Zandan Megadungeon, Session 2 - Drinking the Goo

 

Characters

• Hoot (Owl Primal Chaos Worshiper)
• Varg (Wolf Troglodyte)
• Flake (Owl Village Spirit)
• Grismelda (Human Religious Radical) 

Session Recap 

During their downtime in the Domovoi Camp, Hoot and Varg get some more info from the "locals". Hoot agrees to spend several downtimes apprenticing and assisting to Anya the Healer, who in exchange will teach him a spell that can transfer the life force from one person to another. Varg learns that Gargaram the half-giant is willing to teach magic too, however in exchange he wants a flask of the black ooze the party found in the hidden shrine on the previous level of the dungeon. 

Further more, two members of the camp, Flake and Grismelda, agree to join the party in exploring the dungeon.

 Heading back up to Depth 0 of the dungeon, and decide to stop in the conical room in which all of them emerged in the dungeon, in order to partake in some corpse pilfering and rummage through the pile of corpses and trash. Hoot manages to find a sword and a decent looking shepherd's axe, Grismelda finds a knife and a strange canteen filled with apparently cool and still fizzy sparkling water, and Flake, for her trouble, gets a pin stuck in her arm.

The group then makes their way to the shrine and Grismelda declares that this is a place of importance to The Earth Mother, and shoves a handful of the ooze into her mouth. The ooze burns as it goes down, but makes her feel more in tune with the unnatural ambience of the Zandan. The darkness no longer feels as alien and concerning. The rest of the party are a bit less enthusiastic about all of it, and instead fill up some bottles, flasks and Grismelda's fancy canteen with the black ooze and head back down.

Returning to Depth 1, they decide to explore the southern side of the dungeon, finding rooms of varying degrees of dampness, a room with a fountain filled with magical water (which Grismelda promptly takes a sip from, only losing a bit of Power for her troubles), and eventually stumble into a small side room with an electric feel of raw magic in the air. 

Hoot, unable to hide his excitement, lights his Chaos Lantern, and in the sickly purple light of the device the group see the swirling colors of manifestation of pure, unformed Chaos. Seeing this as his moment to shine, Hoot performs a spell to invoke the power of Chaos and allow it to take material shape, at which the cloud spits out a fancy looking leather girdle, the only effect of which seems to be to make the already diminutive owl person look even slimmer. 

Flake decide to toss a coin into the chaotic energy, which responds by whipping a tendril of scintillating light back at her. With surprise she finds she know hows how to magically lock doors and containers, and has a bit more weirdness to do so. With this the cloud vanishes, its energies spent and formed into solid reality.

As the group keeps exploring they run into a pair of war bears, seemingly twins, that introduce themselves as Misha and Masha. They seem standoffish and make it clear that they would like the party to get out of their way, not follow them and just generally leave them be. The party take the hint and instead decide to go move a pile of wet rocks in the adjoining room, finding behind it a natural cavern filled with glowing grubs. In the middle of the cavern they spot an odd sight - a greenish blue man with webbed feet and hands, lounging on top of a submerged hut and smoking a pipe. The man introduces himself as Bogdan the Vodnik, and chats with the party, giving them a tour of his submerged home and offering them a jar of glowing grubs (light as candle, but longer lasting) in exchange for a crumpled up cigarette's worth of tobacco that Girsmelda manages to fish out of her pockets. 

Leaving Bogdan's place (and placing some of the rocks back so people won't disturb the vodnik, who in turn also won't just drown and eat any interlopers that stumble in there) the group decide they've given enough space to the weird pair of War Bears and head back to where they were, finding the regular dungeon shift into an overgrown cavern, filled with shrubs and strange trees. Hoot decides to see if he can get some sap from a particularly larger tree, while the others gather sticks they can use to make torches. As he approaches the tree he suddenly gets surrounded by 10 diminutive people, none looking quite the same as the others, and all wearing various red felt hats. The group brandishes knives and declares that nobody move or else the owl gets gutted.

 After successfully diffusing the situation the party get to talk to the fighters, who are escaped slaves of the Pesoglav mines who have been waging guerilla warfare against their much stronger foe, and are currently on this level of the dungeon to find a recent outpost that they heard the Pesoglavi have established. The party agree to keep an eye out and bring back information or, better yet, bring heads of any pesoglavi they slay. The small folk in turn warn the party to be careful, and to avoid the trap they had set, and then proceed to vanish into the bushes to keep laying in ambush. 

 

Continuing onward the party discover a vast cavern filled with vegetation, and a strange green-yellow light permeating the hazy air. Varg's sensitive nose detects the smoke of a campfire, and the party quickly discover a hidden campsite with several hunters. While Hoot and Varg have never met these people, Grismelda and Flake recognize them as hunters from the Domovoi Camp. The group exchange information and chit chat, and offer to bring some of the meat back to camp, which the hunters are thankful for. Warning them of the nearby ambush, the party pack up as much meat as they can carry and head back, along the way stopping to inform the small folk guerillas about the hunters, and also giving them a bit of meat, which the little fighters appreciate. Without much other incident, the group returns to camp to rest and continue on their activities. Hoot and Varg take a drink from the bottled goo, however they realize that its magic does not seem to affect them when not in the shrine itself. They still present a bottle to Gargaram in exchange for the study of magic anyway.

 Observations 

Second session was a lot shorter than the first (7 hours is....a lot. This one was 4), however the party still got quite a bit done. While there were zero fights and the group have not explored enough of this depth to really get the exploration bonus, they managed to run into various NPCs, and get some minor magical trinkets as they snooped around.

That and of course much goo was drunk, and the player was rewarded by some shuffling of attributes and gaining an ability which they have not yet manifested. Reaction rolls were very key in this session - Bogdan the Vodnik can be a very dangerous enemy if found in a foul mood, but he rolled almost as high as possible on his reaction, and so was genuinely friendly with the weird gaggle of talking animals that showed up at his home, even willing to trade with them.

The group were a lot faster this time around, not lingering in one spot too long unless they needed to, and just generally trying to avoid fights if they could (which was wise, considering they were relatively squishy and not well armed). 

The party again had insane luck with only rolling 1 random encounter for the 26 turns they spent exploring the dungeon! Honestly I never understand when people complain about random encounters in games, I rarely seen any and in these two session so far there have been even fewer than normal! And this is pretty standard 1in-6 chance per turn too! 

Not much else to really mention about the session, except that the way I handle experience (in this case called Adventure Points) in this game leads to odd moments where the entire party have not earned any actual XP (no combat, no exploration bonus), but between all the spellcasting and saving rolls involved in exploring the place characters did get some AP of their won anyway. It's something I am keeping an eye on, since while this is a levelless system, it is important to keep track of just how fast or slow characters can grow, and whether I need to adjust things. 

Session Stats

Rooms Explored: 7
Enemies Defeated: None! 
Characters Dead: Also none! 

 

Pesoglavi

 

Taken from Wikipedia, art by Nadezhda Antipova

 

The Psoglav (or Pesoglav as I write it, because it rolls off the tongue better) is a chimeric creature, having the head of a dog (with one eye), the body of a man and the legs of a horse. They also have very sharp teeth made of iron. 

Living in the deep and dark caverns of the underworld, where they hoard precious gems and are known to be man-eaters, digging and consuming the corpses of people, they make for ideal enemies in a dungeon, which is why I use them in mine. Below I present to you stats for using them in B/X and in Tunnels & Trolls. 

B/X or OSE Stats

Pesoglav Feral 

AC:  As Leather (7 DAC 12 AAC)

HD: 3+

Attacks:  2x Claws (1d4), Iron Bite (2d6)

To Hit: +3 

Saving Throws: As Fighter

Description: Feral Pesoglavi are little more than animals, running around naked and attacking anyone they are directed to in a deranged frenzy. They are used as shock troops by the other Pesoglavi, but can also sometimes be found serving as familiars and attack dogs for evil witches, sinister magicians or bankers. 

Pesoglav Warrior

AC:  As Chain+Shield (4 DAC 15 AAC)

HD: 5+

Attacks:  Weapon (1d8), Iron Bite (2d8)

To Hit: +4

Saving Throws: As Fighter

Description: Warriors dress in clothes and armor, often armed with spears, swords, axes and a shield. They too also attack in a deranged frenzy. They serve as the rank and file troops of the Great Wolf and utterly despise all beings that are not Pesoglav, the weak and small among them the most. They delight in torturing and devouring small folk like dwarves, halflings or gnomes.

Pesoglav Leader

AC:  As Plate (3 DAC 16 AAC)

HD: 6++

Attacks:  [Weapon (1d8+1), Iron Bite (2d8)] or Howl

To Hit: +7

Saving Throws: As Fighter

Description: Leaders and captains, often operating with ruthless violence (though they will also occasionally just attack in a deranged frenzy if the mood takes them). They are even more cruel and vicious than the warriors serving under them, but also possess a lot more cunning than the usual foot soldier. 

Special Abilities

Iron Bite: If this attack beats the enemy's Armor Class by 5 or more that enemy must immediately make a Save vs Death. On a failure the Pesoglav bites off one of their limbs (up to the referee to decide which one), destroying any armor the character is wearing and causing them to immediately go into shock and fall unconscious. That character will die within 1 turn if the wound is not closed and healed in some way. 

Howl:  The Pesoglav leader opens engagements they're in by emitting a loud, terrifying howl. All living things that are not Pesoglav within a 40ft radius must immediately make a Save vs Spell or freeze in terror, unable to act within the next 1d2 rounds of combat.

Tunnels & Trolls Stats 

Pesoglav generally have about 20 to 22 Monster Rating, with more powerful ones like warriors or leaders having 26 to 30 MR and have Armor 1 to 3. Leaders and their direct subordinates might also known spells.  Similarly to the above, all Pesoglavi have their Iron Bite, and leaders have their Howl.

Iron Bite:  Spite Damage from Pesoglav combatants permanently reduces the Armor of the enemy hit. For every 4+ Spite rolled in a single round of combat, a pesoglav tries to bite off the limb off a combatant. The person hit makes a Saving Roll on Luck (level as appropriate for the dungeon) to avoid it. If they fail they lose a limb, half of their maximum Constitution and immediately fall unconscious and will die within the next turn if not healed in some way. 

Howl:  Used at the beginning of a fight, the Pesoglav leader lets out a terrifying howl. Everyone who can hear it make a Saving Roll on Charisma. If failed they freeze in terror, unable to act in the next 1d2 rounds of combat.

 

Appendix J - Inspirations and Influences

Apparently the current bandwagon was started by Marcia B. and is about people writing a post with their own personal "Appendix N" style of inspirations and/or influences.

Now me, I don't really have a broader one available, as I draw from different sources for different games I want to run, but I already had one written up about the inspiration for my Zandan megadungeon that I just started, so here goes! 

• The Woodland Folks series, Tony Wolf - Broad inspiration as an artist and illustrator, as well as a taste in fantasy, full of both whimsical and yet rational interactions between things. The books also did not shy away from getting kind of dark with death and harm coming for characters. Really good children’s books overall!

 

• Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness, The Coles - Big inspiration for fantasy adventuring with a Slavic folklore theme. Again, a mixture of fun and lighthearted with dark, brooding and dangerous. Also the artistic direction for the Monastery of the Dark One in Mordavia I directly lifted in how I describe the walls of my megadungeon.

 

• The works of Ivan Bilibin, notably his illustration of Pushkin’s fairy tales - A real titan of illustration as far as I am concerned, Bilibin’s art and visual language are stunning and beautiful, instantly recognizable in their mix of bold line work and detailed and ornamented borders. 

 

• The Hill Cantons, Chris Kutalik - Channeling a lot of the same as the above - a mixture of comedic, absurd and yet serious, a genuinely earnest understanding of living in a Slavic country, rare even among the people in those countries, let alone outsiders. A huge, continual inspiration for everything OSR that I do, and also the reason why I have included War Bears in basically every game I've run, save for BSSS. (And I kind of regret not having them there too).

 

• Bulgarian Folk Traditions and Beliefs, Racho Slaveykov - A book on, well, Bulgarian folk beliefs and traditions, written over a century ago and detailing practices and ideas from a century prior to it. The language, now sounding dated and slightly comedic, also conveys the author’s occasional bafflement at his own countrymen’s archaic practices. Immensely funny in places and offering a great example of the weirdness of actual folk beliefs when not trying to be filtered by romantic nostalgia for “the good old days”. 

 

• Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, The DCSS design team - Honestly traditional roguelikes in general, but DCSS in particular, have been an inspiration with their dungeon-crawling focused gameplay, immense megadungeons and outright weirdness of what can be put into a fantasy game. Hunting down the tabletop origins of this style of play is what eventually lead me to the OSR, and it was thus natural that my own megadungeon attempt would be influenced by them in turn.

Zandan Megadungeon, Session 1 - So it begins

 

Characters

• Luna Berryfang (War Bear Bogatyr) 
• Hoot (Owl Primal Chaos Worshiper)
• Varg (Wolf Troglodyte)
• Igor Lazarovich (Human Solar Priest)

Session Recap 

The party consisting of Igor the solar priest, Hoot the owl Chaos Worshiper ( already quite the the pair), Varg the Wolf cave dweller and Luna, the Bear Bogatyr (normally not a combination available, but allowed due to nobody spotting the error early enough) awoke in a conical room flooded with blood red light, upon a pile of corpses and junk. No memory in how they got here, and no way out in sight, they proceeded to explore the mysterious dungeon they had found themselves in.

 In the process they ran into a pair of old ghosts and their nobleman son, who tried to fight them after freaking out, but the party easily dispatched them (later in the session also destroying the nobleman's remains by shooting him with his own pistol, and finally banishing the ghosts), ran into a strange overgrown cave filled with plants that defied any actual categorization (and also having a mysterious pit leading down into the darkness of the dungeon) and explored a giant mural on a wall, which hid a secret compartment under the giant wood stove that the nobleman lived on. Luna used her unnaturally cold paws (a side effect of he magical blue ice hair that she started the game with) to pick up the incredibly hot iron case which contained some good weapons and a fancy hat.

The stove itself was quite ornery, belching flames at anyone who tried to approach it.

The party however decided to avoid the impressive double bronze doors leading further into the dungeon, instead deciding to circumnavigate it by going through the obvious side tunnel. In that obvious side tunnel Igor the priest, who was at the head of the group, stepped on a trip wire and a whole mess of pots, pans, knives and other metal junk fell on his head, knocking him out (12 hits out of 12 CON). Luckily the party were in no immediate danger and managed to drag him out, and let him rest a bit to regain his consciousness, but for the rest of the session he was effectively a walking vegetable, unable to really do much except slowly shuffle in a direction and just offer advice in a weak voice. 

I do, Bateman. I do. 

The group decided to instead explore the rest of the floor, finding a hidden compartment leading behind a curious pair of locked metal doors, where they discovered a shrine to some kind of unknown deity, its statue eroded and smoothed by the into a vague shape. They thought better than to drink the strange magical black ooze belching forth from the two cauldrons near the statue, but grabbed some in a bottle just in case. 

Eventually they made their way down the shimmering staircase and into the proper first floor of the dungeon. Finding themselves in a round room with three doors, they decided to take the one with least signs of being used regularly, finding themselves eventually in a natural cavern, with a warm welcoming fire and nine rather odd welcoming people, each dressed in slightly worn out clothes and wearing goat-themed headgear. The people invited the group to sit and rest, gave them some food, and eventually through the conversation the group said they would like to see the Goat that these people worshiped. Willing to oblige, the goat cultists lead the party into the following cavern, where they had two wood posts with manacles and giant splatters of dried blood. At that point the intent was obvious and a fight ensued. 

However with Igor being incapable of doing anything, the group was badly outnumbered 9 to 3, and while Hoot blasted away a cultist with a bolt of chaotic energy, Luna was not really able to withstand the overwhelming numbers and eventually got brought down and stabbed and slashed repeatedly. This however gave Hoot and Varg a chance to disengage and run away, taking potshots with chaos bolts and pistol fire at the cultists, some of which gave chase.

The party ran back into the room with the staircase they came down to, and Varg used magic to seal the doors behind them, stopping the cultists for a moment. Using Hoot's magical chaos lantern they set up an ambush on the stairs, killing another cultist, but the rest would not follow them up, instead retreating back with their fallen comrade.

Heading back down the two animals tried to follow the group's obvious blood trail, but instead saw a side passage of the dungeon, running into a palisade manned by a middle aged woman and several people with rifles. They instantly noticed Hoot trying to peek behind the corner and once they were sure he's not danger welcomed him and Varg in, explaining that their camp is guarded by a powerful Domovi (a house spirit) they call The Host, who in exchange for a gift of the nobleman's fancy furry hat and a nice pipe and tobacco welcomed the two into the camp as his guests and thus provided them with the protection of his magic. The session ended, with the two finally at a safe place and able to rest.  

 Observations 

Well, finally! After a year and a half of writing this goddamn thing I finally started up my megadungeon campaign. The ruleset currently used is a modified Tunnels & Trolls, which so far has worked fine in any game I've used it. We'll see how long it handles over a longer game, but for now it does the job.

The group was only 4 people initially, as it's a three day weekend here in Bulgaria, but I expect more people to be joining from here on out. The players generally seemed to be on top of things, though a bit slow in making decisions. Of note they managed to find the secret shrine on the entry floor of the dungeon, which I did not expect them to do, but also failed to Drink the Goo, so they get points docked off for that one, hah! They also had truly insane luck with encounter rolls on the first floor, never getting to see the guardian of that floor, but feeling its presence with the scent of dog breath, blood and rotting meat haunting them as they explored. 

The session was quite long, 7 hours total with only about 20 minutes of actual break in the whole thing. I normally avoid running sessions this long for weekly games, but it was important for the party to find a safe haven so that their characters don't simply get lost to the dungeon's dangers, and I figured I'd give them a bit more leeway on the first try. Luckily they succeed, after unfortunately running into a trap which took out Igor in a single roll, and then bumping into the goat cultists which, while not dangerous by themselves, tend to have advantage in numbers. Smart play (running away) helped this from being TPK, which it absolutely would have been as the party's toughest fighter got torn to shreds in a single round, taking over 60 hits with her 18 or so Constitution. 

Luna specifically was quite interesting, as the player rolling her up did not actually notice that War Bears can't be Bogatyr, and I decided to just keep it rather than have them roll something else. Add to that the ice blue hair which was a magical item she started with, and that war bear had big "Anime Protagonist" vibes about her, unfortunately dying in a glorious fight to protect her friends. 

All in all the session I think went well, the players ultimately did achieve their goal of finding a safe place to leave their characters between session, allowing new characters to start there. Also exploring fully the entry level granted a hefty 100 adventure points to the party as a whole, which I rule that all characters joining from now on get them as a start, thus avoiding the issue of someone joining on session 5 and being way behind as previous floors have already been explored and the AP for that being claimed. Thus I also think this makes for a good catch up mechanic, a useful thing in a semi-open table setup where people come and go. 

Map by Luna's player

Session Stats

Rooms Explored: 15
Enemies Defeated: 3 Ghosts, 4 Goat Cultists
Characters Dead: 2 - Luna and Igor 

How I prep my games

Weird Writer suggested this as a topic/challenge for a post, and I think it’s a good idea, so here we go.

Preparing a Campaign

I’ve run three short (~a dozen sessions each) OSR campaigns so far, along with smaller games along the way. I am also in the process of preparing for a megadungeon-focused campaign right now, though it has taken quite a while longer than normal due to life.

Step 1 - What is this going to be about?

The first thing when preparing a campaign for me is to figure out what the hell do I, as a referee, actually want out of it. For example my BSSS campaign was focused on two elements: Seeing how the minor variations of OD&D compared to B/X change the pace of a game, and running a hexcrawl. In my second Greylands game run for my partners the goal was to see how much I can strip back the basic elements of play while still having an enjoyable weekly game. In my current prep I am building a megadungeon from scratch and I also am interested in seeing how sustainable that kind of campaign is over a longer period of time, plus I am testing out Tunnels & Trolls as a ruleset and seeing how sustainable that is as well.

Step 2 - Assembling initial materials

Once I have an idea of what I want, I start to assemble tools and materials that I might need to at least begin the campaign. That usually involves creating a map (and as such also a vague sketch of a setting to provide context), populating it with points of interest (usually pre-published dungeons), writing up any house rules that I will be using and then getting into the weeds of smaller details - a compact setting primer, a player-facing booklet to be used at the table for easy access to the house rules, a spreadsheet to track character and player rosters, in-game calendar, stats about the game etc.

This step can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to, well…months and in the current case over a year and a half.

Expanding on the above listed elements, here is what I find important about each of them.

Rough Notes - I tend to just use a single Google Docs file when I do this, but better methods might exist for others. I make a document about the campaign where I throw every single idea, house rule, setting information or anything else that I would need for it. The file is rarely organized, and I simply use it as an initial repository to make sure i don't forget something. The most useful thing from this notes file is a running list of things I still need to prepare, and things that I have prepared, as well as writing things before I can then copy them into the setting primer or players document.

Map - An OSR campaign needs a map. The locations you will be exploring need context, whether that is a map of the part of the world or a map of the singular dungeon you will be playing in. In all of my campaigns I have created the overall map myself, as I have a specific setting in mind, however I often use pre-existing maps for dungeons by using modules that I feel fit the overall vibe I want. In the case of my current prep, it means drawing and stocking the map of my megadungeon myself.

The BSSS campaign map.

 

 

This is the revised version of the Greylands map. Version 1.0 looked even rougher.

Modules and Points of Interest - I select at least one, usually between 2 and 3, dungeons that I will be using as the initial locations for the campaign. In my Grelyands campaign that was Dyson’s Delve, in my BSSS campaign that was a map from In the Shadow of Tower Silveraxe that I then modified to fit the pseudo-Messoptamian setting of the campaign.

I rarely, if ever, use a module straight as it is without changing something to it. Usually it is simply re-flavoring enemies and encounters to fit the setting better, sometimes adding or changing the treasure available if I feel it is not appropriate for what I want.

Points of interest that I tend to create entirely myself are the “safe” zones - towns, villages, forts etc that I have put on the overall map.

House Rules - I have yet to run an OSR campaign without extensively tinkering with the ruleset I have chosen in some way. In some cases, like the Greylands it was fairly standard B/X(or OSE) with some simple house rules. In BSSS I effectively wrote an entire hack for OD&D to make it do what I wanted. In my current T&T wave I have also extensively redone and renamed elements in the ruleset to make it do what I want.

For me a campaign is always a good excuse to tinker with rules and mechanics. I enjoy seeing how changes in a magic system, or even the dice used for HD, can affect gameplay. While I do not consider any rules text, even the ones I write, to be beyond adjusting and ignoring if needed during play, I do like seeing how tweaks result in broader behaviors and changes during the game.


Setting Primer - Players always ask for some kind of setting primer, so I try and write a few words in very broad strokes about what they might actually need to situate themselves within the game. It can vary - the Greylands game had a very bare bones one, the BSSS game had a rather more detailed one both here on the blog and also sprinkled throughout the player booklet. My current megadungeon one, being focused entirely on the dungeon, has only a few broad paragraphs of setting, the rest being conveyed entirely through character backgrounds and items.

Player Booklets - Because I enjoy making these, in my in-person campaigns I always have a player handbook kind of deal. A collection of the house rules, character information and other things that players might want to look up during play, that is not part of the general rulebook that I am using as a chassis. My BSSS one became quite a bit more extensive as I changed enough things to necessitate it. These don’t have to be physical books of course, a simple google docs or pdf with the relevant information are also useful, and in fact I make a habit of collecting such for other people’s games as I find them endlessly fascinating to flip through.

Spreadsheet - I have found that any campaign I run benefits greatly from having a Google Sheets document for the campaign. That one contains, at a bare minimum, a character roster with relevant information (level, experience, player controlling the character, any notable powers or notes), a quick session recap calendar with both real life and in-game dates for the events, and then usually auxiliary tabs for stuff like hirelings, classes unlocked by the players (if I am doing that), stats for the campaign (I do love me some campaign stats!) and so on. 

The BSSS spreadsheet/roster

Other Materials - That varies from campaign to campaign. I like to usually have a list of names to use for NPCs and/or PCs; a character sheet (either a suitable preexisting one, or a custom one that I make myself); item lists (if not using a default one from a book); reference sheets to put in my DM screen (if needed)

Once I get all of this assembled I print out maps, modules and other reference sheets, booklets and other material, putting them in plastic sheet pockets and those in my referee binder. My binder always has extra character sheets, the world map I’ve made and whichever dungeon or module I am currently running. With all of that out of the way I then begin organizing the game itself (first two were open tables, third one was a closed family game) and begin.

Preparing a Session

Once the campaign gets going the prep I do from week to week changes significantly. I make a point to establish a solid groundwork (as you can see above) so that I have to do as little as I can between sessions, though even then I’ve found that it sometimes becomes too much by the later sessions.

Keeping the sheets up to date - Most important thing to do, and I usually do that after that week’s session, or at absolute latest the next day. Update everyone’s XP totals, changes in character, date, a quick session notes recap for my own sake (I do not keep any real notes during play, so I simply remember everything and write it down as it is fresh in my mind).

Setting reaction and dungeon restocking - The main and often hardest part of the week to week session prep - modeling how the world reacts to what happened in the previous session. Restocking or changing the dungeon(s) if needed, seeing how any factions or power players move in response to the actions of the player (if they know them) or advance their own schemes (if they’re unaware what the players are doing).

This has often resulted in me feeling incredibly overwhelmed as the fictional situation becomes more complex, with multiple factions and dungeons involved. I’ve yet to really get better at handling this, although discussions on discord have lead me to a potential solution which I will attempt in my next campaign - Making a list of any potential reactions or changes by factions, and then rolling a die to see which single one actually happens for the next session.

Preparing additional material - I always make sure I have a clear idea of what players plan on doing the following session (and I tend to hold them fairly firmly to any decisions made), and if that involves exploring new locations or following up on hooks that I have previously set, I then go through the various modules or adventure sites that I have prepared for the campaign or at least earmarked to use in it, and then either simply reread them and do any final adjustments, or if it is something completely new I go through the process similarly to how I do in campaign prep, and read through and edit the text with any changes or re-flavoring I need to make it fit.

Updating binder - I take out material that I will not need for a session and replace it with print outs of stuff I will. Binders get way too heavy and unwieldy fast, so I try and keep mine to the bare minimum if possible, especially considering I am usually also carrying my dice, player booklets, rulebook(s) and other materials when running.

In total I find that short of being swamped by too much reactivity from the world, my weekly session prep involves on average half a day of work, at most a day if I have to prepare something else. My hope with my next campaign is to streamline week to week prep even further, by restricting the play space to a single large dungeon. 

The Visions of Hazahall

    Back in the mists of time wizards decided to just take power for themselves and quickly formed an enormous and powerful kingdom run by magic. It predictably went absolutely mad and insane and turned to shit in no time, as magic and mutation and horrors consumed and engulfed its population.The few of those sorcerers who still lived and were willing to teach their magic to others would then begin a tradition of forcing any student to experience a very strong psycho-magical vision of the fall of Hazahall, the Glittering Kingdom, as a way of deterring their pupils from lusting after temporal power.

    This is an edited excerpt from a play-by-post game that I played with my partners a few years ago, that I am now posting here for posterity and because I was asked to. The scene involves Valeria - a young noble and later queen of her city-state that wants to learn how to practice magic and Jenx - a wizard and friend to Valeria, as well as mentor and counselor. The two are at the house of Violette, an old friend of Jenx’s, and Jenx is preparing the ritual of the Visions of Hazahall

    The broken up trance of the recitation was interrupted by Jenx suddenly inhaling sharply! He could see, and Valeria could sense it through him, that he was no longer in his friend's house. Instead he stood in the wide plaza of a city. The buildings were of pure white stone, towering above him, glittering like gems. The sky was pink or purple, and the people around him simply hummed with power. They walked around, ignoring him, talking among themselves.

During the trance Valeria had latched her aura into Jenx's with barbs of intention. She could feel his angular body pressed against her flesh. It was grounding and she used it as a conduit to dig deeper into his spirit. She did not want to hurt him but also wanted to be sure the ritual was done properly. When he inhaled she knew he was there. She could not see it but she understood it.

Jenx blinked and the scene changed. The city was still towering and glittering, but the people in it were now...different. Some looked like they were made of glass. Some had their skin become translucent and then shift into different colors. Some simply had an inscrutable look in their eyes. They still seemed joyous and happy as before, but there was a sense of unease. Like the joy was forced for the sake of appearances. There was a tension in the atmosphere, a dread. Like the pit in one's stomach as they are about to step off a cliff.

He took a deep breath. He knew what was about to come. He tensed up preparing for it.Valeria grew tenser with him. He blinked again.

The sky broke. It shattered like the shell of an egg, parts of it falling down, destroying the city, turning bodies into paste, shattering the glass creatures into shimmering mist. There was terror and panic that made his heart rate race like he was about to collapse. The sky broke still. Behind it there was nothing. A void and in it a black sun burned away flesh, thoughts, emotions, stone and wood. It burned away all.

Then there was nothing but a roiling mass of horror. Flesh, stone and glass mixed into one, pain worse than anything a mortal body was able to experience. And the burning of the black sun above. Jenx stood on, or hovered over, a low hill. Around him the roiling color and flesh reached out to him - with hands, claws, eyes, tendrils and other impossible appendages, reaching for help, begging for safety in a million voices. Every time they did not touch him though, pulling back away as if he was just out of reach.

Time became meaningless. There was simply an eternity of suffering in which Jenx was awash, like a man standing on the shore as the tides came in. It was years. Decades. Millennia. Time had become meaningless, just as self, pain, body, up, down, sky and sun had.

Valeria slumped against him. Every ounce of her will was in twined with his emotions. In her mind she clawed her way to him. His mind was locked in horror beyond reason but she clung to him, she loved him. It was like waves of pure terror and misery were trying to drag her down and away, but she clung to him, not just to support herself but also to brace Jenx against the onslaught. Tears flowed from her physical body and fell on his braided hair.

He had stopped breathing. He wasn't sure when exactly, but at some point he had stopped breathing because breathing had become a meaningless idea, just as his lungs were.

The sun had burned everything away - the million colors of the roiling flesh had simply turned to grey ash. Then the sun had burned itself out too. The screams stopped, but their echo continued. Nothing. Emptiness. But in that emptiness, the echo started to break apart. To take on a strange, stunted rhythm. The rhythm of his breath, the rhythm of the verse which Violette was reciting ever louder. And his breathing started again, again following the rhythm. He looked up one final time, into the empty void above where the sky had stood.


It was time to leave.

Adventure Design - Location, Scenario, Plot

When designing material for play at the table, it is helpful to think about what exactly you are trying to design as that will inform what sort of work you need to prepare before the game. Below I list three distinct (if often related) types of adventure structure.

Location Design

Whether it is a wilderness to explore a dungeon to delve, location-focused design is about setting up a fictional play space with enough things for players to interact with to provide entertainment and enjoyment during the game. This is your standard “sandbox” type of deal. A point-crawl, a hex crawl of some kind, and again, dungeons, all fall into this when they are being made with the primary concern being exploring the fictional space.

Secondary goals might exist such as looking for a specific item or NPC, attempting to do a specific task, or even just getting experience points. However an adventuring Location should work just as well without any objective beyond “this is a place to play in”.

Location-focused adventures can often benefit from having a scenario of some kind set up beforehand, as the two work quite well naturally. A plot of some kind could also be slotted in, of course, but in most cases that will simply overshadow the exploration of the location as a goal in and of itself.

How this differs from Scenarios is that the location does not need to have a specific situation or conflict currently happening as the players enter the picture. It is quite alright for a Location adventure to begin “static” and then react and shift as a result of the actions of the players.

How it differs from a Plot is that a location does not necessarily cares about specific narrative beats happening (either in order, or even at all). If the players do not interact with a specific element of the location, that does not result in bad or subpar gaming experience.

Obvious Example: Here is a dungeon composed of 20 odd keyed rooms. It has numerous enemies, hazards, treasure and obstacles. Some of the enemies form factions and have some kind of broad-strokes predetermined views of other enemies and/or factions, which gives an avenue for the players to engage in picking a side or playing all sides against each other.

Scenario Design

A different type of adventure is setting up a specific situation, outlining clearly the sides involved and their goals and parameters for “success” in the conflict, and going from there.

For me at least this type of design is primarily tied to wargaming (miniature, tabletop or otherwise). Wargaming is about conflict resolution of some kind, and so it benefits from having a scenario which outlines the parameter of the conflict.

An important part of scenario design is that it should depict the conflict already having started, and the players already begin the game by being part of one or multiple sides, and then striving to achieve their side’s goals as best as they can. Once the conflict of the scenario has been resolved, that adventure is now done and concluded - Further scenarios might be devised as logical reactions or responses to the way this first one played out, and stringing a bunch of those in a row is what a lot of wargaming campaigns end up looking like.

How this differs from a Location adventure is that while setting up the field for the conflict is part of establishing parameters, the location and its peculiarities only matter as far as they affect the conflict or scenario in question. It does not matter if over the mountains there exist some other kingdom that has other problems, because that does not directly affect the situation of the two orc tribes battling it out in this valley.

How this differs from Plot is that a scenario might have one outcome or another be more or less likely to occur as a result of the initial setup (in a “doomed last stand” kind of deal, the player or players doing the last stand are generally expected to lose eventually) however it usually does not care for specific outcomes happening or not happening. That contrasts it with a plot-focused adventure, which often needs specific narrative beats to occur so that the plot can progress without having to result to that most dreaded of term “railroading”, in which the referee simply forcibly drags the characters onto the next step of the plot, regardless of whether that makes any sense in the situation or not.

You can’t really railroad a Scenario, because if the conflict already has a 100% certain outcome, then that conflict is not really gameable, and therefore simply unsuited for being used to prepare a gaming session.

Obvious Example: The party and their allies must defeat an imposing Big Evil Enemy. They know the broad parameters of where that Big Evil Enemy is, and the focus of the game is resolving that conflict one way or another. Once the Big Evil Enemy is defeated, or defeats the players, or any other potential resolution to the conflict has occurred, the scenario is complete and finished.

Plot Design

Plot design is the cornerstone of Trad play, and more often than not the one done very poorly. An inevitable result of it being the most broadly done way of running and playing TTRPGs I suspect.

A key difference is that a “plot” is not a “story”. Any of these types of adventures can result in a story, as the story is simply the actual events of what happened (both within the fiction and at the table). One can not write a story adventure, because that is already complete and there is nothing in there to actually play out. So instead, what you do is write a plot.

Plot adventures are most often formulated as a series of narrative elements or beats, some (or all) of which need to be met so that the players may progress onto the next set of beats. You can't go and question the doctor until you find his card at the scene of the crime (or you hear from a witness that they saw him with the victim. Or you find his name in the victim’s day planner, etc.). The reason you can’t is that the doctor might not even have existed as an element in the game, until you found the narrative beat that lets you know he even exists.

The enjoyment of playing through a plot-focused adventure is trying to find the beats and where they lead, with an ideal one often having twists and turns to the plot that the players do not anticipate, but could have foreseen if paying close attention to what has come before hand, leaving them with a broadly conventional narrative or story after completing the adventure.

How Plot adventures differ from Scenarios is that they tend to not have as clear win or lose states as a scenario would. In a scenario each side participating has very clear goals, and there is rarely much care given to results outside of those already established before play even began. In a Plot-based adventure the outcome from moment to moment is a lot less clearly outlined, and in a well designed plot adventure there should be numerous results or actions which still lead you onto the next plot beat.

As for Locations, Plot tends to not care about the fictional space in which the narrative is set in, beyond the obvious effects it will have on the actual plot. Abandoning the plot that supposedly everyone has agreed to follow through on as part of the gaming session to simply explore some other part of the location is often seen as disruptive behavior in a Plot-focused adventure, whereas it is the entire point of gaming in a Location adventure.

Obvious Example: A mysterious crime has taken place, and the players take on the roles of investigators trying to uncover what has occurred, and separate truth from lies. Numerous plot points involving questioning suspects, gathering clues and uncovering layers of mysteries eventually lead to a logical conclusion of the plot in which the investigating players confront the perpetrator.

There are, of course, other ways of thinking about how to structure gaming material for play at the table, but to me these three are the major categories that tend to cover most experiences happening in tabletop RPGs.