My past burn-out and what I'm doing now

 Early 2021 I was a bit too excited about D&D. In December I got back to the East Marches campaign in my hometown and started writing a document listing all one-shots I played, complete with descriptions of monsters and encounters. In January I DMed 4 games in the East Marches and it was too much for me. With my new campaign also coming along, I burned out and had my worst creative dip ever. I didn't have any inspiration for 4 months. When I finally got up again, I got some new medication which gave me insomnia for 1.5 months. I'm now finally in a better place and can start writing again!

What happened to my campaign Trasler's Wealth?

We ended it after three sessions. It was a lot of fun in the sessions we had, but I couldn't fit the system in place and technological advances only kept me from having fun. I was trying out Foundry and it just didn't work with me, although it is a great program. 
In the three sessions we had, the adventurers came to the city of Trasler and had to visit a watchtower to maintain the equipment of the guards. When they came back, they were sent to the town Horn, which was named after the ivory white mage tower on a small hill in the town. It was the place from where adventurers would travel into the wilderness, and where carts of dreamsalt would come in from the mines, on their way to Trasler. 

In Horn the party tried to inquire about a treasure another party had found. When they didn't succeed, they climbed the mage tower and found out the mage was merged with the tower because of taking too much dreamsalt, and then casting magic. 

When they travelled into the wilderness, after a rumor of a lost temple, the game ended and we didn't get back to it anymore.

What am I doing now?

I'm still/again playing and DMing in the East Marches campaign. I'm almost finished with the storyline I started 3 years ago. The god Arawynn has almost been freed and must be cleansed from nightmares before he can become a God of Dreams again. His followers, the Elven Aelef, have three bodies now, but must lose that gift to cleanse their god. I'll be happy when the storyline is done. It's been a while.

--

Next to that I'm playing a Ranger in Keep on the Borderlands (Olde Swords Reign ruleset), DMed by my friend Damien who I've been playing with for 1,5 years now. Although we started out with a clear mission, we kind of deviated from that now and are exploring more adventures in the area of the keep. 

Damien is heavily influenced by Professor Dungeon Master (Dungeoncraft on Youtube) and although I've seen his videos on the Caves of Chaos, I do not remember most of it, so I can still play without much meta knowledge. Damien has prodcued a few 'noteboards' for us to see in town, where we can pick up quests and choose which one we do. I think this is a great way of handing out quests, because the DM is in charge of the choice and how much choice there is. 

My Ranger must give his belongings away, and I've been struggling with that the first few sessions, until we came upon some bandits, who turned bandit because their village was burned down. I now have a goal to help them out and rebuild a village by sending equipment to their place. I already sent an order of equipment to a blacksmith I knew in my youth, so I hope the parcels will be delivered in a few weeks. 

We have slaughtered two or maybe one and a half cave up to now, and when I return to the keep I'll be level 3 in this game. I'll be taking a multiclass level in Druid so I can cast some survival spells. I won't be going for offensive spells though, I have my sword and shield for that.

--

 I'll also be starting a game of Night Below with Damien as DM. Here I'll be playing the Halfling Monk Pholtan Springs, who will be fighting with a sling from near range, and his hands if up close. We also use Olde Swords Reign for this game as a ruleset. I'm looking forward to joining this campaign.

So I'm quite busy with games still.

What Else?

I would really like to get into writing materials for games again and starting my blog anew will help me out. This time I'd like to see if I can write more system agnostic than for D&D5e. I got a few projects lying around that are almost finished, but that are difficult to get over the psychological hurdle. I got a document named: PLACES, that eneds a better name and a few more entries on different fun places to come across in the world. Another document (THE ROAD FROM ACCAR TO BELIAR) just needs three pictures to go with it, and a map. 
I'm thinking about writing about towers; different towers that are all unique from each other. Towers are the best. 

But for now I'm going to close this blog post and be back soon.

 

Our new Game system and Trasler's Wealth, the campaign!

 Hey everyone!

I've decided to leave my post about end goals for the campaign, as I'm just about to start a new campaign as DM and really want to see what happens first. 

Together with some international friends I've been working on my own game system, based mostly on ICRPG, but classless and in my case it doesn't feature experience either. We're going to try this out in my campaign setting of Trasler's Wealth, a setting I've been building for a few years now and never found time or system to run it with. 

So let me first talk about my system a bit: There are only disciplines and three levels of proficiencies per discipline. You can mix and match as much as you like, but there is a cap of 12 proficiencies per character. So you could take 'journeyman bow' and 'master fighter' and spend 4 proficiencies. It will also take some time to learn new proficiencies, so you can't just always get to the trainer and you've learned it. 

We take the effort dice that ICRPG uses (every challenge has HP to overcome) and I've added some skills that are non-combat focussed. Every player may choose one of those (for now) to start with. I've asked them a load of questions like: what do you fear, what is your ideal, name 2 people who came before you to this island and one that you left behind.

Now about the campaign: I've been wanting to play it for a time now. It started out as a 100 hexes hexcrawl, but I got to hex 5 and quit. So now I made it a lot smaller. It's an island that was colonized 30 years ago but they've only inhabited a small part of it. It has a mineral called Dream Salt, which makes you dream lucid. Dreamwalkers can control their dreams and some can even control reality through dreams if they take the mineral. There are other effects, like dangerous magic, and rusty waters, which will be explained to the players soon.

Dreamsalt made the island super rich, as every court in the world wants it. The island is just too far away and well protected to conquer, and the taxes aren't that bad. Every nation in the world has a guild doing their biddings, and Treslar, the king and founder, sits back and gets rich. 

The island looks uninhabited by any civilization other than their own. Things will change soon though. I will start using timers and pressure for the players, although it might be hidden for them in the first few sessions, as they might not understand the consequences that things have. I'm trying to be very vague here, as my friends read the blog. 

I've now planned for the first three sessions. They can take several routes that I calculated, or they can do anything else, but I'll have to improvise. I know how the world revolves and what will happen, so as long as I know that, the games will be fine!

The Ignited (a secret society) - Compatible with Mörk Borg

 Hey everyone, 

Last week I made a secret society of transhumanists that want to use magic to ascend to godhood. In this document I have spoiled their plans, made some ways of casting magic compatible with Mörk Borg and showcased some of the leader people in the society. It's downloadable at Itch.io here: 

https://caelinaraven.itch.io/the-ignited

I'm pretty happy with this publication. The idea of the Ignited has been in my head for years: first I wanted to put them into a D&D campaign where the players would unravel the terrible truth about the search for magical items. I think it fits better in Mörk Borg, where the nobles and wizards torture and kill the prisoners they have experimented on. The nobles will ascend to godhood, whatever it takes. Just so they don't have to be 'bothered' by the lies of Nechrubel.

The artwork is lacking in my publication, I'm only happy with the front page. I need to pay a lot more detail to design and learn how to handle that. I know there is a Mörk Borg design document out there, just haven't used it yet.

I think I might update the spell names later on. I think they are too bland and often used. If you look at the official Mörk Borg scrolls, they have very colorful names.

I also want to still expand on the roles of certain individuals in the society. I think some might have some more to tell us. I might add that later sometimes, in an update of the Itch.io page.

But even if I have my remarks I'm proud of the end result and glad that I finally written this idea down. Now I'm working on a set of dungeons that fit in the Galgenbeck Cathedral. I'm working on my second dungeon now. The first was a bit puzzle-y and not enough time pressure for my taste. The second one should be better and the third one should be best (I have no ideas yet for the third one). I'm learning as I go!

Here's still some legal information for the third party license of Mörk Borg (use it to write stuff for it!):

The Ignited is an independent production by Caelin Araven and is not affiliated with Ockult Örtmästare Games or Stockholm Kartell. It is published under the MÖRK BORG Third Party License.

MÖRK BORG is copyright Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell.

MÖRK BORG is copyright Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell.

Timers and Pressure in a Campaign

 I haven’t posted for almost two weeks now, but I wanted to continue my story about campaign structure with a talk about Timers and Pressure.

 

I think pressure is very important in a campaign. If the players are too slow to react or go on their own side missions too many times, there should be consequences. These consequences could be mostly in the BBEG completing a part of their plan and succeeding in their goals. For this the BBEG does need a bit of a plan. I would say, to not make things too difficult for a DM, a loose one. You need an end goal and you could brainstorm some things they would need for that end goal. But working towards that end goal with the BBEG is a big part of putting pressure on for the players.

Next to that I think that taking the pressure away at key moments can also do a lot. If the players have just foiled one of the BBEG’s plans they might have a moment to rest and feast. This would be a gift for the players that have been in such stress all the time. Give them some time to shop, or to do their own personal actions in the world.

 

I was playing in a game of Maze Rats (now we play Knave) in Hot Springs Island, where we got a lot of freedom to explore, but we were also very squishy and afraid of any confrontation. There was a looming danger above us, but there was no pressure, as we had all the time to explore the island and make allies and enemies there. After a while pressure was introduced and with that a world timer in which we had to solve a puzzle.

In this case, I think we had too many sessions of ‘going nowhere’ with the game. Although I enjoy the game a lot, I felt without an end goal, it would be better to just leave the island the moment we could. Now the pressure is on and the game has become a lot more interesting again.

You could say the first sessions were needed to introduce the island to us. I think that would be a fair point, but still there would need to be a timer of some sorts that ticks away. Otherwise you’re just running without direction.

 

In my Frost Shepherds game, the campaign I DMed, I had a hidden timer. The Herald of Spring was captured by Winter Fey, and they would have killed him if the players took too long. This hidden timer didn’t work right, because it was hidden and I didn’t have much of a chance to unveil it. That the eternal winter was caused by the kidnapping of the Herald was one of the big twists. Next time, I want the players to make sure that they know things are at stake and time is ticking away.

 

Next to that I think it’s always fun to use timers in battle and in sessions. They really put the pressure on for the players when they find out. Examples I’ve used were:

-          Survive 15 turns and keep someone safe in those turns, no attack may land on the NPC.

-          Every few turns a new body part of the monster gets resurrected and the monster will grow stronger each time.

-          In four turns of being in this mist you choke .

-         In 1d4 rounds ... happens.

Although this is different than a world timer, or putting pressure on for the campaign, I think they go hand in hand quite well together.

 

For my next campaign I want to make a bit of a calendar with things happening. Natural disasters will happen anyway, but some of the other miseries can be dealt with by the players. I’ll make sure the pressure is real and tangible and that timers will be out in the open, so the choices they make feel more difficult.

Getting acquaintanced with the world

 In my next few blog posts I’d like to think about campaign structure a bit. I’ll revisit the campaigns that I’ve ran and played in and see what I liked of the structure and what could be improved.

For now I’ve decided on three topics to write about:

-          Getting acquaintance with the world as a player. Starting as a player can be difficult in a world you don’t know much about. How do we handle this?

-          Timers and pressure. I want the enemy feel dangerous and this means pressure to put on the party. When and how do we start putting pressure on the party (especially when they don’t know the world yet)?

-          An end goal and how to get there. This will also go into ‘how do I prepare my sessions?’ and introducing a BBEG. Also, how do the characters fit in?

 

Today I want to start with introducing the world I built to the players.

 

Getting acquaintanced with the world

 

I often feel a bit lost as a player when I’m thrown into a new campaign. My character has lived there all their live, but I don’t know anything about it. What can we do as DM and as player to help this?

As a DM I think it’s good to tell beforehand what kind of world it is, but there’s often no time or space to go into the nitty gritty details. I think the least you should do as a DM, when players have picked their characters, is to say how usually the classes are portrayed in society. A wizard can, for example, both be high class in some games, and prosecuted in others. This is very important to tell players beforehand. Maybe the thieves guild has been falling apart and there are now two in the city that are competing. Important information.

 

A thing I did in my own campaign, but was not very happy with in the end, was to have several session 0’s in different games. We had a worldbuilding session where we played the Quiet Year to set up a continent. Then we had Do Not Let Us Die in the Dark Night of this Cold Winter to set up a village in the winter. And we ended the worldbuilding session 0’s with the villagers that were left over fleeing to the city because of a troglodyte threat. On their way they were rescued by the final party for the campaign.

Although the games were fun and definitely not a waste, it didn’t work out enough with pulling my players into the world. Even though they now knew some more things, even had come up with several landmarks, in the end they just forgot about it because they thought the games had little importance or because of the time between the games. At least there was little reaction when they finally came at the evil hide-out that they had come up with themselves.

 

I think it’s important as a DM to have some examples in your first sessions on how different people interact with the world. Almost as an exposé, it must show the hardships that the party can solve, but they must also choose a side at the same time.

I tried this in my campaign in one session by having a merchant become a goblin king, because he fed them for a while. Under pressure of the Goblins he was becoming more chaotic and evil though. He wanted to escape, but was held there under watch.

 

As a player I do like to be pulled into the world building process of the DM or at least give myself the freedom to come up with stories and tales that belong in the world. When I was playing a Cultist in Low Fantasy Gaming, I told some holy tales in a sermon that I had written myself. These tales eventually lead to an adventure, finding an old temple I told about in the forest. I thought that was very generous, maybe too generous, of the DM, but it was a lot of fun.

I could see myself playing a barbarian telling the stories of my ancestors too. How they roamed the plains but now things have changed. Or a wizard writing poetry about the world. In any case, I am a writer at heart and I love these additions to put into a game as a player if there’s room for it. The problem is that I don’t often feel the room to do so.

 

In the Hotsprings Island game I’m playing in now, we had a lot of introduction to the game. Our first 5 sessions or so were just exploring back and forth on the island. Although we had missions and there was a bit of time pressure, it didn’t feel like there was pressure. We just had to survive and that was difficult but doable. Around the 6^th session we were starting to mingle with the factions of the island. I think this was a bit of a too long introduction where the world was basically in stasis.

It’s alright to have a long introduction to the world, but the wheels should keep moving.

 

I really recommend talking to the players and see if they want to be involved with the worldbuilding and in what way. Worldbuilding should go on during the campaign, I think, and I think it’s very fun if I have the room to come up with my own tales and experiences of the world (and also if other players do).

Experience gain for my planned campaign

In my blogpost earlier today I talked about a list of ideals and beliefs that the players would hand me before starting the campaign, that would line up with the faction goals and beliefs, but also contradict with it, or itself, in some ways. I’m hoping that this gives my campaign a bit more direction, a bit more sense of meaningful gameplay, as you get closer to communal goals, and although drama in a party can be fun, also a bit more cooperation.

To extend this I want to talk about experience and how to gain experience in the campaign I am preparing. I want to tie this closely to the beliefs and goals system I set up.

 

There are many ways of experience gains in RPgs that I’ve played. Experience for gold you’re spending (AD&D), experience for monsters you kill (5e), milestone experience (5e),  experience for a set of questions you answer (Maze Rats) or experience based on your class (Blades in the Dark).

I really like the question based experience, but I would make a few changes to make it better fit my style. Where Maze Rats (at least the version I played) has a few questions that are the same for everyone and Blades in the Dark has questions based on your Playbook, I would like to suggest experience based on personal goals, ideals and beliefs.

I’d let the players set out to write their own personal goals and distill some experience gain questions from it. A belief saying ‘we need to root out corruption by having a revolution’ will grant experience when you are inciting a village to stand up against the nobles. A belief saying ‘The Gods have more power than any Earthly power’ can grant experience when you are performing a sermon for a village or invoking the power of the gods as a show of power. While ‘All cultists must be exterminated’ can lead into a destroyed cult being the source of experience.

 

This can lead to imbalance between players, but it’s up to the DM to give equal opportunity to have the same experience gain in the campaign. It shouldn’t be that one is level 5 and one is level 1, while they started at the same point in the campaign. But this is also a matter of sharing ideals between characters. If they are all set up to do about the same thing, it shouldn’t matter much.

Also getting faction goals should always reward with some experience gain for the characters, just like they must be rewarded with promotions or other rewards to symbolize the gain in ranks and trust.

 

This is how I’m planning my campaign, and although it is a bit different from other campaigns, I hope I will reap the fruits and have a more serious and meaningful  campaign.

Meaningful games, alignment and morality

 Although the word ‘meaningful’ can mean a lot of things and would differ for anyone you ask, I would like to open this blog with the topic ‘How can I get a meaningful game?’ as I’m looking at the games I DM and I seem to feel a need there to improve. When I DM I usually don’t feel that a game I came up with is meaningful or mattered to anyone, but if I continue this train of thought, I always have to say: ‘every game is community building and a social experience and therefor it is meaningful in some way’.

 

But what I’m aiming at, in my games, is a feeling and giving space for the characters to grow. Allowing growth to a character is quite difficult when you are in a West Marches campaign and there are around 150 players with characters that all change from game to game. I think that’s what makes me long for a game where the character growth is a bit more meaningful and feels more free.

The games that I played in had some growth of my character. At least some freedom to do whatever I felt like and what I felt like was often building my character. In Low Fantasy Gaming I played a Cultist who performed sermons to his goddess, after he had been exiled out of the city to a remote village. We used the village as a base, so I really tried to ‘settle’ there for a time and help the locals out with reading lessons and teachings.

In the 5e official campaigns that I played there was often not enough room for character development and I always felt like my character was just swept away by the adventure.

In the 5e West marches campaign where I am one of the DMs, my first character had some growth thanks to the friends he made in his first games. My acolyte Barbarian befriended paladins and clerics that served other gods, but still shared a bit of his ideal. We did missions together that really bettered the people from the campaign and there was never a question what we should do. We worked from our ideals and by sharing them we grew together. In the end my Barbarian even multiclassed into Paladin because of their friendships.

 

I think what is most important for growth for a character is the ideals and bonds systems you find in 5e, but also in other games. I would do away with alignment myself, in the next campaign I run. Instead, I want the players to write down 5 to 10 beliefs of which at least 2 contradictory believes to another, but that you are still able to believe in the same way.

Examples: ‘I’m hate war and would never want to see war again’ vs ‘I want a revolution to free the people from a mad king.’ The revolution would be bloody and war-like, so these are quite contradictory, but can still be believed in a same way.

Other example: ‘All cultists must be killed and exterminated’ vs ‘I hope we all can live in peace.’ Where the cultists are not taken into account that they could live in peace too, because cultists are notorious for murder and summoning ancient gods.

 

This would give me a morality and ideals to build upon as a DM. Character growth can come easier then. I think I’ll also say that they will serve the same faction and that this faction also has its beliefs and goals. That means there are no people that suddenly go on a killing spree (like I had before) or betray the faction.

 

I really want to organize a campaign that feels meaningful to players ánd DM. Where we all grow and benefit from. I’m currently in a brainstorming phase and these are some early thoughts.    

Session Prep; two sheets to fill in

Some while ago I made an Encounter Sheet with a basic questionnaire to help me think about the encounters I was making. Back then I was very unhappy that most of my encounters didn't matched up with the wants I had in my head: using more of the environment in combat and putting more tension in my games. I made a basic sheet that I could fill in that would tick all these checkboxes and some more. The following games were better games in my view. I had thought deeper and more serious about my encounters. 

After working more than a year with this Encounter Prep document, I now decided to make a Session Prep document and also update my Encounter Prep with some new categories (NPC, and consequences).

Also noticing I have a Bachelor degree in Literary and Cultural Analysis that I wasn't using, I tried to put some of my favorite structuralist narratology tools in my document. I used the Actantial Model and the Semiotic Square of Greimas and pasted the 31 Russian fairy tale tropes of Vladimir Propp in there, to see if I can spice things up a bit in my games. I think all of these tools fit D&D real good. Then I made an easy questionnaire to fill in to uncover the story structure and help with improvising during the game (NPC names, things of interest to explore).

The prep document became 4 pages long, which is quite a bit, and should be printed double-sided to bring to the game. Here you can find the link to my google drive: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dsc8bEa5Yv_0bOwZFX3xaWhwb1QIBxdo/view?usp=sharing

Session prep tools:

I feel like I should explain more about the tools I put in the first two pages of the document. The Actantial Model is maybe quite clear. It shows a story structure that can be filled in on lots of ways. 

The sender is in D&D often the quest giver, and wants and knows about an object (could also be knowledge, or somewhat more broader as 'life' and 'death of a monster'). They send the subject (the party) on their way to get it. The object is the desire of the party, it's what they are on the quest for. They are helped by some things on their way (equipment, but also followers/NPC's) and are opposed by some powers (monsters, traps, puzzles, villains). If the party, the subject, gets the object, who will gain from it? The receiver. Probably the party a bit, as in a treasure reward, but also often the sender. 

This will easily uncover which parts of the story are important and who is in which role of the story.

Then we have the Semiotic Square, which is  more difficult to explain why it's in my Session prep document. It's a brainstorming tool for me, to see if you can give a fun twist to some of the tropes that are often used. For example, you could fill in Life in the top-left corner and Death in the top-right as a binary opposition. Things are getting interested as non-life can also be Undead in D&D, and non-death (things that never lived) can maybe be Constructs. Now, if I was to make a session about the fountain of life, I could make this square and think: Maybe I'll put a Lich there that is also searching for it (maybe to destroy the fountain?), but I'm also placing some Constructs (Golems) there that protect the Fountain from any visitors. In that way the Semiotic Square creates new connections to words I wouldn't have thought of before.

Another example would be: Cold opposite to Heat. Non-cold could be something with water and non-heat could be a heartless thing (with free poetic associations). So maybe I'm sending my party towards a cold landscape, where they find a heartless thing, a water elemental, that can use the geysers in the landscape to send scorching bolts to the players. This example leans a lot of association, but it works for me, and I would like to use it.

Then we have the 31 tropes of Vladimir Propp, who researched Russian Fairy Tales in the 1920's and reduced them to several tropes that came back every time. I think this is useful because some of the tropes are almost never seen in D&D and some are put in there a lot. Basically the stories body part always comes back, until the point where the villain is defeated. But it might be fun to do something with the other tropes too.

Encounter prep tools:

This is my Encounter Prep Document, which is much clearer than the tools in the session prep.

 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ewSoJRMJ7tF9nStwQ06huSZmBIyvLUCf/view?usp=sharing

Map just gives some room to draw a small map, Location, obstacle and goal are quite easy to fill is. Location is the place of the encounter (A cave, the forge, bridge). Obstacle is what the party needs to overcome (monster, puzzle, trap) and goal is what they need to receive (a magical item, a chest, a door).

Damage, duration and distortion control are tools from Runehammer on Youtube, measured on a d6. It basically points out how much control you as a DM have on the damage, duration of the fight and the distortion that is happening during. 

Treats, Threats and Timers are also a Runehammer tool, though I changed timer into Tension. There needs to be a tension to push the players, give them a Treat (treasure or something to help overcome the obstacle with) and it's nice if there is a Threat (a monster or something that pushes the party to the limit).

Then we have some room for one or more NPCs to be in the scene and write down the consequences of the party makes it or fails. Not every fail has to be death!

So far my session and encounter prep. Hope you enjoyed it, and continue reading my blog.

The Hag's Hut

There is a small hut in the swamp, deserted and empty except for a

small offering table. Offer a small critter to speak to the hag.

The hag accepts the offer and is busy with creating:

1. potions in a large vat

2. a large sjawl from animal furs

3. a clean and healthy environment to live; scrubbing her crystal ball

4. a golem made of leather

5. a scroll of curses

6. A dictionary of foul language

The hag wants:

Potions:

1. flowerherb

2. a few drops of blood

3. a fingernail

4. teeth of a goblin

5. wintersmell

6. eternal fire

Large sjawl:

1. rabbit fur

2. thread to sew

3. a giant’s hair

4. a last breath

5. flying powder

6. golden light

Cleaning up:

1. your underclothes

2. a piece of mirror

3. a silver spoon

4. ravens’ spittle

5. an alchemy set

6. silks

Golem:

1. ethereal thread

2. a human skull

3. potion of breathing

4. a silver sword

5. a scythe

6. Lyrics to a song of death

Curses:

1. a test person

2. a potted plant

3. last words of a woman

4. arcane parchment

5. inks of an octopus

6. tears of a king

Dictionary:

1. a foul word

2. arcane inks

3. a translation

4. rage of barbarians

5. fires of autumn

6. a publisher who is willing

Wizard’s Roost

Located halfway up a very steep cliff, the Wizard’s Roost is only accessible by a daring climber with luck, or a spell with Flying capabilities.

Within the Wizard’s Roost is:
- A window to look across the ocean.This is where the Wizard meditates. [Shiny, but worthless pebbles strewn about in a ring]
- A small chamber hewn out of the cliff with a bed and wardrobe.This is where the wizard sleeps. [A fancy wizard hat]
- A two-story study with a desk and a full library of books with topics in interest to the wizard.This is where the wizard studies and transcribes. [Arcane inks, parchment and books]

The wizard is fascinated by:
1. Fire and flames. He wants to empower his fireball spell.
2. Summoning. To send back a demon he once let upon the world.
3. Abjuration and chronomancy. To protect the city with a timestop
shield.
4. Divine magic. He wants to know the magic he can’t cast.
5. Biomancy and psyche. He wants to prolong life and keep the mind healthy.
6. Planar crossings and astronomy. He is searching to stop mindflayers to enter this world.

Book titles! A wizard searching the library may find:

(Depended on the focus)

Fire and Flames:
1. Survival: Campfires
2. The Colors of Heat
3. The Hag’s Twist
4. Treating a Burn
5. Flame Lash
6. Extreme Power

Summoning:
1. Imps and their Mothers
2. Circles and their Meaning
3. Commanding Hell
4. Demonic Fortitude
5. Layers of the Abyss
6. Dark Tides

Abjuration:
1. Locks and traps
2. The Calendar Year
3. Groundhog Day
4. Circles of Seclusion
5. Stop the Clock
6. Shields of Time

Divine magic:
1. The Gods and their
Answers
2. Clerical Knowledge
3. Divine Shield
4. Arrogance of Mankind
5. Whispers of the Stars
6. The Climb to Heaven

Biomancy:
1. TreatingWounds
2. A Greater Mind
3. Phylactery and You
4. Salves andTheir
Effects
5. Mind-Altering Spells
6. The Great Escape

Planar Crossings:
1. Star-Crossed Lovers
2. Mindflayer Lairs
3. The Elder Brain
4. Constellations
5. The FireWithin
6. Cephalopods!

Old School Renaissance or D&D5e; I love them both

Through some channels I’m in I often hear a boasting of people how they are lucky they are playing OSR and despise anything that has to do with D&D5^e. I’m glad they’re feeling lucky and happy with the games they are playing, but I feel no need to kick other games down. I’m writing this article from a perspective of someone having ran many D&D5e games and having played and ran in many sessions that fit within the OSR. I love both mindsets of gameplay, and they are very different from each other, but they can still co-exist.

I see D&D5e much as a game that revolves around the character sheet, more than about the personality of the character. The 5^e character has a lot of abilities and there is a lot of choice in what you want to do and can achieve during encounters. The pure range of all these possibilities is what attracts me to D&D5e, but, mostly during combat encounters, the games I’ve played in devolve into ability uses. The storytelling halts there; only the DM that recounts what happens is still interested in weaving all together and creating a single story out of it. Most players are just happy to roll the dice and say what attack they will use.

In the OSR games I’ve played [Low Fantasy Gaming, Maze Rats, Mörk Borg] you often lack abilities (and health) and are encouraged to use more of the environment and all the little things that can grant you advantage in combat. The players always look for other options, whether talking, shoving, grappling or stealthing, instead of engaging directly with a weapon. The storytelling is often done by players and DM alike during their turn.

I like the many abilities and choices that 5^e gives and I think they could add a lot to the story. Meanwhile, I also like the searching for other means of engagement in OSR. In this article I want to see if the two can be brought closer together and what happens if you take the story-heavy progression of OSR and put that in 5^e, and what happens if you take the many abilities and try to fit those in Mörk Borg.

I would like more story-heavy progression in D&D5e

This is true for me. A D&D5e character often takes a rest in a safe space and would find them self leveled up, full of new abilities and spells to use. With that last monster they killed, they has enough experience to gain those new powers. I’m not sure how they do it, but it’s a magic world. I’m going to suggest some things to make a character progression in 5^e more believable, suggestions that would be found in the OSR community. After that I want to look at the character progression of one class and see how that fits.

– First of all, I think most characters would need a mentor of some kind. Someone to learn them the skills and tricks of the trade. You wouldn’t be able to progress if you don’t take the time to learn. The positive of this is that a mentor would teach you (in return for something?), but could also pose as a villain or ally later on as they already have a bond with the character. Negatives of the mentor are that it can cost a lot of focus on one particular character, while the rest sits idly by. Also it can take a long time for the players to reach the mentor if they are out in the Wilderness. The first negative can be caught by doing it in a personal downtime session, should you have time for that. I don;t think the second negative can be countered, it’s just how the story could be.

– The mentors can send characters on quests to retrieve items for them, as payment for their teachings, or could ask for a large sum of money (as economy in 5^e is awful). They could also send you to places where you could learn more skills: think about pointing you towards a spellbook with great powers.

– I would keep the mentors around from 1st to 5th level. After that the players are mostly on their own. The mentor could come back later, after around level 14, to aid or destroy the acolyte they raised.

– Between 5th level and level 14, the players should be auto-didactic and should come across places and items that teaches them new skills. I would suggest making some spells and abilities only available in certain places and cultures. This encourages travel and seeing more of the world and also limits the abilities a small bit and adds story to them when they finally learn the power.

– I think between 5th and 14th level, the players should settle somewhere: a place called home. Even though they wouldn’t stay there often, it could attract people that want to serve as teachers and it could serve as a place for experimentation. I’m a big fan of the idea of a stronghold, whether a keep or a temple or a wizard’s tower. That should help them increase their powers too.

– When reaching High Level, their powers must come from a powerful enemy to beat. A nemesis. Or maybe as a gift from a God if you helped him. It should become much more rare to gain a new ability.

That’s what I propose for character progression in 5^e, which will slow it down by a lot, but also make it, in my view, more interesting. It still doesn’t solve the combat problem though. For that, I have other ideas, which I will explain in a later blog post. It’s about terrain and environment to use within the 5e mindset, and I’m planning to write a whole book about the matter.

How to add more (combat) abilities to the OSR

I would like to see now how I could add more abilities to use in combat, to a game like Mörk Borg. I think the most important thing here is to start from the premise of ‘story is most important’. I think the Unheroic Feats in the Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory zine, is a good example of how you add more interesting powers to the characters by strengthening the story. I would like to propose a different, but similar form of progression for Mörk Borg.

Every class and character has it’s own weird habits like cursing to everyone, or collecting teeth, or doing other possibly detrimental things. I think it would be fun to explore that concept, which is written in the backstory, and really build on that.

A person collecting teeth could become an artisan of teeth. He now has enough (after an event) and wants to craft something out of it. Or the person could be really good at seeing how much a tooth or fang would be worth. In both cases, they could now gain a small benefit that is based on their story progression.

The person who is cursing, could become famous for the curses that no one heard before, and invited to a party to be entertainer. Now they have a contact, which is story progression and helpful.

Anyway, I think the Unheroic Feats of Feretory are great and do most of this already. Take a look at them, make more of them and make lists of small story progression steps players can gather during their games. I think that will increase the range of possibilities for OSR games.

Conclusion:

I like the mindsets of both OSR and 5e and I’ve tried to come up with some ideas to apply to the other side. I hope you liked this post. I’m looking forward to telling more about my ideas for making 5e combat more story engaging to players and DMs. I might add another post on this topic later though. 

My creative journey and my creative journals

Hey everyone,

I wanted to take some time today to talk about my creative method of taking notes and distilling ideas to the core. I think it’s interesting, especially for myself, to have some insight on how I am using my bullet point diary, my DM journal and my computer notes together. I think this can be greatly improved, but it’s working quite well for me already.

I always carry multiple journals with me when I go out of the door:

·         My DM journal, most important and gets the bulk of my writing. In this I write ideas and encounters for games and for this blog and I doodle some interesting locations. I have filled my first DM journal now in about 1 year and 3 months (but most of it was done the last 4 months).

·         My creative, bullet point diary. I have one notebook where I keep track of my ideas, what I’m working on, what I’m thinking about, what I’m enthusiastic about or not. I really like this concept, because it makes me feel accomplished if I’m thinking of a lot of ideas, even if I don’t work them all out. Also I can flip back and see what ideas I have forgotten and why I’m not working on them anymore.

·         My computer notes are just random and I never look at them anymore. But sometimes I find some interesting things when I do search for something.

Basically, the bullet point diary gives a quick overview of what I’m thinking of and toying around with. My DM journal is to work those ideas out in practical use, while my computer notes are to work things out in great detail.  

What I would like to do more often is to go back into my journals and see what inspires me in these journals and what is not inspiring to me. The diary helps me to give a quick overview to see what I was enthusiast about, the DM journal can help going into more detail about these topic, while I make notes of my favorite inspiration on computer notes. This helps me boil down the likeable subjects to a bare minimum and start building on those core items again.

I’ve done this before out of some ideas I was toying with and this is what the core looked liked:

Things I like:

·         The Three Brothers - The inn is also used as the chapel twice a week.

·         Mirelwade – village on an island in the river Mir (Common)/Mirlan (Elven)/Meir (Dwarven)

·         Illan’s Ignited – A secretive group of elite individuals that try to become magical cyborgs (transhumanist).

·         Dreamsalt - A mineral that makes you have the best dreams, but can have side effects.

·         Arawynn – The God of Dreams and the Otherworld.

·         Glim – The God of Sun and Coin

·         Bludge – The dead Orcish demigod of Music.

·         The Mirage - A Pilgrims path

·         Gwinel – A cleric of Glim, also part of the Illan’s Ignited, who is always interested in magical items, and identifies for some coin/trade.

·         Trasler’s Wealth – An adventurer’s Kingdom and City, led by Treslar, the Adventurers-King.

Lish-Ahab: Inktober map

Here are the next nine regions of my Inktober challenge, made into the continent of Lish-Ahab. It ended up a bit more rectangular than I wanted and there are some empty spots that still need to be filled, but I’m pretty content with it. My scanner broke and I had to work from pictures made with my phone, but I hope the drawing is clear enough. I will continue with an explanation of this continent underneath the drawing!

Let’s start at the top-left. 

• Baladur is a farming kingdom, quite isolated on the western edge of the continent. 
• It’s locked off from the rest by the Drow of Drim, that live in the mountain area there. 
• In Hushlim, there is a fight between the Necromancer mages and the Arachnomancer mages. One are summoning skeletons, while others commanding spiders. Not a nice place to be. 
• Below that is the endless steppes of Tharkas where the Orcs live. The Orcs used to have a blossoming empire and society, until their Demigod Blutch was killed in a fight.
• The Green border is an elven colony from the time of the great battle.
• Just like the half-elven Pearl Coast.  
• Thomdarr, losing the battle to the Orcs, called in the Elfs to help, but the Half-Elfs settled in Pearl Coast and never gave it back to the Dwarfs of Thomdarr, which makes it an unsteady alliance.
• The Moving Hills are where the nomadic Halflings live. 
• Grath is where the Goblin kingdom/tribelands are. 
• Nobody lives in the Monolith Sea, but it is said that the Monolith Dwarfs ascended from above at that place. There are a few islands with monoliths over there.

Next up is Ravinol and Boulin-de-Ravat, an Elven Empire and a Human Empire, on the continent of Raqda. I will post them in a few days.

Living gardens of Elslo

The living gardens of Elslo are fabled. In ancient times this was the domain of a wizard or king that built a tower in the midst of a blossoming garden, alive with creatures. Now the garden is still there and many try to get into the tower. It's not an easy task though.

The gardens are surrounded by:

1. A 15 ft wide canal with murderous fish
2. A 15 ft high stone wall
3. An arcane force-field and lock
4. An overgrown iron fence
5. Thorn vines that grow incredibly high
6. A 3 ft high marble wall, easy to hop over.

The gardens are alive with:

1. Stickmen
2. Dryads
3. A yellow moss creeper
4. Ettercap
5. Violet Fungi
6. Grung

You encounter in these gardens:

1. A tree with confidence boosting fruits (+1 cha til you rest)
2. A well leading to underground tunnels
3. A half-eaten body of a knight
4. A magical circle out of gold and silver coins on a tree stump
5. A boulder with a small buried treasure underneath
6. A tabaxi rogue climbing the tower

In the tower you find:

1. The skeleton of a princess, flesh stripped from the bones
2. A sarcophagus of a wizard
3. The treasury of an ancient king
4. A magical talking orb floating, demanding you do a quest for it

Monolith Dwarfs

The great monoliths that stand between the mountains, on the plains, in the old forests, were built by Dwarfs. They carved their runes deep within the pillars, sometimes making entrances and rooms within. Some of the monoliths rise up to 60 ft high, while the highest that I encountered was about 110 feet. These strange pillars resonate the thought of the ancient Dwarven kind. Dwarfs have lost the ability to craft and enchant them since. We call these ancient folk the Monolith Dwarfs.

The Monoliths are:

1. Hard wooden pillars, almost stone, 70 to 140 ft high, thick, the bark of this pillar releases and an ancient dwarf is buried within.

2. Stone pillars, 50 ft to 120 ft high, thin, each is inscribed with a story and a spell. Dangerous spells can be stored within the monolith.

3. Golden edged stone pillars, 40 ft to 110 ft high, cube, holds a powerful entity that belonged to the ancient world.

4. Stone pillars, 30 ft to 100 ft high, thick, made as an artwork to celebrate their civilization.

5. Ivory pillars, 30 ft to 60 ft high, real thin, made out of different parts of ivory, transponder to call the stars. Witness a meteor shower if you find one.

6. Diamond pillars, 20 ft to 50 ft high, thin, The monolith is built around a portal.

7. Stone pillars, 40 to 110 ft high, cube, the walls within are a spellbook.

8. Copper pillars, 30 ft to 120 ft high, thin, made to channel and store electric energy.

The Monolith Dwarfs were:

1. Jolly people who put a large emphasis on community building.

2. Always in war against the terrible creatures from beyond this world.

3. Clockwork fanatics and engineers of electrical spells.

4. Giants, compared to modern Dwarfs, who put effort in building architecture.

5. Cousins and friends of Elves until humans drove the two apart.

6. Bright wizards slowly corrupted by Earth Elementals.

The next monolith is:

1. There is a trace within the inner chamber to where to the next monolith stands.

2. The temple library has a book about the monoliths, but it’s closed off for everyone.

3. You can trace the ley lines to the next monolith,

4. There is a map of monoliths deep within the underground city of Thon’cui.

Waldenar: Inktober map

Hey everyone, I wanted to post this yesterday, but I found myself unable to do so. Here's my first three inktober maps though, combined into the continent of Waldenar.

I wrote some text about this continent, which I will post here.

Three regions in Waldemar are:
• The Old Waldayan Empire/The Western Waldayan Empire
• The Reign
• The Deep Lands

The Old Waldayan Empire is the western part of the Empire. The capital lies on Waldenar, just like several other towns andere cities. There is a road built between these:
• Wyr, the capital of the Waldayan Empire. Lies on an inland bay with access to the sea. 
• Raltir, the second city of the Empire, with close access to The Reign and a river that brings you to sea.
• Thevon, this town in a major port to Eastern Waldayan. 
• Deepwind Heights, built on a cliff, many mages and nobles make home here.
• Aldris, a crossroads town between Wyr, Raltir and the coastal towns. Important for land trade.
• Orsis, built next to the delta, this town is great for adventurers.
• Elm, an elven town in the forests. They live isolated, but accept travelers.
• Horn, at the west coast. Also called: the town at the end of the world.

Next to that there is the ruined elven town of Windolas that did not accept the rule of Wyr. It's located in the south-east.

The Reign is a mountanous area in the middle and north-west of the continent. Many dwarves live in these mountains, they trade with but are sometimes to hostile to the Empire that is encroaching. There are two empire outposts in the Western side.
• Jal'gabur, the dwarven city is located near the Deep Lands
• Ar-thotr, on the border to the empire. Trades minerals.
• Jal'folom, town near Deep Lands, isolated.

• Yurth, Empire outpost on the fjord
• Elth, northern Empire outpost that is attracting adventurers lately

• Free city of Thuvelis, on the north coast. Thiefs and exiles here of all ancestries.

The Deep Lands have once been scarred by magic. Now dust storms blow into large chasms. There are two cities, two ruins and a weird tower here.
• City of Sandwatch. Hosts the Sentinels of Sand, paladin order.
• Town of Lightpost, a town built by recent colonists that want to travel deeper and further.

• Whisperbeach, ruins of a town. Citizens travel the wastes now.
• Hillview, located within an ever going sandstorm. No way in and out normally.

• Tower of Gulliner. Gulliner was an Earth evocation mage but his power collapsed the ground around the tower. 

--

I am now busy with the continent of Lish-Ahab, but it consists out of 9 regions, so it will take a lot more work!

The Ledger of Merchant Rulm

Rulm always wanted to be an adventurer. But with many threats looming on the horizon, he started a shop in town with adventurers gear to equip them for the battles ahead. The heroes never came and the shop became a meeting point for locals. Rulm started to sell iron tools and other items and the equipment disappeared into the storage. There is still one glass case for magic items in a corner of his shop.

In Stock

Roll 2d10. The number you roll determines which items he has (the first d10 for the shop, the second for the storage). For example if you roll a 7, he has the horse shoes (1) to the leather gloves (7).

In the shop he shows:

1. 20 horse shoes

2. Hoe

3. Manacles

4. Climbing gear

5. Woolen cloak

6. Three well-crafted barrels

7. Protective leather gloves

8. Halberd

9. 2 potions of health (in the glass showcase)

10. Wand of Bless (in the glass showcase)

In the storage he owns;

1. A small cart

2. 10 torches

3. A barrel of Holy Water (old)

4. A piece of waterproof fabric

5. A masterwork short sword

6. A locally-crafted longbow

7. A half-plate armor set

8. 20 flaming arrows

Buy

Rulm is happy to buy from adventurers and will go long ways to do so. He has no use for most gear, but if it’s reforgeable or can be used in different ways he will look into buying it. He has a stash of 300 gold to buy from.

Adventurers

Adventurers are always welcome at Rulm’s Shop, and get a discount if they help the town with the threats. The discount is:

1. 5%, but you get an extra torch with your items.

2. 10%

3. 15%

4. 20%

5. 25%

6. 25%, but you get an extra torch with your items.