Help Me with My Next Campaign (Part 2): The Backstory

As I discussed in Part 1, I'm designing a new fantasy campaign, and I'm seeking your help and feedback. This post I want to concentrate on where the player characters come from.

The Problem

Last post I said that I wanted the campaign to be about exploration into unknown lands. While this sounds simple on the surface, it's actually harder than it seems. Here are some of the issues I see off the top of my head:

• If the lands are unknown, how did the characters happen to be there? Odysseus solves this problem by angering Poseidon so he gets blown off course and is lost. It's not that different for Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager.
• Once I get the characters into the strange land, what do I do about replacement characters? Especially if I want to run the campaign as an open table, I need a way to explain why all these people are here but they don't know where they are.
• How can players have a meaningful backstory if everything and everyone they knew are unreachable?
• What stops the players from walking into the first village they find and asking the locals for a map?

The Solution?

As I hinted above, I think I will solve these problems by transplanting the party, much like Odysseus and Voyager. What's different, though, is that I'm going to transplant not just the player characters, but the entire town where they live. This way there's an entire town of replacement PCs. Not only that, but the PCs' friends and family will have all been transported as well.

So, this is what I've come up with so far. There are two parts: the player facing part, and the "behind the scenes" part.

What the Players Know

The players are native to the town of Crowfield. It is an unassuming town, overseen by Baron Crowfield. There's nothing particularly special about it, other than it was once the home of Delicia the Saintess.

In the center of the village green was a statue of the great cleric, holding a blue-silver sphere between her hands. Legend says that before she died(? vanished?) St. Delicia prophesized that the sphere would be shattered on Crowfield's darkest day. But that was nearly two centuries ago, and the sphere survived many a drunken school boy's attempt to shatter it.

Then, one early winter night, everything changed. The autumn crops had just been brought into the town from the outlying manors and villages, and it was the night of the great winter fete. As midnight approached, there was a sound like no other sound anyone's ever heard. The black night sky was split from west to east with a ribbon of fire that was so hot the snow melted. Fire began to fall from the sky, and ...

...just like that it was the next morning. Everyone was fine. The town was fine. The sphere was shattered.

But beyond the walls of the town is a strange landscape. The fields that were once there are gone, as are the paths and roads.

Lord Crowfield is concerned. He doesn't know what's happening, but he knows the town's stores are only enough to feed the population until next summer. He needs to find out if his vassal manors are still operating so that they can provide food. If not, he needs to find other sources of food.

What the Players Don't Know

While Crowfield was celebrating its winter fete on earth, in the heavens there was a battle. Gob (the god of chaos) attacked and defeated Hume (goddess of law) . The ribbon of fire that everyone saw was Hume's lifeless form falling to the earth.

That was 10,000 years ago.

When the sphere shattered, it locked Crowfield in time. Great civilizations rose and fell around it, completely unaware that the town existed.

It's now a primitive time. Gob still rules the heavens. Isolated settlements exist here and there, but under Gob's dominion there is great distrust. Each settlement is its own tiny kingdom, and tries to be as self sufficient as possible. Any interaction between settlements is as likely to be war as peace.

But why did Crowfield get unlocked in time now? Somewhere, not far away, the body of Hume has arisen...

Conclusion

So that's what I'm working with so far, though of course details are very likely to change as I develop this more. My next post will probably be about the world around Crowfield.

What do you think? Is it stupid? Will it work? Do you have suggestions? I'm listening!

Help Me with My Next Campaign (Part 1)

After my melancholy previous post, I've decided to start prepping another campaign. I'll go ahead and play with a group of strangers on Roll20.

James recommended that I post my planning process here. That way I can get input and feedback from my readers. "There's one problem with that," I said. "I don't have that many readers, and almost none of those comment."

"If you build it," he said, "they will come." Well, maybe not those exact words, but that's what he meant.

So, to the campaign.

Here's my initial thoughts for the campaign and the world:

• The game world will be an iron-aged fantasy world.
• The players will all be human.
• I'm not sure if there will be non-human NPCs. I'm fond of light fantasy.
• It will be a sandbox campaign. There won't be any huge overarching plots unless the players "create" one by following leads.
• I want to run it as an open table.
• I want the game to be about exploration into unknown lands.
• I want there to be a strong merchant component to the campaign. Character can pick up cargo at one town in the hopes for selling it at a profit in another. As the game goes on, the smart character should be able to make a comfortable living from his trade routes.

That's my rough idea in a nut shell. Some of those bullets lead to other choices that need to be made. Some bullets narrow down the possible choices. All that will be covered in future posts.

So what do you think? Want to help me make this campaign?

About me, early 2020

In my very first post I mentioned a friend who blogged about mountain unicycling. Even though he's not into gaming, he used to follow this blog, which was helpful because he would point out my inevitable typos.

I made my last couple posts, and noticed that he didn't say anything about them. I assumed that my recent 2 year "blog fade" caused him to unsubscribe under the theory that I would never post again. I mentioned it to him, and he said that he did get notification, but that my recent posts were "so outside my interests I didn't think it made sense to stay subscribed." That made sense to me, because he's not a gamer and my recent posts have been about "gaming" and not about "me."

So what's new with me, the Vagabond GM?

The sad truth is that I haven't gamed in a long, long time.

I had a tabletop group back in 2015. It was a good group, and we had fun. But I had to kill that game when I had a business trip that lasted the better part of a year. When I got back I started a Roll20 campaign that lasted for a while, but eventually that ended too.

I'm an introvert. I don't go out to meet strangers to game with. My gaming always involves someone I know. My last tabletop group was my fiancée, her daughter, a friend, and his wife. My fiancée isn't really a gamer, her daughter is away at university, and my friend and his wife moved away.

My online games have always involved James and/or Pete, guys I've been gaming with since the (junior) high school. James and Pete are both working weird nighttime shifts that make them unavailable to play online.

So that leaves me, a Vagabond GM, wandering around with no one to play with.

Rolling D&D Stats in Aging Groups

This was originally part of another post that I'm working on. That post is already pretty long, though, and this material stands on its own. It was written with OD&D in mind, but it should work with most retroclones.

The idea here is to follow a character's growing process (through their stats) instead than rolling the stats all at once. Hopefully, the interplay of die rolls and player decisions will help form a narrative about the characters journey from birth to adulthood.

In this system, stats are rolled in three phases.

Phase 1: Birth

This phase is where the person has the least control. It represents what they're born with.

Roll 1d6 for each stat, in order:

• Strength
• Intelligence
• Wisdom
• Constitution
• Dexterity
• Charisma

Phase 2: Childhood

This is the stage of life where a character is starting to develop their own interests and personality. Yet, as a child, there are still decisions being made that are beyond his control.

Roll 1d6, and pick the stat you want to assign that roll to. Once a roll is assigned to a stat, it's locked in place, and can not be changed.

Repeat the same process five more times, until all 6 stats have been assigned

Phase 3: Adolescence

The character is rapidly approaching adulthood. He is the master of his destiny, if the dice are willing.

Roll 6d6, all at once. Assign each die to the stat of your choice.

Example

James is sitting down to make a new character. He's hoping to play a fighter named Jackal. Let's see if the dice agree!

Jackal's Birth

James picks up the d6 and records the results:

STR: 5
INT: 3
WIS: 6
CON: 4
DEX: 2
CHR: 2

Jackal is strong and wise for his age, but clumsy and has a bad disposition.

Jackal's Childhood

James will be rolling 6 times, making 6 decisions.

His first roll is a 2. He doesn't want to drive down his already low Dexterity or Charisma, so it won't go in either of those. He's hoping for a high Strength, so he rules that one out as well. He doesn't need a high Wisdom, so he's going to put the 2 there.

His next roll is a 1. Ugh. Following the same logic as above, he chooses Intelligence and hopes that the rest of the rolls will be higher.

Third roll is a 6--he was hoping a six would come up. Without thinking twice he puts it into Strength.

Fourth roll is also a 6! James pats his lucky dice. Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma are left. While a high Constitution would be nice, he's worried about having a low Dexterity, so he puts it there.

Fifth roll--a 4. Pretty middle of the road. He could use it to bring his charisma up to normal levels, but he decides to play it safe and put it into Constitution. "Charisma is a dump stat, anyway," he says.

The last roll is a 1. No decision to make here, it has to go into Charisma. He's not happy about the 3, but he's relived that it didn't end up in Constitution.

Here's how things are looking:

STR: 5 + 6 = 11
INT: 3 + 1 =  4
WIS: 6 + 2 =  8
CON: 4 + 4 =  8
DEX: 2 + 6 =  8
CHR: 2 + 1 =  3

At this stage, a 2-4 are low, 5-9 are average, and 10-12 are high. Jackal is strong, a bit on the stupid side, and not very likable at all. James decides that Jackal was born with a unsightly facial defect (hence the low Charisma at birth). During childhood the other children of the village would bully him, making him anti-social. The bullying led to frequent fights, where is superior strength made him feared by the others.

Jackal's Adolescence

James feels like he's getting a good grip on the character. He rolls the last 6 dice: 5, 5, 2, 1, 1, 4.

He's going to use the 5's on Jackal's Strength and Dexterity. The 4 will bring Intelligence close to average. The low rolls get put into Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Str: 11 + 5 = 16
INT:  4 + 4 =  8
WIS:  8 + 1 =  9
CON:  8 + 2 = 10
DEX:  8 + 5 = 13
CHR:  3 + 1 =  4

James is pretty happy with the character. He would have preferred a better Charisma, for sure, but he knows that the low score can be a catalyst to tell interesting stories about his character.

Optional Weirdness

Instead of using d6's, use a d4 in Phase I and a d8 in Phase 3. This still gives a range of 3-18, with an average of 10.5.

My Take on Alignment

Imagine your typical fantasy world. The world is populated by millions of creatures who go about their daily business. Each race lives in relative peace with each other, as long as they keep to their own territory. This world has an abundance of an ugly little crystal that the goblins call ublaya. The dwarves call it keskal. Whatever. Much like quartz on earth, no one really cares about it.

Then, one day, new gods descend from the heavens. They want these crystals, and they want them now. They make friends with the goblins, the trolls, and the kobolds. Kang, the chief of these gods, doesn't care how the goblins get the rocks, as long as they get them. If it's quicker and more efficient to violently take the rocks from the dwarfs, so be it. He gives the goblins magical swords, bows, and armor in exchange for these rocks.

Not long after, other gods appear. These new gods negotiate with the elves, the dwarfs, and the humans. They must have these rocks. They will give new weapons and armor to match that given by Kang. Let's call this god "Kirk."

Eventually the gods get their rocks ("dilithium crystals") and move on. They have their own battles, their own adventures, and their own show. This was just another weekly episode for them.

The world they leave behind, though, is forever changed. Factions have been forged in the fire of war. Those that followed the Klingons called themselves the sons of Kahless, a word that eventually morphs into "Chaos". Those that followed the Federation, with its goals of rights and respect for all eventually become the faction of Law.

Fool's Tools, a spell for Tunnels & Trolls

This is a spell intended for Tunnels & Trolls,but can easily be used with the original Dungeons & Dragons.

Fool's Tools
[Conjuring]
(Snowgen)

Spell level:	1
Cost:	1 per w.u. of created item
Range:	Touch
Duration:	1 combat turn or less (see below)
Power Up?:	Yes. Double duration for each level increase.

Description: With this spell, the caster creates the normal, mundane, generic, inanimate object of his choice. Thus the caster could create a bowl but not a mouse; a sword would be acceptable, though a magical sword would not.

Created items must be generic. This a caster could create "a key", but not necessarily "the key that unlocks this door". Likewise she could specify a wooden bowl or even a diamond bowl, but not "the exact copy of that bowl there".

The object is created into the caster's empty hand, and remains in existence for the duration of the spell, or until the object is no longer in contact with the caster, whichever happens first.

When the spell expires no matter the reason, the object vanishes in a small flash of light and a poof of smoke.

Those stuffy wizards who thinks spells need somber names call this spell Ex Nihilo.

Using the Spell in [o]D&D and its OSR Clones

Unsurprisingly the spell needs minimal alteration to work in D&D. Simply ignore the "Cost" and "Power Up?" lines and change duration to read "1 minute per caster level, or less (see below)."

Inspiration

A post in the Frugal GM blog led me to discover the The Gongfarmer's Almanac. Within issue 1, I came across a spell called "Temporary Creation" written by someone named Terry Olson. I liked the idea behind the spell, but thought the implementation was way too complicated for my style of play. My guess is that Temporary Creation developed for Dungeon Crawl Classics, which I guess is a more complicated set of rules.

OD&D House Rule: Stat Checks

I'm in the process of converting "The Barony" (my OSR campaign) from the 5th edition of Tunnels & Trolls to the 1st edition of Dungeons & Dragons (boxed set only, no supplements). While my intent is to largely run rules-as-written, there is always room for house rules!

One area where T&T is superior to (original) D&D is the use of stat checks. It's baked into the very core of T&T, yet it doesn't show up in D&D until much later. oD&D seems to ignore the stats for the most part, but some things beg for a stat check:
Player: Can I push that heavy crate?
GM: Make a Strength roll!

Player: Can I seduce the princess?
DM: Make a Charisma roll!

In T&T you make a stat check by rolling 2d6 and adding your stat. You try to get 20 or better for a simple task, 25 or better for a difficult tasks, or 30 or better for a very difficult task. These "impossible" rolls are made possible because T&T was the first RPG with an "exploding dice" mechanic (the same exploding dice mechanic found in board game Monopoly: go again on doubles).

In original D&D, it's never mentioned anywhere, rather they have a strange saving throw mechanic that I see people use for some of those situations. As far as I can tell, the Ability Check doesn't make an appearance in a D&D rulebook until the 1991!

One game where the stat check works better than either T&T or D&D is GURPS, but in GURPS you have to roll low, and I don't like that.

The game with the best stat check mechanic is Fudge. So I am lifting Fudge's system and applying it to oD&D. I imagine some old school purists will hate the use of such a modern mechanic to such an old game, but I think it will work well in play.

How it Works

For each of the 6 stats, in addition to the number, the character sheet will also have a space for an adjective. The adjective will be based on the stat level as follows:

Stat level	Adjective
3	Terrible
4-5	Poor
6-8	Mediocre
9-12	Fair
13-15	Good
16-17	Great
18	Superb

Then whenever the player wants his character to attempt to do something, it's very easy for me as the DM to come up with the "target adjective". So if the player says "I want to push that heavy crate" I can say "It's only a little heavy, so even a Mediocre Strength check will do" or "It's really heavy, so you need a Good strength check" or even "But you're trying to push it up a steep, uneven ramp! You're going to need a Superb Strength check!"

The stat check itself is a normal Fudge roll: roll 4dF and slide the attribute up or down as indicated by the dice.

New school stat checks on an old school game. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!