Langbeck Castle Map: Free PDF Download

I have a bunch of commitments this weekend. So in lieu of my normal Riot Squad Saturdays post, I'm shamelessly uploading a rework of an old map that many of my newer followers may have missed. This new version has been updated to good ol' black and white so it's more laser printer-friendly, and I've re-keyed it, including the actual room area names/titles. You might also notice that I've changed the name from Wolvesey (the actual castle on which this map is based) to Langbeck. Since my map key is based partly on actuality, and partly on non-actuality, I didn't want historians finding my map years from now thinking the room assignment are accurate. Feel free to turn it into ruins or what have you, knowing it probably needs a second floor (including some bedrooms, wardrobes, etc.)

To download a free PDF of this map
from MediaFire, click here.

d30 Feature of the Week: Ruins Generator

This week's d30 feature is one of the main reasons I've been slow to update the d30 Sandbox Companion. I cannot believe that something that, at first, seemed like a no-brainer to me, ended up being so difficult. Honestly, it's been three or four months (off-and-on) of looking at it, putting it down, and coming back to it... just to figure out the inhabitants thing. In the end, the answer was so simple, I couldn't believe it took me this long to come to it. Instead of trying to create an overly-detailed inhabitant chart, I've opted for a "generalized" one that allows the DM to "shift" the results as need be, to fit the locale/campaign or, most importantly, the party level!

To download a free PDF of this d30 Ruins Generator from MediaFire, click here.

Cavern of the Darkmoon Talisman (Preview of Free Adventure Download)

Over the past few months, I've been posting some free "mini-adventures" (see the Old School Adventures™ page). Usually these are 1-3 pages long, including the maps, and contain very topline encounter information.

Partly spurred on by my recent conversion work on the Community Geomorph Project, I'm in a real map-making mood as of late. So I dug out an incomplete cavern map, and started filling it in. Before I knew it, I had all these ideas about the various parts of the cavern. So what I'll be doing over the next few weeks (in addition to the hundreds of other diversions with which I'm currently distracted), I'll be filling in each subsection of this map (pictured above) so that each area essentially becomes a "mini-adventure." As each area's encounters are complete, the PDf for that area will be posted. When complete, the pieces and parts will be compiled into one final "complete" version for download on the Old-school Adventures™ page.

The names and monsters indicated above are subject to change without prior written notice.

"Sandboxing" the Mysterious Mist of Foxpond (Cont.)

As originally mentioned in my post from Sunday a week-and-a-half ago, I decided to take what was originally going to be a "railroad the players to the dungeon" adventure, and take it in a more "sandbox-y" direction -- essentially, converting it into a set of smaller, related adventures instead of one large "forced" one.

To do this, I'm relying on one of my preferred storytelling tools, the flowchart. What this allows the DM to do, is quickly see the various relationships between characters, locations and clues. The strongest of these then act as "pointers" to other locations. The other thing it allows me to do when "scripting" the story (because that's what this really is), is to make sure that pointing the characters (players) to any specific locale is not dependent on a "thin wire" of a clue buried in some dungeon.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of a red herring as much as the next guy, but there's no reason a red herring can't point the players in the right direction for the wrong reason, only to backfire on them.

One of the things I have to be careful of, however, is making any reference to a "higher level" encounter and diverting lower level players before they're ready. Hopefully, things like distance and danger will dissuade them. Why trek hundreds of miles away when there's plenty to explore in the immediate area before moving on?

I know this all probably sounds pretty nebulous, but that's sort of how the relationships stand right now; just look at the sketch of relationships (of locations, characters, and clues.)

New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Gaseous Lantern

If you've ever seen Robert Altman's 1992 movie The Player, there's a scene where Richard E. Grant's character pitches a movie to Tim Robbins' character. Grant describes a nighttime scene outside a jail where a group of people holds vigil for a man about to be electrocuted. It's raining, and the candlelight flickering under all the umbrellas makes them appear like glowing Japanese lanterns. That's actually sort of what inspired today's monster.

DESCRIPTION Gaseous lanterns are seemingly benign creatures that appear as a sort of veiny fleshy balloon approximately 2’ in diameter set atop 7-12 tentacles approximately 8” in length. As a biological by-product of their digestion process (their diet consists mostly of lichen), they “glow”, with each lantern emitting an amount of light equal to to a dim candle. It is said that viewing an underground cavern filled with gaseous lanterns is truly a sight to behold. Unfortunately, the gas that gives these creatures their luminous appearance is extremely volatile and highly explosive. If contact is made between open flame (e.g., candles, torches and fireballs) and a gaseous lantern, the gaseous lantern will combust, doing 1-2 points of fire damage to all creaures within a 5’ radius (unless a saving throw +1 vs. breath weapon is made) and producing a cloud of toxic smoke that will cause all creatures within the same 5’ radius to fall unconscious for 1-3 turns (unless an additional saving throw +2 vs. poision is made.) Any gaseous lantern within 5’ of a gaseous lantern that has combusted must make a saving throw at -1 vs. breath weapon or combust as well, creating the same flame/smoke effects, and pontentially continuing a chain reaction of explosions among other nearby gaseous lanterns. Any successful “to hit” roll against a gaseous lantern by an edged weapon will cause the gaseous lantern to explode and release its toxic gas, causing the same effects as the toxic smoke noted above (but will not create any of the flame effects or cause any chain reaction.) For any successful “to hit” roll against a gaseous lantern by a blunt (non-edged weapon), there is a 50% chance that it will burst the gaseous lantern, causing the same gaseous effects as an edged weapon. Exposure to (without contacting) a significant heat source will cause a gaseous lantern to expand, causing it to “burst” (as by a weapon) in 1-2 turns. Gaseous lantern spores are released during these explosions. Though the spores are not dangerous, the 5-30 spores that are released from a single gaseous lantern, will each mature to a full gaseous lantern in approximately 2 weeks.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 10-60 ARMOR CLASS: 9 MOVE: /1” HIT DICE: 1 pt. % IN LAIR: Nil TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Non- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: S (2’ diameter) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 9 HIT DICE: 1 pt. MOVE: /10’ ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE: 1d6+2/1d6+2 NO. APPEARING: 10-60 SAVE AS: Normal man MORALE: 7 TREASURE TYPE: Nil ALIGNMENT: Neutral

Community Geomorph Project Update: 2nd-round of Conversions + Other Community Projects

I know that my last post on this was only this past Thursday and, at one-a-day, that can't be much headway. Well, I knew I'd have a rather busy week this coming week, so I used some free time over the weekend to "get ahead." By "get ahead," I mean finish plowing through the
multitude of submissions from Boric G.

I'll probably take the rest of the week off from the conversions because at this point I'm technically ahead of schedule. I do have some remaining submissions left in the conversion queue, but I'm still taking submissions!!! (see the Community Geomorph Project page for submissions details and links to the templates.)

SOME OTHER COMMUNITY PROJECTS THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU:

The Great Kahn's One-Page Viking-themed Dungeon Contest:
You can see my submissions here and here.

Sword & Shield's "Pocket Full of Terror Project":
The original deadline has passed with participation falling short, and I have not seen an update from Fenway yet; he's probably posting one as I'm posting this.
(Officially cancelled due to "vast indifference.")

Rended Press's "The Young Green Dragon Over The Next Hill".:
Mr. Schmeer's last project, "The Trouble With Troglodytes", is in the compiling/editing phase, so he's moved on to this new community project.

The Other Side's "Monstrous Monday":
This isn't so much a community project as it is a "blogfest" set for the Monday of Halloween week.

Dave's Mapper IBD Tile Drive:
Again, not quite a community project, but a good cause. Long story short, Dave is doing a tile for $ pledge drive (benefits CCFA) that ends in the next couple of days. I'm looking at offering a benefit version of the final PDF of the Community Geomorph Project and donating the proceeds to the CCFA, and providing the content to Dave's mapper. (Participants in the NBD Community Geomorph Project will be getting an official email from me later, probably when I send PDFs of your geomorphs for review/approval.)

Riot Squad Saturdays Sunday:Scale Considerations Revisited

Photo: "Officer Calls Paddy Wagon for Disturber of the Peace" by Yoichi R. (Yoichi Robert) Okamoto
(for the EPA, now in the National Archives.)

Yes, I know this post is officially a day late. But if you think about it... it's actually 8 days late (since I missed last Saturday as well.) Regardless, let's turn our attention to where we left off... scale considerations.

THE COUNTERS (A Short Recap)
Recalling the post from 8/25, the counters were originally intended to represent an individual type. Then, as I thought about what the game was meant to simulate, it made more sense to let each counter represent a "unit" rather than an "individual" (per my 9/8 post). Which brings up my newest consideration...

STACKING
Stacking hinges on 2 factors: 1) the map scale, and 2) finding a way to track unit "volume" should a unit lose individual "members." Let's say you're inside a building and dealing with a lone gunman situation. Scale and unit size for this type of simulation would suggest no stacking. However, on a city landscape, where the units could represent everything from paddy wagons to a dozen protestors/marchers, stacking should be allowable. Which brings me to a related consideration...

TWO SETS OF RULES?
I strongly believe that the game will need to accommodate both of these very different scales of play: 1) the "smaller" man-to-man scale, and 2) the "larger" unit-to-unit scale. The two are obviously related, but it does help me focus on one type of interaction at at time. And since the name Riot Squad suggests the latter, this is where I will concentrate as I continue over the following weeks.

To be continued...

d30 Feature of the Week: Expanded Cult (and Adventure Seed?) Generator

This week's d30 feature is part of the ever-updated-and-slowly-but-surely-going d30 Sandbox Companion. It's also an updated/expanded version of the d30 Cult Generator originally posted back in March of this year.

I realized the "Mantra" portion of the original table was a little goofy, and a bit of a waste in the context of the d30 Sandbox Companion. Instead, I thought a name generator for the cult/secret society (like the d30 Tavern Name Generator) would be a bit more useful. Additionally, I've added a component to the generator that handles the immediate goals of the cult. To me, this expanded chart works much more like an adventure seed generator (give the cult a name, a leader and a goal... and you've got a nuisance that any local leader would hire adventurers to get rid of.)

To download a free PDF of this updated/expanded
d30 Cult Generator from MediaFire, click here.

Community Geomorph Project Update: 1st-round Conversions

As I mentioned in my last update, I'm trying to get one page of submissions converted every day, with the hopes of being through the majority of the submissions by mid-October.

About four days ago, that schedule was beginning to look pretty grim. Work started to get crazy and I started to look at that "one page per day" goal disappearing quickly in my rear view mirror. But thanks to a break in the storm, I used today to catch up, and now have 10 completed (that's 1 per day since my last post!)

Right now, I'm trying to get through each person's submissions in a single stretch. I got through Christian Sturke's 2 submissions easily and started plowing through the almost 20 submissions from Boric G. With 8 of his 19 behind me, I'm not even technically half-done with his submissions. It's strange to think that it might be October before I am.

THE PROCESS FROM HERE...
I'd like to keep slogging through the redraws and get the entire herd complete before I start sending out PDFs to everyone for review/approval... for 2 reasons: 1) I think it will help me keep the process streamlined, and 2) I might do some "re-arranging" of some geomorphs between any individual person's pages for thematic purposes (e.g., putting all the person's temple geomorphs on one page, and putting all their cavern geomorphs on page, etc.) I think this will aid tremendously when it's time to order the pages (and create a TOC) for the final book.

GEOMORPHING FOR A GOOD CAUSE
If the folks who've submitted (and plan on submitting) don't mind, I'd like to find a way to tie in to Dave's (from Dave's Mapper) IBD fundraiser. I know the original intention for the Community Geomorph Project was to create a free PDF for open distribution, but maybe we could change this to a for-pay PDF through RPGNow with proceeds going to the IBD fundraiser. (I'm open to better/alternate suggestions on this, so all thoughts/suggestions welcome.)

Which brings me to my next topic... Dave has already asked about everyone's geomorphs being part of his mapper. I didn't want to respond for everyone, so I was going to get everyone's okay on this during the review process, and then provide any "approved" files directly to him.

I haven't played Champions in a while, but...

Imagine rolling a bunch of these beasts every time you made a 10d6 energy blast! Somehow, rolling 10 d6s that are 7/8" wide seems a lot more fun than rolling 10 of those 12mm ones. They're only about twice as wide, but (volume-wise) it's the difference between approximately 6.7 cubic inches, and a little over 1 cubic inch. That's almost 7x more volume (if my math skills aren't failing me miserably right now).

In case you're wondering, I think it's the die from a copy of Seinfeld Scene It, and it showed up in a box of crap somebody brought to my semi-recent garage sale.

"Sandboxing" the Mysterious Mist of Foxpond

In working on my recent single-page dungeon entries for The Great Kahn's 1-page viking-themed dungeon contest, as well as putting my focus back to the d30 Sandbox Companion, I had a revelation regarding my approach to The Mysterious Mist of Foxpond. I'm dumping the hackneyed-railroading "force the PCs into the tavern" approach in favor of a "looser," more sandbox-style format. It's taking a little extra work, but as Welbo pointed out, it will also help me refine what's in the d30 Sandbox Companion, and streamline the Companion's content's usage (as well as creating a much better/more useful module.)

The 2 key differences in the new approach are: 1) the inclusion of a lot more "background" content (NPCs, town map, etc.), and 2) breaking up the long, single "dungeon crawl" into a lot of smaller "set pieces" (to loosely use a film term). Additionally, the new set up will provide lots of smaller opportunities for the PCs to explore plenty of "self-contained" areas that weren't particularly called out in the original version (a cemetery by the old church on the outskirts of town, the ruins of a small building in Spidersbane Wood, an abandoned cult temple north of Foxpond, et al.), each of which will actually contribute to created what feels like a more "fleshed out" storyline (even though all of that thinking was in the original version).

So, long story short... some of you have expressed interest in playtesting, but it appears that will be delayed a bit. Sorry. Welbo and I are going to be running a bit of our own playtesting first and we'll take it from there.

Thanks for your patience. But we think you'll really like the new format a LOT more.

Free Oe/1e/BX Mini-adventure: Þrymjahellir (for characters levels 4-7)

The other day I wrote about the Great Kahn and his one-page dungeon contest with a Viking theme. And I created The Tomb of Ludor the Beheader centered around my draugr monster stats. Since the contest goes for another couple of weeks, and some others have expressed interest in making more than one submission. I decided to do the same. Again, I looked to one of the monsters from the Creature Compendium, and chose the red dwarf.

Þrymjahellir (Threemyahetler)
When the PCs come across the entrance to Þrymjahellir, they will find two pairs of half-elves in a stand-off. Each pair will claim the others are dopplegangers, and are preventing them from going inside the cave, where they wish to confront a small tribe of red dwarves and reclaim a stolen magic item (an axe named Tuireann).

For the record, the name of this cave, þrymjahellir, is Old Norse for both “cave of thunder” and cave of lies”--a reference both to the deceit happening outside the cave, as well as the occasional "booming" sounds that echo throughout the caverns. (Somebody who actually speaks old norse, or is just Scandinavian is probably going to tell me it means "poopshelf" or something ridiculous - look... Gandalf was old norse dwarf before he was a Tolkien magic-user; it's called creative license!)

Now for a caveat... I did create a 1-page version for the contest, but kept having more and more ideas about stuff I wanted to add. Before I knew it, I had a two page version with some additional adventure seeds for continued stories (the 2-pager also has more treasure). I am making both versions available here, but only the 2-page version will be available on my Old School Adventures™ page.

* 2-page version of Þrymjahellir - click here
* 1-page "abridged" version of Þrymjahellir - click here

And don't forget to look for more free mini-adventures on the Old-school Adventures page!

New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Giant Shock Snail

This is one of those creatures that feels stereotypically "old school" to me. 1) Take a standard creature (usually benevolent), 2) make it giant, and 3) give it a special ability. The other thing I like is that even though the giant shock snail's movement is slow (almost worthless), it throws a rather threatening lightning bolt. Fun stuff!

DESCRIPTION A shock snail, like other giant snails, has an exposed, fleshy area (AC: 6) and a hard-shelled area (AC: 3). Due to the pliant nature of the body’s thick, rubbery surface, the fleshy area of a shock snail is not susceptible to damage from blunt weapons and, therefore, can only be hit by piercing, bladed, or magical attacks. The shelled area, however, is susceptible to all forms of attacks but benefits from a lower armor class rating. Shock snails are immune to the effects of electrical-based attacks, regardless of where they hit. The bite of a shock snail does 2-12 points of damage. However, given a shock snail’s rather limited movement ability, its preferred form of attack is a form of lightning bolt the shock snail can “throw” from its antennae at a target up to a distance of 50’ away. Each antenna acts as an electric “pole” (one positive, one negative), with the electrical bolt forming between the two. A shock snail may only use this electrical attack every second round, as it takes that long for the attack to recharge. Each of these electric bolts does 3-18 points of damage. A successful saving throw (vs. wands) will half the damage.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 1-6 ARMOR CLASS: 6/3 MOVE: 3” HIT DICE: 7 % IN LAIR: Nil TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-12/3-18 SPECIAL ATTACKS: Electricity SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Non- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: L (7’ long) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 6/3 HIT DICE: 7 MOVE: 30’ ATTACKS: 1 bite or 1 special DAMAGE: 2-12/3-18 NO. APPEARING: 1-6 SAVE AS: Fighter: 5 MORALE: 10 TREASURE TYPE: Nil ALIGNMENT: Neutral

Community Geomorph Project Update

August was a crazy month, what with a heavy biz workload, some spousal and family commitments requiring some time/attention, and getting back in the swing of my part-time teaching gig. But as I've mentioned, many things have been progressing (albeit slowly) behind the scenes.

I promise I have not forgotten about the Community Geomorph Project. So far I have received 30 pages (120 total sections) from 4 people. I was beginning to think Boric G. from The Dwarven Stronghold would end up having to have his own edition, having contributed more than half of the total submissions. But submissions started to dry up a bit at the end of July. I think it's because I stopped pushing the project.

LET ME ASSURE YOU, THIS PROJECT IS ALIVE AND WELL!
SUBMISSIONS ARE STILL BEING ACCEPTED!!! (Check out the CGP page for info.)

My plan is to redraw at least one page of submissions per day (starting yesterday), and "re-group" when I've run out of pages. As I have each person's submissions "converted" into the new drawing, I will send a PDF of the page back out to the submitter for review (to make sure I didn't mis-translate, or miss any details.) So far, I've only re-drawn one page (the first submission of two from Christian at Rorschach Hamster; it appears at the beginning of this post), but if I stick to my intended schedule (which shouldn't be a problem given my "small" daily goal, and the fact that I've "kicked myself in the pants" on this project), I would hope the project will be completed by the end of October (just in time for you to populate the geomorphs with monsters from Tim Brannan's Monstrous Monday bloghop!)

Speaking of the MM bloghop, you might have noticed that project's banner ad in the right column of this blog, or the new Geomorph Project banner atop that column. I'm working on some banner ads for all who wish to share in promoting Geomorph Project, and will posting those later this week.

THE PROJECT IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU TO PROMOTE YOUR BLOG/WHATEVER!
Your name and whatever link/address you choose will appear at the top of all your pages in the book! In the PDF version, links will be added so that people can click directly to whatever Web location you choose... directly from the file! This is intended to be a free download through RPGNow and DriveThruRPG (though I'm sure an "at-cost" print version will be available as well), and this type of project at those sites should be heavily downloaded!!! And who doesn't want some shameless self promotion?

As the project continues, I'm going to start reaching out the PARTICIPANTS to ask their input regarding the following:

MAP SIZING: Should the map sizes match the original TSR geomorphs? Or the DCC geomorphs? Nobody wants to adjust the size of the reprint so they can cut and paste from different resources and still match. I suppose they could be sized into two editions (one to match each of the other two), but I'm inclined to stick with one (though there wouldn't be a terrible extra amount of work involved.)

COVER DESIGN: This is one of those areas where there may be some discussion. My inclination would be to design the cover around the New Big Dragon "house style", but credited to all of the contributors; the cover illustration would still be TBD by participants. But this would be open for discussion.

On both of the above issues, be thinking about them, so when I open up the discussions you're ready to respond. But don't forget... you've got to contribute if you want your input to carry any weight!

30 Levels of Dungeon Goodness... Inside a Tree!

Welcome to Baradorn!
The name is a combination of the elvish words for "tower" (Barad: pron. bahr-ahd) and "tree" (orne: pron ore-nay), becoming "Baradorn" or "tower tree." And right now, I'm playing on 30 levels of "dungeon" goodness inside it. Honestly, I was trying to find a way to do a megadungeon that wasn't underground. Now I just have to fill the freakin' thing in. Damn this A.D.D.!

Riot Squad Saturday: Scale Considerations

Photo of "Anti Media Spree demo in Kreuzberg" by Libertinus Yomango.

As I was contemplating next steps for my ongoing Saturday posts regarding the development of the Riot Squad "wargame", I started giving consideration to how large of an area should be represented by the map-board. And, as a related considerations, the scale of each hex and the number of individuals represented by each counter (unit).

Though my original intention was to use the "man-to-man" scale that Welbo and I have been developing for Starmasters & The System:Expanded (see my "Samurai in Space" post), it began to make more sense to me that each counter represent a "unit" of more than one individual; this would allow for direct interaction of those (people) units with "larger" (non-people) units like SWAT vans and paddy wagons. It would also allow Welbo and I to start testing our design thoughts for scaling up the Starmasters/The System:Expanded man-to-man rules for larger scale interactions.

Without getting into too much detail, Starmasters/The System:Expanded use "effect scales" which allow d6s to be rolled providing various result strengths (weak to strong). Bonuses and penalties for damage are not given in absolute numbers; rather, they are given in shifts "up" or "down" to the attack's effect scale (thereby strengthening or weakening, respectively, the result of the roll, without changing the number of dice to be rolled). Weapons and magic spells, for example, are rated with these effect scales; certain types of armor or magical resistances cause effect scale shifts, modifying the resulting damage rolls.

In Riot Squad, my thoughts are to rank "units" (groups of individuals) with an effect scale, rather than a simple "combat number" (see my "Counters" post from 8/25/12). Then, each unit would be tracked on a separate tracking sheet, similar to the manner in which units are tracked in Battlesystem. Where the number of dice rolled = the number of individuals in the unit, and the effect scale would be determined by the unit. This would actually allow a large "individual" unit (like a SWAT van) to interact directly with a "multiple" unit counter (like a group of protestors). For example, a unit representing 5 peaceful protestors might roll 5d6 on effect scale A, and a single police fan unit might roll 1d6 on effect scale M. This would also allow crowds to grow to overwhelming numbers without having to track hundreds of counters on each turn.

TO BE CONTINUED... next Saturday.

d30 Feature of the Week: NPC Magic Item Determination

This week's d30 feature is part of the ever-updated-and-slowly-but-surely-going d30 Sandbox Companion. This chart is a major contributor to the "ever-updated-and-slowly-but-surely-going." I don't think it's quite there yet, but I think I'm close. It's been difficult finding a way to keep things to as few rolls as possible, while providing an amount of variety in results and avoiding to much repetition. Ultimately, I think the charts on the left hand page (showing which tables to use by class and level) will have to be "broken out" a bit more, and a couple of more magic item sub-tables added. But the general idea is working for me (just getting to this point was a bit of a battle), and just feel like its a matter of refinement at this point.

To download a free PDF of these d30 NPC Magic Item Determination charts from MediaFire, click here.

New Oe/BX/1E Monster: Thuzzendahg

This was a creature that was originally a Starmasters illustration. But as my co-conspirator Dave Welborn and I re-thought the idea of a "monster section" for Starmasters, it seemed to matriculate over to the Creature Compendium. (Yes, I took out the guy with the blaster and replaced him with a magic-user. And, yes... you read that right... 25 hit dice.)

DESCRIPTION Thuzzendahgs are monstrously-sized subterranean creatures found in caves and caverns deep beneath the surface. They are so large, in fact, their mouths are often mistaken for a small, slimy cave openings. Given that a thuzzendahg is usually hibernating to conserve energy (75% chance), and its breathing patterns are almost undetectable, it is common for adventures to wander inside, only to become the beast’s next meal. If a thuzzendahg detects that this has happened, he will immediately clamp down his oral opening and begin to ingest any creatures inside. All attacks inside a Thuzzendahg are at -2 “to hit.” In addition to trapping creature inside its mouth, it also surprises creatures outside its mouth on a 1-4 (on 1d6.) The thuzzendahg uses a combination of it’s tentacled limbs and forceful tail to move. Its two foremost limbs are also capable of delivering powerful blows to an opponent (4-24 points of damage each), and the front end of it’s tube-like mouth delivers a crushing attack as well (doing 3-18 points of damage.) When used as a weapon, a swipe of a thuzzendahg’s tail deals a powerful blow to an opponent (5-30 points of damage,) knocking that victim backward a distance in feet equal to the damage for the attack minus the characters constitution. The thick, pliant skin of the thuzzendahg, on the other hand, provides a natural defense against impact weapons and, therefore, may only be hit with edged weapons or magical attacks. Thuzzendahgs have a multi-spectral optical system, allowing them ultravision to 60’ and infravision to 120’.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Very rare NO. APPEARING: 1-2 ARMOR CLASS: 5 MOVE: 6” HIT DICE: 25 % IN LAIR: 70% TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: 3 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 4-24/4-24/3-18/5-30 SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Non- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: L (50+’ long) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 5 HIT DICE: 25 MOVE: 60’ ATTACKS: 2 forelimbs/1 bite/1 tail DAMAGE: 4-24/4-24/3-18/5-30 NO. APPEARING: 1-2 SAVE AS: Fighter: 13 MORALE: 10 TREASURE TYPE: Nil ALIGNMENT: Neutral

Lulu Sale + Extra 10% Off = $6.44 Print Copies of the d30 DM Companion

Lulu's doing it again, so I'm doing it again. I've temporarily discounted the list price of the d30 DM Companion print edition to coincide with Lulu's "Strum a Tune" sale. So when you add Lulu's 20% off with my 10% off, you get the d30 DM Companion for just $6.44 (a $2.51 savings over the standard price.) The sale ends Friday. Use the code CITHARA20 (case-sensitive) when you check out. There's only one use of the sale code allowed per account, but you can use it on your entire basket when you check out.

Check out the d30 DM Companion at Lulu.
You can preview the entire book while you're there!

Free Oe/1e/BX Mini-adventure:Tomb of Ludor the Beheader (Levels 8-12)

William over at Ramblings of a Great Kahn is having a one-page dungeon contest with a Viking theme. This seemed the perfect opportunity to create something around the Draugr I statted up. I know that by one-page-dungeon standards, this one is a little skimpy on the number of rooms/encounters. Instead, I kind of wanted to keep it in line style-wise with the other mini-adventures I've been creating, rather than "re-inventing" my format/content just for this contest. If that harms me from a judging standpoint, so be it. But don't be fooled, just because the tomb is only four rooms doesn't mean it's not a difficult one. The draugr alone, though a 10 HD monster, fights much tougher than a 10 HD monster (especially considering its magic armor and naturally low AC makes its AC -9, in its "weaker" form).

The Tomb of Ludor the Beheader
Ludor the Beheader was a vicious warlord renowned equally for his avarice, his strength, and his sadism. Ludor the Beheader, son of Finnur the Wanderer, was alternately known as Ludor the Black (a reference to his steely black eyes), and Ludor the Devourer (a reference to his appetite for wealth, women, and blood).

Click here to download "The Tomb of Ludor the Beheader" from MediaFire.

Note: I updated the file at 8:25 CST on 9/4/12 with changes to a couple of placeholder saving throw notes I had forgotten to finalize. If your downloaded file contains "R2" in the name, you have the most current version. Please feel free to download it again, or simply note all saving throws are now "vs. death ray" (for both the trap in room 3 and the new magic item, sword +2/beheader.)

Riot Squad Saturday: Scenarios and Conditions of Victory

"Man Alone WTO1999" photo by J.Narrin, 1999; used under the GNU Free Documentation License.

In the ongoing series of Saturday posts built around creating the Riot Squad "wargame," today I'll begin to outline what I see as the various game scenarios with some basic goals (conditions?) for victory. What follows are just my initial thoughts, but I only welcome suggestions for other scenarios or variations/changes on the ones below.

In most cases, the following scenarios would have a "duration" of a specific number of turns, except the revolution scenario; I could see that one like playing out like a game of monopoly.

SCENARIO 1A: "Protective" Protestors vs. Police
Protestor Goal: Protect target zone from "invading" force (e.g., eco-protest vs. corporation).
Police Goal: Break protestor zone of defense to occupy target zone.

SCENARIO 1B: "Aggressive" Protestors vs. Police
Protestor Goal: Expand zone of control by increasing protestor population.
Police Goal: Reduce protestors' zone of control (minimize population).

SCENARIO 2: Revolution
Revolutionist Goal: Expand zone of control to entire map.
Government Goal: Quash revolution (eliminate all zones of control).

SCENARIO 3:Traditional Riot
Rioter Goal: Looting and vandalism.
Police Goal: Arrest looters and vandals while keeping collateral damage to a minimum.

SCENARIO 4: Gang War
Gang Goal (Multiple Gangs): Increase zone of control and grow body count of opposition.
Police Goal (Optional): Arrest as many gang members as possible.

JOIN ME NEXT WEEK...
I'm not quite sure where it goes from here, but I suppose we'll see!

BTW, how cool is that photo by J. Narrin at the top of this post? And this one...

"WTO protests Seattle WA 1999" photo by J.Narrin, 1999; used under the GNU Free Documentation License.