Green Devil Face 3D Printed

This feature is LEGENDARY in the infamous S1 Tomb of Horrors by Gary Gygax.  Now you can print (a version of) it for your own game.  Derived from OpenForge, it is compatible with Dwarven Forge and other tabletop tile systems. 

Enjoy!

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1380984

A Cool Little Encounter

In the game, Dungeon Boss, you have a boss fight against this guy -- he's a goblin wizard and he has three shrieker mininons.  They screech at the heroes and drain their powers.  Pretty cool idea for a "low level" boss fight in your dungeons.  

Schrodinger's Dungeon as Sandbox Planning Tool

When I’m on the interwebs, I read about GMs and DMs that are constantly planning “story arcs” for their games.  They have this group of “important heroes” and then these heroes go out and do “important things” and that’s the big important story!  

If you like playing that way, that’s cool.  I’m not going to bash it.  I used to play that way -- but I’ve stopped.  

I’ve stopped for a few of reasons --

1. The prep was KILLING ME!  The amount of time it takes to put a “story” together is daunting.  I am an adult with a full time job now.  I want to spend my gaming time playing, crafting or painting minis.  I don’t want to plot out a story.  Personal preference.
2. If one of the players bails, you have a hole in your story that you have to fix.  The more important that PC, the bigger the hole.  The harder it is to plug.  This leads to massive re-writes of the plot and that goes back to #1 above.  HUGE TIME SUCK!  No thank you.
3. The railroad tracks must be strong and narrow.  If the PCs get off the path, the story suffers.  You have to make changes, re-writes, modifications, etc.  In one campaign, to keep “the story” on track, I had to resort to time travel for the PCs to wrap some things up…  Ack.  Too many ret-cons, to much re-writing.  Nope.

So that leaves sandbox play.  

If you run a sandbox, you have to be good at improvising.  Random tables are your friend.  You have to be good at tying disparate elements together on the fly or after the fact.  You have to weave some kind of world together from the bits you put out there.  You need to keep some good notes so that the random bits from three months ago mean something -- after all, that thing you made up about the blue fairy queen might just be the thing the adventurers want to follow up on!

So I had this initial idea -- why not create a set/series of random tables -- in advance -- that define the parameters of the sandbox?  These tables are all the prep you’ll need.  You keep going back to them, time and again, to determine what is going on in your game.

Yes, yes.  I know, there are literally an infinite number of random things out there (Abulafia, Wizardawn, Chaotic Shiny to name a few) plus all the dead-tree and/or PDF versions you can find (Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets, Dungeon Alphabet, Wilderness Alphabet, Toolbox, Ultimate Toolbox, etc.)

I’m talking about something else.  A template or structure that you fill in to represent the structure of your world (or parts of your world.)  The template -- how you roll against it -- sets the dynamics of what appears, when it appears, where it appears.  

You could approximate this by using the resources available -- random wandering monster charts, random treasure tables, etc.  That might work out just fine.  How you apply those random rolls to your world would determine the flavor and structure of the place.  If your whole world looks and feels the same, you could keep using the same tables everywhere.

Of course, if the City of Ghouls is different than the Ankaar, city of Thieves, you might need some different tables.

If The Tomb of Sarkos is different than the Crypt of Worms, you might need some different tables.

Of course, of course you could just randomly roll up some more tables.  Fine.  That’ll work.  

What I’m proposing instead is a fixed structure, that always “works” the same, that you fill in with bits and bobs to make each place different.  You’d fill this out initially, you can add to it and/or modify it as you go.  Make changes.  Deletions.  Additions.  But the “structure” for a given site is fixed at the beginning.

This leads me to another part of my idea, what I’m calling a Schrodinger’s Dungeon.  Nothing is fixed until it is observed.  Everything is in flux, until you roll for it.  

This is different than the Quantum Ogre principle, which states it doesn’t matter which way you go -- you’ll always encounter the ogre.  That messes up player agency.

In a Schrodinger’s Dungeon, you don’t know what’s there until you roll for it.  James Maz came up with this idea too, way back in 2009.  Perhaps it’s been rattling around my head all this time?  Who knows.  I’m still planning to “build it” which I don’t think has been done yet!

Now that I’ve Googled it, The Angry DM has an article about it too.  His idea looks like too much work for me (too many stat blocks) so I’m citing it here out of fairness, but I’ll likely not read much more of it.  :)

“Go left?  Go right?  OK, right it is (dice rattle, DM notes what is there) What do you do now?”

As new information becomes available, “You smell the strong odor of brimstone…” the players are free to act on that -- “OK, so you’d prefer to go left?  OK, (rattle, rattle)...”

The map itself can be randomly generated on the fly or just the contents.  The DM can randomly determine in advance or at the table.  I’d probably do a bit of both…

So what does this structure look like?  How does the prep go?  What’s next?

Well, I’m not quite sure.  I have some ideas, but, well, that’s another post.  :)

Megadungeon Idea - Scripted Changes

This idea is in its infancy.  I haven't playtested it at all.  Hell, I'm just making up the example now.  I had this thought last week on vacation (sitting by the pool has its perks...) but I'm just getting around to writing it up.

The idea is based on the premise that megadungeons should change over time.  The players enter a room, maybe they kill a monster there, take its stuff, etc.  Something should be different the next time.

Coming up with those "differents" is sometimes very hard.  The idea that I had was a kind of flow chart or checklist that DMs could use as the room evolves through the exploration of the megadungeon.  When a "state" is used, you check it off  (maybe date it) and move to the next state next time.

Here's an example (very crude)

[ ] Room has 2 orcs (AC 6, HD 1, HPs 5,4, AT: 1 club, 1d6)  The orcs have 21 sp between them.  There is a crude table, two piles of straw for beds, 2 dirty blankets.
[ ] The room is strangely empty and very, very clean.  Not even any dust.  No furniture.  Nothing.
[ ] A pentagram has been scribed on the floor in pink chalk.  Stubs of red and black candles remain at each point.
[ ] There is a bloody pentagram on the floor of the room.  Deep gouges have been made in the stone.  A single elvish shoe (dainty and expensive) badly torn and bloody lies on the floor.
[ ]...

So, the GM immediately has a narrative in the room.  Things can change.  Of course, not every room would have a "timeline" or narrative.  Just enough to keep the megadungeon "alive" in the minds of the players.

Additionally, if the players impact the development of the events, the DM will need to improvise.  In the example above, perhaps the PCs damage the pentagram deliberately during their 3rd visit to the room.  If so, then the 4th visit makes total sense.  If they completely obliterate the pentagram, maybe the wizard does a poor job re-doing it.  If they just scratch a line, well that makes sense too.

Anyway, I can see myself writing up some "narratives" for certain rooms if I ever get around to making my megadungeon.

What do you think?

Castile de Zela (my 2014 1PD Entry)

Here it is --

Thank you to all the folks who gave me ideas!

I think I used them all except one (Sorry Dave!)  I just couldn't figure out how to describe it in such as short format!  (I still want to hear the idea for the future...)

Click here or the picture to download the file.

Cavern Geomorphs (one set finished)

Previous posts here and here.

So, I abandoned the square cavern geomorphs.  My tests just didn't work out.  Over on the DM's Craft board, a person named @onethatwas suggested hexes.

This idea worked better.  I had a few quality control issues making sure that the hexes were exactly the same size, but they'll work fine.

Here are some pics --

The hexes are double-thick cardboard and the walls are a single layer.  The "door" gap is 2" and the hexes are 10" across.  I spray-painted them black and then I drybrushed the edges with grey.  I also used a sponge to highlight the "walls."  In some spots (you can see it on the tile above) I used the sponge to make slime/mold/fungus on the tiles.  Just for visual interest.

At this scale, they will integrate with my Dwarven Forge Game Tiles, so we'll see how that goes.

Cavern Geomorph Project

Previous post here.

OK, the project is progressing--

Here's a "tool" that I made so I can quickly measure the gaps for the hallways.  I made a 2" and 1" space.  You can place the gap across the gridlines and draw little tick marks.  Then you can freehand the walls on the tile.  I also made a 4" rule with a 1/4" tick mark for quick use.



Here are a few tiles drawn in -- I want to try a proof of concept before I finish the whole thing.  No sense in wasting time.


I used strips of black foam for the walls.  They are flexible and irregularly shaped.  It's kind of an eggcarton foam that I get from work (electronics packaging.)



Now I've covered the foam and tiles with TP using a glue/water mix.  About 50/50.  



Gonna let it dry.  Then I will cut out the tiles and spray paint them black.  

We'll see how it goes!

Cavern Geomorphs

I'm planning to make some 2.5D cavern geomorphs out of cardboard to compliment my 3D Dwarven Forge Dungeon Tiles.

I plan to make each (well, most) geomorphs 4x4" in size with 2" openings to match the DF.

Here's a map of the tiles I plan to make --

Each large box is 4x4" square.  I'm making curvy and straight passages.  Some will have rough hewn sides (maybe all, depending upon creative license).

The large cavernous rooms *should* be expandible if I do them correctly.  I think you can see how that might work.

I'll need about 2.5x3.5 feet of cardboard (no problem there) to make this set.

I'll keep you informed as it progresses!

Gorsen Cleric of Lathander (update)

So, I'm playing in a game now, rather than running CotMA.  I'm playing a cleric of Lathander in a 2e game, and I'm having a great time.  My cleric isn't really an all-star.  His highest stat is WIS 16.  He has two 10s and two 11s.  His CHA is 15.

He thinks he's awesome though.  Big ego.  It's going to get him into trouble, but I'm going for it!  :)

Here are some pictures from last nights session.  I'll add some commentary below.

We entered Undermountain through the Yawning Portal.  Shortly thereafter, Ceril the elf archer and Odo the monk discovered a party of dangerous looking individuals lying in wait.  I believe they knew we were coming and they were waiting for us.  (Some folks in the Yawning Portal were betting heavily against us and were disappointed when we resurfaced alive)

Here's the group of bad guys.  Turns out they were really bad -- spider queen tattoos on their foreheads.

Here we are.  Ceril and Odo are over by the door.  The rest of the party is hanging back a bit.

The battle begins.  Odo goes medieval on some guy called "Max."  Knocks him back into the tables and benches.  The yellow pipe cleaners represent a Stinking Cloud cast by Tharquinn our MU/C.  You can see that a large part of our party in the hall has "red rings" on them.  This represents some kind of Enthrall or other spell that held us for awhile.  Torn Sunderhelm (with the cape) had to punch Balin the Dwarf and Gorsen to get them to "shake it off."  Balin took 8 points; Gorsen 4.  Ouch!

The battle at the door was intense.  Our side was largely caught on the other side of the wall.  Garron the paladin of Tyr was able to push his way into the room, opening up a lane for the dwarf.

It's not pictured, but the tide turned when Gorsen successfully cast Hold Person on the two fighters on the other side of the door.  The party finished them off quickly after that.

Odo ran through the Stinking Cloud to attack the wizard in the back of the room.  He got the better of Odo with Magic Missiles but Gorsen raced through the Cloud to protect his friend.  He pulped the wizard's head for 20 points with his Mace of Smiting.  :)  Dead wizard.

The evil dwarf cleric cast Hold Person on Gorsen, but Gorsen has an Armband of Free Action and wasn't affected.  :)

... I played possum though and held still, drawing the dwarf cleric closer...

Tharquinn appeared on the scene and paralyzed the dwarf cleric with his wand.

... It was at that point that Gorsen "shook off the Hold"  He popped his neck, rolled his shoulders, reached over and took the dwarf cleric's Rod of Healing and said,

"My god is stronger than your god."  He then finished the dwarf off in the name of Lathander.  :)

Side note: Gorsen is seriously getting on the bad side of the Spider Queen.  He's blessed her emmisaries as they died to send them to the bright shore of Lathander.  At one point, she manifested some kind of "shadow demon" to warn him about his behavior.  Yeah right.  :)

The party got quite a haul of gold and magic from this crew.  Unfortunately, a dwarf fighter was scared away by Fear and escaped.  We don't know where.  :(

 We made short work of a small group of kobolds (due to Tharquinn's Burning Hands) and then we were assaulted by a Fomorian Giant (represented by Red Hulk here).  Gorsen got a quick Command in and caused the Fomorian to drop his club and lose a round of combat.  :)

We bailed out of Undermountain.  Spent about an hour, but we were pretty much out of spells and needed healing.

A day later, we went back in.  Discovered that someone had cast Raised Dead on the Fomorian.  Ugh.  He was tougher as an undead skeleton than alive.  Gorsen was one of the few with blunt weapons, so he guzzled his Potion of Giant Strength and waded in.  One hit for 31 points with his Mace of Striking and the skeleton was reeling.  He actually dealt it the death blow.  We then encountered another group of kobolds...

We finished the kobolds off, barricaded the door behind us with all the furniture, and moved deeper into the unknown.

 A Fire Trap caught us by surprise.  Oops.  Painful lesson.

 More kobolds, but they aren't expecting us.  The party charges in and makes short work.  We do manage to cause enough ruckus that other kobolds are alerted.  Odo and Gorsen block the door.  Gorsen reads Fire Trap off of a scroll on the door, but it is not very effective.  8 points.

Three kobolds get into the room, but Tharquinn casts Web down the corridor, trapping 9 kobolds.

Once the imminent thread of three kobolds is taken care of, Gorsen wades into the Webs (Armband of Free Action) and finishes the 9 kobolds off where they are stuck.  Of course, they wail like the little dogs they are and reinforcements arrive at the end of the hall...

That's where we stopped for the night.

Great session!  More excitement to come!!

Dragon Fountain

Bought a cheapo $1 dragon at the dollar store.  Cut off its head.

Made a 4"x4" tile with walls to go with my Dwarven Forge Game Tiles.

Liberal amounts of flexible modeling paste.  Toilet paper roll for fountain.

Painted it black and drybrushed with grey.  The "acid" is white glue mixed with green and yellow paint.

"Maybe the henchman could get us a bottle full?" said the hobbit.

Gaming With The Boys

The summer campaign picked up again this past Saturday.  The boys found themselves working for an eccentric wizard, rather a "spellweaver," who hides in plain sight as a homeless bum in The City.

He requested that they recover an ancient tapestry from the depths of the Egg of Evad.  He explained that he is prevented from recovering it (as a spellweaver) but that they could find and retrieve it for him.

In exchange, he would grant them each a boon.

As part of the roleplaying, I had the boys request a boon from him.  Here's what they came up with (not a bad list; quite reasonable)

• Boss, hobbit fighter, wants a magical bow
• Deogol, human cleric, wants a powerful cleric scroll
• Yoson, elf wizard, wants a powerful wizard scroll
• Lokir, elf archer, wants elven mail

The spellweaver agreed and they were on their way.  He fed them a magical meal so they wouldn't need food or drink for seven days.  A magical apple provided the same to their mounts.  He also gave each character a healing potion (1d8+1)

Here are some pictures from Saturday's adventure.  I used my Dwarven Forge Game Tiles for the first time.  They were a big hit.  It is amazing how claustrophobic rooms are when the thickness of walls is considered.  :)

The adventurers headed down, down, down using the elevator room and were presented with a locked secret door.  (I provided a math puzzle, which my grandson solved almost instantly...)  :)

 The wizard and the cleric are dithering on the elevator side of the secret door while the rest of the party are surprised by a ghoul!

 This dungeon presents many choices.  They heard the ghoul on the other side of the door and the hireling opened it so the elf could shoot it from a distance.  Success!

The adventurers used the door as a pinch point to control the flow of zombies into the room.

The elf and henchman discover that there are more zombies behind the door.  They are in a lower area and beyond, so they quickly back up and lock the door.  

At one critical moment, the elf managed to roll the d20 through the door to get this 19!  Well done!

The characters encounter a mated pair of blink dogs.  They try to coax them out, but the elf is unsuccessful and they blink away.

They discover that the blink dog room connects to the back side of the huge zombie chamber.

I told the players that they had no way of knowing what the zombies were doing in the big room.  I left them out there in their static positions as a way of reminding them that they are there.  As it turns out, seven zombies pushed their way around one side and five came the other way.  The adventurers are caught in the middle!

They are caught in the hallway!  The cleric tried to turn the first group of zombies, but was unsuccessful.  The two men-at-arms are trying to keep the zombies away from the wizard.  The elf archer and hobbit are taking pot shots at the zombies too...

The zombies get by the fighters (by reducing them to negative HPs!) and they are eyeing the soft and chewy wizard and torchbearer.

The elf and hobbit drop their bows and switch to melee!  They hold the zombies back and kill one.

The wizard, against the advice of the party, decides to throw darts at the last remaining zombie.  

He gets to throw three darts --

He rolls 16, 17 and 18 for his "to hit" rolls!  All hits!  The zombie goes down with darts IN ITS FACE!!  :)

A good time was had by all!

Fountain or Obelisk or Mausoleum (Finished)

Previous post here. 

Here's the finished product --

The adventurers close in on the evil wizard and his goliath henchmen.

The vertical posts are made from plastic straws found here.  The big skull was made from Sculpey pressed into a Halloween ice cube tray.

 Here it is without the flowing water and no minis to distract you.  :)  I used quite a bit of flexible modeling paste to texture the structure and to fill in the gaps in the cardboard.

I can see the adventurers questing to turn the flowing water back on -- maybe activating healing or other properties...

 Here's the flowing water.  It's made from cardboard from a cereal box.  It's textured with hot glue.  I painted the water in two colors of blue (both light) and pearlized white.  The arrow on the bottom left lines up with the big skull so that the water fits on properly.

The pointy toothpicks slide under the central post to hold the waterfalls in place.

Here's the flowing water with a little synthetic snow to make the foam/splashes.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out.  

PHB Cover Idol

Previous post here.

So I'd like to build a version of the PHB Idol for use in my D&D games.  I've already done the Green Devil Face, so why not?  :)

I drew up this sketch to highlight (and help me remember) what I'd like to accomplish --

First, I'd like for it to actually be terrain, not just some ornamentation.  I want to have four distinct "levels" where minis can be placed without fear of them falling off the thing.  I'll probably make some of the features flatter as a result.

Second, I'd like some "magical" effects in the form of LEDs.  One switch will cause the gem eyes to light up.  Another will cause an LED in the cauldron to flicker.

I think I'll need to build some kind of armature with all the wiring attached so that this can be embedded into the model.  I'm thinking that tubes or pipes for the wire might be best.  I can leave the leads exposed and then solder the LEDs on and pull the wires back to the control box.

I believe that 3V should be enough to run 3 LEDs.  I'll double check that, but intuitively it makes sense.  I'll get a box like this for the batteries --

-- and an enclosure for it.  I'll mount two switches to the top.

I'll let you know how it goes!