Do You Sandbox, and if so, By How Much?

Sandboxing as a campaign style is not absolute. Some campaigns leave the players to develop their own plot hooks, some drop in plot seeds for the PCs to pick through, some wall of their sandboxes for a limited area of exploration and others leave their world wide open. There are other variations, kinda like the Heinz 57 Varieties of Ketchup.

Me, I'm looking at a walled off sandbox with seeds that will lead to a wide open sandbox as the players develop their own plot hooks.

So, how do you sandbox, or do you not sandbox at all?

Exploring Ruins in the d30 Sandbox Companion

We've looked at Taverns and Cults so far. Now it's time to step into the Ruins...

Page 19 in the d30 Sandbox Companion for those playing along at home:

Ruin One

Type - roll of "8" makes it a Hamlet.

Let's check out the character and degree of decay - a roll of "6" indicates it's "barely sunken"

A roll of "29" indicates it's overrun by reptiles of some sort - a roll of 10 on a d15 indicates it some sort of dragon.

Hmmm... sunken hamlet inhabited by a dragon. We'll make this encroaching swampland. Damn, which kind of dragons inhabit swampland? Probably a young adult in size. Possibly nesting with an egg or two. That would make it a high stakes encounter...

Ruin Two

Type - roll of "16" makes it a Catacombs.

Rolling a "4" indicates it has been slightly vandalized.

A roll of "6" indicates there is a nuisance amount of magical inhabitants - a roll of "6" on a d15 looks to make that a rust monster. Shit, that might be more than a nuisance ;)

Catacombs speak for themselves. Grab a +Dyson Logos or +matt jackson map, throw in some mindless undead along with the rust monster and you have a prefect recipe for a low level dungeon.


Overall, quick and dirty and fine for a quick encounter. If I was looking for more in depth (and done in advance) I'd probably opt for Tome of Adventure Design for a fuller effect (as I already have it in my gaming library).

AS&SH, DCC RPG and Liberation of the Demon Slayer 50% Off in PDF

RPGNow has put a slew of games on sale at 50% off for the next week, but there are few choices that are solidly OSR pics (and solid pics whether one is looking solely for OSR or not). Here's what I found:

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is a no brainer at 5 bucks. A finer choice for Swords & Sorcery in the OSR will not be found. If all you can spend is 5 bucks, spend it here. Tell +Jeff Talanian that The Tavern sent you ;)

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG is the game that brought back the magic of
my first D&D session for me. It's close enough to feel like the game you love and different enough to be that magical new experience. Lot's of ideas to borrow and steal for your more "normal" OSR styled game (I've converted "Luck" for use in my Swords & Wizardry game).

Liberation of the Demon Slayer is a nice little dungeon crawl compatible with just about every OSR game. I ignore the section of house rules that are included, as I have my own personal set and mixing the two might be combustible. Others might find use for them. The dungeon itself looks like fun, but I've yet to try it in game.

There are some other, non-OSR gems on sale that I will highlight in a later post.

Random Tables - Do You Roll, Pick and Choose or Something Else?

I was a notorious "pick and choose"er. Tome of Adventure Design, Roll XX and the like are full of tables I browsed and picked from. It wasn't until this weekend, with the d30 Sandbox Companion, that I forced myself to roll on random tables and to take the results "as is" for the Tavern and Cult posts here on the blog.

Holy shit but I'm glad I did, as it forced me to use my imagination to turn the results into workable sandbox elements - it was a fun and rewarding challenge.

So, put me in the "used to pick and choose but now roll" column ;)

Where do you stand?

It's Not a Cult - It's the d30 Sandbox Companion!

When I talked about the d30 Sandbox Companion last night with my gaming group, one of the tables that elicited a "hot damn!" of excitement was the Cult Generator on page 21.

It has five columns, the first two help supply the name of the cult, and the last three cover worship, immediate goal and strange practices.

Let's try to randomly roll out two cults (remember, this is more to seed your imagination than anything else - it's barebones and needs to be fleshed out for gameplay):

Cult One

Rolls of 21 and 22 for columns 1 and 2 gives us "The Partnership of the Smoke".

A roll of 17 indicates the worship / following of a male elfin magic-user. Hmmm, make that elf a drow and the "smoke" could refer to the hair. Or maybe he specializes in wall of fog and cloudkill like spells.

A roll of 16 for "immediate goals" results in a cult that seeks the destruction of libraries and books. Maybe this is a cover for the cult leader - maybe he is looking for certain magical books and is seeking to destroy the others as a distraction.

Finally, the last roll is a 13 - these kooks never cut their hair.

Cult Two

Rolls of 4 and 11 for columns 1 and 2 gives us "The Church of the Elect".

A Roll of 1 indicates they worship a beholder. There's no way this could be anything but a death cult ;)

Another roll of 1 gives their immediate goal as anarchy. See, told you this shit was bad...

Finally, a roll of 21 indicates that they sleep from hooks. This is the type of cult the PCs best run from or destroy outright, because they are crazy enough to be truly dangerous and they have a beholder pulling their strings.


Damn, this shit is fun and supplies some damn good hooks for my current sandbox. Further details would be needed to run with this if it were to be more than background noise in the campaign, but as my players do read the blog, I'll leave them as is for now ;)

Just think, over 24 million cultish variations from one table...

Putting the d30 Sandbox Companion in Motion - It's Tavern Time!

I figured talk is talk, but rolling dice is the game, baby! Or some such nonsense. In any case, I figured I'd roll up two taverns using the tables provided in the d30 Sandbox Companion.

Using the Tavern Name Generator on page 36, I roll a 10 for the first tavern, giving me a result of TNG 2b / TNG 3d - so, 2b and 3d are the tables I roll on.

2b - roll a 1 - "angry"

3d - roll a 2 - "brownie"

The Angry Brownie

For the second tavern, I roll a 21, for a result of TNG 3b / TNG 3b - 2 rolls on the same table - interesting.

3b first roll is a 14 - "queen"

3b second roll is a 1 - "mage"

The Mage Queen - you know there is a story behind this one.


Lets go to page 37 and get some further details of these taverns. There are 5 tables, and they cover accommodations, rooms & bedding, physical features, reputation and featured main dish.

Note: The Accommodations Table is not read as a standard d30 - instead, the 1s digit and the 10s digit are read separately.


Starting with The Angry Brownie, we roll a 13 on the Accommodations Table - 1s digit tells us it is a 1-story, timber and stone building and the 10s digit tells us it's new.

Rooms and Bedding is a 3 - poor accommodations, hammocks in the main room.

Notable physical feature - 12 - exterior wall is constructed from salvaged stone from a previous wall.

Reputation - 16 - it is known for it's demi-human patrons.

Food - 30 - featured main dish is venison ribs in wine.

So, The Angry Brownie is a recently built tavern of salvaged stone and timber (rumors of the origin of the stone abound). It's frequented by the shorter races, who aren't put off by the hammocks hanging in the main hall. It's known for it's venison ribs in a wine sauce - at least, they claim it is venison.


Moving on to The Mage Queen we get the following:

Accommodations - 9 - old, 2 story, stone

Rooms and Bedding - 20 - medium rooms with straw mattresses.

Notable physical feature - 29 - stained glass windows.

Reputation - 25 - it is known for it's heinous prostitutes.

Food - 11 - featured dish is its liver sausage custard pie.

Hmmm. The Mage Queen is an old, two story stone tavern adorned with weathered stained glass windows. Known for some of the most heinous looking harlots within 2 days ride, one does not go there for the company but rather for the food. The liver sausage custard pie is surprisingly good.


If one wanted some info on the tavern keeper, page 35 - Shop & Shopkeeper Information has tables that would be useful.

Just think the tavern tables allow for over 2 million combinations of taverns...

Best Laid Plans Plans and All That Jazz

Yesterday was supposed to be "post office day" for the 12th Day of Christmas prizes. Didn't happen. Between the snow thursday into friday and all day vet travel yesterday (I've got all wheel drive now) the post office never happened. Good news (if you can call it that) is that between the vet and testing at the animal hospital, my parents' cat has either irritable bowels syndrome OR cancer. Both are treated with steroids, but with cancer it just masks the symptoms. Long fucking day. Fritzy is only 12, and his sister came down with an untreatable respiratory illness and was put to sleep this past spring. Very emotional day and the cat will be at the vet for the next couple of days to see if the steroid treatments improve his condition.

I'll try and leave work early one day this week and get to the post office and get this stuff out.

Luckily, +Joe D stepped up to run last night's game session, as I don't drink when I DM, and I need a drink or three last night.

I'll give a bit of a write up of Joe's Blood Island session later, but it was spot on and epic. Well done Joe!

My Count Shows 102 Unique and Counted Comments, So THREE Copies of the d30 Sandbox Companion to Give Away - Check HERE to See if You Got One...

Thanks to the generosity of New Big Dragon Games and 102 amazing blog readers that took the time to comment on the previous post, we have three copies of the d30 Sandbox Companion to give away.

As i do not own a d102. I will use Roll20 to roll some virtual d102s

Brutorz Bill, Fred Bednarski and  DacholaEtecoon - congrats!

Use the messaging box on the right side of this page to get me your email, which I will pass on to New Big Dragon Games to get you your PDF copies of the d30 Sandbox Companion.

The rest of you, what are you waiting for? Time to get a copy for yourself ;)

Mini Review - D30 Sandbox Companion

As the OSR Christmas Giveaway slows down (there is more to come) I'm in the process of opening up my Swords & Wizardry campaign to more of a sandbox style campaign, which was the goal from the get go. With the main party now averaging 3rd level, they can spread their wings a bit without the constant fear of a TPK in the wilderness.

The timing of the release of the D30 Sandbox Companion couldn't be better. The amount of inspiration squeezed into 50 some odd pages of charts and tables has left me in awe. I'm going to come right out and say that at $4.95, it is a steal.

It's made for you to print out the pages as they are needed, as some are laid out in standard portrait orientation and others are laid out in landscape.

Need hexes to map with? Got you covered?

Sample map icons? Yep

Hex Crawl Worksheet? It's there (and will be put to good use, shortly)

NPC record sheet? Aye

Tables for sandbox style location, inspiration, NPC details (and details and details), recruitment, sages, Taverns (need to add a Tenkar's Tavern to the table ;), shops, settlements, heraldry (worth 5 bucks on its own, weather, encounters, places cults and more and more and...

Holy shit! In the right hands, this and some of +Dyson Logos or +matt jackson 's maps and you can have a damn near spontaneous campaign at your finger tips!

Best $4.95 an Old School DM could spend in 2014 on gaming. To prove it, I'm going to buy 1 copy of the D30 Sandbox Companion for a random commenter on this post. Open for comments for 24 hrs after this post goes up. Must have an OBS / RPGNow account to receive the gift. Or just buy yourself a copy. It is THAT good.

EDIT - New Big Dragon says:

Hey Erik, how about in appreciation for the coverage, you don't buy the PDF out of your own pocket, and I'll kick in some PDF copies: 1 copy if you have 49 or fewer unique commenters, 2 copies if you have 50-99 unique commenters, and 3 PDFs total if you hit 100 or more unique commenters (not including me).

From the blurb:

d30-based Mechanics, Charts, and Tables to Support and Simplify the Role of the DM

The d30 Sandbox Companion is the ideal right-hand man for the DM who wants to avoid his sandbox campaign running him. Whether starting an adventure from scratch, filling in the details of a campaign world, or just struggling to keep up with players, this compilation of d30-based mechanics, charts, and tables will support and simplify the role of the DM/GM at the tabletop. Inside these 30-something pages you’ll find a host of d30-based sandbox resources.

While the majority of the charts and tables in the book are generic to wilderness and settlement settings, NPC tables include details for 1e and BX comparable games, including Oe D&D, 1e AD&D, BX D&D, Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, and Labyrinth Lord.

Inside these 30-something pages you’ll find
a host of d30-based sandbox resources, including:

• a robust adventure generator that allows the DM flexibility to interpret its results, and to support existing campaigns

• wilderness tables for weather, off-course navigation, and foraging & hunting

• wilderness encounter tables for pilgrims, road travel, and castle/keep/stronghold patrols

• location generators for ruins, temples, magical places, castles/keeps/strongholds, and settlements of all sizes

• settlement background generators, including: government, economy, settlement issues, city guards & watches, availability of shops & suppliers, shop stock and shopkeeper information, and robust tavern information generators

• super-quick classed character generation, including: class, level, race, sex, attributes, and inventory

• an extensive set of NPC tools for both classed and non-classed characters, including: occupations, physical traits, persona & behavior, background, eccentricities, talents, and languages

• fast generation of complete sage information

• a system for quick-and-easy recruitment of henchmen & hirelings, including their reactions, and loyalty

+ a wilderness mapping key, a Hex Crawl Worksheet, a Settlement Worksheet, and an NPC Record Sheet to assist DMs in fleshing out their campaign worlds

And much more!

Looking For a Good One on One Adventure...

A couple of years ago, I ran my wife through a T&T solo adventure that I modified on the fly to run "One on One".

Now, I'm looking to do something similar with here, but using an OSR ruleset like S&W.

Any good ideas on an adventure or adventures I should be looking at?

What Gaming Magazines / Zines Do You Read, Past or Present?

Back in the 80's and 90's, when RPG's ruled the world, it seemed like every publisher and their mother was putting out an RPG magazine.

TSR had Dragon and Dungeon. Games Workshop had White Dwarf. SJG had The Space Gamer and the Fantasy Gamer. Avalon Hill had Heroes (or some such). Different Worlds changed hands a few times if I recall. Shadis was a breath of fresh air that spawned KotDT. Journal of the Traveler Aids Society was there for the Traveller players. I'm sure I'm missing one or two.

All of the above are gone (White Dwarf hasn't supported RPG's in decades and Dragon and Dungeon haven't been in a print format in years).

So, the gaming magazine is effectively dead, replaces in current days by gaming 'zine - self published magazines with little corporate influence behind them. Published less for profit then for love of the game, or at least, that's how I see it.

What gaming magazines did you read back in the day and what gaming 'zines do you read these days?

My New Year's Gaming Resolution Is...

no figging idea!

Seriously.

I have a steady Saturday Night group and a once a month Friday Night group and occasional extra game sessions during the month - heck, I'm gaming more than I have had a chance to at any point in the past 20 years.

Wait, I do have a New Year's resolution - 2014 will be the year I make it to NTRPG Con. +Harley Stroh should be happy with that ;)

So, any New Year's gaming resolutions from the patrons of this fine Tavern? ;)

Kicking Off the New Year With Some Homebrewing

My wife and I kicked off the New Year with some home brewing - pictured is 23 liters of what will soon be Cooper's Lager.

The process made me think about how home brewing beer and home brewing a RPG campaign have similarities on many levels (which will wait for a later post) but not the least of which is, no matter how much of the work is done for you up front, the end result is always at least slightly different for everyone and has their stamp on it.

Much like gaming in my past, I stepped away from home brewing due to lack of time and space - we've had renovations going on, and finding a safe place for nearly 30 25 oz bottles to carbonate and condition for weeks or months just wasn't available. Now, it is.

Hopefully it's all ready in time for the Super Bowl ;)

They Became Flesh: A game of God, Humanity, and the Fallen - Has it Gotten Up Yet?

Safe to assume at 2 years late YET in the retail market, that a good portion of supporters are screwed?

Anyone have more info on this nightmare? (so glad I missed this one when it was live)

Giving Thanks as One Year Ends and a New One Begins

I really what to thank everyone that has made my gaming, and by extension, my hobby as an OSR gamer and blogger, as awesome as it has been. I'm sure I'll miss some folks as my list is huge and my memory is often weak, but here it goes:

To my Saturday Night Hangout gaming group - some of us been doing this going on nearly 2 years and it feels like I've known them all damn near 20. Judging from the amount of bullshitting that goes on before, during and after sessions, we've become friends first and and gamers second. A finer group of friends would be hard to find +Greg Christopher , +Joe D , +Keith J Davies , +Craig Brasco , +David Przybyla , +Michael Garcia and all the others that have blessed us with their gaming presence (and who could forget the "B Team"? Once a month Friday Night gaming has arrived ;)

To my online support network of sorts - +Tim Shorts , +matt jackson , +Mark Hassman , +James Aulds , +Christian Walker , +Joseph Bloch , +Jason Paul McCartan and many others - you are my sounding boards and my friends. I'll think of you as I home brew 5 gallons of beer tomorrow :)

To some of the most generous publishers and creators in our hobby - +Purple Duck Games , +Pete Spahn , +Dak Ultimak , +Dyson Logos , +Rafael Chandler , +Zach Glazar , +Zzarchov Kowolski , +Mark Chance , +Paul Wolfe , +Jon Marr , +John Stater,  +Johua De Santo , +Stuart Keating and others I'm sure to have missed - the Tavern and it's patrons would be much poorer if not for your generosity and kindness.

Oh, and of course, my wife Rachel, who was instrumental in getting my ass back into the gaming hobby and will be assisting with the beer brewing tomorrow. I love ya lass :)

I'd buy everyone a beer if I could (based on location, that offer is limited to the NYC Metropolitan Area, immediate suburbs and the Pocono Mountains of N/E PA, depending on scheduling and the like and all other sorts of restrictions may apply ;)

In the meantime, we're still waiting on folks to claim all the wonderful gifts that were gifted on days 12 and 13 of the OSR Christmas. Check to see if you've won. There will be more gifts a gifting shortly, but I'm waiting on something to make it even more special ;)

Kickstarter - Playing the "It's Not a Pre-Order" Card

"It wasn't a pre-order. You were funding a process..."

I've heard this, or a variation if it, numerous times in regards to Kickstarters. I've NEVER seen it on a page requesting funding support when a Kickstarter goes live. No, those pages look like... what's it called? Oh yeah, a pre-order page! Hey, that shit looks cool and it says it will ship in six months!

You see, Kickstarter is a "pre-order system" when project creators want YOUR money, but you were "funding a process" when folks start asking, usually after months or years after a project's due date, for THEIR stuff that they paid THEIR money for.

I've never seen an on-time Kickstarter project announce "We are shipping products from the process you funded that wasn't a pre-order."

It only comes up when there are problems with a Kickstarter, and it reminds me of someone playing a "Get Out of Jail" card in Monopoly. "Phew! Good thing Kickstarter is a process and not a pre-order, or I might be held accountable!"

If you feel a need to play the "Kickstarter is a process and not a pre-order" card, don't bother running another Kickstarter project.

Seriously.

If folks think I'm a pain in the ass now, just wait until the Mythus & Marigolds Monstrous Menagerie get's announced for "2e as it Was Meant to Be!" on Kickstarter in 2014...

Myth & Magic Player's Guide Magically Missing for Majority of Kickstarter Backers

The above are the latest comments from the Myth & Magic Player's Guide Kickstarter. I've edited out names of the backers, as Tom has been known to have a vindictive streak against those that call him out on his "mistruths" (Tom is a lawyer, so we have to be careful. Besides, Tom was nice enough to post my full name and shipping info in the comments section when I called him out earlier. Then he shipped my book - but apparently it was just to shut me up).

I'm really beginning to think that the Dark Side of Kickstarter is inhabited by Toms, Gareths and Mikes. The fact that Mike comes out as the lesser of three evils yet again is telling - I'd prefer a fool over a vindictive "mistruther" and a full of shit publisher.

All three seem to have figured out that if all you have are lies and half truths to give to your backers, you're better off hiding. Mikey figured that one out a bit quicker than the other two, and is the only one to come clean with his foolishness and failures. I'd actually have a drink with Mikey, so long as he paid for his own tab up front. I'm not THAT stupid ;)

Is This Thing On? Far West Kickstarter Goes Silent for Over a Month (And Where is the Digital Download?)

Haven't been following the Far West Kickstarter Saga? You've missed a lot.

It was due in the hands of backers in December of 2011, so in a few days it will be over 2 years late.

But hey, we still get promises like these:

From November 11th - "Popping in to let you know that we're chugging along -- I'm looking at digital delivery occurring late next week (which is a bit more on the "ish" side of "mid-month-ish" -- several reasons for that, including the upcoming holiday, for example)...We'll go to press two weeks after we deliver the digital version to you fine folks.  "

Or the last update from November 21st - "Completing the layout is taking me longer than I'd hoped for, due to some sort of virulent plague hitting the Skarka household. We will be ready to deliver the files to the printer (and the digital copies to you) in the next few days (emphasis totally mine) though -- hopefully this weekend, definitely before the US Thanksgiving holiday next week."

So, five weeks later is just like two years later - we still aint got shit. If I had a nickel from every empty promise during the production of this Kickstarter, I'd have made my money back. As it is, much like the Myth & Magic Player's Guide, at best this will go right to the gaming shelf. I doubt it will get read, let alone get played.

And here you thought Dwimmermount was late...

The Lucky Recipients of Day 13 of the OSR Christmas Giveaway Are...

Here's the list of the Day 13 of OSR Christmas Gift recipients (I'm still waiting on over half of the lucky folks from Day 12 to claim their goodies):


The Manor bundle of issues 1-5 in PDF, curtesy of +Tim Shorts goes to +Pete Spahn 

The Gnomes of Levenc goes to +Brett Slocum  and A Thousand Dead Babies goes to +Tim Shorts  (talk about your holiday cheer), curtesy of +Zzarchov Kowolski

A Complete 3 Volume Set of Adventures Dark & Deep goes to Vanguard, curtesy of +Joseph Bloch

Eldritch Witchery goes to +Dyson Logos and The Witch goes to Boric 
G , curtesy of +Timothy Brannan

Three copies of The Tomb of the Squonk and The Silent Army go to Jesse Rodriguez, +Sorcerer Blob  and +Joseph Bloch  curtesy of +Paul Wolfe

a $15 RPGNow Gift Certificate  goes to +Zach Glazar ,  curtesy of +Johua De Santo

Excellent Web-Series - Fallout: Nuka Break

It's rare that I write about any of the various web-series available on Youtube and the like that butt up against our hobby of roleplaying, but Fallout: Nuka Break is an exception. Very well done and certainly evokes the feel of the Fallout computer game series.

I just started season 2 after discovering season 1 last night. Good stuff!