BabbageCliologic
First Post
I posted this in an RPG.net Thread yesterday and figure that people over here may be interested.
So I was kicking around this idea, using B2 in alternate genres.
One of my gaming buddies said that S1: Tomb of Horrors would be great as a Modern Law Firm. The discussion was very good. Lots of generated ideas.
I wrote something up for my campaign design 'zine for this month (Issue #3, check it out, link on my .sig).
Here's my article:
Design Example: Alternate B2s
Basic Dungeons and Dragons Module B2: Keep on the Borderlands (TSR) was first published in 1979. There are currently 7 editions (the latest in 1999) and it spawned a few spin-offs, including a novel Keep on the Borderlands by Ru Emerson and the follow up module Return to Keep on the Borderlands (WotC), as well as the Hackmaster (KenzerCo) Module B2: Little Keep on the Borderlands.
B2 sets a small keep on the border of a civilized human kingdom and a wild area where lots of monsters live. The adventure is separated into three parts, the Keep itself, the “Wild,” a wilderness area and the Caves of Chaos. The Keep contains nameless, bare-bones (a most common criticism) inhabitants that can be customize fairly easily. “What's the innkeeper's name? Gustav and he’s from Mittledawn, over by the Sea.” Some of the Keeps denizens are friendly and some are spies for the Caves of Chaos! The Wild contains a giant spider nest, a lizard man colony, a bandit camp and a mad hermit. Also mentioned but not detailed is the Cave of the Unknown (which I mistook, when I first played it, for Module B1: In Search of the Unknown (TSR), but I later learned they aren’t directly related - maybe distant cousins or something). The Caves of Chaos contains the bulk of the adventure, with multiple caves, each containing a specific monster race in static equilibrium until the PCs arrive. There are Kobolds, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Gnolls, Orcs (two tribes), Bugbears, a Minotaur, an Ogre (working with the Goblins), an Owlbear and a secret Evil Cult with lots of Zombies and animated Skeletons. Sprinkled throughout the Caves are treasures, rodents, secret doors, dead bodies, prisoners and funny signs.
I ran it as a giant hack-fest when I first started gaming more than 27 years ago. Today, a GM could have a bit of fun with it, especially since the module is well-known to the average old-time gamer. Also public availability of the module via eBay or a used copy at your local bookstore or game shop would make any running of it “straight up” impossible to do without many new and fun twists, like one I heard where the bandits were incompetent and instead wanted to be in show business!
Precinct B2: Teenage Gangland
OK, putting it in a gritty cop story is simple. The Keep is actually the Police Precinct on the border of a really dangerous part of town. Gangs, drugs, violence. The whole TEN yards. GURPS SWAT (Steve Jackson Games) or D20 Modern (WotC) are possible systems, but Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium) set in the 1920s could add a bit of classic Film Noir to the mix. So, the Keep is the Police. The Wild is the bad neighborhood. The mad hermit is Internal Affairs. They strike out at any cop at any time! They’ll drag you in for spitting on the sidewalk and they usually, by hook or by crook, get their “dirty” cops. The bandits and the lizard men are local fences. Everyone needs contacts, so they make some good ones. The Spider is a mostly harmless, non-violent drug dealer. He’s not very good at what he does but he's got the best connections of them all. Then the Caves of Chaos races convert nicely into various gangs. You’ve got your choice of ethnicities/social class to choose from, so I won’t bother. The Minotaur is the local Kingpin. Nobody messes with him or his Lieutenant, the Ogre. The Owlbear is a crazy street person who wears an old Owl mascot outfit. The secret Evil Cult is still the secret Evil Cult of bored rich kids getting their kicks torturing sacrificial victims for Satan!
Fort on the Sea Reach
Now let’s try piracy! Some of the systems it would work for are D20 Past (WotC), 50 Fathoms (Pinnacle/Great White), and GURPS Swashbucklers (Steve Jackson Games). If you have Flashing Blades (FGU), that would work, too. The Keep is a Sea Fortress from one of the Big Empires. The Wild is the sea and the local bits of islands. The lizard men and bandits are island tribes, with the deadly lizard men as cannibals! The Spider is (as above) a local connection, but more sinister! Then you have the pirate crews - each race from the Caves of Chaos has their own ship. Each is plying the waters in search of loot! Again, the Minotaur, the Ogre and the Owlbear are unique pirate ship Captains, each feared for their horrible acts of degeneracy. And the secret Evil Cult is the secret Evil Voodoo Cult, with Zombies and everything.
Livin' in the Rock 'n Roll Belt
In space, no one can hear you scream by at FTL. So, using GURPS Space (Steve Jackson Games), D20 Future (WotC), Star Frontiers (TSR) or even Serenity (Margaret Weis Productions), the Keep is the local starport in stationary orbit over a small, dead moon. Nearby, there’s a mineral-rich asteroid belt famous for it's natural beauty and danger. All the various groups in the Wild and the Caves of Chaos are pirate/bandit or fringe crews operating out of the asteroid belt, prospecting, robbing miners or holding up cruise ships. The secret Evil Cult is actually a secret Evil Alien Race advance invasion force with Space Zombies (or even just Reavers)!
Stargate SG-19: Table's Edge
In a D20 Stargate SG-1 RPG (AEG) B2 variant campaign, the Keep is a US military outpost (Codename Table) located at a distant Stargate that acts as the central node to other Stargates nearby. The Wild is this group of enclosed Stargates and they're linked only to that node and each other, and cannot access the rest of the Stargate network without going through that central node. Each of the groups in the Wild and the Caves of Chaos represent one of the Stargates in this chain, so the job of the PCs is to explore the nearby gates and either ally with or fight against the inhabitants. The secret Evil Cult is a minor Goa’uld System Lord who wants to control the US outpost gate.
Whaddya think, sirs?
/BC
So I was kicking around this idea, using B2 in alternate genres.
One of my gaming buddies said that S1: Tomb of Horrors would be great as a Modern Law Firm. The discussion was very good. Lots of generated ideas.
I wrote something up for my campaign design 'zine for this month (Issue #3, check it out, link on my .sig).
Here's my article:
Design Example: Alternate B2s
Basic Dungeons and Dragons Module B2: Keep on the Borderlands (TSR) was first published in 1979. There are currently 7 editions (the latest in 1999) and it spawned a few spin-offs, including a novel Keep on the Borderlands by Ru Emerson and the follow up module Return to Keep on the Borderlands (WotC), as well as the Hackmaster (KenzerCo) Module B2: Little Keep on the Borderlands.
B2 sets a small keep on the border of a civilized human kingdom and a wild area where lots of monsters live. The adventure is separated into three parts, the Keep itself, the “Wild,” a wilderness area and the Caves of Chaos. The Keep contains nameless, bare-bones (a most common criticism) inhabitants that can be customize fairly easily. “What's the innkeeper's name? Gustav and he’s from Mittledawn, over by the Sea.” Some of the Keeps denizens are friendly and some are spies for the Caves of Chaos! The Wild contains a giant spider nest, a lizard man colony, a bandit camp and a mad hermit. Also mentioned but not detailed is the Cave of the Unknown (which I mistook, when I first played it, for Module B1: In Search of the Unknown (TSR), but I later learned they aren’t directly related - maybe distant cousins or something). The Caves of Chaos contains the bulk of the adventure, with multiple caves, each containing a specific monster race in static equilibrium until the PCs arrive. There are Kobolds, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Gnolls, Orcs (two tribes), Bugbears, a Minotaur, an Ogre (working with the Goblins), an Owlbear and a secret Evil Cult with lots of Zombies and animated Skeletons. Sprinkled throughout the Caves are treasures, rodents, secret doors, dead bodies, prisoners and funny signs.
I ran it as a giant hack-fest when I first started gaming more than 27 years ago. Today, a GM could have a bit of fun with it, especially since the module is well-known to the average old-time gamer. Also public availability of the module via eBay or a used copy at your local bookstore or game shop would make any running of it “straight up” impossible to do without many new and fun twists, like one I heard where the bandits were incompetent and instead wanted to be in show business!
Precinct B2: Teenage Gangland
OK, putting it in a gritty cop story is simple. The Keep is actually the Police Precinct on the border of a really dangerous part of town. Gangs, drugs, violence. The whole TEN yards. GURPS SWAT (Steve Jackson Games) or D20 Modern (WotC) are possible systems, but Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium) set in the 1920s could add a bit of classic Film Noir to the mix. So, the Keep is the Police. The Wild is the bad neighborhood. The mad hermit is Internal Affairs. They strike out at any cop at any time! They’ll drag you in for spitting on the sidewalk and they usually, by hook or by crook, get their “dirty” cops. The bandits and the lizard men are local fences. Everyone needs contacts, so they make some good ones. The Spider is a mostly harmless, non-violent drug dealer. He’s not very good at what he does but he's got the best connections of them all. Then the Caves of Chaos races convert nicely into various gangs. You’ve got your choice of ethnicities/social class to choose from, so I won’t bother. The Minotaur is the local Kingpin. Nobody messes with him or his Lieutenant, the Ogre. The Owlbear is a crazy street person who wears an old Owl mascot outfit. The secret Evil Cult is still the secret Evil Cult of bored rich kids getting their kicks torturing sacrificial victims for Satan!
Fort on the Sea Reach
Now let’s try piracy! Some of the systems it would work for are D20 Past (WotC), 50 Fathoms (Pinnacle/Great White), and GURPS Swashbucklers (Steve Jackson Games). If you have Flashing Blades (FGU), that would work, too. The Keep is a Sea Fortress from one of the Big Empires. The Wild is the sea and the local bits of islands. The lizard men and bandits are island tribes, with the deadly lizard men as cannibals! The Spider is (as above) a local connection, but more sinister! Then you have the pirate crews - each race from the Caves of Chaos has their own ship. Each is plying the waters in search of loot! Again, the Minotaur, the Ogre and the Owlbear are unique pirate ship Captains, each feared for their horrible acts of degeneracy. And the secret Evil Cult is the secret Evil Voodoo Cult, with Zombies and everything.
Livin' in the Rock 'n Roll Belt
In space, no one can hear you scream by at FTL. So, using GURPS Space (Steve Jackson Games), D20 Future (WotC), Star Frontiers (TSR) or even Serenity (Margaret Weis Productions), the Keep is the local starport in stationary orbit over a small, dead moon. Nearby, there’s a mineral-rich asteroid belt famous for it's natural beauty and danger. All the various groups in the Wild and the Caves of Chaos are pirate/bandit or fringe crews operating out of the asteroid belt, prospecting, robbing miners or holding up cruise ships. The secret Evil Cult is actually a secret Evil Alien Race advance invasion force with Space Zombies (or even just Reavers)!
Stargate SG-19: Table's Edge
In a D20 Stargate SG-1 RPG (AEG) B2 variant campaign, the Keep is a US military outpost (Codename Table) located at a distant Stargate that acts as the central node to other Stargates nearby. The Wild is this group of enclosed Stargates and they're linked only to that node and each other, and cannot access the rest of the Stargate network without going through that central node. Each of the groups in the Wild and the Caves of Chaos represent one of the Stargates in this chain, so the job of the PCs is to explore the nearby gates and either ally with or fight against the inhabitants. The secret Evil Cult is a minor Goa’uld System Lord who wants to control the US outpost gate.
Whaddya think, sirs?
/BC
