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,

Small Project for a DFer

A fellow Dragonsfoot member put out a request for a map based on his vision. So, I layed out the map in Dungeonographer (20 minutes), saved then exported as .png to Paint Shop Pro. I created a nice water texture, along with dropping in a couple lily pad groupings for richness. Then I added the components which included top down views of: five different trees, duck boat, two benches, watering can, a set of walking sticks and three bells. Moved on to adding three different keys, quill and leather bound book to each altar (all of which recieved drop shadows) before final placement. Lastly lettering for each area for clarity. Total time was two hours:

Cheers,

Finished Isolde-Delta Continent Map

24 December, 1977:

It began with the Bloated Blowfish Tavern in early December of 1977. After finishing that single point of reference I slowly expanded outward on old brown paper and by Christmas eve, I had roughly drawn out the area of Lake Elise, and started branching towards the Crestfallen Mountains.

In March of '78 I had the Southern tip completed, and began work northward ever-expanding the realm. By Christmas of that year I had started reading a series of Fantasy books that would alter my vision. Stephen R. Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" series began with Lord Foul's Bane, and the character's and the map of "The Land" fascinated me.

As the years passed, I kept adding to my own world, but couldn't come up with an area to fill the northeastern corner. My original brown paper drawing had been erased so many times in that area that it was tattered and had torn easily from all the redrawing attempts.

I redrew it and improved the details over the next five years.

Then, one evening in 1983, I had just finished a chapter of Donaldson's sixth book, "White Gold Wielder" when I casually flipped to the map in the front of the book. It suddenly dawned on me what was missing, so at 2 am I took off from my apartment in Illinois, and drove straight through to my grandfather's house in Ohio. Six coffees and one stop for breakfast later and I was comparing my dog-eared tattered paper-map to the "The Land" map.

This could work...

Over the next thirty years I slowly laid everything out, and finalized each place, creating backstories and using newer media to update and make my world come to life. Then I got serious...

12 October, 2013 to 14 November, 2015:

After laying out "The Land" section, I began re-creating my features using CC layers and sheets to provide a unifying base. Throw in my own custom textures, and in the end I settled on two distinct types of fonts - Packard for my world, and Palatino for "The Land" so that it would be easy to differentiate between worlds.

I used Sketch-up to create various city symbols like the Bloated Blowfish Tavern and Castle of the Bloated One. Even created a full ship called the Maiden's Kiss (see the post for details further down the front page) - for inclusion as a Symbol in any port of bay where I needed it. 

I used Campaign Cartographer 2, then updated to 3 about a year and a half ago. One thing is for certain, the new CC 3+ is out, and I will be purchasing the updated base kit that Pro-Fantasy offers (CC3+ and City/Dungeon Designer 3) because I now have proof that the software is worth every penny.

I created the map border, ripples for the shoreline, underwater features and legend/compass on different layers in Paint Shop Pro 7/9. Then added a burn layer on the underwater features (set at just 17%) to blend everything together.

Software used:
Campaign Cartographer 2/3
Paint Shop Pro 7.4/9.1
Google Sketch-Up

Time:
Twenty three months

38 years later, and I made the trip to Staples and had the map printed at 3'x3' in full glory on glossy paper. Included below is a finished 1/2 scale copy for those interested.

Throw in a 48"x36" display board, two different types of hangars (one to mount the poster to the board, then mount the board to the kitchen wall) and 50 bucks later we have a finished campaign world fit for a king.

The author standing near his finished map, pointing to "where it all started". Obviously 3.2 megapixels ain't very clear, so blame it on my non-photogenic qualities. 8)

For those interested in a full view, I'm also including a 1/2 scale .png available at my Mega account. (Choose "download using your browser" for the easy method).

https://mega.nz/#!xMFyVJiQ!jBmoY1nMoWLi5OA78-JbaR0umbniOPxCOlLwFmEak6c

Cheers,
B.B.

Atherton

As part of the re-creation of my original Campaign World, Isolde-Delta I've been using Campaign Cartographer 3 to complete it. On the Southern Coast I had this nice little area, perfect as an ode to a friend from down under, thus Atherton was born.

EST: 419 DF - Population 498

Cheers,

B.B.

The Maiden's Kiss

An ongoing project of mine is to create 3D items in Sketchup, and make them useable during gaming sessions, thus, the Maiden's kiss was conceived.

11 December, 1979:

The original Maiden's Kiss was drawn on 4 sheets of graph paper, then expanded to include a front Crew Quarter for longer voyages. The ship is nearly 100' in length and is a mainstay around the Southern Coast of Isolde-Delta.


Overview:

Rear side:

Lower Crew Quarters:

 Captain's Quarters:

 Top View: (I may move the grid closer to increase detail)

  Looking into the lower Crew Quarters:

Front Quarters:

Captain's Quarters:

Sadly, posting images of a 3D object into a 2 dimensional space doesn't quite provide the grandeur I'd like, but hopefully these will whet the appetite.

Cheers,
B.B.

Windmill

Greetings,

Continuing the focus on basic building maps.

I was going to create a set of layouts that detailed the three levels of the windmill that I created, but when researching typical designs, the lack of "useable space" inside derailed that idea rather quickly.

Instead, I created a support house with thatched "lesser" buildings attached, then finished the layout with well and fence. Presented below is the finished design:

Front view presenting the windmill and support building:

Side view:

Isometric view and details:

Overhead view with 10' grid in place (Dimensional size: 100' x 70')

Cheers,

Toll-House/Toll-Gate

One area of mapping that I feel is lacking for 1E (and similar) games is simple layouts that can be quickly used when the need arises. The next few posts will detail some of these concepts, starting with the Toll-House/Toll-Gate.

From "Toll-Gates in Sussex" by Leonard G. Lane,  (Sussex County Magazine Index - Volume 10 - 1936 - Turnpikes) http://scm.pastfinders.org/

Historically,  the people that lived near these toll-houses survived almost entirely on the produce of their own farms. Consequently, land and bridge owners often were prepared to accept hides and bullocks as tolls for the use of their bridges. Money didn't come into general use until the thirteenth century.

I discovered a good reference image of a Toll-House at http://www.secretshropshire.org.uk/content/learn/landscape/communications.asp

Armed with that data, presented below is a finished Toll-House with gate and bridge over water (and shadows):

Lastly, a traditional top-down view with 10' grid in place:

Cheers,