1E Wilderness Encounters 4.0

Greetings,

Recently in my Isolde-Delta campaign, the players were traveling north towards the fabled "Ruins of the Moathouse" and a couple random encounters were called for. During the rolls, I realized I had missed a section on my Wilderness Encounters table, namely individual buildings/structures. I just updated the tables to include results like:

Abbey
Monastery
Mine
Cottage
Tower
Manor
Hermitage
Herder's Hut
Cave Complex
Gypsy Wagon
Temple
Burning Ship

Additionally, the entry Structure appears on most of the charts and a sub-table was added into the appendix. If this result is called for/chosen, roll d100 on the new chart for results like:

Single House (with sub-table)
Fortified Building (with sub-table and entries like Small Keep and Motte & Bailey).

These entries are included to give the players more options for encounters that will add Landmark results to the world map, and hopefully entice the players to feel a bit more like Lewis & Clarke, or perhaps Abbot & Costello.

Updated link is in the Downloads Archive, and below for simplicity:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mdklswkqh1tlzz/1EWildernessEncounters4.0.pdf?dl=0

Cheers,

Isolde-Delta and the Coins of the Realm - Collected

27 March, 1978:

To finalize the revisit of original material, included below is a collected image showing all five coins together.

Cheers,

Isolde-Delta and the Coins of the Realm - Mithril

27 March, 1978:

Mithril Ore
Jorel Lightbottom and Elisea Land’orel found the first recorded Mithril Ore, and created a design that represented the shared love of the land and its history. They, and odd pair, spent weeks deciding on a design – seen arguing occasionally well into the night. Finally they settled on Mithril Ore, with the phrase: Blood in Legend, Blood in the Vein (Legenda in sanguinem, sanguinem in venam). Presented below is the Mithril coin:

 Cheers,

Isolde-Delta and the Coins of the Realm - Platinum

27 March, 1978:

Platinum Crown
Selvarus One-Eye (Court Jester to Lord Prothall) had his blacksmith brother (long-departed) create a replica of the King’s crown. During the Feast of Ravers, he stumbled blind drunk into the court and sat on the throne. Donning the real crown, he decreed “My crown should be seen far and wide, whether I’m sitting or crapping”. The King thought it was a grand suggestion, and chose the phrase: Glory, Honor, Unity (Palma Veneratio Iunctum). Presented below is the Platinum coin:

 Cheers,

Isolde-Delta and the Coins of the Realm - Gold

27 March, 1978:

Gold Shield/Sword
The Church of Sorakis settled on the shield and sword of their warrior/mage class, the templar. This is the living embodiment of their creed, and represents the balance needed for success in the world. Encircled by the phrase, Live by the Word, Sword in Hand (Vivunt ex Verbo, evaginatum tenentem gladium). Presented below is the Gold Sword:

Cheers,

Isolde-Delta and the Coins of the Realm - Silver

27 March, 1978:

Silver Axe 

The Valley Dwarves of Isolde, master wood and stone carvers, chose their favored Wood Axe. During the spring and fall equinox, the dwarves travel throughout the realm, selling their wares during festivals and local events. The phrase is, Balance Leads to Victory (Pondera Plumbum ut Victoria). Presented below is the Silver Axe:

 Cheers,

Isolde-Delta and the Coins of the Realm - Copper

Rarely do I revisit previous posts, but I found another missing page from my Isolde-Delta history, which gives me missing details on the coins of the realms. That info originally appeared in the non-traditional sandbox design series of articles: http://bloatedblowfish.blogspot.com/2011/09/non-traditional-sandbox-design-13.html

27 March, 1978: 

Isolde-Delta Coins History 

When Isolde-Delta received the official deed of crenellation, two writs were sent throughout the realm. The first detailed the official decree, (found on the official Isolde-Delta map):

The second writ asked each settlement from the smallest fife to the largest city to decide upon a symbol and slogan that best represented them. Once a choice had been made, they were asked to petition an artist whom would create the design professionally. Each symbol would then be voted upon via Land Census at the end of that year, and the best designs would then be minted and represent the five coins of the realms. They were: 

Copper - Lotus - The Church of the White Lotus (Monks) 

Silver - Axe - The Valley Dwarves of Isolde 

Gold - Shield/Sword - The Church of Sorakis (Haven) 

Platinum - Crown - Selvarus One-Eye (Court Jester to Lord Prothall) 

Mithril - Ore - Jorel Lightbottom and Elisea Lan'orel (Dwarf/Elf) 

A grove of trees was chosen as the symbol of the realm, and would be included on the back of each minted coin. The ancient language of Latin, created in Harnic runes would be used for the slogan that would adorn each piece.

Copper Lotus

The monks of the realms during an enclave, voted unanimously that the Church of the White Lotus should represent their vested interest. They chose the Lotus flower because it represents the simple man in Isolde, his journey through life and the balance one must achieve with the realm of Nature. The phrase is one of the three guiding axioms of the faith, Harmony and Peace with Nature (Consensio quod Pacis per Vis).  Presented below is the Copper Lotus:Cheers,

The Crypt of Fallen Pass

14 January, 1978:

Fallen Pass, the name is synonymous with bravery and duty. 27 souls held off an Orc raiding party for almost five days, allowing the local citizens of Centro to escape the onslaught. Those brave warriors were the first to be interred in the Crypt of Fallen Pass. Over the years, the land surrounding the crypt has slowly changed from a light woodland region to low foothills with water running off the mountain range. The crypt has slowly sunk into the mire, and while a few distant relatives still visit their family occasionally, the place has been left largely untended.

My original design for the crpyt included a main large mausoleum housing passages to smaller enclosures running around the outer perimeter. I kept the layout completely intact from my original design, instead focusing on recreating the look and feel of a mired crypt in an area that had a swamp feel, but didn't suffer from the stagnation predominant in older swamps.

This image is the base overlay, and does not include any hint of the layout inside. I'm doing this until the group actually plays here, to save any secrets that may exist. Included is the layout of the Crypt of Fallen Pass:

Cheers,

Micro-Sandbox Design: Revisited

I wanted to revisit my Micro-Sandbox Design, not because I really care if anyone reads this set of posts, but rather so I could say this is how I have always Dmed, officially. I've already explained How my system works in the section on Sandbox Design. The point is, with the current group, I've been very reflective/retrospective of my gaming world named Isolde-Delta. Hell every time I walk into my kitchen, I'm reminded in glorious detail of it and truthfully, its the single confluent moment in my gaming life. I met Gary on multiple occasions, gamed with N. Robin Crosby and Bob Bledsaw (Harn and Judges Guild creators, respectively), although I wish I'd have met Dave Arneson. All of them, and countless other designer's/gamers have certainly influenced me in some small way.

Perhaps if I spent my life saying "Okay Google: Tell me about Sandbox Design for Role Playing Games specifically tagged as AD&D, OSR, 1E" I'd be satisfied with the results. The truth is I'm a regular viewer at Dragonsfoot (linked in my Legendary Sites section) but I rarely post. Why?, I'd much prefer to play the game than spend every waking second dissecting the damn game, so basically what I have to say about Sandbox Design doesn't come from someone else, but rather from my own fractured cerebral cortex. 

In that set of articles I said, in part "I create things from a micro scale outward. That is, all I start with is a rough outline of one county (hundred) on my continent, and a single point of interest – in this case the Bloated Blowfish Tavern. Because I'm working from the micro scale outward, I'm essentially discovering the world with my players as they adventure. It's a bit more back end work for me, but it also allows me to shape the fringes of the world, while giving the player more control over the world in which they live."

The PC's in the current campaign had taken on the task of guarding a caravan on it's long journey from the port town of Chew to Jo's Run, in the dead of winter. They've past through Yggsburgh, Coppice, Grande Lynn and recently arrived at Corvis, the City of the Dead.  Luckily, or unluckily for them, they arrived the day before a major event. In my world I have a twin set of moons, Bast and Nephthys which have their own rotational period (thank god for Weathermaster by Milieu software). All I did was plug in their monthly cycles, and bingo I have full lunar settings for the entire year, including when certain events happen. In this instance, a double dark of the moon happens on Peonu 21. The day before, of, and after this event awakens the dead and they own the night. In any case, the group wisely made haste to a center island in Corvis, hiding in a set of ruins and waited out the carnage.

Once the danger had passed, they made their way by boat across the river to the Northern side of Corvis, looking for a place to stay and finishing up some odds & ends. The bard in the group had almost died on the island, the unfortunate victim of a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (yeah it's a strange brute, but fit the area perfectly). So once they landed the thief decided to help the local guard get rid of the hundreds of now dead bodies again, along the way pilfering anything he could find. A few hours later, he felt "sick" and collapsed on his way to the local temple. When he awoke, he discovered he had contracted Fire Skin, a contagion said to make the limbs and fingers/toes fall off during the month long cycle leading to death. So now the party is on a quest to save their friend, and 11 other victims of this horrible disease....

The players may well decide to go into a mega-dungeon/larger module eventually, and yes, there are plenty of choices like:

Castle Zagyg/Castle of the Mad Archmage
Stonehell I & II
Barrowmaze I and Complete
Dark Tower
Undermountain
Castle Whiterock
Rappan Athuk

The point to all of this is, I've run this campaign without using any premade purchased modules or maps, rather using my large book of tables to fill in items like: character background, languages, encounter tables for each area (as the party enters them), and having complete tables for dungeon, room and full menus for any tavern/inn based on the type i.e., poor, common, good, exclusive etc. Throughout it all, I've kept notes of what the party is discovering, be it new ruins, towns and the like and will add those to the history of my campaign.

In the end, I've not been more pleased with how the party is working together to explore and most importantly they seem to love what I'm doing. In the end, that is all I can hope for.

Cheers,

Old Reaver's Tomb

August 9th, 1977 Original Concept

This long forgotten tomb was originally conceived after a neighborhood friend and I spent the day underneath the bridge at my grandfather's house. We built up some boards in the creek, and as the water slowly built up, it became our own little wading pond - with enough depth to sit on the shelf under the bridge proper. I had some hex paper in my drawing kit and as part of the original design of Isolde Delta, I felt that placing tombs/barrows/stone circles would be an integral part of the layout, and also gave the world more depth.

*****
The Brown River begins in the Crestfallen Mountains, and has a gentle journey before falling downward 4800 feet to an upper plateau near a precipice. From there the river runs to the Southeast and plummets at Landsdrop, forming the sister rivers; Plume and Soulease.

Here, the sisters split, the Soulease runs westward around the basin of Landsdrop, while the Plume drops into the Vale of Shadows. The rapids in this region plunge downward to the East, bringing up deep ore deposits as it rips through the hardened upper regions, and finally calms as the Plume joins with Reaver's Gorge at Corvis. 

Reaver's Gorge meanders to the Southwest dropping some 200 feet over the course of the 20 mile journey to Reaver's Bridge. The river then flows into Andelain and splits again, part of it dropping ever South, while a slower vein travels Westward before joining with it's sister, the Soulease South of Coppice.

*****
Most of the shoreline near Reaver's Bridge is manageable only in the Fall and dead of Winter, in part due to the height of the river during the rest of the year. Some of the locals fish these regions, and tales speak of caves that contain more than the dead carcass of unfortunate animals looking for a warm place to sleep.

Non-Traditional Sandbox Design 14

I've been receiving some solid feedback on my Non-Traditional Sandbox Design series (thanks guys!), and in reviewing it, I realized I'd forgotten to include an overview of the process.

One point I would like to reiterate here is that many of the steps shown in this series may be considered optional. I can't say that my method is the best, or the only way to design a campaign setting, but it has been used and tweaked for nearly 34 years with excellent feedback from players and DM's alike.

Once you have the basic process down, you can quickly jump to any step and continue to expand your campaign as needed, to stay ahead of the players, and of course to suit your own demented desires for design. To that end, I've placed those that I consider to be optional in bold/Italic text (and added the words if applicable) for your convenience. So without further ado, here is the outline:

*****

1: Create back story and rough outline of the county map.
2: Create a list of towns central to plot points (to be developed in future steps).
3: Create a trade route and list its principle Start and End points.
4: Place Towns on map.
5: Place Trade Route on map, connecting the principle locations from step 3.

6: Have Players name important landmarks.

7: Add Mountain and Hill features.
8: Define Lakes (if applicable).
9: Define River by random roll
10: Add traditional vegetation features.

11: Choose Plots (use Custom or Commercial modules as needed)
12: Create a series of Adventure Hooks

13: Create Calendar, and holiday/events of note.

14: Fill out the Campaign Time line, including days/months of the year.

15: Create Coins for the Realms, based on input from previous steps

16: Fill out Campaign Events, Holidays, and Specifics for Banking (if applicable)

17: Create Taverns and Shops of interest, to drive Plot Points

18: Create Guilds and Organizations in the Campaign

19: Lay out detailed notes for special events (if applicable)

20: Finish Monthly Calendar (if applicable)

21: Create basic map of towns/villages

22: Devise basic monster backgrounds for regions

23: Player Character Sheet (If applicable)

*****

Cheers,