First, a quick note about the site and then on to this weeks column.

It’s been a week since I posed the question to you dear readers and I got 5 hits to the site (three of which were from my ip) and exactly one comment from a miss lesbian buttocks who was reading about character generation when they felt compelled to comment. (At least I am guaranteed to generate more traffic now that I have a url and searchable text stating, lesbian buttocks… but that is not really what I am after.) I posted a comment over at Jonathan Drain’s blogfoolery stating my own reasons for not enjoying the 4th Edition D&D rules (good for a rank or two ;) but in the end I don’t really care that much. My concern is keeping the home fires stoked with action packed adventure fantasy roleplaying! And to that end, I have removed the ‘preview edition’ material and will resume development of the Take20 SRD (OGL) and determined to take the admin panel by the reins and direct folks to where the action is.

Here.

As a busy house holder, I am hard-pressed for time to prepare 2-3 hour-and-a-half sessions per week, the kids are smart with have high expectations, so I have to keep the story moving along.

This week I’ll reveal some of the techniques I use to build adventure encounters quickly. Using a few tools available for free on the web, I’ll demonstrate easy ways that randomness can cut prep time considerably for the GM while also fueling the imagination.

Generating A Scenario And Encounters

One of my favorite tools is the Random Moldvey Encounter Generator, and I would love to extend upon this in the future. It is based upon the tables in the Moldvey edition old D&D which just oozes old-school flavor. I set the form to six rooms and pressed submit and these were the results.

Output 1:

SCENARIO -  #8 Rescuing Prisoners: Valuable and important persons are being held prisoner by bandits, a tribe of orcs, or an evil magic user. The party sets out to rescue the prisoners because they have been hired to (for an expected reward), for a debt of honor, or for some other reason. Sometimes the player characters are only hired to guard an individual who is talking over the demands for ransom.
SETTING - #5 Ancient temple

ENCOUNTER #1
CONTENTS - Empty
TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 1)
Unguarded Treasure
200 silver pieces

ENCOUNTER #2
CONTENTS - Monster (Roll of 2)
3 Gecko Lizards (Neutral, AC 5, Damage 1d8, Morale 7)
HP: 19 22 22   XP: 150
TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 2)
U

ENCOUNTER #3
CONTENTS - Special (Roll of 4)
Talking statue
TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 2)
Unguarded Treasure
600 silver pieces
20 gold pieces

ENCOUNTER #4
CONTENTS - Monster (Roll of 1)
3 Bandits (Neutral/Chaotic, AC 7, Damage 1d6, Morale 8)
HP: 2 3 5   XP: 30
TREASURE - No (Roll of 4)

ENCOUNTER #5
CONTENTS - Special (Roll of 4)
Shifting block to close off corridor

TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 2)
Unguarded Treasure
300 silver pieces

ENCOUNTER #6
CONTENTS - Special (Roll of 4)
TREASURE - No (Roll of 4)
Room turns or sinks while the door locks

Let’s see, ancient temple rescue, shifting doors and secret chambers, there is even a talking statue to provide some roleplaying opportunities for the GM - so far so good!

Output 2:

SCENARIO -  #4 Destroying an Ancient Evil: The evil is usually a monster or NPC (the exact type not known by the players). Sometimes the evil has been deeply buried and reawakened by recent digging. This theme is often used along with others; for example, an ancient evil may have to be destroyed before some ruins are resettled.
SETTING - #4 Crypt or tomb

ENCOUNTER #1
CONTENTS - Monster (Roll of 1)
6 Acolytes (Any Alignment, AC 2, Damage 1d6, Morale 7)
HP: 1 1 5 1 1 5   XP: 60
TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 1)
U

ENCOUNTER #2
CONTENTS - Monster (Roll of 1)
4 Acolytes (Any Alignment, AC 2, Damage 1d6, Morale 7)
HP: 5 6 4 1   XP: 40
TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 1)
U

ENCOUNTER #3
CONTENTS - Monster (Roll of 2)
3 Orcs (Chaotic, AC 7, Damage weapon, Morale 8)
HP: 6 6 3   XP: 30
TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 1)
D
6,000 gold pieces

ENCOUNTER #4
CONTENTS - Special (Roll of 4)
Magic gate to another part of the dungeon
TREASURE - No (Roll of 5)

ENCOUNTER #5
CONTENTS - Special (Roll of 4)
Trap door to tunnels
TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 2)
Unguarded Treasure
200 silver pieces

ENCOUNTER #6
CONTENTS - Monster (Roll of 1)
7 Killer Bees (Neutral, AC 7, Damage 1-3 + poison, Morale 6)
HP: 3 2 2 3 1 4 1   XP: 42
TREASURE - Yes (Roll of 2)
Special: Honey

Examining the Output

I have generated 2 scenarios/settings and 12 encounters thus far and already see a few possibilities emerging. In my campaign, I consider gaining a level, skill, power, and so forth, around every ten encounters, so at least two of these will get the axe. I also have ’special’ encounters of ‘a magic portal to another part of the dungeon’ (Output 2 - Encounter #4) and a ‘trap door to tunnels’ (Output 2 - Encounter #5) so I can possibly expand the adventure into more levels. This is handy as I’ll demonstrate later. For now, I will leave it at that and turn my attention to finding the common themes in the output and trim off parts that don’t seem immediately useful or cohesive. The idea is to treat the pieces as atomic modules and not necessarily use them in the order generated.

At this point pause and review the output. Think of ways that you might weave them into a storyline that fits into your campaign world. Where in the world is it? Who are the potential villains or NPCs? Is there an obvious tie in to any previous or current threads you in your ongoing storyline or plot?

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Next week I’ll show how I choose to weave these same elements into an ongoing campaign that I run for my children on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

Stay tuned!

Links:

Ok, it’s been a long time since my last post - a quarter to be precise - as I have been busy with a new job and other real life responsibilities. I have been busy too, with reading and trying out the new 4th Edition rules with the kids. The resounding verdict from both them as players, and me as DM is:

<insert drumroll>

This aint D&D daddy - can we play old school now ?

<insert crash cymbal>

About the only thing we agree is kinda cool about it is the way powers work. Everything else is just too… um, too… hmmm… boardgame-like? That, and the kids really miss rolling for damage.

While we will definitely be exploring integrating some of the powers into our campaign, we will not be using any of the rest of it. The sad part is that with the system change, WotC has effectively lost my business with the books, supplements, AND miniatures, because one thing that I really liked was being able to use the stat cards as reference during combat - the new stat blocks are not very backwards compatible - and I want a reference I can use, not something I have to convert.

What does this mean for the site? I honestly don’t know. There is not much demand for old school D&D blogs and there are several already that fill the niche quite nicely. I may use it for a campaign journal and reference point for the rules that I actually use, while keeping the content OGL compatible. Or, possibly even go with a creative commons license, and publish what I use as “open source house rules”

We’ll see.

You tell me - what do you want to see here?

According to information released by WotC, and this thread over at the Enworld forum The new Game System License (GSL) for 4th Edition D&D has been released early and is every bit as restrictive as I had feared.

Linae Foster of WotC clarifies that:

• Publishers can put out a product under the OGL - OR - they can put out a product under a 4E GSL.
• 3.x or 4E
• Not both
• One or t’other
• By “mutual exclusivity” I mean, different versions of the same product cannot occur at the same time.

Regarding ‘Mandatory Restrictions’ in the GSL, Scott Rouse, also from WotC, states that:

No Covered Product may contain rules or instructions of any kind that:

• Describe a process for Creating a Character
• Describe a process for Applying the Effects of Experience to a Character

No Covered Product may change or extend the definition of any Defined Game Term as enumerated in this Guide.

No Covered Product may include “Miniatures.”

No Covered Product may use the term “Core Book” on its cover, title, advertising, or self-reference.

No Covered Product may be an “Interactive Game” as defined in this Guide.

It is very clear that they want people and companies to support their new product line - after spending multi-millions in developing it - why shouldn’t they? So it will remain a company by company choice whether to remain under the 3.x OGL, or move to the new GSL.

For the above reasons alone, I shall not be adopting the GSL for this site, or for the LoreWeaver Wiki. I’ll have more to say about this later in Table Talk, as more information, community and 3rd party reaction takes place.