Rogue Games Tabbloid -- November 14, 2009 Edition

14 November 2009

Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

ROGUE FEED

gigantic column of rock within a mammoth cavern. The un-keyed maps, with their many winding stairs, are absolutely terrific, and I’m planning on swiping some of them for use in Dwimmermount.

REVIEW: Locales, Volume One NOV 13, 2009 01:30P.M.

• The Temple Tomb of Bgixilidynon: Unpronounceable name aside, this resting place for a demonic artifact has become warped and twisted, seemingly defying the lays of reality, as it warps around and through itself. Not as complex as a tesseract, the temple tomb is nonetheless a place where normal physical laws don’t apply and mapping might prove mind-bending. Not all of the locales described in Locales are as imaginative — or as well-mapped — as these two, but all of them are useful, even those that are little more than a one-page collection of caverns or ruins. What sets them apart is that they’re more than just maps. Designer Nicholas Kristof has provided both descriptions and context for all these maps and these small bits of detail make all the difference. Knowing which direction the waters flow in The Cavern at S’siyerteresk Falls is useful information, the kind of thing that can inspire a referee when he grabs one of these locations and decides to insert it into an upcoming adventure. The same goes for the suggestive information about the cult of the Temple of Elemental Law — just enough to spark ideas without doing all the referee’s work for him.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m terrible at drawing maps and even dislike the process of doing so much of the time. I am nevertheless a cartophile and often seek out well-done maps of imaginary places, like the Arduin map I reviewed last Spring. Mind you, my preferred types of maps are those that I can use in my gaming. If I can easily find ways to drop them into my campaign or rework them into an existing dungeon or locale, I’m usually very happy.

If I have a criticism of Locales, Volume One, it’s the unevenness of the nine entries. While even the shortest and most straightforward locations are useful, they suffer greatly in comparison to their more inspired fellows. I would have preferred more locations of the caliber of, say, the Column Fortress, even if it meant fewer locations overall. I suspect that some might also find the overviews a bit sparse, but that’s a criticism I don’t share. I like the austerity of the presentation, as it’s the maps that are most important to me, as they should be to anyone purchasing a product like this.

The Fantasy Cartographic’s Locales, Volume One is a good example of a well-done map product. This 46-page PDF (which sells for $3.00) describes nine different locations in varying detail, each with one or maps. Each location includes a physical overview, a brief referee’s guide, and one or more “possibilities,” which are other ways to use the site and associated maps. None of these locations can simply be used “as-is.” Rather, the referee must use them as springboards for his own imagination, filling in details, providing game stats, and generally making them his own. They’re thus intended as “raw materials,” albeit fairly refined ones, from which the referee can construct his own adventuring sites. Speaking for myself, this is exactly what I want out of products like this: a solid foundation on which I can build.

There does not appear to be a successor volume to this one and that’s a shame. I’d love to see more products in this line and hope, if they should ever appear, that they provide more unusual and exotic locations. For guys like me who have trouble mapping even a simple dungeon, a collection of really bizarre location maps would be a godsend. Presentation: 6 out of 10 Creativity: 7 out of 10 Utility: 6 out of 10

A couple of highlights of Locales are: Buy This If: You just need some well-done maps and are prepared to fill in the details on your own. Don’t Buy This If: You’re expecting fully fleshed out adventuring

• The Column Fortress at Deep Rushing: Consisting of eighteen different levels, this is probably the most impressive and evocative locale in the product. The fortress is carved from a

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

14 November 2009

only a fresh tooth would open the bronze door. Getting an old one from a corpse would be insufficient. When Dordagdonar made his suggestion, I was initially prepared to have his plan fail, since the players had already correctly surmised they’d need to yank out one of their own teeth to open the door. But something inside me said to let it ride and have Dordagdonar’s plan work. One reason was that the crypts, filled with a vast number of human remains, had been objects of curiosity but little more in the adventure so far. That is, the characters found it odd that there were so many mummified bodies here, but they’d done very little exploring of the crypts beyond map-making and hadn’t spent much time thinking about the meaning of their presence. I figured that, by allowing Dordagdonar’s plan to work, it might spark greater interest in the crypts — and it did, as we’ll see.

sites.

ROGUE FEED

Dwimmermount, Session 21 NOV 13, 2009 07:12A.M. Session 21 was somewhat shorter than other sessions, as both myself and one of my players were rather tired from the previous day’s activities — I attended my in-laws’ 50th wedding anniversary party, for example. Nevertheless, much was accomplished in the short time we played. Chief among these was more fully mapping the underground complex beneath the old cabin. One of my players was inspired to try and produce better maps of the whole place and, to do that, his character made a point of exploring the place quite thoroughly. As he did so, he commented on how much he liked the design of the dungeon, both in terms of its layout and its contents. In particular, he noted the presence of sleeping quarters, a kitchen, and toilets, features he said were commonly missing from most dungeons, a comment I found slightly odd, since Dwimmermount includes them all as well. In any case, kudos to Jim Raggi on this; his dungeon design impressed one of my players.

The door now open, the party were able to venture into other areas of the dungeon they’d never seen. Unfortunately, they didn’t find much of immediate interest and their way forward soon ended in dead ends. They then knew that they’d have to return to the “coral room” and find some way to enter it, but, before they did that, they more thoroughly examined the crypts to see if there might be some other way to proceed. They found none but they did make a closer account of the burial chambers, estimating that they contained thousands of corpses. This led to some speculation as to why there were so many, how they might have gotten here, and whether or not the stories they’d been told by the folks at Smerdlap’s Crossing (and by old Zeke) were true, or at least whether they were completely true. The complex beneath the cabin looked much to elaborate — and old — to have been the work of a small cult, as they’d believed, but they as yet don’t know enough to make sense of it all yet.

Early in the night, the characters discovered a room filled with hard spiked vines and branches that blocked their entrance into the room. I emphasized the fact that the vines and branches looked quite brittle — “coral-like” is how I described them — the players weren’t too keen to do it damage, as they couldn’t make up their minds as to whether the weird plant was in itself a threat or a guardian against some other threat. They decided instead to leave well enough alone and return to the “chapel of evil” they visited earlier, since there was a door in that room they hadn’t ventured beyond. This is one of the things I particularly like about my gaming group: they’re methodical. They use their maps well and take note of likely locations for secret doors or hidden rooms and always try to fill out every corner of the map, if they can. In short, they’re explorers, which, as I’ve noted before, is what I like most about dungeoneering.

Rather than continue onward, they decided to leave the dungeon and return to Zeke’s place to rest and, in the case of Brother Canor, pray for find traps, a spell they think they will need as they forge ahead. This also gave them a chance to reconnect with Iriadessa, who’d stayed behind with Hap the groom, because she feared what might be up the hill near the elven vale. She was no less enthusiastic about venturing there once she learned what the party had seen, but she may have no choice, as her magical skills might prove useful.

The bronze door in the chapel the PCs hadn’t opened wouldn’t budge. There was no obvious lock mechanism, which led them to believe there must be some magical means of opening it. Examination revealed a basin nearby filled with some blackish liquid — the PCs thought it might be azoth or a form of it — as well as human teeth. Brother Candor surmised that a tooth would be necessary to put into the basin as an offering but neither he nor anyone else was willing to offer up their own teeth for the occasion. This led them to look for other teeth in the chapel to use instead. The chapel was festooned with bones, including hundreds of skulls, but the skulls were all jawless — and toothless — so they couldn’t aid them in their cause. Dordagdonar then suggested they re-visit the crypts, find a mummified body within, and swipe one of its teeth for the occasion. Brother Candor was reluctant to do this, but acquiesced, as there was no other obvious means to proceed.

And that’s where we left it. Continued explorations will resume this weekend and I’m rather looking forward to how the players deal with the problems that lay before them, not to mention the problems they have yet to encounter.

Those who haven’t played Death Frost Doom should skip over this paragraph, as it includes a small spoiler about the adventure. As written,

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