Living in the Real World

I didn't write a post this weekend. Instead I spent it in the real world.  My wife and I strapped on our hiking books and explored a wonderful waterfall and gorge.

Living in Crowfield

Real life can often inspire us for the game.  What if this was in the deserts of Crowfield?  Where would the water be coming from?  How would people utilize it if they had to live on the top of the gorge? What kind of village would evolve around it?

I don't have the answers yet. It will sit in the back of my brain and someday I'll write something.

Live Life

Life is good.  Let's remember to close the game books, put away the dice, and just live it from time to time.

Hit Locations in D&D

I was talking to James about the way different games handle armor in combat,¹ and he opined “Why doesn’t D&D have hit locations like other games?” And just like that, I had a topic for this week. Thanks, James!

Answer #1: It does!

When D&D was published in 1974, it was in the three LBBs². The next year, two supplements were published, Greyhawk and Blackmoor. The latter book contained Dave Arneson's hit location rules.

The system was bulky and unwieldy. It went something like this:

1. Roll “to hit.” If you don’t hit, your round is over.
2. Roll damage as normal.
3. Roll for hit location (d% roll on different charts based on the opponent’s body shape and the side you’re attacking from).
4. If you’re shorter than your opponent, add your weapon length to your height.
5. Cross reference your modified height and your opponent’s height on the “Weapon/Height Adjustment Matrix.”
6. Based on the matrix, you might³ need to modify the hit location that you rolled in step 3.
7. Assign the damage to the resulting body part.
8. If that part is out of hit points, it is crippled (or, if it’s the head or torso the opponent is dead).
9. Total the damage of all the body parts. If that exceeds the opponents hit point total, the opponent is dead.

Steps 1, 2, and 9 are a normal combat round. This hit location system adds the other 6 steps. As you can see, it’s a lot of work and will really slow down combats.

Probably because of this, or perhaps with the breakdown of relationships between Arneson and TSR, the system was dropped from all future releases.

Answer #2: It’s not Abstract Enough

I feel that hit locations really don’t make sense in D&D’s abstract system. As I’ve pointed out before, combat in original D&D is supposed to be a very abstract system. Each round represents 1 minute of action, not a single action by each combatant.

A real life example. In the Salido vs. Vargas boxing match, Orlando Salido threw 939 punches. That works out to about 26 punches per minute. His opponent, Francisco Vargas, threw 1,189 punches, or about 33 punches per minute. In both cases, about one-third of the punches landed. That means that on any given D&D combat round Vargas actually hit Salido 11 times.

The D&D damage roll is the abstraction of the total damage done by those 11 blows. But it’s silly to assign one hit location to all 11.

Final Thoughts

So that’s the real reason (in my mind) why there’s no hit locations in old-school D&D. Trying to assign a single injured part breaks the abstract nature of hit points and blows in the D&D combat system.

If I were to add one, I would make it a “below zero” thing. When a PC loses all of his hit points, rather than killing them, give them a crippling injury instead. The injury won’t heal naturally, but magical healing will take care of it.

Does that make sense? Do you think D&D needs a more concrete hit location table? How would you make it work without breaking the abstraction of the rest of the system?

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1. Guess what next week’s topic is going to be.↩

2. “Little Brown Books.” The first edition of Traveller also came in LBBs, but those were “Little Black Books.”↩

3. It might be that you have to convert a hit to be a miss instead. The rules are really unclear.↩

Village Book I

We have our fort. We know that the fort is ruled by Ka'Taka, an evil (well, chaotic) anti-cleric and her half-orc minions. We know that the fort is located in farmland. It seems to me that means that the fort is surrounded by a farming village. Last week I named it the village of Konpoke. But what else do we know about it? Nothing.

Judges Guild comes to the rescue again. This time with Village Book 1. We’ll use that to generate our village.

Just like the last series of articles was also meant as a "working review" of Frontier Forts of Kelnore, this post will also be a working review of Village Book 1.

This is one of those books where Judges Guild throws a lot of tables at you with no explanation where to begin. We have to wing it.

Step 1: Wall Sections

The tables in this book are not numbered. Reading top to bottom and left to right, this is simply the first table we come to. It determines the “number of wall sections.” The lowest number possible is “2,” which is weird. Maybe that would be for a “D” shaped village?

Also weird to me is that there’s no roll to see if a village even has a wall. I guess every village is assumed to have one. In a realistic medieval world, this is silly, but maybe it makes sense in Crowfield. With water being such a valuable commodity, maybe everyone walls their oasis.

Finally, this table can generate some big numbers. The largest value is “72.” How big must your village be to be surrounded by 72 wall sections?

I roll a “1.” The means “2-12 wall sections.” A 2d6 roll tells me Konpoke has 3 wall sections. 3? A triangle maybe?

Step 2: Wall Thickness and Type

There’s no indication whether this should be rolled once for the whole wall, or once per wall section. I’m going to assume the former.

This is what I call a “cascading table.” A wall is considered earthen, and you roll a 1d6 to determine the thickness. If you roll a “6,” however, the wall is wooden and you roll again. If that’s also a “6” the walls are brick. In total there are 6 different wall materials, but the chances of making it to type 6 are just under 1:8000.

I roll a “6,” so the walls are wooden. The second roll is 4, meaning that the walls are 4 feet thick.

Step 3: Wall Height

A note tells us that wooden walls are 4 times as high as they are wide. No roll needed.

Our walls are 16-feet high.

Step 4: Wall Length

Finally another note says “To determine the length of each wall section multiply the wall thickness by 1' to 20'.” Again, is this once per wall, or once per wall section? The idea that every village is always a perfect polygon seems overly silly, so I’ll roll once per section. I’m glad I’m not rolling 72 times!

I roll a 2, a 12 and another 2. That means the village is a triangle that’s 8' × 8' × 48'. That’s beyond silly. The entire village would fit in the courtyard of the fort!

I strongly suspect that whoever wrote this garbage never even tried it.

I’m ignoring this note for obvious reasons.

Step 5: Wall Characteristics

This is things like “arrow slits” or “tower both ends.” Seeing that a wall has more than two ends, I’m assuming this means to roll for each wall section. Again, imagine if you had to roll 72 times!

I’m skipping this.

Step 6: Wall Defenses

Things like catapults and cauldrons. I assume this should be by section as well? Again, I’m skipping it.

Steps 7 - 9: Streets

This is a series of tables that pretty much mirror steps 1-4 but for streets instead of walls. You determine the number of streets (I rolled 17 streets), then for each street¹ you determine its type (trail, gravel, stone, etc) and width. The width determines length. The only substantial difference is that roads don’t have a height.

I’m not going to bother with any of this. Having details of 17 streets is still kind of useless if it gives no guidance how to arrange them. Plus, I don’t really play towns like big dungeons. I don’t expect the PC’s to do a street by street exploration.

Step 10: Shop Types

The next section in the book is “Shop Types.” But that section says you need to know the population first. It doesn’t tell you, but the population chart is three sections later, because organization was optional in the 1970’s.

Real Step 10: Population

I roll on the population chart. My roll is “57” which tells me that Konpoke has a population of 210 and can support 5 shops. What it doesn’t tell me is whether that’s 210 households or 210 individuals.

Step 11: Back to Shop Types

Now that we know the population, we go back to the “Shop Types” section. Now it tells us that we also need to know the village’s technology level. Even though it’s mentioned after population, the tech level chart is actually the section before the population chart.

I’m sure glad Judges Guild never published recipes.²

Real Step 11: Village Technology Level

Tech level! That might make sense! Is the village trapped in the stone age, or are they magically advanced beyond the local tech–

Oh, wait. This isn’t that at all. Instead the results from this table are mostly type of governing, like Anarchy, Democratic, Tributary, Oligarchy, Republic, etc.

Not only was organization optional in the 1970’s, so was proper word usage.

Whatever. I roll a “7”–“Oligarchy.” That fits in. The small ruling class is Ka'Taka and her half-orcs. It also tells us that there will be 3 government buildings.

Step 12: Shop Types, Finally

Now that we’ve determined the population and the government type “technology level,” we can finally return to the Shop Types section. Oh, but we don’t actually do anything in the section.

Real Step 12: Village Shops

The next section reads “…roll on the chart in the technological level indicated. Roll for no more than one-third of the shops in that category. The remainder shall be rolled for from the lower technological levels.”

So we have 5 rolls to make. Only 1/3 can be from the Oligarchy table. The rest mast be from lower tables. But there are 6 lower tables, and no guidance how to split up the remaining rolls.

Instructions were optional in the 1970’s.

So one third of 5 is 1, I guess. So I’ll make one roll on that table: I get a 10: “Body snatcher’s.” A Body snatcher’s shop? What is that?

Descriptions were optional in the 1970’s.

I’m going to guess that it’s a grave robber’s shop where they sell body parts? (To who?)

So four more rolls, with 6 tables to chose from. I’m going to make a roll, read which shop is on each table for that roll and pick the one I like.

1. Rolled 15. The Anarchy table has a spear maker, and the Religious table has “Religious symbols shop.” I’m picking the latter, because I can use it to let the players know that most the inhabitants of the village are neutral rather than chaotic.
2. Roll of 17: The Tribal chart has a Fur Trader listed. I often talk about the treasure value of various pelts. This could be a place to actually sell them.
3. The dice say 6: I pick “Goldsmith” from the Tributary table.
4. I rolled 20. The Agrarian table has “Horse Trader” for that roll. I can see the players wanting to buy horses. Or camels. Or whatever. I’ll pick that one.

Step 13: Government Buildings

The next set of tables are for government buildings. Unlike the shops, there’s no note to say only one third comes from the appropriate tech level, so I’ll take all three on the Oligarchy table.

1. Bathhouse
2. Marketplace
3. Sentry station

Step 14: Name the Village

A big set of charts to name the village. You roll a prefix and a suffix. They say that there’s 386,000 possibilities.

I know the name is “Konpoke,” but that’s an orcish word. What would the village name be in English? Let me make some rolls.

Five rolls later produces the name “Boxwater.” Not great, but it’s good. I’ll use it!

Steps 15+: Building generation

There’s 7 charts left that let you randomly generate a building. No need for this, but it might be fun to play with at some point.

Final thoughts

I think Frontier Forts of Kelnore is a brilliant work. Village Book 1, however, is a steaming pile of trash. It’s hard to believe that they were produced by the same company.

Still, I think I’ll use most of the work above for the village.

I'll add some details: The village is populated by orcs that have no particular love for Ka'taka. Ka'Taka views the villagers almost as slave labor. Most of the villagers are farmers, and they grow grain that Crowfield could desperately use.

Ka'taka will freely trade grain to the players at a good price. Does that make the player morally complacent in the villagers treatment? On the other hand, defeating Ka'Taka will be difficult. Does the necessity of feeding Crowfield take precedence of the treatment of a bunch of smelly orcs? Plus it’s not like Ka'Taka would be nicer to the orcs if the players weren’t buying the grain.

Maybe the player will try to lead the orcs to rebel against Ka'Taka. But then the prices might go up for Crowfield…

So much role-playing potential.

What do you think?

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1. I guess for each street. Maybe you roll once and all 17 (or however many) streets are the same.↩

2. Except for this one.↩

Frontier Forts of Kelnore: Finale

This week we’ll finish up the fort, but it won’t be the finish of the adventure.

A few weeks ago we went room by room and determined what was in there, aside from Ka'Taka’s minions. This week we’re adding the minions.

We’ve already placed Ka'Taka (Tower/11) and Tupo (Mess hall/14). That leaves:

• Mal'k'k, the female first level cleric who’s sucking up to Ka'Taka.
• Mu'koto (Ka'Taka’s brother) and a heavy bowman.
• 4 unnamed half-orc heavy bowmen.
• 13 unnamed medium half-orc swordsmen.

During the daytime, 2 swordsmen and 1 bowman will be sleeping in the Barracks/18. At night time everyone else will be asleep and those three will be awake. Everyone carries a small whistle around their neck and will blow on it to raise the alarm.

I’m just going to divvy them up where it makes sense.

#	Name	Daytime	Nighttime
1	Basement	(Scorpion) 2 swordsmen
2	Crypt	None
3	Crypt	None
4	Crypt	2 swordsmen
5	Crypt	(Shriekers)
6	Courtyard	2 swordsmen (effectively the courtyard area is also the gate, the well, and the stables)
7	Gate	2 swordsmen	2 swordsmen
8	Well	(None–this is part of the courtyard)
9	Stables	(Wolves)
10	Parapet	2 bowmen	1 bowman
11	Tower (ground)	(Ka'Taka)
12	Storeroom	N/A: This is now part of the courtyard
13	Storeroom	N/A: This is now part of the courtyard
14	Mess hall	Tupo	Empty
15	Commander’s quarters	None	None
16	Executive’s Quarters	None	None
17	Tower (1st floor)	2 swordsmen
18	Barracks	2 swordsmen & 1 bowman (sleeping)	11 swordsmen, 4 bowmen, 1 cleric (sleeping)
19	Tower (2nd floor)	None (Bloodweed)
20	Tower (3rd floor)	None
–	Keep’s Roof	Mu'koto & 1 bowman
–	Outer Stables	1 swordsman	None

Final thoughts

From keep’s roof and the parapet, the bowmen can see enemies approaching the fort. They can use the battlements for cover (+2 to AC) and shoot the enemies. If attackers breach the keep and are in the courtyard, the bowmen on the parapet will run to the barracks where they can use the arrow slits (+4 AC) to shoot into the courtyard.

This is a tough adventure, mainly because the half-orcs are not idiots. Any of them that encounters a surprise hostile party will most likely first run away, blowing his whistle to raise the alarm. The player’s best chance is probably trying to sneak in at night either through the secret tunnel (but remember the shriekers!) or using a grappling hook to climb onto the keep’s roof. But players may have other ingenious ideas, which should be rewarded with a good chance of success.

That’s it for the fort itself. Starting next week, we’ll look at the oasis town of Konpoke¹, where the fort is located.

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1. Transpose the “k” and the “p.” Substitute “a” for “o.” If Gygax can misspell “omelet,” I can have fun with other breakfast foods. ↩

The Treasure of Ka'Taka (Swords & Wizardry Treasure Generation)

For the past three weeks we’ve been making an adventure from the old Frontier Forts of Kelnore supplement from Judge’s Guild.

• Part 1 was the basics of the Fort.
• Part 2 fleshed out the contents of each room.
• Part 3 was a custom monster (Bloodweed) that I made for the adventure. I didn’t number that one because it was generic enough to be used outside the fort.

This week I’m going to determine the treasure, and place it in the fort. To do so, I’m going to walk you through the treasure generation rules in the Swords & Wizardry RPG.

Step 1: Total XP Value

After we went through all the tables and everything, we ended up with the following encounters:

Monster	Quantity	Challenge Level1	XP Each	Total XP
Big Scorpion	1	1d6	10	10
Half-Orcs	20	1	15	300
Wolves	4	2	30	120
Bloodweed	1	3	60	60
Ka'taka	1	4	120	120

Adding all that together tells me that the players are facing 610 XP of enemies.

Step 2: Base Treasure Value

Once we know the total XP value, we multiply it by 1d3+1.² My result was a 3.

3 × 610 = 1,830. That’s the base value (in gold pieces) of our treasure.

Step 3: Trade-Outs

I think this step is cool. It’s probably the biggest thing that draws me to this system versus others. The one drawback is that it involves a lot of dice rolls. For our little treasure here it will require at least 19 rolls. I programmed a computer to do it for me.

Minor Trade-Outs

We roll 1d10 for every 100 gp of base value. Because our base value is 1,830, we’ll be rolling 18d10. For every die that comes up as a “10,” we have a Minor trade-out. My program tells me that we rolled two 10’s, so we have two small trade outs.

Each of those two requires a d20 roll. A “20” indicates a magic item, otherwise we roll on a Gems & Jewelry Table. My results are an “8” and an “18,” so we’ll be rolling twice on the (Minor) Gems & Jewelry Table.

The roll is a 1d6, and I get a “2.” The table tells me that’s “Gem or jewelry worth 1d100 + 25 gp.” I find that a little awkward, and too granular for my taste, so I’ll replace it with “(1d10 × 10) + 25 gp.” I roll a “6.” 6 × 10 = 60 + 25 = 85 gp. I decide that this will be an ornate, bejeweled unholy symbol that Ka'taka wears.

The second roll on the table is a “3,” which means “Gem or jewelry worth 1d100 + 75 gp.” Using the same substitution as above I roll “3” × 10 = 30 + 75 = 105 gp. That’s an awkward number, so I’m rounding to 100. We already have a jewelry item, so I’ll make this a gem. Based on the value, I decide it will be a large aquamarine.

Medium Trade-Outs

The medium trade-out process is identical to the minor, but we roll once for every 1,000 gp of base value instead of 100. If we get any, we roll on the Medium Trade-Out table, which offers more valuable gems/jewelry or more powerful magic.

1,830/1,000 = 1, after you drop the fractions.³ We didn’t get any medium Trade-Outs.

Major Trade-Outs

The Major Trade-Out is just like the others, but it’s for every 10,000 gp of base value. Our puny first level adventure doesn’t even qualify.

Subtract the Trades

The base value of the treasure was 1,830, but we had two minor trade-outs. We need to subtract that value from the base. We subtract 100 gp for each minor trade-out, regardless of its value. That leaves us with 1,630 in coins. Although we actually lost a little value in the trade outs (we traded 200 gold for 190 gp value of gems and jewelry), it’s still a pretty good deal for the players. If the DM counts encumbrance (and I do), those two items make it easier to carry more value.

Step 4: Coinify

Now that we know how much the coins are worth in value, we need to determine their composition. This is mainly important for encumbrance. A heavily equipped character might only be able to carry 1,800 coins. If the treasure is 1,630 gp of value and it’s all in gold, good for him! But if it’s copper pieces, he’s going to have a challenge transporting over 8 tons of coins back to his stronghold!

Swords & Wizardry does not provide any guidance. The Whitebox variant does, but it’s uninspiring.  I'll have to make my own.

They way I figure it, in day to day use amongst commoners, more copper pieces change hands than silver pieces, and more silver pieces change hands than gold.

So if a treasure is just a random collection of coins—for example collected by a bird who likes shiny objects—it will be mostly copper. But intelligent, wealthy creatures—say a dragon or a rich human merchant—will tend to stockpile gold over silver, and silver over copper. Somewhere in between are intelligent but not wealthy creatures; while they know to stockpile gold rather than silver, the simple truth is that gold seldom falls into their hands.

I figure that Ka'Taka falls in that latter category.

Here’s how I’ll do it: I will roll 3d10 and discard the lowest and the highest dice. The remaining die will be multiplied by 10. That’s the percentage of the coin value that will be in silver pieces. I then repeat the process, and that will be the gold. Anything left over will be in copper. I’ll demonstrate:

Silver roll: I roll 5, 5, and 3. Discarding the 3 and one of the 5’s, leaves a 5. 5 × 10 = 50%. So half the treasure is in silver. Our total coin value is 1,630 gold pieces. 50% of that 815 gold pieces. 815 gold in silver is 8,150 silver pieces.

Gold roll: 4, 6, and 3. The middle die is the 4, so 40% of the total treasure is in gold. 40% of 1,630 is 652 gold pieces. (Of course had the middle die been a 6 or higher, it would have just been considered to be a 5, because that’s all that was left of the treasure. In that case there would have been no copper).

Copper pieces: We don’t need to roll. The rest of the treasure is in copper. There’s 163 gp of value remaining, so that works out to be 16,300 copper pieces.⁴

The Total Treasure

So let’s sum up the treasure. While I’m at it, I’ll refer to my previous notes and place it.

Item	Value	Location	Notes
16,300 c.p. 7,250 s.p.	888 gp	Two chests in  Commander’s quarters (15)	This is the group’s day-to-day expense fund. Everyone knows that it’s there, which it why it’s trapped. This trunk can hold about 20,000 coins though it will break if you try to carry that many.
652 g.p.	652 gp	Barrack’s roof chimney	This is the metal box that’s down the chimney. The box is 5 inches × 7 inches and 5 inches tall. Ka'Taka and Mu'koto are supposedly the only ones that know it’s hidden there. Tupo knows something is hidden in chimney, however, as he has spotted Mu'koto checking on the box.
900 s.p.	90 gp	Crack in the wall of Crypt (2).	In three back packs, holding 300 coins each. This is the money that belongs to the mercenaries hired by Ka'taka. The chief mercenary keeps the money hidden in the crack in the wall of Crypt (2).
Bejeweled Unholy Symbol	85 gp	Carried by Ka'Taka	A holy cleric might insist on destroying it or melting it down or something. +1 bonus XP to that character if he does.
Large Aquamarine	100 gp	Carried by Mal'k'k	Mal'k'k is the first level cleric henchman.

It might not be very realistic that I grouped all the coins together in separate caches, but eventually you have to say “it’s just a game.” I say that, but I did use this calculator to check the container sizes for each cache.

Incidental Treasure

There’s some other treasure to be had, but the players need to work for it:

• If searching bodies, each half-orc will be carrying some coin. (For each half-orc, roll 1d10. On a 9 or less, that’s the number of copper coins it’s carrying. On a 10, roll again, but this time it’s silver. If the second roll is also a 10, roll again, but this time it’s gold and treat a 10 as a 10.

• If the wolves are somehow captured and befriended, they can be sold for a pretty penny. Even if they’re killed their pelts can be sold for a few gold.

• The carved pixie fountains can be sold.

• Returning Oggo to his home will result in a reward.

• Somewhere is a letter from Oggo’s wife to Ka'Taka, pleading for Oggo’s release. “Leggo my Oggo,” it says.

That’s all

I can’t top that last line. Let me know if you have any thoughts!

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1. Challenge level is generally equal to the hit dice, but it can be boosted for special abilities. I boosted the big scorpion one level for its poison. The Bloodweed got a boost for a combination of automatic blood drain, the nuisance of having to find the main stem before attacking, and the fact that you need to attack with an edged weapon (you can’t stab or crush).↩

2. There are four variants of Swords & Wizardy: Complete, Core, Whitebox, and Light. The 1d3+1 is found is Complete and Core. Whitebox says to roll 1d6 and consult a chart to generate a number between 1 and 4. Light doesn’t say anything.↩

3. I’m tempted to say that the fraction should be turned into a percent chance that you get another die, but that would add even more rolls.↩

4. The 16,300 copper pieces are valued at only 163 gold pieces, yet weigh over three-quarters of a ton. This is more than enough to fully encumber the entire party, unless they brought mules or hirelings. This is why many old school players consider copper pieces to be a trap.↩

Bloodweed

This will be a short post.  I worked all week, all weekend, and had 6 additional hours of commuting time.

Bloodweed

The lighter color tips turn red when the plant is feeding.
Image by Kerstin Riemer from Pixabay

Armor Class	17 (special)
Hit Dice	2
Move	0' (see below)
Attacks	Special
Damage	1 hp/round
Number Appearing	1
Morale	n/a
Treasure Type	Special
Intelligence	Animal (2)
Alignment	Neutral
Monster Type	Normal Plant
Terrain	Oases
% in Lair	n/a
Special Attacks	Vine attachment/blood drain
Special Defenses	Hidden stem
Magic Resistance	Normal
Size	L

Last week I called this "Bloodvine." Both names are used.

Bloodweed climbs like ivy, and collects in deep (knee-high) thickets where possible. Anyone wading in the thicket is subject to attack. 

When a person or animal enters the thicket, the vine will seek to attach itself to the victim. This takes 1 round for a person wearing no armor, 2 rounds for a person wearing leather, 3 rounds for chain, and 4 for plate armor.  Shields have no effect.

The vine anesthetizes the victim's skin when it attaches, causing the victim to be unaware of what's happening. Each round after the vine attaches, it will do 1 hp of damage as it drains blood from the victim. The vines and leaves closest to the victim will start to turn red as they fill with blood, and the victim will notice that he is feeling weakened.  Finding the attachment site requires a successful Wisdom save.  Once the attachment site is located, the vine can be simply pulled out. Remaining in the thicket will start the attachment timer over again.

The vine can feed off of any number of victims as long as they're all in the thicket.

Attacking the main stem require a hit against AC 17.  The vine is considered to have 2 hit dice, but "killing it" is temporary: the weed will grow back within a month.  The only way to permanently kill it is with fire, acid, or an appropriate spell.  

Bloodfruit

Bloodweed doesn't collect any treasure, though sometimes the bodies of former victims will contain valuables. 

Having said that, there is a 25% chance that a feeding bloodweed will produce a bloodfruit. Eating a bloodfruit initially causes 1d4 hit points of damage. If the character survives the damage, they then heal 2d6 hit points at the rate of 1 point per round.  The healing effect can even boost the character's hit points above their normal maximum, but the "extra" hit points "wear off" at the rate of 1 hit point per turn.

That's all!

That's all for this week.  Maybe next week we'll finish the fort!

Do you like the bloodweed?  It's little bit of a monster and a little bit of a trap.

Frontier Forts of Kelnore, part 2

Last week we started building an adventure using the Frontier Forts of Kelnore supplement from Judges Guild. This is a continuation of that process.

On a related note, I stumbled upon the blog of Anton Ryzbak who built a scale model of the forts. The model isn’t perfect—for example, it’s missing the tower’s roof as well as the battlements that run along the parapets and the keep’s roof—but it’s still pretty darn impressive. I wish I had that talent.

Also, that blog post shows the map for the first two levels. So if you want to look at that when I describe things, feel free.

Optional Tables Overview