They Met in a Tavern 31: Regarding A Further Brief Survey of the Spiders of the Badlands

We take a break from the World Cup to adventure:

• Chris: Thorn, dwarf Wizard
• Dan: Kiara, elf Ras Godai
• Roger: Drom, dwarf Desert Rider
• Seana: Zanegar, 1/2 orc Sea Wolf
• Callista: Erol, elf Priest
• Dave: Darkmist, elf Thief
• Andrea: Gabor, goblin Priest

The party awakens from a restful night around the odd metallic, humming obelisk.

Did it keep you awake, too?

Breakfast, and time to get on the road. Drom led the way. Around a few bends, he heard a barking dog. Some cautious slinking about, as PCs are wont to do. A ring of standing stones surrounding a cold fire is found, as well as a cliffside opening to a possible shrine. Zet looked at the runes, determining that they symbolized safe travel. They are cautiously greeted by a one-eyed old woman in tattered robes and her massive dog of undetermined genealogy. She introduced herself as Sesuna, a hermit meditating at the old shrine. The dog was Dawit. "He helps provide for me. We don't need much."

The party asked what or who she might have seen? Serpentfolk to hide from. Other parties, possibly seeking the cities or other treasures within the badlands. No. No odd spiders.

Sesuna showed the party a statue to the shrine's patron, Zulona, a lost god of travel and good water. Likely established long ago when caravans and other wayfarers were more common. Kiara offered some coin for a blessing. Sesuna shook her head, and pointed to her empty socket. "I need an 'eye' to see for you." Some puzzlement, and a gem was procured from one of the loot piles. Sesuna placed it in the socket, and the gem vanished. But now the party won't roll "lost" rolls for three days. Anything we can thank you with? If you come back this way, bring me the names of any lost gods you may find. They need to be named and remembered.

Off they went.

Hurried footsteps approached from behind, revealing Igra, one of the two kobold guides. They had been ambushed by the spellcasting spiders, and Rogs' luck had run out. Igra had returned to the party. Might be a better way to riches than mining, anyway. Besides, he'd always wanted to be a poet...

"Behind Me dips Eternity

Before Me Immortality

Myself the Term between

Death but the Drift of Eastern Gray,

Dissolving into Dawn away,

Before the West begin..." - kobold poetry 

They Met in a Tavern 30: Spiders and Kobolds and Wolves, Oh My!

Well, look who showed up...

• Roger: Drom, dwarf Desert Rider
• Rick: Bjorr, 1/2 orc Paladin
• Chris: Thorn, dwarf Wizard
• Dan: Kiara, elf Ras Godai
• Seana: Zanegar, 1/2 orc Sea Wolf
• Adam: Ad Ratter, halfling Wizard

Drom has returned from his sojourn, or pouting...

Don't listen to them sweetie, you're lovely.

That's Trixie, by the way. Continuing with the excellent mount names.

Ok, to begin. Ad Ratter was discovered among the baggage, or curled up in someone's bedroll. Sort of like shaking out your shoes in the morning to check for scorpions. There might be a halfling. He was abandoned by his peers while exploring the Badlands. What do you expect for a CON 3 halfling?

The party mounted up and headed onward, checking out the canyons and ridges. An obelisk was spotted, and investigated. The tall obelisk was of a bluish metal, and warm to the touch. It was covered with odd runes. Zet was called up to translate. He pulled out a crumbling book and gingerly turned pages. The runes were a challenge, at best he could sense it was a border marker or milepost. He made notes and the party moved on. 

Bjorr and Drom noted what appeared to be old wagon tracks worn into the stone of the canyon floor. Perhaps this was an old thoroughfare to the old cities.

ruts

Later, Kiara and Ad heard a rumbling in the distance. Then at less of a distance. Everyone rushed to get themselves and their mounts to higher ground. Their suspicions confirmed, a flash flood ripped through where they had recently stood. 

They Met in a Tavern 29: Misadventures in Freya's Shrine

Welcome back to another installment of Fun In the Badlands. This week we had a full table:

• Rick: Bjorr, 1/2 orc Paladin
• Chris: Thorn, dwarf Wizard
• Dan: Kiara, elf Ras Godai
• Seana: Zanegar, 1/2 orc Sea Wolf
• Callista: Erol, elf Priest
• Dave: Darkmist, elf Thief
• Andrea: Gabor, goblin Priest

Going from zero to two on priests. So much for my "waves of undead" plans... :p

EDIT: Oops, forgot to add the player/PC polling. Why do you seek the lost city?

• Drom (previously) - Magics to bring water back to his people
• Bjorr - Grand adventure and finding secrets lost
• Thorn - The rumored lost magics
• Kiara - Possible allies for her community
• Zanegar - Adventure, possible northwest passage?
• Erol - Places of religious significance
• Darkmist - Drawn by rumors of seven cities of gold
• Gabor - Adventure and relics

Everyone (except Drom) had reconvened at camp, and were getting saddled up and ready to go. Speaking of which, what are your horse's names and dispositions (dispositions per Cursed Scroll 2)?

Bjorr has the advantage of the paladin's mount (Reliable or Lovely disposition only). Everyone else was on their own, and clearly most are not horse people. No comment on the names.

Onward, into the breaks of the Badlands. 

D66 Badlands Hex Features, and Randomness Thoughts

So, in respect of Prismatic's Blogwagon topic, I suppose I should actually write a bit more on process and methods, rather than just spamming them with random tables. Not that there isn't another random table residing directly below... 

I'm a middling GM and writer, at best. Most of my scenarios and creativity are pretty bog-standard as far as RPG content goes. I crib from better creators wherever possible, and chink up the cracks in material content with my ideas where necessary.

So, I'm not going to come up with any groundbreaking theory or mechanics, just what works for me, and maybe help a dear reader or two.

First of all, for any session or scenario, there is little need to build out bespoke random table contents. With fifty years of publications and web content, there's likely a random table that fits your needs. 

Even the infamous ones...

Plenty of TTRPG books include monsters encountered by terrain type. Sort by HD or whatever criteria, and accost your players' PCs at your leisure.

And, the tables don't have to be fancy. Even for a campaign-level setting, there will be the things encountered more regularly, and a few rarities that may only hit the die rolls a few times. Call them the residents vs the exotics, perhaps. The tribes of orcs vs the one dragon. Grade on a curve - 2d6, 3d6, etc. Again, smarter people than me have expounded on this.

"But what if I want to random some stuff up, Mr. Leicester?" I hear you say. Well then, go for it... with the only real caveat of, "make them make sense."

Looking at my last blog entry, there is The Randomness of the die rolls, with the list of qualities or attributes for each creature. Then, the "heavy lifting" of creating some logic for making that particular arrangement fit into your setting. Particularly for a sandbox-type scenario, where the exploration and encounters themselves inform the larger play (we'll also be delving into this based on our last campaign session...)

And it might not work. Sometimes the dice aren't always right. Regardless, making something out of a bunch of random rolls, be it filling a dungeon, or creating a critter, is still good practice, and an opportunity to keep the brain flexible. 

And I'm sure that I have at least one failed experiment that showed up elsewhere...

“The Badlands Twists Its Creatures” - Utilizing the Shadowdark Monster Generator

“The Badlands twists its creatures.” This was a rumor (and/or warning) passed on to the Sunday night PCs a few sessions back, perhaps from the nomads. 

Probably just an old wives' tale. Nothing to be concerned about.

Spoilers for my players, so be on your best behavior. 🙄

Second installment in my June Randomness Wagoning... 

Now, my prior campaign players/PCs were no stranger to the mutants engineered by the vivimancers in the mountains. As I mentioned way back when, Jon Becker's "Comes Chaos" and Steven Cook's "Chaos Hordes" were used for all my mutation needs. 

Particular player "favorites" were the Damned Horses, and that one naked guy running through the battlefield who no one wanted to get near. Cowards.

source

But now we find ourselves in a new campaign, and a need for new randomized random monsters. In the flavor of Shadowdark.

So cracking open the rulebook, we find ourselves on Pages 190 ("Monster Generator") and 191 ("Make It Weird"). 

The critters were generated with four d20 rolls to get the basic build, and then d3 mutations to spice it up. My initial rolled results are below, followed by some quick thoughts, and the final creation. For the Party Level, I'm assuming Level 3 PCs.

Secondly, they are moving into the "badlands," which I have described as an arid region characterized by canyons, ridges, and natural labyrinths. Creations will be suited to such an environment.

source

I rolled/created mostly honest, with one exception...