"Wheels in Motion"

In this post I'm going to break down a bunch of the current adventure/campaign I'm running in Sorrow. We are still playing and there are some threads that haven't been plucked by the players. There are a few spoilers in here - so if you are one of my players, read this later! The whole thing isn't laid out, just where the group has gotten to so far.

An Example of How I Write Adventures

Start with the problem - this is what the players are presented with - the "objective" of the adventure.

0: "There is some sort of reverse-aging plague ... uh oh!"

So now the fun bits: why and then why and then why...

1: Why this plague? The plague is caused by a dungeon that has grown out of control. 

2: Why out of control? Some wizard was working on a time-related thing and screwed it up.

3: Why is it screwed up? He was under pressure and died (and wasn't as good as he thought).

4: Why pressure? His wife pushed him to do it.

5: Why the push? She married him to gain power.

6: Why power? because she knows about a magic wishing dungeon one someone else's property

7: Why this other place? MAGIC WISHING DUNGEON

So that defines a reason for this adventure. Lets add a few complications. Complications are the hooks and subplots.

0.1 The plague is very dangerous - people age to nothing in about 48 hours. It has the potential to spread and disappear all of Haven. Yikes!

2.1 The strange machine built by the now-dead wizard is being run by members of a faerie court

4.1 He was rushing to provide a time potion to the dangerous gang leader Micky the Fish

Now let's flesh out these NPCs a bit - specifically their motivations. 

The wizard: Yent was an esoteric interested in the search for truth. Having the luxury of being upper class, he had the time and money to pursue these things. But he wasn't really a wizard - he was an occult hobbyist (albeit an advanced one), and made mistakes. He was just doing his thing, but was manipulated into going down this route by his wife.

The wife: Ulona was Yent's 4th wife and got with him to try and create a method for extending time because of the Wishing Fountain. How does she know about the wishing fountain? Because she was the lover of Micky the Fish! But she was just using Micky as well (more on that in a moment) because she wants to get to the Wishing Fountain   

Micky the Fish: once an GDD member, ran across the Wishing Fountain during a 'routine' dungeon crawl. He got corrupted and is turning into a terrible monster. Ulona was a hireling of the GDD crew and knows what kind of power Mickey has ... but doesn't care about the details of HOW, she just wants it for her own nefarious purposes. Ulona continued to manipulate Micky even as he became a rampaging murder machine.

The Other Estate: Yent figured out that the Wishing Fountain, which appears from time to time around Haven had a regular pattern and made some calculations. The next appearance was in the nearby Clopman estate. Why? Because the former head of the clopman's was a wizard who was ALSO interested in the Wishing Fountain and built a statue to attract it. Magic, man. Sweet. 

Now with all the bits and pieces sorted I can write up the wheels. These are what drive the campaign. They are the events that unfold if the character's DON'T get involved, but also set the general trajectory. PC interaction is the heart of a good RPG game, so every time the PCs get their grubby selves involved I update the direction of the wheels (and those related to them). For example, the PCs messed up Mickey getting the time potion, so he changed his mind and decided to hunt them down (after they talked about how awesome they were and generally bragged around town).

The Wheels

Wheel 1: The Plague

• Consume the Blesmont Circle population
• Consume Magnen Village neighborhood
• The Hammers (kind of the supernatural police) get involved
• Spread to All of Shady Thicket
• CAMPAIGN CHANGE: Massively depopulate Haven before being running its course

Wheel 2: Micky

• Get the Time Potion
• Instead of giving it to Ulona, use it himself to "live forever"
• Continue to grow more murderous and monstrous
• His gang becomes a cult
• Consolidate Power in Shady Thicket
• CAMPIGN CHANGE: The Hammers form up, recruiting for a a war within Haven

Wheel3: Ulona

• Get the time potion
• Raid the Clopman estate and enter the dungeon
• Use the time potion to extend the time it is open (don't want to get trapped)
• Wish for her cult to get power
• CAMPAIGN CHANGE: a bad cult-related thing happens

I left out the details on that last bit because while I told my players not to read this ... they might.

What Now?

Now with the big picture laid out, I can start littering clues and connections all over the damned place. Create rumor tables (the Ulona of Vious Moon has been attempting to purchase the Clopman estate), add descriptive notes to encounters that infer something or another (like the dead "wizard's" clothes in the time dungeon indicated he was upper class.

I didn't know what would happen or where the adventure would go. Who ever knows what the fuck players are going to get up to? In this case they stopped the time dungeon/plague, started a gang war against Mickey that ended in street riots and wide-scale destruction, and ended up carousing and getting Imdar Clopman drunk and tricking him into being their friend. Now they are going to attempt to kill off the Wishing Fountain Dungeon. Also one of the PCs killed another PC and has gotten himself addicted to some nasty drugs - which is a completely unrelated but really interesting side plot.

This was over a few months of actual play ... you can't have this much interconnected stuff in a few sessions without spoon-feeding the information. That just feels like telling the players a story I wrote and letting them know what to do next. At any point the crew could have ignored something or gone off on a tangent, let events transpire and the campaign would be irrevocably changed. All of which is AWESOME. And if they get in there and deal with the dungeon cropping up, that will be awesome too. 

And here is the best part - I don't care how the adventure/campaign ends. It doesn't matter as long as it is interesting. I've seen so many adventures (and posts on reddit and whatnot) where there is a foregone conclusion that the PCs will save the say - they will get to a major battle on the top of a mountain and the GM has written up this epic encounter and bla bla bla.

I'm all about setting the wheels in motion. The players' job is to get in there and mess about with things. If they want to stop the impending doom, great! if not, that's cool! if they succeed? fantastic! if they fail? no problem. It isn't about telling a story, it is about having an adventure. The story is what happens when the players retell the adventurer to their friends.

Some Dungeon Geomorphs

I draw a bunch. It seemed like fun but I'm not really into it. Perhaps I'll make some more later? If I do more, I need to change the grid size so I can add them staggered. Or maybe I should figure out what the 'standard' scale is so you can mix and match with other folks' stuff. We shall see. 

Here are some scans. Perhaps I'll make them into individual images suitable for roll20.

Shady Thicket

The city of Haven is absurdly large. The population density is unreasonable. The idea is ludicrous. However, I'm not going for reality, I'm going for insane fun and maximum opportunity.

Haven is broken down into Districts, each acting like a semi-autonomous city-state within the city. There isn't a central "city government" - the place is endless chaos of guild and noble house politics and schemes. Recently in my game the criminal element was a major focus. There was a gang war in the city the adventuring crew organized to take down someone nasty. It was awesome.

This post is about one district: Shady Thicket. I decided to write up a document for each district to give them distinct flavor and color. Here are some screen shots of that. Let me know if you are interested and I'll happily share the pdf with you.

The idea is to give each neighborhood within a district some tone, which gives the entire district a tone. In addition to the description, some people and places. A series of tables to generate random buildings that apply to everywhere in the district and lean into the feel of the neighborhoods in the three regions of the district.

The people and place tables will always be unique, but as I write up more districts - which I'll do in detail as we actually play in them - I can reuse and tweak the building generators. For example, in Smoldering Wharf  docks I may use something like.

d6	State	Feeling
1	Salt-Crusted	Bustling / Active
2	Weather-beaten	Shady / Criminal
3	Precarious / Dilapidated	Warehouse / Storage
4	Disreputable	Fish / Fishermen
5	Leaning Heavily	Repairs / Carpentry
6	Partially Collapsed	Boatswain /Sailors

In fact I'll use exactly that. :)

Mapping

You can map a city, but as soon as you've done that you lock things into position. Also, it is boring. I've got a 2-page spread of the district with the walls and major roads (and Greenwine hill). I've drawn on significant sub-streets and added a few buildings to mark specific locations. Everything else is handled with role playing and random tables. Based on an idea from the lastgaspgrimoire (which has SO MUCH GOOD STUFF), I've written up my "city crawl" mechanics to cover chasing someone down an alley, seeing wtf is going on up on those rooftops when the crew inevitably does that, and poking around the Undercity. So the map is simple and we add to it as we need. As we transition to roll20, I can even share it with the players.

RPG Weather - Haven System

I've complained about it before and made a bunch of tables and all sorts of things, but weather tables in RPGs are rough. Too complicated, not an interesting flow of weather, too random, and so on. Even the ideas I came up with were OK (at best - and I'm biased) ... but not really interesting or even that easy to use. Then I discovered this absolute gem!

Of course I had to abscond with the idea and make some changes to fit my needs. It really is a beautiful system and quite flexible. It is dynamic, gives patterns to recognize, and is really simple to set up!

How To Use these Tables

1. Start somewhere. For example my game in late spring, so I'm starting in the center hex of the spring table.
2. Roll a d6 and follow the rules as Daniel wrote. They are simple and fun!

[New Stuff] 

1. In the last weeks of a season, roll 1d4 instead of 1d6
2. If during that time a result on the right side of the table is a 2 or 3, transition to the left-most hex on the season table. 
3. If the next season starts but the weather table is still the previous season, don't freak out. instead roll 1d6 is results of: 1 = up, 2-3= right up, 4-5 = right down, 6 = down
4. And follow new rule 2 up there. Eventually you'll get to the next season's table

Special Hexes

Then I decided that I could do some sort of special hexes. The top-most and bottom-most hexes are special in that they tend to stick around for a bit. So in the spring the first time one of the top or bottom hexes are encountered they are Spiced Winds. As soon as the weather leaves that hex, they change to Doldrums and the other once becomes Spiced Winds. The winds can stick around for a few days, but don't come about too often. Cool!

What My Weather Types Mean

• Clear: normal uninteresting day, reasonable season temperature, winds, etc.
• Cloudy: overcast and cloudy. when this hex comes immediate roll for the next day to see what kind of clouds - if rain or storm is 'on the horizon' they look like 'rain clouds' or 'storm clouds' rather than just 'grey shitty day clouds'.
• Cool / Warm: lower or higher temperatures than normal, but not out of the question
• Cold: not just cool but cold!
• Cold Snap: indicates cold, but a sudden drop in temperature when it happens
• Heat Wave: it is way too hot and will linger, the next day's weather not even kicking in until later in the day
• Oddly Warm: it is way too warm for winter. not crazy hot, but a really warm day.
• Rain: it rains!
• Sleet: is it rain? is it snow? It sucks no matter what, freezer over if next day is snow
• Storm: it rains really hard and is probably windy. If in the winder it is a snow storm. if the previous day was sleet it might be snow for a bit.
• Windy: it is hella windy. Haven is by the sea, so this isn't too weird
• Fog: big heavy fog rolls in off the sea. pea-soup stuff. a good time to do crimes.
• Light Snow: some snow falls. it is pretty.
• Thunder Snow: snowfall with thunder and lightning
• Silent Snow: sound is dampened, snow cover is heavy
• Wet Snow: nasty bsuiness. roll another 1d6. On a 1-4 it ices over. Gross
• Howling Wind: just really intense gale that seems to have a bit of howling coming from the wind itself
• Warm Wind: it is warm, which is nice in the winter
• Doldrums: totally calm day, no wind, magnify previous day's weather (ignoring wind)
• Spiced Wind: winds that carry the scent of spices and far-off places. usually considered an omen (50/50 good or bad) depending on when they arrive.
• Blood Rain: the rainwater is reddish and leaves a film on things. it is a type of reds algae that lives in the clouds
• Ashy: The sky gets smudgey clouds and a a bit of ash, like a light rain, falls from the sky. nobody knows where this comes from 
• The Calm: The weather is fantastic and a perfect temperature - everything seems calmer on these days, including the people and creatures of Haven. usually a good pop-up market day
• Black Tides: the weather from the previous day continues and the tides are particularly high and low - the water is dark, a dangerous time to be in the ocean and the mouth of the rivers
• Wendigo Snow Storm: this happens at most once a winter (then it becomes Howling Winds). Incredible winds, heavy stinging snow fall, and wendigo stalk the streets at night.

And now for some tables:

Spring	Summer
Autumn	Winter

In Action!

My calendar has 12 months, each with 28 days (because fuck it - why make it complicated like real life?). Spring is March - May, 3 months per season. Starting on May 7th in the center spring hex, here is an example of the daily weather.

Date	Season	Die	Roll	Weather
May 7	Spring	d6	x	clear
May 8	Spring	d6	4	warm
May 9	Spring	d6	4	windy
May 10	Spring	d6	1	warm
May 11	Spring	d6	3	rain
May 12	Spring	d6	1	clear
May 13	Spring	d6	1	clear
May 14	Spring	d6	4	clear
May 15	Spring	d6	2	warm
May 16	Spring	d6	3	ahsy
May 17	Spring	d6	6	warm
May 18	Spring	d6	5	clear
May 19	Spring	d6	3	storm
May 20	Spring	d6	1	warm
May 21	Spring	d6	3	ashy
May 22	Spring (transition)	d4	2	Storm
May 23	Spring (summer)	d6	4	rain
May 24	Spring (summer)	d6	6	storm
May 25	Spring (summer)	d6	4	rain
May 26	Spring (summer)	d6	6	storm
May 27	Spring (summer)	d6	1	cold snap
May 28	Spring (summer)	d6	4	storm
June 1	Summer	d6	4	rain
June 2	Summer	d6	2	The Calm
June 3	Summer	d6	3	clear
June 4	Summer	d6	4	warm
June 5	Summer	d6	1	clear
June 6	Summer	d6	5	warm
June 7	Summer	d6	2	clear
June 8	Summer	d6	4	warm
June 9	Summer	d6	3	Black Tides
June 10	Summer	d6	4	Black Tides
June 11	Summer	d6	3	Black Tides
June 12	Summer	d6	6	Warm
June 13	Summer	d6	6	Warm
June 14	Summer	d6	1	The Calm
June 15	Summer	d6	2	Clear
June 16	Summer	d6	3	Cloudy
June 17	Summer	d6	3	Spiced Wind
June 18	Summer	d6	5	Storm
June 19	Summer	d6	4	Black Tides
June 20	Summer	d6	5	Black Tides
June 21	Summer	d6	4	Black Tides
June 22	Summer	d6	4	Black Tides
June 23	Summer	d6	3	Black Tides
June 24	Summer	d6	1	Storm
June 25	Summer	d6	4	Black Tides
June 26	Summer	d6	1	Storm
June 27	Summer	d6	4	Black Tides
June 28	Summer	d6	1	Storm
July 1	Summer	d6	5	warm
July 2	Summer	d6	6	warm
July 3	Summer	d6	2	clear
July 4	Summer	d6	2	cloudy
July 5	Summer	d6	5	clear
July 6	Summer	d6	6	The Calm
July 7	Summer	d6	1	Cool

Additional Thoughts

This simple idea is so rad - it could be used to chart the course of anything dynamic. What about how the forces in a war are doing, or the relationships between factions, or the unrest in a nation? All of these are possible. It really may be one of the best things I've found on the internet.

Phantasmagoricon Volume 1

Everyone loves a monster book! More monsters! More ideas! But you know what no one likes? The same fucking monsters over and over and over. How many monster books have zombies and ghouls and whatever is in the SRD of whatever game is popular right now? Oh - and let's not forget about the wolf, the dire wolf, the ice wolf, the fire wolf, the undead wolf, the water wolf, and myriad variations on the same thing that are only exciting once or twice (think reskinning monsters in video games).

I'm in the writing details of the first Phantasmagorican - the monster books for Sorrow in Haven. This is the general layout (please ignore typos I'm not into editing right now). The blank space is for yet-to-be-determine stuff. Some artwork definitely, but perhaps also random tables to spice things up. For example everyone knows what the cherub looks like and the sticks to that general image, so perhaps a table of "what are they guarding" or "variations of weapons and look". Some might just get some additonal text describing tactics or variants or something. I'm focused on getting the main guts all done before going down the rabbit hole that is details.

Once I've got everything written up, I'm going to go back through and clean up the langue. Get rid of "seems to be" or "may be" and things like that. Make the words definite. Replace dumb words (big) with interesting words (towering) - generally make the short blurb evocative. If a GM reads a description and doesn't immediately imagine the thing and where they could use it, it isn't a good description.

Timeline Notes

• Descriptions (about 25% done right now) - finish by end of Jan 
• Description review/editing - end of Feb
• make some choices on art and extra tables - mid March
• get art - May
• write tables - start mid-March, done by May
• add the introduction - June
• add an appendix or two as needed - June/July
• cover artwork! - august
• final proof - September

The Sorrow in Haven rules are all done - we are just doing some playtesting at the moment. At this point rules tweaks are very minor, a few wording choices get updated from time to time. Ultimately I'd like to make the whole thing less wordy (I do tend to go on) but I'd rather have a product in hand than backpedal that much. 

The rules are 8.5 x 7 , but the monster books layout is 8.5 x 5.5. I think I'm going to stick with that for the moment. perhaps the next rules iteration will get the 8.5 x x5.5 treatment and be less wordy. we'll see...

Restock the Dungeon

I really hate adventurers exploring a dungeon, then leaving, then coming back and nothing has changed. Obviously things have changed, but rarely are there any rules for what has happened.  Here are the rules that I use.

When the PCs leave a dungeon every room they have explored gets a restock roll. But what die to roll? If the dungeon is particularly active, roll 1d8. Regular dungeons roll 1d12. Slow/dying/quiet dungeons roll 1d20 or the higher of 2d12 (if you hate d20s for some reason)  1dX   Restock with ...  1 - 2   Monster 3  Monster + Treasure 4  Trap + Treasure 5  Unguarded Treasure  6  Special Event 7  No change, but show signs of activity 8+  No change, no signs of activity of any kind

Monsters
If there is a lair nearby (and nearby is relative) expand that lair and move some of the monsters. Only add more if they would be spread too thin. If the lair is of something with just 1 monster, then add some minions of that nasty.

If there are nearby monsters that aren't from a lair, add a few more of those. If there is a faction that has a reasonable presence, add some of them. These two are interchangeable and just depend on the map and the dungeon and all that.

Finally if there isn't anything that jumps out at you, add a random monster. Shit moves into dungeons. They spawn monsters from their very walls. Whatever works for you here.

Treasure
If these are new monsters, add some new treasure. Otherwise split up some other treasure from where the monsters came from. If it is a trap room them move something from a nearby cache that the dungeon mooks would reasonably hide and trap. 

If unguarded, add something new. I always look at this last one as something another adventurer may have dropped.

Special Events
If there are some sort of things going on add a special bit to the dungeon. For example, if there are cultists trying to summon a demon then add some evidence of summoning, maybe some imps that have joined in the fun, or perhaps they've tweaked up this location to aid in their summoning making the whole thing move along faster ... or maybe they have SUCCEEDED and the thing is here. Whatever happens, make this room special and interesting (hence special event).

In Sorrow, there is an ever-present danger that the dungeon continues to grow. Dungeons are like living things and are pushing into the World of Light, they are a mold growing on the underside of reality. When this event pops up, I roll on this handy chart:  1d20   Dungeon Growth Event 1 - 4  1d4 chambers of this level 4 - 7  1d8 chambers of this level 8 - 11  2d4 chambers as a sub-level of the same dungeon type 12 - 14  2d4 chambers as a sublevel of an adjacent dungeon type  15 - 17   3d6 chambers as a sublevel of this dungeon 18 - 19  1d3 chambers, temporary, Dust type, connect to other level  20  1d6+1 chambers, new point of egress to/from Sorrow

Been Gone a While
In the case where characters fuck off and do something else for a while, or get otherwise engaged/stuck/in jail/healing/leveling up I usually roll a few times or lower the die. Sometimes I just organically decide what happens. 

They killed most of faction 1 but faction 2 is still ok? Well fuck you faction 1 - faction 2 is here to take this dungeon over! Now that the Cult of Summoning Satan is dead the Sisterhood of Ruined Flesh is going to make this whole place a temple to Rot.

Big monster is killed off? That seems to open a new path of exploration for the other denizens. With that stupid gorgon eliminated (no one liked her anyway) the Callowpest have moved in from the north and started hunting a Sick Jack tribe. The Jacks don't like that are are setting traps.

Last Words

It is 2021. Finally. FIrst printing of Sorrow in Haven (revised edition) should become a physical thing this year. Monster book(s) are on their way - lots of writing and layout still to do - I am struggling a bit to make a layout I like. GM handbook is in its infancy. Also working on layout (focused on usability) of Sorrow itself. 

I'm also working on some geomorphs - a little daily exercise. If that actually becomes something I'll see about making them into a pdf or something. Most of the "365 day" projects don't make it a month (forget about a year), so who knows?

Class-based damage & endurance + 2020 mini-rant

Characters in Sorrow in Haven have two die types set by their class - Endurance and Damage.

The Endurance Die
This is pretty common - different character classes have different amounts of hp. Endurance in SiH is a bit different. It is like hit points, but only represents stamina and stress. Vitality (another stat) actually represents the amount of physical damage one can take before getting killed.  Endurance is also a resource that characters can spend to increase their chances of success.

At 1st level a character gets a roll of their END die to determine stating END (15+END die roll), but after that every character gets 5 END when they level up. Early on it became obvious that characters with a big END die were just more capable then those with smaller END die - at everything (because you can spend END). So an initial bump, but long term END is fairly even across the classes. Adventurers are adventurers. 

So why still have it? Because the END die represents how effective the characters are at recovering END when they rest. Fighters recover from activity (which is usually physical in nature) faster than wizards. Vitality recovery still sucks for everyone, as intended. So if HP aren't the measure of combat prowess any more (and they definitely aren't in my game), it has to be ....

The Damage Die
I never liked classic D&D where characters couldn't use certain weapons. I understand why (game balance reasons) - a fighter is awesome at fighting so they get the best weapons. This was somewhat mitigated over time with proficiencies and whatnot, but it is still hella clunky. I also totally hate the idea that a dagger is less dangerous than a sword in the hands of a capable opponent. Hence, class-based damage. Fighters do 1d8 when they attack, wizards 1d4. Why? Fighters know how to fuck enemies up with anything in their hands, wizards not so much (they get spells, so you know, compensate in other ways).

This also allowed weapons to not be an endless list of stats, but rather descriptive items items that further the character idea. All "medium close combat" weapons are identical for stat purposes, just describe it however you want. Mace? Fine. longsword? Fine. Chain covered in salt-crusted thorns? Sweet. Gear, at least at a basic level, is then just an extension of the vision a player has for their character. 

I'm not the first (by a long shot) to use or even suggest class-based damage. I did it decades ago with the BX D&D game I ran as well. It works. It is fun. Arguments against it are boring.

"Game" Balance / Multiclassing
Both a character END die and Damage die can be improved. For all classes. If there isn't a specific advance within the class itself, there is always the option of the alternate "Broaden Your Horizons" advances. They have a level requirement and cause your XP totals required to advance to increase. Why? because the character is deviating from the archetype.

I hate "multiclassing". If a fighter 6, warlock 2, rogue 1 ... fucking Christ! You aren't anything coherent at that point. Your character is a collection of abilities and not an in-game concept. But having some options isn't unreasonable. A Dr. of Physics can also be awesome at singing, so why can't a wizard also deal some heft sword damage? The "broaden your horizons" advances don't change your class, your archetype, your focus, they just open some possibilities. Besides, there are tons of alternate powers and advances that anyone can choose.

Some "From Play" Examples
One of my players has gone all-in with a concept of a gun-slinger. He is playing a fighter that has deviated and chosen the alternate power "Black Powder Enthusiast". This guy is fast and deadly when it comes to shooting people with guns. Like seemingly way over-powered at 2nd level. However, the moment the tide turns and melee is upon him, things don't go as well. The character is so hyper focused on shooting pistols that anything else is mechanically wanting. 

In the previous campaign, we had a wizard that was all about causing damage. Massive damage. Destructive spells, physical damage, etc. In addition to being a war mage (increased damage die on spell effects) he also advnaced his general damage die. He was a fucking destruction machine, but when it came to interacting with people he was awful (and this was played oh so very well). 

Are these flaws? Nope. I say they are strengths. You can craft a character that excels in one thing at the cost of other things. And it is obvious from the get-go. He knew in the last session that once those gang thugs closed in on him, things were about to go fucking sour, and they did. That wizard was shit at everything except blasting monsters apart and the player really leaded into it. The whole things was awesome.

My Point
I don't have one. I like making END growth fairly flat as it makes every combat dangerous, even at higher levels. I like class-based damage because it opens up character concepts without gimping them with abstract game rules. I like character classes as archetypes, hate multi-classing, but love customization options. Done rambling. 

In Conclusions
I hope everyone is having a happy (or at least reasonable) holiday season. Stay Safe. Trump & his cronies & supporters are pieces of shit. Black Lives Matter. RPGs are awesome. Keep playing and doing awesome stuff. Don't be gate-keeping assholes. Orcs can just be orcs. Free Healthcare for Americans. Fuck you, 2020.