Monday, November 24, 2014

Random Terrain without Hexes (or a grid)

I've notice folks talking about how to generate random terrain without using hexes here and there, the following is an outline for a general regional map.

 get some pencils, paper, some d6 's, a d20 and a d8. Lay the paper down on a table.

1. Find your mountains. Drop 3 to 8 d6 on the map. Keep track of the number rolled where each drops.  Now take a heading at each spot(I'm gogin to use the d8 for headings with 1 being north and going clockwise from there so that 5 ends up south, but feel free to go with d12's, d20;s or 30's if you like). Draw a line from the center of the spot each d6 fell and continue it that many inches (or centimeters or whatever units you like), this line is the center of a mountain chain.   At the end of each segment roll 1d8, on a 1 continue 1d3 units to the counter clockwise heading, on a 2 continue 1d3 units in a clockwise heading, on a 3 or 4 keep going straight 1d3 units, repate until yuo roll a 5 to 8 or your line intersect another mountain chain.

2. Oceans/Seas. There's a 50% chance each corner has water. randomly determine a point up to 60% of the page side from each corner along the edge if there is water. Do this for each corner. If the points from 2 corners on one side cross each other that whole side is coast. You can get as fancy or general with these coastlines as you like.


3. Rivers.  Split each coast line in half, there is a 4 in 6 chance each of these halves has a river in it. There is a 3 in 6 chance each quarter has a river, a 2 in chance each 8th. Draw a line halfway to the nearest mountain range for each river mouth fund above. At the end of this roll 1d6. 1 branch, 2 turn , 3 or 4 continue, 5-6 end. Do not cross other rivers, if a  river ever turns back on itself draw a lake there. Stop all rivers within an unit of any mountains.

4. Forests. drop 1 or 2 more forest dice than yuo did mountain dice earlier. Draw  bumpy circle for the forest edge around these points in a diameter equal to the numbered dropped unless all the borders of the forest would be over 2 inches from water, if so do not draw that forest.

5. Wasteland. Anyplace 3 or more inches from a forest of river is wasteland or any place cutoff entirely from water by mountain chains.

6. Cities and towns. There is a 33% chance at each river mouth you have a city. Go up 1 unit and roll 1d6, on a 1 you have a town, on a 2 or 3 a village, on 4 or 6 nothing, move up an 2 units and roll again. If you go up river twice with no settlements stop rolling for this river. Along the coast between rivers roll 1d20, on a 1 you have a city, 2 or 3 a town, 4 to 8 a village.
Outside each town there is a 50% chance of a fortification, in a random direction up to 2 units away,
Outside each village there is a 25% chance of a fortification.
Outside each city there is a 1 in 8 chance of a fortification (the city is often fortification enough).

7. Special features, Drop a d6 as many times as you dropped forest and mountain dice together. At each of these points yuo have a special feature... i.e. ruins, magical nexus, dungeon, whatever.

There yuo go, just an outline but you'll end up with the basics for a randomly generated region using the above and a little sparked creativity.







Saturday, November 22, 2014

Colorizing Carcosa, Part III

In parts I and II of colorizing carcosahad some notes on having the color of each of the races and some items of gear have differing mechanical effects in a Carcosan campaign. This post is going to be about making monsters more colorful.

Each monster shoudl have a randomly determined base color and colored features as per the chart below

Colorful Monster Feature roll 2d6
2-7 no extra colorful feature
8 Colored fangs, talons, or claws
9 Colored frills, crests, and combs
10 Colored Belly or soft spot
11 Colorful Spots or stripes
12 Color immunity

Colored fangs, talons, and claws will be made as per the color of those attack types not the overall color of the monster in question. A monster with such a colored attack form may not always be noteworthy on casual observation or in poor visibility.

Monsters with Colored frills, crests, and combs will make special attacks as per the color of the feature and not the base color of the monster, such features are more obvious and would be noted except under fairly poor visibility.

Colored Belly or Soft Spot will leave the monster with a location that will suffer double damage or save at -4 if specifically targeted. Such spots may be hard to detect or reach depending on the type of creature.

Monster with differently colored Stripes or Spots  will be as resistant to these attack forms as they are to those of their base color. The meat of such creatures has a 50% chance of being that of the feature or base color.

Monster with a color immunity are completely immune to special attacks of a specific color and may not show these colors on their skin at all but sometimes it can be seen in the eyes of the monster (2 in 6 chance).

Colorful Monster Psychology
2-7no colorful psychology
8 or 9 drawn to a color
10 rage vs color
11 fearful of color
12 blind to color

Monsters drawn to a color will tend to approach and seek out that color, attacks will likely be directed against targets of that color.

Some monsters will rage on exposure to certain colors being +2 to hit and inflicting an extra die of damage.

Monsters Fearful of a color will avoid it or possibly flee it if exposed to a display or special atack of the color.

Monster blind to a color will not particularly notice or react to object or creatures of a specific color. this blindness can be absolute, grant the attacker a bonus, or always allow the monster to be surprise dby attackers of the color as determined by the DM.





Friday, November 21, 2014

Colorizing Carcosa, part II

last post I mentioned a couple ways to differentiate the various colored races of Carcosa from each other by granting resistances to attacks of the same color and having the color of food and drink provide some risks. The following are some ideas for colored items/equipment on carcosa.

The Colorful Warrior/ Colored Weapons
Fighters on Carcosa wielding a weapon of the same color may roll double damage dice anytime they successfully strike a target with a d20 attack roll of 18 to 20. Such a weapon must be special in some manner eldritch magicks, alien tech or obscure manufacture a red warrior will gain no benefit from painting a club red (as an example).

Colored Armor
Armor specially fashioned from the skins and shells of a colored beast grant a +2 to saves against attacks of the same color. this bonus would stack with any racial bonus a character has.

Colored Shield
non-fighters with a colored shield have a 2 in 6 chance of deflecting a special attack of the same color with their shield (the shield breaks if a 6 is rolled), fighters have a 3 in 6 chance of deflecting special attacks of the same color.

Colored Goggles
allow one to see creatures of same color (as goggles) even if hidden by psionics, magic, or super-science if within 200. Take caution however as any psionic attacks, charming/domination abilities, or visual attacks launched by those of the same color as the goggles will be resisted at -2.

Colored Decanter
two quarts of beverage will be converted to same color as that of the decanter. Mixing two different color liquids or putting poison or acid in the decanter has a 50% chance of destroying the decanter.

Colored Mask
These specially made masks will neutralize the effect of gases of the same color. If worn into combat these masks have a 1 in 6 chance of beign destroyed each round and impose a -2 penalty to ranged combat for the wearer.
 




Thursday, November 20, 2014

Colorizing Carcosa, pt I

A post I read today at Dungeon of Signs by Gus got me thinking about Carcosa as a setting and the way the crayola colored men are cool as all get out and then pretty much meaningless outside of good old racism and xenophobia.  This post is about what makes the color of each type of colored man of Carcosa matter more mechanically.

Resistant to own color.
The men of carcosa are resistance to attacks form sources of their own color, whether it be rays, lasers, toxic fogs, or insect stings if the source is the same color as the character they receive a +2 bonus to resit negative effects and still only suffer half damage in any case.

Fighters with a CON of 13 to 17 have a +3 bonus instead, +4 if CON 18 or higher.
Sorcerers with a WIS of 13 to 17 have a +3 bonus, +4 if WIS is 18 or higher.
Others with a CHA of 13 to 17 have a +3 bonus, or a lucky +4 if CHA is 18 or higher.

Colorful Foods
It's always safe to eat food the same color as your own (unless it is otherwise a potent poison or drug) but Carcosans can have trouble digesting and imbibing the wide range of food goods of other colors out there. Each character will have one color of food they will have negative reactions to, if a character has a CON of 7 or less they will have two baleful colors. If you roll your own color on this chart and have a CON score of 15 or more congratulations no baleful foods for you, roll again otherwise.

Baleful Foods (roll 1d100)
1-8 Black
9-16 Blue
19-20 Clear (or Silver)
21-28 Brown
29-36 Dolm
37-44 Green
46-52 Jale
53-60 Orange
61-68 Purple
69-76 Red
77-84 Ulfire
85-92 White
93-100 Yellow

Effects of Baleful Food roll 1d8
1 or less Lethal Poison
2 Probably Lethal Posion. horrible wracking pain and 1 die of damage a turn until purged.
3 Dangerous Poison, illness and 1 die of damage an hour until purged).
4 Causes Paralysis for 2-16 hours
5 Causes deep sleep for 2-8 hours, can not be woken.
6 Causes uncontrollable vomiting/diaerha for next 4-24 hours.
7 Indigestible, no food value and painful cramping for 2-12 hours.
8 or more Awful flatulence, chance of random encounters doubled and impossible to surprise anything else.

add 1 to roll if CON 15+ , subtract 1 from roll if CON 7 or less.

Determining the effect of a particular type of baleful food per character or per color is up to the DM.




Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Old Campaign Dead, new campagn on horizon, and new plans

My campaign is dead, haven't played in a while due to scheduling reasons. I don't want to totally scrap it but I am going to be rebooting it. The basic concept of the dungeon is going to stay the same but the surface world is going to change into a more traditional pseudo-medieval setting so the weirdness of the main dungeon will be amplified in comparison. Hope to get that setup for an open weekend game every 3 or 4 weeks and maybe look into online gaming to run alongside.

Not sure about the print newsletter yet but I did start expanding some posts and am flipflopping on delivery methods and format. It may be PDF only that way I can use one delivery and tracking method for domestic and foreign customers.  Had been favoring 3 or 4 sheets 11 x 17 folded with at least one map but have to fold that all up to keep postage low. Still working the options over in my head.

A buddy has gotten his degree and is done with school and wants to get back to rolling dice as a DM so I'll be rolling dice as a PC when he's ready to go.

My other blog BigDungeon will be seeing some actual posting activity over the next few weeks. I had mentioned playign about with random tools a number of posts back so I'll be using BigDungeon as the spot to post a big dungeon that is semi-randomly generated and maybe if enough people comment or send parties down the tunnels it will be a lite living campaign sort of project with play reports and updates.

So there you go, plans of dice and men.