searching.

The dungeon

IS.

The West Marches: Character Concepts

In my last post, I invited folks to tell me about their character concepts within a West Marches fictional context, and within a context where characters are defined narratively, rather than via stats.

I posed the following questions as a starting framework, and wow did people ever deliver!

Far beyond the edge of civilization, there's a land that's strange.  Maybe you heard it's where barbarians roam the hills in cunning packs, where goblins steal babies and leave behind twig-constructs, where witches grant power at the price of your dreams, leaving only nightmares.  There are people out here, cities too, yes- but they're like nothing you've never known.  But something has drawn you here nonetheless, to this wild and untamed land.

In this context, what are the MOST IMPORTANT THINGS about your character?  I actually don't think Strdexcon Intwischa is the best way to describe who you are in that setting.  What is?

• Are you a Human?  Elf?  Dwarf?
• What is your strength?  Are you Strong?  Quick?  Clever?
• What are your capabilities?  Do you Have Magic?  Are you Skilled with the Sword?
• What have you brought with you?  Your Mother's Sword?  A Talisman of Faith?
• Why are you here?  Do you seek A Cure?  Your Brother?  Gold?  Glory?

Let's look at some of the responses.

The West Marches

Far beyond the edge of civilization, there's a land that's strange.  Maybe you heard it's where barbarians roam the hills in cunning packs, where goblins steal babies and leave behind twig-constructs, where witches grant power at the price of your dreams, leaving only nightmares.  There are people out here, cities too, yes- but they're like nothing you've never known.  But something has drawn you here nonetheless, to this wild and untamed land, to The West Marches.

0-Level Carousing

Who wants to leave Carousing until after you finally cart 50gp each worth of treasure and coin back from your first real dungeon?

No, my friends.  After your first time staring death in the face- after you emerge, scarred and bloodied, after you've journeyed days away from your ancestral home, after finding the glittering city with all its secrets and troubles... there's only one option for you.

Every 0-level character goes carousing exactly once on the eve of filling the shoes of their future role.  This is a rare and magical night, fuelled by the terrors of the deeps, the little coin available to them, and the fresh experience of being brand new in a strange place.  Oddities abound- no 0-level character emerges from this night untouched.


I haven't talked about this before, but I'll be keeping a Roster of characters who are ready to become level 1!  Every 0-level character who isn't immediately adopted by a player will get added to the Roster.  Later, once a player character dies, that player may return to the Roster and adopt whoever they so choose.

Not only does this special 0-Level Carousing table introduce new players to the idea of carousing to level up- but also it imbues every 0-Level character with something special and interesting about them... something that makes them hard to pass up.  These aren't meant to be quest inspiration either- just flavour added onto potential PCs to help them become more memorable.

0-Level Carousing

Every surviving 0-Level character must roll on this table once, adding their luck.  The results are known before a player chooses to adopt a character!

A number of these were suggested by my twitter followers- all credit to them for giving me the idea!

Roll 1d30	Result
1	Curse of the Dry One You insulted someone in ornate robes with glowing, slitted eyes.  She reached out to grasp your arm and you spent the next few days in a cold sweat, skin sloughing away.  When you awoke on the fourth day, your left arm was replaced by a viper with a mind of its own.  Anyone who sees it is terrified and repulsed by you. If you succeed on a Personality test, you can use it to make a bite attack for 1d3 damage, plus asp poison (DC 13 - success: 1d3dmg - fail: 2d6dmg).  You can burn a point of personality to force a success on this test.
2	Mouths and Tongues An old man with one eye challenged you to an ancient game of rune stones.  As he taught you the rules, he droned on about the history of the earth.  When the light burned low, his eye kept a steady glow on the board late into the small hours of the morning. When you awaken, you possess esoteric knowledge of a foreign tongue.  When you choose your class, roll one additional time on the language chart to determine which language you learned.
3	Mother Hen You remember starts and flashes of a wild carnival, and raucous games.  When you awake, cradled gently in your arms is a football-sized chicken's egg.  You don't know what will hatch from it.  At the start of each session, roll 1d30.  On a 30, the egg hatches. The GM will roll to know what manner of creature it is (1d8): (1) Hound  (2) Giant Spider  (3) Pheasant  (4) Cockatrice  (5) Crocodile  (6) Owlbear  (7) Lynx  (8) Doppelganger
4	Face Rearranged You ran afoul of the wrong crowd, friend.  You stumbled into a muscular woman who didn't like the way you looked, and decided to fix that for you free of charge.  In addition to getting a wicked scar on your face, lose 1 point of Personality, and gain 1 point of Strength (up to 18). You may spend up to 2 Luck; each point spent this way allows you to lose 1 additional point of Personality and gain 1 point of Strength (up to 18).
5	Bed Rest A crew of thugs saw you wearing a rival crew's color.  Not a smart idea.  When you woke up, you were in some church's infirmary, under forced bed rest to recover from the beating.  You've developed a permanent limp, and also lose 1 point of Stamina and gain 1 point of Intelligence (up to 18). You may spend up to 2 Luck; each point spent this way allows you to lose 1 additional point of Stamina and gain 1 point of Intelligence (up to 18).
6	Potion Taster You hired out your services as a potion taster.  Gain 1 silver piece, and roll once on the following table. You may gain up to 4 additional silver pieces, rolling once for each silver piece gained in this way. (2d10) As a temporary effect (now ended), you... (1) Ate metal  (2) Exhaled chlorine  (3) Walked through walls  (4) Saw in the dark  (5) Turned invisible  (6) Could sense Law / Chaos  (7) Could smell gold  (8) Spoke three words of the song of creation  (9) Briefly awoke in a thick vat of pink sludge  (10) Could feel the under-worm boring straight towards you for a few moments As a permanent effect, you have... (1) Bronze skin  (2) Hair turns black -> brown -> red -> gold -> blonde -> silver -> black  (3) Eyes that glow in dim light  (4) Gills (non-functioning)  (5) All hair falls out  (6) Nails turn black  (7) Grow one horn  (8) Hunchback  (9) Body hair becomes fine downy feathers  (10) -1 Stamina
7	One Good Deed Late in the evening, a very drunk elderly woman came over to you, insisting she was your aunt, and that she wanted to leave you her deed.  She would hear none of your protests, and pressed the official document into your hands before vanishing in the crowd. You have the deed to a house, but you don't have any idea where it is, and it's not in this town.  (Thanks to @captnkiwi)
8	In This Life and the Next You really hit it off with someone very beautiful (your choice of gender).  Eloquent, upper class, fiery yet sophisticated.  You two spoke and drank for hours, and ended up in your room.  As you helped them out of their finery, your fingers brushed the knot on the ribbon around their neck.  It came untied, and their head fell off- their body falling lifeless to your floor.  You found a different room to stay the night in. You have an ornate brooch on a dark colored ribbon, worth 5gp.
9	A Prophecy of Doom You wandered into a festival, where a fortune teller stroked his beard and gazed into a crystal ball, seeking your fortune.  He fell back, shocked, and delivered a prophecy of doom!  "Fool!  Beware, for your doom shall come to you at the hands of the....!  (roll 1d10)" The creature rolled (or creatures like it- ie, owl-BEAR, etc) will always be strangely hostile to you, will always attack you first in battle, and its to-hit dice is improved by one step against you. (1) Bear  (2) Lion  (3) Wolf  (4) Serpent  (5) Goat  (6) Cat  (7) Chicken  (8) Deer  (9) Boar  (10) Spider
10	The Subtle Knife After a heavy bout of drinking, you found yourself on the rooftops with a cutpurse, engaged in a bit of tricky second story work.  Your memory of the events of the evening is fuzzy- poisoned arrows, lampblack, and the sick crunch after a nasty fall. All you have is a note saying "thank you"... and a dagger.  It whispers to you of all the murders it has committed.  Other than that, it appears to have no magical properties.  (Thanks to @rhysmakeswords)
11	A Dark Price A witch plied you with drink and promised you riches and glory if you would but give her what she needed to create her spell.  Entranced by her promises, you assented... You no longer have a shadow.
12	Sweet Tooth You were caught stealing a pie.  After a complicated local legal process involving a hotly contested bake off, you were determined the loser.  The magistrate employed a spell-bound warlock to lay a curse on you: Whenever you taste sugar, you cough up ash.  (Thanks to @sythmaster)
13	My Best Friend You remember nothing of the night before, but when you awake, an animal is following you everywhere you go.  It's completely mundane, and ordinary for its type- it just really likes you.  (Roll 1d6) (1) Dog  (2) Cat  (3) Rat  (4) Falcon  (5) Owl  (6) Pig
14	Liar, Liar A crone caught you lying through your teeth in your attempts at seduction last night.  She fixed her wicked eye on you and cursed you such that whenever a lie leaves your mouth... (Roll 1d6) (1) you cough up a toad  (2) a swarm of crickets heads for your location; they'll arrive in 2d6 rounds  (3) you drop whatever you hold in your hands  (4) you must speak backwards for the next 1d10 minutes  (5) 1d10% of the hairs on your head turn white / fall out / grow back in  (6) A crow begins following you.  When they reach 24 in number, they will attack, attempting to tear out your tongue.
15	A Gambler's Debts You tried your hand in a gambler's den, but got completely fleeced.  The house let you keep playing... but now you owe a Debt.
16	A Gambler's Fortune You tried your hand in a gambler's den, and lady luck was on your side.  You won 1d100 gp, and walked away with a smile.
17	Eye of Gold You hired yourself out as a runner for a wizard's apprentice, ferrying volatile chemicals back and forth all evening.  Late at night, after a quick pit stop at the local pub, you tripped- spilling a droplet of the liquid into your left eye.  It is now colored... (roll 1d4) (1) Gold  (2) Silver  (3) Ruby  (4) Amethyst
18	A Stroke of Luck You challenged a darkly dressed gentleman in a grinning masquerade mask to a game of skill.  The game was tight, and drew a large crowd.  At long last, when the points were tallied, it was you who was the victor!  But your mysterious opponent had vanished... You gain 1d4 points of Luck, with no maximum.
19	What Goes Around You were given a strange coin under circumstances you don't remember.  Thinking it lucky, you tossed it into a well with a wish to send it on its way.  Later in the evening, when you put your hand in your pocket, you found the coin once again...  You seem entirely unable to get rid of it for more than a few hours.  (Thanks @kwhitaker81)
20	A Vow Broken Your head is pounding.  You remember drinking heavily with a large crew of militaristic folks, singing songs, and drinking large steins of beers.  Flashes of memory come back to you- a hilltop in the rain, words shouted to the heavens, lightning splitting a stone in two...  If only you could remember the vow you made. Every so often, dark portents remind you of your failure to uphold your vow (roll 1d8).  There doesn't seem to be the faintest pattern to their appearance. (1) Your wine turns to blood, food rots, etc.  (2) Lightning strikes the nearest high point 1d12 times.  (3) A storm gathers and breaks, all over the next 1d3 hours.  (4) A black cat crosses your path and hisses at you.  (5) The next mirror you look into shatters.  (6) Wolf howls echo in your ears.  (7) Your weapon rings like the peal of a bell.  (8) The clouds form a menacing face, glaring down upon you for the day.
21	The Prodigal Child An older man stops dead in the street, turning white at the sight of you.  His face, lined with age though it is, could be a mirror for your own features.  His voice shakes as he speaks, asking you about your life and journey here.  He tearfully describes the day you were stolen away from him, never to be seen again.  When you part, he presses a coin-purse into your hands. You have two small amethysts, each worth 10gp, and a Favour 1 relationship with your well respected, long lost father.
22	Friend to the Little Folk Your carousing ended in a cozy room, warmly decorated, and kept with care by a family of halflings.  They listened to your worries and trials and tutted sympathetically, plying you with good food and good wine.  Spending the night with them eased your spiritual burdens more than you knew.  Gain 2 Personality (up to 18).
23	A Splash of Colour Your evening ended at a tattooist's, gripping the leather of the chair, and swallowing gulps of a burning liquor.  When you awoke, you found you had a massive new tattoo on your.... (roll 1d4) (1) right sleeve  (2) left sleeve  (3) chest  (4) back It shows whatever cool or heroic imagery you want.
24	Thief among Thieves You saw a figure clad in tight fitting blacks climb out a window, and scamper across the rooftops.  Not willing to ignore the flash of gold as they pocketed something, you followed.  The trip took you over roofs and clothing lines, down guy-wires and across beams over alleyways.  The thief lost you, but when you awoke, the whole experience was seared into your mind.  Gain 2 Agility (up to 18).
25	In Sickness and in Health You have no memory of acquiring the simple gold band on your left ring finger, but no matter how you try, you can't remove it.  (Thanks @coyotewitch!)
26	Not as Bad as you Thought You were singing a bawdy tune while dancing on a table when you fell, cracking your skull.  You watched from above as your companions rolled you over, feeling the warm pull of a white light above you... When you came to, the first thing anyone said was "Wow, guess it wasn't as bad as we thought!" Your lowest stat is raised in value to match your next lowest stat.  (If you have a tie, you only get one adjusted this way, but you get to choose.)
27	Back Alley Ministrations After a nasty cut in a fight, your friends brought you to a back alley cleric of some cult you don't know.  After expressing too-eager interest in your general state of health, he agreed to lay hands on you.  The process was... extreme- reknitting your flesh like clay.  You have two large hand prints sunk into your chest now. Re-roll your hit points- keep this new roll, regardless of if it was higher or lower.
28	O Brother Where Art Thou A man exactly your age keeps staring at you over mugs of ale!  As he approaches, you notice the great similarity in your features.  As you two compare stories over the night, you come to the realization- this man is your brother! Add a 0-Level PC to the Roster with stats that are the inverse of yours (18 minus your stat for each ability score).  Give him your last name.
29	Vile Relic The streets turned in on themselves- you looked up to see the city behind you, stepped through a door onto the underside of a set of stairs.  That's the last you remember of your night, but in your hands you now hold... It is a... (1d5) (1) A vile carving of a squat fish-person, with a lamprey mouth.  (2) A rod of bone, thick as your finger and long as your arm.  It ends in a spike that twitches occasionally.  (3) A mummified hand with black iron nails, ice cold to the touch, growing from it.  (4) A long staff of ironwood, with silver set into it depicting a rage of serpents devouring each other.  (5) The preserved eye of a warlock, in a vial of formaldehyde. When you... (1d5) (1) Will your energies into it, heart pounding wildly, burning 1 point of Strength...  (2) Whisper a vow to it- it will inherit your bones on your death- burning 1 point of Agility...  (3) Feed it your blood, burning 1 point of Stamina...  (4) Caress it tenderly, speaking words of love to it, burning 1 point of Personality...  (5) Release your most cherished memory into its keeping, burning 1 point of Intelligence... Then it... (1d5) (1) Grants you invisibility for the duration of a single held breath.  (2) Allows you to exhale a cloud of chlorine gas, filling a 10x10 square, lasting as long as the air is still.  (3) Places a charm of friendship on a single creature, broken when anyone speaks their name to them.  (4) Gives you functioning gills, which live for 1d3 turns, before dying and falling off.  (5) Reverses your personal gravity for 10 minutes.
30	A Fine Specimen Your night was a tale of adventure worthy of note for weeks.  You drank with the best of them, sang everyone's favorite songs, fenced a duel and graciously lost, and probably kissed a baby.  You wake up feeling refreshed and ready to go. You may gain 2 points to any attributes, distributed however you like (1 to two, or 2 to one)- up to a maximum of 18.

Carousing

One of my favorite things about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales are how, at the end of nearly every adventure, they're flush with their winnings- but, by the beginning of the next, they've pissed away all of their cash in some frivolous manner- usually involving debauchery and drink.  Even later, when they're running a thieves' guild or mercenary company, they're beset by the winds of fate, and turn to a life of adventure to shore up their diminished purses.

My friend Brent ran DCC RPG with a spend-gold-for-XP system (I love gold for xp), and his rule was that you could spend gold Carousing, in 50 GP increments, and earn a better XP return from your money.  It was great- and I think it came from the excellent posts over here, on Balthazar's Bloviations.

So, with inspiration from Brent and Balthazar's Bloviations, here's my d30 Carousing table.

A few notes on some oddness you'll see here:

• XP Cost to Level: 
• I'm multiplying XP requirements for DCC by 10: Level 1 costs 100gp, not 10.  Level 2 costs 500gp, not 50, etc.
• Gaining XP: 
• You gain 1xp per 1gp you spend, in any way.
• Killing a monster gives 10xp per HD, divided amongst the (surviving) party.  
• Unless the result declares otherwise, Carousing results give a 1.5x xp bonus on the amount of money you spend: 50gp => 75xp, 100gp => 150xp, etc.
• Debts: 
• You may gain a Debt from carousing.  Other carousing results can either cash in your debt (pay up or suffer badness), or erase your debt.
• You can always pay your debt at any time, at a cost of 100gp per level.  This earns you XP, one for one.
• Favour: 
• Some carousing results allow you to increase your Favour with an NPC.  This tracks how much this NPC feels like they're indebted to you.  It's only worth tracking on important NPCs.
• When you want to cash in a Favour, roll 2d6+Favour.  On a 10+, they're gonna come to you for help later, but (if they can provide it) they give you what you're asking for.  On a 7-9, they need collateral from you right now.  On a 6-, you're out of luck.
• If you have positive Favour, you can burn 1 Favour with this NPC to turn a 6- result into a 7-9 result.  You put the squeeze on them; they're not happy with it, but they'll see what they can do.

Without further ado....

Carousing

Roll 1d30	Result
1-3	A Really Bad Night Suffer the following, but Karma smiles on you.  Gain 1 Luck upon awakening. Cleric: You wake up with a wicked hangover, and look down to see the symbol of a rival god tattooed on your forearm!  Gain 1 disapproval permanently.  Maybe once you get rid of the tattoo you can make amends with your god. Fighter or Dwarf: In a drunken rage, you threw your equipment into the water.  Make a luck check against every piece of weaponry and armour you have- for magic items, add their bonus to this check (minimum +1).  For each one that fails, you threw it away. Thief or Halfling: You got caught with light fingers and heavy pockets.  Lose all your coin and valuables (earning xp), and gain a Debt- someone paid your bail. Wizard or Elf: Your otherworldly experimentations are best performed sober.  Roll 1d10 minus your level, plus your Luck modifier on the appropriate Corruption chart: (1-3) Minor (4-5) Major (6) Greater.
4	Bruisers Jack-booted thugs accosted you as you stumbled through the bad part of town. If you have a Debt, they're here to collect.  Pay up now, or get beaten up.  Roll 3 times: (1) -1 Strength (2) -1 Agility (3) -1 Stamina (4) -1 Personality (5) -1 Intelligence (6) -1 Luck (7) Broken Limb (8) Organ Damage.  Your Debt is paid. If you don't have any Debts, they just don't like the look of you.  Pay up to 20gp per level (earning xp).  If you fall short, they rough you up- take damage equal to the amount you fell short by.  Don't worry, they leave you alive.
5	A Powerful Enemy Someone’s enforcers surrounded you as you relieved yourself.  You were escorted to an audience with someone wearing a masquerade mask and velvets. If you have a Debt, it's time to settle.  Pay up now, or generously give over your most valuable item- magic, if you have it.  Your Debt is paid. If you don't have a Debt, sounds like you ran afoul of some obscure local tariff.  Pay up to 40gp per level (earning xp).  If you fall short, they also take your most valuable non-magical item.  No they don't give you change.
6	Traitorous Dice You gambled hard all night.  It was going so well until you decided to go double or nothing on a single roll of the dice!  It was all downhill from there…  You owe a Debt.
7	Get Rich Quick Your new friends were so generous, throwing money around all evening!  When you asked about their windfall they told you about such an affordable investment, and guaranteed to make a quick return….  You won't see them again, but you owe a Debt.
8	An Over-stayed Welcome You make a fool of yourself with your drunken and disorderly conduct- crashing parties, streaking through the town square, bathing in fountains, vomiting on someone wealthy.  Take a permanent -2 to Personality tests with citizens of this town, but gain 1 Luck.
9-11	Showing Off Roll 1d5 and suffer the consequences. (1) Drunk on wine and victory, you boasted of your prodigious strength.  You have broken memories of various trials- wrestling an ox, carrying an anvil, or swinging some massive warhammer.  Make a Strength check.  (20) An ox follows you wherever you go, now.  (Success) You came out looking good.  (Fail) You looked a bit soft.  The group’s strongest retainer, hireling, or follower tests their morale.  (1) You tore something.  Lose 1 Strength permanently. (2) You wake up someplace very high- a bell tower or a wall or an old tree- with no recollection of how you got up there.  There’s no obvious way down.  Make an Agility check (or Climbing, if you are a thief).  (20) Some kid runs up to you exclaiming he didn't believe you could do it.  He hands you his “shiny stone,” which actually is worth 1gp x your level.  (Success) Your head hurts, but you make it down fine.  (Fail) It’s a bit of a hard landing.  Take 1d6 falling damage- you’ll live.  (1) You twist your ankle as you land.  Lose 1 Agility permanently. (3) You gorged yourself, guzzled wine like water, and smoked strange substances all night.  Make a Stamina check.  (20) Your pouch contains just enough fine herb to share with one companion.  Take a +2 Personality bonus to checks made while you share it with someone.  (Success) You're hung over and your mouth is cottony, but you’re fine.  (Fail) For the next day, make a fortitude save once per hour (and when you roll initiative) or vomit uncontrollably for 1d3 rounds.  (1) You feel absolutely terrible.  Lose 1 point of Stamina permanently. (4) You met someone incredible and spent the entire night discussing your futures together.  Only, now that you've woken up… you can't remember a thing about them.  Make a Personality check.  (20) Your pocket contains a tiny gem stone worth 10gp x your level, and a note: “for our ring, my love.”  It’s not signed.  (Success) Well… there's plenty of fish in the sea, right?  (Fail) You bought a ring.  Spend up to 50gp (earning xp).  If you spend 50, it's solid gold and worth that amount.  Any less and it's a fake.  (1) You’re heartbroken.  They were the one.  Lose 1 point of Personality permanently. (5) You hazily recall challenging someone to a drinking game of riddles- the loser takes a shot.  Make an Intelligence check.  (20) Your prowess is the talk of the town.  Gain a permanent +2 to Personality checks against the citizens of this town.  (Success) You feel bright eyed and well rested, if slightly sorry for your opponent’s morning.  (Fail) You have a wicked hangover.  Take 2d4 points of Stamina damage (not permanent).  (1) You’ve never been so drunk in your life.  Lose 1 point of Intelligence permanently.
12	Some Fresh Ink You got a tattoo!  Roll 1d8.  It shows… (1) Your most epic victory since you last caroused. (2) Your most embarrassing moment since you last caroused.  (3) MOM over a heart with an arrow through it.  (4) A symbol of some god- yours, if you keep one.  (5) A dagger through a human heart.  (6) MRDR HOBO knuckle tat.  (7) In Memoriam for someone you've seen die.  (8) The name of some bar you've never heard of, with beer steins.
13	Keeping Up With The Smiths You bought some cheap clothing in the most outlandishly fashionable style you could find.  Roll 1d8.  You’re wearing… (1) An old perruque. (2) a puffy white pirate shirt.  (3) Shoes with outlandishly curled toes.  (4) A beat up hat, sporting the largest feather you've ever seen.  (5) A cloak of many colours- actually just strips of about 50 cloaks.  (6) A ring across 3 fingers that reads TINO.  (7) The brightest green pants.  (8) A mole, glued to your cheek.  It will fall off in 1d5 weeks.
14	A Question of Class The following: Cleric: You engaged in esoteric discussions of faith with a shadowy, robed figure.  You dreamt of tendrils sliding across each other in the dark. Dwarf: At last, someone who appreciates good ale!  You met some fellow dwarfs and sang songs of the old mountain home and striking the earth.  You dreamt of your uncle, seized by the madness when the old mountainhome couldn't give him a bonecrafting workstation. Elf: You spent the night out under the stars, clear headed and solitary.  You thought you heard faint music, once, but you didn't.  You dreamt of a lost love, sailing away, away forever. Halfling: After a few cups, you barged into the kitchen.  The staff were dumbfounded but quickly adapted to your instructions.  The patrons cheered your cooking at the end of the night!  You dreamt of your great-uncle-twice-removed’s 111th birthday, and his strange disappearance that night. Thief: You gambled all night, winning and losing in equal measure.  When your opponent finally left at the end of the night, you noticed her drink spilled in the shape of a skull, struck through: “well played,” in the cant.  You dreamt of someone you owed something to, and never repaid. Warrior: You drank, arm-wrestling all takers.  Late in the evening you had to take a sore loser outside.  You took a few punches, but they were far worse off.  The tavern cheered when they limped away- they’d been bullying the clients for weeks.  You dreamt of breaking an old sword down and reforging it, quenching the hot steel in some dark liquid. Wizard: You scrawled mystical symbols on a tabletop for hours!  While you were gone buying more ale, someone erased a key part of your formula and replaced it with a lewd swear.  You didn't see who it was.  You dreamt of driving an obsidian dagger into your breast, and offering your beating heart into a huge, six-fingered hand.
15	Kindred Spirits The following: Law: A group of town guards took a liking to you.  You stayed drinking with them for hours.  Gain +2 to Personality checks with guards and upstanding citizens for the next session. Neutral: A group of merchants was very interested in your tales, and you were happy to oblige them.  Gain a 10% discount on purchases made for the next session. Chaos: You went on a roaring bar crawl, gaining a large crowd of musicians and hangers-on.  Gain a +2 to Personality checks with artists and riff-raff for the next session.
16	With A Little Help from my Friends You ran into someone important, and they opened up to you about their financial problems.  If you feel generous, here's the chance to make a good impression… Spend cash to increase their Favour with you by 1: (Favour 0) 25gp.  (Favour 1) 50gp.  (Favour 2) 150gp.  (Favour 3) 300gp.
17	Schmoozing and Boozing You ran into someone important and convinced them to join you.  You had a fantastic time together.  Increase their Favour with you by 1, up to a maximum of 3.
18	A Bad Influence You caroused royally, and some young townsfolk was inspired by your tales and lifestyle.  Roll up a level 0 character- you've gained a follower!
19	You're Scaring the Children You told tales all evening of your most terrifying moments of adventure!  Some poor adventurer-hopeful heard every word and decided to hang up their sword.  Strike one Level 0 character of your choice off the Roster.
20	Derring Do You told tales all evening of your most glorious moments of adventure!  Some wide eyed listener has decided this is the life for them.  Roll up a random Level 0 character and add them to the Roster.
21-25	Heroic Carousing! The tale of this night will be sung for weeks.  You hit every bar.  The bards sang all your favorite tunes.  You bought a round for all your friends, and a round for all your enemies.  You arm-wrestled the strong, riddled with the quick, and romanced the beautiful.  You were the life of the party: gain 2x xp instead of 1.5x.
26	My Specialty As Heroic Carousing!, plus: Cleric: While regaling some passers by with wisdom of your god, you were struck by divine inspiration!  Roll a random Cleric spell of your level.  You may replace one of your currently known spells with it. Dwarf or Warrior: A strapping young person is inspired by your personal skill.  Roll up a Level 0 character- you've gained a follower! Elf or Wizard: Your sharp ears and clever inquiries have paid off.  Roll once on the spell chart: you’ve heard rumor of this spell, and can attempt to learn it when you level up. Thief: For whatever reason, people are just honest with you.  Choose between learning a new rumor about somewhere you already know, or somewhere you don't; both will be true.  Then learn a helpful hint for how you can pursue this rumor.
27	Legendary Gambling As Heroic Carousing!, plus Lady Luck was on your side!  Your gambling gave you great rewards.  You can choose to reduce your Luck, earning 10x your level in gold pieces per point you reduce it by.  If your luck is greater than 18, you are gripped by the fates: You automatically reduce down to 10 Luck, gaining 10 x your level gp per point, as appropriate.
28	I Owe You One As Heroic Carousing!, plus your head is pounding but you have faint and broken memories of high stakes battling and epic heroism across the rooftops and down the alleyways.  You find a note pinned to your chest.  It reads: "The (roll 2d6) _____ _____ thanks you for your service."  If you had any Debts, they've all been erased.  If you don't have any Debts, you've earned a temporary 3 Favour with a shadowy figure, good for a single request. 1: Ivory.  2: Ebony.  3: Jade.  4: Umbral.  5: Velvet.  6: Silk. 1: Rat.  2: Mouse.  3: Falcon.  4: Panther.  5: Serpent.  6: Lion.
29	A Night to Remember As Heroic Carousing!, plus your revelry is the talk of the town.  Gain a permanent +2 to Personality checks with the citizenry of this town.
30+	It's All Clearer Now As Heroic Carousing!, plus your truly epic night of debauchery was just what you needed to unwind.  The lessons of your adventures have solidified in your mind unusually strongly. Roll: (1) Roll your hit dice again.  If the total is higher than your current HP, this is your new HP value.  (2) Gain 1 Strength.  (3) Gain 1 Agility.  (4) Gain 1 Stamina.  (5) Gain 1 Personality.  (6) Gain Intelligence.  (7) Gain 1 Luck.  (8) Roll twice, ignoring further 8s.

The Hidden Ways

"At first glance, the wilds may seem impenetrable.  A wicked labyrinth of dead end trails, washed out bridges, sucking fens, and hidden lairs.  But spend a little time outside the comforts of civilization, friend, and you'll learn to see the way I do.  You see, there's a network of hidden ways crossing these lands- a language of peak and gully and old menhir and game trail.  There are roads that cross each other such that you'd never notice the path.  The trail heads are hard to find, but once you find them... well.  The whole world opens to you.  And then you'll see-

There's so much waiting to find you."


The wilderness is a confusing place.  It's twisted and turns back on itself.  Ways you thought were straight double back; ways you thought were tangled have unexpected shortcuts.  Forests are dark as night, even at midday.  Hillsides slough off in rain, blocking a passage.  Rivers shift their course.

Travelling the wilderness is by no means an easy task.  You can try it, and if you're smart about what you're doing you might just get where you're going- but there are better ways.

Just as dungeons have rooms and corridors- traps, tricks, and treasures- so do the wilds.  Features, pathways, points of interest, landmarks- a lattice web of reliable paths to follow.  "Head north for five hours" may be nearly impossible- do the players have a compass?  Is it accurate?  Are there lodestones or ley lines that might disrupt their pathfinding?  However, "Find the old stone oak tree north of town.  From there runs a game trail that will take you to the old mill creek.  From atop the mill you can see an old wood cross on a distant hill... walk to it and an hour past it and you will be overlooking the Valley of Carrowmere"- now that, you can achieve.

Skeins and Tapestries

So the hex map of the wilderness is a huge tapestry.  A 6 mile hex is ~36 square miles, or 1,003,622,400 square feet.  Let's imagine a truly huge adventure site, like a Keep.  The site itself (including the building and grounds) is probably 1,000 feet on a side (200 squares)- or 1,000,000 square feet- MAYBE 0.1% of the total space in a hex.  And a dungeon of that scope could easily occupy 10 sessions of play!

What are the odds of players accidentally stumbling across this adventure site as they explore the wilderness?  Is there a more interesting way to let players find it than spending a day to roll a search check within this hex?

The solution I'll be tooling up for my sandbox game is to run skeins of hidden paths across the tapestry of the wilderness.  These "overland dungeons" will feature landmarks that obviously link to each other.  Any dungeon crawler can see that the Altar Chamber has two exits on the west wall, and a sharp eyed elf can spot the draft blowing on the tapestry at the back.  

Just so, any wilderness adventurer can see that, from the old hanging tree, there's a shepherd's trail that winds across the plains to the east; a split peak a half day's walk northwest, and a clever ranger might know that the berry bushes at the bottom of the gully might reveal an animal trail to follow to the north.

Players can strike out across the wilderness undirected, using their survival instincts to hold to a direction, uncovering the general lay of the land.  They can spend hours executing searches to see if they discover any interesting landmarks in that area!  But they can also gather information from locals and find their ways onto these hidden paths, these overland dungeons.  Once they're there, it becomes much easier to navigate from point to point.

Rooms and Corridors

Rooms are large spaces that can contain interesting features to interact with- combat challenges, puzzles, tricks, traps, and more.  Corridors are the connecting glue tying rooms together; they can often contain the same, but rooms are dwelling spaces and corridors are traveling spaces.

What might these look like in the wilderness?

Rooms

1. The half-ruined tower atop an old hill.
2. The fetid lake.
3. The witch's hut.
4. The old hanging tree.
5. The old stone menhir, with six skeletons skewered on pikes surrounding.
6. The black bear's foraging grounds.
7. The ruins of Old Weston.
8. The resting spot of Ningauble's Hut, next to the swampy lake.
9. The blasted spot of plains, where nothing will ever grow again.
10. The old well, and its ever expanding tendrils of fungal growth.
11. The signpost at the intersection of the old King's Road and Coastal Way.
12. The druid circle.
13. The bright glade.
14. The rocky spire, split in two.
15. The ancient and crumbled statue of a long forgotten queen.
16. The negative-psychic afterimage of an ancient wizard's tower, long ruined.
17. The crawling whisper of something under the surface.
18. The mountain peak, topped with an ancient ruin, still lit at night.
19. The old stone foundations of the gate in the pass.
20. The emerald blue-green lake, source of the pure stream.
21. Etc.

Corridors

1. A game trail.
2. An old ranger trail, marked with faded strips of colored cloth.
3. A gully between two dried hills.
4. Line of sight.  (It's easy to get to that ruined tower- you can see it from miles off!)
5. A broken and ruined road, hundreds of years old.
6. An overgrown holloway, nearly a tunnel in the growth of the surrounding lands.
7. A string of witch-lights through the forest, following some ancient and arcane track.
8. A powerful ley-line, plucking at the hairs on the back of your neck.
9. A stream, spilling from a tight cavern in the rock.
10. The only walkable descent down the mountain side.
11. A knife-sharp ridge line between two peaks.
12. The echoing grinding sound that repeats out of the hills to the east.
13. Old rope bridges strung up between ancient trees.
14. A line of new growth through the old woods, sprung up in the wake of a forest fire years ago.
15. A series of lightly magnetic dolmens across the plains.
16. A line of mossy earth, tilled with sparkling mica from old mining.
17. A short cavern that exits into a new glade.
18. The line of dead earth, relic of some ancient sorcerous battle.
19. A miles long branch of mycelium, deadening the surrounding landscape.
20. Old bonfire sites atop hills, marking an ancient line of signaling.
21. Etc.

Tricks, Traps, Treasures

What's a good dungeon without tricks, traps, and treasures?

Tricks

Things to pique the players' interest, that aren't obviously good or bad until messed with...

1. Touching the standing stone causes it to flare with a brilliant light, visible from miles around.
2. A brilliant white stag leaping away through the forests... always one step ahead...
3. An elf-feast, lantern lights and music- all vanishing on drawing near.
4. An old consecrated site, where the undead fear to walk.
5. A humming ley-intersection, conveying unpredictable effects on spellcasting.
6. The brilliant campsite at the edge of a star-filled lake, comforting and restful.
7. An old stone door set into the ground, graven with runes and imagery, impossible to open.
8. An explosion of tufts of feathers and fur, plus a visible trail of blood.
9. Etc.

Traps

Surprising problems that can afflict the unwary traveler.

1. A shale patch, the entire hillside ready to shift and slide.
2. An old bridge above swift waters, ropes nearly rotted through.
3. A sucking quicksand fen.
4. A lurking presence just beneath the surface, who awakens at night to steal spells from the minds of sleeping magic users.
5. The roosting grounds for carrion crows- gone during the day, but returned after nightfall.
6. A wolf den.
7. The dry cavern, so convenient for camping in, with a false wall at the back that disgorges thieving orcs and goblins.
8. A mirror lake, which shows all reflections in a dark half-light.  If you see them, they'll come for you...
9. Etc.

Treasures

Delightful surprises, easing the burdens of travel.

1. A wandering bard.
2. A patch of fresh berries.
3. A pure, cool spring.
4. An old ranger cache, freshly replenished.
5. A traveling merchant's forgotten pack.
6. An elf-feast, warm and welcoming.
7. An unexpected inn.
8. An ancient portal to a sumptuous and restful pocket plane.
9. Etc.

Putting it all together

With these tools, we can build interlocking megadungeon spaces in the overland, open world sandbox- complete with factions, powerful threats to avoid, lairs, enemies, easy treasures, and devious traps.  Suddenly, exploring the open world is no longer a matter of moving one hex and rolling for encounters, but a continuous, descriptive, fiction-rich play experience.  And if players want to strike off into the unknown, there's even more for them to stumble across and discover.

You can even layer these megadungeons over top of each other within hexes- the space that runs out to the Keep on the Borderlands and the space that leads players to lost Carrowmere might have hidden ways that cross each other, but which are only visible from within each of their respective megadungeons.  This layered, hidden information creates a dense tapestry of discovery for exploration.

I hope you've found these ideas interesting!  What other rooms, corridors, traps, tricks, and treasures could exist in an overland dungeon?  How would you put this into your game?

Until next time!

Why Explore?

In the context of sandbox OSR D&D games... why should the players explore your game world?  What rewards exist to motivate exploration?





Here's a list based on my own experience, plus the answers a bunch of people gave me when I asked on twitter.  Players want to....

• See their character change based on what they encounter
• See the world change in response to their actions
• Discover the interaction points between the world and their character
• Enjoy the gamble of randomness in the game
• Form new or build on existing in-game relationships and romances
• Gain XP - often in the form of treasure
• Gain power and capabilities - new items and resources and allies
• Gain knowledge about the world and environment
• Gain information about other challenges that have them stumped
• Engage with new content - finding a new quest or situation
• See something new in the world, experience something unique - environments, settings, monsters, etc.
• Be surprised by what they find
• Discover something, put it on the map for others
• Follow clues to their ultimate discovery
• Solidify an alliance with a faction
• Find out what happens, what are the consequences of their decisions 
• Overcome a tough challenge
• Make deals
• Open or unlock new content- areas, quests, relationships, npcs
• Embody their alignment or beliefs within the world
• Solve problems or help npcs 
• Unlock and play with new character options
• Explore options within the fiction
• See their character succeed or fail
• Simply to experience it themself
• Find out what will happen to their friends

Let's break that list down a bit in terms of three different categories:

Mechanical Motivators

These things are explicitly mechanized by OSR games- there are rules the players can point to and follow for these events.

Notably, the extrinsic rewards of the game all fall here.

• Gain XP - often in the form of treasure
• Explicitly mechanized
• Gain power and capabilities - new items and resources and allies
• Explicitly mechanized
• Overcome a tough challenge
• Player Experience
• Explicitly Mechanized

Narrative Motivators

These things aren't explicitly mechanized in OSR games; they rely on the GM's narrative chops to set up the opportunity for them to exist, and for players to interact with them.

• See their character change based on what they encounter
• OSR games don't tend to mechanize this explicitly within the core rules- rather, when it happens, it falls under the narrative OSR umbrella of "if it happens to you, it happens to you"- your arm got chopped off, so you don't have an arm.  "Rulings, not Rules" gets a lot of play here.
• Some OSR style games have crit or fumble tables, or magical corruption tables that mechanize this.
• See the world change in response to their actions
• Form new or build on existing in-game relationships and romances
• Exploit in-game relationships; make deals
• Gain knowledge about the world and environment
• Gain information about other challenges that have them stumped
• Open or unlock new content- areas, quests, relationships, npcs
• Put something discovered on the map for others
• Follow clues to their ultimate discovery
• Solidify an alliance with a faction
• Embody their alignment or beliefs within the world
• Solve problems or help npcs
• Unlock and play with new character options

Experiential Motivators

These are just things that the players enjoy experiencing as they play the game.  If you have the first two categories, you should naturally have this one covered- but it's always good to keep in mind.

• Explore options within the fiction
• See their character succeed or fail
• Simply to experience it themself
• Find out what will happen to their friends
• See something new in the world, experience something unique - environments, settings, monsters, etc.
• Be surprised by what they find
• Discover the interaction points between the world and their character
• Enjoy the gamble of randomness in the game
• Discover something in the world
• Find out what happens, what are the consequences of their decisions
• Engage with new content

So what does this mean?

It means that, if you're trying to set up a sandbox open world D&D game, the ruleset of the game you're using probably only manages a small fraction of what motivates players to go out and explore- and the rest of it is up to the narrative framework of the world you're building.

That large list of Narrative Motivators also raises a series of excellent questions for us to consider, as far as our players are concerned.  For example:

• When does the player's character change?  How?  What keeps those changes in check, to allow the player to have fun with their character?  How does the player feel agency over the way their character is affected by the world?
• How does the player know the world will respond to their actions?  (That might be a base assumption of all players- including GM- but it's good to clarify!)  How does the player know how the world will respond to their actions?  What are the avenues of agency the players have over this response?  How much agency should the players have in this response?
• How does the player successfully build in-game relationships and romances?  How does the player know they can do this?  What are the avenues of agency for the player pursuing these?  
• What are the consequences of a new relationship?  What benefits can it offer?  How does the player know what these are?
• How does the player gain knowledge about the world and the environment?  What are the avenues of agency for the player pursuing this information?
• How does the player pursue information about challenges that are stumping them?
• How does the player know what courses of action will unlock new content?
• How much can a player put on the map for other players?  Everything?  Nothing?  What if that character dies before making it back?
• What if the player misses clues?  How does the player gain more information about a puzzle?
• What do alliances with factions do?  What do factions do?  What benefits and risks does faction membership confer?
• Why embody your beliefs and alignment?  What are the consequences of doing this?
• Why solve problems?  Why help NPCs?  What are the consequences of doing this?
• How does the player know what new character options will be made available?  How does the player know whether a new character option is desirable to them?

That's a lot of ground to cover, and it's part of why I think sandbox OSR games present a unique challenge to the enthusiastic GM!

I suspect some of this should probably be mechanized with explicit rules; some of it should definitely not be; and a great deal of it could be made easier with some simple, well-written guidelines.

Maybe we'll do a bit of that!

Until next time- did I miss a key motivator for you, as a player (not your character- you!)?  Do you disagree with how I've divided things up?  Think something I marked as Narrative is actually Mechanical?  Tell me all about it!

Getting my players into the Maze of the Blue Medusa

In light of Mandy Morbid's coming forwards regarding the abuse she's suffered from Zak S (trigger warning for descriptions of emotional and physical abuse), and in light of his longstanding harassment within the games space, I have removed this post.

Dog Training, Old School Style

"Aw man, I only have 70 silver pieces.  I'm SO POOR"

"... Wait a dog costs 1 silver piece?"

*

"Steven, can I buy 70 dogs??"

"..."

"WAIT Steven, can I buy 140 pigeons???"

"..."



So you bought a dog.  And you're playing an old school game, so you don't have the "animal handling" skill.  So here's what I'm gonna do in my offline game.

----
Design sidebar

At a high level, it makes sense to consider your dog like a very loyal retainer who just doesn't understand you- training the dog to understand what you want of it is the hardest part.

How can we emulate that with in-game mechanics?

----
Commands

Dogs can learn commands.  For the purposes of gameplay a thing only counts as a "command" if it's an order you'd give in a circumstance when the dog might have pressure to act otherwise.  So, like, we can just assume that you can teach your dog to "sit" or "shake" fairly well.

Here are some commands you might use in a dangerous circumstance:

* Attack
* Down / Heel
* Fetch
* Jump
* Track
* Guard / Watch
* Threaten

It's not an exhaustive list.  Be creative.  Dogs are smart, they can learn a lot of commands.


----
Dog Training

Each command you teach your dog has its own individual saving throw.  A successful save means the dog successfully performs the command to the best of its ability.  A failure means the dog doesn't understand.  It wants to obey you!  Maybe it rolls over?  Offers a paw to shake?  Barks?  Runs in circles?  It just doesn't quite get what you're asking for.

Every command save starts at 18.  You always add your CHA modifier to the roll when making the save.

You can "train" your dog.  If you're adventuring, a training session takes one Turn, focuses on a single command, and allows you to test the saving throw for the command you're focusing on.  If you succeed on the saving throw, then the saving throw permanently decreases by 1.  You can only decrease each command by 1 point each day.

If you're in downtime you can just focus on training your dog.  Each command save drops by 1 per week you spend focusing on the training, no rolls required.

You can only train your dog if it doesn't have any loyalty strikes (see "when to test loyalty," below).  A dog has to be happy with you to engage in productive training.

Designer's note: with continued training, your dog responds to your commands more reliably.


----
Dog Loyalty

Dogs start with a loyalty of 8.  Each command you train down to 5 or lower on the saving throw increases the dog's loyalty by 1, up to a max of 12.  Dogs like being trained.

Designer's note: with more time spent training your dog, their loyalty increases.


----
When to test Loyalty

(Remember, loyalty is a test on 2d6- less than or equal is a success, over is a failure)

Your dog is obedient to you, especially if you've trained it well.  Only test loyalty in the following circumstances:

* Each day you fail to feed the dog, test loyalty (each day unfed beyond the first applies a -1 to all loyalty tests)
* If the dog is injured following a command you gave it, test loyalty

Dogs have three strikes for loyalty.  On accruing three failures, you're not worth it any more- the dog goes feral and fends for itself.

You can erase a loyalty strike by spending a full day pampering your dog.  Belly rubs, chasing squirrels, well fed, who's a good boy.  No dangerous commands.

You can only train your dog if it doesn't have any loyalty strikes.

Designer's note: dogs can't really decide to quit, so it's really only repeated mistreatment that will make them take off- but they need TLC to get over the effects of the mistreatment.