Author: Urban Sniper

Perhaps the biggest struggle I’ve had with the #Dungeon23 challenge thus far has been simply deciding on what system I want to use for the game.  It shouldn’t be that difficult, but for whatever reason I’ve struggled to commit to a particular system to use as a base for building up the adventure.  Moving into the fourth month of this project and so far I’ve got a very generalized description of monsters and loot throughout the levels I’ve done so far, leaving a lot of room for improvements later on.  Yet, I’m quickly realizing that I need to settle on something sooner rather than later if I want to scale these dungeon levels appropriately.

 

Multiple Systems

Of course, the ultimate goal would be to make this megadungeon project compatible with multiple systems, with encounters and loot geared toward each one.  That is certainly on the radar, but very much at the fringe of the screen at this point.  I would eventually like to have the dungeon and setting made for some type of d20 system as the primary game, the reason being that is where most of my TTRPG experience has been (I started off with the Fuzion Dragonball Z system back in the day, moved to AD&D 2nd Edition, and then in 2000, my group fully jumped board the D&D 3rd Edition / d20 System train and rode it off the rails until 5th Edition launched…then went back to Pathfinder 1e for several years more after we didn’t like 5E).  I’ve experimented with other systems throughout the years, but always seem to gravitate back to some form of the d20 System in the end.  It’s just how I’m wired, I guess.

 

The Post-Apocalyptic Feel

Whatever system I choose, it needs to have the proper post-apocalyptic feel to it.  I wouldn’t want to make this system out for something like Mutants & Masterminds, for example, though a post-apocalyptic superhero setting has appeal of its own.  I also wouldn’t necessarily want to spend time learning a new system, either, hence the draw for something d20-based.

The setting for the I-89 Megadungeon is intended to be something like the Fallout series (pre-Bethesda, anyway, not counting New Vegas), but instead of an Atomic Age feel, I’m going for more of an 80s post-apocalyptic feel, like what would have happened if it was the height of the 1980s, you’re living on a post-magic fantasy world, and then the entire thing comes to a screeching halt as somehow, magic is suddenly rediscovered and mixed with nuclear weapons that obliterate the known world.  So basically all those fun 80s post-apocalypse movies.

With that in mind, what systems have I used in the past that not only play well, but would allow the gritty feel of the setting without having the players running around like superheroes? (Looking at you, 5E, now GTFO, and let the door hit you on the way out!)  Let’s have a look, shall we?

D20 Modern

Always a great choice in the d20 system space, D20 Modern has a lot going for it.  It has its own apocalypse setting book for one, and for two, I’ve played or ran multiple games with the system.  I’ve spent quite a bit of time developing homebrew content using the game, too, as I was heavily involved in a Resident Evil game for it back when the Wizards of the Coast website had forums, and ones that didn’t entirely suck at that.  Heck, it even has its own Fallout game with the serial numbers filed off in the form of Exodus.

While a good choice, Modern has some problems.  Namely, it doesn’t feel quite modern anymore, given that it’s built off of the original 3rd edition / d20 system rules.  The system could definitely use some polish, at least to advance it up to 3.5/Pathfinder standards (skills, grappling rules, that kind of thing), and the existing content is rather dated (sidenote:  anyone else remember when the FN 5.7 pistol was the most OP handgun you could get?  Interestingly, the 5.7mm is having a bit of a resurgence now, but it was nowhere near as powerful as the game made it out to be…anyway, back on track…), but that doesn’t really matter in terms of an 80s style post-apocalyptic setting, does it?  I’m just thinking about building characters and monsters in the 3rd edition era and how long it took to do, usually due to skill point distribution, and I really don’t want to go back to those days.

Star Wars Saga Edition

I enjoyed the hell out of the Star Wars Saga Edition system, and still do for the most part.  At the time it came out, I thought it was an amazing game, and felt like a proper evolution of the original d20 System.  I liked how the classes were talent-based, and you could have a crew full of soldiers, and none of them would be the same.  The way they handled the Force, while somewhat flawed, was fun and seemed like a great basis for a magic system that could be further expanded upon.  Combat was usually pretty fast (until higher levels, but that is one flaw that you just can’t get away from with the d20 system) and enjoyable.  There was just so much going for it, and the fact that it was developed as a precursor to D&D 4th edition got me excited for where the system would go.

And then it was pretty much forgotten, as 4th edition went off in ways I didn’t care for (in fact, as far as I know, there were only one or two campaigns of 4E ran by my group, though I never played a single one; my first look at the core books had me going to Pathfinder, as did the rest of the crew).  There was an attempt to crowdfund an E20 universal system based off the game that was ultimately a failure, and that was pretty much the end of it.

I actually ran two Fallout campaigns using the Saga Edition rules, and it worked well.  It was still pretty gritty given the lack of Force powers for speeding up healing, the combats were fun, and it didn’t take me nearly as long to build up monsters and NPCs due to the way the skill system worked.  There are still issues certainly, but at its core, I think there are some great elements here.

Savage Worlds

I’ve also used Savage Worlds a few times, a couple games of Deadlands, and then a short-lived Fallout campaign.  I’m not nearly as experienced with Savage Worlds as I am with the d20 systems, but I did enjoy my time with it as a game master.  There was plenty of fan-made Fallout content available at the time that I modified for my own use, and adding in some elements from the Deadlands books made for a great Fallout game set around New Vegas and larger expanse of the western United States.  Savage Worlds biggest advantage is its speed, as it’s amazingly quick to build out NPCs and monsters, and gameplay can be deadly, just as it should be. 

While I’m not opposed to using Savage Worlds for this dungeon, the system just never felt quite crunchy enough for me, like I just couldn’t quite get as deep into building a character as I’d like in something like d20.  That’s just me having stayed in that wheelhouse for so long, and I’d likely feel differently if I just had more time with the game.

The Homebrew Hack

Last year, before the whole OGL thing broke loose in January, and before I was dealing with some medical issues that stopped me from working on the game for a while, I was in the midst of developing my own homebrew system and a campaign setting to go along with it, primarily for my sci-fantasy setting and my own replacement for Star Wars (thanks Disney, for ruining that for me, btw).  The post-apocalyptic 80s setting where this megadungeon is located was meant to be the test bed for the game, and I even went so far as to run a single session using the initial system.

What was this system?  Well, at its core was the Saga Edition rules with a few modifications, namely no Force powers or Jedi, and some modifications to the Skill Focus feat to help mitigate how unbalancing it could potentially be, making armor act as Damage Reduction instead of making you harder to hit, and with a sprinkle of Savage Worlds/Deadlands thrown in (specifically the fate pot and drawing cards for initiative).  I’d made a few notes about feedback from the players (specifically the need for improved ways to heal given the intensity of the combat, made more intense by the absolutely horrible dice rolls they suffered that night), but have yet to return to working on the game.

 

A New System?

Since I got fired up in January after the Great OGL Debacle of January 2023 (because let’s be honest, WotC hasn’t finished screwing up yet, and there’s a lot of time left for them to do worse things), I’ve been doing a lot more RPG-related projects, and the idea of developing my own custom system is still there beneath it all.  I still like the Saga Edition system gameplay, and elements of its design, and since you can’t copyright game mechanics, well, it’s ripe for plunder.

Since the start of the year, I’ve been researching other games, some in the OSR like Castles & Crusades, but have specifically been diving heavily into Pathfinder 2nd edition.  I’ve just recently started up an Abomination Vaults campaign and am getting ready to try it out from a player’s side in an Age of Ashes game.  There is a lot I like about PF2e already, but until I’ve spent more time with it, I can’t say for sure if we’ll be sticking with it. 

What I can say is that it has brought back thoughts of developing my own system and has given me some new inspirations.  PF2e has a lot of elements that remind me of the Saga Edition system, and apparently has a lot of 4th edition D&D in it as well, which I’m more open to these days.  I’m wondering how the Three-Action system of PF2e would work with Saga Edition (as it was basically this already, but with more restrictions, specifically having standard, move, and swift actions), and in my head, I’m not seeing a lot of negatives.  The skill system of Saga Edition is very much a precursor to the way PF2e does its skills.  I’m thinking various elements would mesh fairly well, so it may be something I explore more in depth soon.

That’s about all I’ve got to say on the matter right now, though.  I’d be curious to hear of any suggestions you may have for systems to look at that does the post-apocalyptic setting well, as well as any thoughts you might have on my idea for combining gameplay elements into a custom system. 

Feel free to reach out to me on that Twitter thing what I made! 

Till next time!

The I-89 Tunnel System

Located southeast of Paradise City in the Western Wastes, the Interstate 89 tunnel provides the most direct route between the Paradise City trade hub and the smaller settlements east of the Jagged Peaks, running in a generally east-west direction.  Before the Great War sent the world into chaos, the I-89 Mega Tunnel was a fifty mile tunnel, the longest and largest in the world at the time of its construction, consisting of eight traffic lanes and a massive support system that would provide emergency shelter and services should a severe accident occur.  During peak usage, this tunnel saw perhaps a hundred thousand or more vehicles a day.

Every mile within the tunnel was a small emergency services and safety station, where traffic officers would monitor the flow of traffic and assist should minor accidents occur.  These stations also served as the entrances to the emergency tunnels that ran parallel to the main tunnel, along the full length, on either side, and exiting at both ends.  These tunnels, in the event of a catastrophic emergency (such as a massive pile up resulting in a severe fire event) would allow travelers to safely escape the tunnel, and provided temporary emergency shelter and supplies. 

There were multiple ‘police boxes’ in the tunnel, one on either side of the road, placed every five miles along the tunnel.  These served as the stations for Tunnel Traffic Corps to remain on duty and deploy in the event of speeders or other violators, with their main base of operations being at the center of the tunnel in the area known as the Fuel n’ Fun Zone.  These were connected via additional tunnels out of sight of normal traffic flow, and typically had half a dozen patrol cars each, with a dozen officers on duty at any given time.  Thanks to the impressive camera monitoring system built within the tunnel, their job was usually an easy one.

 

After the Great War

After the Great War, the tunnel was generally impassable for several years.  When the bombs started falling, the massive traffic flow turned into a chaotic mess as blast waves from the magically-infused nuclear bombs rolled through the tunnel at both ends, causing massive pileups of vehicles, which, due to intense heat from the blasts and the subsequent fires that filled the tunnel, would fuse together into an impassable quagmire of burnt steel.  The support systems within the tunnel failed almost immediately as they were overwhelmed, and those lucky enough to have survived deeper into the tunnel became panicked in the mass confusion, fighting wildly to escape through the emergency tunnels, which were likewise compromised by the blasts and flooded with radioactive fire and suffering multiple collapses  throughout their lengths.

Only once thing started to settle down and a new kind of society began to take shape did anyone attempt to navigate through the tunnel system.  Most who tried were never seen again, resulting in most trade caravans and travelers taking the much longer route leading them through the Jagged Peaks, turning what had once been an hour’s drive into a week-long journey.  It was after Paradise City was officially formed that a concerted effort was made to reopen the tunnel for travel; by this time the worst of the radiation had faded to manageable levels, and new groups had formed to deal with the mutants and abominations that had grown common within the wastes. 

The newly reformed Tunnel Traffic Corps, a group of former soldiers, mercenaries, wasteland survivalists, engineers, and resourceful independents, with the support of the various factions controlling Paradise City, were tasked with blazing a trail through the tunnel.  Taking several months and costing dozens, if not hundreds, of lives, the TTC were nonetheless successful in cutting a path through the wreckage and collapses within the tunnel, creating the first traversable, if not entirely safe, route through the I-89 tunnel since before the war.  From then on, or at least, as funding and raiders from the wastes would allow, the TTC would strive to keep the route open and as free of mutants as possible. 

With the tunnel route opened, trade caravans can generally expect a two-day journey to and from Paradise City, though it can take longer depending on the nature of the caravan, whether they’ll need to maneuver by another group traveling in the opposite direction, and general mutant activity.  Hiring on additional guards is always recommended, and freelance mercenaries are always able to find work at either end of the tunnel.  

 

The Fuel n’ Fun Zone

Located in the very center of the I-89 Tunnel is a former tourist trap known as the Fuel n’ Fun Zone, built within a massive natural cavern.  This location once offered fuel, food, a place to rest, medical services, and even a small amusement park to entertain travelers.  For a time, it was one of the most visited places in the country.  There was even another smaller cavern system beneath the park, known as the Firefly Caverns, which had unusual crystalline formations that glowed faintly all on their own, winking in and out like fireflies.  

This area is generally considered to be about as safe as anywhere else in the tunnel, with most surviving buildings having been pilfered and looted already, though some treasures may still be found if one is brave enough.  Though mutant creatures still show up here from time to time, coming from somewhere beneath the area, the most pressing danger are the Parkers, a group of cannibals who have claimed the amusement park for themselves.  They tend to keep to themselves, and won’t usually attack larger groups, but will eagerly go after individuals or smaller parties that venture too close to their domain.  There have been stories about them keeping their victims alive as long as possible, cutting off bits and pieces at a time, and storing their mutilated victims in makeshift cages attached to the Ferris wheel at the rear of the park.  Some rumors even persist that they maintain their numbers through strange magic, converting those victims they deem worthy into new family members, should they survive. 

The Fuel n’ Fun Zone makes up the first level of the I-89 megadungeon, and will be detailed in the next article in this series. 

Keep your eyes open for the next entry, and thanks for reading!

Till next time, stay safe out there!  Over and out!

 

 

Goodbye D&D 5e!  At Long Last!

Well, this certainly took a lot longer to happen than I’d hoped, but at last it seems that we’re starting to leave 5e behind at the local table.  I’m still playing in a 5e campaign, a conversion of the Reign of Winter AP, but I’m having my doubts that it’s going to last.  The DM honestly doesn’t seem to be that into it, and is easily distracted more often than not.  We had one recent session in which we gamed about two hours and spent the rest of the evening discussing tangential topics, not to mention that the guy running it seems to be getting later and later starting.  

The last 5e campaign I actually finished was the Savage Tide adventure, which, admittedly, was enjoyable, just not from a gameplay standpoint.  Interacting with the guys around the table and seeing what craziness our characters could pull off is always the meat of a campaign, and the story wasn’t bad at all, I just could not get into the mechanics.  I played a bugbear rune-knight fighter, and while it was rather amusing to grab targets from a distance and “tank from behind” for most of the campaign, I was soon feeling like I’d done it all before.  Because 5e just felt so very much the same in this campaign as the last few I’d been involved in.  The casters were flinging the same spells, the archer was using the same feats to deal massive damage, and we were speed-running dungeons like the superheroes we were (or villains in mine and another player’s case, lol), because we simply couldn’t be bothered to stop and smell the viscera.  After a fairly early point, I think we only had problems in one fight, and that was because we got ambushed by Demogorgon’s son.  During the rematch, we had time to prep and wiped the floor with him.  Even the final fight, while longer and admittedly more nail-biting than others, felt lacking in threat.  

And thanks to the great WotC OGL Fiasco of January 2023 (because honestly, I’m not convinced their done screwing themselves over just yet, and there’s plenty of time left for them to do it again this year), I got motivated to run another fantasy game in a different system.  I’d stopped GMing for a while last year when my 5e campaign ran out of steam.  I had intended to run the mind flayer trilogy of adventures from the 2e days, converted to 5e, but even my favorite D&D monster couldn’t keep my motivation up for running the game in 5e.  It just wasn’t fun to run the game.  So, I started looking around, and specifically focused on Castles & Crusades and Pathfinder 2e.  I picked PF2e to try out first mainly because half the players at the table were already familiar with it to some extent, having played a few games with another GM, but also because, after researching it more, it sounded really good.  The game balance and mechanics just sounded so much more exciting to play with than 5e ever had been (in all honesty, I was done with 5e a few months after it launched, and for a time, we did go back to Pathfinder 1e, but for whatever reason *cough Critical Role cough* the guys gravitated back to it).  

And so, to give PF2e a good tryout, I decided to run with the Abomination Vaults AP, and start things off with the Beginner Box, sprinkling in some of the Troubles in Otari adventures as well.  If a megagungeon can’t find the cracks in the system, then what will, right?  As of the time of this writing, I’ve GM’ed two games so far, and the PCs have almost finished the beginner box adventure.

 

Diving In With the Starter Adventures

I began my ill-fated 5e mind flayer campaign with The Lost Mines of Phandelver (LMoP) adventure, which is the 5e starter adventure, so it makes a good comparison with PF2e’s beginner box adventure, Menace Under Otari (MUO).  LMoP is much larger in scale, a sandbox adventure taking the PCs to 5th level, while MUO only takes them to 2nd level and consists of a two-floor mini dungeon below the town of Otari.  In both cases, I modified the adventures to suit my tastes and those of the players, though with MUO, I used some guidelines I’d found online to merge it with the larger Abomination Vaults campaign and using the Troubles in Otari adventures as sidequests.  

LMoP, while a good enough starting point, seems a bit unfocused at times, with sidequests that seem wholly unrelated to the town ‘s plight (looking at you random green dragon quest that sends the party nearly all the way to Neverwinter).  Granted, this isn’t exactly a bad thing, as its the NPCs in the town that set the players on these quests, but I would prefer that the quests stick closer to the town and its big finale in the cavern dungeon, and tie into the main quest somehow.  Easily enough done, but it did take a little work on my part to shift things around and integrate events into a more cohesive feeling game. 

The other big complaint I had with this one is the lack of threat to the party.  Granted, I had a group of seasoned veteran players with 25+ years of gaming experience each, but still, the encounters felt weak, even when I tweaked them for a couple extra players and played the creatures smarter than they were presented.  The only times my players actually felt threatened was when they encountered “ramborcs”, which used intelligent tactics and traps to combat and funnel the players, and when I introduced other creatures of my own design that wound up killing the thief (he got better) because they wanted revenge for him having killed one of theirs.  The original encounters, even with me placing the dragon in the final dungeon and setting it up as a two-stage boss (the drow wizard was also the dragon, just shapechanged, so when the wizard “died”, the dragon popped out to play), barely slowed down the players.

Now, switching gears to MUO, this felt like a much more cohesive starting point.  We didn’t use the player aids (again, I’ve got a very experienced group at the table), and I did change things up some, but even as written, this was a much more challenging opening.  The adventure is laid out with the intent of teaching the players the various game mechanics and play modes, and while it did feel a little ‘basic’ to me, I don’t think my players felt the same.  They were engaged with what was happening, and seemed far more interested in their surroundings than they ever were during the LMoP run.  T

Perhaps the most striking moment occurred after the party cleared (most of) the first level.  They had faced several kobolds by this point, and were feeling pretty good about themselves, having taken some damage, used a few of the cleric’s spells, but overall were doing good.  I got the feeling they were thinking it would go about like a 5e dungeon.  Then, the very first room of the second floor, they failed to detect a pair of kobolds laying in wait for them, and were ambushed.  This immediately dropped the summoner, and the following round dropped the thaumaturge NPC (one of the players couldn’t make it, so I threw together an NPC to assist so that I wouldn’t have to rebalance the encounters just yet).  The kobolds then focused on the monk, and while landing a hit, didn’t immediately manage to drop him, giving the cleric a chance to heal the thaumaturge…only for the kobolds to strike them again and drop them.  Getting the summoner up used the last of the cleric’s spells, and suddenly the party was ready to retreat and wait for the other player to continue (he was the fighter).  From this point, they did retreat for a time, picking up next game in the Otari Fishery and getting the fighter, and buying a few potions. The cleric wanted to rest, but the party (wisely) decided to venture back down and set up a defensible position inside the dungeon so that the kobolds wouldn’t be able to lay traps for them during a full rest.  They only encountered a small patrol, and a second larger trap-making group just starting their mission, instead of facing all the traps I’d intended to have set for them had they rested the full 8 hours aboveground. 

Good on them.

 

How Does it Feel to Play?

After the second game, with the party having cleared most of the starter dungeon now (there is a puzzle that I added from the beforementioned supplement, the room beyond, and the crypt on level 1 they haven’t delved into yet), I have to say that from a GM’s perspective, I had a lot more fun.  The Three-Action system in PF2e felt very good in play, and the way the game was balanced really started to click as the party got further along and began using more thought out tactics (for the most part, anyway). I was actually enjoying playing the monsters, too, forcing them to behave intelligently as they tried to take out the party and not just soak up damage and respond in kind as they tended to do in 5e.

I had gotten a little worried as they did a ‘speedrun’ maneuver in the last four areas of the dungeon, though.  This started with the mermaid statue trap, which the fighter activated when trying to draw the kobolds out of their warren to ambush them.  This caused the group to start beating on the trap until it shut off; I was kind of merciful here and didn’t have the kobolds notice until the device screeched loudly when it was broken.  After the party dealt with the kobolds, they had enough XP to level, but due to the cleric having cast Magic Weapon on the fighter, and only have the one casting, they didn’t waste time, rushing through the warren to face the kobold boss, who smartly retreated when attacked and called for its dragon pet.  I had heard that this dragon could be a dangerous foe on its own, and could potentially wipe the party even if they were level 2, but going in at level 1, I was worried.  

Thankfully, the players pulled off some amazing rolls.  The dragon took a crit from the fighter, and with him dealing double damage, was brought down to below half its hit points almost immediately.  It was technically finished off by the summoner’s pet, but I cheated a bit and gave it a ‘mutation’, which healed it for 15 hp when it dropped to 0, because I wanted it to actually have a round.  Not that it mattered, because I rolled like crap on its turn, and then went down on the following round by a flurry of blows from the monk.  

All in all, I was very happy with how things played out.  

Player Response

More interesting perhaps was the response I got from the players.  They were excited after taking down the dragon (though I hope they don’t get in the habit of their speedrun antics going forward…), as they should have been, and were having a great time.  I was most pleased with the response from the guy who had made it his mission to do everything game breaking in 5e, bringing out the worst in the system over the last few years.  As would be revealed in a message I got later, he was looking forward to my next game, having seen how impactful his support had been (he was playing the cleric) and how much of a difference his Magic Weapon spell had been in the final fight.  

Now that we’re basically done with the starter adventure, I’m looking forward to delving into the true dungeon for this campaign.

Onto the Abomination Vaults

The adventure path proper should be kicking off next session, once the party finishes with their exploration of the starter dungeon and finishes off a few stragglers in the rooms they haven’t explored yet.  As long as the players are all there, the NPC thaumaturge will probably be relegated to hanging out in the town’s library, but that depends on the players; if they want to continue having her along, then it’s going to be easy enough to adjust the encounters.  From my position as GM, seeing that PF2e has an encounter building system that actually works, and works well, is a godsend.  Plus, being able to throw a simple template on monsters to beef them up on the fly is great, especially considering the party is now a level higher than required for the first floor of the dungeon, and likely may be higher than needed in general for the game as I’m adding additional side quests.

Or, I can leave things as is, and let them feel awesome for a while, perhaps even giving them a false sense of security until later dungeon levels.  Either way, just looking at how much easier its going to be on me to make the encounters as tough or as easy as I want is going to be great. 

I’m excited to be running this game, and my players are excited to be playing it.  I might even be getting an additional player joining in the next game in fact.  We’ll see if that comes to pass, but for now, things are definitely looking up.  

I’ll keep you updated on how things go from here, but the future is looking good!  

Till next time, out!

 

The Curse of Cypress Isle – An Island Hexcrawl Adventure

This is the other big RPG idea I currently have in development.  For whatever reason, I had begun watching the Curse of Oak Island on the History Channel (man, I’m old enough to remember when the History Channel was awesome, and actually showed stuff that wasn’t ‘reality’ TV and Ancient Aliens…) a few months ago.  I had already been looking into other RPG systems to try that weren’t D&D 5e before WotC did their OGL thing back in January, and had been looking for a more old school experience in general.  Then, one day, the idea just struck to do an adventure based on the Oak Island story!

The possibility of buried treasure is one that will always get the PCs eager to go adventuring, and with as many twists and turns as the Oak Island story has, it’s ripe for adaptation into an adventure.  I’ve just started reading a book about the history of the island, and it’s fascinating just how much effort has gone into plumbing that island’s depths, physically and historically.  And how best to handle such a story of long lost treasures in adventure form?  Why, a hexcrawl, of course!

 

Hexcrawling for Fun and Profit

I’ve been fascinated with hexcrawling for several months now, and have wanted to try it out in a proper game sooner or later.  The last time I did a hexcrawl was probably…early to mid 2010s, a year or two after the Kingmaker AP was released, probably.  I used the first book of that as a base for a game I ran for a couple of friends who were quite keen on building up their own kingdom.  It was a fun game, and lasted several months best I can recall, though it was never properly ended.

I had attempted to develop a test-bed post-apocalyptic setting for my (currently on hold) homebrew revision of the Star Wars Saga Edition system, with the original idea being to do a hexcrawl there just to try out different elements of the system as they developed, but due to some life and medical issues, I had to stop working on it.  The idea is still there, as indicated by my #Dungeon23 project, but in a slightly altered state.

The urge to do a proper hexcrawl is strong, though, so when the Great OGL Kerfuffle of 2023 happened and I found myself delving deeper into the OSR, the time seemed right.  D&D 5e was already on the way out at our table, and this seemed like a great opportunity to make the leap to something different.  I’ve started a Pathfidner 2e game, running the Abomination Vaults and associated adventures, and having ran one game, enjoyed the feel of the system immensely already.  Yet, I also purchased the Castles & Crusades starter bundle, and have been eyeing those awfully hard.  Ideally, once the Abomination Vaults have been cleared, we’ll take a break on PF2e (unless things change, I’ll likely run the Ruby Phoenix AP as a follow up) and try out C&C.  And what better way to do that than to do an old school hexcrawl adventure?

 

Inspirations and Ideas

With the Oak Island story firmly in mind, and the urge to develop an old school hexcrawl strong, I began writing down all the ideas that came to mind.  There needed to be a treasure of course, some legends about the island, a history of failed attempts to recover said treasure, a bunch of traps and obstacles, villainous types to impede the party, so many things!  I started off with the original idea, though, and wanted to keep my focus on the Oak Island legend and history.

To that end, my goal is to create an island environment that is necessarily larger than the Oak Island, but retaining some of the key details about the real hunt for the treasure.  Some physical details of the island will need to be represented, like the Money Pit, the Swamp, flooded tunnels, the mysterious rune stone, and ruins of previous inhabitants.  Further, the historical aspects will need to be referenced, such as possible ties to a disgraced knightly order, rumors of pirate activity, previous expeditions that have failed, etc.  There is a lot of history there, and as I’ve been reading the book (Curse of Oak Island:  The Story of the World’s Longest Treasure Hunt by Randall Sullivan), it’s quite murky at times.  Translating that into a fictional account for a fantasy world will be quite the interesting challenge.

But, seeing as this will be set on a fantasy world, there will need to be plenty of fantasy elements added into the mix as well.  The old D&D adventure ‘Isle of Dread’ was the first place I looked to for inspiration.  It is a hexcrawl itself, though the plot elements are few if any; it’s mostly a giant sandbox to explore.  But there are plenty of good things to pull from it.  Its island is quite large, so will likely be a good way to scale Cypress Isle, and has a variety of random encounters and inhabitants, ranging from undead to dinosaurs to various savage tribes.  As a quick aside, probably my favorite encounter in the book is with an ankylosaurus that is whacked out on loco weed.

But,  I don’t want to just make a sandbox; I want there to be some history there, and something of a plot line to follow, however meandering it might be.  So, I started thinking about my fantasy setting.  I need to work on developing it more, as it’s basically the ancient history period of my sci-fi setting, so there should be plenty to delve into there.  To that end, I’ve begun considering when exactly this adventure will be set in the timeline, what factions are around, who claims Cypress Isle, and why the treasure is there in the first place.  It’s turning into a very interesting exercise to say the least.

Another set of inspirations were rather obviously, namely Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Uncharted, and the like.  Action and adventure, with dangerous traps and puzzles.  Specifically, I’m interested in big traps, like mutli-room event kind of traps.  That will require coming up with some interesting way to handle some of those big cinematic events, basically trying to give everyone something to do during a high-intensity, action-packed scene.  Plus, there’s the Tomb Raider 2013 reboot that was specifically set upon an island with supernatural beings and wild weather that is a massive source of inspiration.

As I wrote my initial few pages of notes, I quickly came to the decision that I’d like to have kobolds be a part of the adventure.  I’ve always enjoyed kobolds, especially as they seem to have taken on more draconic aspects over the years.  I’ve actually seen them as something of a draconic race for some time, and had tentatively had them be the only link to the long lost dragons in my sci-fi setting, claiming proud heritage despite their small stature.  Interestingly, this kind of goes back to that Kingmaker inspired game I ran, in which there was a particularly skillful kobold ranger who happened to be out hunting the humans that were invading their territory, and had setup a whole zone full of traps, having something of an archery sniper duel with one of the players (orc inquisitor), who eventually managed to make the kobold an ally. 

So, kobolds are in.  They love traps, and a treasure hunt adventure should be full of them.  Are they the primary antagonists of the adventure?  Why are they so keen on protecting the secrets of Cypress Isle?  I feel like there needs to be something deeper here than just the local kobold tribes being the standard enemies within the adventure.  Something more to the history of the island. 

Oh my…I seem to have opened the door to something much, much larger…

 

Kobolds, Dragons, and A Much Larger World

This idea came about most recently and has greatly expanded the original scope of “make an island hexcrawl adventure” into something that an entire campaign could be built upon. It started with developing the kobolds into something more robust as a race, specifically tying them much more closely to dragons.  As such, they will be sharing some draconic aspects, specifically scale colors and some additional traits (like elemental resistances, potentially water breathing, magic, maybe even weaker breath weapons), which is likely how they will be separated upon the island (basically into their own tribes).  Also, they will likely be training drakes as mounts and guard animals.

But…that can’t just be it.  There needs to be more.  Why are they so closely tied to dragons, and why do they call this island home?  What’s so special about the island besides the fact that there’s a treasure here that outsiders would desperately want, even though they’ve been getting killed for centuries trying to get it?  Why is this particular treasure so special?

Well, this is where I started delving much deeper into the history of the world (likely the very same world that the city of Arcavarlon is located upon), and began to consider the dragons. By the time of my sci-fi era, they’ve not been spotted in the galaxy in thousands of years.  Perhaps they were already gone from the fantasy era by the time this adventure takes place, and had been for hundreds of years at least.  There was a world-shaking cataclysm at one point, so perhaps they had somehow sensed it was coming and made plans to leave, and in doing so they gathered up their treasures and took as much as they could with them?

Ah, but keeping the original Oak Island in mind, perhaps the dragons were working with retainers and allies, perhaps a knightly order dedicated to them, who would eventually find themselves disgraced by the world at large due to actions that were recorded by history to have been disgraceful and traitorous to the powers that be.  Perhaps the kobolds were actually the closest servants of the dragons, and perhaps the dragons had their own sacred empire, in a far away land that outsiders were rarely, if ever, permitted to see. 

Ah, but what if during the course of the cataclysm, the world was reshaped?  Earthquakes, tidal waves, all that kind of thing?  So, what if, this sacred dragon empire, perhaps once a massive continent on its own, now lies beneath the waves, and Cypress Ilse is but one of several islands that formed the highest peaks of the original continent?  “The Dragon’s Tail” sounds like a fun name for a group of islands, and fitting given the history.

So, perhaps Cypress Isle is the last island in the chain, and maybe the only one that can be safely reached.  Maybe there are terrible storms and hazardous seas that keep people away from what lies further along the chain, and those who venture into the islands are never seen again.  Thus, the treasure of Cypress Isle may simply be riches, or it could be a way to get further into the chain of islands, and eventually into the heart of the ancient dragon empire itself. 

As you can see, this went from a simple island adventure to something much grander in scope; this could literally be an entire campaign.  The Cypress Isle adventure can still be developed as a standalone adventure, and likely will be for starters, but I am likely going to continue with developing the larger project now, and creating something much grander in scale.  I’ve already got a lot more details formed in my notes, and will be refining them as I go, but I’ll leave those to a future update.  For now, this is the basic overview of the Curse of Cypress Isle project, and an idea of where it may eventually lead.  What do you think about it?  Am I aiming too high, or does this sound like an interesting concept? 

Let me know what you think!

Feel free to hit me up over on my Discord server or even follow me on that Twitter thing what I made.

Until next time, out!

The #Dungeon23 Challenge

So what is this thing, and what have I been doing with it?

The Dungeon23 Challenge was first proposed by Sean McCoy over on the Win Conditions Substack; the original post can be found here.

Basically, the idea is to create a megadungeon over the course of the entire year of 2023, with twelve floors (one for each month), and 365 rooms, with a new room getting created each day.  Sounds pretty simple, right?

 

My Dungeon23 Project

I started this project back when it first began making the rounds throughout the Tabletop RPG sphere on Youtube at the start of the year.  At first, this was simply something I wanted to do for fun, but after the Great OGL Debacle of January 2023, it became something a little bit more…ambitious, I suppose.  I actually want to try to finish this thing and eventually might even publish it.

I’ll be honest, I’ve not really kept up with anyone else’s progress on their megadungeons, so I have no real idea what is out there.  Everything that I’ve developed so far has been created with a post-apocalyptic future setting in mind.  This particular setting is still very much in its early phase development, so a lot of my entries for the dungeon aren’t especially specific when it comes to things like monsters, loot, and specific game mechanics.  That will come later on, as I grow and develop my game design skills now that I’m seriously working on my own system, settings, and adventures.

 

The Original I-89 Concept

The original idea for this wasn’t actually a megadungeon.  It started off as a much smaller “dungeon” of sorts for a post-apocalyptic setting I had been (very) slowly developing for my local gaming group, originally just as a testbed for the (still) in-progress homebrew redesign of the Star Wars Saga Edition system.  The setting itself was, and I suppose still is, meant to invoke the feel of those 1980s post-apocalyptic films and stories.  In fact, the original intent of the setting was to be Fallout-like, but instead of leaning on the atomic age aesthetics, it would lean more into the 80s style, with lots of neon lights, floppy disks, cassette tapes, and the like, but with a fantasy twist to it. Think a fantasy world, with classic fantasy races, but having gone through modern development, magic has waned to a point of insignificance, and it is the height of the 80s, then the Cold War turns hot and the world comes to an end.

Further, the specific idea for this area came from the first Vampire Hunter D movie, and a rather short scene just before D encounters the Midwich Medusas, where he’s walking through an old tunnel where you can see a handful of ancient vehicles that have basically rusted away to fragile shells that turn to dust at a touch.  A similar idea was seen in 28 Days Later, that car-clogged tunnel filled with zombies that the protagonists had to navigate.

Originally, the I-89 Tunnel was conceived as a fifty-mile tunnel built underneath a range of mountains separating two rather large areas, with the regional hub, Paradise City, located on one side, making it a dangerous, yet vital route that trade caravans had to brave in order for the post-apocalyptic society to function (well, that, or take a much longer and perhaps just as dangerous route through the mountains).  During the pre-war times, this tunnel was something of a tourist trap as well, with a large underground mini-city existing at the halfway point, called the Fuel n’ Fun Zone, featuring shops, a fuel station, diner, hotel, clinic, and even an amusement park and a natural cavern system known as the Firefly Caverns.  It was dangerous, there was no light, and it was filled with dangerous mutants.  But armed escort jobs would pay very well if a caravan was successfully navigated through it.

 

The I-89 Megadungeon Evolution

I hadn’t worked on this idea for a few months; I didn’t do a huge amount for several months last year due to issues with my eyes, to the point I had to have surgery on one of them.  However, after that, I’ve been seeing some pretty good improvements, and have been getting back in the swing of both writing and RPG development.  The Dungeon23 challenge was announced, and my mind immediately went back to the I-89 Tunnel, and the undeniable potential for expansion.  There was an entire mountain range above the Fuel n/ Fun Zone, after all, not to mention an untold number of underground areas possible below the Firefly Caverns.  

And thus the I-89 Megadungeon evolution began!

Level 0 – The Original I-89 Tunnel

Technically, my megadungeon does have a 13th level, though it is a much more generalized “wilderness” area in terms of how I’m handling it.  This Level 0 consists of the 25 mile stretch of tunnel on either side of the Fuel n’ Fun Zone, which is an 8-lane highway through the mountain, filled with derelict vehicles, wandering mutants, remains of old caravans and hapless travelers, and the occasional emergency shelter and mini emergency responder stations throughout its length.  This could easily be something akin to a hexcrawl, with each five-mile section of the tunnel being its own hex/encounter area, with a chance of coming across a hostile monster, other travelers, or some new obstruction from a collapsed ceiling.  Heck, it could even develop into a PC-led initiative to clear the tunnel, shore up its structure, and turn it into a somewhat safe area to traverse. 

That’s practically a whole campaign concept right there.

At the halfway point, the players could explore the remains of the Fuel n’ Fun Zone, and even venture into the Firefly Caverns if they wanted to risk encountering mutants and other radioactive horrors.  This was intended to be the extent of this area, with more focus on the surrounding wasteland areas and a proper hexcrawl exploration style campaign.  

The New I-89 Megadungeon

The expanded megadungeon concept changed the original concept significantly.  The entirety of the original Fuel n’ Fun Zone is now going to be the first actual level of the dungeon, featuring multiple areas to explore, and even some antagonists in the form of the Parkers, a bunch of cannibalistic raiders who have taken over the amusement park as their home.  The party can try to avoid them, but if they want to explore the Firefly Caverns, they’ll need to go through the Parkers’ domain…unless they find an alternate route…

The new megadungeon concept has been expanded into the requisite twelve ‘floors’, though given that this isn’t a classic fantasy setting, I’ve taken some liberties with the concept of ‘rooms’ in some cases.  Like the buildings for the Fuel n’ Fun Zone being combined together.  This will likely be fixed once the whole project is wrapped up and revised; I’ve already found certain things I want to change, but I’d rather just get the groundwork done before going deep into revisions.

For now, I will simply list the areas I have planned for the megadungeon, and in later posts, I will detail the areas I have finished and provide some (rather poorly drawn) maps for them.  

The Many Layers of the I-89 Megadungeon

  1. Fuel n’ Fun Zone
  2. Firefly Caverns
  3. Utility / Drainage Tunnels
  4. The Old Mine
  5. Research Facility
  6. Barracks
  7. Experimental Research Facility
  8. Crawler Warrens
  9. Irradiated Tunnels
  10. The Ancient City
  11. Fiery Pits
  12. Hell Hole

As it stands right now, I’ve got the first two areas finished, and have started into the third.  I may decide to change up some of the floors, or change the names as I go, but for now, this is what I’m running with.

Systems of Entertainment

The big question looming over everything at the moment is…what system am I going to use for this megadungeon?  

As I’d mentioned previously, I had originally been developing the setting for use with my homebrew hack of the Star Wars Saga Edition rules, which I had previously used to run a short Fallout campaign a few years ago.  I’ve also used the Savage Worlds system for another Fallout game, which is always a good option for basically anything you want.

Given the awakening that I experienced during the OGL thing at the start of the year, I am looking at other systems now as well.  I could try an OSR style game, or maybe, once I have more experience with it, a modification of Pathfinder 2e.  Chances are I’ve got another game somewhere in one of the many PDFs I purchased as part of a non-OGL gaming bundle or two that will fit the bill as well.  I’ll just have to wing things with generalities as I go for now, until I’ve settled on what it is that I’d like to use.

Another Project?!

Well, yes, actually.  There’s always another project.  If you’re familiar with my literary endeavors over the years, there is no shortage of inspiration, only time and available willpower.  I do have another RPG project in development, with several pages of notes so far.  

But that is going to have to wait.  I’ll give you the details on that one next time.

Oh, okay, here’s a hint:

Make of that what you will.

Till next time!

 

Feel free to hit me up over on my Discord server or even follow me on that Twitter thing what I made.