Friday, June 6, 2014

Forging Advenutre Paths for Hex Crawls

A brief and simple method to adding "Adventue Paths" to a hex crawl campaign.


Step One: Pick a hex.
Step Two: Roll 1d6. On Adventure Path Table

Adventure Path Table
1.      Rumor/Clue
2.      Foil/Obstacle
3.      Ally
4.      Foe
5.      Goal
6.      End Goal

The first hex can have any of the results above, even the End Goal.

Step Three: Roll a d6, this is what direction the next part of the adventure path is in.
1- goes north, 2- north east, 3- south east, 4-south, 5- south west,  and 6 north west .

Does that direction lead to somewhere you can’t or don’t want to go?  Well this step takes place in the same hex you are currently in if that is the case, multiple things can be in a hex,

Roll 1d6 and consult Table #1 in each new hex, repeat until you do roll End Goal. record hexes, path step and exit directions as you go along.

Here’s two examples of using this skeletal methodology based on the map from my post  Hexcrawling so travel and exploration earns exp.
Micro campaign map from older post

Path #1

We’re starting in hex 5-3  (I picked it randomly).
Rolled a 4 on the table above we have a foe.  In this hex we also have a monster lair, so the foe is either the big baddie in this hex, a minion or a parasite. I’m going to roll more to see how this works out.
Roll a 4 for direction, that’s south as I’m going with one beign north and going arroudn the hex sides in a clockwise direction. That brings us to hex 5-4. The roll on table 1  above is 3:Ally. So now the path directs us to an ally in the ruins in hex 5-4. S that ally lost, trapped, or in need of help?  Let’s figure that out after the path stretched further.
Rolled a 4 for direction again the path leads us to the town of Penwythe. The roll on table I is a 6- that’s the end goal.

So we’ve got 3 hexes let’s tie the results together:

 Starting in the cave of the dragon that dwells there the adventurers learn the goblins that serve the dragon are planning a raid on the village of Penwythe. Now the players can’t attack the goblins here without attracting the attention of the dragon (If they want they can fight the dragon and the goblins , nothing wrong with this, let the players win or lose as they choose).

The players aren’t the only ones to discover this it has also been found out by Bracklemot he’s a citizen in good standing in Penwythe, he’s racign back to Penwythe to warn everyone, unfortunately he’s managed to get himself stuck in the ruins. Free in him will earn his gratitude and likely serve to help warn the town about the goblin attack.

A Penwythe we have a town in swamp. It’s a fortified hummock with a slum of houses built on stilts. Getting to folks able to plan a response to the goblin attack is going to be the trick. The players can attempt to organize a defense in the slums or get inside the fortified section and get the town authorities in motion, a very simple task Brackemot in tow.

Path #2.

Starting in hex 1-5 at the Monolith of Triurre the party have a goal.
South East to a goal  in the tower of Veryanne in hex 2-5
North into the wilderness of hex 2-4 to face a foe.
Southeast of there to hex 3-5 where a goal is discovered.
We head south into the hills into hex 3-6 and discover a rumor leading south west to the Temple of Wrath in hex 4-6 where we find a foe.
From the temple of wrath we get a roll of 4 for direction, so we’re staying in this hex (as we can’t go south without making more map, which would be cool but require a lot more prep) where we discover the end goal of the path.

The goal of many at the monolith of Triurre is meditation to learn it’s secrets. Here the party will bump into one of the apprentices of the master of Veyanne tower a helpful in to meet the master of the tower ( a campaign goal as per notes in previous post on thie micro-setting).

Traveling to Veryanne tower the master of the tower will deal favorably with the PCs if they can dispatch a troublesome grue in the mountains to the north.

Defeating or robbing the grue will provide the party with a treasure map, If they choose to follow that treasure map or are encourage to follow it by the master of Veryanne they will find a treasure but also evidence other were seeking it but didn’t discover it.

Following this evidence will lead the party to an encampment of goat herders, a couple of them had been hired by a priest from the Temple of Wrath to escort him through the hills.

Following up on this information the player will have to deal with a priest from the Temple of Wrath and discover why that priest was seeking the same treasure (if they are the curious sort). The players will eventually discover the treasure they found earlier is the last component the priest needs to complete a ritual; do the players provide the priest with that piece or do they foil the whole plan? What the players decide to do will determine the conclusion.


There we go, two adventure paths just waiting to be discovered based on a few random rolls and what is known about the hexes with a tad of elaboration that provide the framework for a fair bit of adventure that players can choose to follow or not that will not make or break the campaign in and of themselves but could have some consequences. There are plenty of details to fill in but the DM would now have some focus with the adventure paths in mind.


Thursday, June 5, 2014

Mapping A World

Mapping a world or even a big chunk of it can be quite the project, cataloging some local details is even more work. In the real world we haven't even really completely finished the job yet. One of the problems is the world is a bumpy squashed sphere and that just doesn't project well on a flat surface without distortion. Luckily when making a map for an RPG world we can cheat, we also don't have to do the whole darned world even a big chunk of one is a whole lot of ground to cover and we don't even have to worry about distortions caused by mapping a bumpy squashed sphere onto a flat surface.

I
In the sample map above there's an area about a 6th of the surface of the earth. That big island highlited in red is roughly the area of the U.K. and the area highlited in green is about the area four states of Texas (very roughly, I'm eye-balling this).
The orginal map this one comes from is a mile to a pixel where as this reduced copy is about 9 miles a pixel. With 60 mile hexes there would be roughly 120 columns of 85 hexes each or 10,200 hexes.
Going down to 10 mile hexes would gives us... errr... about 370,000 hexes. Now that would be a heck of a lot of work to detail as minimal detail hex-crawl.

Getting all political now

I'm going to do a rare thing and get all political now. Open carry "demonstrations" have been getting some attention in the press and I'm not against it (but some of the folks doing it are a bit out there).
If they were on way to or coming back from gun range or hunting it's probably safer to have them carrying their weapons then leaving them locked inside a vehicle.
Guns are only frightening when you only see them when a crime is being committed.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/guns-target-store-open-carry-texas

 I was once with a big group of shooting enthusiasts we had a couple trucks but many of us were on motorcycles. We all piled into a McDonald's for breakfast on the way back to our rallying point. Many folks brought their weapon inside, some guys absent-mindedly as they had been wearing them for 45 minutes or so. I heard one of the cashiers (who looked worried) talking with the manager who replied to her along the lines of "This restaraunt has probably never been safer."

Law abiding citizens being law abiding citizens shouldn't be frightening or noteworthy.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Foul Tomes of Carcosa

Need a foul tome for a mad sorcerer? This simple generator will supply you with a random grimoire of Carcosan rituals.




Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Optional Tables for Bunker!

Here's a few alternate rules for your Bunker! games.

A new monster attack Table, I was never a fan of the original attack matrix vs explorer's in Bunker!, here's my variant.



Creature Attacks vs Explorers
5 or less
Attack Misses, Explorer is unharmed.
6 or 7
Stunned, Explorer drops one random loot card.
8 or 9
Slammed, Explorer drops one random loot card and is knocked back one space.
10 or 11
Wounded, Drop one half of Loot cards, and move to last chamber visited (or enty chamber)
12 or more
Defeated, Drop all Loot Cards, move back to entry chamber . May choose to play a different explorer if one is available.




Ambushing in Bunker!
(How this option didn't get into the official rules is beyond me.)
If an Explorer starts their turn in the same chamber (excluding the entry chamber) as another Explorer or in a corridor adjacent to another Explorer they may choose to ambush the other explorer.
A character with a Prerecognition Card may use it to deny an ambush attempt.
If an ambush attempt is denied the would be ambusher loses their turn.

Ambush Table 

3 or less,
Oops! Drop one random loot card in the space you occupy. Move back one space afterward.
4-7        
Miss
8-10      
Opponent Hurt. They drop one loot card in their space and you may move them one space in any direction (if desired). (Can’t move them into unexplored rooms).
11 or more
Opponent Walloped They drop ½ their Loot and Lose next turn and you may move then one 1d6 spaces in any direction (if desired). (Can’t move them into unexplored rooms).



Sunday, June 1, 2014

Mapping The End

What would the end of time, end of the stars, the last empire of thinking life look like? Where once there were billions of stars there is now a handful of cinders.

Just had to draw something after pondering what the end of the universe anyone would witness might look like as a map. I know I'm far off, this is just a doodle but something had to get drawn. I have to thank John Mathew Stater for putting the bug in my mind when he posted in regards to the star apocalypse.