Tactile Maps

 
Going through the older posts on various blogs I found two posts on Telecanter's Receding Rules and Aeons and Augauries about tactile maps. At its simplest a tactile map serves as a map, but as seen in the Aeons and Augauries post, the map could also be a key, and decoding the instructions on the tactile map could be a mission in and of itself.

I may very well use a tactile map as a seed for one or more of the adventuring parties headed into the megadungeon. It serves as another motivator for heading into the megadungeon beyond the rumors system that I gave as an example in the Rappan Athuk rules hi-light. It also allows for the tactile map to function as a treasure that has a delayed pay off.

West Marches Style Campaigns

Back in May I came upon an old post by Ben Robbins about a campaign he ran called West Marches. I was not aware other people had considered this type of set-up, but that is mostly due to having focused my RPG reading on World of Darkness related ideas rather than more traditional fantasy/dungeoneering sources.

 There are a few key rules that need to be adhered to when running a campaign in this way. First, the town should be safe and the wilds wild to help keep adventuring focused on exploration of the wilderness. Second, the DM should appear to be passive, giving the players a sandbox where they decide what they are going to do. Lastly, there is no set party and any players/characters can group up if they can get together.

Contrary to popular belief, the West Marches were not run as a hew crawl but instead used a vector based map. This front loads a lot of the development onto the DM requiring a high degree of detail when it comes to wilderness and dungeon sites. Especially when you consider that the players would be navigating via direction and landmarks. Personally, this mapping system would be too ambitious for me. As of now I feel more comfortable using a nested hex mapping system, starting off with a map consisting of 25-mile hexes, and then maps for more traveled or important areas consisting of 5-mile hexes, and if more detail is required maps consisting of 1-mile hexes.

Worldbuilding Day 18: The Day I Stopped

Today is decided to stop with the 30-day worldbuilding challenge. It would be great if I was focusing on writing a story, but role-playing is not about telling a story but instead about playing a cooperative game. It did help me make me consideration to the cultures found within the region, but I already had the seeds for those ideas before undertaking the challenge.

Worldbuilding Day 17: Moody Review

This exercise is to review decisions that have been made over the course of challenge and see if they still fit the moody that we are going for. I realize they do not as there are too many large settlements. The solution for this is simple: scale back the number of settlements. No division of imperial troops north of the interior mountains. A smaller settlement at the inlet. Just a railhead and the beginning of construction towards the interior mountain pass.

I lost sight of the fact that much more of the setting should be wilderness, and the infrastructure necessary to support such a large interior settlement would produce what would generally be considered the absence of wilderness. The effort does not need to be scrapped, but initial mining of magicite should be taking place in wildcat mines rather than large industrial pits.

Worldbulding Day 16: More Speculation

Today's exercise is to look at another speculative element and to establish limits and boundaries for it. Works of fantasy often have fantastic intangibles that we cannot dream of encountering in real life, and they should act in a consistent way, as if governed by imaginary rules of physics. Internal consistency is what makes or breaks willing suspension of disbelief.

 An obvious story element that needs examination is magic. Magic always comes at a price or otherwise it would be ubiquitous. Alchemical magic has the cost of components in addition to the proper education necessary to perform it. Theury as practiced by priests and clerics is limited by the faith that the practitioner has alongside whatever fickle limitations the granting entity decides upon. Device magic has the same limitations as alchemical magic. Inherent gift magic has fewer limitations, but it limited by the restrictive nature that grants the magic (ex: a magical bloodline). Magic that taps into ley lines is by nature geographically limited.

All parties involved will obviously attempt to use magic to their advantage, but magic using beings may also see advantage in restricting access to magic so as to increase their own value. Why spread arcane knowledge if that means you have a weaker bargaining position when it comes to the use of your magic.

Worldbuilding Day 15: Resources

Today is somewhat of a cheat day due to the exercise just focusing on reading other resources on world building, so I am off camping for the weekend to get first hand experience on camping with what you can bring in on your back.

Worldbuilding Day 14: Education

Today's exercise is an extension of the society and culture exercise: the education system the world uses. This will be brief because some of this will be addressed in character generation, but there are a variety of educational forms. Some people simply learn the profession of their parents. Others join guilds as apprentices. The empire has state schools. The city states have religious school. Some monasteries are dedicated to learning. A few universities exist in the heart of civilization. The range of education available is broad and eclectic, just like the population that has journeyed to this region in the hopes of making a better life or some quick money.

Worldbuilding Day 13: Plot Hooks and the Speculative Element

Looks like I will have to revise my speculative element. Today's exercise is to look at the speculative element and determine ten things that the speculative element can do for my setting. What can verisimilitude due for my setting? Well, examining the ecosystem, considering the impact of multiple entrances, and looking at NPC relationships within the dungeon should be able to give me a few plot hooks.

NPC factions that can not support themselves from the resources within the megadungeon will obviously have to control a route to the surface in order to acquire new resources such as food. This means that the monsters found close to the entrances will either be strong and able able to maintain firm control of the route or weak due to constant fighting.

There are multiple entrances to the megadungeon (currently a dozen mapped) so this means a system needs to used to determine whether a faction located near the surface is powerful or not. A simple rule will be that entrances located closer to the periphery of the megadungeon will be weaker, wheseas factions that control a route that provides easier access to the core of the megadungeon will usually be strong. There will be a couple exceptions to this rule due to fighting between various factions.

Some factions do not need access to the surface. Included in this list are slimes, undead, demonic beings, fungal creatures, and elementals (this is not an exhaustive list). This gives a broad range of enemies of various power levels to populate the lower levels of the megadungeon. It also leads me to consider that undead or demons should be one of the largest threats, which natural lends itself to clerics and paladins being stronger in the "end game" then they normally would be.

Worldbuilding Day 12: The Speculative Element

Today's exercise is to think on what differences a particular speculative element of the store would have on the setting. This has been considered in great depth by many players. Why if clerics can make food are there still farmers? The question of why in a world with alchemy and healing magic should sickness and injury exist was recent discussed on Reddit. My answer is that there is a cost, either material component or faith, that makes it inefficient to just rely on magic. The real question that should concern me is: does a megadungeon make sense (or does it even have to)?

Ah, verisimilitude. Using monster relationships to improve megadungeon verisimilitude. Jaquaying the dungeon. Gygaxian naturalism vs the dungeon as mythic underworld. A lot has been written on trying to give megadungeons internal consistency, or conversely, no internal consistency in the case of the mythic underworld theory. I fall on the side of a megadungeon needing internal consistency. There should hopefully be no "gotcha" moments where the players die purely to blind chance. Every threat in the dungeon should be able to be predicted to a degree, as long as you have enough knowledge before hand. The acquisition of knowledge should be a key goal of the players.

I know it is not really a dungeon game, but I look at Portal for inspiration. You are given the rules on how the portal gun works and face a simple puzzle. From there you proceed to more and more complex iterations of effectively the same puzzle. Same goes to the megadungeon; introduce the logic for solving the problems they encounter and just make the problems more complex. This is not a perfect parallel since RPG's are more complex than Portal. The approach I will take is to either introduce information about a threat before the players encounter it or to introduce new threats in a way that is less likely to be lethal. A good example for the less lethal option would be discovering a trap that malfunctions. They now know what to look for for indications of that trap without causing them great harm. This hopefully has them avoid the "paranoia crawl" where players constantly try and roll for perception and constantly tap the floor with a 10-foot pole checking for spike pits.

Worldbuilding Day 11: Focus In

Today's exercise is to expand upon one of the elements that we have already created. A lot of this guide is focused around creating the setting for a novel and fleshing out the personal history of characters. Obviously there should be minimal direction from the DM on character concept for the players since a lot of the fun in the game can be found in designing your own character. That leaves either focusing on the political economy of the region or writing a glossary or lexicon for your region's languages.

Muddy River Settlement:
This is a small city located near the mouth of the muddy river, with a population of 2,500. The ethnic makeup of the city is 70% city-state, 25% northerner, 10% empire, and 5% from other places. The major religion in the settlement is still based on the city-state pantheon, but their is an imperial orthodox presence within the city to serve the empire's garrison. The median income is lower than that found at the inlet settlement, but the city still does decent trade in precious metals and furs from the other side of the coastal range. The city is nominal controlled by The Empire, but true control rests with The Guild.

River Mining Settlement:
The river mining settlement is the supply hub of the muddy river region and provides supplies and services to furriers and miners within the muddy river region. The settlement has a population of around 500, with 80% city-state, 10% empire, 5% northerner, and 5% other. This does not include the several hundred to over a thousand trappers and miners further into the wilderness. There is an Empire fort to the west between the settlement and the great bog, a small chapter house of The Order, and a mage chantry in the foothills to the south.

Inlet Settlement:
The largest city in the region, and likely anywhere in the world that far north, the inlet settlement has more than 75,000 residents. The population is 85% empire, with 10% city-state, and 5% northerner. Even with such a small portion of the population being northerner, this is still the largest northerner settlement in the region. The city is built on the best deep water port in the region and services both an extensive fishing fleet and unobtanium freighters (from here on called magicite until I come up with a better name). Some magicite refining is done onsite to power the various magi-industrial devices in the region alongside the lightning rail. All factions have an extensive presence in the city, with The Empire having dominance due to their army division located just outside the city, and their large fleet base on an island just off shore of the city.

Valley Settlement:
Located at the confluence of two rivers, and the main crossing of the lightning rail, the valley settlement serves serves mostly as a logistics centre serving natural resource extraction and small-scale agricultural activity. The city has a population of 5,500, with 45% city-state, 50% empire, and 5% northerners.

Interior Settlement:
This is the largest settlement in the interior of the region, and second largest after the inlet settlement. The city has a population of 25,000, with 65% empire, 10% northerner, 10% city-state, and 15% from other regions. The two most significant sources of employment in the city are magicite extraction and the Empire government. There is a significant garrison in the city, with a full army division available. There is also a significant mage guild presence, with the oldest tower in the region being found here due to favorable ley lines.

The Order:
The Order has several small chapter houses located around the region. They often send squads to smaller settlements and hamlets that the Empire would not normally patrol due to rough terrain. There is some tension between The Order and The Empire, as The Empire does not like a military organization not under their control and The Order does not follow the orthodox faith. Since The Order is useful in keeping down threats in the wilderness there is an uneasy peace between them and empire garrisons.

Worldbuilding Day 10: Mood and Culture

The exercise today is one of consideration and revision. Currently I do not feel that there is anything necessary for extensive revision, so I think that I will expand upon a mechanic that I hi-lighted when I examined 13th Age: icons. I am going to try and brainstorm several icons/factions that play a role in the region surrounding the megadungeon.

There are a few things I need to consider when coming up with my own icons. Icons are all social by nature. Someone connected to the icon has to provide the benefit of an icon relationship roll to the player, be it money, a map, a henchmen, or just information. The icons themselves also have goals, and this helps make icons more than just vending machines for the player's benefit.

Icons/Factions:
Mage's Guild: This faction represents the local magic school in the region. They provide training and information and hold some political power in the main settlement.

The Order: This faction represents a militant paladin order that fights the forces of chaos northern of the main mountain range.

The Cult: This faction represents the cultists that have infiltrated the settlements in the region and attempt to sabotage and corruption life behind the defensive forts.

The Northern King: This icon represents the political power in the northern tribes. He is attempting to keep that status quo for fear that any change will leave his people at an even more disadvantageous position.

The Empire: This faction represents the imperial interests in the region. They control the town guards, the army, and the unobtanium mines in the region. They keep the peace and form the economic backbone of the region.

Chaos: This faction represents the raiders from the northern wastes that have been attacking the region for the last few decades. Their motivation and where they derived their power from remain a mystery.

The Guild: This faction represents the merchant guilds, but also the shadowy thieves' guild. They are not evil per se, but I would not consider them a force of good.

There are other factions that I have considered within the megadungeon, but they are not integrated with the social structure of the settlements surrounding the megadungeon so I do not see them as candidates to introduce as factions/icons.

Worldbuilding Day 9: Language

I am going to go off the assigned exercise a little and look at which languages I am going to use as inspiration for my various in setting languages. Obviously neither the players nor I will be speaking these languages, but it will help with the direction of the nouns in the game and give some flavor. The exercise in the guide asks me to consider what sort of syllables and sounds I would like to hear to give various feelings. Two examples they give are a language that should sound soft like water or a language that should sound hard like Klingon. I have done a fair bit of traveling and worked with expats from a variety of countries during my time in asia, so I feel more comfortable just getting these sounds and names directly from various languages.

The native northern population is going to take inspiration from the Goidelic/Gaelie languages. The city states will likely be influenced by another indo-european language to feel more familiar, likely an Anglo-Germanic mash-up. The western empire will likely speak a Hellenic language for administrative purposes, with other dialects active within the empire.

Not trying to be racist, but the less familiar the race is supposed to be the less familiar the language will be. Dwarves will not sound like some sort of Scotsman if encountered, and will speak a language completely unrelated to other indo-european languages. I am not certain which I would take inspiration from, but it the spoken language will be less important in this case than the written language, which will definitely not take the form of stereotypical basic runes.

I suppose the Dwarven script should consist of straight lines since that would be the easiest way to carve letters into rock, but perhaps they are so skilled at stonework that they can have a flowing script that would be amzingly difficult for any human to duplicate into stone.

Worldbuilding Day 8: Economics and Resources

Today's exercise was basically addressed earlier. I am to take five minutes noting places on the map that are rich in specific resources. I note these down on the map with green rectangles in the ocean for rich fishing grounds, along the western valley and interior with gold squares for gold placer deposits, and purple circles for the unobtanium that the western empire needs to fuel their magi-industrial growth. This region is not the only source of this resource, but the deposits are more easily mined here and there are no other great powers contesting their control of the region so it is very valuable to them.

The resources that the western empire needs to fuel its magi-industry is very limited and has a defined source, but I am uncertain as to whether I want to reveal the source to the players or leave it as a mystery. It is not a diabolical or evil process, but I suppose it could be considered cliche, and sometimes revealing a cliche that is not commonly used in a genre can be a little jarring and colour the expectations of the players.

Either way, some of the magic items available that come from contemporary sources will be almost mechanistic in appearance and will rely on the unobtanium to power their function. This is a different way of expressing charges, at least mechanically, but I feel that it will offer a different flavor to the setting and will function as another resource players have to manage. After all, dungeon crawls are often just an exercise in resource management.

Worldbuilding Day 7: Recent History

Today's exercise has us outlining the major historical events over the 100 years before the start of the campaign. This is just a rough sketch and the timeline is malleable, but it should include dates when power shifted between factions, dates when significant natural and unnatural events occurred, and look at the resources of the land and where people live. The events are listed in negative years before the current date. Names are currently placeholders.

Rough regional timeline:
-1000y ice begins to rapidly retreat
-250y city states explore the coast
-220y first city state settlement at mouth of muddy river
-205y first missionaries arrive
-200y invention of the magic engine 
-198y northern warriors destroy several city state settlements
-196y battle of muddy river, city states victorious
-192y muddy river settlement rebuilt
-191y to -155y placer gold discovered, gold rush
-188y fort built further west close to western empire's boarderlands
-147y to -144y great war of empires
-133y claims on settlement sold to western empire
-120y unobtanium deposits discovered inland
-118y main settlement moved east to inlet due to easier interior acccess
-86 to -82y second great war of empires
-84y precious metals found further up muddy river
-60y great northern earthquake, muddy river settlement virtually destroyed
-59 to -30y series of eruptions along outer range
-30y regular raids from northern wastes begin
-2y discover of megadungeon

I updated the map to include a yellow line for the rail that heads from the inlet to the interior. The four blue dots are forts that are located near various passes to try and keep raiders away from the main settlements.

History of Slime Monsters

I recently came upon a video put out by saigancat on the history of slime monsters. A classic staple of rpgs, both pen-and-paper and electronic, slime monsters have served as fodder for innumerable adventurers. I feel that this is a relevant video due to the fact that there will be slimes in the megadungeon, both due to being a classic monster and due to the fact that they serve a perfect roll as scavenger in the dungeon food chain.

Worldbuilding Day 6: Fantasy Races

The exercise for day 10 is not very applicable for my purposes. I am supposed to figure out the differences between various ethnic groups around the globe and how they developed and mixed. I am dealing with a small region and also have the additional issue of fantasy races, but I will focus on the various human populations in the region.

Humans in general have a variety of ethnicities and cultures equal to what we had pre-Columbian Exchange. There are three main sources in the region for human populations, and therefore characters. There is an indigenous population of fair-skinned northerners who have been there since before the ice began to recede. This group lived alongside the non-human societies that existed in the region, but there was not much interaction and exchange between these societies. The northern speak a language isolate, unrelated to that spoken by other populations in that part of the world.

In addition to the indigenous northern population, there are old trading settlements from the eastern federation of city-states. These settlements were mostly centered around resource extraction such as fish, furs, and lumber. Some of these people established ascetic religious retreats in the mountains. Eventually there was a discovery of gold in the rivers that sparked a series of gold-rushes, but most of these prospectors eventually returned to the city-states. The people from the city-states have a darker complexion and speak a related group of languages that have varied dialects between the various city-states. Their trade dialect is based upon the city-state which has historically been the strongest (and which I have not named yet).

Recently the region has come under the de facto control of the western empire (which currently does not have a name). They experienced intermittent war with other powers in their part of the world and have just in the last few decades finally become the hegemonic power in that part of the world. They are currently in a pseudo-magical-industrial revolution. The technology itself is not important at this point in developing the setting, but the fuel needed to power this revolution is. Large deposits of unobtanium which is used to power the applied phlebotinum were found in the region (placeholder names) and this has lead to new settlements and large scale mining operations. The people from the western empire are diverse as the territory they control is vast.

When addressing the playable non-human races, examples which were given in my earlier post on player races, all the choices available will be human merged with something else. Either they will be magically created races, like various shape-shifters or constructs created to fight an ancient war, bloodlines like aasimar or tieflings where the unusual nature does not always express, or not actually races per se but individuals that share something in common like the Godlike in Pillars of Eternity. Other non-human races exist in the world but for the setting of the megadungeon these will be non-player races.

Worldbuilding Day 5: The Map

Today's exercise is to draw 'The Map'. I get to cheat a little because I am currently just using a location I found on Google Earth that I feel fits the setting perfectly.

After deciding on the major features of the map I had to locate at least three places where their may be settlements, which I have indicated with red dots. This may actually be too many settlements involved with my megadungeon, because I want the focus on exploration and less on city politics and drama, which over the last few years I have had enough of.

I am considering changing this to a hex based map since there are already so many tools available to facilitate hex based adventures, but since I have this area available via Google Earth I may go with vector based travel. Looking at this map also gives me some indication on which areas should have different encounter tables, which can potentially be a series of post in itself.

Worldbuilding Day 4: Cataclysmic Events

Today's exercise looks at really big land features and what created these features. Three of the major features of the region are a mountain chain, a river valley with a large natural harbor, and an isolated plateau.

The mountains are the result of tectonic movement, just as you'd find in the world today. Their peaks are jagged because they are young mountains, pushed up by one plate colliding with another. This collision has also caused a series of volcanoes to form, along with hot springs and geysers.

The river valley is located between to mountain ranges, and was also carved out further by massive glaciation a thousand years ago. In my setting their was a colder phase in the climate more recently than their was in our world. There has also been a more rapid shift from cold to warm in the climate.

The isolated plateau is bounded on all sides by mountains. This isolates it from the weather coming off of the coast, by it also channels water into an area of flat ground that has difficulty escaping. This results in an area that is slightly warmer than the surrounding area, but it is also more swampy and difficult to cross.

One of the non-natural features of the setting is over course the megadungeon, a section of which is an abandoned underground city. The city was abandoned shortly after the climate began to shift, but why was it abandoned and why did volcanic activity in the region begin to rise again in the time since?

Worldbuilding Day 3: Mood and Setting

The exercise for today is to develop the mood and theme on the basis of four words: two adjectives, a noun, and a verb. My setting can be summed up with the words 'mysterious mountainous megadungeon mapping'. I would rather use exploration than mapping, but you can not fight the power of alliteration.

I am only supposed to pick one climate to express the mood of my setting, but this is a story about exploration, and dozen climates that I listed during the Climate & Variety day are coherent  to my vision. Over the last few months, and during a nice tropical vacation, I have seen some sights that I would love to include in a game, but they do not fit the concept of my setting. This match-up of climate with mood will help keep me focused on my design document principles.

Worldbuilding Day 2: the Physial Planet

Yesterday I wrote down several climates that can be found in the campaign setting. The exercise for today, which should be called Weather rather than Physical Planet, is to look at the weather that can be found in these climates and develop ten plot devices related to weather.

1. Bad storm at sea, players potentially shipwrecked
2. Snow-in traps players in a remote settlement
3. Sudden flooding along river sweeps away bridge
4. Dry-lightning starts a forest fire
5. Muddy conditions make tracking easier
6. Muddy conditions make roads useless
7. Blizzard closes mountain pass
8. Avalanche closes mountain pass during spring thaw
9. Summer cold snap catches travelers unprepared
10. Long winter nights allow beings that fear the sun to roam the surface

Worldbuilding Day 1: Climate and Variety

The first exercise in the Fantasy Worldbuilder guide is to look at a map and write down all the different climates I can think of. I already began this is a way with my Environs of the Megadungeon: Inspiration from Denali Wilderness and Environs of the Megadungeon: Lands of Ice & Fire. This is the list of climates I had originally brainstormed when I was writing out my design document (with the help of Wikipedia). I have given a real world example beside each climate type.


maritime temperate climate: Copenhagen or Auckland
maritime subarctic climate: mountains north of Vancouver
dry-summer maritime sub-alpine climate: Oregon coastal mountains
warm summer continental climate: Helsinki or Lake Tahoe
continental subarctic climate (taiga): Fairbanks or Helsinki
continental subarctic climate with extremely severe winters: Siberia
ice cap climate: Antarctica or Greenland
semi-arid climate (steppe): Mongolia or Wyoming Basin
subarctic climate: high Rockie Mountains
alpine tundra climate: Colorado
tundra climate: Jotunheimen

I am not concerned with the other climates that are found around the world because I am focused on a region. Sure, there are probably vast deserts and verdant jungles, but that is not relevant to my setting.

30 Days of Worldbuilding: My Take

I recently came upon Stephanie Bryant's website and her Magical World Builder guide that deals with developing a world over the course of 30 days. The premise is that you take 15 minutes a day to sketch out your world/setting. While intended as an aid for writing novels, I can see where it would be useful in the development of a campaign setting. I will spending 15 minutes each day this month dealing with one of the entries, in addition to whatever other posts I will be making over the course of this month.

Additionally, the middle of the month will bring us 5th edition D&D, and I expect to get a lot of ideas from that. So far the art work is looking solid and I like the idea of bounded accuracy keeping the truly gonzo elements of 3.X in check while getting rid of some of the stiffness and MMO-esque feeling that 4th edition had. I did like elements from 4th edition, but it felt more like a pen and paper version of Final Fantasy Tactics than a table top roleplaying game.