From a recent Seth Skorkowsky Video

Never Scale The Power-Level: The essential idea behind this is the world of your game is a living world. There are things in it that are bigger and badder than your Player Characters are. Like with real life, your Player Characters might encounter a threat that is tougher and meaner than they are… in which case they can either hide, negotiate, flee, or… die if they try to fight this thing that is clearly way more powerful than they are. Okay yeah — I’m fine with this so far; I’ve got a few exceptions I’m thinking about, but let’s keep going with this.

Therefore Game Masters are doing a disservice to the integrity of the game and the world if they adjust the threats based off whatever the character’s power level is. Yeahhhhhh, that’s where I have a problem with this advice. I agree that the Player Characters should have the opportunity of encountering opponents that are way far beyond their capability; just way tougher and more powerful than they are. In those cases, retreat, negotiation, surrender and whatnot — those should always be options instead of y’know fighting an opponent that’s way more powerful than them.

However, any adventure I run for my players has a reasonable chance of success and survival if they play this. I’m not going to curbstomp a bunch of first-level characters with an ancient red dragon for the sake of it being a “realistic world”, man. That’s not fun for me, that’s not fun for anyone else at the table.

Because most of the people giving this “sage advice” in my comments over the years… how do I put this… are gray-beard grognards that then go on about how hardcore and realistic their OD&D and AD&D games are while sissy games like 5e spoiled everyone who says otherwise — they seem to forget that the old AD&D games introduced the idea of power-scaling in the first place. When [the old modules] say what the number of characters and levels an adventure is for; that’s what that means. That is power-scaling.

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Semantics

First, I think it’s very important to agree on what “Difficulty” is. I have an article from 2021, What Is Difficulty? that claims that all we’re ever doing is processing information, and then translating that into a decision about how to physically act. You can make the choice about how to physically act difficult (as in chess), and you can also make the physical action itself difficult (as in guitar hero), or both (fortnite, rocket league, starcraft, etc). Dwiz wrote almost exactly the same thing two months ago.

My original article was missing impact; good decisions and clean execution need to have meaningfully different outcome from bad decisions and sloppy execution (otherwise it didn’t matter). In that context, an ancient red dragon from Seth’s example isn’t “high difficulty” for a table of first-level characters; they’re just going to die so there’s no real difficult puzzle to solve.

Power-scaling, like Seth is referring to, is one (very common) method of keeping difficulty in an area where the decisions the players make are impactful.

Wordle

I spun up https://beaurancourt.github.io/wordle-demonstration/ (source) to demonstrate an idea that’s been kicking around in my head every since I played absurdle.

If you’re not familiar with Wordle, you can think of it as an evolution of mastermind. The rules are pretty simple: there is a secret 5-letter word, you guess a 5-letter word and get feedback. A letter will be colored green if it’s the right letter in the right place, yellow if it’s the right letter in the wrong place, and gray otherwise. If the word is PRONE, then a guess of CRANE will show a green -R-NE, while a guess of PILOT will show a green P and a yellow O.

Wordle has static difficulty; if you’re bad at guessing then you’ll have a harder time solving a puzzle than someone who is good. This has varying appeal: it might be so easy as to be boring if you’re very good, or so difficult as to be frustrating. There’s also a wide range of experience; you can just get lucky and just so happen to guess the word correctly on your first or second try.

https://beaurancourt.github.io/wordle-demonstration/ explores what wordle feels like when given dynamic difficulty. Rather than pre-committing to a secret word, the puzzle is allowed to be flexible. It can’t violate any of the evidence it’s given you so far, but it is allowed to “cheat”.

Every time you make a guess, you gain information. When a letter is gray, you can eliminate all of the words that have that letter. When a letter is yellow, you can eliminate all of the words that don’t have that letter. When a letter is green, you can eliminate all of the words that don’t have that letter in that spot.

If we know the full list of possible answers ahead of time, we can simulate what clue we’d get back for our guess for each word. The clue reduces the possible answer list. The guess that, on average, reduces the answer list the most is the “best guess”.

You can also calculate how “lucky” you got; there’s some amount of information you expect to get for a guess, and if you got more information then you got lucky, and if you got less, you got unlucky.

The various variants in the demonstration put their thumb on the scales. For easy mode, you’ll always be given quite a bit more information that you’d expect to.

Normally, guessing FUFFY is terrible; you find out way less information than you’d get with RAISE or CRANE. But in easy mode, if you guess FUFFY… then the actual answer will tend to have an U and F.

Where Easy mode is always trying to help you out and make you feel like you’re good at wordle, absurdle does the opposite:

It keeps providing the least amount of information possible, drawing out the game as long as it can until you corner it.

Diablo 4

The current season of diablo 4 has sixteen difficulty levels. At each difficulty level, monster hp and damage increase, but so does xp, gold, and loot quality.

In diablo, you scale very fast, and there are razor-thin margins where the difficulty feels correct. The game has to account for a dizzying amount of character customization; classes, skill builds, paragon builds, dozens of unique pieces of gear, gear levels, random stats on the gear, etc.

Rather than attempt to design a difficulty, or figure out what level of difficulty you “should” be in to have the intended experience (where your decisions lead to meaningfully different outcomes), they instead let it be player-driven.

Quickly your character will becomes a god, capable of sprinting through areas, annihilating everything you look at. If you’re playing on too low of a difficulty, stuff will legitimately die just by being near you and can’t hope to damage you. That the cue to up the difficulty. If you up it too far, you start being unable to actually damage monsters and they’re one-shotting you (note how torment-12 monsters have 27x more HP and deal 2.6x more damage than torment-9 monsters).

In my experience, this still wasn’t enough; it always felt like the game was either mind-numbingly easy or numerically impossible, and it was very rare where it felt like my moment-to-moment gameplay mattered.

Instead, it felt like the lion’s share of my effectiveness came from my build decisions (class/skills/paragon/gear/etc). The trouble is that you effectively make that decision once, and then spend dozens of hours making moment-to-moment decisions that don’t matter.

TTRPGs

Getting back to the Seth quote:

[…] your game is a living world. […] Like with real life, your Player Characters might encounter a threat that is tougher and meaner than they are… in which case they can either hide, negotiate, flee, or… die […]

Therefore Game Masters are doing a disservice to the integrity of the game and the world if they adjust the threats based off whatever the character’s power level is. […]

This is directly equivalent to the idea I’m demonstrating with Wordle. If my players do “good” stuff; they pick strong builds at character creation and make good combat decisions, then against static difficulty (like a totally pre-written module) they’ll have a much easier time. If they pick weak builds, lack party synergy, or make bad decisions, then they’ll have a much harder time.

If I put my thumb on the scale and start adjusting for their capabilities, then some subset of their decisions get invalidated.

As an easy demonstration, imagine that Strong Party has twice the damage output as Weak Party, so I double the HP of everything Strong Party fights, to make their effectiveness the same. They went through the optimization and coordination effort to try to make good decisions, but then I went and removed the impact of those decisions, just like how the Wordle variants can post-hoc switch out the answer to make your guess good or bad.

Yet, if we try to implement static difficulty you we into the diablo problem: it’s very easy for huge swaths of your decisions to be no-impact because of your previous decisions. Your party will be able to stomp content to the degree that literal months can be spent in a weird victory lap. TTRPG characters tend to have a low amount of highly impactful decisions (like class choices, feat choices, spell selection, etc) be front-loaded at character creation, and then drip-fed as they level up.

To use BX as an example, say a table with 6 players roll the following arrays

• STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON, CHA

• Alice: 15 (+1), 18 (+3), 14 (+1), 8 (-1), 4 (-2), 11 (0)

• Bob: 8 (-1), 9 (0), 12 (0), 13(+1), 8 (-1), 8 (-1)

• Carol: 6 (-1), 8 (-1), 8 (-1), 10 (0), 16 (+2), 13 (+1)

• David: 12 (0), 9 (0), 11 (0), 15 (+1), 10 (0), 16 (+2)

• Eve: 13 (+1), 9 (0), 13 (+1), 9 (0), 15 (+1), 11 (0)

• Fred: 10 (0), 12 (0), 10 (0), 13 (+1), 10 (0), 10 (0)

The party will be much stronger if the players analyze and coordinate than if they pick based on personal preference and vibes.

Analyze/coordinate might look like:

1. Many combats take place at doors and hallways, and we can usually retreat to such a position

2. We can fit three people abreast in a hallway with smaller weapons and shields

3. The other three people can use spears or ranged weapons

4. Dwarves are better than fighters (tiny xp penalty, infravision, better saving throws), and have the option to lower their INT or WIS to raise their STR

5. Elves are better than magic users (after they cast their spell, they revert to being fighters and can use spears/polearms/bows)

6. The campaign probably won’t last past the dwarf/elf level cap

7. Clerics are extremely good front-line combatants; they can wear plate armor and shields and can heal themselves and other front-liners

8. The most important stats for front-liners are dex and con; that’s what keeps them alive

9. CON is more important for clerics than dwarves (+1 on a d6 is +29%, vs +1 on a d8 is +22%)

10. We need a thief to pick locks, disable traps, and climb stuff.

11. Thieves can use any weapon, so let’s give them a polearm and a bow; most important stat is STR for the bonus polearm damage (not dex, since they don’t need the AC and the XP boost doesn’t matter)

So they grab a dwarf, two clerics, two elves, and a thief.

• Alice plays an Elf, and chooses to lower their WIS from 14 to 12 to get their STR up to 16.

• Bob plays an Elf and lowers their WIS from 12 to 10 to raise their STR up to 9.

• Carol plays a thief, the +2 con represents a 80% HP increase over average

• David plays a dwarf and lowers their WIS from 11 to 9 to get their STR up to 13 (+1 dex, 0 con, +1 str)

• Eve plays a Cleric (+1 dex, +0 con, +1 str)

• Fred plays a Cleric (+1 dex, +0 con, +0 str)

Vibes/Feels might look like:

• Alice plays a magic user because 18 int sounds awesome and it’s the wizard stat.

• Bob plays a thief because DEX is the thief stat.

• Carol thinks it would be fun to roleplay a weak but tanky fighter (-1 str, +2 con)

• David wants to be a nimble and charismatic hobbit (+1 dex, +2 cha) like Frodo.

• Eve plays a fighter; +1 str and +1 con is obvious fighter material. Wants to wield a big sword.

• Fred plays a thief since that’s the only class he’d get bonus XP on.

Try to imagine how much more effective the first party is than the second. They have three plate-wearers, two clerics that can cast cure light wounds and turn undead, two characters that can cast arcane spells each day. Their whole party can attack effectively (clerics and dwarf in the front, elves and thief in the back).

In plate and shield, their whole front line has 18 AC at level 1 (16 from plate, +1 from dex, +1 from shield).

Then the second party; no cleric so no healing. Two thieves that’ll step on each other’s toes. They only have two natural front-liners and neither has positive DEX, so they have 17 (or 16 with no shield) instead of 18 AC, which means they get hit 20% or 25% of the time by orcs instead of 15%, representing a ~34% decrease in survivability.

The second party is just way worse than the first, and that’s in a game where there’s very little optimization to be done. Imagine the gulf in WWN/Pathfinder/5e. These parties should be tackling different content to keep the game interesting.

That’s fine if the the GM is only trying to stay a couple of steps ahead of the players in terms of prep, but I think it invalidates the idea of spinning up a whole world ahead of time.

Here’s an example from ACKS 2e:

We’re creating all of this content ahead of time. I love the explicit breakdown here, it seems like the only real way to try to achieve static difficulty in a game like this. Despite the work, I think the inevitable result is that almost all of the content will be uninterestingly easy or difficult at any given time. Players can try to hunt for the needle in the haystack, but if I know anything about gamers, when given the choice between optimizing for fun and optimizing for %success, many players will ruin their own enjoyment in exchange for efficiency.

Here’s some examples:

• WoW players doing hundreds of hours of Alterac Valley for Don Julio's Band

• Diablo 3 players doing the ~1 minute long loop of Road to Alacarnus hundreds of times

• Hardcore WoW players almost exclusively doing low-level quests and fighting low-level mobs to get to 60.

• The Destiny 1 Loot Cave

In the static-ttrpg-difficulty context, all of this too-easy content still has loot (often too much) and so is still very rewarding. It becomes very efficient for strong 6th level characters to go “farm” 3-4th level content. It’s not interesting, but it’s efficient.

So now, because of a few hours spent making meaningful character creation/build choices, way more hours at the table is spent playing wrong-difficulty content. The only real ways around this are to…

1. Dynamically adjust the difficulty of the content

2. Build a very tightly balanced game so that it’s hard to escape the bounds of the intended difficulty

I’ve never once seen the second one happen, so if we want to optimize for meaningful decisions at the table, we have to scale the power level, as Seth says.

Cursed Design

This is one of my favorite GDC videos. In it, Alex Jaffe (Talesin Jaffe of Critical Role fame’s brother, funny enough) goes over what he calls “Cursed Problems” - where two “core promises” of your game are in internal conflict.

I posit that one of the Cursed Problems for RPGs in general is

• I want to have lots of build customization and freedom

• I want well-balanced and interesting combat/difficulty

By giving players the freedom to craft a build, they will inevitably come up with builds that are weaker or stronger than the baseline you balanced your game around. The more freedom there is, the larger of a combinatorial problem you have, and eventually the balancing problem becomes intractable.

In an OSR context, if you must have static difficulty, I highly recommend constraining character creation as much as possible, so something like 7voz (3 classes total, very low impact for random stats, though I think a static array would be even better, all weapons do d6 damage) ends up being way more workable for this kind of play than something with a lot of room for optimzation like ACKS 2e.

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Original article: https://www.failuretolerated.com/treasure-encumbrance-matrix

Here’s the relevant bit of the (very short) article:

[…] See if you can create a good variety of treasure that is easy to sell vs hard to sell and easy to carry vs hard to carry.

[…]

Too much treasure that’s hard to sell makes the whole endeavor disheartening. Too much treasure that’s hard to carry makes the dungeon crawl feel like a waste of time. Too much treasure that’s easy to carry makes encumbrance not a thing. Too much treasure that’s easy to sell makes the economy of the world seem out of whack.

We’ve defined two gradients, a portability gradient and a liquidity gradient. The graph shows that scrolls are easy to carry and mediumish to sell, antique furniture is hard to carry and hard to sell, and gems are easy to carry and easy to sell.

This is the sort of thing that’s digestible, easy to recognize as wisdom and nod along with. “Oh! Yeah you’re right - this makes sense!”, you might find yourself thinking.

I have two issues here; one surface-level and one that’s deeper and, I think, idea-invalidating.

Surface: Categories are Wide

These are categories! Magic daggers are a whole heck of a lot easier to carry than magic ballista. Sword+1s are a whole lot easier to sell than Holy Sword+5s. 50g peridots are easier to sell than 10000g Eye of Thoths.

Breaking this down a little further, there’s important thresholds. To use B/X as an example, where everything is measured in coin-weight, we’re concerned about:

• the value-to-weight ratio. copper has a 0.01x ratio, silver has a 0.1x ratio, gold has a 1x ratio, platinum has a 5x ratio, a 200g emerald has a 200x ratio, and a 400g necklace has a 40x ratio (gems weigh 1cn while jewelry weighs 10cn).

• The bulk itself - a backpack fits 400 coin, so if you find a statueette worth 1000g but that weighs 500cn (2x ratio), it’s more valuable than gold for the weight, but it won’t fit in a backpack. The relevant thresholds vary by the game, but for B/X it’s 400cn (backpack), 600cn (large sack), 4000cn (cart), 8000cn (cart w/ 2 horses), 15000cn (wagon w/ 2 horses) and 25000cn (wagon w/ 4 horses).

Deeper: What Liquidity Rules?

Check out the graph again. Gems are slightly easier to sell than Armor, which is a bit easier to sell than Scrolls, which is decently easier to sell than Magic Weapons, which are slightly easier to sell than Antique Furniture.

By Which Rules?

Taking a brief tour of my games library:

OD&D: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

1e: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

B/X: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

LotFP: Different availability for city/rural but otw no guidance

Simulacrum: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

Hyperborea 3e: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

Dolmenwood: Has liquidity for hiring specialists (available in towns/cities/villages), selling gems, jewelry, and art is explicitly infinite liquidity in towns. (ty medievalcat)

ACKs: Has explicit liquidity rules based purely on the price of the item (more expensive items are less liquid)

Seven Voyages of Zylarthen: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

White Box FMAG: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

WWN: Has an explicit trade skill and ‘Dealmaker’ feat that imply that sometimes selling stuff is hard.

Mork Borg: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

Mothership (Sean McCoy’s own game): Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

Knave 2e: Liquidity guidance for buying but not selling (<=5c items are found in villages, <=20c items are found in towns, <=100c items are found in cities)

His Majesty the Worm: Liquidity is explicitly not a problem; treasure converts in the city phase at face-value.

Basic Fantasy: Absolutely zero guidance about liquidity

So what gives?

The assumption baked into the chart is that different items are easier or harder to actually sell than each other, and we’re able to place them on an axis. Where are the rules for this? Is it just some assumed GM fiat that no one (except Macris, apparently) has ever bothered to mechanically express?

Food for thought: Pathfinder 2e and D&D 5e both have liquidity rules (though they don’t map at all to the graph; nothing I’ve found does).

Dice Grid

The simplest is Dice Grid (source)

There’s a lot of different online dice rollers out there. I think they all have a bad user experience. Some make you click multiple times to add various dice to a tray that you roll, some make you type in formulas, some make you roll one die at a time, etc.

Dice-grid pre-rolls d8s for you (because the most common big-roll for me is hit dice, which is d8), and the only interface operation is to click another size. It generates 12 rolls of that dice size in the white rectangles, and then does various summing operations. The blue numbers sum the columns, the red numbers sum the rows, and the green numbers sum each grouping of 6.

In this way, you can ‘read the tea leaves’ however you want.

• Need to roll up 4 ghouls? Click d8 and use the first 4 blue numbers.

• Need to roll 6d6 for a fireball? Click d6 and read off the first green number.

• Need 5 bugbears? Click d8 and record the 4 red numbers, then click it again and record the first one.

• Need d100? Click the d10 and read the first column of 2 white numbers.

• Need to make 10 attacks? Click d20 and read off the first 10 white numbers.

Inventory Manager

Inventory management is a frequent pain-point in my games. Players often want to shuffle around equipment, but trying to remember to erase an item on one sheet and add it to another is error-prone. Magic items get lost in the throes of inebriation. The game grinds to a halt as I describe an extremely complicated magic item and the players have to keep stopping me to write it down.

So I wrote TTRPG Inventory (source) to fix that.

It runs on an abstract understanding of “characters”, which can have “containers” which have “items”. There are normal items (white), treasure items (green), unidentified magic items (purple), and raw coin (yellow). Items have weights using configurable units (lbs in the above picture), and containers have capacities. Should work equally well for slots, lbs, coins, stone-weight, etc.

Items can be identified (if the creator supplies a secret name/description), treasure can be liquidated to cash, and everything can be transferred around or re-ordered within containers. Everything updates in real-time.

No account required, your data is tied to whatever URL suffix you want to use. I have a sample up at https://ttrpg-inventory.web.app/test, so if you want to use this at your table, just change test to whatever you want and share that with your players (who are expected to access it from their phones).

If you’re nervous about me hosting your data, the repo is open source and it’s easy to self-host.

The Sieve

The biggest project is a couple of ideas rolled into one. I hate PDFs. They’re miserable to edit, they tend to be poorly bookmarked, they’re hard to actually provide review and feedback on.

I love markdown. It’s technically code, so all of the collaborative code-sharing and code-reviewing tools (like git, github, diff tools, and LLMs, auto-complete engine, language servers, linting engines, vim, etc) work frictionlessly on it.

But, markdown kind of sucks for producing a well-formatted, printable tabletop artifact. So I created a markdown renderer that renders formatted tabletop adventures.

edit: I packaged it as a native desktop app

I converted the (cc-by-sa) adventure Chaotic Caves into markdown (here), and then rendered it with The Sieve

The engine defaults to 5.5x8” (half-letter) pages, so it should be perfect for printing off as a booklet (which is my use case). You also get a full table of contents for free.

There’s currently support for boxed-text, in-line images, tables, switching between one-column and two-column, auto-column balancing, bold, italics, and stat blocks.

I’ve started editing the chaotic caves revised to give a sense of what the editing process looks like, and how I slowly workshop a room. You can see an individual edit history across commits: https://github.com/beaurancourt/the-sieve/commits/main/modules/chaotic-caves-revised/chaotic-caves-revised.md

More importantly, I want for this to serve as a review community (hence the name). The modules directory is open for pull requests for you to submit your own adventures that I (and other community members) can help you improve. I’ll build out more automated review processes (linting, AI review, etc) as well as provide manual feedback as we build out a set of best practices together. Looking forward to see if anyone takes me up on the offer. Enjoy! ❤️

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Jeff Rient’s twenty quick questions for your campaign setting is a useful wake-up call to make sure your setting is capable of handling the sorts of things players are likely to do.

I want to make a list of similar questions that I need to be able to answer as I’m preparing to run a system, since I know they repeatedly come up. I think this could also help if you’re designing a system to make sure you’re including rules (or calling out that you explicitly aren’t including rules) for these common situations.

I think for most of these systems, the answer to most of these questions will be “make it up”. Even in those cases, I think it’s useful to turn unknown-unknowns into known-unknowns and be able to look into how other systems or GMs answer these questions.

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Town

How Much Gold Is This Item Worth?

Some treasure is “disguised”

Gresta wears a badly corroded bracelet that appears to be iron, but is in fact platinum washed with iron (125 gp). —Arden Vul

Sometimes NPC appraisers exist

Kellen the jeweler and his wife Maidelle cut, craft, and appraise jewelry, gems, and crystals. —Evils of Illmire

Do PCs automatically know the value of treasures? If not, how do you tally XP or track the secret value? Keep in mind that as they get into the mid levels, their hauls could potentially have hundreds of unique items. Do you want to do book-keeping for all of that?

Then, same deal but for pricing magical items. How much can a player expect to be able to sell a Staff of Striking for?

Can I Sell This Item?

A player loots a marble bust of an ancient emporer that you’ve determined is worth 4000g. They want to liquidate it for gold to pay their expenses (henchman wages, magic items, training, etc). How does selling that work? Do they have to go to a big enough town (which towns are big enough)? Is there a special auction? Can they sell magic items? etc

Can I Buy This Item?

A player wants Gauntlets of Ogre Power. Is anyone selling them? What about in the biggest city? Can they be requisitioned? For how much?

A player wants 100 wheels of cheese (for the Rat King). How long does that take to source?

A player wants to outfit his 30 mercenaries all in Plate Mail. How many suits of Plate Mail are available? What about in the Capital?

Can I Craft This Item?

The party wizard wants to scribe a scroll. Can they? How does it work?

Can I Use This Item?

Lots of these systems have class restrictions on equipment or magic items, but don’t tell the players that until they start finding the items; which gives class-selection regret.

How Does Copying Spells Work?

The player finds a scroll or spellbook. Can they copy the spells into their own spellbook? How long does that take? Is there a chance it fails? Is the original destroyed, or can they still use/sell it? How much is a spellbook worth?

Can I Learn More Rumors?

The party hears about a gang of oddly organized goblins in the Shadow Woods. They want to know if anyone else has any information. They’re willing to spend time or money or both; how does that work?

What Can I Do While The Wizard Learns Spells?

The wizard has their nose in their books for two weeks. Is there anything productive the fighter, thief, cleric, etc can be doing with that time? Ditto if you require training periods to level up like in 1e.

Can I Hire A Thief?

How many adventurers are available in a particular town? A city? What level are they? What class are they? Are their stats good? Can we hire them? What about alchemists or mercenaries? How much do I have to pay them?

How Does Poison Work?

Can I buy it? How quickly does it take affect? Can someone easily detect poisoned food or drink? Am I at risk if I try to poison my arrow?

Travel

How Does Overland Travel Work?

Obligatory Self-Reference

• How many encounter checks are you making?

• Do you care about weather?

• How does getting lost work?

• How does food/water work?

• How do horses/carts work?

• Can you hire mercenary protection or guides? If so, how does that work?

How Does Encumbrance Work?

The players want to carry 30 flasks of oil so they have 120 hours of light (or lots of molotovs). Can they? How much treasure can they carry? What about different weapons for different situations?

Adventure

How Far Can I Jump?

The amount of times where there’s some sort of dangerous floor element that can be solved by simply leaping over it is extremely high. Pit traps, pressure plates, magic glyphs, lava pools, high ledges, etc.

What Does This Magic Item Do?

The players find a magic item. How do they figure out what it does? An instinctual answer might be the players should experiment — I think that works fine for some items (simple +N armor/weapons, for example), but …. less fine for more complicated items:

Guardian Caryatid: This valuable object is prized by those travelers concerned with robbery on the road. It takes the form of a 20”-tall columnar statuette (specific details of the carving vary), formed usually out of ivory or bone. When set on a flat surface and given the proper command word, the guardian caryatid will watch over its owner until a second command is spoken. If certain parameters outlined by the owner occur (motion, noise, light), the caryatid grows to 5’ tall and defends its owner as if it were a 5th-level fighter with AC 6, HP 40; and one attack per round (4-9 HP damage per successful hit). A guardian caryatid may only be hit by magic weapons or spells. It is susceptible to fire, taking double damage from it. —Arden Vul

Again keep in mind that by the mid levels, players might be returning from an adventure with a double-digit amount of such items.

How Does Sneaking Around Work?

The party wants to sneak past guardians. How do you game that out?

Here’s some fictional inspiration

How Does Climbing Work?

Thieves often are given an explicit climbing mechanic, but that’s only for “sheer” surfaces. What about non-thieves? What about easier climbs (like the omni-present rope)? What about other thiefy-skills like picking locks or pockets? What happens if such things fail? Can they be retried?

How Does Finding Secret Doors Work?

Obligatory Self-Reference

• Does a player know if they fail the check?

• Can they search the same area again if they fail?

• How much wall/floor can they cover in ten minutes?

Do Magic Items Count As Treasure?

We typically give XP for treasure — magic items sure look like treasure (swords with jeweled hits and whatnot). If a player finds an enchanted emerald (that would be worth 8000g unenchanted), how much XP do they get when they pull it out of the dungeon? What if they never discovered it was magic?

How Do I Get This NPC To Help Me?

How does negotiation work? Are we rolling reaction rolls or charisma checks, etc? How much does what they say matter vs how well they roll vs how charismatic their character is? Player rizz vs character charisma, etc.

What is the Earshot Range Of Various Common Sounds?

Fighting in happening in a room. Can the NPCs in the next room hear it? What about two rooms down? What about kicking down a door? How far away can a guard hear an invisible spellcaster casting a spell? What about the sound of a group of PCs moving at exploration speed? Can you listen to NPC conversations through doors?

How Do Charm Spells Work?

If a wizard is casting Suggestion, does the victim know? What about Charm Person, or Friends, etc. What about ventriloquism or illusions? How far away is a spell audible from — is it further than the spell’s range?

Does My Guy Know Anything About This?

The party finds a holy symbol bearing a knotted tree, which represents a mildly esoteric god. The players haven’t seen it before (since the campaign is new), but their characters might have. 5e has arcana/religion/etc checks - how does it work in your game?

How Quickly Can I Walk?

• How far they can move carefully and quietly in a turn?

• How far can they move through an area they’ve been before in a turn?

• How far can they walk (like, a normal walking pace rather than careful+quiet) in a turn? How does that impact wandering monster encounters?

Can I Harvest This Monster For Useful Parts?

The players just killed a giant spider. Can they eat it? Can they extract its toxins? Can they make spidersilk armor? Can they skin this dragon and make dragonscale armor?

Fictional inspiration

Combat

How Far Can I Move In A Round?

A player wants to do nothing but run to another spot (to pull a lever next turn, to catch up with an archer, etc). How does that work?

Does the movement speed make sense in the context of the length of a round? Running 120ft in a minute is really slow (a 44 minute mile).

Can I Run Past This Guy?

An orc is standing between you and his shaman. How does getting by the orc work?

Can I Attack And Then Move?

Can the archer shoot and then duck behind cover? Can the fighter kill a kobold and then run out of the room?

Fictional Inspiration

How Does Activating A Magic Item Work?

The player has an amulet where saying the command word “Protectio!” makes them immune to normal missile fire. When do they get to activate it? On their initiative? Can they still move or attack? How many similar activated items can they use on a turn?

How Much Space Do Combatants Take Up?

A PC is surrounded by monsters. How many of them can attack in a round? What if the PC is holding a 5ft or 10ft corridor from a hoard of monsters, how many can attack then? (shoutouts to medieval cat)

Can I Help My Unconscious Friend?

My ally is incapacitated (unconscious, dead, paralysed, etc). Can I drag them to safety? How fast can I move in so doing? Does it just use my movement or my action as well? Or if not my action perhaps it just occupies both hands? What if two or more of us are helping?

How Does Retreating Work?

Either before combat starts, or after it goes south. What happens if the retreat “fails”?

How Does Trying To End Combat Without Death Work?

Is there a morale system? Can the players to try to deescalate combat once it’s started? What if they have the upper-hand? How does that interact with the rest of the combat system?

How Does Drinking A Potion Work?

Can I drink a potion and move or attack in the same round? What if it’s in my pack? How quickly does it take effect?

How Does Invisibility Interact With Combat?

Normally melee engagement prevents movement. Do invisible characters also prevent movement? Does leaving engagement with an invisible character trigger a free attack? How does attacking an invisible character work? How does using a ring of invisibility to go invisible again in combat work?

Here’s some fictional inspiration (heh)

How Does Backstabbing Work?

Thieves tend to get a (vaguely defined) backstab ability. How do you track the facing of enemies? How do you know whether the character is “aware of the thief’s presence”? Can they backstab with ranged weapons? Can they backstab with blunt weapons?

How Does Flanking Work?

The characters are fighting a big Ogre in an open room and want to circle around it to gain some sort of advantage. Does that work? How does circling around something work? What benefit does being on opposite “sides” of the Ogre provide? Do you track which direction the Ogre is “facing”?

How Does Cover Work?

If you’re standing behind a flipped-over table, it’s easy. What if you’re (much more commonly) standing at a corner? Do allies or other enemies provide cover?

How Does Shooting Into Melee Work?

Alice and Bob are locked in combat with two Cultists. Derek wants to shoot the cultist; how does that work?

How Does Death and Dying Work?

A cultist just struck Alice (3hp) for 4 damage. What happens?

How Does Level Drain Work?

You just got hit by a Wight. How should your character sheet update, exactly? Is it reversible?

How Are Race Conditions Resolved?

Normally, this is heavily related to the initiative system. Imagine:

Alice is casting Silence on Zylarthen.

Bob is shooting Yvette (who will die).

Carol is running out of the room.

Xavier is shooting Bob (who will die).

Yvette is charging Alice (who will die).

Zylarthen is casting a Fireball on Alice, Bob, and Carol (which will kill them).

What’s the order of operations?

How Do Maneuvers Work?

How do you shove someone off a cliff? Can you disarm them? Knock them prone? Grapple them? Clamber onto them (rats clambering onto adventurers, adventurers clambering onto dragons)?

Fictional inspiration

How Does The Environment Factor In?

• Does cone of cold do more damage to people that are wet? Does it freeze the water and make people slip?

• Does lightning bolt do more damage to people that are wet?

• Is there an advantage to attacking from high ground?

• Does fire damage ignite stuff (like clothes)? If so, how does fire spread?

• How does running across a different forms of difficult terrain work? Rubble, ice, mud, deep water, etc.

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Level 4 of Arden Vul is the home to the Cult of Set. The cult is pretty large (~300 members), powerful (9th and 10th level leaders), and influential (runs a large market).

They’re also slavers, which is probably one of the fastest two ways to convince my table that they need to be exterminated (the other being pedophiles).

Here’s my current party:

• Esme, Fighter 8, AC 24

• Glum, Elven Fighter 6/Magic-User 7/Thief 7, AC 21

• Horace, Cleric 7, AC 21

• Jasmine, Cleric 8, AC 22

• Kay, Cleric 8, AC 21

• Lampronia, Magic-User 6 (henchman), AC 17

• Qwazzy, Thief 9, AC 15

• Zanthalor, Elven Fighter 5/Magic-User 8, AC 21

There are three characters that can cast lightning bolt or fireball to aoe for 6d6, 7d6, or 8d6 damage respectively. Esme dual wields a +1 sword and +3 dagger (Larel’s Pin), has a cloak that can turn her invisible 3x/day (Larel’s Cloak), and can attack six times per turn on odd turns (fighters get two attacks starting at level 7, bracers of haste add another attack, and each attack is actually two attacks with dual wielding).

Esme’s sword attacks at +8 for 1d8+1, and dagger attacks at +9 for d4+3. When one of the wizards casts Strength, an average roll of 4 puts Esme up to +9→1d8+4 and +10→1d4+6. Activating Boots of Speed puts her move speed up to 180 and AC up to 26 (or -6 if using descending AC).

Esme also has Gauntlets of Ogre Power, which in OSRIC 3 add an additional +1d3 to hit and 1d6 damage, which puts her to-hit up to +11 and +12, and average damage up to 72. This typically kills anything with 16 or less hit dice.

Gauntlets of Ogre Power are priced at 4000g in OSRIC 3, by the way.

My players, invisibly, walked into the Forum of Set, picked three groups of Set inhabitants, and launched two fireballs and a lightning bolt. I needed to figure out what should happen.

I have a few crash-outs to work through:

1. It’s way too hard to even just describe the Forum

2. It’s way too hard to figure out how the Set Cult can actually fight the party

3. The Set Cult has a monty-haul amount of treasure

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The Forum

The book dedicates 11 full pages to describing this room (page 245 through 255). There are ~sixty thousand words written about the area, including 11 different tables consisting of 132 entries. There’s no “default” state, so the GM needs to actually roll on these tables to figure out what the room looks like the first time the players observe it.

This is too much information to cobble together to provide a description!

Here’s my best shot

Smooth black marble floors stretch beneath 40’-high polished granite walls rising to a barrel vault. Three 10’-diameter painted eyes hang from the ceiling, illuminating the space. Barks, groans, gurgling water, and shrill cries echo off the walls; the air reeks of sweat, exotic spices, and trade goods. A large inscription covers the marble walls to the southwest. A 20’-tall cult statue stands on a square platform at the center, a stone balcony looms above it, and a jackal fountain flows nearby. Merchant stalls and a smithy occupy the western and northern edges, while a money changer’s stall stands near a guarded corridor. To the east, a 5’-high stone dais serves as a slave market.

Painted eyes: Oval-shaped and hanging at equal intervals. Each has continual light cast upon it.

Inscription:

1. The Lord of the Forum is entitled to collect from any licensed trader a tariff worth 5% of the value of any sale made that trader.

2. The Lord of the Forum is entitled to collect from any non-licensed trader a tariff worth 10% of the value of any sale made by any such trader.

3. Violence is not permitted in the Forum, except by permission of the Lord of the Forum.

4. Spell Use is forbidden in the Forum except by license of the Lord of the Forum.

5. The Lord of the Forum guarantees the security of all persons and goods legally present in the Forum. Theft shall be punished by fines or enslavement.

6. The Lord of the Forum guarantees any contract made in the Forum, although the Lord does not guarantee the quality or veracity of any traded goods. Caveat emptor!

7. All weights and measures shall be enforced and guaranteed by the Lord of the Forum.

8. Those defaulting on a sworn contract shall face appropriate punishment: outlawry or enslavement.

9. The Lord of the Forum offers protection to any licensed trader to and from the Forum.

10. Any accusation of misconduct, including the breaking of any of the Laws of the Forum, should immediately be brought to the attention of a Forum Inspector so that an appropriate hearing may be scheduled.

Cult Statue (4-2A): Painted Set-animal form holding an ankh, puffs out gas. Chained slaves lie shackled at the feet.

• Ankh: Scrying locus for priests in area 4-61.

• Gas: Puffs of blue, odorless “breath of Set” release from the mouth. Narcotic; causes immobility and hallucinations. Save vs. poison at -1 per turn or stand immobile.

• Chained Slaves: Forced to wear masks depicting Set’s chief enemies, Thoth, Isis, and Horus.

Jackal Fountain (4-2B): 5’-tall seated jackal. Water pours from mouth and ears into a pool bordered by a 3’ barrier with six chained copper dippers.

Food Stalls (4-2C): Three vendors and trestle tables. Off-duty Set guardsmen gamble and eat nearby.

Sells spiced meat (15 sp), Forum stew (10-20 sp), mushroom cakes (10 sp), and lichen ale (1 sp).

Merchant Stalls (4-2D): Six 10’x10’ stalls with canvas curtains and wooden counters. Each has a locked stone chest spiked to the floor.

• Stall 1 (Weapons): Run by Hazlitt One-Eye. Buys quality weapons at 75% value.

• Stall 2 (Exotica): Run by Galadnor Half-Elven. Sells scrolls, poisons, and curios.

• Stall 3 (Wholesale): Run by Robben the Fat. A front for the High Priestess; reports suspicious activity.

• Stall 4 (General): Run by “Old Rat Face” Horace Trych. Sells battered gear and Sortian eyes.

• Stall 5 (Jewelry): Run by Birgir. Sells gems and antique jewelry.

• Stall 6 (Liquor): Run by Skellan Skindros. Sells mushroom ale and expensive imported spirits.

Smithy (4-2E): Northwest corner. Filled with steam and hammer-clatter. Two smiths and four assistants forge simple weapons and Set armor. They refuse work for outsiders without approval from Inspectors.

Porch of Scrutiny (4-2F): Balcony 15’ up the western wall with a beast-carved balustrade. A duty sergeant armed with a huge horn stands near a set-animal mask fixed to an iron pole.

• Duty Sergeant: Armed with an olifant of command to bark orders at lawbreakers.

• Set-animal Mask: Fixed to an iron pole. Functions as a mask of revelation (true seeing 60’).

Money Changer (4-2G): Run by Helena of Archontos (Treasurer of Set).

Services: Coin exchange (1% fee), antique money conversion (5% fee), loansharking (10-50% interest), and high-value banking (min. 1,000 gp).

Slave Market (4-3): 5’-high stone dais with five iron posts and shackles.

This is without rolling the actual inhabitants. Ya’ll! This is too much!

Order of Battle

The faction description of set has this information

The cult is relatively large and powerful, as most of its members are classed as fighters (guardsman and sergeants), clerics (acolytes and deacons), or thieves (guildsmen). In total, the cult boasts about 100 guardsmen scattered across various duty stations and patrols, plus about thirty acolytes and ten deacons. The Guild of Service contains another fifty individuals or so. At any given time, some 25-50 non-resident cultists are present on Level 4, visiting the Forum and Mysteries.

Despite its size, it is difficult for the cult to replace the trained (classed) guardsmen and clerics; indeed, the majority of Set clergy that currently exist in the Archontean world are concentrated here. Losses incurred on the boundaries of their territory (e.g., choke-points like 3-89) will be swiftly replaced (and doubled) by reassigning forces from elsewhere within the domain of Set. But Stephania can only reassign forces for so long - a prolonged war of attrition will incur losses that Set cannot replace. At best, Stephania can hope to replace 1-3 guardsmen and one acolyte every two months.

Then, the significant regions of Level 4 has this info:

Precincts of Set: 4-1 to 4-64, 4-101 to 4-106, 4-119 to 4-120, 4-122 to 4-136, 4-144, 4-149

I went through all of these rooms in an audit. That’s 90 rooms with Set stuff! It also doesn’t account for the Set region on Level 3 (which directly connects)

Western Region: Hidden Temples (areas 3-71 to 3-117)

and accounts for an additional 47 rooms for a total of 137 rooms.

Reading through this, Barton’s figures in the faction overview are mostly accurate.

First, the text separates guardsmen from guildsmen; the guard is for the religious arm, whereas the guild is the slaving arm; I’ll maintain the same convention.

The religious arm has ~120 guardsmen, 40 of which are elite guardsmen (Fighter 3) and the remaining 80 are Fighter 2. Overseeing the guardsmen are sergeants (Fighter 5); I wasn’t able to track down all of them, but I assume ~10. Then there’s a bunch of 1 HD cultists (~50), ~30 acolytes, ~10 deacons, and the leadership team:

• Stephania, Cleric 10

• Marius, Magic-User 9

• Lacedaion, Cleric 9

• Belisarius, Fighter 7

Separately, the Guild of Service (slavers) have ~30 guildsmen (Fighter 2), and another ~30 guildsmen (Thief 2), then the leadership team with bodyguards:

• Yon Resedior, Magic-User 8 + Njall, Fighter 4

• Anna Ligareon, Illusionist 7 + Bobila, Fighter 4

• Jisko Grey-Eyes, Fighter 7 + Cleo, Assassin 3 + Theo, Assassin 3

• Theodor Trefill, Thief 7

• Ukamah Gol, Illusionist 7

So I’m counting ~250.

Stephania and Lacedaion are both high enough level to Raise Dead and Commune.

Also, interesting note about Fighters: relative to same-HD monsters, they have slightly more HP (d10 per level instead of d8), but broadly have worse offense.

A 2 HD monster hits AC 0 on a 16+, but a 2nd level fighter…

needs a nat 20.

You may also notice that the 2nd level fighters are incapable of hitting Esme. Her -6 AC makes her totally untouchable to 80 guardsmen, 60 guildsmen and all the cultists.

In fact, most of the party can only be hit on a nat 20 by most of Set. Fun!

Where is Set Located?

Just sort of spread out over the green area, obviously.

Level 3

• 89: 6 guardsmen, deacon

• 90: 4 crocodiles, 2 acolytes, 7 cultists

• 92: 2 acolytes

• 93: 4 guardsmen

• 95: deacon

• 96: 4 guardsmen

• 99: 4 guardsmen, kathroc, hidlat

• 101: 2 guardsmen

• 104: Lenuel the jailer

• 105: 4 guardsmen

• 106: 3 deacons

• 107: deacon, 2 junior acolytes

• 109: 2 junior acolytes, 17 cultists

• 111: 6 guardsmen, acolyte

Level 4

• 2: 8 elite guardsmen, 12 guardsmen, 3 sergeants, 1 advanced acolyte, 1 acolyte, deacon, 3 forum inspectors, 14 cultists

• 3: 4 guildsmen

• 4: 8 guildsmen with was sticks

• 5: 2 guildsmen with was sticks

• 6: 3 guildsmen with was sticks

• 7: 2 guildsmen with was sticks, 4 guildsmen, 4 guild sergeants

• 8A: Yon Resedior, Njall

• 8B: Anna Ligareon, Bobila

• 8C: Jisko Grey-Eyes, Cleo, Theo

• 8D: Theodor Trefill

• 11: 2 guildsmen

• 12: 2 guildsmen

• 13: 2 guildsmen

• 14: Ukamah Gol, 2 assistant torturers

• 15: 3 guildsmen

• 16: 4 guildsmen

• 17: 4 guildsmen

• 20: 10 guildsmen

• 21: 6 guardsmen, sergeant

• 23: 2 acolytes, 4 guardsmen

• 40: 8 elite guardsmen, sergeant

• 42: 2 acolyte, 1 deacon, 5 guardsmen,

• 43: 1 acolyte

• 44: sergeant, 4 guardsmen

• 45: 2 guardsmen

• 46: sergeant, 8 guardsmen

• 47: Belisarius, 2 aides

• 49: deacon

• 50: 5 acolytes

• 51: Stephania

• 56: Marius

• 57: Lacedaion

• 60: 4 elite guardsmen, sergeant

• 61: 4 elite guardsmen, deacon

• 66: 4 guardsmen, acolyte

• 123: 4 guardsmen, acolyte

• 124: 4 guardsmen, acolyte

• 126: 30 cultists

• 128: 2 acolytes, 5 cultists

• 130: 2 guardsmen

• 135: 8 cultists

That still leaves a handful of elite guard and acolyes unaccounted for, which I think make sense to place as patrolling.

To make matters more complicated, there’s intrigue buried in the room descriptions. For instance, buried in the Treasure section of stephania’s private quarters:

Wardrobe: 10 pearls (100 gp each); written testimony from a certain Yellup that describes the hatred of Belisarius (4-47) towards Stephania and the overseer’s secret efforts to persuade Lacedaion (4-57) to undermine Stephania’s rule

or

Marius is the second-in-command of the cult of Set. Coming from the Junienos clan, that is, from one of the Five Families that rules the Empire (see World of Archontos appendix), Marius is also an aristocrat of the highest rank. His kinsmen have let it be known that Marius died in a fire, although a few (and the Imperial Drome) know the truth, namely that Marius is thoroughly evil and that he cares more for the restoration of the cult of Set than for kin or empire. Although unscrupulous, Marius is completely loyal to Stephania, whose abilities and iron will he admires.

or

Lacedaion of Archontos is brilliant but insecure, and harbors some resentment about Marius’s aristocratic status. As a result, Belisarius the Overseer has been trying to persuade Lacedaion that Stephania has been slighting him. Although aware of Belisarius’s antipathy for the high priestess, Lacedaion’s vanity and resentment have pushed him a bit further along the path of treason than his intellect would normally allow.

or

Pelagion is studying the arcanum deposit in area 4-63, allegedly to provide Belisarius with an edge against Stephania, but in reality to further his own arcane interests.

or

Stephania was shocked fifteen years ago when a kaliyani digging party broke through the wall of 4-51. Linking the snake-like kaliyani to one of Set’s favorite incarnations (the snake) was an easy way to establish an alliance. The kaliyani were quick to recognize the potential value of such an alliance. Over the past decade, then, the stairs linking 4-51 and 4-51A have been completed, and the shrine in 4-51A constructed. The kaliyani have not told Stephania that they also completed a second set of stairs, with secret door, leading to area 4-39. As yet, no priest or priestess has visited the kaliyani compound, but the high priestess does take regular consultation with her allies about affairs on the lower levels.

Knowledge of this strange alliance is limited to High Priestess Stephania, Alexandros the Bibliothecarius (4-54), and Belisarius the Overseer (4-47). Marius Junienos, Lacedaion of Archontos, and the Guildmasters of Service are merely aware that the high priestess has a private shrine.

or

Anna was born a Ligareon, which makes her a member of one of the Five Families that rule the Archontean Empire (see World of Archontos appendix). She maintains some secret connections with select members of her kindred in the Empire, but is not actively involved in the dance of the Five Families. Of course, those who recognize her ring might be able to use this information for their own purposes.

or

[Anna’s desk contains] 4 distinct documents containing secret and blackmail-worthy information about members of the cult of Set, and, affixed to the underside of a drawer, an incriminating account of High Priestess Stephania’s personal failings.

(uhh, Barton can you elaborate)

So, there’s a military (Belisarius), religious (Stephania/Marius), and slavery (Jisko/Anna/Resedior) schism happening, with Lacedaion on the sidelines. If only any of this information was player-facing outside of a secret note inside the wardrobe of Stephania’s private quarters! Still, this should impact the order of battle somehow; if Belisarius can use the PCs attacking as an opportunity to overthrow Stephania, he might do it.

That said, what actually happens?

I like referring to Non-Mechanical Difficulty Levels for Monstrous Threats. I’d call the Set cult Militaristic, Proactive, and Vigilant; they have multiple scrying devices and the priests can cast Augury and Commune. Resedior and Marius both have Clairvoyance and Clairaudience.

So my take was that initially, they’ll fight as a cohesive military which broadly looks like initially defending the forum until slowly everyone gets brought in. Fireballs and Lightning bolts are loud and those sounds are not common, and I think it’s reasonable that prolonged fighting in the forum would eventually drag in the whole cult as a unified front. I ran this by having some of the guardsmen fleeing the forum, tracking their move speed, rolling surpise for the units they alert, and then tracking the combatants as normal.

On a praxis level, I’m still not really sure to run a 1e combat against literal hundreds of combatants that have character levels. Nevermind that, despite all of that, I still think that my table’s particular PCs are favored in the fight given their absurd AC values and set’s relative lack of AoE spells (none of the casters have fireball, for instance).

If the PCs take time to recuperate, I’d expect the wizards and clerics to be casting divination spells (augury, commune, clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc) to keep tabs on the party and know how they’ll approach. Barton also notes

Set has a sizable pool of liquid wealth it can use to bribe or hire mercenaries and allies

We’ll get into how sizable this is later, but it would be really nice to know which mercenaries specifically Barton imagines that Set is able to hire and how quickly.

Monty Haul

When your adventuring group gains treasure during an adventure and safely brings that treasure back to a village, town or city, the party gains 1 XP for every 1 gp value of monetary treasure (coins, gems, and jewelry). […] Magic items can be sold, in which case they are treated as monetary treasure, but if they are kept they are still worth a certain amount of XP (one-tenth base value, one half for potions).

You also receive XP for defeating monsters, whether that’s by killing them, capturing them, or otherwise overcoming them.

— OSRIC 3, Player’s Guide, section 1.5.6

Broadly speaking, I think there’s a good balance of risk:reward if there’s 3-5x as much monetary treasure as there is monster XP defending it, and the value of the treasure is 5-10x higher than the value of the magic items. For example, imagine a simple beginner dungeon with 50 rooms (the rough size of hole-in-the-oak). Imagine we stock it with 10000g of treasures, 2000xp of defenders (enough for ~200 orcs or ~80 troglodytes) and 4000g of magic items (a +1 sword and a handful of potions and scrolls). That’s enough content for ~20 hours of play, and a first level party would level up, have some consumables to play with, and one of them gets a new shiny sword.

When you violate these rough ratios, game math starts to break. PCs start to be able to level up once a session, or they’re getting magic items faster than they can digest, or they’re implausibly wealthy, etc.

My player’s annihilated set and took their shit. I need to be able to calculate XP, henchman shares, and cope with telling the players about all of their new magic items.

Treasure

• Each guardsman has a heavy mace (10g), spear (1g), light crossbow (12g), red scale mail (45g), and shield (12g). There are ~150 guardsmen, so if used gear sells for half price, then that’s 6000g.

• Sergeants have Set armor (450g), shield (12g), mace+1 (2000g), spear (1g), light crossbow (12g). There are ~10 sergeants and magic items sell for full price, so that’s looking like 22375g.

• Deacons have Set Armor+1 (4000g), Deacon’s Was Stick (20000g), mace+1 (2000g), amulet of protection from normal missiles (30000g), potion of extra-healing (800g), potion of glibness (1600g), scroll of curse (400g), and a gold holy symbol of set (150g). There are 10 deacons, so 589500g. I just want to stop and point out that deacons are worth ~460xp but carry ~60000g worth of stuff, each. Nice 130x multiplier.

• Acolytes have Set armor (450g), light crossbow (12g), a silver holy symbol (10g), heavy mace (10g), and an Acolyte’s Was Stick (10000g). There are ~30 acolytes, so 307380g. Again we’re looking at a 96x multiplier.

• ~10 slavers have was sticks worth 20000g each, so another 200000g.

Then, going room by room

Level 3

• 89: 15g, statue (50g), gems (200g), holy symbols (20g)

• 89A: 159g, goblets (50g), 2 potions of extra healing (1600g)

• 90: doses of red lotus (300g), gems (4000g), ring (75g), torc (350g), sapphires (20000g)

• 90A: knife (100g), cup (100g), candles (20g), rubies (10000g if you can remove curse which they can), statue (1000g)

• 95: mercury (20g), candlesticks (100g), hand of glory (50000g)

• 98: head (100g). Kathroc has a flail+1 (2000g) and red welt (1000g). hidlat has a staff+1 (2000g) bracers of defence +5 (15000g), and wand of shielding (15000g). 634g, gems (550g)

• 100: gems (2200g)

• 104: 787g, gems (400g), potion of extra-healing (800g)

• 107: silver cup (25g)

• 108: 2 set animal masks (4000g)

• 112: ring of truth (undefined)

Level 4

• 1B: ever-alert head (3000g)

• 2: 3x inspectors have special was sticks (30000g), 750g, gems (165g)

• 2F: mask of revelation (25000g), olifant of command (40000g)

• 2G: ring of protection +2 (8000g), ring (250g), necklace (650g), 965g, gems (1100g)

• 8A: ring of protection +2 (8000g), dagger of venom (3000g), scroll of shield (300g), battle axe +1 (1750g), scroll of sleep (300g), scroll of stinking cloud (600g), scroll of web (600g), scroll of read magic (300g), scroll of write (300g), scroll of slow (900g), The Lay of Marius Invictus (100g), silk (150g), gems (7500g), inks and paper (300g)

• 8B: ring (200g), bracers of defense ac 5 (15000g), staff of striking (15000g), potion of fly (750g), oil of etherealness (1500g), long sword +1 (2000g), tripod of heating (10000g), cloak of elvenkind (6000g), silk (75g), coins (566g), gems (2900g), wine (350g), scroll of detect illusion (300g), scroll of detect invisibility (300g), scroll of improved phantasmal force (600g), scroll of dispel illusion (900g), scroll of confusion (1200g)

• 8C: ring (200g), long sword +2/+3 vs good (5500g), bracers of defense ac 5 (15000g), ring of feather fall (5000g), boots of speed (20000g), 2x leather +1 (4000g), dust of blinding (undefined), Litany of Light (250g), dust of sneezing and choking (1000g), coins (6433g), candelabra (20g), cloth (1500g), 2x potion of extra-healing (1600g), potion of diminution (500g), potion of heroism (500g), potion of fire resistance (400g), gems (600g)

• 8D: fleece covering (450g), mirror (125g), candelabras (90g), tripod of heating (10000g), silk clothes (295g), leather+2 (4000g), coins (1363g), gems (1500g), chess set (1800g), ring of protection+2 (8000g), dagger+2 (4000g), necklace (375g)

• 13: shawl of warmth (5000g)

• 14: ring of invisibility (7500g), stones of striking (20000g), nose of prismatic spray (4200g), torture instruments (250g), tripod of heating (10000g)

• 14A: platinum bars (25000g), spices (800g), gold teeth (40g), potion of extra-healing (800g), potion of growth (300g), scroll of phantasmal force (300g), scroll of deafness (600g), scroll of rope trick (900g), scroll of massmorph (1200g)

• 18: gem (500g)

• 21:7x eyes of set (7000g), potion of healing (400g)

• 23: tusks (490g), 4x eyes of set (4000g)

• 24: barrels of beer (1000g), brandy (500g), art (2690g), coins (15167), gems (81200), silk (225g), sugar (132g), platinum ingots (10000g)

• 37: gems (1000g)

• 38: platinum dining service (800g), 3-12 scrolls with incriminating (but out-of-date) information (undefined)

• 44: coins (268g)

• 46: coins (229g)

• 47: returning javelin+2 (10000g), long sword +2 (4000g), 2x potion of extra-healing (1600g), potion of flying (750g),

• 51: rod of wind control (20000g), set armor +2 (8000g), mace+3 (10000g), staff of withering (35000g), pontifex was stick (30000g), ring of set (40000g), necklace of missiles (undefined), boots of the ogre (5000g), potion of truthfulness (800g), potion of defeaning light (1000g), scroll of hallow (1200g), scroll of sun’s gift (1200g), scroll of warding chain of glyphs (1800g), holy symbol (250g), ewers (350g), wine glasses (120g), infernal effigy (7000g), gems (1000g)

• 52: coins (20000g), gems (5000g), clothes (600g), helm of underwater action (10000g), imperial field plate +1 (15000g), oathbow (15000g), deck of many things (10000g), deck of the magi (10000g)

• 55: a boatload of books all that have unique prices that i’m not going to add up, “three arcane spell books holding most of the level 1-2 magic user spells” (if you can’t bother to tell me which ones, i won’t bother to either)

• 56: tapestry (500g), bracers of defense ac 3 (21000g), staff of striking (15000g), dagger+2 (4000g), ring of three wishes (5000g), ring of set (40000g), potion of extra-healing (800g), potion of fly (750g), potion of gaseous form (400g), rings (16000g), coins (25165g), gold coffee service (300g), Set Armor +2 (8000g), short sword +1 (2000g), ceremonial spear (100g)

• 57: bracers of defense ac 5(15000g), set armor +2 (8000g), mace+2 (4000g), ring of protection+2 (8000g), wand of negation (15000g), ring of set (40000g), amulet of proof against detection or location (15000g), potion of extra-healing (800g), periapt of proof against poison (12500g), gems (2000g), coins (273g), spear+1 (2000g), long sword +1 (2000g)

• 61: cult objects (250g), scrying ball (4000g), boar’s helm (30000g)

As far as I can tell, this sums to 288476g of treasure and 895300g worth of magic items.

If we go and sum monster XP, guardsmen are worth ~50xp each so 7500. Elite guardsmen are worth 3,920 total. The 10 sergeants are worth 2,430 total. The deacons are worth 4620 total. The acolytes are worth 5265 total. XP values for the leaders aren’t given, but let’s go with 1600xp each (as a 11 HD creature), so another 4800. We can give the slaver guildmasters 1100xp each for another 3300, and finally belisarius can be worth 1100 as well. As a rough estimate, it looks like ~33k in monster XP.

This means that the treasure has a ~9x multiplier (roughly twice what i’d expect), and the magic items are worth on the order of 27x and 50x more than they should be. This ratio is absolutely absurd.

If I could change the module

• I’d annotate the map. Being able to tell at a glance where everyone is rather than pouring over literal hundreds of room descriptions would have been massively helpful.

• I’d surface the intrigue into a paragraph somewhere, probably in the faction overview.

• I’d flesh out the order of battle. For an example of this, check out No Artpunk III and search for “Order of Battle”. Especially take a look at the Order of Battle for The Ivory Islet on page 546:

We can reverse engineer some XP math to arrive at stocking guidelines.

Say we want ~90% of the player’s XP to come from treasure (including magic items) and 10% of it to come from overcoming monsters. Say a party typically explores ~10 rooms per session, and we want to have them level up every ~5 sessions. It follows that there needs to be enough experience every ~50 rooms to level up a party. If we have a party of six 4th level fighters (a rough average), they each need 17k to level up for a total of 102k XP. That works out to 10k monster xp, ~20k magic item xp, and 72k treasure xp.

If we adjust this up by ~1.5x to account for them missing/avoiding stuff we’re up to 15k monster xp, 30k magic item xp, and 108k treasure xp.

What we have is 11k monster xp, 300k magic item xp, and 96k treasure xp. That means we can…

• Leave the monsters and treasure alone

• Cut 90% of the magic items. I think first on the chopping block is to remove the Was Sticks. I think it’s okay to keep them as holy symbol or conduit, but not make them enchanted items with a 10k gold sale price that can all cast multiple spells multiple times a day.

As far as I can tell, part of the reason the Set Cult has so many magic items is that Barton wanted them to be threatening, but also wanted for them to be average-stat humans with class levels. We don’t have to do that! Instead, we can…

• Make the Set Cult custom monsters (that way we can play with their statline directly) with set-granted innate abilities instead of magic items.

Finally, one of the huge differences between OSRIC 3 and 1e is how XP is handled. Here’s the OSRIC 3 text

Experience points (“XP”) are awarded by the GM for defeating monsters, recovering treasure, plus any mission-based awards you as the GM see fit.

- Treasure. For treasure recovered, the guideline is 1 XP to the party per gold piece value of all coins, gems, and jewellery, assuming that the money is successfully brought to a suitable home base or town. Gems can be increased in value by a gemcutter, but the XP award is based on the gem’s value when it was recovered.
- Magic Items. Magic items are partly their own reward, so if a character keeps a magic item, the party is only awarded one tenth the item’s gold piece value (one-half for potions). Full XP value for the item is awarded if such the item is sold to an NPC (other than a henchman).
- Defeating Monsters. When the characters defeat a monster, which doesn’t necessarily mean killing it, the group receives XP. A monster’s XP value is shown in the monster description, but you will need to calculate it for hostile NPCs or for monsters you design yourself.

compare to the 1e text, starting on DMG84

The judgment factor is inescapable with respect to weighting experience for the points gained from slaying monsters and/or gaining treasure. You must weigh the level of challenge — be it thinking or fighting — versus the level of experience of the player character(s) who gained it. With respect to monsters, each hit die balances 1 experience level, counting each special ability and each exceptional ability as an additional hit die, and also counting any hit point plus as an additional hit die. Dividing the total adjusted hit dice equivalent of the monsters slain by the total of all levels of experience of all characters who had a part (even if only 1 missile, blow, spell, etc.) in the slaying yields a fraction which is the measure of challenge. If the numerator is greater than the denominator, then full experience should be awarded. If the denominator is greater, use the fraction to adjust the amount of experience by simple multiplication. (Note: It may be necessary to adjust character level in the same manner as is done with monster hit dice in order to gain a true evaluation; as, for example, 12 orcs are not equal to a wizard!) Therefore, the following rule applies:

If the average hit dice or level is 10 times greater than the average level or hit dice, there must be an adjustment of at least halving or doubling the experience point (x.p.) award as the circumstances dictate, except if the lesser group is approximately 20 times more numerous than the greater value group.

[…]

EXPERIENCE VALUE OF TREASURE TAKEN

Gold Pieces: Convert all metal and gems and jewelry to a total value in gold pieces. If the relative value of the monster(s) or guardian device fought equals or exceeds that of the party which took the treasure, experience is awarded on a 1 for 1 basis. If the guardian(s) was relatively weaker, award experience on a 5 g.p. to 4 x.p., 3 to 2, 2 to 1, 3 to 1, or even 4 or more to 1 basis according to the relative strengths. For example, if a 10th level magic-user takes 1,000 g.p. from 10 kobolds, the relative strengths are about 20 to 1 in favor of the magic-user. (Such strength comparisons are subjective and must be based upon the degree of challenge the Dungeon Master had the monster(s) pose the treasure taker.)

Treasure must be physically taken out of the dungeon or lair and turned into a transportable medium or stored in the player’s stronghold to be counted for experience points.

All items (including magic) or creatures sold for gold pieces prior to the awarding of experience points for an adventure must be considered as treasure taken, and the gold pieces received for the sale add to the total treasure taken.

(Those magic items not sold gain only a relatively small amount of experience points, for their value is in their usage.)

Note the two major differences:

• In OSRIC, you do not adjust XP for the relative strength of the defenders and party. In 1e, if the GM estimates that the party is twice as strong as the defenders, they get half the XP from both monsters and treasure.

• In OSRIC, you get XP for the gold-value of a magic item as long as you sell it before you use it. In 1e, you need to have sold the magic item before XP is tallied (eg, before returning to safety). This seriously curtails the viability of selling a Acolyte Was Stick for 10000g (and thus 10000xp).

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What was the last book, article, or essay you read that was, by sentence count, composed of mostly bullet points?

Gloomhaven Rulebook

Terra Mystica Rulebook

Caverna Rulebook

what was the last book you read that contained numerous instances of bolded inline text?

The author uses italics instead of boldface but the idea is the same. It highlights key words, phrases, and terms so the reader can pick out that they’re reading something important more quickly.

Same thing; italics instead of bolded words.

Here’s a simple acid test: find two RPG books, one with bolded and bullet-pointed entries (say, “The Feast of Tegny Wood”) and one written with plain paragraphs (say, “Sag River Extreme Cold Research Facility”). Read an entry or three from each. Then, on a piece of paper, write a brief summary of each in your own words. Compare your summary to the written entry. Is it easier to write an accurate summary from the bolded bullet points, or the paragraph?

Admittedly, I didn’t do the exercise; shame on me for that. Hopefully I can skirt around this by openly admitting that I predict I will be able to have a much easier job summarizing the plain paragraphs than the formatted entries.

I say this because I think that’s what paragraphs are for. They’re great for conveying a linearly expressed idea, building one concept upon the next (just like how these sentences build on each other). A room entry, on the other hand, need not be written linearly because we do not expect the players to interact with the room in the order that the author chose to describe it in.

I read room keys at three instances:

1. The audit, where I’m checking to make sure each room has the info I need, the treasure is balanced, the space makes sense, there aren’t GM booby traps I need to avoid, I broadly understand the structure of the adventure, etc.

2. During prep, since a lot of the information about key NPCs, factions, and their resources are baked into the room descriptions.

3. During play, to actually run the room.

The “perfect text” for each of these use-cases looks different.

During the audit, I’d love design notes so I can understand what they’re going for, but in-line design notes would clog up the text during play.

During prep, I’d love the information to be structured around the NPCs, factions, and their resources (where the actual rooms themselves are just space-as-a-resource); since that often heavily influences how the denizens respond to player actions.

During play, I want it to be very easy for me to figure out how to describe the initial viewing of the room to the players, and then very easy to answer questions players have, and resolve them interacting with stuff.

Of these, the play-phase is the most time-critical, so that’s what I recommend optimizing around. We can facilitate the audit-work and prep-work by having appendices that offer alternative structuring and summaries of this information.

Examples

In my review of review of Hole in the Oak, I gave the following example from the text:

Stone blocks (walls, ceiling 10', and floor). Archway (8' high). Skull carvings (arches carved in the form of stacked skulls). Skeleton of dead warrior (lying in the arch in a pool of dried blood).

▶ South: Ammonia stench.

▶ Inspecting the skeleton: She died of a slashing wound in her right side.

▶ Looting the body: Badly damaged chainmail, sword, backpack with a musty rope and rotten rations, belt pouch of 25gp, brass skull necklace (15gp).

▶ Passing through the arch: A pressure plate triggers a scything blade to sweep out vertically from the eastern edge of the archway. Anyone in the arch must save versus wands or suffer 1d8 damage.

I don’t think this is good for any of my three use-cases. To sam’s point, it’s tough during the initial reading. It’s hard to scan during prep when I’m looking for what the factions and npcs have/want. It’s also hard to cobble together an initial description of the room. The saving grace is that it’s relatively easy to deal with questions and interaction.

Here’s how it would look in my preferred format:

Stone blocks cover the walls, ceiling, and floor. An skeleton in adventuring gear lies in a pool of dried blood between an 8’ archway carved in the form of stacked skulls.

Skeleton: Died of a slashing wound to her right side. She has badly damaged chain mail, a sword, a backpack with a musty rope and rotten rations, a belt pouch (contains 25g), and a brass skull necklace (15g).

Archway: A pressure plate triggers a scything blade to sweep out vertically from the eastern edge of the archway. Anyone in the arch must save versus wands or suffer 1d8 damage.

Now it’s very easy to read the initial description: I can just read the first paragraph verbatim, or put it in my own words/style. The archway and skeleton are the main features of the space and are elaborated on in the order they were described. We use the bolded words to define the “keys” (like in a dictionary or phone book) so the GM can quickly jump to the correct section to read about what’s going on.

In September 2024, Sam published Ten Tangible Tips For Editing Your RPG Manuscript. I broadly liked the advice, but #10 stuck out to me

10 | Paragraphs are your friend, as are paragraph breaks. You don’t need fancy parenthetical notation, you don’t need complicated nested bullets, you just need to write sentences. When you need to connect multiple ideas or have too many sentences, put multiple paragraphs together using regular old paragraph breaks.

Sam’s blog doesn’t allow comments, so I emailed him directly on 2024-09-29 and asked if he’s be willing to demonstrate with the Lab room from B1. Here’s the original text:

9. WIZARD’S LABORATORY. The wizard’s lab is a strange but fascinating place. Zelligar’s experimentation with many kinds of magic led to a collection of equipment and devices which was stored here, scattered about this 50’ by 30’ room.

Dominating the room is a large human skeleton suspended from the ceiling and hanging in the northeast corner of the laboratory. The skull is cracked. (Were there anyway to know, it would be discovered to be a barbarian chieftain’s re- mains . . .)

About the room are several large wooden tables, just as found in the workroom (room 8), and another heavy stone table which is likewise similar to the one appearing next door. The tables are bare, except for a single stoppered smoked glass bottle on one of them. If the cork is removed, the gas within will immediately issue forth with a whoosh. The vapors are pungent and fast-acting, and all characters with- in ten feet must make an immediate save vs. poison or be affected by laughing gas, The gas itself is not poisonous, but will cause any characters failing their saving throw to immediately lapse into uncontrollable raucous laughter for 1-6 melee rounds (check each individually). During this time, the characters will have a 50% chance of dropping anything they are holding or carrying and will rock with spasms of great laughter, staggering about the room, chuckling and bellowing with great glee. The noise will necessitate a spe- cial additional check for wandering monsters being attracted to the ruckus, and even if a monster appears, the affect- ed characters will be unable to oppose it until the gas effects wear off (if a monster does come, roll a 4-sided die to see how many melee rounds it appears after the laughing starts). Characters under the influence of the gas will not respond to any efforts by others to snap them out of its effects (even slapping the face will do no more than cause more laughing), although if a dispel magic spell is thrown, it will make them sober immediately. Otherwise, the only way to stop the laughter is to wait for the effects to wear off.

Several pine logs are piled underneath one of the tables, and if these are moved, a shiny “gold” ring will be found. Al- though it appears brilliant and seems to be worth up to 100 g.p., it is actually worthless. It has no special magical properties.

Along the west wall is a large wooden rack, apparently from some kind of torture chamber, since it is obviously sized for human bodies. A trickle of dried blood stains the oaken construction on the front.

On the south wall is a stretched leather skin with magical writ- ings which will be undecipherable unless a read magic spell is cast. The legend, if interpreted, will read: “What mysterious happenings have their birth here? Only the greatest feats of wizardry, for which every element of earth, water and sky is but a tool!” The skin is old and extremely fragile, and any attempts to remove it will cause irreparable harm and render it useless because of the skin crumbling away.

A sunken fire pit, blackened and cold, is noticeable as the centerpiece of the room. The pit is only 2’ deep, although it appears slightly less than that due to several inches of ashes resting within it. An iron bracing and bar across the 4’ wide opening suspend a cast iron pot which is empty except for a harmless brown residue sticking to its interior sides and bot- tom. Another similar pot which is more shallow lies on the floor alongside the pit, and it is empty. Both pots are extremely heavy, and it takes great effort by two or more characters of 14 or greater strength to even move them.

Off in the southwest corner are two vats, each of approximately 100 gallon capacity. Both are made of wood and both are empty. A third vat nearby, only half the size of its neighbors, is half filled with murky, muddy water.

A stone block used as a table or stand is next to the vats, and along the west wall. It has six earthen containers just like those found in the workroom (room 8), and any contents within them should be determined in the same manner as described there. There are also pieces of glassware of various types on the top of the stand, as well as on the floor next to it. Some are clean, some show residues, but all are empty and dusty.

An empty wooden coffin, quite plain and utilitarian, rests up- right in the northwest corner. It opens easily and is empty. The wood seems to be rotting in places.

Two kegs rest against the north wall, and examination will show them to be similar to those found in the storeroom (room 6). Each has a letter code to denote its contents, and a roll should be made in the same manner as described there to determine what is within if they are opened.

Wooden shelving on the north wall holds more glassware and three more containers (as those in room 8 and likewise determined). Two small trays hold powdered incense of different colors, and the smell of their aroma will give away their identity.

(yes, it’s that long. this is one room.) Sam emailed me back with this:

9. WIZARD’S LABORATORY

Crates, barrels, vats, cauldrons, and glassware lie scattered about the messy, unkempt room. Between them, they hold 100 gallons of blood, a gallon of bone powder, and three blocks of incense. A skeleton hangs suspended from the ceiling, its skull cracked, opposite an empty torture rack. On the central worktable, a smoked glass bottle sits stoppered. Uncorked, gas whooshes outwards: those within 10’ must save or laugh uncontrollably for 1d6 rounds.

On the south wall, a leather skin stretches, covered in ancient Zargalian writing. Translated, the Zargalian reads “What mysterious happenings have their birth here? Only the greatest feats of wizardry, for every element of earth, water, and sky is but a tool!” Touched, the leather crumbles to dust.

Beneath a side table sits a stack of pine logs concealing a shiny ring of fool’s gold. Initially, it appears worth 100gp; taken to a jeweler, inspection reveals it as worthless imitation.

While this obviously skims out some of the finer physical details of the room—the fire pit, the precise materials of each table, the exact placement of the various elements, and so on—it maintains all the interactivity and possibility of the room for a vastly reduced wordcount. (Obviously, you can adjust the precise other contents of the various containers. I just grabbed the two most obviously striking options from the generator.) Nearly all of the if-then statements attached to the laughing gas can also be cut, as the classic sorts of things that OSR GMs learn to rule on the fly. The good set dressing bits get maintained (torture rack, skeleton), but compressed significantly. Trimming it down makes the whole key more palatable, easier to read and understand and get to grips with. Overwriting is a problem endemic to more or less all RPG books.

I think this is coherent, but is sort of a cop-out. I agree that lots of the original details didn’t need to exist, but they do. Cutting the details helps cover-up how difficult of a job it would be to convey the whole original room to the players by just reading. Here’s an example initial reading from Sam’s reformat:

You enter a lab. There are various lidded containers scattered around. A skeleton hangs suspended from the ceiling, its skull cracked, opposite an empty torture rack. On the central worktable, a smoked glass bottle sits stoppered. On the south wall, a leather skin stretches, covered in ancient Zargalian writing. Beneath a side table sits a stack of pine logs.

In order to cobble that together, I’m still having to look all over the place. Here’s the info I’m pulling bolded (and thus having to ignore or not accidentally say everything that isn’t bolded):

Crates, barrels, vats, cauldrons, and glassware lie scattered about the messy, unkempt room. Between them, they hold 100 gallons of blood, a gallon of bone powder, and three blocks of incense. A skeleton hangs suspended from the ceiling, its skull cracked, opposite an empty torture rack. On the central worktable, a smoked glass bottle sits stoppered. Uncorked, gas whooshes outwards: those within 10’ must save or laugh uncontrollably for 1d6 rounds.

On the south wall, a leather skin stretches, covered in ancient Zargalian writing. Translated, the Zargalian reads “What mysterious happenings have their birth here? Only the greatest feats of wizardry, for every element of earth, water, and sky is but a tool!” Touched, the leather crumbles to dust.

Beneath a side table sits a stack of pine logs concealing a shiny ring of fool’s gold. Initially, it appears worth 100gp; taken to a jeweler, inspection reveals it as worthless imitation.

That’s a lot! In fairness, it’s no where near as bad as the original, which looks like

9. WIZARD’S LABORATORY. The wizard’s lab is a strange but fascinating place. Zelligar’s experimentation with many kinds of magic led to a collection of equipment and devices which was stored here, scattered about this 50’ by 30’ room.

Dominating the room is a large human skeleton suspended from the ceiling and hanging in the northeast corner of the laboratory. The skull is cracked. (Were there anyway to know, it would be discovered to be a barbarian chieftain’s re- mains . . .)

About the room are several large wooden tables, just as found in the workroom (room 8), and another heavy stone table which is likewise similar to the one appearing next door. The tables are bare, except for a single stoppered smoked glass bottle on one of them. If the cork is removed, the gas within will immediately issue forth with a whoosh. The vapors are pungent and fast-acting, and all characters with- in ten feet must make an immediate save vs. poison or be affected by laughing gas, The gas itself is not poisonous, but will cause any characters failing their saving throw to immediately lapse into uncontrollable raucous laughter for 1-6 melee rounds (check each individually). During this time, the characters will have a 50% chance of dropping anything they are holding or carrying and will rock with spasms of great laughter, staggering about the room, chuckling and bellowing with great glee. The noise will necessitate a spe- cial additional check for wandering monsters being attracted to the ruckus, and even if a monster appears, the affect- ed characters will be unable to oppose it until the gas effects wear off (if a monster does come, roll a 4-sided die to see how many melee rounds it appears after the laughing starts). Characters under the influence of the gas will not respond to any efforts by others to snap them out of its effects (even slapping the face will do no more than cause more laughing), although if a dispel magic spell is thrown, it will make them sober immediately. Otherwise, the only way to stop the laughter is to wait for the effects to wear off.

Several pine logs are piled underneath one of the tables, and if these are moved, a shiny “gold” ring will be found. Al- though it appears brilliant and seems to be worth up to 100 g.p., it is actually worthless. It has no special magical properties.

Along the west wall is a large wooden rack, apparently from some kind of torture chamber, since it is obviously sized for human bodies. A trickle of dried blood stains the oaken construction on the front.

On the south wall is a stretched leather skin with magical writings which will be undecipherable unless a read magic spell is cast. The legend, if interpreted, will read: “What mysterious happenings have their birth here? Only the greatest feats of wizardry, for which every element of earth, water and sky is but a tool!” The skin is old and extremely fragile, and any attempts to remove it will cause irreparable harm and render it useless because of the skin crumbling away.

A sunken fire pit, blackened and cold, is noticeable as the centerpiece of the room. The pit is only 2’ deep, although it appears slightly less than that due to several inches of ashes resting within it. An iron bracing and bar across the 4’ wide opening suspend a cast iron pot which is empty except for a harmless brown residue sticking to its interior sides and bot- tom. Another similar pot which is more shallow lies on the floor alongside the pit, and it is empty. Both pots are extremely heavy, and it takes great effort by two or more characters of 14 or greater strength to even move them.

Off in the southwest corner are two vats, each of approximately 100 gallon capacity. Both are made of wood and both are empty. A third vat nearby, only half the size of its neighbors, is half filled with murky, muddy water.

A stone block used as a table or stand is next to the vats, and along the west wall. It has six earthen containers just like those found in the workroom (room 8), and any contents within them should be determined in the same manner as described there. There are also pieces of glassware of various types on the top of the stand, as well as on the floor next to it. Some are clean, some show residues, but all are empty and dusty.

An empty wooden coffin, quite plain and utilitarian, rests up- right in the northwest corner. It opens easily and is empty. The wood seems to be rotting in places.

Two kegs rest against the north wall, and examination will show them to be similar to those found in the storeroom (room 6). Each has a letter code to denote its contents, and a roll should be made in the same manner as described there to determine what is within if they are opened.

Wooden shelving on the north wall holds more glassware and three more containers (as those in room 8 and likewise determined). Two small trays hold powdered incense of different colors, and the smell of their aroma will give away their identity.

So, here’s my take. It keeps all of the original details, word choice, etc, but just rearranges it:

(9) WIZARD’S LABORATORY. A collection of equipment and devices is strewn around several wooden tables, bare except for a stoppered smoked glass bottle. A large human skeleton with a cracked skull is suspended from the ceiling. Under one of the tables are several wooden logs. A sunken fire pit serves as the centerpiece. Along the west wall is a human-sized torture rack. On the south wall is a stretched leather skin with writing on it. Three large, wooden vats sit in the southwest corner of the room, one half the size of the others. A stone block used as a stand is next to the vats, with six earthen containers and pieces of glassware on top. An empty wooden coffin rests upright in the northwest corner. Two kegs rest against the north wall. Wooden shelving on the north wall holds more glassware and three more containers. Two small trays hold powdered incense of different colors.

Smoked Glass Bottle: If the cork is removed, the gas within will immediately issue forth with a whoosh. The vapors are pungent and fast-acting, and all characters within ten feet must make an immediate save vs. poison or be affected by laughing gas, The gas itself is not poisonous, but will cause any characters failing their saving throw to immediately lapse into uncontrollable raucous laughter for 1-6 melee rounds (check each individually). During this time, the characters will have a 50% chance of dropping anything they are holding or carrying and will rock with spasms of great laughter, staggering about the room, chuckling and bellowing with great glee. The noise will necessitate a special additional check for wandering monsters being attracted to the ruckus, and even if a monster appears, the affected characters will be unable to oppose it until the gas effects wear off (if a monster does come, roll a 4-sided die to see how many melee rounds it appears after the laughing starts). Characters under the influence of the gas will not respond to any efforts by others to snap them out of its effects (even slapping the face will do no more than cause more laughing), although if a dispel magic spell is thrown, it will make them sober immediately. Otherwise, the only way to stop the laughter is to wait for the effects to wear off.

Human Skeleton: The barbarian chieftan’s remains.

Logs: If these are moved, a shiny “gold” ring will be found. Although it appears brilliant and seems to be worth up to 100 g.p., it is actually worthless. It has no special magical properties.

Torture Rack: A trickle of dried blood stains the oaken construction on the front.

Stretched Leather: Magical writings; undecipherable unless a read magic spell is cast. “What mysterious happenings have their birth here? Only the greatest feats of wizardry, for which every element of earth, water and sky is but a tool!” The skin is old and extremely fragile, and any attempts to remove it will cause irreparable harm and render it useless because of the skin crumbling away.

Fire Pit: Blackened and cold. The pit is only 2’ deep, although it appears slightly less than that due to several inches of ashes resting within it. An iron bracing and bar across the 4’ wide opening suspend a cast iron pot which is empty except for a harmless brown residue sticking to its interior sides and bottom. Another similar pot which is more shallow lies on the floor alongside the pit, and it is empty. Both pots are extremely heavy, and it takes great effort by two or more characters of 14 or greater strength to even move them.

Vats: The two bigger vats hold approx 100 gallons. The smaller vat is half-filled with murky, muddy water.

Earthen Containers: Just like those found in the workroom (room 8), and any contents within them should be determined in the same manner as described there.

Glassware: Various types. Some are clean, some show residues, but all are empty and dusty.

Coffin: Quite plain and utilitarian. It opens easily and is empty. The wood seems to be rotting in places.

Kegs: Similar to those found in the storeroom (room 6). Each has a letter code to denote its contents, and a roll should be made in the same manner as described there to determine what is within if they are opened.

Containers: As those in room 8 and likewise determined.

This is still massively overwritten, but no longer feels like a nightmare to try to run. You describe the initial paragraph and then refer to the relevant bolded sections when the players ask questions or mess with stuff.

I sent Sam all this back in 2024 and he never replied. I guess I wasn’t convincing then, because here we are.

Original Article

I still love the structure I outlined, and am happy with the implementation of that structure in Sovereign, especially the Running The Game chapter. I don’t think Sovereign is a good fit for my table so I don’t run or revise it any more, but I do think it’s a good fit for a table with less players and I’m quite happy with it.

Rules wise, I’ve updated a lot as I’ve gotten more OSR years under my belt.

3d6DTL

Fast character creation. 3d6 Down the line. Small list of classes (mage, thief, fighter, cleric).

Maybe this is too 🌶️ s p i c y 🌶️ but I’m disillusioned with random attributes. There are a bunch of ways to generate attributes in the broader sphere of OSR games. Here’s some of the high-level concepts

Choice Overload: The more choice you bake into attribute generation, the longer character creation takes. This creates a combinatorial explosion. For example, say you do Method 1 in 1e; 4d6 drop lowest 1, rearrange as you please. You roll your 6 numbers, then pick from 6 options for the first stat, 5 for the second, 4, for the third, and so on. In effect, this gives you 720 choices on just stat arrays. If you then have to choose between 7 races and 9 clases, now we’re up to ~45000+ combinations.

Compare that with how BX does it where you roll 3d6 down the line, and then choose a race+class from a menu of 7 options, and it’s easy to see how much easier this feels.

Nudging: Most of these games have you roll before you pick your race/class. The default 3d6 down the line, in effect, suggests a class for you. If you roll 18 strength and 5 Int, it seems to suggest playing a Fighter over, say, a Magic user. Even in systems where you can rearrange your stats (like 1e), some race/class options are more stat dependent (or have literal restrictions) than others, so if you roll an average array, that might suggest a Magic User (whose power comes from spells that don’t scale on stats) vs a Fighter (who really wants high str/dex/con).

The stronger the nudge is, the less agency the player has, which can rub people the wrong way. A lot of people show up to these games with a character concept they’re excited about. Maybe they want to play a fighter, or they’ve been playing a Cleric for the last year and now want to try out Magic User.

Impact: In BX, the difference between a 16 CON and 8 CON for a magic user is enormous. 16 CON gives +2 hp per level, whereas 8 CON gives -1. Here’s the HP distribution for a 5th level Magic User with 16 CON

compared to 8 CON

The 16 Con wizard has roughly even odds to survive failing a save vs a fireball (~20 avg damage). The 8 CON wizard is probably dying even if they make their save.

Similarly, here’s the damage distribution for a fighter with 16 STR wielding a d6 weapon across 5 hits:

Compared to 8 Strength

Slightly reframed: relative to an 8 Strength Fighter, a 16 Strength Fighter is functionally identical to starting with a +3 magic weapon that can’t be disarmed and stacks with other magic weapons. Does that seem too impactful for something that you roll at character generation and doesn’t increase as you adventure?

Mental Stats Are Weird: This is a very old debate, but I think it’s worth nailing down what the game’s model of play is. I like this definition from Simulacrum a lot:

The default assumption is that players must overcome a challenge by describing what their characters do to meet it. […]

Failing any of that, the Task system is used: a single roll against a target number (often called a “check). The idea is that you roll to resolve situations with interesting stakes that would

• be too tedious / difficult to describe, or

• involve a strong element of chance

I think this gets really hairy when you’re defining the mental characteristics of a character. If the player is smarter than their character, does the player (or worse, GM) need to limit the sorts of ideas or plans the character is allowed to have or carry out? If the player is dumber than their character, can they ask the GM something like “what would my very-intelligent character think about this?” Same with wisdom or charisma.

Then for charisma specifically, it does have associated mechanics. All of these old systems have some form of a reaction roll; here’s a survey. At a high level, your Charisma score gives some sort of penalty/bonus to a reaction roll, which in turn spits out results like…

• 0e: negative < uncertain < positive

• 1e: violently hostile < hostile < uncertain but 55% prone to negative < neutral < uncertain but 55% prone to positive < friendly < enthusiastically friendly

• BX: immediate attack < hostile < uncertain < no attack < enthusiastic friendship

These are abstract results, left to the GM to interpret in context.

If we’re rolling dice, does it matter what I say? If what I say matters, then do we need to roll dice? My best understanding, inspired by Advantage and Impact - Dreaming Dragonslayer

The player skill (what they say, what leverage they use, etc) informs whether a roll needs to be made at all, and how to interpret a result of “no attack” or “uncertain”. The actual stats impact the %chance that a particular result comes up. So a player with bad rizz might have to roll more dice than a player with good rizz, and a low-rizz player piloting a high-charisma character might get less impact out of the same rolls as a low-rizz player piloting the same high-charisma character.

I think that’s a coherent but frustratingly vague model, though, it’s never explicitly explained by any of these texts. I also have a personal distaste for resolution systems with a bunch of tiers of success; I find them to be high overhead for very little gain. It’s much easier to generate 2 outcomes (diplomacy check) than 3 outcomes (PtbA fail/mixed/success), which is easier than 5 outcomes (BX), which is easier than 7 outcomes (1e).

Summarizing:

• I want players to be able to play what they want

• I don’t want to overload choice at character creation

• I don’t want random stats to be especially impactful

• Mental stats are weird

I think the cleanest solution here looks like just dropping the stats (sacrilege, admittedly).

If generally fighters have +1 Strength and +1 Constitution, we can bake that in very easily by noting that fighters have +1 damage on all of their attacks, changing their to-hit table to be +1 better, and giving them +1 HP every level.

If that makes all fighters feel too ‘samey’, we can add some options to character creation, like

Choose 2:

• +1 HP every level

• +1 to hit and damage with Melee Weapons

• +1 AC

• +1 to hit with missiles

• Two additional starting languages

or whatever the list is. If you want drawbacks that are implied by rolling bad stats, you can do the same thing (bake them in or force players to choose them).

Ancestries

Ancestries (including human) all get one small thing.

I think I’d walk this all the way back and make ancestries totally flavor. Even small amounts of mechanical incentive creates pressure to optimize, and now there’s a conflict between “playing what’s good” and “playing what I want”, and I want to totally avoid that when selecting an ancestry.

If someone wants to be an elf or a dwarf or hobbit or whatever, I want them to do it because that’s what they want to roleplay, rather than chasing infravision, bonus damage, ghoul immunity, etc.

Simple Weapons and Armor

Armor is simple (unarmored, leather, chain, plate). 4 simple categories of weapons (d4/d6/d8/d10)

Love this still. If playing 1e or ACKs has taught me anything, it’s that optimization around weapon selection is really dumb.

d4: small, 1 handed weapons that can also be thrown. Example: dagger.

d6: 1-handed weapons that take up 3ft of horizontal frontage (so you can stack 3-wide in a 10ft hall). Example: Short Sword.

d8: 1-handed weapons that take up 5ft of horizontal frontage. Example: Long Sword.

d8+reach: 2-handed weapons that take up 5ft of horizontal frontage but can attack from the second rank. Example: Polearm

d10: Two-handed weapons that take up 5ft of horizontal frontage. Example: Greatsword.

Otherwise, the only differences between the weapons is diegetic and up to the GM (maces can’t cut rope, swords can’t batter down doors, etc).

Abstract Adventuring Gear

Abstract adventuring gear. OSE simple encumbrance: move speed based on armor, go slower when you’re carrying a lot (more than 40ish pounds of non-armor). Be mature about it.

I ended up scrapping this, though for a totally unexpected reason. I expected that having the adventuring gear be abstract would encourage more problem solving with gear. After all, if you can just decide that you have a hand drill or flask or whatever, there’s more problems you can solve with your gear on hand.

The actual play-testing result, though, was that even less gear-use happened. I think this is the same choice-overload thing; without constraints to the problem solving, it’s difficult (and unfulfilling) to generate solutions.

Tracking Rations, Torches, and Ammo

Don’t worry about counting rations, torches, and ammunition. I promise they don’t matter and that these problems are immediately trivial.

Still totally agree here. Bean-counting weight is miserable.

XP

Advancement rules: xp for monsters and treasure brought back to safety.

I think xp for monsters is bad; it makes random encounters (which are supposed to be the cost of caution) a net positive for some parties (if they can farm them). Adding up monster XP is a pain. Instead, we can just decrease the XP requirements for all the classes to account for the XP they’re missing out on.

I’d also nix 1e’s rule of giving XP for magic items. The default 1e rule is that if you use a magic item, you get less XP than if you don’t use it (and then sell it). This feels heavily disassociated to me, and leads to all sorts of weird play. I think selling magic items is an entire can of worms, but in the Arden Vul game, it degenerated really fast before I changed it.

Here’s an example

Set patrols are a pretty common wandering monster in Arden Vul; it’s 4x 2nd level fighters and a 3rd level cleric. The clerics all have a Acolyte’s Was Stick.

The Acolyte Was Stick is worth 1000xp just for finding it, and sells for 10000g. So each Set Patrol is walking around with a 10000xp item, on top of the monster XP. This gets out of hand very fast.

Prices and Availability

Price and availability guidelines for goods and services, both mundane and magical. Both buying and selling.

I still think this is the most useful part of ACKs 2e that every other game can pull from. I summarized the table here.

It offloads so much to be able to answer:

• Can I sell this Acolyte Was Stick?

• Can I buy 50 flasks of oil?

• Can anyone in this town cast Cure Disease?

This is something that comes up over and over in play. Pathfinder 2e has Settlement Level, which does a similar thing, and I think that’s great too.

I think it’s also really important to provide explicit mechanics for both creating and “leveling up” a town, as a gold sink. Being able to form a “town” near a dungeon is very helpful to cut down on wilderness travel. Being able to spend all the excess money players accumulate on growing the town (so it can provide more services) helps close the loop.

Structure for Rulings

Structure for collaboratively coming up with rulings. Discuss the chance of success, consequences of success, consequences of failure, and cost. Accepting higher costs or greater failure consequences helps negotiate higher chances or success consequences.

I still think this is super useful to explicitly say, and still actively practice in my games. These days, I lean toward just talking out raw percentages. To use an example, my players had set an ambush for Craastinistorex. The default surprise roll is 2-in-6. Rather than just roll that, I said “the default surprise roll is 2-in-6, which is 33%. Very stealthy camouflaged creatures are usually given a 4-in-6, which is 66%. Ya’ll are invisible, prepared, and set up ~100ft away from where you’re expecting her to land. What do you think the chance is that you should get a surprise round?” and we eventually settled on 80%, which the whole table had buy-in for.

These days, I try to use coin-flips as much as possible, and frame more complicated rulings as a sequence of flips, but it’s all the same stuff.

I’m adding a new blog title prefix - “Table Talk”. The idea with this collection of posts is to get into the practical side of game mastering, with the specific real-life methods that game masters can use to bring concepts to the table.

For examples of other posts by other authors, check out GFC’s So You Want to Run OSR Part 0, Part 1, Part 2 (note the practical advice on how to structure session notes), or Glossary of Key Phrases - Idiom Drottning.

Last night, my players defeated Craastinistorex and her two Wyvern henchmen guarding the Tower of the Wyrm in Arden Vul. This has been a long time coming!

Dragons tend to have hoards of wealth, and ol’ Crassy is no exception. Here’s what the text says:

The head from the huge statue of Vul (AV-42); 101 ancient octagonal platinum coins (see Arden Vul items), 457 ancient silver pennies (see Arden Vul items), 330 ancient gold solidi (see Arden Vul items), 7,679 cp, 6,492 sp, 5,647 gp, 453 pp; 40 pieces of jewelry worth 100-600 gp each; a gold key to the Obsidian Gates (5-6D); a copy of the Deeds of Marius Tricotor by Lucius Cornelius scriptor (see Arden Vul books); a copy of Yeng of Narsileon’s Great Villains of Archontos, part V: Priscus the Traitor (see Arden Vul books); eight potions, of sweet water, gaseous form, extra healing, philter of love, growth, treasure finding, molasses, and deafening light (see new magic items for the last two); a ring of spell storing; a javelin +1, +2 versus dragons; a suit of cursed armor of arrow attraction (banded mail; see new magic items); a beaker of plentiful potions; an Alexia’s useful pole (see new magic items); a staff of the frog (see new magic items); and six scrolls (fireball, protection from magic, ice storm, tongues, protection from demons, and feline senses [see new spells]).

The way we play the game in physical reality is broadly through conversation; the GM describes a situation, the players ask clarifying questions, the GM answers, the players describe their actions, the GM adjudicates which creates a new situation and then we loop. What does the actual process of playing finding a treasure hoard look like?

As far as I can tell, we need to…

1. Describe the hoard.

2. The players ask clarifying questions. The GM answers them.

3. The players interact with the hoard (like by identifying items, equipping them, carrying them off, etc).

4. This creates a new situation (heavier encumbrance, XP, etc).

Each individual item has a physical description, gold value, and weight. Magic items have an unidentified description (landmark), and identified description (hidden). So, let’s go through and fetch the information. I’ll note the page numbers to get a sense of how much page-flipping this requires.

Gather Information

The head from the huge statue of Vul (AV-42)

AV-42 refers to p104 of Arden Vul. The text doesn’t give a weight or gold value, but it's a huge hunk of marble so it’s not nothing. AV-42 says “The enormous block of stone is about 20’ square and 30’ tall.” According to this source, heads are about 1/8th of a body’s height, so if the statue of Vul is 30’ tall without the head, then 7/8 • X = 30; X = 30 • 8 / 7; X = 34.3, thus the head is ~4.3ft tall. Heads aren’t perfectly spherical, but close enough, so I’m comfortable estimating that Vul’s head has about 80% of the volume of a sphere. V = 4/3π r^3. r=2.15, so V = 41.6 cubic feet. 80% of that is 33.4 cubic feet. The density of marble is ~2.5g/cm3. 1 cubic foot is 28316.8 cm3, so the volume of the head is ~945,781 cm3, and the weight of the head is 2,364,453g. There are ~454g in a pound, so our head weighs ~5208lb, but we can round it to 5000lb as a nice round number.

This source gives that white marble was worth (as a raw material), 75 denarii / 0.028 m3 , which is 75 denarii per 28,000cm3. That prices our head at 2533 denarii. 1e gives that a mason is paid 3g a month, and the source gives that a mason is paid 50 denarii per day, so 1500 denarii per month, so we can estimate 1g = 500 denarii. That prices our head at ~5g (heh).

101 Ancient octagonal platinum coins

The source for this is page 1013 of the Arden Vul pdf (or vol 4, page 126 with physical media).

Octagonal Platinum Coins: Very large (2” across) and thick (½” thick), these coins are worth 375 modern gp and are 75x as heavy as a modern platinum piece. On the obverse they feature either a dragon’s head or an obelisk with an eye in it; this image is surrounded by the legend “Imp. Archon. Regn. est” [Short for “Imperator Archontii regendum est”, or, “the Archontean Emperor shall rule”]; on the reverse is the legend “Auc. est Potest.” (Short for “Auctoritas est Potestas”, or “Authority is power”). These rare coins were issued on symbolic occasions, e.g. coronation of a new emperor, a major victory, a political marriage, etc.; their relative scarcity is one factor in their value. 1 octagonal platinum coin weighs 1.5 lb.

That gives us a description (2” diameter octagonal platinum coins with a dragon’s head on one side and an obelisk with an eye on the other, inscribed with “The Archonteon Emporer Shall Rule” on one side and “Authority is Power” on the other), the value (375g each) and the weight (1.5lb each). Multiplying out, this is worth 37875g (and thus XP), and weighs 151.5lb.

457 Ancient Silver Pennies

Same source as the octagonal coins, fortunately.

Silver Pennies: These coins are about the size of a dime (1/2” diameter), although they are thicker (1/6”) and heavier. They are equivalent in value to a modern gold piece. On the obverse most feature a bust of the emperor wearing a military helmet, surrounded by the letters of his name; the reverse contains a gladius with the words “Conquerendum est” [It shall be conquered]. A few unusual mintings have been recorded, however, so not all silver pennies are similar. 125 silver pennies weigh 1 lb.

This gives us a description (1/2” diameter silver coins with an emperor in a helmet on one side and a gladius surrounded by the words “It Shall Be Conquered” on the other). They’re worth 457g and weigh 3.7lb.

330 Ancient Gold Solidi

Same source as the other ancient coins, though I’m not sure why we’re listing them in the order of platinum → silver → gold instead of descending.

Gold Solidi: Solidi (aka ‘shillings’) are thick (¼”) and large (1” diameter); they are worth 10 modern gp, but are 10x as heavy as an ordinary gp. The obverse features a bust of the emperor wearing an olive wreath surrounded by the letters of his name; the reverse has an image of the emperor in a chariot pulled by four horses. 5 gold solidi weigh 1 lb.

This gives us a description (1” diameter golden coins with an emperor wearing an olive wreath on one side and an emperor in a chariot pulled by horses on the other). They’re worth 3300g and weigh 66lbs. Of note, we’re told that 5 solidi weighs 1lb, and also told that they’re 10x as heavy as normal gold coins. In 1e, 10 gold coins weighs 1lb, so I assume that this implies that in Barton’s world, 50 gold coins weighs 1lb instead.

7,679 cp, 6,492 sp, 5,647 gp, 453 pp

1e gives that 200cp = 1gp, 20sp = 1g, 5gp = 1pp (PHB35). If 50 coins = 1lb (per the above inference), then this is worth 8,275g and weighs 405.4lb.

40 pieces of jewelry worth 100-600 gp each

My range parser suggests rolling 100-600 as 2d6•50. Plugging this into anydice, and rolling we get [600, 200, 500, 400, 450, 250, 350, 150, 350, 350, 500, 350, 250, 500, 450, 500, 450, 350, 300, 550, 200, 400, 450, 450, 250, 250, 200, 500, 350, 250, 150, 300, 300, 500, 400, 400, 450, 150, 200, 100]. Sorting and compacting gives us [100, 150x3, 200x4, 250x5, 300x3, 350x6, 400x4, 450x6, 500x6, 550, 600] for a total of 14050g.

Side note: It is wild to ask me to roll for the value of 40 pieces of jewelry.

As for weight, in the 1e DMG on page 239, we’re given

So small jewelry weighs 1d5/10lb and large jewelry weighs 5lb. We’re not told whether the jewelry is large or small and lord knows I dont want to roll 40 more dice to figure out how much this weighs. OSE gives that each piece of jewelry weighs 1lb, which is nice and simple to use, so let’s go with 40lb worth of jewelry.

A gold key to the Obsidian Gates (5-6D)

Here’s what 5-6D has to say on page 324 (vol 2, page 9 in print)

Keyholes some 1.5” in diameter extend halfway through each of the doors.

The next page (360 words later) says

As suggested by the keyholes, the ‘keys’ are in fact rods; each key is 1.5” in diameter and 15” long. […] For the current location of all ten sets of keys, see the Arden Vul items appendix.

Okay so it’s a 15”, 1.5” diameter golden rod. They do have a description on page 1014 (vol 4, page 127) which gives a weight, gp value, and xp value

The gold key weighs 19 lb […] Experience Point Value: 500, G.P. Value: 1000

So it’s a golden rod, 15” long with a 1.5” diameter that weighs 19lbs. It’s worth 1000g and 500xp.

As far as I can tell, there’s no inscription, though it does detect as magic due to durability enchantment.

The Deeds of Marius Tricotor by Lucius Cornelius Scriptor

This is defined on page 1032 of the pdf (or vol 4, page 145 in print)

This famous text provides a full account of the character and public career of the great Archontean military archon, Marius Tricotor. It describes Marius Tricotor’s arrival in Arden Vul as archon and his careful strategic planning; it lauds his common touch, including his decision to live among and in the style of the ordinary legionaries; it praises his rejection of every form of ‘gift’ offered by the great temples; it records the laments of his servants at his unwillingness to wear formal court attire; it notes his possession of the four artifacts of the archons; and, at length, it describes his campaigns through the lower halls against the ‘amphibians’.

Anyone who carefully reads the text gains general information about the functions of the surviving buildings in the ruined city, and some relational directions about Level 3 (areas 3-1 to 3-162), Level 4 (areas 4-1 to 4-122), and Level 6 (areas 6-1 to 6-18, and areas 6-53 to 6-92). Lucius Cornelius’s work appeared in several forms, as a codex and also as a set of scrolls. (A Lucius Cornelius Scriptor; L Mithric; T codex; D 8x10x5; W 7 lb; M purple leather binding embossed with a yellow archon’s seal; R uncommon; FoS humankind; SKC history, legends and folklore, politics and genealogy) Experience Point Value: — G. P. Value: 100

In terms of initial description, it’s a 8•10•5” codex with a purple leather binding that is embossed with a yellow archon’s seal, written in Mithric. It’s worth 100g (but 0 xp), and weighs 7lb.

Note that this also gives the GM homework; when the players read the book the GM needs to figure out how tell the players about the relational direction from 3-1 to 3-162, 4-1 to 4-122, 6-1 to 6-18, and 6-53 to 6-92.

Yeng of Narsileon’s Great Villains of Archontos, part V: Priscus the Traitor

Defined on page 1037 of the pdf (vol 4, page 150 in print)

A colorful work appearing more than a decade after the last installment, this text offers a fairly simplistic ad hominem attack against Priscus Pulcher, here described as a foul sorcerer who betrayed the emperor’s personal trust. The picture painted of Priscus is of a cartoon villain, with hunchback, warts, foetid breath, and a morbid fascination with death; according to the text, Priscus intended the destruction of the empire from the start, and used his evil sorcery to bewitch noble Archonteans before turning them against each other. In Yeng’s telling, Priscus is abetted by a wretched crone named Isadora, who is both his lover and follower.

The text culminates in an epic battle at Arden Vul in which the evil Priscus is slain, Isadora vanishes in a puff of smoke, and much of the city is leveled. Yeng concludes with some hortatory passages warning readers to be on the alert for ‘sons of evil’ who seek to emulate or venerate the evil Priscus.

Despite the fact Yeng’s account is almost entirely fictitious, and laden with the worst sort of stereotypical tropes, this was by far his most successful work, and has shaped most modern Archonteans’ general knowledge of Priscus and the War of Sortians and Theosophs. Sages and literary scholars are confident that this work is by a later continuator of the Yeng series. (A ‘Yeng of Narsileon’; L Archontean; T codex; D 11x16x6; W 7 lb; M blue horsehide bindings; R common; FoS humankind; SKC history) Experience Point Value: — G. P. Value: 50

It’s a 11•16•6” codex, bound in blue horsehide and written in Archontean. It’s worth 50g (but 0 xp) and weighs 7lbs.

Potion of Sweet Water

This is described in the DMG on page 127

This liquid is not actually a potion to be drunk (though if it is drunk it will taste good), but it is to be added to other liquids in order to change them to pure, drinkable water. It will neutralize poison and ruin magic potions (no saving throw). The contents of the container will change up to 100,000 cubic feet of polluted or salt or alkaline water to fresh water. It will turn up to 1,000 cubic feet of acid into pure water. The effects of the potion are permanent, but subject to later contamination or infusion after an initial period of 5-20 rounds.

The DMG (on page 125) writes “As a general rule [potions] should bear no identifying marks, so that the players must sample from each container in order to determine the nature of the liquid.”

The XP value and weight is on a page 121 in a separate table; it’s worth 200xp and sells for 250g. The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 25g, so 2.5lb.

Potion of Gaseous Form

DMG 126

By imbibing this magical liquid, the individual causes his or her body, as well as what it carries and wears, to become gaseous in form and able to flow accordingly at a base speed of 3”/round. (A gust of wind spell, or even normal strong air currents, will blow the gaseous form backwards at air speed.) The gaseous form is transparent and insubstantial. It wavers and shifts. It cannot be harmed except by magical fires or lightnings, in which case damage is normal. A whirlwind will inflict double damage upon any creature in gaseous form. When in such condition the individual is able to enter any space which is not airtight, i.e., a small crack or hole which allows air to penetrate also allows entry by a creature in gaseous form. The entire potion must be consumed to achieve this result, and the effects last the entire duration.

The table on DMG 121 notes it’s worth 300 xp and 400g. The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 25g, so 2.5lb.

Potion of Extra Healing

DMG 126

This potion restores 6-27 (3d8 + 3) hit points of damage when wholly consumed, or 1-8 hit points of damage for each one-third potion.

The table on DMG 121 notes it’s worth 400xp and 800g. The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 25g, so 2.5lb.

Philter of Love

DMG 127

This potion is such as to cause the individual drinking it to become charmed (Cf. charm spells) with the first creature seen after consuming the draught, or actually become enamored and charmed if the creature is of similar race and of the opposite sex. Charming effects wear off in 4 + 1-4 turns, but the enamoring effects last until a dispel magic spell is cast upon the individual.

Following the reference to Charm (maybe Charm Person or Mammal) in PHB55

This spell will affect any single person or mammal it is cast upon. The creature then will regard the druid who cast the spell as a trusted friend and ally to be heeded and protected. The spell does not enable the druid to control the charmed creature as if it were an automaton, but any word or action of the druid will be viewed in its most favorable way. Thus, a charmed creature would not obey a suicide command, but might believe the druid if assured that the only chance to save the druid’s life is if the creature holds back an onrushing red dragon for “just a round or two”. Note also that the spell does not empower the druid with linguistic capabilities beyond those he or she normally possesses. The duration of the spell is a function of the charmed creature’s intelligence, and it is tied to the saving throw. The spell may be broken if a saving throw is made, and this saving throw is checked on a periodic basis according to the creature’s intelligence: [insert table]

If the druid harms, or attempts to harm, the charmed creature by some overt action, or if a dispel magic (q.v.) is successfully cast upon the charmed creature, the charm will be broken automatically. The spell affects all mammalian animals and persons. The term person includes all bipedal human and humanoid creatures of approximately man-size, or less than man-size, including those affected by the hold person spell (q.v.). If the recipient of the charm person or mammal spell makes its saving throw versus the spell, its effect is negated.

The table on DMG 121 notes that it’s worth 200xp and 300g. The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 2.5lbs.

Potion of Growth

DMG 126

This potion causes the person consuming it to enlarge in both height and weight, his or her garments and other worn and carried gear likewise growing in size. Strength is increased sufficiently to allow bearing normal armor and weapons, but does not add to combat. Movement increases to that of a giant of approximately equal size. Each quarter of the potion consumed causes 6’ height growth, i.e. a full potion increases height by 24’.

The table on DMG 121 notes that it’s worth 250xp and 300g. The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 2.5lbs.

Potion of Treasure Finding

DMG 127

A potion of treasure finding empowers the drinker with a location sense, so that he or she can point to the direction of the nearest mass of treasure. The treasure must be within 24” or less, and its mass must equal metal of at least 10,000 copper pieces or 100 gems or any combination thereof. Note that only valuable metals (copper, silver, electrum, gold, platinum, etc.) and gems (and jewelry, of course) are located; worthless metals or magic without precious metals/gems are not found. The consumer of the potion can “feel” the direction in which the treasure lies, but not its distance. Intervening substances other than special magical wards or lead-lined walls will not withstand the powers which the liquor bestows upon the individual. The effects of the potion last for from 5-20 rounds. (Clever players will attempt triangulation.)

The table on DMG 121 notes that it’s worth 600xp and 2000g. The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 2.5lbs.

Potion of Molasses

From the Arden Vul pdf page 985 (or vol 4, page 98 in print).

Plotina the Alchemist devised this potent concoction as a way of slowing down enemies (or any romantic targets who may be running away). Thrown or consumed, the potion halves movement and actions of those it strikes. The effects last for 2-5 rounds on a failed save versus spells, and 1-2 rounds on a successful save.

Experience Point Value: 200 G. P. Value: 800

The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 2.5lbs.

Potion of Deafening Light

From the Arden Vul pdf page 985 (or vol 4, page 98 in print).

These midnight blue potions are intended to be thrown as missiles. On hitting a solid surface, the material within combusts with a small explosion and a brief flash of light. Any foe within 10’ must save versus petrification or be blinded for 1 round and deafened for 1-4 rounds. In addition, a direct hit on a living being causes 1-6 damage to that creature.

Experience Point Value: 500 G. P. Value: 1,000

The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 2.5lbs.

Ring of Spell Storing

DMG 131

A ring of spell storing will contain 2-5 (d4 + 1) spells which the wearer can employ just as if he or she were a spell user of the level appropriate to use the spell in question. The class of spells contained within the ring is determined in the same fashion as the spells on scrolls. The level of each spell is determined as follows:

• cleric: d6, if 6 is rolled roll d4 instead

• druid: as cleric

• magic-user: d8, if 8 is rolled roll d6 instead

• illusionist: as cleric

Which spell type of any given level is contained by the ring is also randomly determined. The ring has the empathic ability to impart to the wearer the names of its spells. Once class, level, and type are determined, the properties of the ring are fixed and unchangeable. Once a spell is cast from the ring, it can only be restored by a character of appropriate class and level of experience, i.e. a 12th level magic-user is needed to restore a 6th level magic-user spell to the ring. Spells stored require 5 segments each to cast.

Barton doesn’t bother to tell us what class the ring is, or what spells are stored in the ring, so I guess we need to roll those randomly, per the description. It says to determine the class the same way as for scrolls. That info is on DMG 127

We roll 1d100 and get 95 so it’s a it’s either cleric or druid. We roll 1d100 again and get 16, so it’s for druids.

Then, we need to roll 1d4+1 for how many spells are on the ring, and we get 5.

Druid rings are rolled as clerics. Cleric rings are d6 where 6 is rerolled as a d4. So we roll 5d6 and get [1, 6, 4, 6, 4]. Those 6s need to be re-rolled, and we get 3 and 1. Our ring has spell levels [1x2, 3, 4x2]. Those also need to be determined randomly.

PHB 41 has this table

There are 12 first level spells, so we roll 2d12 and get [4, 6]: Entangle (PHB54) and Invisibility to Animals (PHB54). We roll 1d12 for our 3rd level and get 3: Hold Animal (PHB57). We roll 2d12 for our 4th levels and get [5, 11]: Dispel Magic (PHB59) and Repel Insects (PHB60).

DMG 122 notes that the ring is worth 2500xp and 22500g. I treat rings as weightless.

Javelin +1, +2 vs Dragons

This isn’t an item in the book. The closest thing I can see is the table in DMG 124 has “Sword +1, +2 vs. magic-using & enchanted creatures” which is worth 600xp and sells for 3000g.

That also has an entry in on page 165:

Sword +1, +2 vs. magic-using and enchanted creatures, gives its +1 bonus always, +2 when employed against magic-users, monsters which can cast spells, conjured, created, gated, or summoned creatures. Note that the +2 would not operate against a creature magically empowered by some item to cast spells — such as a ring of spell storing.

So I think we can make the (easy) inference that this is a Javelin that has a +1 bonus against everything but dragons, and a +2 bonus instead (not cumulative) against dragons. The paragraph about swords also has this helpful note:

Whenever a sword has some unknown quality — such as the wishes in a Luck Blade or a sword with unusual aspects, you should prepare a special 3 × 5 index card on it and keep the information handy whenever the possessor of the weapon is playing.

Spoiler: we’re going to get to this in the practical advice section.

Then, we head to PHB 37 for the weight of 2lb.

Cursed Armor of Arrow Attraction (banded mail)

From the arden vul pdf page 964 (vol 4 page 77 in print)

This cursed armor can come in any form, although banded mail is most common. It provides a +1 bonus to AC to all attacks except arrows, for which it imposes an AC penalty of -2. Experience Point Value: — G. P. Value: 2,000.

The weight of banded mail isn’t in the PHB, but it is in the DMG on page 27, where it weighs 35lbs and restricts movement to 9”.

That said, the DMG has on page 164

For game purposes all magical armor should be considered as being virtually weightless — equal to normal clothing, let us assume. This gives characters so clad a base movement speed equal to an unarmored man.

It’s not clear to me if it’s supposed to be weightless when picked up, or only when worn.

Beaker of Plentiful Potions

DMG 138

This container resembles a jug or flask. It is a magical beaker with alchemical properties which compound from 2-5 doses of from 2-5 potions of any sort as initially determined by random selection. Different potion sorts are layered in the container, and each pouring takes 1 round and spills forth 1 dose of 1 potion type. Roll d4, +1, to find the number of potions the beaker contains. Roll for each potion contained so as to find what it is — delusion and poison are possible — and record type by order of occurrence. Duplication is possible. If the container holds only 2 potions it will dispense them 1 each per day, 3 times per week; if 3 are contained, it will dispense them 1 each per day, 2 times per week; and if 4 or 5 are contained it will pour each forth but 1 time per week. Once opened, the beaker will gradually lose the ability to produce potions. This reduction in ability results in the permanent loss of one potion type per month.

Barton doesn’t tell us what’s in the Beaker, so we roll it ourselves.

We roll 1d4+1 for the number of potions and get 2. We randomly determine the potion via the potion table in the DMG on page 121 by rolling 2d100 and getting [10, 31], which is Potion of Climbing and Potion of Flying.

We roll 1d4+1 for the number of doses and get 4 and 4, so after the potions have been harvested (which takes 8 days, the description painstakingly says), we wind up with 4 Potions of Climbing and 4 Potions of Flying. I’m going to assume we don’t get additional XP for those, but I don’t understand why they wouldn’t be sellable, so we need to fetch descriptions and gold values.

DMG 122 tells us it’s worth 1500xp and 12500g. No weight is provided, but for my sanity let’s go with 4lbs (since it contains multiple potions).

4x Potion of Climbing

DMG 125

Imbibing this potion enables the individual to climb as a thief, up or down vertical surfaces, with only a base 1% chance of slipping and falling. (Check at the halfway point, d%, 01 equals a fall.) A climbing potion is effective for 1 turn plus 5 to 20 rounds. For every 1,000 g.p. weight equivalent carried by the character, there is an additional 1% added to chance of slipping. If the climber wears armor, there are the following additions to the slipping/falling chance:

• studded leather 1%

• ring mail 2%

• scale mail 4%

• chainmail 7%

• banded or splinted armor 8%

• plate mail 10%

• magic armor, any type 1%

The table on DMG 121 notes that it’s worth 500g. The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 2.5lbs, so 10lbs.

4x Potion of Flying

DMG 126

A flying potion enables the individual drinking it to fly in the same manner as the third level magic-user spell, fly (q.v.).

Heading to the PHB, page 73 for Fly

This spell enables the magic-user to bestow the power of magical flight. The creature affected is able to move vertically and/or horizontally at a rate of 12” per move (half that if ascending, twice that if descending in a dive). The exact duration of the spell is always unknown to the spell caster, as the 1-6 turns variable addition is determined by the Dungeon Master secretly. The material component of the fly spell is a wing feather of any bird.

The table on DMG 121 notes that it’s worth 750g. The DMG appendix on page 239 gives that a potion weighs 2.5lbs, so 10lbs.

Alexia’s Useful Pole

Page 961 of the Arden Vul pdf (vol 4 page 74 in print)

This practical item appears as a 3-inch long, 3/4-inch diameter rod of steel that is remarkably light (only 1 lb regardless length). Most are usually inscribed with runes, and/or with their command words. Useful poles can extend to three or four fixed lengths by speaking an appropriate command word. For example, the most common useful poles have three lengths: the 3’, ‘short’ length, a 4’, ‘medium’ length, and a 6’, ‘long’ length. A few varieties (10%) have a fourth ‘very long’ length (usually 10’ or 15’). The short length functions quite nicely as a jo-stick, doing 1-8/1-6 damage. The medium lengths functions as a bo-stick or quarterstaff, doing 1-10/1-8 damage. The long length functions as a spear 1-10/1-12, and the very long length functions as an awl pike 1-10/3-18. Although the weapon functions are convenient, the magic of these items lies primarily in their portability and light weight.

Experience Point Value: 2,500 G. P. Value: 15,000

Barton does not note whether or not this pole is inscribed with runes or command words or what the command words for this pole are. He also notes that ‘A few varieties (10%) have a very long length’, but does not specify whether this pole is such a specimen. So we roll 1d100, get 18, and note that it lacks the very long length.

Descriptively, it’s a 3” long, 3/4” diameter rod of steel that detects as magic and weighs 1lb. 2500 xp and worth 15000g.

Staff of the Frog

Page 995 of the Arden Vul pdf (vol 4 page 108 in print)

A long (8’) staff made of oak and carved in floral and geometric patterns. It is a staff +1, but is +4 versus amphibians and amphibian-like creatures (frogs, toads, salamanders, heqeti, Kauket). It allows the bearer to breathe water, and allows him/her to jump up to 6/day as per the spell. It also allows the bearer to understand the speech of all amphibians and to communicate with them in their own croaking languages.

Experience Point Value: 6,000 G. P. Value: 30,000

Heading to the Jump spell in the PHB on page 67

When this spell is cast, the individual is empowered to leap up to 30’ forward or 10’ backward or straight upward. Horizontal leaps forward or backward are in only a slight arc — about 2’/10’ of distance traveled. The jump spell does not insure any safety in landing or grasping at the end of the leap. For every 3 additional levels of experience of the magic-user beyond the 1st, he or she is able to empower 1 additional leap, so a 4th level magic-user can cast a jump spell which enables the recipient to make 2 leaps, 3 leaps at 7th level, etc.

All leaps must be completed within 1 turn after the spell is cast, for after that period has elapsed the spell wears off. The material component of this spell is a grasshopper’s hind leg, one for each leap, to be broken when the leap is made.

Descriptively, it’s a 8’ oak staff carved in floral and geometric patterns. The weight of a staff is defined in the PHB on page 37 as 5lb.

Scroll of Fireball

From DMG 121

Experience Points (x.p.) Value:

Awarded only to characters who can use the spell(s); the award should be 100 x.p. per spell level. Protection scrolls are noted as to x.p. value on the table itself.

Gold Piece (g.p.) Sale Value:

Any scroll can be sold in the “open market” for three times its x.p. value. Protection scrolls sell for five times x.p. value.

So a scroll of Fireball is worth 300xp and 900g.

Checking PHB 73 for Fireball

A fireball is an explosive burst of flame, which detonates with a low roar, and delivers damage proportionate to the level of the magic-user who cast it, i.e. 1 six-sided die (d6) for each level of experience of the spell caster. Exception: Magic fireball wands deliver 6 die fireballs (6d6), magic staves with this capability deliver 8 die fireballs, and scroll spells of this type deliver a fireball of from 5 to 10 dice (d6 + 4) of damage. The burst of the fireball does not expend a considerable amount of pressure, and the burst will generally conform to the shape of the area in which it occurs, thus covering an area equal to its normal spherical volume. [The area which is covered by the fireball is a total volume of roughly 33,000 cubic feet (or yards)]. Besides causing damage to creatures, the fireball ignites all combustible materials within its burst radius, and the heat of the fireball will melt soft metals such as gold, copper, silver, etc. Items exposed to the spell’s effects must be rolled for to determine if they are affected. Items with a creature which makes its saving throw are considered as unaffected. The magic-user points his or her finger and speaks the range (distance and height) at which the fireball is to burst. A streak flashes from the pointing digit and, unless it impacts upon a material body prior to attaining the prescribed range, flowers into the fireball. If creatures fail their saving throws, they all take full hit point damage from the blast. Those who make saving throws manage to dodge, fall flat or roll aside, taking ½ the full hit point damage — each and every one within the blast area. The material component of this spell is a tiny ball composed of bat guano and sulphur.

(yes, this is all one paragraph in the book)

Fireball has specific guidance for scrolls: “scroll spells of this type deliver a fireball of from 5 to 10 dice (d6 + 4) of damage”. Barton doesn’t specify this information, so we roll d6+4 and get 10, so this is a scroll of fireball that does 10d6 damage.

Scroll of Protection from Magic

DMG 128

Reading time: 8 segments. This scroll invokes a very powerful and invisible globe of anti-magic in a 5’ radius from the reader. It prevents any form of magic from passing into or out of its confines, but normal things are not restricted by it. As with other protections, the globe of anti-magic moves with its invoker. Any magical item which touches the globe must be saved for with a 50% likelihood of the object being drained of all magic from the power of the globe, i.e. save equals 11 or better with d20. The protection lasts for 5-30 (5d6) rounds.

If multiple magic items encounter the globe simultaneously, the leading item (a magic sword held in advance of its holder, for instance) is the first affected, then the others are checked in order of decreasing power until the first item fails its save, at which time the globe is cancelled and the item is drained of its magic.

DMG 121 notes that a Scroll of Protection from Magic is worth 1500xp. Using the note on the same page, Protection scrolls are worth 5x that in gold, so 7500g. I assume that Scrolls are weightless.

Scroll of Ice Storm

PHB 77

When this spell is cast, the magic-user causes either great hail stones to pound down in an area of 4” diameter and inflict from 3 to 30 (3d10) hit points of damage on any creatures within the area of effect; or the ice storm can be made to cause driving sleet to fall in an area of 8” diameter and both blind creatures within its area of effect for the duration of the spell and cause the ground in the area to be icy, thus slowing movement within by 50% and making it 50% probable that a moving creature will slip and fall when trying to move. The material components for this spell are a pinch of dust and a few drops of water. (Note that this spell will negate a heat metal spell (q.v.), but its first application will also cause damage in the process.)

Ice Storm is a 4th level spell, so it’s worth 400xp and 1200g.

Scroll of Tongues

PHB 49

This spell enables the cleric to speak the language of any creature inside the spell area, whether it is a racial tongue or an alignment language. The reverse of the spell cancels the effect of the tongues spell or confuses verbal communication of any sort within the area of effect.

Tongues is a 4th level spell, so it’s worth 400xp and 1200g.

Scroll of Protection From Demons

DMG 128

This scroll requires 1 full round to read if it is to protect against all sorts of demons, including demon princes, 7 segments to protect against demons of type VI or lower, and only 3 segments to protect against type III or lower. The circle of protection generated springs out-wards from the scroll reader in a 10’ radius. No demon protected against can penetrate the circle physically or magically or in any way, but the person(s) within can launch attacks, if otherwise possible, upon demons. The protection moves with the reader of the scroll. Its effect lasts for 5-20 (5d4) rounds.

Note that the protection radius is not an actual physical globe, and if the user forces a demon into a place from which further retreat is impossible (e.g., a corner), and then continues forward until the demon would be within the radius of the circle, the demon is not harmed, and the protection is considered voluntarily broken and disappears. There is no way in which this can be used as an offensive weapon.

DMG 121 gives the XP value of 2500, and thus a gold value of 12500.

Scroll of Feline Senses

Arden Vul pdf page 1020 (vol 4, page 133 in print)

In casting this spell the cleric acquires enhanced senses, analogous to those of a cat. For the duration the cleric has infravision to 60’, he/she can detect and identify smells at 60’, and his/her listen checks receive a +2 bonus. In addition, he/she has a 50% chance to identify unknown (but non-magical) comestibles (food, liquids). Although most deities can grant this spell if so petitioned, its existence is largely unknown save to the priestesses of Bastet.

This is a 4th level spell, so worth 400xp and 1200g.

Describe the Hoard

Putting this all together…

• A ~4ft tall, ~5000lb marble head of Vul.

• 457 silver coins with a 1/2” diameter. They have an emperor in a helmet on one side and a gladius surrounded by the words “It Shall Be Conquered” on the other. 457g, 3.7lb.

• 330 1” diameter golden coins with an emperor wearing an olive wreath on one side and an emperor in a chariot pulled by horses on the other. 3300g, 66lb.

• 101 octagonal platinum coins with a 2” diameter. They have a dragon’s head on one side and an obelisk with an eye on the other, inscribed with “The Archonteon Emporer Shall Rule” on one side and “Authority is Power” on the other. 37875g, 151lbs.

• 7,679 cp, 6,492 sp, 5,647 gp, 453 pp. Total value of 8,275g and weighs 405.4lb, or 8,237g and 251.8lb without the copper.

• 40 pieces of jewelry. Gold values: 100, 150x3, 200x4 250x5, 300x3, 350x6, 400x4, 450x6, 500x6, 550, and 600. Total value of 14050g, 40lbs.

• A 15” long, 1.5” diameter golden rod. 500xp, 1000g, 19lbs.

• A 8•10•5” codex with a purple leather binding that is embossed with a yellow archon’s seal, written in Mithric. 100g, 7lbs.

• A 11•16•6” codex, bound in blue horsehide and written in Archontean. 50g, 7lbs.

• 8 Potions. 2.5lb each, worth 300xp/400g, 400xp/800g, 200xp/300g, 250xp/300g, 600xp/2000g, 200xp/800g, 500xp/1000g respectively.

• A magic ring worth 2500xp, 22500g.

• A magic javelin worth 600xp, 3000g, 2lb.

• Magic armor worth 2000g.

• A magic beaker worth 1500xp, 12500g, 4lb.

• A magic 3-inch long, 3/4-inch diameter rod of steel worth 2500xp, 15000g, 1lb.

• A magic staff made of oak and carved in floral and geometric patterns. 6000xp, 30000g, 5lb.

• 6 scrolls worth 300xp/900g, 1500xp/7500g, 400xp/1200g, 400xp/1200g, 2500xp/12500g, 400xp/1200g respectively.

In order to cobble this information together, I needed to check

• AV pages 104, 324, 325, 961, 985, 995, 1013, 1014, 1020, 1032, 1037

• DMG 27, 121, 122, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 138, 164, 239

• PHB 41, 49, 54, 55, 57, 59, 60, 67, 73, 77

This is too many pages flip through in play. This is too much work to do in prep. Module authors, I beseech you. Please, please, please physically describe your treasure so we can tell the players what they see.

Interact With the Hoard

Some of the interactions are easy. We pick coins up and put them in our bag of holding. Some of the interactions are more complicated or happen days or weeks in-game later (like identifying items).

Our note-taking needs to be able to handle the players looting multiple hoards, bringing them back to town, forgetting about them, and then asking about them later. If you don’t prepare for this eventuality ahead of time, you’ll run into (like I have) something that looks like

Alice: Oh hey I wrote down “Oak Staff” on my paper. Does anyone remember what that does?

Bob: Oak Staff? No…do you remember where you got it? Did we ever get it identified?

Alice: No… maybe it was from the Mummy Lord? Or maybe the Dragon Hoard? Or it could have been from that wizard that we ambushed…

GM: <frantically searching the book>

The simplest way to handle this is to give each item a code. When you give Alice the Oak Staff (staff of the frog), tell her to WRITE DOWN that it’s item#1. In your notes, write 1. Staff of the Frog. AV995.

Eventually your notes look like

1. Staff of the Frog. AV995
2. Scroll of Fireball (10d6). PHB73
3. A stupid hat the players are convinced is magic
4. Alexia's Useful Pole (no extra length). AV961
...

This requires eating into play-time and discipline at the table, but it works and is low-prep.

You can trade prep-time for play-time by writing out index cards in advance. You can grab a stack of index cards and give them codes at the top, in advance. Here’s some sample, unique 3-character codes

4N7 B9X K2W R4M X8P A3P C1V L7N T1K Y3R B8R D6M M4B U9G 7FW C2K E4F N2X V3C 8GL D9T F7G P8D W7H 9HJ E5W G2L R1F X5K 2KJ F1X H8K T6G Y2L 3LM G4Y J3M U4V 4NA 4NP H7B K9N V9P 5PB 5PT J2C L1P W2R 6RC 6RV K6D M5R X7T 7TD 7TX L3F N8T Y4U 8UE 8UY M9G P2V 2AF 9VF 9VB N4H R7W 3BG 2WG 2WC P1J T3X 4CH 3XH 3XD R5K U8Y 5DJ 4YJ 4YF T2L V4A 6EK 5AK 5AG U7M W9B 7FL 6BL 6BH V1N X2C 8GM 7CM 7CJ W6P Y7D 9HN 8DN 8DK

So 4N7 on the first one, B9X on the second, and so on. Then, when you go to prep unidentified items you just put one on each index card. Ahead of time, you’ve got the Staff of the Frog on index card A3P, so when you tell Alice about the staff, tell her to WRITE DOWN that it’s code A3P. Later, when it’s identified she asks you about Oak Staff A3P and you can hand her the index card.

(You can also just number them, but that gives a little information away.)

Next up the automation rung is the digital version of this. It’s hard to copy+paste to an index card. It’s easy to copy+paste into an excel sheet or google doc. You can keep a GM-private google doc with the items you’ve prepped, and a player-public google doc (or wiki or whatever) with the items you’ve identified. This lets you copy+paste from your doc (or from the pdf directly) into the doc the players can see from the phones.

On the module author’s side, we’re pretty constrained by the media (print and pdf). If we’re writing adventures as a webpage, you have the ability to create hyperlinks directly to the content you want to reference. PDFs can sort of do this, but no one does. In lieu of that, it’s super helpful to include the actual page number you’re referencing. “see AV1013” is way better than “see Arden Vul Items”.

If it seems like this juice isn’t worth the squeeze, and you’re not sure how “the players simply interact with the items” is supposed to interact with stuff like the Staff of the Frog, which is implied to have command words but those command words aren’t written down, or how troubling it is that there’s a NPC appraiser (implying that PCs aren’t supposed to be able to appraise the value of gems themselves), then you can do what I do.

I just tell them how much stuff is worth, and identify magic items immediately, just like if we’re playing any of the Souls games or World of Warcraft or reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. If you need a way to do this in your game, consider giving the PCs access to a ritual where they offer 200g worth of treasure to a God of their choice and that god bestows the knowledge unto them, instantly evaporating the treasure. If that’s too on-the-nose, a flavorful magic item that does the same thing (eats treasure, spits out knowledge).

I think a good analogue of this is in Expedition 33, where this expedition is the first one ever (Gustave just invented it) that had access to the Lumina Converter, which is why in-game they’re able to make it so far despite being so few in number relative to the other expeditions.

Bringing It Back To Town

Loot has weight and value, we need to know both! Module authors, for the love of all that is good in the universe please include the weights of every single item you pen down. Don’t assume I memorized how much potions weigh in this particular system. We allegedly do care about encumbrance, right? We’re not just hand-waving it?

Then, value-wise, follow the system and write that down too. Most OSR systems use 1g = 1xp. 1e also includes another complication on DMG121:

The suggested experience point (x.p.) values are for characters who keep the items. Gold piece sale values are the usual sums which characters will be paid for magic items, and if so sold, the x.p. award should be based on the selling price of the items, not the x.p. value.

It’s not clear to me what’s supposed to happen if you use an item and then later sell it, but future texts (OSRIC, ACKs, etc) specify that you get the gold but not the xp. It’s also not clear to me how liquid the markets are supposed to be; does anyone in the Arden Vul universe have the ability and desire to buy this 30000g Staff of the Frog?

So we need some way to tally up the xp-value of this stuff. The low-tech version looks like what GFC has in his session notes:

In my experience, delves can last multiple sessions, so I preferred to have a separate scrap sheet with all the treasure from a particular delve, but I think it gets the idea across.

If you’re willing to dip into the digital realm, this is exactly the sort of thing excel is for, since they save you the work of summing it all up yourself at the end. Here’s the very simple google sheet I use (feel free to copy my homework). Gold values go in the A column, notes in the B column the D column does the math.

Here’s what the Craastinistorex Hoard looks like

So a ~86k experience haul, split between 7 shares is 12237xp for the PCs and 6118xp for the henchmen.

For module authors, it’s so nice for you to give me these numbers in-line!

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Open Letter To Authors

Here’s what I’m currently getting

The head from the huge statue of Vul (AV-42); 101 ancient octagonal platinum coins (see Arden Vul items), 457 ancient silver pennies (see Arden Vul items), 330 ancient gold solidi (see Arden Vul items), 7,679 cp, 6,492 sp, 5,647 gp, 453 pp; 40 pieces of jewelry worth 100-600 gp each; a gold key to the Obsidian Gates (5-6D); a copy of the Deeds of Marius Tricotor by Lucius Cornelius scriptor (see Arden Vul books); a copy of Yeng of Narsileon’s Great Villains of Archontos, part V: Priscus the Traitor (see Arden Vul books); eight potions, of sweet water, gaseous form, extra healing, philter of love, growth, treasure finding, molasses, and deafening light (see new magic items for the last two); a ring of spell storing; a javelin +1, +2 versus dragons; a suit of cursed armor of arrow attraction (banded mail; see new magic items); a beaker of plentiful potions; an Alexia’s useful pole (see new magic items); a staff of the frog (see new magic items); and six scrolls (fireball, protection from magic, ice storm, tongues, protection from demons, and feline senses [see new spells]).

This is horrible to try to use. Here’s what would ease my burden:

• A ~4ft tall, ~5000lb marble head of Vul (from AV-42, p104).

• 457 silver coins with a 1/2” diameter. They have an emperor in a helmet on one side and a gladius surrounded by the words “It Shall Be Conquered” on the other (see Ancient Silver Pennies, p1013). 457g, 3.7lb.

• 330 1” diameter golden coins with an emperor wearing an olive wreath on one side and an emperor in a chariot pulled by horses on the other (see Ancient Gold Solidi, p1013). 3300g, 66lb.

• 101 octagonal platinum coins with a 2” diameter. They have a dragon’s head on one side and an obelisk with an eye on the other, inscribed with “The Archonteon Emporer Shall Rule” on one side and “Authority is Power” on the other (see Octagonal Platinum Coins, p1013). 37875g, 151lbs.

• 7,679 cp, 6,492 sp, 5,647 gp, 453 pp. Total value of 8,275g and weighs 405.4lb, or 8,237g and 251.8lb without the copper.

• 40 pieces of jewelry. Gold values: 100, 150x3, 200x4 250x5, 300x3, 350x6, 400x4, 450x6, 500x6, 550, and 600. Total value of 14050g, 40lbs.

• A 15” long, 1.5” diameter golden rod (see Gold Key to the Obsidian Gates, p1014). 500xp, 1000g, 19lbs.

• A 8•10•5” codex with a purple leather binding that is embossed with a yellow archon’s seal, written in Mithric (The Deeds of Marius Tricotor, p1032). 100g, 7lbs.

• A 11•16•6” codex, bound in blue horsehide and written in Archontean (Great Villains of Archontos, part V: Priscus the Traitor, p1037). 50g, 7lbs.

• 7 Potions. 2.5lb each.

  1. Potion of Gaseous Form (DMG126). 300xp, 400g.

  2. Potion of Extra Healing (DMG126). 400xp, 800g.

  3. Philter of Love (DMG127, see also Charm, PHB55). 200xp, 300g.

  4. Potion of Growth (DMG126). 250xp, 300g.

  5. Potion of Treasure Finding (DMG127). 600xp, 2000g.

  6. Potion of Molasses (p985). 200xp, 800g.

  7. Potion of Deafening Light (p985). 500xp, 1000g.

• A magic ring (Ring of Spell Storing [druidic; Entangle[1] (PHB54), Invisibility to Animals[1] (PHB54), Hold Animal[3] (PHB57), Dispel Magic[4] (PHB59), and Repel Insects[4] (PHB60), DMG131). 2500xp, 22500g.

• A magic javelin (Javelin +1/+2 vs Dragons). 600xp, 3000g, 2lb.

• Magic Banded Mail (Cursed Armor of Arrow Attraction, p964). 2000g, weightless.

• A magic beaker (Beaker of Plentiful Potions, DMG138, produces 4x Potion of Climbing (DMG125) and 4x Potion of Flying (DMG126, see also Fly, PHB73)). 1500xp, 12500g, 4lb.

• A magic 3-inch long, 3/4-inch diameter rod of steel (Alexia’s Useful Pole, p961). 2500xp, 15000g, 1lb.

• A magic staff made of oak and carved in floral and geometric patterns (Staff of the Frog, p995). 6000xp, 30000g, 5lb.

• 6 scrolls

  • Scroll of Fireball (10d6 damage, PHB73). 300xp, 900g.

  • Scroll of Protection from Magic (DMG128). 1500xp, 7500g.

  • Scroll of Ice Storm (PHB77). 400xp, 1200g.

  • Scroll of Tongues (PHB49). 400xp, 1200g.

  • Scroll of Protection From Demons (DMG128). 2500xp, 12500g.

  • Scroll of Feline Senses (p1020). 400xp, 1200g.

reddit thread

OSRIC 3.0 is a retroclone AD&D 1e. From the backerkit:

OSRIC is a “retro-clone” of first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. […]

New Version of OSRIC:

• Easier to learn, with more explanations and examples of play

• Avoids paragraph “wall of text” and favors granular “bites” of the rules.

• Doesn’t use the Open Game License.

• Provides licenses for third-party publishers.

• Is closer to the original AD&D rules than OSRIC 2.0.

One of the troubles of playing 1e is that there’s a ton of unclear, unusable, or internally contradictory rules. In order to make a clone of 1e, you can either keep those idiosyncrasies or you can disambiguate unclear stuff, change/remove broken rules, and pick-a-side for internal contradictions. OSRIC does all of this and also makes a bunch of other random-seeming changes (some of which is purported to be for legal reasons).

Given that we’re making a host of changes, I think it’s useful to have a changelog. I originally started detailing everything I found, but once I got to the spells, I had to bail. There are so many changes that are mysterious to me, like the casting time of Geas went from 5 segments in 1e to 4 segments in OSRIC (why?), or dispel magic went from a 30x30x30ft cube to a 30ft radius sphere (which ~quadruples its volume).

So instead, to keep this actually digestible, I’m going to have a mid-level summary.

If you find anything else of note that I missed, please let me know and I’ll edit it in.

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Modernization

• Complete removal of sex-based ability score maximums and racial restrictions

• Standardization of measurements (feet instead of inches, pounds instead of coins)

• Removal of proprietary spell names (Bigby→Biccby, Tenser→Tanzur, etc.)

• Modern terminology (Ancestry vs. Race, Mental Save vs. Magical Attack Adjustment)

Player Empowerment

• Dwarves, elves, and gnomes can be PC clerics (were NPC-only)

• Halflings can be PC druids (was NPC-only)

• Many classes gain lower-level item creation abilities (7th vs. 11th+)

• XP penalty system for playing classes without meeting requirements

Mechanical Simplifications

• Weapon vs. AC adjustments removed entirely

• Weapon speed factor drastically simplified (tiebreaker only)

• Unarmed combat redesigned from percentile to d20-based

• Psionics completely removed

• Monster saving throws use dedicated tables (not character class tables)

• Many spell durations changed from variable (1d4, 2d8) to fixed or simplified

• Initiative direction reversed (low=good) for clarity

Significant Mechanical Changes

Combat

• Per-level fighter to-hit progression (not banded)

• Surprise attack multipliers removed (no triple missile rate, no multiple attack routines per segment)

• Morale checks capped at 2 per battle

• Falling damage changed from linear (1d6/10ft) to exponential with a saving throw

• Subdual damage changed from 75/25 split to 50/50; recovery from 1/round to 1/hour

• Short ancestries can use big weapons

Classes

• Bard class removed entirely

• Monk minimum ability scores dramatically lowered, with high scores gating abilities

• Assassin thief skills at levels 1 and 2

• Druid shapeshift healing changed from percentage to flat-healing scaled by level.

• Cleric followers level changed from 8th to 9th, count reduced from 20-200 to 3d6+2

• Clerics with 12 or lower wisdom no longer have a chance for their spells to fail

• The starting spell system for Magic Users is totally different

• The “what spells can my magic user learn” system (which was previously borderline unplayable) is overhauled.

Races

• Half-Orc Thief level limit reduced from 8 to 7. 1e Mentions on PHB17 that half-orcs can be 8th level thieves. Yet, on PHB14 mentions “Half-orc thieves with dexterity of less than 17 are limited to 6th level; those with dexterity of 17 are limited to 7th level.” and on PHB11, that “14 is the maximum dexterity for a half-orc character”. OSRIC raises the dex-cap of half-orcs to 17, and uses the guidance on PHB14 for thief level limits.

• Halfling Fighter level limit reduced from 6 to 4 1e mentions on PHB14 “Halfling fighters of Hairfeet sub-race, as well as all other types of sub-races with strength of under 17, are limited to 4th level. Tallfellows of 17 strength and Stouts of 18 strength can work up to 5th level. Tallfellows that somehow obtain 18 strength can work up to 6th level.” OSRIC removes halfling sub-races and simplifies to a 4th level cap.

• Halflings gain +3 to hit with bows/slings (imported from the monster manual description)

• Halflings gain universal 60ft infravision (was sub-race dependent)

• Halfling sub-races eliminated (no more Hairfeet/Tallfellow/Stout)

• Half-elves lose passive concealed door detection

Spells

There’s way more individual spell changes than I’m listing here (this is what made me give up on a detailed changelog), but here’s a small sample.

• Dispel Magic area increased from 30ft cube to 30ft radius sphere

• Bestow Curse changed from temporary to permanent

• Earthquake no longer kills (12d10 damage instead)

• Exorcise completely redesigned with saving throw table

• Glyph of Warding expanded from ~5 types to 9 with level requirements

• Fly base duration increased from 1 turn to 6 turns

• Mirror Image changed from level-based percentile to flat 1d4

• The web’s spell area of effect was changed from 8 cubic inches (with a minimum of 1 ich in any direction) to a mathematically incoherent description: “filling up to 16 five-foot squares (80ft x 80ft) up to 80ft in height”. 16 five-foot squares is 20ft x 20ft, not 80ft x 80ft (which would be 256 five-foot squares). The original 1e area let you do 1” x 1” x 8”, which is equivalent to 10’ x 10’ x 80’ (because 1” = 10ft in 1e, using the tabletop scale). The original 1e area was 8000 cubic feet. The OSRIC area is either 20’ x 20’ x 80’ which is 32000 cubic feet (if you use the 16 five-foot square description) or 80’ x 80’ x 80’ which is 512000 cubic feet (if you use the 80ft x 80ft parenthetical).

• Teleport table completely restructured (High/Low → On Target/Off Target/Similar/Mishap)

• Many spell ranges and areas of effect changed (often slightly larger in OSRIC)

Equipment

• 1e uses 20 silver = 1 gold, OSRIC uses 10 silver = 1 gold. I prefer the simpler math, but it also doubles the treasure value of piles of silver in existing modules.

• 1e had extensive individual polearm entries [Bardiche, Bec de corbin, Bill-guisarme, Fauchard, Fauchard-fork, Glaive, Glaive-guisarme, Guisarme, Guisarme-voulge, Halberd, Lucern hammer, Military fork, Partizan, Pike (awl pike), Ranseur, Spetum, Voulge]. OSRIC consolidates all of these into a single “Pole arm” entry, retaining only the Halberd as a separate weapon.

• Weapons have a new “Hands required” stat with strength minimums for one-handed use. They also are given explicit newly-defined damage types.

• The Weapon vs AC adjustment table is totally gone (which is a rather large nerf to big weapons like 2-handed swords, lances, and flails; as they had across-the-board positive mods).

• Ranged weapons now have one range increment (and get a -2 penalty for each increment). 1e used a short/medium/long system with medium having a -2 penalty and long having a -5 penalty.

• Hurled weapons add STR bonus to damage.

• Containers have capacities.

XP and Treasure

• Monster XP values differ at nearly every HD range

• Treasure XP no longer adjusted for relative challenge (flat 1xp for 1g)

• Magic item XP specified via formula (1/10 gp value, 1/2 for potions) rather than each item having separate xp/gp values. Strangely, the bundled adventures in the OSRIC kickstarter include separate xp/gp values.

• Magic item XP in OSRIC is given full value if you sell the item before using it. In 1e, you needed to have sold the item before earning XP at all (ie, sell it during the adventure). Combined with XP no longer being challenge-relative means magic items are worth way more XP.

• (Some) Class XP tables have numerical differences at specific levels.

• 1e implied that you could divide the party’s treasure XP among the PCs however they please (rather than equally). OSRIC obliquely defines that XP is shared equally in the NPC section: “assign one share to a hireling, two shares per henchman, and four shares per character. Add up the number of shares, divide the treasure by that amount, then give four shares to each character, two to each henchman, and one to each hireling. NPCs also receive this share of any XP gained by the party.”

• The whole random treasure generation system is dramatically redesigned.

• Heaps of magic items have been altered, removed, added, or renamed. Some examples:

  • Wand of Frost has been renamed Wand of Ice. Now when my players loot a Wand of Frost (there are 8+ of them in Arden Vul), and I search my OSRIC pdf, nothing comes up.

  • Gauntlets of Ogre Power had their value reduced from 15000g to 4000g, and their effect changed. In 1e, they set the wielder (aka 19 str in OSRIC) which sets your +hit bonus to +3 and damage bonus to +6. In OSRIC, the give the wielder a flat +1d3 to hit and +1d6 damage (unclear if you roll these number once or each attack).

• The training cost of leveling up has been massively reduced. Previously, the GM would charge the character, subjectively, from 1 to 4 weeks of training based on how well the GM thought the player RP’d their character. Each week of training would cost 1500g times their current level. So, if the GM thought it should be 3 weeks of training for mediocre performance, it would cost a 2nd level fighter 9000g to level up. In OSRIC, we drop the subjective judgment and use 1d3 weeks, and drop the per-week cost and use a flat 1500g per level.

Monsters

Changes to boatloads of monsters. Most typical:

• AC adjustments, like the Sylph went from AC 9 to AC 10, while the Giant Lynx went from AC 6 to AC 5.

• Damage adjustments, like the Strige’s blood drain is reduced from 1d4 to 1d3, or the medusa’s damage was increased from 1d4 to 1d6 and the Nightmare went from 2d4/2d4+2/2d4+2 to 1d6+4/1d6+4/2d4. The owlbear’s bite went from 2d6 to 1d4 (???). There are a ton of these.

• Special ability adjustments, like the Giant Tick’s disease went from being lethal in 2d4 days to 1d6 weeks.

We also lost and gained a bunch of monsters (and re-named some for legal reasons).

DMG/Campaign Materials

This is, more or less, totally rewritten. The DMG had long, wandering essays on really weird, specific stuff like this gem:

It is of utmost importance to some Dungeon Masters to create and design worlds which are absolutely correct according to the laws of the scientific realities of our own universe. These individuals will have to look elsewhere for direction as to how this is to be accomplished, for this is a rule book, not a text on any subject remotely connected to climatology, ecology, or any science soft or hard. However, for those who desire only an interesting and exciting game, some useful information in the way of advice can be passed along.

Climate: Temperature, wind, and rainfall are understood reasonably well by most people. The distance from the sun dictates temperature, with the directness of the sun’s rays affecting this also. Cloud cover also is a factor, heavy clouds trapping heat to cause a “greenhouse effect”. Elevation is a factor, as the higher mountains have less of an atmosphere “blanket”. Bodies of water affect temperature, as do warm or cold currents within them. Likewise air currents affect temperature. Winds are determined by rotational direction and thermals. Rainfall depends upon winds and available moisture from bodies of water, and temperatures as well. All of the foregoing are relevant to our world, and should be in a fantasy world, but the various determinants need not follow the physical laws of the earth. A milieu which offers differing climates is quite desirable because of the variety it affords DM and player alike.

The variety of climes allows you to offer the whole gamut of human and monster types to adventurous characters. It also allows you more creativity with civilizations, societies and cultures.

Ecology: So many of the monsters are large predators that it is difficult to justify their existence in proximity to one another. Of course in dungeon settings it is possible to have some in stasis or magically kept alive without hunger, but what of the wilderness? Then too, how do the human and humanoid populations support themselves? The bottom of the food chain is vegetation, cultivated grain with respect to people and their ilk. Large populations in relatively small land areas must be supported by lavish vegetation. Herd animals prospering upon this growth will support a fair number of predators. Consider also the tales of many of the most fantastic and fearsome beasts: what do dragons eat? Humans, of course; maidens in particular! Dragons slay a lot, but they do not seem to eat all that much. Ogres and giants enjoy livestock and people too, but at least the more intelligent sort raise their own cattle so as to guarantee a full kettle.

When you develop your world, leave plenty of area for cultivation, even more for wildlife. Indicate the general sorts of creatures inhabiting an area, using logic with regard to natural balance. This is not to say that you must be textbook perfect, it is merely a cautionary word to remind you not to put in too many large carnivores without any visible means of support. Some participants in your campaign might question the ecology — particularly if it does not favor their favorite player characters. You must be prepared to justify it. Here are some suggestions.

Certain vegetation grows very rapidly in the world — roots or tubers, a grass- like plant, or grain. One or more of such crops support many rabbits or herd animals or wild pigs or people or whatever you like! The vegetation springs up due to a nutrient in the soil (possibly some element unknown in the mundane world) and possibly due to the radiation of the sun as well (see the slight tinge of color which is noticeably different when compared to Sol? . . . ). A species or two of herbivores which grow rapidly, breed prolifically, and need but scant nutriment is also suggested. With these artifices and a bit of care in placing monsters around in the wilderness, you will probably satisfy all but the most exacting of players — and that one probably should not be playing fantasy games anyway!

Dungeons likewise must be balanced and justified, or else wildly improbable and caused by some supernatural entity which keeps the whole thing running — or at least has set it up to run until another stops it. In any event, do not allow either the demands of “realism” or impossible make-believe to spoil your milieu. Climate and ecology are simply reminders to use a bit of care!

Or an entire page detailing different forms of government like MAGOCRACIES and PEDOCRACIES (are we in one?)

Here’s my favorite example, of which I’ve performed at at-table dramatic reading of:

The town charges a 1% duty on all normal goods brought into the place for sale — foodstuffs, cloth and hides, livestock, raw materials and manufactured goods. Foreigners must also pay this duty, but at double rate (2%). Luxury items and precious goods — wine, spirits, furs, metals such as copper, gold, etc., jewelry and the like — pay a tariff in addition to the duty, a 5% of value charge if such are to be sold, and special forms for sale are then given to the person so declaring his wares (otherwise no legal sale is possible). Entry fee into the town is 1 copper piece per head (man or animal) or wheel for citizens, 5 coppers for non-citizens, unless they have official passports to allow free entry. (Diplomatic types have immunity from duties and tariffs as regards their personal goods and belongings.) Taxes are paid per head, annually at 1 copper for a peasant, 1 silver for a freeman, and 1 gold piece for a gentleman or noble; most foreign residents are stopped frequently and asked for proof of payment, and if this is not at hand, they must pay again. In addition, a 10% sales tax is charged to all foreigners, although no service tax is levied upon them. Religion is not regulated by the municipality, but any person seeking to gain services from such an organization must typically pledge to tithe. Finally, several tolls are extended in order to gain access to the main route from and to the municipality — including the route to the dungeon, of course.

Citizens of the town must pay a 5% tax on their property in order to defray the costs of the place. This sum is levied annually. Citizenship can be obtained by foreigners after residence for one month and the payment of 10 gold pieces (plus many bribes).

The town does not encourage the use of foreign currency. Merchants and other business people must pay a fine of 5% of the value of any foreign coins within their possession plus face certain confiscation of the coins, so they will typically not accept them. Upon entering the town non-residents are instructed to go to the Street of the Money Changers in order to trade their foreign money for the copper “cons”, silver “nobs”, gold “orbs”, and platinum “royals”. Exchange rate is a mere 90%, so for 10 foreign copper pieces 9 domestic copper “commons” are handed out. Any non-resident with more than 100 silver nobles value in foreign coins in his or her possession is automatically fined 50% of their total value, unless he or she can prove that entry into the town was within 24 hours, and he or she was on his or her way to the money changers when stopped. Transactions involving gems are not uncommon, but a surtax of 10% is also levied against sales or exchange of precious stones and similar goods.

That stuff is all gone in OSRIC. Instead, we have this bizarre “chapter” that “explains” to how run a Dungeon Adventure (an important topic for new GMs).

In fairness to OSRIC, I think most of Gygax’s essays are more interesting than actually useful or actionable and don’t especially mourn their loss, but I do wish that the OSRIC GMG had more praxis. I would have loved to see something like my chapter on running the game, the praxis chapter from ACKS 2e, a consolidation of the ideas from the quick primer, Gus L’s explanation of dungeon crawls, most of the chapters from Simulacrum's DMG, GFC’s So You Want To Run OSR (part 0, part 1, part 2) series, blorb principles, etc. There’s a lot of great writing out there that helps explain to newer GM’s how to actually run an old-school game and OSRIC didn’t take the opportunity, even though doing so was one of the primary purposes for a third edition.

Such future authors or new GMs might find the about page of this blog useful!

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Level Summaries

Exterior

The Halls lie within a massive rock plateau above the Swift River valley. A 1,500’ waterfall (the Long Falls) cascades down the cliff face, flanked by two colossal carved figures: Arden the Defender (a crouching warrior woman) and Vul (a cowled figure with a staff). The Long Stair, a broad switchback carved into the cliff, provides the primary approach. Within 500’ of the falls everything is slick with mist and conversation is nearly impossible.

Ruined City

The ancient Archontean city atop the plateau, destroyed 1,210 years ago in a cataclysmic event that flattened the east side with force and charred the west with heat. An overgrown ruin; the west side has become swampland, the east retains a boulevard and some intact structures. The city serves as a relatively neutral staging area for expeditions below.

Key landmarks: The Great Pyramid of Thoth (the most well-known dungeon entrance), two obelisks flanking the river, the Donjon, the Archon’s Palace, and the Sign of the Broken Head inn (run by Kronos Kettle-Belly and Estelle). A huge old green dragon, Craastonistorex, lairs in the Tower of the Wyrm.

History: Founded by the Archontean Empire for scholarly and sorcerous purposes. The temple of Thoth was the dominant institution. In its final centuries the city was riven by the Sortian-Theosoph conflict over access to magical knowledge. Some 250 years ago, Archon Adrienic’s expedition attempted to reclaim the Halls but was destroyed by the varumani within 20 years.

Pyramid of Thoth

A 90’ square, 45’ tall pyramid with a 30’ platform at its summit bearing a cult statue of Thoth (20’ tall ibis-headed figure). The most well-known entrance to the dungeon levels below.

Tower of Scrutiny

Four-story tower overlooking the Plaza of Thoth. Four levels above ground, one below. Formerly the headquarters of the Overseer of Thoth, with a swiveling ibis head on the top floor for surveillance. Now ruled by the master wraith Loukios Tornikion. If cleared, it provides easy access from the surface to the Thoth precincts on Sub-Level 3. The entrance is locked and wizard locked.

Level 1 - Basement

Small, easily accessible cellars beneath a ruined Thothian building. No major factions; just vermin, weak masonry, and a few surprises. Good starting point with alternate routes to deeper levels. Notable for the deranged hermit Lankios, who speaks in riddles about his lost love Guivrel.

Level 2 - Well of Light

The former private domain of the priests of Thoth, now overrun by baboon packs led by the druid Gerrilad the Grey and his intelligent baboon lieutenants Sisko and Trefko. The central mechanic is light vs. dark: the Well of Light once illuminated the whole level via mirrors, but the system is broken. In darkness, baboons are aggressive hunters; restoring the light demoralizes them.

Level 3 - Halls of Thoth

One of the largest and most heavily trafficked levels, accessed directly from the Pyramid with connections to most of the other levels. Divided into faction-controlled territories:

• Northern Precincts of Thoth: Former public ritual halls. Evil halfling thugs under Phlebotomas Plumthorn extort tribute near the main entrance. They clash with goblins from SL4.

• Western Hidden Temples: The private (and desecrated) Thoth temple and the restored temple of Set, where the modern Set cult conducts rituals and contemplates expansion.

• Central Precincts of the Beastmen: Former Thothian administrative hub, now the domain of Deino, the witch-mother who created the beastmen. Count Skleros commands the forces; disciplined patrols sweep the area.

• Southern Great Cavern: Enormous natural cave bisected by the Seamly Run river and a lake. Fungal forests cultivated by the ancient priest Ptarmis. The mad wizard Trocadero of Newmarket controls the fungal foresters. No single faction dominates.

Level 4 - Forum of Set

Politically important beyond its military strength. Originally the seat of the great Archontean temple of Set; now home to a reduced but influential modern cult. The Forum rivals the Troll Market as a trading hub, attracting merchants from within and outside the Halls.

The cult operates in two arms: the priesthood under High Priestess Stephania handles ritual, and policy; the Guild of Service under chief slaver Gunnar (actually a doppelganger; the real Gunnar is secretly imprisoned) runs the slave market and a slaving ring. The cult is ruthless but lawful.

Level 5 - Obsidian Gates

The legendary Obsidian Gates, 20’ tall enchanted obsidian doors, seal the Hall of Forty Pillars, behind which lie untouched rudishva treasures on the Midnight Road. No faction has penetrated the gates since antiquity. The Midnight Road was the main rudishva thoroughfare, linking their forge, transportation hub, armory, troll breeding pits, and the Great Pillar. All rudishva areas are warded against teleport/passwall.

Also contains hidden Archontean tombs, the vivisectionist Psalor-Ki, a secret Thoth temple corrupted by a type III demon posing as Thoth (Oziman), the Great Chasm crossing via the Sundered Span, and Gog the lesser varumani who sometimes aids explorers.

Level 6 - Troll Lifts and Arena

Three “islands of peace” surrounded by deadly territory. The Troll Lifts are varumani-operated basket elevators spanning the Great Chasm. The Inn of the Lost is a functioning inn under Thegan White-Mane, who enforces a zone of peace via an ancient anti-magic shell; he harbors dark secrets and trades rastite lotus powder to Deino. The Arena is a 4,000-year-old gladiatorial venue operated by an ageless rudishva survivor, the Arena Lord, who buys monsters and slaves and enforces strict neutrality.

Level 7 - Court of the Troll Thegn

Home of the varumani, the most powerful faction in the Halls. Thegn Varboka rules from his court, requiring passports for peaceful entry. The Troll Market is a major trading hub. The varumani are disciplined but declining - only ~100 true varumani remain, plus ~170 lesser and many bestial. Varboka seeks to activate the Beacon to restore his people, and has placed a bounty on kaliyani fangs after discovering their return.

The four varumani clans are led by chiefs Hraskaya (Rudigaya), Vedraya One-Eye (Vanaraya), Gavra the Easy-Going (Pendaya), and Igrippa the Unruly (Druvaya), with court sorcerer Ashoka advising. Negotiation can yield valuable information and employment.

Other Areas Of Note:

• The heqeti upper temple of Kauket, secretly restored by Caudatssa the Tongue near the varumani domain.

• Cinna Minux (ancient vampire) maintains a court in old Archontean shrines, with charmed informants throughout the Halls.

• The engine room of the Beacon and a second rudishva floating island.

Level 8 - Nether Reaches

The “wild west” of Arden Vul - no faction controls it, most expeditions never return. Access is primarily via the Troll Lift and one-way teleporters. Escape is the main challenge, complicated by circuitous tunnels and the mind-altering bliss flower pollen that pervades central areas.

Notable locations:

• The shadow lord Laocoon’s darkened domain

• Secret temple of Bastet, a functioning ancient temple under high priestess Oubaste

• Caves of Bliss with giant bee hives

• Feasting Hall with its portal to Rimmaq-Isfet

• Forge of Zhorak, guarded by an iron golem and occupied by doppelgangers posing as dwarves

• Lost Temple of Besa, held by three rakshasas posing as rudishva

• Tomb of Phocion the Builder

Level 9 - Floor of the Great Chasm

The base of the Great Chasm: a massive cavern with twin waterfalls, a lake, mushroom groves, and the underground Rimpled Run river. The open western half has no roof (accessible from upper levels); the enclosed east has a ~30’ ceiling. Multiple factions are cautiously colonizing:

• Varumani operate a silver mine (the mine boss Prayaska is skimming).

• Heqeti hold the forward post leading to Level 10.

• Priscians (neo-Sortians) occupy the hidden Sortian compound under archmage Nerub Null, with a restored arcanum forge.

• Kaliyani have sent an exploration team nto the Silent Canyon, an ancient heqeti settlement hidden for 3,000 years, haunted by heqeti old ones under the Old Father.

Other threats:

• Quicklings under Ri Mear

• Ogre magi under Walid

• The lich Syagria Aiton

• Demonic huntsmen

• The vengeance spirit Celsus Torquatius guarding the tablet of the Beacon in the Praitorion

• The ultra-secret Rudishva Bastion, hidden for 2,800 years, contains the propulsion formula for the shuttle.

Level 10 - Ziggurat of Kauket

The deepest main level and potential campaign climax. A stinking marsh fills an enormous cavern, with the ziggurat of Kauket at its center: a 3,400-year-old heqeti shrine to the demon prince, twice cleansed in antiquity, now re-sanctified. The heqeti Great Tongue, Reepsiq, commands the level with high-level casters and heqeti warriors.

The heqeti have been trying to summon Kauket but lack the pale green spiral horn (hidden in a rudishva vault at 5-95A, accessible only via command codes from the AIs RAJ-750 or AKL-600).

Weakening the heqeti:

• Removing the hallow from the upper temple disables the ziggurat statues.

• Poisoning Rimmaq-Isfet via 8-76 removes the ziggurat’s hallow.

• Destroying the Kauket statue at 9-12 reduces Kauket’s magic resistance from 80% to 55%.

• Only destroying the ziggurat entirely (earthquake, wish, etc.) permanently ends the heqeti interest.

Sub-Level 1 - Tombs of Light

A niravairi research facility built around a permanent Astral portal. The niravairi (rivals to the rudishva) studied strange crystals and lumens (dangerous light creatures) here. The rudishva later occupied it briefly, then the Archonteans discovered it via the Well of Light (2-1) but abandoned exploration after disasters. Navigation requires solving light-beam puzzles and surviving lumen encounters. No NPCs, no factions.

Sub-Level 2 - Hall of Shrines

Two distinct regions: a potent set of Thothian shrines in polished marble (Thoth may only allow one shrine to be “open” at a time), and a suite of rudishva chambers from the Beacon (metallic surfaces, rounded corners). No NPCs, no factions.

Sub-Level 3 - Lesser Baboon Caves

Narrow, steep tunnels connecting the Howling Caves (Level 2) south to the cliff face. Frequented by albino baboon troops. Notable for the hidden upper reaches of the Great Hall and the Archontean magic user Tikun Thane, who accesses the slave market from here.

Sub-Level 4 - Goblin Warrens

The domain of Goblin King Weskenim, set in ancient Archontean servitor halls. A vast two-story hall lit by the great cook fire, spanned by rope bridges and rickety ladders, housing multiple goblin clans. The Troll Market’s downscale cousin: merchants trade on the hall floor, and Weskenim’s Court is a hub for information brokering and plot-hatching. Few hidden treasures, but useful for commerce and contacts. Sir Sorrow, a Sun-Scarred Knight, is stationed here (SL4-19).

Sub-Level 5 - Lizardman Caves

Home of the Skreel (Children of the Salamander), a lizardman tribe under lizard king Sgraal. Partially flooded (some areas 4’ deep, others 6’+ reaching the ceiling). The Skreel fish in the Drowned Canyon, war with the fishmen of SL7, and despise the renegade Lagrok tribe on SL9. Senior shaman Kusok One-Eye secretly promotes Kauket worship. The Skreel unknowingly share their domain with the lich Kentillian the Magnificent, who possesses the ebon spear. Visitors bearing gifts may negotiate; those who’ve helped the tribe may earn an audience with Sgraal.

Sub-Level 6 - Drowned Canyon

A steep-walled canyon fed by a permanent geyser, with Archontean tombs carved into the walls; many now submerged since Reiv-Tor’s dam raised the water level to 45’ below the cavern floor. Fourteen tomb openings at various depths, some dry, some flooded, some with limited air supply.

The canyon is a war zone between SL5 lizardmen and SL7 fishmen. The hidden Tower of Pol houses the powerful eccentric wizard Pol the Grinning Mage. Divided across two maps due to 3D complexity. GMs must track tomb opening elevations vs. water level and oxygen supply in sealed tombs.

Sub-Level 7 - Flooded Vaults

Mostly flooded domain of Reiv-Tor, an insane rudishva xenobiology officer who bioengineered ~60 fishmen from captured goblins, beastmen, and humans. He also created coral-generating fish, lantern fish, and spy fish. Areas are dry, partly submerged, or fully submerged. Reiv-Tor built the dam flooding SL6 and uses a well system for rapid fishmen deployment. His spy fish ensure he’ll likely detect approaching parties. PCs need water-breathing capability.

Sub-Level 8 - Caves Behind the Falls

Small, nearly unknown caves behind the great waterfall. In antiquity the Set cult bred their sacred Set animals here. The modern cult rediscovered it 15 years ago but can’t reach the old breeding labs due to a tunnel collapse at SL8-10.

Sub-Level 9 - Kaliyani Pits

A geothermally heated cavern covered in burbling red mud, with geysers and mineral-rich water. Twenty years ago, renegade kaliyani from Lissak-Tol established the “Twelfth Consortium” under Magistra Tsilliv, breaking kaliyani tradition. They’ve enslaved the Lagrok lizardmen tribe under Nisslok, who sift mud for arcanum and minerals. The kaliyani haven’t discovered the ancient rudishva research station in the northeast. Travel on the hot mud is slow and dangerous (mudpots, mudsinks).

Sub-Level 10A - Hold of the Sun-Scarred Knights

One half of the Sun-Scarred Knights’ domain (the other is SL10B). A huge cavern containing their citadel (a 150’ pillar), plus the northern worked chambers called the Sanctum. The order has 14 knights plus Master Malachite (aka Melok-Ri), an ancient rudishva-descended being who is disengaging from daily operations. Senior knight Sir Ennius effectively leads.

Each knight adopts a new name on joining and abandons their old identity. Half the force is typically away on missions, leaving 7-8 knights, 7-8 varlets, wizard Ricchar Wither-Hand, and his apprentice Jolene. Visitors approach via the Entrance Hall and the treacherous sword bridges. Visitors are never invited inside the Citadel. The Sanctum contains the cloister, smithy, library, and Solar Chapel, guarded by the rudishva security construct Ranke.

Sub-Level 10B - Citadel of the Sun-Scarred Knights

The seven-story interior of the 150’ pillar. Serves as residence for knights and varlets, with the Chapter House for formal meetings. 10’-thick exterior walls with only two entrances (southern at 40’ height, northern at 80’ height), arrow slits, and two 1’ holes Master Malachite uses in gaseous form. Hostile visitors face missile fire and coordinated defense across multiple floors. See SL10A for order details.

Sub-Level 11 - Tomb of Isadora

Hides the deepest Sortian secrets. “Isadora” was actually Yasidorancil, an ancient huge gold dragon in human form, lover of the Sortian leader Priscus Pulcher. After Priscus was executed, she brought his remains to her 150’ octagonal sanctum beneath her villa and “took to the stone,” dying and reverting to gold. The complex has been hidden for 1,200+ years, with only two access routes (one heavily trapped). The crystal cavern and neighboring chambers are permanently warded against scrying, divination, summoning, and gate effects. Substantial treasure but deadly dangers.

Sub-Level 12 - Workshops of Kerbog Khan

Domain of Kerbog Khan, an archmage who discovered the Beacon’s unplundered medical pod and spent decades combining magic with rudishva technology. He creates automatons (dragonfly-sized to humanoid) and can project his consciousness into them via blood magic. He’s gradually grafting technology onto his own body. Visitors bargain through the “talking grill”, hearing only his strange amplified voice. All deals must be “sealed in blood.” Extremely powerful and dangerous if angered.

Sub-Level 13 - Lost Chambers of Arden

Two distinct areas. The first is a shrine to the demigod Arden built by the secretive Defenders of Arden cult, protected by elaborate entry rituals. Contains the Hall of the Labors (twelve potentially lethal tests emulating Arden’s legendary labors), the Hall of the Twenty, and the Reliquary of Arden. Completing all twelve labors allows meeting Arden herself and potentially acquiring the spear of Arden - potent against Rimmaq-Isfet and Kauket.

The second area is the Beacon’s shuttle bay with two shuttles, one potentially usable for interstellar travel if the astrogation crystals and propulsion formula are acquired. The rudishva solved the engineering problem but the kaliyani revolt destroyed them before they could use it.

Sub-Level 14 - Chamber of the Beacon

The bridge module of the crashed rudishva starship. Studied by the Archonteans, who called it “the Chamber of the Beacon” and created an elaborate entry mechanism via the two obelisks. The AI Akla-Chah/AKL-600 resides here but is stingy with information. Few physical treasures - the value is in information about the rudishva and interstellar travel.

Contains astrogation crystals and a hidden cache of rudishva technology. Many bridge functions require one of two command tablets.

Sub-Level 15 - Druid’s Retreat

Natural tunnels northwest of the city, expanded by corrupt Archontean legionaries who used them to smuggle stolen valuables (some still cached). The druid Gerrilad the Grey uses the tunnels to secretly enter and exit the dungeon. Connects to various cellars and crypts, some innocuous, others with guardians and treasure. The nymph Phryne inhabits a crystalline grotto and seeks companionship, but is currently feuding with a marid named Asim.

List of NPCs

By Location

Exterior & Ruined City

• Craastonistorex (AV-40) - Huge very old green dragon; lairs in the Tower of the Wyrm

• Estelle (AV-22) - 7th-level Archontean cleric of Tychias; co-proprietor of the Sign of the Broken Head, lover of Kronos

• Galeth Ironhands (AV-43) - Enhanced wight; master of the Long House, possessed by the shade of the necromancer Archemeson

• Kronos Kettle-Belly (AV-22) - 6th-level Thorcin thief; co-proprietor of the Sign of the Broken Head

• Tuffwillig (AV-7) - Sentient tree; neutral guardian of the Plaza of Thoth area

Tower of Scrutiny

• Loukios Tornikion (TS-16) - Master wraith; ruler of the Tower of Scrutiny, former Over-Seer of Thoth

Level 1 - Basement

• Lankios the Hermit (1-6) - Deranged human hermit dwelling in the cellars; speaks in semi-poetical riddles about a lost love named Guivrel

Level 2 - Well of Light

• Gerrilad the Grey (2-69) - Druid; leader of the baboon packs on Level 2, rules from the Library of Thoth

• Isocritis Half-Hand (2-70) - Magic user; Gerrilad’s lieutenant, occupies the Library of Thoth as librarian

• Sisko (2-29) - Giant intelligent baboon; lieutenant of Gerrilad the Grey

• Trefko (2-32) - Giant intelligent baboon; lieutenant of Gerrilad the Grey

• Umsko (2-60) - Giant intelligent baboon

• Yamki (2-61) - Giant intelligent baboon

Level 3 - Halls of Thoth

• Count Skleros (3-151) - Beastman leader; commands the beastmen forces in the central halls

• Count Trisko the Natty (3-154) - Beastman; commander of the Long Range Cavern Patrol

• Deino (3-158) - Witch; “mother” of the beastmen, creator and ruler of the beastman faction

• Phlebotomas Plumthorn (3-5) - Leader of the halfling thugs; runs an extortion racket and poison manufactory near the main entrance

• Roskelly Winterleaf (3-2) - Halfling thug; stationed at the Glory of Thoth

• Sir Simonet (3-131) - Sun-Scarred Knight

• Trocadero of Newmarket (3-176) - Crazed magic user; believes himself the reincarnation of Ptarmis of Thoth, controls the fungal foresters in the southern Great Cavern

Level 4 - Forum of Set

• Anna Ligareon (4-8B) - Guild master in the Guild of Service

• Belisarius the Overseer (4-47) - Second-in-command of the cult of Set

• Gillen (4-180) - Leader of a brigand company in the southern tunnels

• Gunnar (4-10/4-64) - Leader of the Guild of Service and chief slaver; a doppelganger impersonates him at 4-10 while the real Gunnar is imprisoned at 4-64

• Jisko Grey-Eyes (4-8C) - Guild master in the Guild of Service

• Lacedaion (4-57) - Third priest of the cult of Set

• Marius Junienos (4-56) - Second priest of the cult of Set

• Meskenit (4-139C) - Greater mummy; controls the undead in the ancient necropolis of Set

• Stephania (4-51) - High priestess of Set; ruler of the modern cult of Set

• Theodor Trefill (4-3) - Guild of Service auctioneer

• Theophrastus (4-100) - Leader of escaped slaves hiding in the northern caves
  Yon Resedior (4-8A) - Guild master in the Guild of Service

Level 5 - Obsidian Gates

• Gog (5-2) - Lesser varumani; dwells near the Obsidian Gates, sometimes aids explorers

• Killik (5-46) - Goblin “big boss of the wet caves”

• Oziman (5-83) - “Avatar of Thoth”; actually a type III demon posing as Thoth in a corrupted secret temple

• Priddy of Archontos (5-128) - Archontean sorcerer; found on the Midnight Road

• Psalor-Ki (5-74) - Vivisectionist; operates a terrible laboratory

Level 6 - Troll Lifts and Arena

• Gorlen (6-5) - Varumani overseer of the Troll Lifts

• Isocorax (6-20) - Resident of the Inn of the Lost (the inn was formerly called the House of Isocorax)

• Justin the Nose (6-7, 6-9A) - Employee at the Inn of the Lost; handles reception

• RAJ-750 (6-27) - Insane rudishva AI

• The Arena Lord (6-85) - Ageless rudishva survivor; operates the ancient gladiatorial arena with strict neutrality, buys monsters and slaves

• The Bad Neighbors (6-113, 6-129) - Evil NPC adventuring party (see also NPC Appendix); found in the Crew Quarters of the Beacon area

• Thegan White-Mane (6-19) - Innkeeper of the Inn of the Lost; enforces a zone of peace, trades rastite lotus powder to Deino

• Tredgeris the Dapifer (6-75) - Notable figure associated with the Arena region

Level 7 - Court of the Troll Thegn

• Ashoka (7-22) - True varumani; court sorcerer

• Caudatssa the Tongue (7-79) - Heqeti; found in the restored upper temple of Kauket

• Cinna Minux (7-122) - Ancient vampire; lairs in Archontean shrines west of the varumani domain

• Gavra the Easy-Going (7-25) - True varumani; chief of the Pendaya clan

• Glif (7-24) - Lesser varumani; first adept

• Hraskaya (7-17) - True varumani; chief of the Rudigaya clan

• Igrippa the Unruly (7-26) - True varumani; chief of the Druvaya clan

• Trolls (7-1) - Varumani vice-overseer of the Troll Lifts

• Varboka (7-30) - True varumani; First Thegn, aka “the troll thegn”; most powerful faction leader in Arden Vul

• Vedraya One-Eye (7-18) - True varumani; chief of the Vanaraya clan

Level 8 - Nether Reaches

• Ecath (8-1) - True varumani; apprentice overseer of the Troll Lifts (most junior staff member)

• Ilvala (8-124) - Rakshasa posing as a rudishva in the Lost Temple of Besa

• Laocoon the Shadow Lord (8-15) - Powerful shadow lord; controls the darkened halls east of the entrance

• Ljots / Arkose Scoria (8-100) - Doppelganger leader posing as a dwarf; leads a group seeking to destroy the Forge of Zhorak

• Muq (8-151) - Exiled lesser varumani

• Nicetas (8-5) - Archontean bandit; ambushes unwary explorers near the entrance halls

• Olaf the Bee-Whisperer (8-73) - Notable figure in the Caves of Bliss near the giant bee hives

• Oubaste (8-37) - High priestess of Bastet; leads the secret temple of Bastet

• Peabo (8-55) - Exiled lesser varumani

• Sir Discord (8-116) - Sun-Scarred Knight; deranged, found near the Lost Temple of Besa

• Tataka (8-125) - Rakshasa posing as a rudishva in the Lost Temple of Besa

• Vatapi (8-120) - Rakshasa posing as a rudishva in the Lost Temple of Besa

• Zhorak (8-97) - Undead dwarven spirit; haunts the legendary forge that bears his name

Level 9 - Floor of the Great Chasm

• Celsus Torquatius (9-104) - Vengeance aspect of Sekhmet; guards the tablet of the Beacon in the Praitorion

• Cenwulf the Unseen (9-31) - 8th-level illusionist; leader of the Priscian expeditionary team

• Jaracondus the Sprightly (9-63) - Second in command of the Priscians in Arden Vul

• Nerub Null (9-64) - Archmage; leader of the Priscians, rediscovered the Sortian compound

• Prayaska (9-22) - True varumani; mine boss of the silver mining operation (skimming silver)

• Ri Mear (9-14) - Lord of the quicklings; leads a vicious band in the southern mushroom groves

• Rivvep (9-118) - Kaliyani sorcerer; leader of the kaliyani exploration team from the Silent Canyon

• Syagria Aiton (9-55) - Lich; an Archontean-era undead of great power

• Vingalok (9-48) - Niravairi; member of the Order of Planar Explorers

• Walid (9-70) - Chief of the ogre magi; inhabits a tower on the chasm floor

Level 10 - Ziggurat of Kauket

• Reepsiq the Great Tongue (10-47) - Heqeti high priest of Kauket; oversees the ziggurat and seeks to summon Kauket himself

SL3 - Lesser Baboon Caves

• Tikun Thane (SL3-2) - Archontean magic user; accesses the slave market at the Forum of Set

SL4 - Goblin Warrens

• Sir Sorrow (SL4-19) - Sun-Scarred Knight

• Weskenim (SL4-22) - Grand King of the United Goblins; holds court in the ancient servitor’s halls

SL5 - Lizardman Caves

• Kentillian the Magnificent (SL5-13B) - Lich; former Archontean archmage, possesses the ebon spear

• Kusok One-Eye (SL5-31) - Senior lizardman shaman; secretly promotes reverence for Kauket

• Sgraal (SL5-36) - Lizard king; chief of the Skreel (Children of the Salamander) lizardman tribe

SL6 - Drowned Canyon

• Basil Choumnos (SL6-17A) - Castellan of the Tower of Pol

• Pol the Grinning Mage (SL6-8) - Powerful and eccentric wizard; inhabits the hidden Tower of Pol

SL7 - Flooded Vaults

• Reiv-Tor (SL7-23) - Insane rudishva survivor; former xenobiology officer of the Beacon, created the fishmen through bioengineering, rules an aquatic domain

SL9 - Kaliyani Pits

• Nisslok (SL9-27) - Lizard king; chief of the Lagrok tribe of renegade lizardmen, enslaved by the kaliyani

• Tsilliv (SL9-77) - Kaliyani Magistra of the Twelfth Consortium; leads the renegade kaliyani outpost

SL10A - Hold of the Sun-Scarred Knights

• Master Malachite / Melok-Ri (SL10A-32) - Leader of the Sun-Scarred Knights; ancient rudishva-descended being, first among equals

• Sir Ennius (SL10A-21) - Sun-Scarred Knight; senior knight, exercises significant influence in Master Malachite’s absence

• Sir Hazel (SL10A-18) - Sun-Scarred Knight

• Sir Hegemon (SL10A-21) - Sun-Scarred Knight

• Sir Larel (SL10A-22) - Sun-Scarred Knight

• Sir Spes (SL10A-24) - Sun-Scarred Knight; stationed at the Solar Chapel

SL10B - Citadel of the Sun-Scarred Knights

• Ricchar Wither-Hand (SL10B-26) - Magic user serving the Sun-Scarred Knights; has an apprentice named Jolene

• Sir Philautia (SL10B-2) - Sun-Scarred Knight

• Sir Vambrace (SL10B-2) - Sun-Scarred Knight

SL11 - Tomb of Isadora

• Isadora / Yasidorancil (SL11-12) - Deceased ancient huge gold dragon; spent most of her life in human form as an Archontean noblewoman, lover of Priscus Pulcher, her remains have reverted to gold

SL12 - Workshops of Kerbog Khan

• Kerbog Khan (SL12-25) - Archmage and eccentric techno-sorcerer; combines magical skills with rudishva technology to create automatons, projects consciousness into them

SL14 - Chamber of the Beacon

• Akla-Chah / AKL-600 (SL14-13) - Rudishva AI; housed in the bridge module of the Beacon, stingy with information

SL15 - Druid’s Retreat

• Gerrilad the Grey (2-69, encountered here randomly) - Druid; uses these tunnels to secretly enter and exit Arden Vul for mistletoe and holly

• Phryne (SL15-16) - Nymph; inhabits a crystalline grotto, bored and seeking companionship, currently in conflict with a marid named Asim

By Faction

Baboons / Druids of Level 2

• Gerrilad the Grey (2-69) - Druid, ruler of the baboon packs

• Isocritis Half-Hand (2-70) - Magic user, Gerrilad’s lieutenant

• Sisko (2-29) - Giant intelligent baboon lieutenant

• Trefko (2-32) - Giant intelligent baboon lieutenant

• Umsko (2-60) - Giant intelligent baboon

• Yamki (2-61) - Giant intelligent baboon

Beastmen of Deino

• Count Skleros (3-151) - Beastman leader

• Count Trisko the Natty (3-154) - Commander of the Long Range Cavern Patrol

• Deino (3-158) - Witch, “mother” and creator of the beastmen

Cult of Set

• Anna Ligareon (4-8B) - Guild master

• Belisarius the Overseer (4-47) - Second-in-command

• Gunnar (4-10/4-64) - Chief slaver, leader of the Guild of Service (impersonated by a doppelganger)

• Jisko Grey-Eyes (4-8C) - Guild master

• Lacedaion (4-57) - Third priest

• Marius Junienos (4-56) - Second priest

• Stephania (4-51) - High priestess of Set

• Theodor Trefill (4-3) - Guild of Service auctioneer

• Tikun Thane (SL3-2) - Archontean magic user, patron of the slave market

• Yon Resedior (4-8A) - Guild master

Goblins

• Killik (5-46) - Goblin “big boss of the wet caves”

• Weskenim (SL4-22) - Grand King of the United Goblins

Halfling Thugs

• Phlebotomas Plumthorn (3-5) - Leader of the halfling thugs

• Roskelly Winterleaf (3-2) - Halfling thug, stationed at the Glory of Thoth

Heqeti

• Caudatssa the Tongue (7-79) - Heqeti, found in the restored upper temple of Kauket

• Reepsiq the Great Tongue (10-47) - High priest of Kauket, oversees the ziggurat

Inn of the Lost

• Isocorax (6-20) - Resident of the Inn (formerly the House of Isocorax)

• Justin the Nose (6-7, 6-9A) - Receptionist at the Inn

• Thegan White-Mane (6-19) - Innkeeper, enforces the peace zone

Kaliyani

• Rivvep (9-118) - Sorcerer, leads an exploration team in the Silent Canyon

• Tsilliv (SL9-77) - Magistra of the Twelfth Consortium, leads the renegade kaliyani

Lizardmen (Lagrok - Renegade)

• Nisslok (SL9-27) - Lizard king, chief of the Lagrok tribe, enslaved by kaliyani

Lizardmen (Skreel)

• Kusok One-Eye (SL5-31) - Senior shaman, secretly promotes Kauket worship

• Sgraal (SL5-36) - Lizard king, chief of the Skreel tribe

Priesthood of Bastet

• Oubaste (8-37) - High priestess of Bastet, leads the secret temple

Priscians (Neo-Sortians)

• Cenwulf the Unseen (9-31) - 8th-level illusionist, leads the expeditionary team

• Jaracondus the Sprightly (9-63) - Second in command

• Nerub Null (9-64) - Archmage, leader of the Priscians in Arden Vul

Rudishva Survivors / AIs

• Akla-Chah / AKL-600 (SL14-13) - Rudishva AI on the bridge of the Beacon

• Master Malachite / Melok-Ri (SL10A-32) - Rudishva-descended, also leader of Sun-Scarred Knights

• RAJ-750 (6-27) - Insane rudishva AI

• Reiv-Tor (SL7-23) - Insane rudishva survivor, created the fishmen

• The Arena Lord (6-85) - Ageless rudishva survivor, operates the Arena. Insane.

Sun-Scarred Knights

• Jolene (SL10B-26) - Apprentice to Ricchar Wither-Hand

• Master Malachite / Melok-Ri (SL10A-32) - Leader of the order

• Ricchar Wither-Hand (SL10B-26) - Magic user serving the order

• Sir Discord (8-116) - Deranged knight, found on Level 8

• Sir Ennius (SL10A-21) - Senior knight

• Sir Hazel (SL10A-18) - Knight

• Sir Hegemon (SL10A-21) - Knight

• Sir Larel (SL10A-22) - Knight

• Sir Philautia (SL10B-2) - Knight

• Sir Simonet (3-131) - Knight, stationed on Level 3

• Sir Sorrow (SL4-19) - Knight, stationed in the Goblin Warrens

• Sir Spes (SL10A-24) - Knight

• Sir Vambrace (SL10B-2) - Knight

Varumani (Trolls)

• Ashoka (7-22) - Court sorcerer

• Ecath (8-1) - Apprentice overseer of the Troll Lifts

• Gavra the Easy-Going (7-25) - Chief of the Pendaya clan

• Glif (7-24) - Lesser varumani, first adept

• Gog (5-2) - Lesser varumani, independent near the Obsidian Gates

• Gorlen (6-5) - Overseer of the Troll Lifts

• Hraskaya (7-17) - Chief of the Rudigaya clan

• Igrippa the Unruly (7-26) - Chief of the Druvaya clan

• Muq (8-151) - Exiled lesser varumani

• Peabo (8-55) - Exiled lesser varumani

• Prayaska (9-22) - Mine boss of the silver mine

• Trolls (7-1) - Vice-overseer of the Troll Lifts

• Varboka (7-30) - First Thegn, “the troll thegn”

• Vedraya One-Eye (7-18) - Chief of the Vanaraya clan

Independent / Unaligned

• Basil Choumnos (SL6-17A) - Castellan of the Tower of Pol

• Celsus Torquatius (9-104) - Vengeance aspect of Sekhmet

• Cinna Minux (7-122) - Ancient vampire

• Craastonistorex (AV-40) - Green dragon in the ruins

• Estelle (AV-22) - Cleric of Tychias, co-proprietor of the Broken Head

• Galeth Ironhands (AV-43) - Enhanced wight, master of the Long House

• Gillen (4-180) - Brigand leader

• Ilvala (8-124) - Rakshasa posing as rudishva

• Isadora / Yasidorancil (SL11-12) - Deceased ancient gold dragon

• Kentillian the Magnificent (SL5-13B) - Lich, former Archontean archmage

• Kerbog Khan (SL12-25) - Archmage and techno-sorcerer

• Kronos Kettle-Belly (AV-22) - Thorcin thief, co-proprietor of the Broken Head

• Lankios the Hermit (1-6) - Deranged human hermit on Level 1

• Laocoon the Shadow Lord (8-15) - Shadow lord controlling darkened halls

• Ljots / Arkose Scoria (8-100) - Doppelganger leader posing as a dwarf

• Loukios Tornikion (TS-16) - Master wraith in the Tower of Scrutiny

• Meskenit (4-139C) - Greater mummy in the necropolis of Set

• Nicetas (8-5) - Archontean bandit

• Olaf the Bee-Whisperer (8-73) - Bee keeper in the Caves of Bliss

• Oziman (5-83) - Type III demon posing as Thoth

• Phryne (SL15-16) - Nymph in a crystalline grotto

• Pol the Grinning Mage (SL6-8) - Eccentric wizard in the Drowned Canyon

• Priddy of Archontos (5-128) - Archontean sorcerer

• Psalor-Ki (5-74) - Vivisectionist

• Ri Mear (9-14) - Lord of the quicklings

• Syagria Aiton (9-55) - Lich

• Tataka (8-125) - Rakshasa posing as rudishva

• Theophrastus (4-100) - Leader of escaped slaves

• Tredgeris the Dapifer (6-75) - Notable near the Arena

• Trocadero of Newmarket (3-176) - Crazed magic user, controls fungal foresters

• Tuffwillig (AV-7) - Sentient tree in the ruins

• Vatapi (8-120) - Rakshasa posing as rudishva

• Vingalok (9-48) - Niravairi, Order of Planar Explorers

• Walid (9-70) - Chief of the ogre magi

• Zhorak (8-97) - Undead dwarven spirit at the Forge

Broken Head Situations

(LLM-assistance warning; I found it useful, hopefully you will too)

1 | Bard’s Performance

6 Guests (plus the normal permanent inhabitants) listen to Tessara Voss, a guest singer.

Sings:

The Defender stands on broken feet,
Her arms flung wide where forums meet,
Her hand rests where the old tree grieves,
Her crown hangs where the thief receives.
But find her heart beneath the dock —
Still beating, sleeping, carved in rock.

1. Tessara Voss - The “Bard”

Lean, shaved head, sharp-eyed, casual. 5th-level Thorcin Thief. Has forged Newmarket merchant’s papers and a potion of invisibility.

• Closes her eyes when she sings; opens them sharply between verses to scan the room.

• "I collect songs the way your brokers collect statues. Except mine don't weigh anything."

• Want: Locate the torso of the colossal statue of Arden, sunken in the lagoon at AV-32. She's reconstructing the Song of Arden and believes the torso confirms a verse. If the PCs help recover the torso or confirm its location, she shares the full Song of Arden (in Mithric), central to the statue’s restoration at AV-30.

• Obstacle: Can't swim; the lagoon has giant crocodiles and a snapping turtle. Doesn't know the exact location.

2. Orbas the Lame - Retired Adventurer

Heavyset, grey-sideburned, scarred, peg-legged, defeated. 3rd-level Thorcin Fighter.

• Rubs his leg stump when nervous. Laughs at his own jokes before finishing them.

• "Had a daughter back in Newmarket. She'd be twenty now. Her mother stopped writing years ago."

• "I was a man-at-arms with Corvel's Lot - four of us delved the upper levels for two seasons. I'm the only one still breathing."

• Want: 12 gp for transport home. Willing to sell his locket and map (Level 3, rooms 3-1 through 3-15 approximately, shaky handwriting annotations) for 15 gp. If the PCs are kind (buy him a meal, ask about his adventures, etc) he volunteers about the dragon: "She can smell gold through stone (false). Don't carry more than you can afford to lose on the surface."

• Obstacle: Too proud to beg, too broken to work.

3. Madalka — Goblin Fungus Scout

Wiry, three feet tall, olive-green, enormous amber eyes, permanent smirk, brass goggles. Stats as goblin.

• Sniffs everything - food, drinks, people's hands. Drops articles: "Is good mushroom, you eat, you see."

• "Madalka is scout for Quartermaster. Finding surface fungus for comparison. Underground fungus is better, obviously."

• "Madalka plays dice. Is very good at dice." (She cheats)

• "Want to find cloud cap mushroom growing on surface. Would make Madalka famous in the kingdom. Quartermaster would give Madalka her own cave." (they wouldn’t)

• Want: Searching for cloud cap mushrooms (mottled blue-and-white) - the beastman queen Deino needs them. Madalka was sent topside to investigate. They don't grow here.

• Obstacle: Supposed to report back to the Goblin Kingdom (SL4) but scared to descend alone. Can't remember her route well - "Too many stairs, all same."

• Method: If the PCs escort her to the goblins, she gives them dried cave peppers and teaches the goblin hand-sign for "I come to trade" - prevents immediate attack by goblin patrols on the upper levels (one use). Also mentions "the dog-soldiers pay good money for cloud caps, if you find them first."

4. Severian Pale - Aspiring Tomb-Robber

Young, ink-black hair in a knot, angular, pale, dark circles, brand-new armor, untouched rapier. 1st-level Archontean Thief. Has a Collegium research writ (genuine) and 190g.

• Takes notes constantly in a tiny hand. Tilts his head when listening, like a bird.

• "Scholar, technically. The Collegium of the Laurel funded my 'research expedition.' They think I'm cataloguing inscriptions."

• "I've been reading every account of Arden Vul I could find in the Narsileon archives. Most of them are wrong, which is its own kind of useful."

• "The tomb of Muirasso. That's the prize. My uncle talked about it before he went quiet - said it was real, that he'd almost found it."

• Want: Find the tomb of Muirasso (5-36 to 5-40) and bring back proof to secure a permanent position at the Collegium.

• Obstacle: Arrived alone. His hired guide abandoned him in Gosterwick. Has money but no combat experience and no local knowledge. Terrified but covering it.

  Method: Wants to hire the PCs as escorts - 5 gp/day per party member, 50 gp bonus if they reach anything resembling a tomb. Genuinely knowledgeable: can translate Mithric inscriptions, reads formal Archontean fluently, familiar with ancient architecture and Thothian iconography.

5. Rulla - Beastman Trader

Jackal-headed, 4'6", tawny fur going silver, rigid military posture.

Beastman Trooper (veteran): SZ S; AL LN; AC 4; MV 90'; HD 2+2; HP 16; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6 (spear) or 1d6 (short sword) or 1d6 (short bow).

• Speaks in short, clipped sentences. Pauses before answering anything. Ears rotate independently toward sounds.

• "Supply runner. The troopmother needs things the Halls cannot provide. Salt. Oil. Cord. I acquire them."

• "I carve bone tokens for the pups. They do not get enough playthings."

• On a positive reaction: "I would like the pups to see sunlight without fear. The dragon prevents this."

• Want: 50 feet of rope and 5 flasks of lamp oil. Kronos charges her triple and she knows it.

• Obstacle: Kronos is dragging out the negotiation. She's running out of patience.

• Method: If the PCs sell or give her rope and oil at a fair price (or help her bargain Kronos down), she shares the location of the beastman entrance to the Halls (EX-11). Invoking Rulla's name to beastman patrols grants +10% reaction bonus.

6. “Honest” Gellen Murt - Tinker and Spy

Short, round, enormous red nose, absurd waxed ginger mustache. Stats as normal human. Has Lord Burdock's coded writ of employment sewn into his doublet lining.

• Never stops selling. Every sentence is a pitch. Refers to himself in third person: "Honest Gellen wouldn't steer you wrong!"

• "The wife runs our shop in Gosterwick. She handles the legitimate trade. Honest Gellen handles the adventurous side."

• "Traveling provisioner to the brave and the foolhardy! Iron rations, torches, rope - anything a bold soul needs. At a very reasonable markup."

• "I collect stories. Every customer's got one. The best ones, I sell to the bards."

• Want: Information. Sells goods at 150% list price, but really wants to learn which tombs the PCs plan to explore so he can report to Lord Burdock.

• Obstacle: Terrible at subtlety. His "casual" questions are laughably transparent: "So, hypothetically, if someone were to find, say, an ancient iron circlet, where would they go looking? Hypothetically?"

• Method: Goods are overpriced but genuinely useful - only source of iron spikes, chalk, and torches without trekking to Gosterwick. If caught snooping and confronted, admits Lord Burdock is offering a gp bounty per piece of the Archonal Regalia (Bone Ring: 100,000g, Iron Circlet: 80,000g, Ebon Spear: 100,000g, Tablet: 10000g), no questions asked.

Kronos tolerates him because the markup nets the Broken Head a cut, and because Gellen is so obviously a spy that he’s harmless.

7. Dreyza of Narsileon - Healer Without a Party

Tall, broad-shouldered, sun-darkened, close-cropped hair, broken nose. 3rd-level Archontean Cleric of Mitra. Spells prepared: cure light wounds (x2), detect evil; hold person, slow poison.

• Cracks her knuckles one at a time, left hand then right. Speaks slowly and precisely.

• "I took holy orders at fifteen. The temple is my family." (A pause.) "Was my family."

• "I was the healer for Aldric's Company. Six of us came up from Narsileon three weeks ago. Now there are fewer."

• "I've been praying. And re-reading my copy of the Trials of Saint Kellus. The chapter on perseverance."

• "I want to find Lillian. The temple sent us for her, and we failed, and the others are dead or scattered, and I am not leaving until I find her."

• Want: Find the missing priestess Lillian. Her party was ambushed by baboons on the cliff face. Two dead, one fled to Gosterwick, two unaccounted for.

• Obstacle: A 3rd-level cleric with no combat training beyond self-defense. No weapons heavier than a quarterstaff. No allies.

• Method: Joins the PCs for free if they're heading into the Halls. Provides free healing to anyone who helps search for Lillian. If the PCs aren't interested in that quest, offers cure light wounds for 5g per casting only (far cheaper than Estelle's rate), asking only that they keep an ear out for a captive Mitran priestess.

Mutterings of a Hermit

The Basement level describes that Lankios “speaks in obtuse, semi-poetical phrases, and often breaks into guffaws of laughter or sobs of tormented grief. He babbles about a lovely mage named Guivrel, a competition for her hand, and betrayal by a trusted friend, apparently named ‘K’.”

Here’s some example obtuse, semi-poetical phrases:

• I have walked centuries in a single night, dreaming of judgments never spoken.

• A trident for a holy man-what a blade to break a friend’s heart.

• Her hair was spun gold, a snare for my heart … oh, cruel and wondrous bright was she!

• Below, they mutter in unquiet rest, forever calling: ‘Traitor! Traitor!’-or was it ‘Savior’? I cannot recall…

• Twas never mine to judge, yet the sword fell all the same. Now the sword weighs heavy on my soul.

• I see her in the flicker of the flame, mocking me, dancing just out of reach …

• Step beyond the painted mask to the place where hearts were broken and souls undone.

• Root and rodent, boiled to sludge-this reeking broth wards off creeping things and creeping thoughts.

• Bring her signet, bring me peace-or a curse upon us all. My mind cracks anew each day without it.

• Stone boxes, silent guardians-hold your tongues! Spare me your silent accusations!

• The righteous path is never lost, but mine is … cracked, worn, so dark. Could you show me the way?

• I yearn for a verdict more than I yearn for my next breath.

• A single drop of poison taints an entire cup-so one act of treachery and all is undone.

• Mitra’s light… it still burns in my breast, though tarnished by the ashes of memory.

• Behind the baboon’s painted grin lies a stair downward into darkest guilt … I have seen it.

• Kaitor, the trusted friend-ha! Our bond was forged in the blood of oath and undone by a single dagger-thrust.

• Come, sup with me on foul brew-bitter on the tongue, sweet in the soul. It keeps the nibbling teeth away.

• This place stinks of undone vows and echoing ghosts. Listen! Can you hear them wail?

• Why will these bones not crumble? Mitra’s breath keeps me upright when all else has rotted.

• There is yet a key of gold … a door of black stone … perhaps beyond it, we shall find absolution.

Player’s Guide To Archontos

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J7Jr4Q-8auw2PO0xd7BBih5ygwEyaklb7M4_-TnHkMo/edit?usp=sharing

A lot of this is copy+pasted from the book. Barton or Browning, if this goes too far into copyright land, I’m happy to take it down, but I do think it’s a valuable player aid :)

← Back to overview

This proved maddening to the point where I dropped the system and elected to use ACKs 2e instead (which has created a translation problem). I think if I had been running with OSRIC 3, we’d have stuck with it; it’s that much more clear.

Here’s a list of changes I noted (relative to ad&d 1e) while reading through the free phb yesterday:

• The book takes a stance on stat generation, which is 4d6dl1 down the line. Notably, this wasn’t one of the original methods. Method 1 is now called “flexible mode”, and Methods 2, 3, and 4 are gone. Instead, they also have 3d6 down the line (“hardest mode”), and 3d6 arrange as you please (“difficult mode”).

• Stat adjustments due to aging are non-optional, baked into character creation, and explicitly can’t make stats exceed racial limits (which are 18 for everything except con). Before, well over half of my table were half-orc fighters because if you rolled a single 16, you could put that in strength, get the half-orc +1, and the adult +1 and have percentile strength (which was an ambiguity in 1e).

• You can choose what target you attack (thank god). AD&D 1e was ambiguous here, OSRIC 2 was explicit that you had to attack randomly (which is bananas).

• The nonsense with calculating move speed based on armor and encumbrance is cleaned up. Armor has a “movement cap” (plate limits you to 60ft) and a weight (which ties into encumbrance and might reduce speed). Very clean.

• How encumbrance impacts surprise is now crystal clear. No more totally undefined terms like “slowed” and “slowed greatly”.

• Listening is clear (percentile roll on the thief table; all characters operate as a 1st level thief, racial mods apply). In 1e, listening was just in the DMG, and there was a bizarre “keen-eared” trait that characters could gain if they got lucky the first time they listened for something. That’s totally gone.

• We have explicit rules and combat guidance for backstabbing. Holy cow we finally did it. Melee attack using a proficient weapon while behind a target that is unaware of your presence. There’s a callout-box that explicitly details how it works in practice: succeed at hide+move silently for a “sneak up on a guard” type situation, or just succeed at hide to backstab someone who is already in a combat (or any other noisy situation).

• The surprise rules are clear and usable. No nonsense about eligible targets and whatnot, just number of segments where non-surprised combatants can act before initiative is rolled.

• Weapon stats are totally overhauled.

  • Each weapon has a single length rather unlike 1e, where spears had a length of 5’-13’+ or daggers had a length of c. 15”.

  • Space required is explicitly horizontal frontage (it was previously undefined). They note that the minimum is 3ft, and many weapons have less than that, which is confusing (why not drop the note and make the minimum 3 for all the weapons).

  • Speed factor is strictly a tiebreaker for initiative.

  • Weapons are explicitly marked as one-handed or 2-handed.

  • Weapons are explicitly marked as “reach” (which can attack from the 2nd rank. The spear is included in the definition of reach but doesn’t have the mark; which I think is a typo). Reach weapons explicitly cannot attack the 2nd rank of defenders (so they’re asymmetric).

  • The Weapons vs AC table is totally gone (thanks!).

• Initiative is massively cleared up. Your side rolls 1d6 and that’s the number your non-movement happens on. So if you roll a 2, your attack lands in segment 2. Very clear.

• How multiple attacks work w.r.t initiative is clean. If you attack twice in a round, you attack on segment 1 and 10, regardless of what your initiative roll was. If you attack 3 times, you attack on segment 1, 5, and 10. Ranged weapons with a >1 RoF have all of the shots land on the same segment. This is way easier in play.

• Whether or not rangers and paladins are allowed to cleave or get the improved attack sequence at higher levels is clear; they do. Cleave got named “Heroic Assault”, and it’s no longer a weird footnote. It is explicitly exclusive with the higher-level option to attack multiple times in a round.

• Turn undead has explicit line of sight and range (100 ft) requirements. The authors specify that it operates as a spell that always fires on segment 0 (so first regardless of roll). Way more clear than in 1e.

• Movement in combat is in parallel to your action. You start moving segment 1; and move 1/10th your speed each segment for the purposes of resolving race conditions. You can’t move and shoot, and you can’t move+attack (that’s called a charge, and has its own rules).

• Thief climbing explicitly uses the phb interpretation (check halfway) from 1e instead of the dmg (check every X feet). Though, there is a confusing note that “You normally need to repeat the check at the mid-point of the climb.” What happens if the first check is failed?

• All of the spellcasting component stuff is gone. No more swallowing goldfish to identify objects.

• Tons of spells had their text cleaned up (and mechanically changed, in some cases); identify is now actually readable and practical, for instance.

• Containers (including vehicles) get capacities. Every piece of equipment gets a weight. This is massive for actually trying to play 1e as a OSR game where inventory management is a focus.

• Range is explicitly measured from the edge of a square. This resolves all the corner-cases where a spell with a 15’ radius wouldn’t stretch to an edge of a huge creature if it emanated from the center of mass. Distance is measured with a ruler, and if a “square” (if you’re using grid) is at all within the distance, the square is affected. This is a huge quality of life change, IMO.

• Spells start at the top of a segment and finish at the bottom of a segment (as far as I can tell). If a spell caster rolls a 3 for initiative, and casts a 2-segment spell, it starts on segment 3 and completes on segment 4. If the caster is attacked on segments 1 through 4, the spell is lost.

• Unarmed combat is totally overhauled. It’s still very crunchy, but doesn’t give me a headache. I no longer have to estimate the relative percentage weight difference between grapplers.

• The AD&D 1e training cost rules are overhauled. The original system was that the GM was supposed to subjectively evaluate how well the player played to their character and its tropes, and give them a score from 1 to 4 — 1: Excellent, few deviations from norm; 2: Superior, deviations minimal but noted; 3: Fair performance, more norm than deviations; 4: Poor showing with aberrant behavior. They need to train with a trainer for a number of weeks equal to their score, and each week costed 1500g times their current level. So a 2nd level fighter who wanted to level up that was give a score of “3” by the GM would need to shell out 9000g. Given that it only takes 2000xp (and 1g = 1xp) for a fighter to go from level 2 to 3, this was… awkward. OSRIC 3 scraps that and says it takes 1d3 weeks to train with a flat fee of 1500g per current level. I still think this is absurd and economy-breaking.

Upsides abound!

If there’s still time for revision (and any of the authors are reading this)…

• The index is could use another pass. The index shouldn’t be a list of pages where the term matches ctrl+f, it should be a hand-curated index of where to read more about a concept. I didn’t check everything, but here’s some examples:

  • Alchemist 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. I can’t find what these page numbers are referencing, but I promise that there’s none of those pages are relevant to alchemy. Those are all explanation of character races. Alchemy comes up on page 44 and 48 (in the illusionist and MU class descriptions for brewing potions).

  • Some of the listings are way too long. “Arcane 46, 47, 48, 49, 60, 61, 91, 180, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249” heh.

  • “Charisma 9, 18, 20, 27, 93, 96, 98, 255. See also Reaction Check” — “Reaction Check” is not in the index.

• How charging interacts with initiative and ranged weapons is not clear to me.

• How thief climbing works isn’t clear to me — I think this could use an example or more elaboration. Thieves don’t have to roll to for “easy” climbs (like ropes) - do other PCs?

• I’d love to see some descriptions for adventuring equipment. Do we need a bedroll or whetstone or can my guy sleep on the ground without penalty and save himself the weight? What is the difference between parchment and vellum? What is the difference between a steel mirror and silver mirror? What is an Iron Spike? How big is a Tent?

reddit thread

The following is a listing of opinionated technicalities that I frequently see in adventure modules. They’re the sort of thing I find myself repeatedly referencing in reviews. I aim to give adventure writers a list of tropes and patterns to avoid (or apply) so their published adventures are cleaner.

In alphabetical order…

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404: Does Not Exist

The pool contains no water, but a gelatinous cylinder! It only attacks if disturbed, or if the insect swarms animate. Fortunately, its treasures are at least plentiful: 4000 gp, Wand of Frost (13 charges), cursed scroll (reader must save vs. death or, like Volokarnos, be devoured by creeping things in 3 turns), potion of healing. — Vaults of Volokarnos

Volokarnos is explicitly a B/X adventure. B/X does not include a Wand of Frost. The adventure does not include a definition for Wand of Frost in an appendix.

The giant broken giant clam shell holds loot collected from the innards of the jellyfish. It contains 3,700 cp, 1,400 sp, 900 gp, coral earrings (75 gp), an algae-covered jade statue of a warlord on a horse (300 gp), an exotic shell necklace with pearls (800gp), a Potion of Gaseous Form, a Cormadhar gem—Hessonite (2,000 gp, see Area #18), and an ancient, barnacle-covered Wand of Fire (7 charges). — Ascent of the Leviathan

(This version of) Ascent of the Leviathan is explicitly for OSE. OSE does not include a Wand of Fire. The adventure does not include a definition for Wand of Fire in an appendix.

If you write that an adventure is compatible for a system, make sure that anything you reference (rules, magic items, monsters, etc) are either in that system or in your appendix.

Double-Linking

Bad

24 | Control Room: […] Pulling lever 4: Deactivates the golden light in Area 29.
[…]
29 | Subterranean Jungle: […] Stone plinth (4’ high). Bathed in golden light (a 10’ diameter pool of light surrounds the plinth). Platinum and sapphire chalice (upon the plinth, worth 2,000gp, full of water). — Hole in the Oak

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9 | Nuromen’s Apartments: […] The girl’s bony wrist bears a silver bracelet which has her name, “Anthea”, engraved upon it. The girl’s name is the password to the magician’s study (chamber 12).
[…]
12 | Nuromen’s Study: When anyone approaches the copper-plated door to this hall, a corpse face moulded into its surface will animate and state, “NONE MAY PASS UNLESS THEY KNOW THE WORD.” The password is Anthea, the name of Nuromen’s daughter. If this is offered, the face will moan, “You may pass.“ — Necropolis of Nuromen

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48 | Smuggler’s Port: […] Brutus the Orc-Blooded: HD 4+2; AC 6; Atk battleaxe 1d8; ML 9; C; flaming oil*5, keys (50/a, 51., chest, 52. chests).
[…]
50 | Barracks: […] a) This room is the prison of Jacopo, the orcs’ accountant. — Vaults of Volokarnos

Good

B18 | Cellar: […] West Door (to B20): Strong smell of alcohol wafts from behind it. Locked. The key can be found in [G6] or it can be picked.
[…]
G6 | Sitting Room: […] In the hearth: A brass key with a metallic tag that reads: “Wine Cellar”. Opens [B20]. — Souls for Qovahe

When you put something in a room that directly interacts with another room key (a lever, a key to a lock, etc) place a reference in both places. Usually a module will describe what door a key unlocks when you find the key, but won’t describe where the key can be found when you’re looking at the lock.

For example, the Hole in the Oak light could have been written “Bathed in golden light (a 10’ diameter pool of light surrounds the plinth, disabled by lever 4 in [24]).”

Nuromen’s study could have read “The password is Anthea, the name of Nuromen’s daughter (a clue is in room 9).”

Vaults of Volokarnos could have read “This room is the prison (brutus holds the key) of Jacopo , the orcs’ accountant.”

Factions

Bad

Good

I’m being a little unfair to Incandescent Grottoes here - at least it has something! Most modules (even the good ones) don’t have a faction writeup at all.

There’s a couple of useful frameworks here. This chubby funster video describes the basic building blocks of GM prep. Summarized:

The core creative building block is the encounter, which is a potential game scene with options for player agency, unlike an event, which changes the outcome regardless of player action.

So from a player-facing perspective, we need to know how to play the faction in encounters, and we also need to know how to treat the faction as event-generators (for when the players don’t interact with them).

Zooming in on the encounter, it’s useful to know how the faction responds to attacks (since that’s something players will frequently do, and a result that reaction rolls produce). Having information about:

• Their combat tactics (are they militarized? do they post sentries and guards? do they form ranks to repel invaders?)

• Their total numbers (“there are 250 total goblins”)

• How quickly they can reinforce if the party comes back later (“the goblins can replace 20 losses per month”)

• How they respond to a heavy loss, like the death or their leader (“the goblins leave the dungeon after losing half the numbers or the death of their king, taking their their known treasures with them”)

• How territorial the faction is (are they defensive? expansionist? vengeful?)

helps a lot to run the faction as a hostile force.

When the players want to talk to the faction, it’s useful to know:

• What the faction wants (“The goblins want assistance against the beastmen”)

• What they have/can offer (“The goblins can provide access to the lower levels”)

A framework I like a lot here comes from GFC

[FACTION] want(s) [MOTIVATION], but [OBSTACLE]. Therefore, [PLAN OR METHOD OF SURMOUNTING OBSTACLE].

If there’s no obstacle, why don’t they have what they want? If there’s no plan to overcome the obstacle, what are they doing?

For example, “The goblins want to expand their territory on the third level, but are in a stalemate with the beastmen, therefore the goblins want to recruit adventurers to their aid by offering access to the lower levels through their territory”.

Finally, to treat them as an event, it’s useful to know what the author thinks would happen if the PCs did nothing. Here’s The Raid Mirror - Michael Prescott. The entire document is just the Adventure Front. See also Scenario Timelines - Justin Alexander.

Gotcha Rumors

Bad

A water dragon lairs in a great submerged cavern. — Hole in the Oak

There is no submerged cavern. There is no dragon. Nothing about this is true!

Here’s a slide from a Chubby Funster video that I think is useful. Note “Investigate the Known Danger” and “Prepare for Known Danger”.

Rumors are a key part of making informed, impactful choices. Before setting out to a dungeon, characters have to decide what to equip themselves with, given limited funds and inventory space. Spellcasters have to pick which spells to prepare ahead of time.

In order to make those decisions, they need information. If you have a rumor that there’s a bunch of lycanthropes where they’re headed, and the players stock up on a bunch of silvered weapons and arrows, and then there aren’t lycanthropes…. GOT EMMMMM.

What are we doing here? The GM is the only window to the world, it’s so easy to lie to players.

Metaphor Refantazio has NPC informants in town that just directly sell you information about what you what sort of monsters you’ll find in the dungeon, and some of what their weaknesses and resistances are. It’s pretty ham-fisted, but it works. That lets you buy equipment and set up team compositions and whatnot ahead of time.

Good

An underground river flows through those caverns. Rotting corpses of the drowned stalk the banks in search of flesh. — Hole in the Oak

This is directly useful. There are undead, and they’re by the river. We should be careful when we get to the river and consider bringing clerics, holy water, etc.

History in Room Keys

Bad

At the second switchback in the Long Stair may be found a 20’-wide entrance into the cliff. Located about 750’ above the valley floor (and 750’ below the plateau), the entrance leads to a low (8’-tall) chamber that once served as a customs and guard post for those ascending the path to Arden Vul. The chamber is neatly shaped rock, without decoration or ornamentation. Any remains of the interior subdivisions and furnishings have long since disappeared. Today all that is found within is a fire-circle and a two-weeks supply of firewood. — Arden Vul

---

All the foodstuffs as well as the shelves they were stored on have long since disintegrated, so that even rats find no sustenance here. In the hall there is little else to be found, although, as with most other areas, skeletons lie about. A search of the remains will yield a gold ring and a jewelled necklace worth 23gp and 50gp, respectively. — Necropolis of Nuromen

Good

Filled with Phantasms most of the day, beyond the four archways surrounding the Ward in The Entry Chamber (Area 2) is a series of galleries with large, damaged relief Carvings jutting several inches from the plastered stone walls.

The center chamber contains a Throne; the southern chamber a set of stairs spirals both up and down. All three rooms are scattered with small animal bones. — Prison of the Hated Pretender

It’s tricky to show a good example here, but notice that this is a room with history (what did the carvings used to represent? Why are there small animal bones here?), but that history is only implied, since it’s not something that’s player-facing.

If you have to include history in a room key, I recommend separating into a labeled section at the end. For example, the above Arden Vul room could be:

At the second switchback in the Long Stair may be found a 20’-wide entrance into the cliff. Located about 750’ above the valley floor (and 750’ below the plateau), the entrance leads to a low (8’-tall). The chamber is neatly shaped rock, without decoration or ornamentation. In the center, a fire-circle sits near a two-week supply of firewood.

History: The chamber once served as a customs and guard post for those ascending the path to Arden Vul.

Infinite Random Encounters

Bad

Good

In order to have a faction properly respond to intruders, the GM needs to know how many forces can be rallied. Wandering monsters are part of the faction!

Having information about how many of a thing is wandering around gives the GM guidance about when the PCs have “depleted” the wanderers.

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Map Scale

Bad:

Good:

This one is super simple. Just include note on the map that says how big the squares are!

Monster Stat Blocks

Bad

The troll(AC 4[15], HD 6+3*(30hp), Att 2 x talon(1d6), 1 x bite(1d10), THAC0 13[+6], ML 10(8 fear of fire)) is indeed where the workers say—about 3.5 miles due west in the woods beyond the Amethyst River.

— In The Shadow of Tower Silveraxe

Here’s the full stat block for Trolls in OSE. The inline stat-block is missing the movement speed, that trolls regenerate 3hp per round and rise from death to fight again in 2d6 rounds, that regeneration is blocked by fire and acid, that acid also triggers the morale drop.

1 wyvern (from AV-40): SZ L; AL N(E); AC 3; MV 60’, 240’ flying (Class E); HD 7+7; HP 51; #AT 2; Dmg 2-16/2-16. Special attacks: poison sting. If killed here, it cannot be encountered at AV-40

— Arden Vul

Here’s the 1e entry

The bite does 2-16, but the sting only does 1-6; the Arden Vul in-line entry has them both doing 2-16. The in-line entry doesn’t reference that it’s a bite→sting and only the sting inflicts poison. The inline block does not reference an extremely important bit from the 1e entry: that wyverns always attack.

Good

Here’s the stat block for the Giant Crab Spider. Notice how every important detail is included!

I have read so many in-line stat blocks that had mistakes or important missing details that I just straight up don’t trust them and don’t check to see if they’re accurate anymore. Instead, I ignore the inline blocks and pull up the monster manual entry every time. I recommend copying the whole stat block (and all important details) into an appendix for your adventure, and then referencing the appendix in-line. Alternatively, reference the page number (or URL). For example, in Arden Vul, the entry could have said “1 Wyvern (51 hp, see MM102)”.

Monsters With Character Levels

Bad

4 Set guardsmen (see new monsters), as 2nd-level Archontean fighters: SZ M; AL LE; AC 5; MV 60’; HD 2; HP 18, 17, 15, 12; #AT 1, Dmg 2-7 (mace), 1-6 (spear) and 1-4 (light crossbow). Special defense: fanaticism. Possessions: red scale mail and wooden shield; footman’s maces; spears; light crossbows with 20 bolts.

—Arden Vul

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Justinian, a Priscian war mage (see new monsters) and member of Quintus, as a 6th-level magic user: SZ M; AL LN; AC 3; MV 120’; HD 6; HP 21; #AT 1; Dmg 3-9 (Priscian gladius +2). Abilities: STR 12, INT 17, WIS 13, DEX 16, CON 11, CHA 14. Possessions: Priscian chain mail (see new magic items); a Priscian gladius +2 (see new magic items); 345 sp; a key to 9-58; a stone of alarm; a vial of Keogh’s restorative ointment; a pearl of power (level 3); and his spell book. Spells memorized: charm person, detect magic, magic missile, shield; levitate, pummeling fists of Arak-Zhorr (see new spells); dispel magic, fireball. Spell book: charm person, comprehend languages, detect magic, floating disk, friends, hold portal, identify, magic missile, read magic, shield, spider climb, unseen servant; continual light, detect invisibility, knock, levitate, locate object, pummeling fists of Arak-Zhorr (see new spells), scare, wizard lock; dispel magic, fireball, gust of wind, slow, suggestion, tiny hut, tongues

—Arden Vul

Good

# Appearing: 1. May be accompanied by 1d4 other Knights or Squires (as Peasants, pg. 30).

HD: 3 (14 HP)

Appearance: heavily armoured warrior.

Voice: courteous and formal, even when angry.

Wants: to fulfill their Quest.

Morality: Lawful Dim. Usually uncompromising, but can sometimes be made to understand morally ambiguous situations.

Intelligence: expertise with horses, courtly functions, poetry, legends, and beasts. Hopeless at nearly everything else.

Armour: as plate+shield.

Move: normal. 2x normal if on horseback.

Morale: 9

Damage: 1d8+1 sword / 1d8+1 sword

—The Monster Overhaul

Player characters tend to be much more complicated than NPCs; which is a good thing; players are managing just one character while the DM has to juggle many. In order to keep that overload low (and prevent the GM from having to also learn what all of the classes do), we want to stat our NPCs as monsters. A wizard’s spells can just be spell-like abilities. A Knight’s strength can be baked into having an abnormally high +hit and damage.

For an example of a game that took this in the wrong direction, take a look at 3.5e. Now compare to Draw Steel or 13th age.

Random Enemies In Keyed Locations

Bad

North Watch Post: Broken pieces of wood; leaf litter and dirt scattered across the floor. During the evening hours there may be 1d3 Goblins encountered here (see area #1 above). If so, they each have short bows & 12 arrows in addition to their melee weapons. They have 1d10+1 ep each. — Stonehell

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Knights’ Crypt: 1d6 Goblins. Tired, disheveled. Cautiously poking around in the burial alcoves. They are here to claim the barrow as a new castle and have lost some of their party to the undead in the lower levels. — Black Wyrm of Brandonsford

Good

Cadaver Storage: Fresh humanoid corpses; linens & chemicals; rat-chewed door. Giant Rats (10). Under a flagstone are 3,000 sp & 2 gems (25 gp each). Kobolds store corpses here to trade with the Gentlemen Ghouls (see Level 4D). — Stonehell

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Common Area: […] 10 Goblins. 4 are sleeping in the huts, 6 are preparing for war (gearing up, stringing bows, sharpening blades). — Black Wyrm of Brandonsford

Don’t make me roll for the number of enemies in a room! If it’s a thing that exists in the world already, roll it ahead of time. If you write that a room has 1d6 goblins, you’ve created 6 separate universes: one where the room has 1 goblin, another where the room has a 2 goblins, etc. Why are you doing that? What design purpose does it serve?

This one is a little more reasonable to me than having a gem of a random value, but I think it misunderstands what room keys are modeling.

I think the initial push-back might be something like “But Beau, there aren’t always 4 goblins in the room. Sometimes there are 2 goblins in the room and sometimes there’s 5 and so on, so it should be random”.

A room key represents a specific moment: when the PCs enter the room for the first time. Anything else is madness! This is the only (that I’ve heard at least) interpretation that allows us to have rooms with motion to them (otherwise that the motion would probably not have started yet or have already been completed).

Given that’s the case, it doesn’t matter that there’s some variable amount of goblins in the room; the first time the PCs enter the room there’s 4 goblins and it’s totally fine to write that down. See this thread for more.

Random Loot

Bad

Goblin Hideout: Dismal odor; sounds of eating; unfinished hide bedrolls; rotting deer carcass; glowing coals in crude fire pit. Goblins (5) dining on spoiled venison. Each has 1d10+1 ep and one wears a copper nose ring (10 gp value). — Stonehell

Good

Around and beneath the body are thrown 9000 gp and 23 gemstones (10×2, 50×5, 100×12, 500, 1000×3). — Vaults of Volokarnos

Don’t make me roll for treasure! If it’s a thing that exists in the world already, roll it ahead of time. If you write that a room has a gem worth 1d6•100g, you’ve created 6 separate universes: one where the room has a 100g gem, another where the room has a 200g gem, etc. Why are you doing that? What design purpose does it serve?

Tasks that take Time

Bad

The clay statues are broken, but an hour’s work is sufficient to put them together again. — Vaults of Volokarnos

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Searching the wreckage: For every ten minutes of searching, roll 1d6 to see what the players find (all items can be found if they search long enough) — Black Wyrm of Brandonsford

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Digging in the earth: Can reveal treasures. Each turn the party spends digging, there is a 1-in-6 chance of unearthing something. Roll 1d6 and consult the Unearthed Item table. — Hole in the Oak

Good

This rubble-strewn hallway is impassable beyond the indicated point. Clearing the hall takes 20 man-hours per 5ft square. — Shrine of the Small God

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Each man-turn of searching the detritus produces… — Hyqueous Vaults

When you want to give advice for how long a task takes, it’s more precise to use a measure of team-time; often phrased as man-hours (though man-turns might be more appropriate).

“A man-hour or human-hour is the amount of work performed by the average worker in one hour. It is used for estimation of the total amount of uninterrupted labor required to perform a task. For example, researching and writing a college paper might require eighty man-hours, while preparing a family banquet from scratch might require ten man-hours.”

This lets the GM know how much total time the module author imagines the task to take, then the GM can adjust for party size, circumstances, etc. So if reconstructing a room of clay statues takes 4 man-hours (24 man-turns), the GM has an easier time ruling that it takes a party of 8 PCs ~30 minutes (or 3 turns).

Treasure with no Weight

Bad

Bedroom: The doors to this room are always locked and the outer door is also barred. Not at all like the cold and damp dormitories, the Abbot’s quarters hint at a level of luxury. Rich carpets cover the floor (3*200 gp) and precious tapestries (4*300 gp) hang from the walls. — Cloister of the Frog God

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Sleeping furs with one giant weasel pelt (2000 gp). — Hyqueous Vaults

Good

Treasure:

• Cypress wand (1gp, as club).

• Gore drenched rug (10gp washed, 10lbs).

• Two fine recliners straw upholstery (25gp 20lbs each).
  — Temple of Hypnos - No Artpunk I

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… Because they are somewhat worn and chipped, the statues are only worth 325 gp each as art objects. Each statue weighs 250 lbs. — Many Gates of the Gann

Give your custom treasure weight! Encumbrance is a core system that these games use to create decisions about inventory, and picking up treasure is the main way that adventurers get loaded (and are forced to make inventory choices) in the course of an adventure.

Giving a weight helps the GM imagine the object (a 80lb giant weasel pelt is way different than a 20lb giant weasel pelt) which is also useful for all of the OSR challenges.

This is especially important for objects that greatly vary in sizes, like rugs, tapestries, and jars. A 3x5’ rug might weight 5 pounds while a 12x15x floor rug might weigh hundreds of pounds.

Uncertainty

Bad

Examining the alcoves: Each contains a pile of smashed bone and twisted wooden fragments (some kind of smashed frame?), splattered with a brown residue (dried blood). — Incandescent Grottoes

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A circle of druids is said to make its home within the forest; it is not clear whether the druids support the humans or the humanoids. — Arden Vul

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Though it is uncertain, explorers of the ruins believe the builders may have used it as a rite of passage or kind of trial of willpower due to the demonic imagery found in the statue hall. — In the Shadow of Tower Silveraxe

It’s totally fine if player-facing information is uncertain; part of the fun is puzzling together the real history of a place (especially if that history is useful). It’s not okay when the GM-facing information is uncertain. Are the twisted wooden fragments part of a smashed frame or not? Are there druids in the forest or not? If there are, do they support the humans, humanoids, or something else? Did the builders use the site for a rite of passage or not? I’m here to run your adventure, and I need to know what it is.

Very Specific Random Encounters

Leprechaun Fisherman. Crying for help. His beard is tangled in his line along with a struggling salmon. Save him without cutting his beard and he’ll give a 100GP gemstone as thanks. Damage the beard and he’ll polymorph his savior’s armor into something embarrassing. — Black Wyrm of Brandonsford

Specificity is great, generally, but does not mix well with random events that are intended to repeat. The first time this happens it’s interesting; the second time it happens it’s weird. Stuff like this is great for room keys, where it’s one-off content. If you want a unique, specific encounter, consider using encounter lists instead.

Weasel Words

Bad

However, after 1d6 rounds of searching, there are 12 beautiful shells that may fetch 10 gp each and a total of 5 milky white pearls, 50 gp each. After the 7th round, searchers may discover the Mask of Orideous. — Ascent of the Leviathan

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From the marble ledge, the sharp-eyed may spot two narrow paths that hug the cliff face. — Arden Vul

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Often mistaken as mere gems, these beautiful large orange crystals held magical qualities to the ancient civilization of the builders. There may be mechanisms within dungeons that use the power of the crystals to operate. — In the Shadow of Tower Silveraxe

Good

Close inspection may reveal (1-4 in 20) areas that appear to be worked by human hands (e.g., EX-9, EX-14). — Arden Vul

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Plinth contains a secret compartment: it opens when the statue is rotated to face north. — Aberrant Reflections

I grew up in a context (Magic: The Gathering) where the inclusion of ‘may’ or ‘can’ was very important. If that word is there, the player can choose to trigger the effect. For example: “at the beginning of your turn, you may draw a card”. Usually you want to draw a card, but not all the time. If that was the rule, in circumstances where you don’t want to draw a card you can choose not to (like if someone has an effect out that makes you take damage each time you draw, or they have a monster whose power is equal to the number of cards in your hand or whatever). Conversely, if the rule was “at the beginning of your turn, draw a card”, now you don’t have a choice.

When I read “After the 7th round, searchers may discover the Mask of Orideous”, I see that I have a choice about whether or not the searchers discover the Mask (or I need to make some sort of ruling or whatever).

I don’t think that’s the intent.

Compare to “After the 7th round, searchers discover the Mask of Orideous” or “From the marble ledge, two narrow paths that hug the cliff face are visible”.

The extra optionality pads sentence length and introduces needless ambiguity. Cut it!

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Further Reading

Good adventure design is a lot more than the above. If you had a 10-room dungeon filled with nothing but specific numbers of orcs with exact treasure, it would pass all of my above tests. In order to make good things (instead of not making bad things) consider…

Adventure Design

• The Tome of Adventure Design - Matt Finch

• Don’t Prep Plots - Justin Alexander

• Node-Based Scenario Design - Justin Alexander

NPCs

• Synthesizing Good NPC Advice - Me

Dungeon Design

• Dungeon Checklist - Arnold K

• Bite-Sized Dungeon Generator

• Dungeon Design 101 - Chubby Funster (with applications)

• Three-Step Dungeons - BASTIONLAND

Editing

• Ten Tangible Tips for Editing your RPG Manuscript - Sam Sorensen

Room Keys

• The Art of the Key - Justin Alexander

• Information Architecture - Rise Up Comus

• Landmark, Hidden, Secret - DIY & Dragons

• Interesting and Useful Dungeon Descriptions - Michael Prescott

Content

• Conceptual Density - Against the Wicked City

• On Randomness - Me

Orcs have been spotted near an ancient burial complex housing the resting places of old patrician families, and a famous warlord. The masters of the nearby town want the orcs gone... and are willing to overlook a bit of discrete grave-robbing on the side.

A B/X dungeon for 1st level characters.

Author: Gabor Lux

Link

Other reviews: Narrative Report - Big Amulet, Bryce Lynch

I’m still playing Arden Vul - don’t worry! My table TPK’d in a big battle against the Set cult in the Set temple on Level 3. Hold person is a wild spell.

The low-hanging fruit has already been picked, and Arden Vul comes with no restocking guidance, so rather than try to shoe-horn in enough XP to get the characters at a power level where they could continue exploring, we elected to run the Vaults of Volokarnos as their introduction. More Arden Vul reviews soon 🤞.

Text and Formatting

We get background, designer notes, and overview of the dungeon, random encounters, a well-keyed map, and 52 keyed locations in 18 digest-sized pages. That’s great!

The module is written in lightly formatted (bullet points, numbered lists, bold and italics) single-column. It flows well and is easy to use.

The room keys are written in natural language and use bullet points to elaborate (following unclear-to-me patterns). Inhabitants get their own paragraph with abbreviated stat blocks:

Note the mixture of GM-facing information, initial-description information, and interaction-required information in both the main paragraphs and bullet points. I’ll mark initial description in yellow, GM-facing in green, and interaction-required information in blue.

Room 16 is easier than 15 (since all of the initial description stuff is first, followed by all of the GM info). I maintain that something like…

16 | Passage of the judgement: Richly painted passage with ochre and teal ceramic floor, burnt smell. In the middle of the passage, two judges sit enthroned in their marble seats, holding bronze sceptres. Between the two are the remnants of burnt items. Above the northern door is a painted inscription.

Passage: Those who pass between the thrones or molest the statues must save vs wands or take 3d6 HP from the fire rays shot from the sceptres.
Bronze Sceptres: Lose their power once removed from their place.
Painted Inscription: “FAVSTVS VORENIVS MAXIMIANVS, IVDEX” (no translation provided).

Is way easier to run.

The stack blocks for monsters are incomplete. For example

Green slime: HD 2*; AC –; Atk touch; Spec surprise 4:6, slime; ML 12; N.

Leaves out a lot of details

• Surprise: Drops down on surprised characters from above.

• Acid: When in contact with a victim, sticks on and exudes acid. The acid destroys wood or metal (including armour) in 6 rounds, but cannot affect stone.

• Consume flesh: Once in contact with flesh for 6 rounds, the victim is turned into green slime in a further 1d4 rounds.

• Removing: Once stuck on a victim, can only be removed by fire. This inflicts half damage to the victim and half to the slime.

• Immunity: Unharmed by all attacks except cold or fire.

or

Giant shrews (4): HD 1; AC 4; Atk 2*bite 1d6; Spec win initiative on first attack, +1 on second, 3 HD or lower must save vs. death or flee in panic; ML 10; AL N.

leaves out the climbing note, territorial note, and echolocation note:

• Climbing: Skilled climbers; can jump up to 5’.

• Territorial: Ferociously defend their hunting area from all intruders.

• Echolocation: Perceive their surroundings up to 60’. Unaffected by lack of light. If unable to hear (e.g. silence, 15’ radius): AC reduced to 8 [11], -4 penalty to attacks.

All of the stat blocks leave out the THACO/Attack Bonus as well as the movement speed. I do greatly appreciate the pre-rolled HP (and that it’s in a random order).

The Map

Here’s the Melan diagram (applied to a module written by Melan!)

This is excellent. 9 loops in 52 rooms. Everywhere you’d want to go, you can get there multiple ways. Secret doors galore. I can’t find the exact post right now, but I remember reading some dungeon-graph-theory that talks about how you can categorize rooms by the number of exits.

1-exit rooms are dead ends. Often these are closets, vaults, etc.

2-exit rooms are effectively hallways with content. There’s no choice except to continue or go back.

3-exit rooms present a choice, and are the main building block for well-connected dungeons.

4-or-more-exit rooms become a hub - this is a lot of (potentially overwhelming) choice, and these rooms often serve as a sort of nexus to different “parts” of the dungeon.

When we look at the map for Vaults like this, we have

1-exit (15 total): 4, 7, 12, 19, 22, 25, 29, 32, 35, 41, 43, 45, 49, 51, 52

2-exit (15 total): 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 27, 28, 31, 34, 36, 39, 44, 46, 47

3-exit (18 total): 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 20, 21, 24, 30, 33, 37, 38, 40, 42

4-or-more-exit (4 total): 6, 26, 48, 50

Which I think is cool data. I think Melan’s maps tend to play very well.

I do wish that the maps had a little more data on them; some indication of where the main NPCs are (that respond to some sort of order-of-battle) and which rooms are already lit would be very helpful. For (a quick and dirty) example:

Content

Background

This is good! It sets up some plausible reason why the dungeon exists and is un-plundered, gives us a natural hook:

the town’s uneasy patricians, the Councilmen, have immediately announced that those who would smoke the orcs out will have free disposal over their treasures. And if the antique coinage of the old tombs is mixed into this plunder? This time, no one will be asking inconvenient questions about these minor details…

This is the bread and butter of low-level D&D in my opinion, and you don’t need much else. Ya’ll are treasure hunters; here’s some treasure to hunt!

Preparations

I wish this was more detailed:

In this adventure designed for beginning characters, the company’s goal shall be the explorations of an ancient tomb-complex, and driving out the orcs who have set up a base therein. The orcs have made camp in the south-eastern quadrant of the vaults (rooms 46–51), where they have set up a smuggling base in a cavern with good sea access. Their leader, Brutus the Orc-Blooded, is a wily and cruel chief, and he has set up multiple advance outposts throughout multiple points of the catacomb (8–9, 38–39) while setting out to methodically open and plunder the burial sites.

I would have loved an order of battle (if assaulted, how do the orcs respond? Where do they hole up? At what rate do they replace losses?) and a timeline for their plunder (how quickly are they able to loot the dungeon? What do they do with the loot?).

Then, we get this note:

The adventure begins in the small town of Arak Brannia, where a multiple-week festival has been recently announced to celebrate the fact that the curse of the gods shall soon destroy the republic’s hated rival, the western city-state of Thisium. It is here that the company shall be informed of the adventure background, and set out to organise the expedition.

The festival is never described (and is a total red-herring); I cut it entirely. Running festivals is not a trivial thing IMO; especially since there’s no guidance for it in the B/X books.

Usefully, we are given (vague) guidance for handing out rumors:

One rumour is available to the company on start; this number can be increased via paid informants and other means.

How much do paid informants cost? What sort of other means does Gabor imagine? One of my favorite bits from Original Edition Delta is the inclusion of the Rumor in the equipment table. One might wonder why a rumor costs the equivalent of chain mail or ~3.5 swords, but D&D economies are wild.

Rumors

My general take is that rumors are part of making informed, impactful choices. The info you give players at the outset shapes their early decision-making. In that context, I think that true, useful rumors are preferred, partially true rumors can be okay (so long as they drive interesting choices), and that false rumors should be scrutinized. I don’t know why we bother making duds (rumors that are false and don’t create any interesting gameplay).

• #1 is okay (there are many such dwarves), but I don’t think it really does anything useful.

• #2 is a waste of space IMO - it’s redundant with the hook/premise.

• #3 is good!

• #4 is helpful, though I think it’s a bit of a red herring and misleads players into thinking that the tomb in #20 is Volokarnos when it isn’t.

• #5 is weirdly worded; it’s a single level dungeon (unless the GM ads more levels at Gabor’s suggestion). Maybe Gabor means that there’s a lot of twists and turns?

• #6 is a pet peeve of mine. “There is no way the orcs are really behind this. Who knows… could the orcs be controlled from within the town? (Who knows indeed?)” nah man, if that’s your intent probably write that down and flesh it out. Don’t hit me with a GM booby trap in the middle of the rumor table. I’m okay with a Hole-in-the-Oak style appendix where the author suggests way to modify/extend the text, but I want the text to work as written.

• In #7, what unsolved mysteries? Room 33 has mirages with no loot, and Room 35 is the home of a mad hermit. Who is Septillo?

• #8 is what I was talking about with duds. Hah Hah! We lied to the players and got them to bring silver weapons! Got ‘em!

• #9 is a waste of space IMO.

• #10 is again a waste of space. There’s no lake; are the players supposed to search the whole place looking for a lake? What are we doing here?

• #11 is interesting; could convince players to try to chat with the chaos cultists, and then have a slow reveal that they’re not just philosophers.

• #12 is weird - there is no second level. This is the only time “Throbus” comes up.

I recommend cutting 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 (leaving us with 1, 3, and 11). It’s okay to not have a huge rumor chart; remember that we’re only giving the players 1 rumor.

The Vaults

This is another overview, so this information is split into two sections (it shares purpose with the Preparations chapter). Here, we actually do get the Order of Battle information I was asking for earlier:

Noise, clashes, and the wholesale plundering of tombs have consequences for the orcs’ behaviour and strategy. A few lost scouts or looted sepulchres shall be ignored, but if the company defeats the orcs’ advance outposts (8–9) or the survivors of a defeated orc patrol successfully return to base, Brutus the Orc-Blooded shall double the guard at key locations, and the advantages of surprise shall be greatly diminished or outright eliminated. Naturally, orcish forces are not inexhaustible, and if their numbers are reduced below 20%, or they believe they are facing overwhelming odds, they will make a strategic withdrawal from the vaults.

I still want to see the aforementioned timeline for the Orcs looting the Vaults and what they do afterward.

Random Encounters

I have the same complaint I did about the stat blocks - there’s some missing info and we’re missing the attack bonus and move speed. I also notice that halflings have “Atk dagger 1d4 or 2*sling 1d4” - I think that’s how 1e and 0e works, but in B/X, slings attack once per round like everything else.

The other thing I’d want is “supply” - how many bandits, dwarves, halfings, etc are roaming around here? Do the random encounters eventually exhaust?

For an example of this, Necropolis of Nuromen has

Room by Room

2 | Room of the Obelisk

A little observation will detect grooves on the floor indicating its prior use

How do we game out “a little observation”? I know I say this over and over, but the structure for dungeon exploration is that we give the players an initial reading of the room, and then they ask about details and then go interact with stuff.

Is the intent that we them about the grooves…

1. as long as they’re moving at exploration speed (ie, it’s part of the initial description)?

2. if they specifically say they’re inspecting the ground?

3. if they spend 10 minutes searching the area with the obelisk (and potentially pass the search roll)?

I (as is typically the case with these weird weasel words) just give them the info for free.

My bigger issue is that I don’t think how the obelisk actually works is clear.

The key makes the door unlocked without difficulty (otherwise it requires open locks or brute force). The arm makes the doors able to be forced open (otherwise it requires much effort).

So if the arm is pointing at the door, it’s still locked right (because we aren’t pointing the key at it)? Or if the key is pointing at it, it still requires brute force right (because it’s not the arm). So regardless of orientation, all doors are hard to open and some are less hard (open locks for 1st level thieves is 15%).

Also, does this just apply to doors in the room? It says “In the direction of the KEY, doors can be unlocked without difficulty” emphasis mine. Doors, not the door. Do all of the doors in the dungeon in the relative direction get adjusted?

3 | The false and true gate

Damp walls decorated with faded, barely discernible frescoes.

Barely discernible means they’re discernible. When I tell the players that the walls are decorated with barely discernible frescoes, the players ask me “What’s on the frescoes” (because they’ve been trained to look at paintings for clues). The module doesn’t say what’s on the frescoes. Tell me! Use it as a way to add a clue to something!

7 | Storeroom

Formerly a storeroom for bath staff, it now serves as the jail of 1d8 merchants held by the orcs for ransom.

Rather than having the GM roll to see how many merchants there are, I think it makes more sense for the module author to pick (perhaps by rolling) a number. “4 merchants” is more useful than “1d8 merchants”. Better if you name them (which you can do now that you know how many merchants there are).

8 | Guard room

A vault with burial niches, hastily converted into an outpost with 5 orcs. They are filling an enormous coffer on a cart with 8000 cp looted from the niches (so heavy that four strong men can barely pull it).

I think there’s a big inclination in big portions of the community to prioritize the fiction/simulation over the ‘game’ part. ACKs, for example, is filled with people of a highly simulative mindset, and there’s also manifestos like New Simulationism - Sam Sorensen.

I think these sort of frameworks have such a hard time dealing with dungeons or dungeon keys that have any sort of motion to them. If we’re properly simulating this sort of dungeon, do we really believe that it just so happens that the Orcs are looting this room right when the players enter it? Wouldn’t it be more likely that they are either finished looting, or haven’t started yet?

Say it takes them 30 minutes to finish the described looting. Say that the PCs enter the dungeon at 1:00pm, and arrive to this Guard room at 1:20pm. The orcs started at 1:10pm, and will finish by 1:40pm, so it just so happens that the PCs catch them looting. But say the PCs didn’t explore this way first, and instead spent an hour exploring the southern area, so they made it to the guard room at 2:30pm. Are we supposed to have the orcs loot the whole room (and toss the really cool room key) or do we rehypothecate events so that the orcs just so happen to start looting just before the players enter the room the whole time?

The second option is great for the Game and great for the narrative, but isn’t accurate.

11 | Burial Vault

11. Burial vault: Human remains in niches and plundered sarcophagi. The secret door is operated by a lever in one of the niches (elves have 1:6 to notice).

How does this work at the table? Do the players say stuff like “I feel around in all of the niches” The above is the whole room key; the number of niches is undefined; how does searching for such a lever work?

13 | Secret Passage

At a) stands the statue of a minstrel, who will place an arrow on the string of his lyre, and fire with a musical chord at those approaching down the passage (two attacks per round as 4th level Fighter, 1d6 Hp).

The statue doesn’t have a stat block; no AC or HP. Is the minstrel’s lyre made of the same material as the minstrel (presumably some kind of stone) or is it made of wood? Does the minstrel have a limited supply of real arrows, or is it conjuring arrows somehow? If we want casters to be able to cast Dispel Magic, we need to know the level of the enchanter (since there’s 5% chance of failure per level the enchanter is above the dispeller).

14 | Room of the other obelisk

In the secret niche, a large, dark grey brazier before the face of a bearded deity is laden with 500 sp and 50 gp. The brazier itself is old silver worth 500 gp.

If you include a non-standard item (like a brazier) as treasure by giving it a gold value, it’s very helpful to also give it a coin-weight so all of the folks following the encumbrance rules can smoothly play.

15 | Passage of the judgement

From behind the northern bronze door come sounds of hushed deliberation. Above this portal, a painted inscription declares: „FAVSTVS VORENIVS MAXIMIANVS, IVDEX”.

Please when you write your module in english and write inscriptions/puzzles/etc in not english, translate the text for me. 1st level characters have access to Read Languages, so they can definitely read this.

17 | Hidden passage

Partially collapsed passage with numerous cracks in the wall. Soil has spilled from the cracks, and the tight burrows are inhabited by 4 giant shrews. The haunts of these aggressive beasts are so small that only a halfling could squeeze inside (and even so, has 1:3 to cause a collapse and become trapped forever). Further in the network, the shrew nest contains gnawed-on bones and a gemstone hairpin (100 gp).

Two notes here.

1. When Gabor gives probabilities, he likes to reduce them; so rather than saying 2-in-6 or 2:6, he’ll say 1:3. Rather than 4:6 he says 2:3. I much prefer to keep the denominator as a 6 that way I don’t have to do math to figure out what I need to roll; though perhaps Gabor keeps a d3 at his table. This plays in to Cognitive Overload - we want to do everything we can to reduce GM overload, and making them convert 1-in-3 to 2-in-6 is just one more thing.

2. The only way for the shrews to leave this room is through their tiny tunnels. Do those tunnels lead to the outside? If not, they’d suffocate or starve right? If so, we should make the tiny tunnel discoverable from the outside.

18 | Plundered Vault

Even the flagstones have been lifted by erstwhile grave robbers, and a grand royal grave lies despoiled of its riches. On the wall, someone has left a charcoal message:

“HERE CAME BURLAGON THE HALFWAY-ORC /
FROM THIS GRAVE DID HE RETRIEVE A KINGLY HOARD /
YOU COULD HAVE THE SAME BRAVELY DONE /
BUT BURLAGON WAS FASTER, SO GET YE GONE.”

I love the message from the Burlagon. So fun and flavorful 😍

In one corner lies an intact helmet that has rolled into a dark place.

Which corner? What dark place? This is a total red herring.

20 | The Legate’s mausoleum

In the middle, a stone slab sunk into the floor, inscribed “LEGATVS”, bears a bas-relief depicting a man wearing military garb and laurels. Around the walls are scattered life-sized clay statues of soldiers, toppled and broken in heaps of shards. Frescoes decorate the walls, and the exits are double bronze gates (open doors roll required for every time it is opened).

• The frescoes depict the Legate’s military deeds; in all cases, he is seen in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by the faithful soldiers of Imperial Legion IV.

• The clay statues are broken, but an hour’s work is sufficient to put them together again (don’t forget random encounters). If the intact figures are set around the stone slab, it opens, and a VERY loud gong strikes. Immediately roll three random encounter checks!

I think the bullet points are out of order (not in the same order as they appear in the initial description, not in alphabetical order, etc). More importantly, no one at my table (including me) understood how they could have known that putting together the clay statues was remotely an option. The text says “scattered life-sized clay statues of soldiers, topped and broken in heaps of shards”. Is this something that people would normally read and think is repairable with no equipment (like glue) in a remotely reasonable amount of time? They’re heaps of shards! Why does it only take an hour to put all of the clay statues back together? It takes me an hour to put IKEA furniture together!

Related, giving task time in raw hours rather than man-hours is another pet peeve. I would prefer to say “but four man-hours of work is sufficient..”, and then I know if there’s 4 PCs it takes an hour, or 30m for a party of 8 (which is my table).

29 | The vault of Veturia Lentula

White marble columns, interior grave with the marble likeness of a female patrician. […]

• The interior grave is undisturbed; VETURIA LENTULA’s name can be read from a stone plaque. The beautiful dame’s carved hand reaches out slightly, and has a small hole drilled into it. Placing a mirror therein so she can behold her own likeness opens a recess with 2000 sp and 600 gp.

I love this! I explicitly described how her gaze was directed toward her hand. The players tried putting a bunch of stuff into the palm-hole before eventually having the spark-of-insight to use a hand mirror (which is exactly the sort of moment a puzzle-maker is trying to create).

32 | The treasury of Volokarnos

The pool contains no water, but a gelatinous cylinder! It only attacks if disturbed, or if the insect swarms animate. Fortunately, its treasures are at least plentiful: 4000 gp, wand of frost (13 charges), cursed scroll (reader must save vs. death or, like Volokarnos, be devoured by creeping things in 3 turns), potion of healing.

A cursed scroll with save vs death or die is one (interesting?) way to lose a character (and we did).

Wand of Frost isn’t an item in BX, though there is one in 1e.

The mirror contains an imprisoned medusa: those who look inside must save vs. stone or turn into a statue. A mirror automatically petrifies the medusa. The mirror is worth 12,000 gp intact, but it is large, bulky, and its save vs. breakage is only 2…

How much does it weigh? Also, save vs breakage isn’t a concept in BX, and even using the 1e concept, that would be a very good save (you’d only fail on a nat 1).

36 | The column

A green stone column, 4’ wide, stands in the middle of the room carved with three bearded stone faces looking in three directions. An inscription reads: “YOV WHO PASS HERE, MVST SATE MY HVNGER”. The mouths shall swallow food and other objects deposited therein, but there is no adverse effect even if this act is not performed.

This is fantastic, and really easy to import into other dungeons if you haven’t/won’t play Volokarnos.

42 | The shrine of Chaos

The altar has a secret niche with a potion of polymorph and elixir of youth.

How does one find the secret niche in the altar? There’s no tell - is this just leaning on B/X’s 1:6 roll? OSE has a Potion of Polymorph Self, but not Potion of Polymorph. There is no Elixir of Youth either (or anything similar), though such a potion does show up in 1e’s Unearthed Arcana.

46 | Old storeroom

Rotting piles of barrels and crates stand by the walls with bales of shoddy sailcloth. There is nothing of value, but behind a crate stack, someone has written a chalk inscription: “THE SECRET OF GUELTIERI CALDERA” (c.f. 26/g).

Here’s 26G:

GUALTIERI CALDERARA: „VANISHED IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THISIUM”. The grave, cracked open, still contains the splendidly dressed, unmolested body of

Gualtieri Calderra with his rich jewellery – more accurately, it is an illusion. Characters rummaging in the sarcophagus have 1:6 to be ambushed by the ghouls in room 28, also behind an illusionary wall.

Neither me nor my players understand what ‘the secret of gueltieri caldera’ is supposed to mean, or why it might be written in chalk behind some barrels in the old storeroom.

50 | Barracks

This room is the prison of Jacopo, the orcs’ accountant. Jacopo has excellent memory, and knows the exact location, quantity and value of every smuggled good in storage, data he also records in his enormous ledger.

The trouble is that while you say Jacopo knows this, I don’t know the quantity and value of every smuggled good in storage, and the author didn’t write it down, so when the players ask him, all I can do is panic.

This room is locked, and Brutus has the key; but it only says that in Brutus’ writeup, not in this room. It should be in both places.

51 | The chamber of Brutus the Orc-Blooded

here is the unlucky Jacopo’s spellbook as well (1: burning hands, identify, mending, read magic, ventriloquism; 2: knockspell, wizard lock).

Burning Hands is not a spell in BX (though it is in 1e). Knockspell is called Knock.

Treasure and XP

Treasure:

• #2: 30g 900s (120g)

• #3: 30g 100s (40g)

• #4: ~4 bronze cups (20g)

• #7: merchant reward (~540g)

• #8: 8000c (80g)

• #9: 3000g

• #10: 900g

• #14: 50g 500s, brazier (600g)

• #16: 600g 600s medallion (1660g)

• #17: gemstone hairpin (100g)

• #19: splendid spider silk (1600g)

• #20: 9000g, 23 gemstones (13970g)

• #22: 400g 1200s (520g)

• #26: 1100g, 1700s, 2000g diamond ring (3270g)

• #28: 6000s, 5 gemstones (2720g)

• #29: 650g, 2014s (851g)

• #31: crystal shards (973g)

• #32: 1000g sword, 4000g, 12000g mirror (17000g)

• #35: 600g

• #41: 1000g, gem pouch (3500g)

• #42: candelabra, symbol, tetrad, rings (3500g)

• #44: censers (150g)

• #45: golden belt (400g)

• #48: smuggled merch (1750g)

• #51: 600g 300s (630g)

• #52: 4000g, 3000s, 7 gems, tiara (8610g)

Magic Items

• #3: spellbook (ventriloquism)

• #10: shield+1

• #26: 7x magnetic arrow (+2 vs metal)

• #32: plate+1, shield+1, wand of frost, potion of healing

• #42: potion of polymorph, elixir of youth

• #51: spellbook (burning hands, identify, mending, read magic, ventriloquism, knock, wizard lock)

• #52: sword+1/+3 vs dragons, potion of green dragon control

Defenders

• #4: Green Slime (25xp)

• #8: 5 orcs (50xp)

• #10: giant crab spider (25xp)

• #9: 8 orcs, 5 wolves (205xp)

• #19: 2 giant crab spider (50xp)

• #16: 6 dwarves (60xp)

• #17: 4 giant shrews (40xp)

• #25: 7 fire beetles (105xp)

• #27: 17 skeletons (170xp)

• #28: 4 ghouls (100xp)

• #31: crystal statues (85xp)

• #32: 2 insect swarms, gelatinous cylinder (275xp)

• #35: man w/ sack, ~10 skeletons (125xp)

• #38: 4 orcs (40xp)

• #39: 2 orcs (20xp)

• #42: 8 acolytes, cleric 4 (205xp)

• #45: 5 mad hermits (100xp)

• #47: 2 orcs (20xp)

• #48: 20 orcs, brutus, 2/6 chance of 4 brigands, ogre (490xp)

Total

67104g of treasure defended by 1375 xp of monsters, for a ratio of ~49x, which is way, way, way too high. This works out to ~14000xp per party member in a party with 5 shares (like 4 PCs and 2 henchmen), which is enough to bring the PCs to almost level 5.

Most pacing advice that I’ve seen suggests that PCs should level up after ~4 sessions. If most tables finish ~10 dungeon rooms in a session (which is historically accurate for my table), they’re earning about a level per session. I think you could cut all of the treasure by either 5-10x and it would still be a worthwhile expedition.

Conclusion

Skip it.

I think this is pretty good Vanilla Dungeons and Dragons. There’s a bunch of technical errors (my impression is that Gabor play-tested this in a different system and then ported it to BX). The treasure is way too high. The writing is pleasant to read and has a distinct cleverness to it, but sometimes it feels like the brevity is getting in the way of facilitating the GM to run an adventure.

On the actual content side, I enjoyed it! The math cult was funny (and very tongue-in-cheek), breaking the orc stronghold is a fun mission, and the traps have a funhouse-vibe that I enjoyed.

For modifications:

• Trim down the rumor list.

• Think hard about whether or not the cursed scrolls (save or die and save or have your whole party teleported to an alient planet) are appropriate for your table.

• Adjust the treasure (probably divide by at least 5).

• Figure out how you want the obelisk rooms to work.

• Figure out what you want all of the (latin?) inscriptions to translate to.

• Assign weight to the bespoke treasures.

So you’re sitting at the table and one player says, “[let’s imagine that] an orc jumps out of the underbrush!”

What has to happen before the group agrees that, indeed, an orc jumps out of the underbrush?

1. Sometimes, not much at all. The right participant said it, at an appropriate moment, and everybody else just incorporates it smoothly into their imaginary picture of the situation. […]

2. Sometimes, a little bit more. “Really? An orc?” “Yeppers.” “Huh, an orc. Well, okay.” […]

3. Sometimes, mechanics. “An orc? Only if you make your having-an-orc-show-up roll. Throw down!” “Rawk! 57!” “Dude, orc it is!” […]

4. And sometimes, lots of mechanics and negotiation. Debate the likelihood of a lone orc in the underbrush way out here, make a having-an-orc-show-up roll, a having-an-orc-hide-in-the-underbrush roll, a having-the-orc-jump-out roll, argue about the modifiers for each of the rolls, get into a philosophical thing about the rules’ modeling of orc-jump-out likelihood... all to establish one little thing. […]

Mechanics might model the stuff of the game world, that’s another topic, but they don’t exist to do so. They exist to ease and constrain real-world social negotiation between the players at the table. That’s their sole and crucial function.

Emphasis mine. Similarly, Jared Sinclair wrote rules elide:

To say that rules elide is to say that they do nothing else. That they cannot do anything else. Rules do not themselves create or conjure or elicit or inspire or invoke or incite—they only negate.

I’m here to argue the opposite, more or less.

In my view, games are about making informed, impactful choices. The game system:

• Can generate the choices

• Can resolve the impact of a choice

• Can the define the goal

That’s just on the game-side. The rules can also simulate (which helps in world-building and indirectly helps generate problems and resolutions), and enforce (or incentivize) a style or tone (like how Ten Candles directly tells players to keep the Tragic Horror tone in mind).

Generation

I think a good example is OSE's combat system. In typical combats, we decide:

• Who to attack

• What to wear to battle

• Where to position

• When to spend spell slots and consumables like potions and scrolls

These choices are immediately and obviously impactful, and winning combat directly results in XP (the goal), and indirectly results in more XP by removing the guardians between you and treasure (the goal).

These choices are generated by the system. OSE includes heaps of monsters to fight against, and tables for generating encounters and treasure. A GM can follow the rules of dungeon generation, and that will generate combats which in turn generate choices for the players that the system also resolves.

Other good examples of places where the system is generating the choices are…

• How do I equip my character? The system includes equipment lists and magical item lists, weapons have trade-offs, armor has trade-offs, and the encumbrance, money, and class systems work together to limit options.

• How do I spend my dungeon adventuring turn? Should I search the walls, listen at the door, stand guard, try to pick the lock, etc. This feels similar to playing a worker placement game.

• Which spells do I prepare? The game presents a big menu of spells as options to learn, and then you have to pick a subset to prepare at the outset of an adventuring day.

• When do I spend my spell slots?

• What race/class do I play?

Sometimes, the generation is less direct. OSE, for example, does not generate dungeons for you, but it does have guidance for the GM to do so. Similarly, Electric Basionland and Worlds Without Number both come with heaps of GM guidance and spark tables to assist the GM in creating choices for the players (rather than the GM having to create the choices whole-cloth). Another good example here is Mothership’s TOMBS framework (Transgression, Omens, Manifestation, Banishment, and Slumber) and the Tactical Considerations table:

Resolution

Other times, the choice has to be directly generated by the GM, but the game system will help you resolve what happens. I think great examples here are mechanics for climbing or lock-picking. The GM has to put a wall to climb or a lock to pick in the scenario (which is part of level design), but when the players elect to engage with them, the system defines how it works (rather than asking the GM to invent it).

There’s a pretty wide spectrum of lifting that the system can do here. Strong assistance looks like the lock-picking mechanics from BX:

So the game system directly tells the GM (and player) the chance that a Thief can pick a lock, and directly tells them how this changes as they level up. Weak assistance looks like Knave 2e

These sorts of games usually provide a universal system (The GM picks a target, the player rolls a dice and adds modifiers) and some guidance around what the modifiers might be. Note how Knave asks the GM to do a lot more lifting to resolve the choice than the BX example: the GM has to figure out what the target number is, figure out which stat applies, and figure out how many +/-5s to apply. The GM has so much leeway here that it’s really similar to the system telling the GM to pick an X-in-6 or raw probability.

Other examples include:

• Social situations. The GM has to create the situation, but the reaction roll/diplomacy check/etc helps resolve it.

• Traps. The GM has to create and place the trap, but characters often have some sort of trap-breaking skill.

• Searching for Hidden Doors. Same idea has traps - there’s often some sort of search roll.

Out of Scope

Tons of the decisions made by players will be created whole-cloth by the GM, and then also resolved entirely by GM fiat. The prototypical example here is moral dilemmas. The GM might create (whole-cloth) a situation where the players have to choose between saving their friend or party member or a lot of innocent strangers, and then the GM has to resolve the impact of that choice whole-cloth.

The motivation for this post was someone on reddit asking are OSR games good for the Magical Girls genre? OSR games are neither going to help generate or resolve the sort of interesting choices that are representative of the Magical Girls genre (so the GM is unsupported), and instead will generate lots of choices that get in the way of playing a Magical Girls game (it generates choices about equipment and dungeon turns which would distract from Magical Girls themes).

I think that if the bulk of the choices in your game aren’t generated (or assisted) by the game system, that’s a red flag. If the bulk of the resolution isn’t facilitated by the game system, that’s a red flag. If the system is generating choices that distract from the focus, that’s a red flag. If the system is resolving choices in a way that is incongruent with the genre, that’s a red flag.

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Conclusion

So that would be my rebuttal to Vincent Baker, were I to ever get to talk to him. Mechanics do ease and constrain real-world social negotiation, but that’s not all they do. They also create a game - one where players are making informed and impactful choices. The same way that players can spend time analyzing chess moves or the best way to play a hand in Magic the Gathering, you can spend time analyzing how to position your team in a TTRPG fight, or whether you could have predicted this was an unfavorable fight from the start and should have fled. You can spend time figuring out if it’s better to carry a bow that has +1 to hit, or +1 to damage.

I totally get that some players aren’t interested in this part of the hobby, but it’s there! Some games have more of it (D&D 3.5e and 4e emphasize it more than 0e, for example), but it’s still there.

THESE THINGS ARE TRUE.

THE WORLD IS DARK.

AND WE ARE ALIVE.

Other reviews: shut up and sit down, u/ManicParroT, pen-paper-dice, Rolling Boxcars, Adventure Rules, The Alexandrian, Of Dice and Men, u/biolum1nescence, @definitelyamimic, No Rerolls, Roll For Crit, Kathy Brown, Stardust & Sigil, Plane Sailing, My Kind of Meeple

This is a heavily reviewed game! I think it’s heartening that none of the reviews that I’ve read talk at all about what this review is going to be about, so this should still be valuable.

This is also my first foray into storygames, so I lack a lot of the context and understanding of the prior art. I’ll probably say a lot of confusing stuff for folks that are much more plugged-in and forge-native, but hopefully the fresh perspective is useful.

As a general note, the “game” part of the game (where you’re making informed, impactful choices) is deeply intertwined with the vibes/ritual part of the game.

The ritual/vibes are absolutely top notch. Having to intone a ritual phrase in sync with the other players feels so witchy. Having actual candles (as the only source of light) that can go out if you breathe too heavily is so cool. The last candle going out when everyone dies is such a nice dramatic flair. You’re literally burning your own traits.

Part of my task in this review is going to be disentangling that, and presenting the raw mechanics to look at Ten Candles as a game. Players are making impactful, informed choices, so it’s useful to see if the actual mechanics are in harmony with the stated intent.

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Brief Overview

The game is played in ten scenes, where each scene has the same structure.

1. The players (including the GM) go around the table and establish truths.

2. The GM establishes a scene, players roleplay the scene, eventually a candle darkens (usually because of a failed conflict roll), and the scene ends.

Character creation is broadly narrative fluff, but each character ends up with 4 index cards that are mechanically relevant to the conflict rolls: two traits (virtue and vice), a moment, and a brink.

Broadly, using (literally burning) an index card increases your chance that you succeed at a conflict roll (so they’re effectively a resource).

Then, before the game begins, each player stacks their index cards; only your top-most index card is active (and able to be used). Your brink must be on the bottom.

Choices

Your character has whatever you’ve got in your pockets. Equipment beyond this can only be acquired through establishing truths, or conflicts to locate supplies.

This is the first choice you can make as a player, especially if you’ve read the rules ahead of time! Maybe wear baggy pants with big pockets and pack a lot of stuff. Bonus points if you know a friend that always has their knife.

In any situation where a character is attempting to overcome something that is complex, risky, or which simply has an unknown outcome, the GM may choose to call for a conflict roll.

We choose what our characters do, so we effectively can choose when conflict rolls happen. If we choose to have our character do complex, risky, or uncertain things, we’re effectively asking for a conflict roll to be made. We can also choose to have our characters do simple, safe, and certain things to avoid such rolls.

[In a conflict roll] whoever rolls the most 6’s [between the player and GM] wins narration rights and gets to narrate what the success or failure looks like.

Narration Rights: When you win narration rights it means that the power is in your hands to describe what happens as a result of the conflict. For example, winning narration rights while kicking in a door would allow you to narrate what you find on the other side.

When you win a conflict roll, you’re getting to choose what happens. In traditional D&D games, you might roll to see if you can open a lockbox, but the GM always gets to tell you what’s inside. In Ten Candles, you’re rolling to get to choose what’s in the lockbox.

Seizing Narration: If a conflict is successful, but the GM rolls an equal number or more ’s and therefore wins narration rights, the active player may choose to seize narration. In order to do this, they must darken a candle. This does not cause the conflict to fail. Instead it wins narration rights for the player and they may then narrate the outcome of the successful conflict. However, this does end the scene as darkened candles usually do.

If you rolled at least 1 six, but not more than the GM, you can choose to darken a candle anyway in order to get to decide what’s in the box.

Any player (not just the active player) may, if they deem it thematically appropriate, choose to have their character die as a result of the failed dire conflict. In this case, the candle is still darkened, but the player who made this sacrifice wins narration rights over the failed conflict as well as their character’s death.

When the stakes are high enough (dire), you can choose to kill your character off to decide what’s in the box.

If the player who rolled for the conflict has an active Trait and rolled at least one , they may burn the Trait in order to reroll all of the dice which landed on .

This is how we spend resources. At the beginning the scene, we roll a number of d6’s equal to the number of candles still lit. If any dice come up 1, they’re gone for the rest of the scene, so the number of dice you roll dwindles during a scene (and also dwindles during the overall game). You can burn a trait to reroll 1s (in order to slow the dwindling).

If the player who rolled for the conflict has an active Brink and has rolled such that they will either fail the conflict or lose narration rights, they may embrace their Brink in order to reroll their entire die pool.

Your brink is your last resource but it never goes away.

The players and GM will go around the table clockwise, each establishing a single truth. This will continue for a number of truths equal to the number of now-lit candles.
[…]
The ability to speak truths is a powerful resource. When you speak a truth, you may establish any one thing as an irrefutable fact of the story. Each truth can only pertain to a single change in the story, but the change can be anything.

How you spend your truth(s) is hugely impactful. Over the game, there will be 9+8+…+1+0 = 45 truths that will be spoken, divided amongst the players. So, if there’s 4 players plus a GM, you’ll be able to declare ~9 truths on average.

And that’s the list of choices. In summary, you choose

• Your virtue, vice, moment, and someone else’s brink.

• The order you stack your virtue, vice, and moment.

• Your truths at the beginning of the scene.

• What your character does (and so get to influence how/when conflict rolls are made).

• What happens (eg what’s in the box) when you win narration rights.

• When to spend resources (traits, brink, candles) in order to win narration rights.

And that’s the whole game, mechanically! Everything else is setting and scenario design (which has to be pretty light because of how much is intended to be created during play).

So, we definitely have choices, and the choices are well-informed (it’s pretty easy to reason out your odds of success, how many resources you have, etc). What’s not clear to me is the impact.

But… Why?

A lot of games explain that the goal is “fun”. Broadly, this is nonsense. Check out the rules of soccer. Search for the word ‘fun’ and observe that it’s not on the page. Instead, soccer is clear about what the goal is:

The aim of the game is to score goals by getting the ball into the other team’s net. The team with the most goals at the end of the game wins.

We’re trying to win, and we win by scoring more balls into the other team’s net than they do in ours. The implied idea here is that if everyone buys into this whole “try to score more than the other team” idea, it’ll be fun (because otherwise, we’d play some other game).

Ten Candles isn’t as explicit about the goal as soccer.com is, but there’s some pretty clear direction:

This is a game about telling a story. The story that you will tell is not a kind one, and far from a happy one. It is the sort of story that has sharp edges. The kind that lingers long after it’s gone, nesting in nightmares and drifting on every shadow. The kind that no one wants to tell. The kind that needs to be told. This is a story is about what happens in the dark. This is a story about survivors trying to light up their little corner of the world and do something meaningful within it in the few hours they have left. This is a story about desperation. It is a story about people like you and I fighting back against the darkness, only to inevitably and inescapably be consumed by it.
[…]
your job will be to create one of these survivors and roleplay them as truthfully and faithfully as you can, saying what they say and deciding what they do. You are tasked with caring about your character and hoping they will be successful in their endeavors. You will try to overcome conflicts on their behalf and you will root for them every step of the way. However, you are also tasked with having a hand in telling this tragic and dark story. While you must cheer your character on, you must also introduce conflict, failure, and fear. You must build your character up and be ready to challenge them, hurt them, harrow them, and in time, knock them down.

So the goal is to tell a story, under some constraints:

• The story needs to sharp/desperate/dark/hopeful but ultimately doomed.

• When I choose what my character does, I have to play them authentically (as in, it would be breaking the rules to have them act out-of-character for some benefit).

• When I have narration rights (including when I can speak truths), I’m supposed to not use them exclusively to make good things happen for my character, instead I should also be making bad things happen to my own guy.

The last two points are really important to wrap your head around. Say there’s a box. If you think your character would open that box (because your character hopes supplies are inside), you have to make them open it (otherwise you’re breaking the authenticity constraint). Then, if you win narration rights, you supposed to sometime use that power to put bad stuff in the box (like snakes).

The Underlying Assumption

When I originally read the game, I assumed that there was a good/bad or maybe hope/despair dynamic between the players and GM.

There are three outcomes to each conflict roll:

1. The player rolled more sixes than the GM → the conflict “succeeds” and the players narrate the outcome.

2. The player rolled at least 1 six, but not more than the GM → the conflict “succeeds” but the GM narrates the outcome.

3. The player did not roll any sixes → The conflict fails and the scene ends. The GM narrates the scene transition.

Early scenes have more dice for the players to roll than later scenes. Early conflicts within a scene have more dice for the players to roll than later conflicts. This creates a dynamic where within each scene, the characters are succeeding and players have narration rights, then eventually the GM has narration rights, and then finally the conflict fails. Then, the overarching structure is that the players are losing control as the game progresses. In the first conflict of the game, there’s a 84% chance you succeed, whereas by scene 10, you’re down to 1 dice and there’s just a 17% chance.

But, as far as I can tell, no such dynamic exists. You’re explicitly instructed to make bad stuff happen to your guy with your narrative rights. The GM isn’t instructed to make especially bad things happen to your guy when they win narrative rights. Even if they were, the goal isn’t to make good stuff happen to your guy; the goal is explicitly to tell a good story. So then I think the fundamental question is…

Why do I care about having narration rights?

In soccer, we want to have possession of the ball because we need that in order to score.

In Ten Candles, it’s not obvious why me having narration rights (instead of the GM) is beneficial. As far as I can tell, the only reason why I’d want narration rights (in the perspective of trying to tell a good story) is if I believe that I will tell a better story than if someone else had those rights. When I get to decide what’s in the box (or behind the door or whatever), I’m going to pick something better for the story than the GM.

If the game instructed the players to use their narration rights to make good things happen to their characters, and instructed the GM to use the narration rights to make bad things happen to their characters, it would be super coherent. I’m spending resources to make good things happen, but then I’m running out of resources. In the beginning of the game, there are a lot of lit candles, so good things are happening and things are hopeful. As the scene stretches on, more bad stuff starts happening. As candles go out, it gets more and more grim and then eventually the characters are doomed.

This is not what happens.

The candles don’t represent despair/doom/loss of hope for the characters, instead they represent me as a player not getting to say what sort of hell happens to my guy and instead having to let the GM say what sort of hell happens to my guy. That’s weird!

Examples

Fortunately, the book has a bunch of play examples (which are super useful) that I think support my reading. Here’s an example of a player choosing something “bad” (but good for the story) to happen when they win narration rights:

Justin: “Piper, why don’t you work on getting this thing gassed up. I’ll take a look under the hood. I know a thing or two about cars. Sound good?”

Karen: “Sounds like as good a plan as any.” Officer Piper goes to work siphoning some gas into the bus.

Dave [GM]: Sounds like a conflict. Let’s roll some dice. (because the outcome of getting gas is maybe uncertain?)

Karen rolls the remaining six dice. She rolls [1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 6]. She succeeds and wins narration rights.

Karen: I’m just pumping gas. How do I really narrate that?

Dave: Well, since the conflict was to siphon gas, and you succeeded, then you are able to get some gas. That much is true. However, you can determine what that success looks like. Does it go well? Does it introduce a new problem? You can describe how she gets the gas, or really anything else you want. It’s up to you.

Karen: Okay, I think I get it. So, Officer Piper unholsters the pump from the machine and removes the nozzle so it’s just a long tube. There isn’t any electricity, but the pumps are so old that gas can just be siphoned out the old fashioned way. So she goes to work, and soon enough the gas starts flowing. But not for long. She gets maybe a gallon or two into the bus before the hose comes up empty. The gas tank must be bone dry. She pulls out the hose and some excess gas spills onto the front of her jeans and her shoes. “Perfect” she mutters to herself before tossing the hose aside.

I think this is actually really clever writing; she weaves in two plants (for payoffs)

• She didn’t get a lot of gas (so maybe the car will run out of gas later at a dramatic moment)

• She gets gas on herself (so maybe she’ll get immolated later, or will be tracked by scent or whatever)

Then immediately

Justin: “Hey, save some gas for the molotov cocktails,” Ward calls over. Meanwhile, I guess I’ll still take a look at the bus. That should be enough gas to at least get us to the police station, assuming the whole thing doesn’t break down.

Dave: Give me a roll.

Justin rolls the remaining two dice. He rolls [1, 1].

Justin: I’m going to burn my Steady Trait. It’s active on top of my stack. Ward’s got a steady hand while he’s working on this car, so I think that would fit.

Justin burns his Steady Trait and rerolls [3, 4].

Justin: Well, so much for that.

Dave: Since you didn’t roll any 6’s, the conflict fails and I win narration rights. Ward pops the hood of the bus, and a bank of smoke pours out. It looks like the bus was overheating, badly. He takes a look around the engine and discovers the root of the problem rather quickly when he sees a trio of huge gashes on the side of the engine. Smoke is boiling out of them. They look almost like deep claw marks. As you examine the cuts closer, a distant howl cuts through the trees. As if responding to the howl, the whole vehicle groans and the headlights flicker. To his credit, Ward doesn’t flinch. He remains steady, despite the chill that runs down his spine. You don’t think this bus is going anywhere.

Here the GM had narration rights and then uses it… weirdly.

• He establishes that the car isn’t going anywhere (which deletes Karen’s plant that the car might run out of gas).

• He declares that the engine has slash marks in it (as though the antagonists opened the hood, slashed the engine, and then… closed the hood).

Broadly things are still fine and the story will continue forward. The GM made bad and complicated things (for the characters) happen as a result of having narration rights just like Karen did. We don’t get to see what Dave would have described if he had narration rights; maybe it would have been “better”, but also maybe not.

If Justin thinks that the GM is going to say something boring for the story, he should try to use his resources to keep narrative control to make the story better (that’s the goal). If Justin thinks that the GM is going to say something great for the story (ie, Justin thinks his own idea is kind of lame), then Justin should intentionally try to lose narration rights.

That’s weird!

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Conclusions

The vibe, ritual, and props are all top notch. The game feels super spooky and tense to play.

The actual mechanics aren’t in harmony with this, IMO. The mechanics are about winning narrative control, but that narrative control isn’t actually adversarial so you have no reason to want to win it (other than if you prefer speaking to listening). It feels like the candles, the dice pool, etc are supposed to represent hope for your character, and that hope dwindles until everyone dies. Instead, they represent your ability to be the one that talks, even though everyone is supposed to say roughly the same thing. It’s a very weird game!

That said, I recommend playing it, especially in October. If you do play it, I’d love to hear about your experience (especially if it was different from mine). I’d especially love to hear if I’m missing something obvious.

Happy Halloween!

reddit thread

This is our first proper dungeon level! With 21 keyed locations, it’s by far the smallest level (the next smallest is level 10 with 62, the mean is 135 and the median is 149). It’s also the simplest to run with only a few ways in or out, and only talking NPC and no gimmicks.

Random Encounters

1-in-10 every 3 turns, which comes out to an encounter every ~30 turns on average. This is more turns than there are rooms in the dungeon, so there’s a solid chance that you never trigger a random encounter (my group didn’t).

The entries are consistent with the rest of the module; random numbers of enemies (1d4+2 giant centipedes, 3d4 giant rats, 1d6+1 stirges, etc) with no other detail (reaction, activity, etc) given. Per On Randomness, I think we could improve this by cutting boring entries, and then filling the space back out with better details. For example, i’d probably trim this down to Lankios, 5 stirges, the carcass crawler, and 8 giant rats. Then, we can pull up ktrey’s encounter activity tables, and say that…

• the stirges are clustering on a squealing Giant Rat

• the carcass crawler is clasping mandibles together with staccato snaps

• the giant rats are grinding down their teeth on exposed masonry

With an area as small as this, we don’t need to have a random table of encounters, we can instead have an ordered list of encounters. That saves us a roll, and makes prep easier. For example, if we know that the first random encounter will always be Lankios and the last will always be giant rats, we can better allocate our prep effort.

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Encounter Areas

1-1: Basement

Among the junk, however, is the marble left leg of the colossal statue of Arden (see AV-30).

This needs a physical description (weight and dimensions); otherwise now you’re flipping back to AV-30 to get a sense of how large the statue is, and then realizing that it doesn’t give one.

From my estimates, the leg weighs ~27,000lbs, is ~24’ long, has a 4.5’ diameter at the thigh and 1.5’ diameter at the ankle. That’s a big leg!

Two corpses lie face down on the path towards the double-doors; one is a human cleric and the other a human fighter. Both corpses are recent and show signs of severe poisoning - multiple sting/injection marks and necrotic, blackened skin. One corpse clutches a potion bottle that is still full (elixir of health). The pair is still dressed in their armor (chain mail and splint mail), but weapons and other valuables are gone.

My favorite article on room description content is Interesting and Useful Dungeon Descriptions - Michael Prescott (2014). Here’s a great blurb:

So when they say, "What do we see?" they're not asking for an "interesting" description, they're asking for a useful one. They need information that will help them stay alive:

Should we go around this corner? (If we do, will we die?)
Should we use this spell now? (If we do, will we die later?)
Should we turn back? (Are we already too beaten up to survive the trip home?)

I frequently say that the gameplay is making informed, impactful choices. The information is super important. Here, we’ve got corpses that have been stung (a lot) to death, so that telegraphs that there are nearby things that sting you to death. This is very good.

The downside is that if you’re not careful, the information can be confusing and conflicting. Here’s what I mean:

• “Two corpses lie face down on the path towards the double-doors; one is a human cleric and the other a human fighter.” → Adventuring parties are typically more than two people, so since there are only two corpses, this implies that the rest of their party is somewhere else. Unfortunately, there is no rest-of-the-party, and the PCs searching for one will be fruitless.

• “One corpse clutches a potion bottle that is still full (elixir of health).” → This implies that the poison is fast-acting; the victim was unable to drink the elixir before they died (or that the elixir is unrelated to poisoning). Unfortunately, this is not the case; half of an elixir of health (350g, 2000xp, unearthed arcana p90) cures poison immediately; but poison doesn’t kill immediately.

• “The pair is still dressed in their armor (chain mail and splint mail), but weapons and other valuables are gone.” → Someone looted their weapons and valuables, but didn’t take the potion or their armor. This implies that other people have been here in between the corpses dying and now. Further, this implies that there’s something wrong with the potion, and that there are other people lurking about (neither are true). It also implies that their weapons and valuables can be found further in (they can’t).

We’re getting pulled in all sorts of strange directions. What happened to their weapons and valuables? Why didn’t whoever took their weapons also take the potion? Why didn’t they drink the potion? What happened to their companions? These mysteries are never resolved, which teaches the players to ignore information (since it is irrelevant and incoherent), and that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to do.

1-1B: Giant Centipedes

A colony of 20 giant centipedes has made its nest in the rubble-choked hallway beyond the double doors. Only 7-13 are present in the nest at any given time; losses taken here or as wandering encounters should be subtracted from the overall number. The centipedes hear anyone squeezing through the doors at 1-1A, and will swarm to the attack. The centipedes completely ignore any characters smeared with the anti-vermin paste of Lankios the Hermit (see 1-6).

I really like everything that’s happening here. The centipedes are telegraphed by the corpses right in front of the door. There’s a tactically interesting situation with the hard-to-open double doors. The explicit callout that the source of the centipedes in the random encounter list is this nest. I find it extremely helpful when modules include guidance about where wandering monsters live when they’re not wandering, and how many of them there are total so they can be depleted. Killing the nest means you ignore the centipede result in the wandering encounter list, which in turn makes the dungeon feel less populated, which is accurate. All really cool.

I also appreciate the interactivity with Lankios’ paste; that’s a way to step up from a bunch of vermin in a hole. My only quibble is that it’s very hard to imagine the players actually getting their hands on the paste before they confront the centipedes.

Lankios and his paste are in room 6; the centipedes are in 1B. It’s theoretically possible to go all the way around, and then approach room 6 from the eastern hallway, but even still you have to get within 20ft of the centipede nest, so it feels like they’ll have to be dealt with regardless.

I’d probably move the door to 6 from the western side of the south wall to the eastern side of the south wall, which means the door goes from being ~25 feet away from the centipede nest to being ~45 feet away from the centipede nest and the PCs could plausibly sneak in.

Finally, because I just can’t help myself, it’s 7-13 centipedes. Quick! How do you roll that? Is it 6d2+1, 2d4+5, 1d2*6+1, 2d2*3+1, 3d2*2+1, or 1d4*2+5? All super common and easy to intuit rolls, obviously. My bet is on 2d4+5, for what it’s worth.

1-2: Spider Closet

A ruby (50 gp) has fallen to the floor, and may be found within 1-4 turns searching

This isn’t how searching works!

Here’s the DMG

It takes a turn to casually examine and map a 20x20 area, and then another turn to thoroughly search such an area. Granted, Gary gives “if there are many containers and much furniture in the area, the time might actually double that shown”, but it’s not clear how random amounts of searching time is supposed to actually work at the table.

Do you ask the players how long they’re willing to search for, then secretly roll to see if the random required time is at most the time they committed to? Do they tell you that they want to search, and then you say “okay, it takes (rolls) 3 turns, but then you find a gem”? How does the random time interact with multiple searchers?

I’d scrap the whole random thing and just use the DMG’s guidance; they find the ruby and the scroll if they spend the turn searching the room.

1-2A: Spider Web

The spiders have spun a very thin, but strong, web across the entrance to 1-3. In the darkness it is easy to miss the web: there is a 1 in 6 chance for any but the most cautious of characters to become bound in the webs. If the spiders in area 1-2 have not yet been discovered, they emerge immediately and attack. If the spiders are dead, or do not respond immediately, an enwebbed victim can escape in 2 rounds (+1 round per point of STR below 17). If the spiders are dead and a victim is entangled, thrashing may draw the attention of the giant snake from 1-11 (5% per round, cumulative).

I really appreciate this, and this is exactly what I’m talking about when I ask that authors mechanically describe their stuff so that the GM doesn’t have to invent game mechanics on the fly. This could have easily been written vaguely:

In the darkness, it is easy to miss the web, and any but the most cautious characters will likely become bound. The spiders in 1-2 can detect when prey has been ensnared, and any thrashing about is liable to draw the attention of the giant snake from 1-11.

But it wasn’t! Instead, we have easy-to-use concrete mechanics. Awesome.

1-3: Training Ground

There’s nothing wrong with the room from a gameplay perspective; in fact I think “it looks like a trap but isn’t” gag is fun. I do think the actual text is a good example of how not to write a room description.

Here’s a color-coded version:

• Blue: historical information

• Yellow: player-facing first impressions (landmark)

• Pink: Information available after further interaction (hidden)

• Purple: GM-facing notes

Say we re-arranged this to be landmarks → hidden → GM notes → history:

The floor is relatively clear; a thick layer of dust lies heavily over the floor. No signs of humanoid traffic disturb the dust, although a few lumps disturb it. An anvil rests on a pedestal near the eastern side of the room. On top of the pedestal is a silver chalice that seems, for some reason, to have escaped tarnish.

The lumps are the rotting remains of wooden staffs and poles, as well as one shield.

GM NOTE: Investigators may well suspect a trap, but there is none. The chalice may be put to good use in the mosaic room (1-12).

HISTORY: The priests of Thoth used this open area for training purposes.

Notice how much makes it much easier to run the room!

1-6: Lankios the Hermit

This large, former storage room is now the abode of a wizened human hermit named Lankios, who has a 66% chance of being here.

Barton uses this pattern a lot. A NPC might spend time in several rooms (which is reasonable), so he gives the probability that they’re in a room. If we inspect the rest of the room keys, Lankios also has a 15% chance to be in 1-7, and a 10% chance of being in 1-12 (note that 66+15+10 = 91).

Another example is the Goblin King Weskenim, who is 20% likely to be with his harem, 25% likely to be in his throne room, 25% likely to be holding court, 25% likely to be in the lower great hall (20+25+25+25 = 95).

I’m not sure how to actually use these frequencies. When we enter a room, do we roll the probability, and that tells us if he’s in the room or not (like, he’s kind of in this superposition of not being in any particular room until we get a yes-result and then he’s in that room). Do we need to go collect all of the probabilities, spin up a cumulative distribution function, and then roll that to figure out where the important NPCs are when the players enter a level?

For instance, for Lankios, this might be:

• 01-66: 1-6

• 67-81: 1-7

• 82-91: 1-12

• 92-00: reroll (or wandering)

I tend to prefer the later (as I find it easier to reason about the state of dungeon if I know where the important people are right now), but it’s work to go find all of the places where they might be.

Anyone daubing the goo on some part of his/her body will be avoided by vermin on Level 1 of the Halls for 3 hours.

I recommend extending this to vermin in general; the other levels also have giant rats and the like, and I don’t think we should restrict the goo’s utility to just level 1 (and I don’t think it makes sense in-universe).

Lankios is delighted to talk to anyone who does not threaten him. He speaks in obtuse, semi-poetical phrases, and often breaks into guffaws of laughter or sobs of tormented grief. He babbles about a lovely mage named Guivrel, a competition for her hand, and betrayal by a trusted friend, apparently named “K”. His role in that story is unclear.

I found this extremely difficult to roleplay off-the-cuff, so when my players hit this bit, I apologized, summarized his behavior, and told them I’d get back to them with some actual obtuse semi-poetical phrases.

Here are those phrases:

• I have walked centuries in a single night, dreaming of judgments never spoken.

• A trident for a holy man—what a blade to break a friend’s heart.

• Her hair was spun gold, a snare for my heart … oh, cruel and wondrous bright was she!

• Below, they mutter in unquiet rest, forever calling: ‘Traitor! Traitor!’—or was it ‘Savior’? I cannot recall…

• Twas never mine to judge, yet the sword fell all the same. Now the sword weighs heavy on my soul.

• I see her in the flicker of the flame, mocking me, dancing just out of reach …

• Step beyond the painted mask to the place where hearts were broken and souls undone.

• Root and rodent, boiled to sludge—this reeking broth wards off creeping things and creeping thoughts.

• Bring her signet, bring me peace—or a curse upon us all. My mind cracks anew each day without it.

• Stone boxes, silent guardians—hold your tongues! Spare me your silent accusations!

• The righteous path is never lost, but mine is … cracked, worn, so dark. Could you show me the way?

• I yearn for a verdict more than I yearn for my next breath.

• A single drop of poison taints an entire cup—so one act of treachery and all is undone.

• Mitra’s light… it still burns in my breast, though tarnished by the ashes of memory.

• Behind the baboon’s painted grin lies a stair downward into darkest guilt … I have seen it.

• Kaitor, the trusted friend—ha! Our bond was forged in the blood of oath and undone by a single dagger-thrust.

• Come, sup with me on foul brew—bitter on the tongue, sweet in the soul. It keeps the nibbling teeth away.

• This place stinks of undone vows and echoing ghosts. Listen! Can you hear them wail?

• Why will these bones not crumble? Mitra’s breath keeps me upright when all else has rotted.

• There is yet a key of gold … a door of black stone … perhaps beyond it, we shall find absolution.

Feel free to copy my homework!

1-7: Pool of Sludge

Some 10-20 draughts may initially be found in the pool, but the supply will slowly be replaced at the rate of 1-6 draughts per week.

I promise that this is the last time (for this review) that I rag on range notation. Is 10-20 rolled by 10d2, 2d2•5, 5d2•2, 2d6+8, 1d2•10, or 1d6•2+8? My bet is on 2d6+8, but that’s so hard to do in my head.

Another corpse may be found in the northeast corner, where Lankios unceremoniously pushed it (“so as not to spoil the pool!”).

These sorts of quotes are so helpful to get into the character. I’m thankful for this one but I wish there were a lot more!

The corpse is of a human magic user, and appears to have been drained of much of its blood through several large wounds on her neck (she was a victim of the stirges in 1-19). The magic user’s belt pouch holds a linen bag filled with gold dust (75 gp), a scroll of detect magic, and a vial of oil. A dagger is clutched in her hand.

Was this magic-user in the same party as the dead cleric and fighter near the door or is it a different party? The other party had their weapons and valuables removed - why does this one still have her dagger and gold?

I appreciate the telegraph about the stirges (and the explicit parenthetical to denote GM-facing text), but I find the other implications very confusing from a player perspective.

At the bottom of the pool is a bronze key to the secret door at 1-14.

Here, we should verify that the room for 1-19 also references this fact (and if it doesn’t, we should annotate it). Fortunately, it does! “Secret Door (south): The secret door is locked, and requires a key (currently at the bottom of the pool in 1-7).”

A+

1-8: Three Wise Monkeys

This is a neat trope 🙈🙉🙊!

The see-no-evil and hear-no-evil monkeys both fly, so we immediately need to know how tall the room is, because that determines if players can hit them with melee weapons as they flap about.

Barton specifies that the monkeys have a flight speed of 150’ and have class-C maneuverability. Here’s what that means:

I think Barton goofed the rules here.

The room is 20x20. The DMG states

Winged creatures cannot move at less than one-half speed and remain airborne (except for class B).

As class-C flying creatures, if they fly at their minimum of 75’, they can turn a maximum of 120°. This means that they cannot fly in this room; they will crash into a wall regardless of the path they take.

But, say we decide we want them to fly anyway; the other thing we need to figure out is how flight interacts with the rules for engagement and back attacks. Typically if you come within 10’ of a combatant, you must stop. From this blurb:

Flying combatants — whether they are eagles or dragons, men mounted on broomsticks, or hippogriffs — must make attack passes at their opponents, wheel about in the air, and attack again.

I think the intent is that the flying creature does not have to stop, but now I don’t really know how combat is supposed to play out.

1-9: Empty Chamber

The trash in this chamber has been pushed to each side, allowing a narrow path between the corridor and area 1-7. Nothing of interest can be found here.

Those making substantial noise (from searching) run the risk of attracting the stirges from 1-19. GMs should assign a chance from 10-50% based on the amount of noise the PCs make.

It’s stuff like this that makes me extremely curious about how the conversation at other GM’s table goes. Here’s how this room played out for us:

GM: The narrow hall opens into a 20x20’ chamber with a door on the eastern wall. The chamber is filled with trash, obscuring the door, though some of the trash has been pushed to the side to create a narrow path from the hall to the door. What do you do?

Thief: I’ll listen at the door and check it for traps.

Fighter: I’m on guard and alert, weapons out for anything that attacks us.

Other Fighter: I’ll search through the trash.

Mage: I’ll help search through the trash.

Cleric: I’ll check the walls for secret doors.

Other Cleric: I’ll help with the trash effort.

So like… on a scale from 10% to 50%, how much noise is this? Totally unclear to me; seems like a normal amount of noise. My players never specify that they’re searching loudly or quietly; do Barton’s? Do ya’lls? In a room like this, would you make them describe how they’re searching (to gauge the noise)? If so, does that get exhausting?

I say scrap it and just roll a 2-in-6.

1-10: Collapsing Ceiling

The door to this empty chamber is firmly closed, and stuck. The ceiling of the room within is completely unstable, and any movement inside is likely to produce a cave-in. There is a 25% chance per round (cumulative) that a cave-in will occur. The cave-in commences in the exact center, but quickly spreads until the entire ceiling has collapsed, burying the chamber in tons of rock. PCs must move decisively to the door in order to escape.

Round 1: 1-4 damage to anyone in center

Round 2: 1-6 damage to anyone in southern half

Round 3: 2-12 damage to those in southern half, 1-6 damage in northern half

Round 4: those in southern half are buried and killed, 3-18 damage to those in northern half.

Quick reminder that this is a 25x25’ room, and that a round in 1e is a full minute. Again, I want to demonstrate appreciation for actually including mechanics. It’s better to have them than not. Is the idea that once the ceiling starts collapsing that folks are going to dilly dally (and spend minutes in the room watching it collapse on top of them)? Otherwise, as far as I can tell, stating “I exit the room” is sufficient to always leave the room, regardless of how far in you were when the collapse started and how much encumbrance you have.

1-11: Giant Snake

Scattered among the skeletons are a pair of beryls worth 25 gp each; a pouch holding 88 sp; and a magical iron spear named Nightwind (see new magic items).

Then, if we follow the Nightwind reference:

The spear is heavy and almost impossible to wield (-5 to hit) until its name (carved in Mithric on its shaft) is spoken, at which point it becomes light and perfectly balanced. Once the name is spoken, Nightwind functions as a spear +1, +3 versus humanoids (including giant-class humanoids). Needless to say, the goblins of the Halls will be instantly suspicious of any who bears Nightwind openly. Experience Point Value: 800 G. P. Value: 4,000

Wait, why are the goblins instantly suspicious; are they familiar with Nightwind? Are other humanoid factions (halflings, beastmen, fishmen, kaliyani, priscians, set cultists, sun-scarred knights, varumani) also suspicious, or is it just the gobbos? Bizarre.

1-17: Feasting Carcass Creeper

Treasure: Chain mail; long sword; pouch with 37 sp, and 18 gp; and a map of areas 3-2, 3-12, 3-13, 3-15, 3-16, 3-18, 3-31, 3-32, and 3-33, with obscure annotations.

Uhhhhhh

I think it would be extremely useful for Barton to put together a book of handouts that has stuff like this. I’d pay!

Here’s the quick and dirty map that I made if you want to copy my homework.

1-19: Stirge Lair

This is a really cool set-piece encounter to build towards. It is twice-telegraphed (corpses in 1-7 and 1-13), and interactive (Lankios’ goo helps out). Clearing the area grants access to a couple of pretty big unlocks:

• A treasure hoard worth 2126g

• 3 Magic items worth 1250xp and 6500g total

• Adventuring notes (good information)

• Safe passage to level 3 and level 5

• A teleportation ring

Conclusions and Recommendations

Hopefully this is clear from the review, but this is so much better than the exterior or ruined city. The map is properly loopy, the play structure is clear. I still take issue with the room keys, but that’s a whole-module thing. Overall, it’s a simple and fun vanilla D&D dungeon crawl. Literal rats in the cellar! A quirky NPC to talk to! Treasure hoards, locked doors, magic pools, and campy puzzles! Love it.

I recommend:

• Trim down the number of random encounters to just the most interesting-to-you ones. You probably only need to keep ~4. Polish them up by pre-rolling quantities and giving them a more evocative context.

• 1-1: give Arden’s leg physical properties: ~27000lbs, and ~24’ long with a ~3’ diameter on average. Moving the leg is one of those dang OSR-style challenges, and we need physical properties to properly describe the challenge and judge solutions.

• 1-5: put a name on the Zombie Porter’s dog collar (who makes a dog collar without putting on name on it???). I recommend ‘Duke’ for laughs.

• 1-6: copy my homework for Lankios’ semi-poetical phrases (or invent your own). Pre-roll Lankios’ location each time they explore this level.

• 1-8: Figure out ahead of time for how you want to handle aerial combat in this room in whatever system you’re using. Decide how tall you want the room to be.

• 1-9: scrap the variable probability thing and just use a 2-in-6 to alert the stirges if they search the room or otherwise make noise.

• 1-10: simplify the collapse to 1d4 damage to anyone in the center, and then death to anyone to wants to fuck around and find out afterward.

• 1-11: either figure out why the goblins recognize nightwind or scrap that idea (i scrapped it)

• 1-17: Make a map of 3-2, 3-12, 3-13, 3-15, 3-16, 3-18, 3-31, 3-32, and 3-33, with obscure annotations. Here's mine.

• 1-18: Figure out what a single boot of elvenkind does and how much it’s worth without the other (a pair is worth 1000xp and 5000g and lets the wearer have a 95% to move silently in the worst conditions).

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← Back to overview

Pre-Requisites

Fortunately, the first two articles of Elliptic Curve Cryptography: a gentle introduction - Andrea Corbellini are an exceptionally good primer; better than I would have created. So, rather than trying to re-write that material (and doing a worse job of it), just read the above, and then come back here for a worked example with a toy implementation.

Toy Implementation

The Weierstrass Normal Form of Elliptic curves is

Bitcoin uses secp256k1, which looks like

using a huge prime number1 as the modulus. For our toy implementation, we're going to use a much smaller prime number: 97. A point [x, y] is on the curve if it satisfies our equation. For instance, here is [1, 28].

After that, we need to code our group operation, which we're going to call multiply.

Multiplication

It's relatively straightforward and copies the math from Andrea Corbellini.

export interface ECPoint {
  x: number
  y: number
}

export const curveMod = 97
export const curveA = 0
export const curveB = 7

// y^2 = x^3 + curveA * x + curveB mod curveMod

export const identity: ECPoint = { x: -1, y: -1 }

export function multiply(a: ECPoint, b: ECPoint): ECPoint {
  if (a.x === identity.x) {
    return b
  }

  if (b.x === identity.x) {
    return a
  }

  if (a.x === b.x && a.y !== b.y) {
    return identity
  }

  let slope = 0

  if (a.x === b.x) {
    slope = (3 * Math.pow(a.x, 2)) * modInverse(2 * a.y, curveMod)
  } else {
    slope = (b.y - a.y) * modInverse(b.x - a.x, curveMod)
  }

  const x = mod(Math.pow(slope, 2) - a.x - b.x, curveMod)
  const y = mod(slope*(a.x - x) - a.y, curveMod)

  return { x, y }
}

The preamble represents the identify laws:

• A • identity = A

• identity • A = A

• A • -A = identity

Then, we need to know if we are squaring a point (A • A) or multiplying two distinct points (A • B), since that affects the slope.

If we are squaring a point, the slope will be the derivative:

It works the same way in modular arithmetic except instead of dividing, we

multiply by the modular inverse. Our slope is

slope = 3x^2 = modInverse(2y, 97)

For two distinct points, we can calculate the slope regularly.

slope = (b.y - a.y) / (b.x - a.x)

Division is off the table, so we use `modInverse` again:

slope = (b.y - a.y) * modInverse(b.x - a.x, 97)

Once we know the slope, we can write the equation for the line:

y = slope * x + b

Which must hold true for both of our points. We can substitute to solve for `b`

a.y = slope * a.x + b
b   = a.y - slope * a.x

So now we have

y = slope * x + (a.y - slope * a.x)            // line equation
0 = x^3 + 7 - y^2                              // curve equation
0 = x^3 + 7 - (slope*x + b)^2                  // substitute out y
0 = x^3 + 7 - ((slope*x)^2 + 2b*slope*x + b^2) // distribute
0 = x^3 + 7 - (slope*x)^2 - 2b*slope*x - b^2
0 = x^3 - slope^2*x^2 - 2b*slope*x + (7 - b^2)

This gives us our equation in standard polynomial form and lets us find the roots. We know that there are three roots: our known `a.x` and`b.x` and the solution we’re looking for.

We can write a cubic polynomial in roots form like this:

(x - root1) * (x - root2) * (x - root3) = 0

Since we already know two our our roots, we can substitute:

(x - a.x)*(x - b.x)*(x - solution) = 0
(x^2 - b.x*x - a.x*x + a.x*b.x)*(x - solution) = 0
(x^2 - (b.x + a.x)*x + a.x*b.x)*(x - solution) = 0
x^3 - solution*x^2 - (b.x + a.x)*x^2 + (b.x + a.x)*solution*x + a.x*b.x*x - a.x*b.x*solution = 0
x^3 - (solution + b.x + a.x)*x^2 + ((b.x + a.x)*solution + a.x*b.x)*x - a.x*b.x*solution = 0

Now we have two different representations of the same polynomial, both in standard form. Since they are the same polynomial, all of their coefficients must also be the same, which allows us to greatly simplify.

1                              = 1          // coefficient of x^3

solution + b.x + a.x           = slope^2    // coefficient of x^2

(b.x + a.x)*solution + a.x*b.x = -2b*slope  // coefficient of x

-a.x*b.x*solution              = 7 - b^2    // the free term

We can do some algebra:

solution.x = slope^2 - b.x - a.x                  // coefficient of x^2

solution.x = (-2b*slope - a.x*b.x) / (b.x + a.x)  // coefficient of x

solution.x = (7 - b^2) / (-a.x*b.x)               // the free term

Of these, the x^2 term is by far the easiest to calculate. That means for any multiplying any two points a and b, the x-value of the third point is

slope^2 - a.x - b.x

For modular arithmetic, we just need to take the mod at the end:

solution.x = mod(Math.pow(slope, 2) - a.x - b.x, curveMod)

Then we can substitute to get y with the line equation:

solution.y = slope * x + (a.y - slope * a.x) // line equation
solution.y = slope * solution.x + a.y - slope * a.x
solution.y = slope*(solution.x - a.x) + a.y

Finally, we need to apply the third step: translating it across the y-axis. With the real numbers, we would multiply by -1 and call it a day. In modular arithmetic we also need to take the mod at the end.

final.y = mod(-1 * slope*(solution.x - a.x) - a.y, 97)
final.y = mod(slope*(a.x - solution.x) - a.y, 97)

That was the last piece to understand our (in hindsight) compact algorithm:

if (a.x === b.x) {
  slope = (3 * Math.pow(a.x, 2)) * modInverse(2 * a.y, curveMod)
} else {
  slope = (b.y - a.y) * modInverse(b.x - a.x, curveMod)
}

const x = mod(Math.pow(slope, 2) - a.x - b.x, curveMod)
const y = mod(slope*(a.x - x) - a.y, curveMod)

return { x, y }

Exponentiation

We also want to be able to call

exponentiate(a: ECPoint, k: number): ECPoint

in order to represent

a*a*a*a...

k times. Here's the simple, brute-force approach:

function exponentiate(a: ECPoint, k: number): ECPoint {
  let result = a
  for (let i = 0; i < k - 1; i++) {
    result = multiply(result, a)
  }

  return result
}

It just works! It is also miserably slow. Here is what the execution log looks like:

result = a^1
result = a^1 * a = a^2
result = a^2 * a = a^3
...
result = a^(k-1) * a = a^k

Much better is to take advantage of doubling. Say that we wanted a^55. We can express that as

a^55 = a^(1 + 2 + 4 + 16 + 32)
     = a * a^2 * a^4 * a^16 * a^32

Here's an execution log that allows us to do this:

let result = 1
let double = a
result = result * double = a
double = double * double = a * a = a^2
result = result * double = a * a^2 = a^3
double = double * double = a^2 * a^2 = a^4
result = result * double = a^3 * a^4 = a^7
double = double * double = a^4 * a^4 = a^8
double = double * double = a^8 * a^8 = a^16
result = result * double = a^7 * a^16 = a^23
double = double * double = a^16 * a^16 = a^32
result = result * double = a^23 * a^32 = a^55

This would have previously taken 54 multiplication operations. Now, it is taking 10. Abstractly, the brute-force approach takes k-1 operations and the doubling strategy takes 2*log_2(k) in the worst case.

In order to make doubling work, we need a way to factor 55 into powers of 2. Here is one such procedure:

55 = 1 + 54
   = 1 + 2 * 27
   = 1 + 2 * (1 + 26)
   = 1 + 2 + 2*26
   = 1 + 2 + 2(2*13)
   = 1 + 2 + 4*13
   = 1 + 2 + 4*(1 + 12)
   = 1 + 2 + 4 + 4*12
   = 1 + 2 + 4 + 4*(2*6)
   = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8*6
   = 1 + 2 + 4 + 8*(2*3)
   = 1 + 2 + 4 + 16*3
   = 1 + 2 + 4 + 16*(1+2)
   = 1 + 2 + 4 + 16 + 16*2
   = 1 + 2 + 4 + 16 + 32

Whenever we encounter an *odd* number, we use that term, since odd numbers can always be represented as “1 + 2*n”, and the “1 + ...” part means that when we distribute our power of 2, it sticks around.

Here is how we can turn this into an algorithm:

function exponentiate(a: ECPoint, k: number): ECPoint {
  let result = identity
  let double = a

  while (k > 0) {
    if (mod(k, 2) === 1) {
      result = multiply(result, double)
    }

    double = multiply(double, double)
    k = Math.floor(k / 2)
  }

  return result
}

Generators and Trap Door Functions

Here's the idea: say that we all publicly agree to use {x: 1, y: 28} as our base point. I calculate

exponentiate({x: 1, y: 28}, k)

for some secret value k and get {x: 5, y: 61}. Are you able to tell what k I used? You could keep guessing every possible k until you found the answer. There are more sophisticated approaches, but none that I am aware of that get you below linear time with respect to k. If there are 2 digits of possible K values, you will probably have to guess and check check 2 digits of possible answers.

If there are, instead, 100 digits of possible `k` values, you will be checking for a long time.

Meanwhile, if I tell you that my my secret k value was 35, it is quick to verify that I am honest. This is the foundation of a Trapdoor Function - it is easy to go through in one direction, but difficult in the other.

The concept of group theory Generators is a little too abstract for our purposes, but in practical terms, we can pick a base point like {x: 1, y: 28} and keep applying the operation to itself and if we eventually wind up back at itself, we have a cyclic group - that's the case here:

exponentiate({x: 1, y: 28}, 80) === {x: 1, y: 28}

This means

exponentiate({x: 1, y: 28}, 85) === exponentiate({x: 1, y: 28}, 6)

since we keep looping back.

That is all we're looking for in a generator in this context, so we can code it in a few lines:

const generator: ECPoint = {x: 1, y: 28}

function g(n: number): ECPoint {
  return exponentiate(generator, n)
}

We could have picked whichever point we wanted, so long as it satisfies our curve equation. I just set x = 1 and then solved for y via guess-and-check. To do this in a reasonable amount of time with larger numbers, we can use the [Tonelli-Shanks algorithm.

reddit thread

Overview

The module opens up with a 695-word, 7-paragraph overview of the Ruined City. In this, we learn:

• Arden Vul served as a center for scholarly and magical pursuits, with a carefully selected population of ~10,000 at its peak. Necessities were imported through sorcery or from the valley below.

• As the Archontean Empire declined, the city became a fortified retreat. It was ultimately torn apart by conflict between two factions: the Sortians, who wanted to make magical knowledge widely accessible, and the Theosophs, who wished to keep it restrictive and hierarchical.

• The city was destroyed in a cataclysm 1,210 years ago. This event involved two forces: an enormous physical force that flattened the eastern side and immense heat that charred the western side.

• An imperial expedition sent to reclaim Arden Vul approximately 250 years ago was destroyed in two decades.

• Today, Arden Vul is a ruin. The western side is now a swamp, while the eastern side is in better condition. Several significant structures remain, most notably the Great Pyramid of Thoth, two obelisks, and the ruins of the imperial Archon's Palace.

I’ve scoured the book and can’t find an explicit note explaining what flattened the eastern side of the city. Here are the main clues that I’ve found:

• “the east side (except the pyramid) seems to have been flattened by a wall of enormous force, as if a child has swept through a block-city with her hands” v1p81

• “Everyone knows that the city of Arden Vul was destroyed during the War of the Sortians and Theosophs. But what isn't well-known is that the city was leveled to the ground by a phalanx of red dragons (T) commanded by the arch-Sortian, Priscus Pulcher (F). Some survivors managed to live on for a while underground, but they were eventually overwhelmed by giant trolls (T)”. Historical rumor 28, v1p26

• 1783 AEP, 1210 years ago. “The city of Arden Vul is brutally sacked by dragons and renegade Sortians during the war of Sortians and Theosophs. The archon, Uriel Basileon, dies in her palace. The varumani revolt under the mountain, expelling the Archonteans from the Lower Halls”. Timeline, v1p9

There’s some conflicting info here; the rumor says that the city was leveled by a phalanx of red dragons, while the timeline says it was a combo of dragons and Sortians. I think the “charred with immense heat” is fairly obviously the work of the red dragons, but it’s unclear what caused the immense physical force. Maybe a bunch of Bigby’s Hands from the Sortian wizards?

Finally, we get this note:

GM Notes on traffic and population in the Ruined City: It is up to the GM to determine how much activity is desired in the ruined city. It was tempting to make the ruined city the equivalent of another dungeon level in terms of monsters, treasure, and ‘special items.’ Indeed one could write dozens of additional encounters within the city ruins, as cellars abound; many of these were interconnected, potentially providing a goodly number of independent mini-dungeons. If such an environment is desired, pick a location in the ruins that is distant from any of the currently-keyed locations and bring that particular concept to life. The ruined city is large and can accommodate many more detailed areas.

But to keep the focus on the deeper dungeon levels, it seemed best that the ruined city serve as a relatively neutral location in which the PCs can search for clues about the levels below, meet rivals, rest, and glean general information about the setting. Given that assumption, traffic in the city should be relatively slight, limited to Kronos Kettle-Belly, Estelle, and their men at The Sign of the Broken Head (AV-22), a few monsters, and vermin and animals. Of course the ruins should not be completely safe, and at least one powerful potential adversary (Craastonistorex, a huge adult green dragon at AV-40) has been added to make things interesting.

I love design notes. The purpose of a module is to encode the author's vision onto paper so the GM can decode it into a runnable adventure. Design notes (whether inline or in an appendix) help to understand intent in a way that makes decoding the text easier.

That said, I have a quibble.

It is up to the GM to determine how much activity is desired in the ruined city.

No, that’s up to the module author and players. If the author’s vision for the adventure includes a lot of adventuring in the ruined city, then the ruined city needs to be described in a way that facilitates adventuring for the GM, and should include things to do and rewards so that the players choose to adventure there (in lieu of other places). Again, this is an encoding and decoding thing.

For instance, imagine that this was the note:

GM Notes on traffic and population in the Ruined City: It was tempting to make the ruined city the equivalent of another dungeon level in terms of monsters, treasure, and ‘special items.’ Instead, to keep the focus on the deeper dungeon levels, it seemed best that the ruined city serve as a relatively neutral location in which the PCs can search for clues about the levels below, meet rivals, rest, and glean general information about the setting.

Given that assumption, traffic in the city should be relatively slight, limited to Kronos Kettle-Belly, Estelle, and their men at The Sign of the Broken Head (AV-22), a few monsters, and vermin and animals. Of course the ruins should not be completely safe, and at least one powerful potential adversary (Craastonistorex, a huge adult green dragon at AV-40) has been added to make things interesting.

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Random Encounters

Encounter checks should be rolled during the morning, noon, evening, and night, with a 1 in 10 chance of an encounter during the day. During night, the chance increases to 1 in 6.

As far as I can tell, this is the only part of the book that uses these sorts of random encounter triggers. In all other chapters (I checked all of them), we roll a 1-in-X every Y turns for a random encounter (with the usual being 1-in-6 every 3 turns).

Here, we have separate tables for day/night with separate chances (1-in-10 vs 1-in-6). Unfortunately, we don’t have guidance about when sunrise or sunset is, so the GM will need to make this up. Similarly, we don’t have guidance about when the evening starts.

Besides that ambiguity, it’s not especially clear how this works. For instance, say that we keep it simple and use:

• Morning: 6am - 12pm

• Afternoon: 12pm - 6pm

• Evening: 6pm - 12am

• Night: 12am - 6am

Say that the adventurers arrive at the ruined city at 1pm, and then head straight to the pyramid to start a delve. They’re in the ruined city from 1:00pm to 1:20pm. Do we roll a random encounter or not? One interpretation is to roll to determine when during the time-band that an encounter might occur. If the PCs are present at that time, then you make an encounter check. For instance, we could roll 2d6 for the afternoon and get (2, 5), corresponding to 1:40pm

• (1,1): 12:00pm

• (1,2): 12:10pm

• (1,3): 12:20pm

• (1,4): 12:30pm

• (1,5): 12:40pm

• (1,6): 12:50pm

• (2,1): 01:00pm
  …

Since the players were not there during the check time, no check is made.

OR

We could convert this to use the format the rest of the book uses; every 6 hours (24 turns), we make a 1-in-10 check (unless it’s between 12am and 6am, in which case we make a 1-in-6 check).

This has the downside of making it so that players will basically never get random encounters unless they’re spending huge lengths of time in the ruined city. Instead, we could say we start with a random encounter check (which is still only 1-in-10 usually) the first turn they spend in the city, and then every 6 hours thereafter. This is what I do in my game.

Encounter HP

I saw it pointed out that the pre-rolled HP values seem… fudged. I think it’s worth performing a statistical analysis to demonstrate this.

• 12 giant rats (1d4 hp). 4,4,4,3,3,3,2,2,2,1,1,1.

• 12 giant centipedes (1d2 hp). 2,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,1,1,1

• 2 brown bears (5d8+5). 39, 31

• 4 lacedons (2d8 hp). 15, 13, 12, 10

• 6 giant frogs (2d8 hp). 16, 15, 13, 12, 11, 9

• 7 stirges (1+1 hp). 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3

• 3 halfling fighters (1d10 hp). 8, 9, 10

• 3 2nd level halfling thieves (2d6). 11, 9, 8

• 12 beastman troopers (1d8+1 hp). 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5

• 2 beastman sergeants (2d8+2 hp). 16, 15

• giant lizard (3d8+1 hp). 21

• 4 albino baboons (3d8 hp). 20, 19, 18, 16

• 11 set cultists (1d8 hp). 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3

• 6 lacedons (2d8 hp). 15, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9

• 1 wyvern (7d8+7 hp). 51

• 5 ghouls (2d8 hp). 13, 12, 11, 11, 10

• 4 huge spiders (2d8+2 hp). 15, 15, 13, 11

• 4 large albino baboons (3d8 hp). 20, 19, 18, 18

The rats and centipedes have suspiciously even HP (equal numbers of all possible results). Meanwhile, we’ve rolled 128d8 and gotten a total of 748.

128d8 has an expected value of 576. The variance of a d8 is 5.25. Thus the variance of 128d8 is 128•5.25=672. The standard deviation is the root of that, so 25.92.

748 is 172 away from the mean of 576, which is 6.64 standard deviations. The probability of naturally generating a value that’s at least 6.64 standard deviations above the mean is 1.568E-11, or 0.0000000016%, or roughly on the order of 1 in 50 trillion. Welcome to fudge city!

Entries

The entries themselves are standard fare; Barton provides random entries with randomized numbers of monsters; no activity or reaction is given. That said, other than the Wyvern (which automatically attacks, per the monster manual), they all seem pretty reasonable.

My main criticism here is that as written, there’s only a 10% chance (on top of the 10% chance to have an encounter in the first place) of running into another NPC adventuring party. As far as I understand the setting, there’s supposed to be quite a few adventurers besides the PCs, yet the random encounter table makes them rare (1% of trips through the city). Here, we’re as likely to see another group of adventurers as we are to see brown bears.

Searching the Ruins

Only the fixed encounter areas are listed in the following pages. For random exploration, the GM should use the following charts. Normally PCs will have a 1 in 10 chance per hour of uncovering something of possible interest.

This is a common theme in the module, but it’s unclear to me if Barton means that each PC has a 1-in-10 per hour, or if the party has a 1-in-10. It’s also not clear what “random exploration” means. The map has a bunch of points of interest; is the intent here to facilitate what happens when the PCs “explore” a part of the ruined city that isn’t a POI?

This makes me wonder what the play procedure for the ruined city is. Originally I assumed that we play this whole thing like some sort of giant dungeon room. The PCs are somewhere, their sight lines are blocked by walls/buildings/etc, but during the day they can see far (unlike a dungeon, where you’re limited by light). I tell them about the POIs in their vision, they go to one of them, and we explore it.

But if Barton assumes that we’re doing “random exploration”, now I’m lost. What does that look like?

Some of the entries for the random tables are GM booby traps:

• Pectoral or torc, 25% it’s made of precious metal

  • Which precious metal? How much is it worth?

• A bronze key. (Unknown or GM’s choice (perhaps one of the keys to the Hematite Doors at 3-175/3-177)).

  • Okay cool - have a list of all locked doors so I can choose?

• A scrap of parchment with a code on it. (GM’s choice.)

  • Oh god

• A treasure map, torn into quarters - only three of the pieces are extant. (GM’s choice.)

  • Oh god

• A ‘Russian doll’ statuette of a squatting, salamander-shaped being with a huge mouth; made of lacquered maple; if all eight pieces are extant, one can read a prayer to Rimmaq-Isfet on the bottom of the statuette. The prayer is in Mithric. Currently three pieces are missing.

  • What’s the prayer? Where are the other 3 pieces?

This result indicates the discovery of a hidden cache of valuables. The GM should feel free to adjust the results as necessary, especially if the PCs have already found a cache. Any cache discovered has a flat 25% chance of attracting the attention of Craastonistorex (AV-40).

Okay, so Craastonistorex responds to stuff the players do beyond being an entry on the random encounter table. I’ll talk more about this when I get to his location key.

Lost Cellar or Room:
If this result is rolled, the PCs have found a relatively intact chamber in the rubble. The value and role of this chamber is up to the GM to decide. It is recommended that an additional 2-3 entry points to the dungeon levels be discoverable in this manner; if the GM decides that a lost cellar does lead to the dungeons, it should be trapped in some manner and should lead to a small sub-level (of the GM’s devising) which can be made to connect to one of the main levels.

Yeah no problem, just whip up a sub-level real quick and then figure out how it connects to the main levels.

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Encounter Areas

AV-3 & AV-4: Generic Round & Square Towers

Towers are generally 30’ high and 25’ wide. The round towers are older than the square ones, which were part of a later building program by the authorities of Arden Vul. Originally, the round towers featured 3 interior levels plus a conical tiled roof, and two bands of geometric tile and brick-work at 15’ and 20’ respectively. The square towers had a ground floor, two more interior floors reached by wooden stairs, and an open, machicolated roof. Poking around in anything but mostly intact towers will provoke a roll of 2d8 under DEX; if failed, the incautious PC has taken 1-6 damage from falling/collapsing masonry.

Status: Roll d8 to determine how much of each tower still stands:

I count 4 unlabeled round towers and 2 unlabeled square towers. We can uhh.. just roll these and write the results down instead of making the GMs do that.

Here’s an updated map:

48 - Round Tower

Utterly obliterated, under tons of rubble. No inhabitants. No treasure.

49 - Round Tower

Portions of ground and first floors intact. No inhabitants. No treasure.

50 - Round Tower

Utterly obliterated, under tons of rubble. No inhabitants. Treasure: A gold signet ring (30 gp), “Lucii Hesti, Procuratoris” (i.e., ring of Lucius Hestus the procurator).

51 - Round Tower

Mostly gone. No inhabitants. No Treasure.

52 - Square Tower

Portions of ground floor still intact. No inhabitants. No treasure.

53 - Square Tower

Mostly gone. No inhabitants. No treasure.

That felt way more useful than providing a bunch of random tables with results that we won’t use.

AV-7: Grand Forum

The Old Oak: the oak is an ancient sentient tree named Tuftwillig. Tuftwillig is more than 800 years old, having moved here shortly after the abandonment of the city. Druids have a 1 in 6 chance to sense the sentience of Tuftwillig. He is difficult to wake from his slumbers: noise will only do it 1/3 of time; threat of fire will do so, but he will be most unhappy.

Treasure: Tuftwillig has two items hidden in his roots. One is a ring of acid resistance (see new magic items) given to him by a druid when he was a young tree; this item he will only offer to the very most trusted of allies, and then only if they can demonstrate great need. The other item is the left hand from the colossal statue of Arden (see AV-30); he will give this to anyone who asks, so long as they are polite and respectful.

Emphasis mine. Is the hand hidden in the roots? Like, you can’t see it just by passing by? Tuftwillig is really cool; I highly recommend changing this so that the hand is obviously visible, but the roots have grown over it. Breaking the roots to retrieve the hand then wakes up a grumpy Tuftwillig. This gives parties a way to meet the tree that isn't gated by random chance and having a druid.

AV-8: Tower of Scrutiny

The Tower of Scrutiny was used by the priesthood of Thoth to oversee public discourse in the forum and to serve as a symbol of imperial might. It is 40’ square, and looms 45’ above the forum. A pair of massive bronze doors exist at the level of the Forum. The doors are locked and wizard locked (12th level, see TS-1). No windows grace the tower until the final 10’ of its height (see TS-12).

Kronos Kettle-Belly (AV-22) sent some of his men to investigate the tower; as they never returned, the inhabitants of the Broken Head have developed a healthy fear of the tower, one that they are happy to share with (and exaggerate to) all comers.

The Tower’s internal structure and inhabitants are detailed separately in the Tower of Scrutiny (TS) level description.

Secret Door: A second entrance exists in the form of a secret door on the west side of the tower (for details see TS-6).

Some notes here:

• The information that Kronos sent some of his men to investigate the tower should be placed where players might discover it: in Kronos's write-up, with his men (like at the guard post at AV-21), and in the section detailing what happened to them.

• This says the secret door is on the west side of the tower.

The west side is the side that faces the plaza. Barton means the east side. Here’s the map:

The last bit is that the bronze doors lack an important detail that the writeup in TS-1 includes:

These massive bronze double-doors are 8’ tall and radiate strongly of magic. Both valves are carved inside and out with symbols of Thoth: ibises, baboons, moons, magical glyphs, and multiple iterations of the Archontean alphabet. They are locked and, more significantly, wizard locked (by a 12th-level magic user).

The glyphs and letters should be visible from the plaza, and so this information should also be duplicated in AV-8, otherwise it’s really easy to miss the description as players move through the plaza.

AV-9: Baboon Tower

An enterprising giant intelligent baboon named Rango has led some of the albino baboons from Level 2 into this tower, from which they venture (at night) to forage for provisions and victims. At night-time this area is rife with hooting, howling, and thumping of rocks. Regardless of the time of day, anyone approaching within 50’ will be met by a hail of thrown stones (each worth 1-4 damage).

“Things with points and sharp ends are extra important to have prepped.” How do we actually run this? Say that a party wants to investigate the tower. They walk within 50 feet. Do we go into combat? If so, it would be really helpful to have a better description of the space to facilitate that combat (where the door is, what the interior of the tower looks like, etc).

This is describing a significant combat encounter set-piece (8x 3 HD baboons and an 8 HD giant 4-armed baboon) with an intelligent foe (Rango can speak common) in a very lazy way.

AV-11: Ghoul Nest

A pod of ghouls, led by 3 ghasts, occupy ruins just to the south of the eastern plaza. They are nocturnal. The nest is in a cellar covered by rubble. Its entrance is hard to locate.

• What are the dimensions of the cellar (so we can have a battle in there)?

• Does the cellar have any tactically relevant features (high ground, cover, difficult terrain, explosives, hiding spots, etc)?

• What does “hard to locate” mean mechanically?

• Do they leave the cellar somehow or have they been stuck in there for centuries?

  • Are there signs of the ghouls and ghasts comings and goings?

Treasure: A set of copper candelabra and bowls worth 1,975 cp; a circular electrum mirror 3’ round, worth 1,000 gp but very heavy; a potion of clairvoyance, a potion of polymorph (self), and a shield of dubious faith (see new magic items).

• How much does the copper set weigh?

• How much does the mirror weigh?

• Is this stuff just piled on the floor in the cellar?

This room feels phoned in.

AV-12: Eastgate

South Tower: Persistent digging reveals one random object from the table below:

How persistent is persistent? Like, 1 hour worth of labor (i.e., 1 turn for 6 diggers)?

We get a 6-item table, but we’re only rolling on the table once. Instead of writing all 6 entries and making the GM roll (???), how about Barton rolls and then writes whatever is there into the room.

For instance, I rolled a 1, so we can replace this whole table with “A corpse of an Imperial administrator, with a parchment description of ‘the accursed ones on their fire-breathing mounts’ (i.e., dragon-riders), 6 ancient octagonal platinum coins (see Arden Vul items), and a silver pectoral in the shape of a knot surrounding a stylized drop of liquid (the sign of the Sortians, see World of Archontos appendix, worth 75 gp)”.

AV-13: Eastern Plaza

Trap: the area around the fountain is unstable and will collapse if more than 300 lb of weight is placed within 5’ of the basin. If it collapses, those standing by the fountain will take 2-12 damage, and will need to be dug out of rubble that may be up to 10’ deep by their friends. Digging takes 1-6 hours. If night falls, the ghouls (AV-11) will certainly investigate.

Okay so the ghouls do have a way to enter and exit the cellar. What happened to the entrance being covered in rubble?

AV-17: Plaza of the Priests of Thoth

Those poking around in the ruins of this dormitory have a good chance of finding the staircase that leads down 60’ to dungeon Level 1 (area 1-1). If the PCs do not know of the existence of the staircase, they have a 1 in 6 chance of finding it for each turn spent poking in the local ruins. If they have heard of its existence, then the chance rises to 3 in 6 per turn of searching.

That’s a neat way to do it; higher chance to find the thing if you know about its existence.

Watch out for the booby trap: “Leather map case with badly worn map (GM’s choice)”

AV-18: Buried Cellar

Amid the ruins of a Thothian priest’s urban residence is a hole leading to a lost cellar. The cellar is partly filled with rubble, but includes several items of note, including three broken marble statues each about 6’ tall, as well as the marble right leg from the colossal statue of Arden (see AV-30). The ordinary statues could be reassembled and sold for a handsome sum. Their subjects are Horus in a triumphant pose (75 gp, or 700 gp if repaired), Uriel Gnaeus, the founder of the Order of Thoth (45 gp or 450 gp if repaired; see Collegia in the World of Archontos appendix for information on the Order), and a finely-dressed goblin (40 gp or 275 gp if repaired).

Is this hole supposed to be visible from the surface? I’m having such a hard time figuring out how to describe the area to the players as they move through the city.

Barton mentions that the statues have a base value, and a much higher value if repaired. Some questions:

• Are we supposed to tell the players the higher value? “Looking at this statue, you think it’d fetch 75g as is, or 700g if you can repair it somehow”. Note that 1e doesn’t have mechanics for whether or not PCs are able to assess value.

• How does repairing a marble statue work? Can the PCs do it (without magic)? If not, which hireling can? How long would it take them?

• How much do the statues weigh?

• How much does Arden’s marble leg weigh?

Perhaps more significantly, the cellar wall holds a secret door leading to Level 2 (2-23).

Note that the cellar does not have dimensions. In order to conduct a search for secret doors, a character must pick a 10’x10’ area and spend 1 round searching, succeeding on a 1-in-6 (or 2-in-6 if they’re an elf; DMG97). In order to actually run this, we need to know where the secret door is, or at the very least we need to know the dimensions of the cellar. If it’s 20’x20’, it would take 4 checks to search the whole thing.

AV-19: Ruined Palace

Casual inspection would not indicate anything of interest in this mound of rubble except that it is slightly taller than its neighbors.

What neighbors?

AV-19: Ruined Palace

A plaster coat of arms is affixed to the west wall at the foot of the stairs. The coat of arms features a set of fasces and an officer’s baculus tied together with a complex knot. Those with specific knowledge of the Priscians or a deep historical knowledge (i.e., not just cultural knowledge) might recognize the knot as the one used by the Sortians in antiquity and the Priscians in the present. The coat of arms may be identified by anyone with knowledge of the Archontean nobility as belonging to the Briennios clan, still one of the important mid-rank clans in Archontos.

• How does a PC have deep historical knowledge? Can they just say they have it? 1e doesn’t have mechanics for knowledge (like how 5e has the History skill).

• Are there any NPCs in Gosterwick that have deep historical knowledge? If so, which ones?

• For the coat of arms, can PCs have knowledge of the Archontean nobility? Similarly, which NPCs in Gosterwick have knowledge of the Archontean nobility? This one is a little easier to rule on the fly, but this is still lazy.

Secret Door (north wall): The door is difficult to locate (1 in 8 chance). It opens by thrusting a 1”-diameter object into a hole in the ceiling (15’ above the floor).

Here, we at least have the dimensions of the cellar (100’x60’), so checking the walls is 32 total checks at 1-in-6. Further, the 1” hole in the ceiling should be included in the initial description, since that’s something players can see without interaction.

I do want to praise this section for the GM note:

GM Note: these ruins were once the palace of the Briennios clan in Arden Vul. The Briennios were and still are an important imperial service clan, one that provides many bureaucrats and officers. At the time of the War of the Sortians and Theosophs, the Briennios were highly placed advisors to the archon of Arden Vul. Yet Lucius Briennios was also an old schoolmate of Macrinus Furiosus, and eventually became a secret supporter of the Sortians. He allowed the Sortians to construct their secret entrance in the cellar of his urban palace. That entrance remained undiscovered for more than a thousand years until Nerub Null (9-64) discovered area 3-50, and the stairs at 3-50A. Nerub Null eventually built the secret entrance in the ruins to allow his allies and badly-needed supplies to enter the dungeons. They only use the entrance in the dead of night so as to minimize the chance of discovery. The Priscians animated the zombies to guard their secret entrance.

This is a historical note, and helps the GM understand the context for the room. Note how it’s a note, and stuck in after all of the game-able content that the GM needs to parse in order to run the room. That’s the way to do it!

AV-20: Isadora’s Estate

A once-elegant villa lies in ruins just outside the walls of Arden Vul. During the period before the Archontean collapse, it was owned by the famous Lady Isadora

Who knows this? The players don’t; if they ask people in Gosterwick or at the Broken Head, does anyone know it was once owned by Lady Isadora? Should the players know about Lady Isadora?

One of the wine casks is actually a permanent illusion, designed to cover the portal to Isadora’s secret tomb (Sub-Level 11).

As far as I can tell, this cask should stick out like a sore thumb. The illusion should look like how the other casks looked 1200 years ago (since the illusion does not age).

Those able to see past the illusion will see a stone wall upon which glow fourteen gold glyphs arranged in a circle. Read magic determines that the glyphs represent letters of the Archontean alphabet. Clockwise from the top center, the letters read ORCUSAIDSPAIRS.

Here’s the handout I made for this with the KHScala font. Translated:

1 exceptionally large giant wolverine: SZ M; AL N; AC 4; MV 150’; HD 5+5; hp 42; #AT 3; Dmg 2-5/2-5/2-8. Special attacks: musk; +4 to hit.

Inline stat blocks are so funny to me. Like yeah, we obviously all know what “musk” means as a special attack, right?

Their speed is partially responsible for their high armor class, and their ferocity in combat makes their attacks have a +4 on “to hit” dice rolls: A wolverine can squirt its disgusting musk at any opponent at its rear. The musk is equivalent to that of a skunk (q.v.)

Oh thanks monster manual; you’re right we did define musk in the skunk section 16 pages ago, so no need to repeat it 🙃.

They will react to any serious threat by backing towards an opponent and if the other creature does not quickly get beyond 6”, the skunk will loose a spray of vile musk quickly in a cloud 2” wide by 2” high by 6” long. If the opponent fails to save versus poison it will be blinded for 1-8 hours, and in any event the musk will cause the creature to retreat a full move and lose 50% of both strength and dexterity due to nausea for 2-8 turns. Furthermore, any creature touched by the skunk’s musk will have a disgusting stench. Other creatures will shun it. All cloth material will rot and become useless, including magical garb which fails its saving throw. Creatures and non-cloth garments and equipment must be washed and aired for several days to be completely free of the stench.

Is that what you guessed that “musk” did? 20’x60 rectangular AoE. Save vs poison or be blinded for 1d8 hours. Regardless of save, forced retreat, and lose half your strength and dexterity (recalculate AC, to-hit, damage, and encumbrance) for 2d4 turns. Cloth rots, magic cloth requires a (unspecified) saving throw or rots.

Yikes.

AV-22: The Sign of the Broken Head

The main structure is fort-like, with no windows on the stone ground story, and only a few narrow windows set into the wooden second floor. It resembles, in short, a blockhouse. The connected ell is a stable with a 15’-wide wooden door (and no interior connection to the inn). Several less-fortified outbuildings are scattered nearby, including a smokehouse, a kitchen, and two storehouses.

Note that none of the outbuildings are mapped (and were easy to forget to describe for me).

In fact, if it is addressed as “Lord Arden” it will animate and whisper “Restore me! Restore me! Courage shall be yours when I am whole and the incantation sung!”

Arden’s marble head can animate and whisper. Is it only capable of delivering this one line, or can it have a conversation?

At any given time 1-3 traders are likely to be present at the Broken Head. These traders offer adventuring gear at 150% of the list price; each trader has a hoard of 100-400 gp worth of coins and gems on his/ her person. Luxury items from civilization will not typically be available, but there is a 10-40% chance that one of the traders will carry something unusual, whether it is 1-4 potions of healing, a treasure map, a bit of useful lore relating to the Halls of Arden Vul (equivalent to a good rumor), etc.

Probability ranges are so funny to me. First we roll 10-40 (which is either 10d4, 2d4*5, 5d4*2, 6d6+4, 1d4*10, 30d2-20, 1d6*6+4, 2d6*3+4, 3d6*2+4, 5d2*6-20, 6d2*5-20, 1d2*30-20, 2d2*15-20, 15d2*2-20, 3d2*10-20, or 10d2*3-20). Say we go with 1d4•10 and get 20. Now there’s a 20% chance that there’s an unusual item, so we roll that.

Why not just specify the chance that there’s an unusual item?

As in, there’s a 25% chance that there’s a 10% chance, 25% that there’s a 20% chance, 25% that there’s a 30% chance, and 25% that there’s a 40%. The expected value here is 25%. So instead of rolling for chance, and then rolling the chance, just roll a 25% and call it done.

Further, this is effectively a curios shop, but we’ve offloaded the job of stocking the shop to the GM. Don’t do that! Compare to Gabor Lux’s Khosura:

Even easier is to instruct the GM to use an already-made table (interesting that BX has a table that produces random magic treasure but 1e does not; never realized that until I went looking just now).

Valuation of statues is up to the GM, but should be calculated as a factor of size, quality, and subject matter. Although some of the statues in this text are provided with specific values many are not, so the following guidelines allow the GM to roughly calculate the value of a statue.

This is such a funny thing to write to me. Like, if you’ve recognized that you’ve forgotten to assign treasure value to your treasures, just go do it, rather than telling the GM the formula you would have used to do it.

I don’t know what Barton’s thresholds are for tiny vs small vs medium vs large. I don’t know which subjects are average vs important vs very important. I don’t know the difference between a “fair” statue and a “good” statue.

The brokers typically start with an offer that is 50% of the value of a statue; they expect to haggle, and would like to end up at a price that is 75-80% of the value of any statue. Canny PC thieves or others with appraisal skills will be able, however, to realize they are being fleeced. Once aware that they are facing skilled negotiators, the brokers quickly fall into line, beginning their haggling at 80% of value and hoping to end at no more than 110% of value.

Again, there are no mechanics in 1e for appraisal. “Canny” isn’t a feat or skill that PC thieves can choose at character creation. The only window the players have into the game world is through the GM, and if the GM is lying about the price of statues then I don’t know what the players are supposed to do. Like, when they find the statue, are we not supposed to tell them how much it’s worth?

Similarly, there are no mechanics for haggling. Haggling is one of the things where there’s a billion forum threads because no one has a good handle on how to properly gamify it. Here are examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. In the same vein, I wrote up a statistical analysis of the haggling system in On Downtime and Demesnes; it was not good.

Treasures and Hoards: They have heard of the following treasures and tombs, and will confidently supply incorrect directions to each: Muirasso’s Tomb (5-36 to 5-40); the lost library of Thoth, containing powerful spells unknown to present wizards (2-70 and 2-72); the tomb of the great hero, Larel One-Eye (3-46); and the tomb of the conqueror-archon, Marius the Great (6-154).

This is a booby trap! If you want them to supply confident but incorrect information, write down what they say. It’s super hard for a GM to improvise these directions on-the-fly when the PCs are talking to Kronos.

The information that Kronos sent some of his men to investigate the tower should be where the players might discover it. That is, in Kronos’ write-up, or any of his men (like at the guard post at AV-21), and again at whatever happened to those men.

Note that if you re-read this section, there’s absolutely no mention of the Tower of Scrutiny. So the only way you’d know that Kronos sent some of his men to the Tower and that they’re spooked by it is if you remember it from the Tower section. This is bad!

AV-23: River Gate

There’s a 25% chance that a group of 3-6 adventurers has staked this place out.

Better imo to instruct the GM to pick a random NPC adventuring party (might as well use those), or if we want to get really spicy, Barton could roll a random NPC adventuring party and write down what he got. I just rolled a 1d10 and got “Discipline and Punish”.

AV-27: Ruined Donjon

4 imperial stone guardians (see new monsters): SZ L; AL N; AC -2; MV 90’; HD 8+3; HP 60, 60, 60, 60; #AT 2; Dmg 3-18/3-18; MR 50%. Special defenses: +2 or better weapons to hit; immune to missiles (including magic missile), fire, cold, mind-affecting spells (e.g. charm), and most immobilizing spells (immune to entangle, hold monster, web).

Brutal. As a special note to folks that aren’t playing Arden Vul in 1e, magic resistance (MR) works pretty unintuitively in 1e. The stat is given for a baseline of an 11th level caster. For each level below 11th, the stat increases by 5%, and for each level above, decreases by 5%. So the true magic resistance is MR + (11 - level) • 5. For instance, if a 3rd-level magic user tries to cast a spell on one of these guardians, the guardian has a 50+(11-3)•5=90% chance to resist. If it fails to resist, it still gets the normal saving throw.

Half of the second story has collapsed, although the other half still contains three desks; among the drawers are some blank archonal rescripts, with the ‘signature’ of Uriel Basileon (see AV-29). The rescripts could be used to impersonate imperial authority, provided the forger can imitate imperial court hand.

How do PCs in 1e create forgeries of stuff? Which characters can imitate imperial court handwriting and which can’t?

The spirits of two late Archontean-era dekarchs, Poulos Tissel and Mekos Gadril, haunt the entire tower as vengeful spirits (see new monsters). One spirit is always found in the Ghost Tower proper, while the other is found in the sub-basement (SL15-4). The pair seek vengeance for their murder; finding their bones in the sub-basement and giving them proper burial puts the spirits to rest. The wordless cries and moans of Poulos and Mekos have given the tower its current name.

This is bad info design; the wordless cries and moans should be audible, right? So put that info (as well as a note that the tower is patrolled by a ghost) near the top so the GM doesn’t miss it.

GM Note: If desired, the GM could draw up detailed maps of the donjon, adding new threats, treasures, and potential connections to the Halls below.

Oh I could, could I?

AV-28: Obelisk of the Moon

Only a 10’ stump of the obelisk still stands, hidden behind the 8’ walls that enclosed the secluded garden of the archon’s palace (AV-29).

I find this confusing, according to the map, it definitely looks like the obelisk is on the outside of the walls.

AV-30: Bridge of Doubt

Should the colossus somehow be restored (a sculptor of great talent will be needed once the pieces are found)

Sculptors aren’t in the 1e DMG. How much does it cost to hire a “sculptor of great talent”? How long does it take for such a sculptor to restore the colossus? How much money will the restoration take? Where can such a sculptor be found? I don’t see one in Gosterwick.

More abstractly, pushing all of this onto the GM isn’t cool.

The incantation below must be sung in Mithric from the bridge for an entire day without ceasing.

What are the mechanics for singing from the bridge for an entire day without ceasing? Like, can my player just say “I sing for an entire day without ceasing” and it happens (given that we don’t get interrupted by random encounters and whatnot)?

If this is accomplished, Arden grants a permanent bonus of +1 to STR or to CON.

Doing all of this to get +1 STR or +1 CON is so funny to me.

For huge ranges of STR and CON, having an extra 1 raw stat does basically nothing 🙃.

AV-31: Bridge of Wisdom

The incantation, which must be discovered through a sage or the lucky discovery of an inscription…

Note that no sages are detailed in Gosterwick, Newmarket, or Narsileon.

Compare to Dolmenwood:

Dolmenwood fully details every sage in the setting, and scatters them across the map.

AV-32: Docks and Lagoon

Resting on the river bottom amid the docks is the marble torso of the colossal statue of Arden (see AV-30).

How deep is the river? How much does the torso weigh?

1 electric eel: SZ M; AL N; AC 9; MV 720’ swimming; HD 2; HP 14; #AT 1; Dmg 1-3. Special attacks: jolt.

Inline stat blocks are so funny; what does “special attacks: jolt” mean?

“They will give off a jolt of electricity in a radius of 15’. They are immune to electrical effects. Any creature within 5’ of the eel takes 3-24 hit points damage; within 5’ to 10’ the jolt delivers 2-16 hit points damage, and between 10’ and 15’ the jolt delivers 1-8 hit points. The eel can do this but once per hour (six turns). Marine species are reported to be twice the size and do twice the damage.”

Note that in 1e, melee combat occurs when you get with 10’ of an enemy, and we don’t specify closer than that, so it’s not actually clear whether characters are within 5’ or between 5’ and 10’.

Further, it’s not clear whether this jolt is supposed to occur in lieu of an attack, movement, as a free action, etc.

AV-35: The Tranquil Lake

Chest of goods: 5 golden medallions, worth 45 gp each (but more to a collector; potential adventure seeds)

How much more are they worth to a collector? Where can such a collector be found; is there one in Gosterwick, Newmarket, or Narsileon? Remember, you control the setting, so you have full leeway to include these characters rather than giving the GM homework.

1-4 more keys (GM’s choice)

lol

The wheel is stuck due to inactivity and will only move with a successful open doors check.

The open doors check does not have a penalty for failure. If you fail, you just try again. As far as I can tell, this is totally pointless dice rolling.

AV-36: Corroded Southern Bridges

The two iron bridges that span the river here have been corroded by time and moisture. They are obviously unsafe.

What does “obviously unsafe” mean mechanically? Does the bridge break when someone steps on it? What happens then?

AV-37: Partly Intact Structures

This key number indicates several different structures on the map; each represents one of the best-preserved remaining structures. Although none has a special encounter attached to it, the chance for something special doubles when exploring one of these ruins (2 in 10 chance per hour). A maximum of 2 ‘specials’ can be pulled from each location. Each structure is different; should the GM wish it, each could be mapped.

I don’t even

AV-38: Swamp

For those who stop to explore the occasional shell of a building or push a foot or pole into a ruined foundation, the chance of an interesting encounter rises by 1.

This is the only instance of the phrase “interesting encounter” in the book. Does Barton mean the “Searching the Ruins” table? As in, usually there’s a 1-in-10 chance per hour of uncovering something of possible interest; does this change it to 2-in-10? If so, how do we reconcile that with the “per hour” guidance?

AV-39: Soggy Stairs

Effects of Opening the Door: anyone foolish enough to open the door without first draining the swamp will be swept away, as the force of approximately 110,000 cubic feet of murky swamp water rushes towards Level 4. Anyone in the stairwell will take 20d6 damage and must save vs. poison with a -2 penalty or drown. The effects of this drainage are as follows:

1. The Swamp: the southern half of the swamp (approximately 22 squares) will drain almost completely (although pockets of water in basements will remain).

2. Area 4-121 (the chasm of Set): half of the released swamp water (55,000 cubic feet) will rush into this chasm, raising the water level in the chasm by 55’ such that the bridge (4-120A) is only 30’ above the new level.

3. Path of the Water to the South on Level 4: the other half of the swamp water will rush south, passing through 4-122, 4-170, 4-172, 4-178, 4-189 and 4-190 before pouring messily out of the cliff onto the valley below. Anyone standing in the route of the water will be swept away to his/her demise.

4. Area 4-170: the portable statues of Set will be swept away and destroyed. They will be replaced in 1-4 months

5. Area 4-172: all the sand on the floor of the cavern will be swept away, and the colossal heads will be shifted such that they partially block the passage towards 4-178. The passage will be blocked for 4-7 days until the Set cult can lever the heads out of the way.

6. Area 4-178: the dungeoneering equipment on top of the boulder will be swept away.

7. Area 4-189: the impaled, animated skeletons will be swept away and destroyed. These will not be replaced.

8. Area 4-90: the Set cult’s pulley and basket apparatus will be swept away and lost. It will take the cult 3-7 weeks to re-establish an effective entry system.

This is so cool. Really, really good information here and I’m so happy that Barton decided to work it out. A++++

AV-40: Tower of the Wyrm

Craastonistorex speaks politely but firmly, and likely pursues one of the following strategies:
1) he might, if the PCs are powerful, simply warn them not to interfere in his hunting
2) he might magnanimously allow them to carry away whatever spoils they can find in the dungeons, but might (50%) demand a tithe from those proceeds
3) he might attempt to bully the PCs into serving him, perhaps by eliminating a rival or by locating a particular object.

Which rival? What object?

The GM should make sure that the PCs recognize the danger represented by Craastonistorex and the advisability of negotiating with him (at least for the short term).

In what way do you advise that the GM makes sure the PC recognizes the danger?

A wise GM will also have the dragon make occasional reappearances so as to keep the PCs on their toes.

How frequent are the occasional reappearances? Like, we don’t have to be mysterious or vague here. I’m your co-conspirator in bringing this adventure to life. Tell me what you’re thinking!

The Cult of Set: Stephania the high priestess (see 4-51) pays a tribute of 100 sp per month to ensure that her minions remain unmolested. As Craastonistorex grows older, he will wish to change the terms of this bargain in his favor; a clever party might be able to use this fact to drive a wedge between the two.

Stephania pays 100s (= 5g) per month for the safety of the whole set cult? Holy cow what a deal.

As Craastonistorex perceives the knights to be his greatest threat, he might attempt to persuade PCs of the knights’ ‘untrustworthiness’ and of the danger they pose ‘to equilibrium in the valley’. In certain circumstances, he might even ally with like-minded parties to oppose the knights (although he prefers to let the PCs do the hard work against them).

Under what sort of circumstances might he ally with like-minded parties to oppose the knights? If the PCs ask why the knights are untrustworthy, what does he say? What does he mean by the ‘equilibrium in the valley’?

Craastonistorex is super cool and I love that there’s a dragon right away. I would appreciate more guidance on how running this dragon is supposed to work. As written, this feels like a huge hidden goblin problem.

AV-43: Long House

One of the side rooms also features a small hoard of valuables.

Wait there are side rooms? How many side rooms are there? What does this place look like?

AV-45: Ruined Gladiator School

It is so easy to forget this place exists. I still don’t think I’ve told my players that their characters can see it. Yikes.

5 subterranean lizards: SZ L; AL N; AC 5; MV 120’; HD 6; HP 45, 43, 41, 39, 35

I wonder if Barton uses 1d6+2 as the hit dice; these numbers are out of control.

AV-46: Cave in the Woods

About a half mile northwest of the city walls, safely within the old forest that has begun to advance towards the ruins

A forest surrounds the ruins? Searching for “forest” yields nothing. The map doesn’t show a forest. The Burdock’s Valley map doesn’t show a forest.

Rather, it shows a flat plain with the foot of a mountain range 10ish miles away. So confused.

The cave is the home of a cave bear, but, perhaps more significantly, it also conceals yet another entrance to the Halls of Arden Vul (see SL15-21).

The cave is set into a low hill in a clearing in the forest, and its opening is shrouded by vines during summer. The smell of a large carnivore lingers at the cave mouth. Inside is a carpet of crunched and mangled bones.

What are the dimensions of the cave? Does the cave have any tactically relevant features (high ground, cover, difficult terrain, explosives, hiding spots, etc)?

AV-47: Ruined Suburban Villa of Kel Bormol

The ruins of a once-fine, late Archontean-era villa lie here, overgrown with trees and shrubs. Designed in the usual style, with living quarters surrounding an atrium and a peristyle, the walls and ceilings have all collapsed, rendering the place completely uninhabitable. In addition, the villa was thoroughly looted in the years after the Archontean collapse, so no mundane items of value can be found here.

Still, as Kel Bormol (see SL3-2A) was an archmage of considerable skill and foresight, he prepared a sub-basement of the villa as a refuge from the political turmoil that led to the destruction of Arden Vul. The sub-basement is accessed via a stone trap door in the tablinum (study); to access the study takes 6 hours of digging and shifting of rubble.

But… where is the tablinum? We don’t have a map for his place. It’s small, so presumably there’s more rubble to excavate than just the tablinum. How do we actually play this?

Conclusions and Recommendations

The ruined city is… rough.

• There’s a bunch of stuff “hidden in rubble” but without any clear guidance as to how finding it works.

• The openness of the area makes trying to describe it overwhelming. There are many multi-room complexes that aren’t given dimensions but have secret doors that must be searched for anyway.

• Some very heavy and very expensive loot like marble statues or the pieces of the colossal statues don’t have weights.

• There are bespoke diegetic mechanics (like a master sculptor repairing the colossal statues) that are never elaborated on.

• The geography is confusing; what does the surrounding area look like? Is there a nearby forest or no?

Here’s what I’d change:

• Ignore the inline stat blocks; use the monster manual or monster appendix. Re-roll all of the HP values (they’re all fudged).

• Change the random encounter checks to when they first arrive, and every 6 hours thereafter. Encounters between 8pm and 8am are “night” encounters.

• Figure out some way to make treasure maps in Arden Vul. No way is provided and the book calls for a lot of maps as treasure.

• Use the 1e DMG to generate 1 sage in Gosterwick, 2 sages in Newmarket, and 3 sages in Narsileon. Alternatively, stick Klimt (vol 4, p173; an homage to Ningauble) in Gosterwick and use delta's sage mechanics if you don’t feel like pulling your own hair out.

• Toss the “Searching the Ruins” idea altogether.

• For all cases where a time-to-clear-rubble is given (or similar), treat that as man-hours. So 6 PCs can clear 6-man-hours of rubble in 1 hour.

• Have PCs automatically know the value of treasure; including the value if something like a statue were to be repaired.

• Add a sculptor hireling to Gosterwick named Zenodorus with his two journeymen and four apprentices. Zenodorus’ team costs 150g per month produces 150g/mo of sculpting value.

• The marble statue of Arden should be 45’ tall and weigh 190k lbs, according to my estimates. Vul is a little shorter at 35’ tall and weighs 90k lbs. We can also estimate the %weights of each body part:

  • Torso: 50.0%. Arden: 95k lbs. Vul: 45k lbs.

  • Left Leg: 14.5%. Arden: 27k lbs. Vul: 13k lbs.

  • Right Leg: 14.5%. Arden: 27k lbs. Vul: 13k lbs.

  • Head: 8.0%. Arden: 15k lbs. Vul: 7k lbs

  • Left Arm: 4.3%. Arden: 8k lbs. Vul: 4k lbs.

  • Right Arm: 4.3%. Arden: 8k lbs. Vul: 4k lbs.

  • Left Foot: 1.4%. Arden: 3k lbs. Vul: 1k lbs.

  • Right Foot: 1.4%. Arden: 3k lbs. Vul: 1k lbs.

  • Left Hand: 0.6%. Arden: 1k lbs. Vul: 540lbs.

  • Right Hand: 0.6%. Arden: 1k lbs. Vul: 540lbs.

• Use my updated map from AV-3, with the pre-rolled contents (or pre-roll your own).

• Make Arden’s hand in the Grand Forum obvious to any passersby; but tangled in Tuftwillig’s roots. Any harm to the roots wakes Tuftwillig.

• In AV-8, add the information that the Tower of Scrutiny’s doors have visible glyphs and letters.

• The secret door to the Tower of Scrutiny is on the southern part of the eastern wall of the tower.

• Run the baboons in AV-9 as a proper combat encounter. Roll for surprise, say that 1d4+2 of the baboons plus a 30% chance of Rango are at the top of the tower at any given time. The rest join in 1d4 combat rounds later. They can scale the tower with their climb speed. The door to the interior is on the west side of the tower, and there is a spiral staircase upward. Here’s a decent example battlemap.

• In AV-11, ignore the bit about rubble covering the entrance. The entrance is obviously visible within 100ft. Here’s an example battlemap.

  • Let’s say the copper set weighs 20lbs.

  • Let’s say the mirror weighs 150lbs.

• Pre-roll the random table in AV-12.

• In AV-18

  • we’ll say that the statues can be repaired by spending 10% of the difference in their final value and present value. That would be 60g for Horus, 40g for Uriel, and 20g for the goblin. This work would take Zenodorus’ team a month to complete.

  • The right leg of Arden weighs 27,000lbs.

  • Let’s make the cellar a simple 20’x30’ room (it does need to be large enough to contain Arden’s leg).

• In AV-19, let’s say that any PC magic-users or clerics can recognize the Sortian knot. Any fighters can recognize the coat of arms.

• For AV-20, I recommend providing the players with a document of all of the stuff that adventurers probably know. If you DM me I definitely won’t share mine that I can’t publish because it’s too copy-pasted from the book.

• In AV-22

  • I recommend a 3:6 chance per visit that a random NPC party from the appendix is currently staying at the Broken Head. Play reaction rolls pretty straight here.

  • Use a 25% chance of a trader of having a random magic item available. The link points to donjon’s 1e generator which has a dropdown for “trader”.

  • Ignore the bit about haggling for statue prices. It’s mechanically nonsense and we want to spend our time adventuring. If you want to haggle, you can go do that in real life.

  • Replace the bit about false directions (lame; headache; too much prep) with the info that Kronos sent some of his lads to the Tower of Scrutiny and hasn’t seen them since.

• In AV-23 stick Discipline and Punish into the cellar under the east tower.

• In AV-25, treat “extremely fragile” as “breaks under 200+ pounds of total weight or any amount of running. Characters on the bridge when it breaks must save vs death or fall into the river.”

• In AV-27

  • We need to give dimensions for all of the towers. Let’s make the west tower have a 30’ diameter (and thus each floor requires 7 secret door checks), and let’s make the north tower have a 15’ diameter (and thus each floor requires 2 secret door checks).

  • Let’s say that the two-handed swords are all masterwork (+1 to hit, 90g each).

  • Let’s say that a Thief can roll Pick Pocket to create a forgery.

  • As soon as the players enter the northwest tower, they hear the moans of the ghosts.

• In AV-28, let’s use the map’s interpretation and stick the obelisk outside the walls, visible from the plaza, pyramid, etc.

• In AV-30, let’s say that the marble statue of Arden requires 1000g worth of labor to repair. It’ll take Zenodorus’ team 6 months. I also recommend changing how getting the blessing works and changing the benefit. I don’t have a concrete recommendation for either yet, I just know the current stuff is bad.

• In AV-31, let’s say that the statue of Vul requires 150g worth of labor to repair. It’ll take Zenodorus’ team 1 month. I also recommend changing how getting the blessing works and changing the benefit. I don’t have a concrete recommendation for either yet, I just know the current stuff is bad.

• In AV-35, ignore the bit about the amulets being worth more to a collector; that’s mechanical nonsense. Instead, split the difference and just make the amulets worth 120g each.

• In AV-36, treat this like AV-25. The bridge breaks under 200+ pounds of total weight. Characters on the bridge when it breaks must save vs death or fall into the river.

• Just cut AV-37 entirely; there’s already enough content that we don’t need to lower the average.

• In AV-40, every time the party does something very noticeable (sets fire to something, gets in a big battle, carries a lot of treasure out, etc), flip a coin. On heads, Craastonistorex pays them a visit. Play reaction rolls straight, though treat hostile as “breath + fly away”. Craastonistorex wants adventurers to be alive and pay him tribute.

• In AV-43

  • Make the smell automatic

  • Here’s a long house battlemap.

• In AV-44, let’s use a 30’ diameter (and thus each floor requires 7 secret door checks). Can use the same battlemap as for AV-9.

• At some point, I’ll revisit AV-45, 46, and 47. Right now I don’t have the energy. My players don’t know they exist and I’ll probably keep it that way.