Arden Vul - Text and Formatting

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According to DriveThru, the book fits

• 2,162 encounter descriptions

• 14 NPC Factions

• 10 dungeon levels

• 15 sub-levels

• 7 exterior locations

• 149 new monsters

• 401 new items

• 44 new spells

• 189 in-world books

• A full NPC appendix with 10 competing parties at 3 levels of power

• ~110 non-pull-pages original pieces of art

• ~30 full-page illustrations

in a mere 1120 pages. The section containing the encounter descriptions and encounter tables runs ~800 pages long, so on average we’re looking at ~3 rooms per page. That’s good!

Room Keys

hyperlinks provided by https://github.com/orodley/avlink

Barton writes his room keys in natural language with very little in the way of formatting, which is… a choice. I think this is the weakest aspect of the entire product, which I intend as a compliment to the rest of this magnum opus.

Pre-written adventures serve two (game) purposes: an initial reading to give the GM context, and an at-the-table reference for moment to moment play.

For moment to moment play, good room keys are paramount. The GM has two tasks:

1. Describe the initial scene to the players. What they see, smell, and hear before they enter the room or start messing with stuff.

2. Engage in the conversation with players as they ask clarifying questions and do stuff in the room.

For a (highly stylized) example of this, check out On Set Design - Courtney Campell.

You can accomplish these tasks using natural language, but it’s hard. The common problem (on display) is that the information to run these two tasks are intermixed. Worse, the information is further mixed with background and contextual information.

Here’s an example:

3-61: Tombs of the Priors

This chamber contains the tombs and gisants of all 51 of the priors of the chapter of priests of Thoth. The imposing stone double-doors to the chasm swing open; their locks have been smashed, preventing them from being secured.

Thirty-two of the early priors were buried neatly in niches carved into the walls for this purpose. Each niche is 3’ deep and features a carved marble gisant of the prior; these priors vary by gender, size, racial features, and garb, although most feature the traditional cylindrical headdress of the priesthood of Thoth. Alas for tomb-robbers, most of the gisants do not contain any loot; in fact, only the last 10 of the gisants conceal cavities for bones and grave goods. It takes 2-4 turns of hard work with suitable tools to remove the lid of each gisant. The noise of such labor will prompt multiple random encounter checks (see 3-38). Sadly, the resulting finds are meager. Nine of the ten contain only bones and some minor jewelry (10-100 gp worth each). The tenth, of the 33rd prior (Yakon), contains a wand of lightning.

The other 19 priors were entombed in sarcophagi of varying composition and quality set haphazardly on the floor of the chamber (indeed, the sarcophagi obscure and, in places, have damaged, some beautiful floor mosaics featuring pastoral scenes).

Some of these sarcophagi are stone, some are marble, and a few are oak caskets. One can detect a gradual simplification in the artistic style of the images carved on the tomb lids. All of the nineteen have been opened, and their lids lie in and between the sarcophagi, making the room into a jumble of concealed spaces and narrow pathways through the clutter.

A pack of ghouls led by a wight (the 51st prior) has taken up residence in the hall. The ghouls wait for several rounds before springing from cover to attack. There is a 25% chance that their intense hunger cause them to moan with anticipation, thus spoiling their surprise. Due to the jumbled layout of the room, movement is halved and rolls to hit are at -1.

The skeleton of Prior Jacobus, the 52nd prior, lies on the floor in front of the secret door to 3-63. The wight attacked Jacobus’s servants while they were bringing him to his preferred resting place, and they dropped him unceremoniously here. The short stature of the skeleton is a clue that it is that of Jacobus (see 3-59).

Secret Door (southeast): This narrow, short secret door leads to a short hallway and thence to 3-60. It is difficult to detect (1 in 8) and can only be opened by finding a 1/4”-diameter hole next to it and inserting an appropriate instrument into that hole.

Secret Door (northeast): The secret door to area 3-63 is hidden in the back of a burial niche. The door is a rectangle some 24” high and 4’ long. If detected, the door can easily be opened by sliding the panel upward.

Inhabitants:

• 1 wight: SZ M; AL LE; AC 5; MV 120’; HD 4+3; HP 28; #AT 1; Dmg 1-4. Special attacks: energy drain. Special defenses: silver or magic needed to hit; immune to sleep, charm, hold, cold, poison, and paralysis.

• 6 ghouls: SZ M; AL CE; AC 6; MV 90’; HD 2; HP 15, 13, 12, 11, 11, 10; #AT 3; Dmg 1-3/1-3/1-6. Special attacks: paralysis. Special defenses: immune to sleep and charm.

Treasure:

In the tombs covered by gisants: 9 pieces of jewelry worth 10-100gp each; and a wand of lightning with 5 charges.

For every 2 turns of searching through the debris, there is a 25% of finding coins worth 15 gp (50%) or a gem worth 50 gp (50%), up to a maximum of 350 gp worth of loot.

On Jacobus’s corpse: a gold and sapphire torc (950 gp), a small rod of iron used to open the southeast secret door, and a small duplicate key to the secret door in 3-60 strung on an orange silken cord.

While not quite full B1: In Search of the Relevant Parts of the Room, this is pretty gnarly. In terms of an initial description…

• The imposing stone double-doors to the chasm swing open; their locks have been smashed, preventing them from being secured.

• There are 32 marble replicas of people; various genders, sizes, racial features, and garbs, though most feature a cylindrical headdress.

• There are 19 sarcophagi of varying composition (stone, marble, oak) set haphazardly on the floor. All of the sarcophagi have been opened, and their lids lie in and between the sarcophagi, cluttering the floor.

• There are beautiful floor mosaics of pastoral scenes.

• A skeleton lies against the northeast wall.

That’s way less! The information to cobble that together is spread out massively. A GM that’s trying to read this out to players has to keep dodging traps:

• The players don’t know that the gisants are of the Priors.

• The players don’t know what Priors are.

• The players don’t necessarily know that the cylindrical headdresses are the traditional garb of Thothian priests.

• The players don’t know that only the last 10 gisants (the southeastern ones?) don’t have loot.

• The ghouls are hidden (how does this work? surprise roll? which cover are they hidden in?)

• The players don’t know the skeleton is Prior Jacobus.

• They don’t know why his skeleton is there.

• The noise prompts multiple random encounter checks (how many?)

Here’s how I’d rewrite it:

3-61: Tombs of the Priors

GM NOTE: Due to the jumbled layout of the room, movement is halved and rolls to hit are at -1.

GM NOTE: A pack of ghouls (MM43) led by a wight (the 51st prior, MM100) has taken up residence in the hall. The ghouls wait for several rounds before springing from cover to attack. There is a 25% chance that their intense hunger cause them to moan with anticipation, thus spoiling their surprise.

---

This large (50’x20’) tomb contains 32 niches carved into the wall, each with a marble gisant. 19 sarcophagi have been haphazardly set on the floor, their lids tossed aside and broken, making it difficult to maneuver through the wreckage. The floor is covered in beautiful mosiacs, though this is partially obscured the sacrophagi and debris. The imposing double doors to the southwest have been swung open, their locks have been smashed. A skeleton rests against the northeast wall, wearing jewelry and holding a small rod.

---

Niches: Each niche is 3’ deep and features a carved marble gisant (of the Prior).

Gisant: Vary by gender, size, racial features, and garb, although most feature a cylindrical headdress (traditional for the priesthood of of Thoth).

The first 22 gisants are solid. The last 10 (southeast) conceal cavities for bones and grave goods. It takes 1d3+1 turns of hard work with suitable tools to remove the lid of each gisant, checking a random encounter from 3-38 each turn due to noise. Nine of the ten contain only bones and some minor jewelry (worth 1d10•10g each). The tenth (of the 33rd Prior, Yakon), contains a Wand of Lightning.

Sarcophagi: Empty. Made of varying composition (stone, marble, oak). There is a gradual simplification in the artistic style of the images carved on the tomb lids.

Wreckage: Composed of broken sarcophagi lids and old bones.

For every 2 turns of searching through the debris, roll 1d8. 1-6: nothing, 7: 15g. 8: a gem worth 50g, up to a maximum of 350 gp worth of loot.

Mosaics: Beautiful floor mosaics featuring pastoral scenes.

Skeleton: Especially short in stature (it’s the skeleton of Jacobus; see 3-59). Wearing a gold and sapphire torc (950g), and holding a pinkie-thin iron rod (used to open the southeast secret door). Carries a small key (opens the secret door to 3-60) strung on an orange silken cord.

---

Secret Door (southeast): This narrow, short secret door leads to a short hallway and thence to 3-60. It is difficult to detect (1 in 8) and can only be opened by finding a 1/4”-diameter hole next to it and inserting an appropriate instrument (the iron rod on the skeleton) into that hole.

Secret Door (northeast): The secret door to area 3-63 is hidden in the back of a burial niche. The door is a rectangle some 24” high and 4’ long. If detected, the door can easily be opened by sliding the panel upward.

As with all of my other room-key-overhauls, I caveat by saying that this does steer into the realm of stylistic preference, but I do think this edited key is way easier to digest and run.

The main changes here are:

• The important GM context at the top, so we don’t forget about the ghouls or special movement rules.

• The player-facing summary, with bolded words to signpost things that have further expected interaction. This could be read aloud if you’re okay with spartan prose, but could also be digested and woven into your own narration style.

• In the order from the description, each element with more interaction (what is the mosaic of? how deep are the niches? what do the gisants look like? etc).

• We drop the in-line stats in favor of a monster manual page reference. The stats never have enough information to actually run the monster unless you’re already familiar with them (in which case, we don’t need the stats) and frequently leave out critical details. Further, Barton has an annoying habit of sorting HP values like “HP 15, 13, 12, 11, 11, 10” so I need to re-randomize anyway.

• The treasure was moved into the section where it is found rather than being in it’s own section. This allows us to naturally answer questions about the skeleton, rather than having to bounce between the 5th paragraph and the 10th.

Other Text

Each level of the dungeon has a great overview of the entire level; often including the original purpose for the level, who inhabits the level now, and what they’re doing with the space.

Then, we have a section called “General Construction Notes”, which looks like this:

Heqeti areas: 4-51A, 4-51B, 4-74, 4-151A, 4-152

Rudishva areas: 4-156, 4-157, 4-158

Archontean areas: 4-1 to 4-51, 4-52 to 4-62, 4-101 to 4-111, 4-118 to 4-120, 4-122 to 4-150, 4-159 to 4-164, 4-167 to 4-171, 4-177, 4-180, 4-181, 4-183, 4-185, 4-187

Unusual area: 4-154 and 4-155. This chamber was delved by an unknown people.

I don’t love this and I’m not sure how to use it. The players walk into room 4-177. Do I need to flip back from page 312 (where 4-177 is described) to page 240 (where the construction notes are defined) and then check to see what sort of area it is (Archontean), and then flip back to page 14 where Archontean construction is defined?

When I was first prepping the module, I would go through an annotate the map with this information (whenever a room was different from “normal”, like the Heqeti and Rudishva areas in Level 4). I don’t think I should have to do that, and this isn’t a good way to provide that information.

Afterwards, we have the “Iconic Areas”, which along with the “Important NPCs” is a good way to do a first pass through the module. This lets the GM go through each level, reading the intro, read the iconic rooms, and read about the important NPCs to get a handle on Arden Vul as a whole. I’ll probably make a document that extracts and summarizes this information.

Next, Barton outlines the “Significant Regions” of the level, which is the next level of summary information; good to read when your players are about to enter the level. Useful to contextualize the actual room keys.

Barton lists every entry and exit to and from the level in “Access and Egress”, which I didn’t find useful during the initial grok or during play, but has been useful during re-stocking.

Finally, there’s a section on Random Encounters. These are well done, but are a bit of a pain to use. They’re keyed like “4. Private Areas of the Set Cult: Areas 4-3 to 4-20, 4-40 to 4-57, 4-60 to 4-61”. Each region (which are different from the previously defined significant regions) has its own encounter table, but more importantly its own encounter frequency. For example, the Northern Caves (Areas 4-63 to 4-73, 4-75 to 4-100) have an encounter on a 1-in-6 every 3 turns, while the Private Areas of the Set Cult have an encounter on a 4-in-6 every turn. This means that as the players explore the level, the GM needs to cross reference the random encounter regions (which aren’t marked on the map) to know when they’ve entered a new region, to determine the frequency of encounters.

I think the frequency and regional information should have been on the map; it’s very awkward to try to list out disjoint ranges of room numbers.

Conclusions

Formatting is the module’s biggest flaw in my opinion. In normal circumstances, I’d recommend highlighting the player-facing parts. I managed this for all of level 3 (231 rooms). I think this would be valuable if the Arden Vul GM community came together and divided the labor (if someone is interested in doing this, I will help), but it’s too much work to do solo.

Yup, I’m using the actual books. Thanks mom!

Related, Owen Rodley created a program called avlink that adds hyperlinking to your arden vul PDF. It links references to rooms, items, spells, and monsters to their definitions. It doesn’t work flawlessly, but it works enough that it’s massively useful. Owen’s work is a godsend.

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