Over on Yochai Gal's lovely NSR discord server some folks (including your's truly) tried there hand at the Gygax 75 challenge during the month of June.
The opportunity to so this alongside a bunch of other people who would regularly check in on each other was great, as in the weeks prior I had attempted several procedures to make a classic dungeon, all with lack luster results (which just goes to show that different methods will work for different people, as these were perfectly functional procedures).
As I've had a blast doing this challenge (way more than I expected to) I feel like sharing the results, despite being over a month late.
You can download the challenge for free over here.
General Thoughts
I tried doing the work for this challenge as good as I could despite the busy end of the school year and the rediculous amount of grading that brings my way. This was interesting, as the challenge asked me to do things I normally never would, but am glad to have tried.
Not everything works as well for me as the rest of the stuff, but I could only figure that out by giving it an honest attempt. Other things which I thought wouldn't work, ended up working very well and I might use those for future projects.
Enough vageries, lets look at week 1.
Week 1: Temperance and Self-discovery
I tend to barrel into my projects head first. There is an idea and rather than giving it time to breath I get to work on it as much as possible. Often this doesn't work. The idea by itself might be interesting, but it is too barren to yield sufficient resources for an entire game, setting or adventure. The few ideas that do stick around tend to do so because in the process of working on the base idea, I get tangential ideas that support the initial idea and make it stick.
This made week 1 of the challenge, where you focus solely on the big picture stuff without committing to anything in particular, incredibly alienating and eye-opening.
Thoughts
What worked for me:
Getting a physical notebook to work from was really nice. I tend to prefer digital media because it is more easy to amend mistakes, but the physicality of a notebook makes it a lot more flexible to quickly make something in. It also forced me to keep a 'bad' version of something as I jotted down my second attempt, which meant that I lost less ideas as I progressed.
Making the pitch up front forces me to think about what I think is the most important part of the game I am envisioning right at the start. This is good, as it helps me focus on more than just the novel idea and requires me to relay that idea in an intelligible way.
Usually I never gather explicit sources of inspiration. Instead I tend to go with a central idea and a vibe. Reinforcing both the idea and the vibe with concrete examples helped me do two things: Communicate what I intend to achieve and make my biases transparent to myself so I can brake boring habits.
I am not a visual thinker, so I don't tend to picture anything when I play or run games (nor when reading books, or listening to stories). Instead the best way to describe how I think is to say that I think conceptually. Because of that, conceptual stuff (the way things relate to one another) is what I tend to focus on. Any time aesthetic does come into play in my games it is because it conceptually matters (probably because it is gameable information, or because it is a way to communicate an established setting). Making a moodboard is therefor completely alien to me. However, as I do have strong associations whenever I see art or images, I found it surprisingly useful which I didn't expect.
What didn't work for me:
Though I doubt Ray would be gainst this, the way the challenge is worded means that the sources you pick and the pitch you write is written in stone. That doesn't work for me, as my projects always seem to grow in unexpected directions. Of course, I don't need permission to amend the pitch or the list of inspiration, I can just do that when I figure out that doing so works better for me. And that is all this is, a minor observation that for me it doesn't work to try to set up rigid boundaries for a project in advance.
Results
Pitch
The world is teeming with souls which are the foundation of the physical world. When enough souls band together under some soul leadership this leadership becomes sentient. Any major entity (a person, a mountain, a lake, a spell) is therefore sentient.
Death is losing sentience, your soul doesn't move on but falls into obscurity. For this reason, ancestor worship/veneration as well as animism are big, whereas there are no real traditional 'gods'.
Major cities from the fallen empire are all completely abandoned in a hurry. The cities are believed to be 'cursed', though it is unclear what this means.
Rural communities vary greatly, but are all striving to and often failing to be self sufficient in some way.
Monsters populate the lands, descending from the fallen cities and emerging from massive ancestral tombs.
Sources of inspiration
Moodboard
Week 2: Mapping the lay of the land
Once again I am asked to put off working on the main idea (a dungeon) and insead consider bigger picture, going against my usual tendencies. And once again, I think it helped me think about the dungeon from a different angle, forcing me to place it in a larger context before getting into the detail that making a dungeon generally is.
On the one hand, it was difficult to do this, as I mostly had an idea for the dungeon itself. On the other hand, by making the world around it, even if it is just in broad strokes, I think the dungeon feels more informed and I really liked that.
Thoughts
What worked for me:
I usually don't really make maps, as my crippeling perfectionism makes me want to make something that could be real and my adhd makes it near impossible to put in the work to research how I would go about doing that. What's more, that same perfectionism wants me to make a good looking map, while that same adhd makes me incredibly impatient and I tend to rush the repetitive bits, making them look incredibly ugly.
Despite that, I think the map I made worked out fairly alright. Focussing only on some general things at the start, despite going against my usual way of doing things, did make finishing a map a lot more achieveable, and if there is anything I would like to take away from this challenge in general it is definitely that: get what you absolutely need first and don't worry about the details at the start.
This is something I already 'knew' in the intellectual sense, but it is somehow still different to experience the result first hand.
What didn't work for me:
Because everything is still so general at this stage of the challenge, I felt like I didn't really have a lot to draw on for the overworld encounter table. Encounters are a great way to bring a world to life, but for me, I would need to use some sort of procedure to generate interesting encounters rather than just coming up with whatever seems to fit the results of week 1.
Results
Map
2d6 Encounter Table:
2. Dragon who wants to gather unearthed treasures
3. Travelling Merchant fighting off [roll again]
4. Harpies on the hunt for an easy meal
5. Monster Hungers looking to trade their recent spoils
6. Pack of Rabid Dogs attacking everything in sight
7. attered Skelletons shambling around, looking for meaning
8. Pack of Ghouls trying their best not to eat you
9. Refugees collapsed of thirst and hunger
10. Crypt Delvers suspicious of anyone interesting in their delves
11. Blight Horror, destroying life out of boredom
12. Warband rallying others to strom and retake the Lost City
Week 3: Sweet release
Finally I can get to work on the dungeon itself, though really, throughout the rest of the weeks I have been thinking about what might be fun/interesting to do with this. Allowing myself that time to let the ideas simmer I think really paid off.
Thoughts
What worked for me:
Having dice take away a bunch of my decisions was very nice, as it made me less obsessive about making the correct 'choice', which is something I really struggle with. No need for me to agonize about how many rooms I need for each level or how the levels link up to each other. I can just roll some dice and connect the dots.
Working down the list of things to add to the dungeon was a really nice way to start. Having these elements that I could drop into the dungeon rather than working down each room in turn made me feel like I had much more of a handle of things and allowed me to amend content more easily. Prior to this, I would often try to start room for room and when I would be unable to think of any more fun rooms I would get bored with the project before it was done. Completing these lists made it really easy for me to populate the dungeon, spread around empty rooms and come up with fun/interesting treasure depending on the roll of the dice.
What didn't work for me:
This point: 'Create a point-to-point map.' doesn't make sense to me in the context of the other tasks, because it seems to me that the way to make the point to point map is explained in points further down. Not a big deal, but a bit confusing the first time I read it.
The theme budget is really sparse and a single theme per level seems a bit vanilla as well. Ray explictly states it is perfectly fine to go over budget, but still d3+2 seems very small if you consider the budget being spent on encounters, wonderous items, features, and details. This is another really minor complaint, but I tried to do most of these as written and despite rolling really high for my budget, still felt like I could very easily have worked with twice that amount (though that might be in part because I made d6 encounter tables for each floor, rather than a 2d6 encounter table for the entire dungeon).
Results
Describe the entrance: "The front of a Greek temple carved in the mountain side."
Level 1 Theme: Raided Tombs
Level 2 Themes: Celebrate Death
Level 3 Theme: Forgotten Kings
The Map:
List of Monsters
a. Burrowing Worms
b. Zealous Skeleton Sextons
c. the Soul Collector
d. Life Mourner Procession
e. Crypt Delvers
f. Disturbed Remains
g. the Nameless Queen
h. Royal Steed
i. Dreaming Souls
k. Bats (sentient when grouped together in a swarm)
k. Reverse Hunters
List of Items
l. Sword of the Serpent King
m. Immovable Rod
n. Chalice if Servitude
List of Features
o. the Famishing Feast
p. Desecrated Shrine
q. Throne of the King of Kings
Level 1 Encounter Table
1. Swarm of Bats, demanding tribute as they consider themselves the King of these halls.
2. Rival Crypt Delvers, carefully looking for traps
3. Disturbed Remains, looking for missing pieces to make their corpses whole again
4. Burrower Worms, looking for tasty fresh metals to eat
5. Zealous Skeleton Sextons, trying to restore a raided tomb
6. the Soul Collector, hunting a soul that escaped its grasp
Level 2 Encounter Table
1. Zealous Skeleton Sextons, scolding a fellow member for accidental heresy
2. Life Mourner Procession, lamenting the poor souls stuck on the surface world
3. Reverse Hunters, chasing a wounded deer to retrieve their arrow and heal its wound
4. Rival Crypt Delvers, barricading a room to recover from their wounds
5. Dreaming Souls, approaching you as if you have known each other for ever
6. the Soul Collector, coming to take the soul of a former king from one of the players
Level 3 Encounter Table
1. Burrower Worms, feasting on nearest Treasure, eager to try something less old.
2. the Nameless Queen, looking for loyal subjets who will honor and remember her
3. the Royal Steed, boasting how it can take on any live creature in a race
4. the Soul Collector, carrying off a hapless soul, while cackling
5. Dreaming Souls, scared and looking for comfort
6. Rival Crypt Delvers, panicking because they lost their light.
Week 4: The part I usually skip
Making towns has been the bane of my existence. It is the main reason Project Social has stalled and something I am trying to hope to take some points on from Blades in the Dark which I am currently making my way through.
Because of this, towns in games I run tend to be incredibly sparse, mostly existing as a location to find NPCs or equipment. Having a simple procedure to produce towns that are slightly more interesting is a major benefit to my repertoir as a GM.
Thoughts
What worked for me:
Much like it helped with the dungeon to just focus on what things need to go in to make the town work, rather than focus on what needs to be in each district and what sort of districts there ought to be, etc. sped things up like crazy.
Taking the time to make some hirelings/specialists was nice as it helped create some NPCs that aren't strickly bound to the town and can easily be dropped into other parts of the game.
What didn't work for me:
DNA as a basis for NPC creation isn't really my cup of tea. It isn't that it doesn't work, but the need and the agenda are a bit too close to each other for my liking. Maybe I misunderstand them, as English isn't my first language, but it isn't an intuitive way for me to make NPCs (which is perfectly fine, I have other ways).
Using the equipment list of the system you plan to use is smart, but since I prefer my stuff to be system neutral it isn't really my prefered method of doing things. Another minor flaw, which might not be a problem for other folks, but that did come up when I was working on this.
Results
Locations:
The Mills: Huge wind powered mill make Millstead the local center of industry
The Pyre: Cremate the dead and burn offerings to send to them
The Crow's Nest: Great eggbased dishes and stoft feather beds
Twig Races: A children's game turned serious business.
Leatherwing Couriers: Send messages across the valley, not native to Millstead.
Rafting Merchants: Monopoly on import trade. Can get you most goods.
Steve's Steel: Blacksmith of renown.
Betty's Bread: Bakes enough bread to feed the town and more.
Merlin the Spellmonger: Abused spells for sale.
Political Factions:
Spreaders: Wish to expand the town's industry beyond the current town to increase production
Refiners: Wish to maintain the current level of production and instead improve sustainability
Notable NPCs
Merlin the Spellmonger: (D) smells of booze, looks unkempt, (N) wants more booze (A) to numb the loneliness
Betty the Baker: (D) strong as a bear, looks immaculate, (N) wants more cheap flower, (A) to feed as many people as possible
Steve the Smith: (D) sweetheart, looks lanky, (N) wants old steel, (A) to make a masterwork
Crow the Innkeeper: (D) mute, looks ruffled, (N) wants his voice soul back, (A) and set her brigand son straight
Hilde the Pyrespeaker: (D) serious, has long white hair (N) wants respect, (A) and to excocise her predecesor
Hirelings
Iris the Veteran: (D) terrifying, one-eyed, (N) wants attention, (A) and unearth the secrets of the Lost Cities
Silvy the Scholar: (D) harmless, toothless (N) wants ancient wisdom (A) to help her become immortal
Gaius the Delver: (D) handsome, tall (N) wants medicine (A) to save his ill father
Flint the Torchbearer: (D) shifty, crooked (N) wants to pay off his debt (A) and live a life of luxery
Hermes the Healer: (D) nervous, in over his head (N) needs reassurance (A) and to betray Millstead to the City Raiders.
Maud the Ranger: (D) scarred, gruff (N) wants high quality wood for making bows (A) and to protect the forests
Rumours
1. The former Pyrespeaker haunts the embers of the crematory pyre, whispering advice to those who need it.
2. Someone sends secret light signals out at night. They get answered from the northern hills.
3. Delvers have gone off to a dungeon after bragging about the huge haul they expect to bring back.
4. The Barker camp near Rustwood has gone silent. No shiptments have come in anymore, nor is there any sign of the Barkers that work there.
5. Skeleton Processions have been seen in the mountains near the eastern river. They seem to be mourning something.
6. Brigants are planning to storm the Lost City. They have been forcefully recruiting folks they meet.
Week 5: Finishing touches
One thing I really like about this challenge is that it focusses on getting a game table ready and not on getting it ready for publication. This means that I finally managed to finish something to completion, which regular readers will know is incredibly rare for me.
Going forward I think I want to focus more on getting stuff ready for play and then just playing it, rather than wanting to share my work in a presentable/publishable form with others.
Thoughts
What worked for me:
I love having a 'choose whichever you think is most relevant to your table' list to end this challenge with. The prompts being written by someone else also makes me aware of things I could do that I normally wouldn't think of myself.
Emphasizing that the next step is to play in the created world was fun as well. I managed to run this adventure location for my student players twice already and they seemed to have a lot of fun with it, despite it being very rough still.
What didn't work for me:
A lot of the prompts didn't relate to what I envisioned for my game, which I guess is the downside that it is written by someone else. That doesn't really matter, but it made choosing the three I wanted to do a bit difficult. For future projects I might still use this list as inspiration, but I would probably add to it and personalise it based on the project I am currently working on.
And though I already mentioned it, the boundaries between Need and Agenda for DNA made even less sense to me for locations, but that is the most minor of complaints.
Results
What lies beyond to the North, East, West and South of the map?
To the North lie the Black Snow Peaks, mountainous spires, hollowed out and filled with machinery. The metal works of the ancient empire.
The the East lies the Thawing Sea, a thin layer of water on top of an immance layer of ice. Gigantic shapes can be seen frozen underneath.
To the West lies the Nocturnal Desert, dark clouds never move from here, chocking the light without ever giving rain. The sky swirls around a central city, hidden in the sands.
To the South lie the Acid Marchis, barren lands of corosive mud and pools of acid, broken up y ruines of gigantic farmhouses and the shambling remains of ancient lifestock.
Rival Adventureres:
Ian Frostblade: (D) carries a sword of frost, (N) wants magical blades (A) and become a renowned spellblade.
Susan Horsewrangler: (D) wears a helmet with horse hair, (N) wants more horses (A) to form a caravan and become a travelling merchant.
Dorethy Watershot: (D) carries a huge crossbow, (N) wants to be pitied (A) and a place to feel home.
Rover Strongjaw: (D) has metal teeth, (N) feels the need to show off (A) and wants to find his family.
Dante the Poet: (D) has baggy eyes, (N) desperately wants and audience (A) and to create a legacy.
Creature: (D) human? (N) wants to eat (A) and to find out about their past.
Additional Map Features:
Aquaduct Ruin: remnants of a massive structure to bring water to the now fallen city.
Lord's Manner: Summer house of some prestigious lord. Currently home to the City Liberation army.
Overgrown Fountain: A lecherous statue can still be made out underneath the vines. Old money shimmers beneath the growth.
Tollhouse Bridge: The bridge seems indestructable. Whatever they once asked toll for, it couldn't have been to maintain it.
City Liberation Camp: Outpost near the city where 'soldiers' moniter the Dragon's behaviour.
No comments:
Post a Comment