Tag: castles & crusades

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!

So, in the great cluster-fuck that is the modern world, who would have thought that there would have been the equivalent of a nuke dropped on the tabletop RPG industry and the community around it?  I mean, I’m not surprised that it came from Wizards of the Coasts/Hasbro, but I was shocked when it actually happened.

The Great OGL Disaster of 2023

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll give you the quick version.  There’s this thing called the OGL 1.0a, the Open Gaming License, which has existed since the early 2000s as a part of the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons.  This license has literally been used for over 20 years by a vast majority of TTRPG creators, allowing their works to be referenced by other creators and to use the game systems created by WotC and others basically by just putting a copy of the OGL into the back of your product.  This is why there were so many d20 System games back in the early 2000s building off of the D&D 3e rules, and why you’ve seen a similar explosion in popularity of D&D 5e the last few years (and why Paizo created Pathfinder, though that’s a story entirely its own).  Without the OGL, the massive community would never have grown to what it is today, and D&D and other TTRPGs would be nowhere near as popular as they are.

So, late in 2022, like right before Christmas, WotC/Hasbro decided that they weren’t happy with this.  They wanted ALL THE MONEY, instead of just raking in a large portion of it with their subpar books and merch (the books in particular have been sliding in quality for years, not that I ever really liked 5e from the get go, but I digress).  So, they sneakily tried to force a new OGL on several larger creators with rather draconian requirements (like reporting your earnings to WotC, and if you make over a certain amount, they take 25%, and have the right to use your stuff without recourse to prevent them from doing so).  They wanted to strangle the community by revoking the OGL 1.0a and replacing it with this new version, which would basically have given them total control over the RPG space.

Needless to say, most of those involved in the initial attempt didn’t sign on, and thankfully, the details got leaked (cause nobody could discuss it due to NDAs), and a fire was ignited across the TTRPG space.  Not only was Youtube lit up, but the original creators of the OGL, such as Ryan S. Dancey, had come out and expressly stated that the original intention of the OGL was that it was irrevocable and intended to be that way, even though, 20+ years ago, the specific language was neither included nor considered as needed.  That’s the detail WotC/Hasbro’s lawyers latched onto, using a more modern interpretation, even though the 20+ years of common use by the community says otherwise.

That’s about as specific as I’m going to get on the matter.  There are tons and tons of videos all across Youtube if you want more details about what happened; just check your favorite TTRPGer’s vids from January this year and you’re sure to see something about it.

The short of it is:  Wizards of the Coast done fucked up (again), and this time it was seen as a personal attack on the TTRPG space.

The Fallout

With that having been said, the reaction was swift and loud.  People who had been using D&D 5e for years, including some who perhaps had never even known or considered that there were other RPGs out there, were suddenly looking to the OSR (Old School Renaissance/Revival) systems, or looking to Pathfinder 2e or Starfinder or Castles and Crusades or Call of Cthulhu, or any number of other systems.  Paizo came out almost immediately and announced that they were working on a new open gaming license, the ORC, which is intended to become the new standard license to replace the OGL, and which they would pass over to a third party to hold, keeping it open-source (similar to how Linux operates).  Kobold Press announced their Black Flag project, which seems to be on track to be D&D 5.5 currently.  WotC saw thousands of D&D Beyond subscriptions canceled in a matter of days.

I could go on, but I’d be here forever.

Personally, it did spark a new creative interest within me.  I have been playing TTRPGs since the late 90s when I first came across them in high school, literally at least once a week (up to three or four times a week in the early days) for most of the last 20+ years.  Even though I’m more the type to buy a rulebook then homebrew my own stuff, time doesn’t really permit that like it used to, especially the last few years, so my group had leaned more into published adventures.  I tried running an old school D&D 2nd edition campaign using the 5e rules (as that’s what we were using at the time), but it petered out as my interest in using the system steadily declined from its already low level to absolute disgust with it, even before WotC dropped the OGL bomb.   We recently finished up the Savage Tide AP, which another GM in the group had converted to 5e, and in his place I’ve stepped up and started running a Pathfinder 2e game (the Abomination Vaults AP).  There is currently only one other 5e game I’m involved in (a conversion of Reign of Winter), though I’m not sure how much further that one is going to make it as it seems to be limping along at a snail’s pace, but that’s another story.

In addition to getting the Pathfinder 2e core book, before the Pathfinder stuff became scarce due to Paizo selling like 8 months of inventory in SIX WEEKS (if that’s not a major backlash against WotC/Hasbro, I don’t know what is), I picked up the Castles & Crusades starter bundle from Troll Lord Games, and probably a dozen other games and dozens of other supplements through various OSR and non OGL bundles that suddenly appeared online.

Even before this, last year, I had been working on making my own homebrew system, using the Star Wars Saga Edition system as a base (I always enjoyed this one, even though the D&D 4e that came out of it was so very different, to the point I never wanted to play it and went to Pathfinder 1e), mixing in other ideas from various other games I’d been researching.  While that has been put on hold for the time being, in lieu of testing how other systems work, specifically Pathfinder 2e and the old-school feeling Castles & Crusades, it remains on my roadmap, just further down the line.

What I’m Working On

I’ve been working on several things the last couple months.  The biggest was getting myself familiar with the Pathfinder 2e rules.  My early impression of the game is good; it seems to be much more along the lines of what I enjoy in games, such as a more tactical combat system (most 5e fights devolve quickly into “beat with sword until dead” territory) with very tight mechanics, where +1 bonuses and -1 penalties actually make differences; saw it multiple times in the first game I ran, in fact.  There are so many character options with PF2e that you’d find it nearly impossible for two characters of the same class to be identical.  I’m starting off with the Abomination Vaults adventure path, and incorporating the Beginner Box adventure (which is where we’ve started) and the Troubles in Otari adventure book, since they’re all in the same area.  Though the AP is only 10 levels, this should provide several months of gameplay (since we alternate our weekly games) and give us all an honest test of the system.  I’ll be adding my own custom content and changes to the AP as we go and I get more familiar with the intricacies of PF2e.  If we enjoy how things go well enough, it’ll transition to the higher level Fists of the Ruby Phoenix AP later.

I have two secondary projects at the moment which keep me busy when I’m not prepping for the game I’m running.  

First off is the #Dungeon23 Challenge.  This is basically creating a megadungeon over the course of the entire year, with twelve different floors and a number of rooms on each floor corresponding to the number of days in the month.  The idea is to create a room a day, which should generally take like five minutes, though I’m bad to forget or get distracted by other things I’m working on and have to do a few days at a time to get caught up.  The concept I went with is for a post-apocalyptic setting, ala Fallout/Mad Max, but in a more fantasy world that went through its ‘modern’ times, so elves and orcs fighting mutants with machine guns and rocket launchers, basically.  The idea itself is that of a massive interstate, I-89, that had a very unique feature:  a fifty mile long tunnel through the mountains, with a tourist trap in the center.  The first floor of the megadungeon itself is this tourist trap, featuring a diner, clinic, gas station, and an amusement park.  Further levels will include things like the Firefly Caverns, the big draw to the tourist attraction, as well as secret government facilities hidden in the mountain above, as well as old mines and mutant-filled warrens going deeper into the earth. 

I have not yet decided on a system this will be using; initially the concept was to use the post-apocalyptic setting as the test bed for my homebrew SWSE system, but since that’s on hold, I’m just being very generic with certain things in the room entries for now.  If I don’t use the homebrew system, I’m considering creating the megadungeon using the Savage Worlds system, or maybe using an OSR game.  We’ll see how things develop over the coming months.

The second big project, and the one that I’m actually more excited about at the moment, is what I’m calling “The Curse of Cypress Isle”.  The concept for this one is an old-school island hexcrawl adventure, in the vein of the old D&D Isle of Dread adventure.  My intention is to have this ready to go by the time the Abomination Vaults game ends, so that I can then transition into trying out the Castles & Crusades system within this setting.  Castles & Crusades has a lot of similarities to the old 2nd edition AD&D rules, but modernized (no THAC0 for example), which really appeals to me.  I’m curious to see how some of our players will handle a wizard with d4 hit dice and only gaining a single hit point after 10th level.

This project is actually going to be part of a larger worldbuilding endeavor I’m doing relating to those two pieces I wrote a couple years ago about the city of Arcavarlon.  I want to more fully develop this world and setting in the ‘fantasy’ era; I’ve already done quite a bit of galactic development throughout my stories over on the main UrbanVerse page, but wanted to go back and focus on some of the original characters and stories I have to tell in what I’m tentatively calling the Age of Legends, which is when most of my fantasy stories involving the Kerryns take place.

I’ll get more into that later on, but for now, the main idea behind this adventure is based upon the legends and stories swirling around Oak Island (you’ve probably heard of it; they have a TV show that has been running for like TEN seasons now).  I’m in the midst of reading one of the books about the island’s history, and intend to incorporate some of its aspects into my own treasure-filled island, though mine is going to be filled with much more danger, many of which will have nasty big pointy teeth.  

So, stick around for future entries on these projects and updates on my setting in the coming days and weeks.  I’m tentatively scheduling the first major update and post on one of these projects for early next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

You can find me over on DeviantArt or on my Discord server if you’d like to chat.  I also have a Twitter I’m trying to actually use more often, though I’m not great with the social media stuff.

Till next time, Urban out!