Building an 'old school' 3-ring binder. Input wanted!

[jdrakeh]

I'm in the process of paring my current RPG collection down to essential books only, partly due to financial reasons and partly because I realize that I buy a lot of stuff I never use (not even for inspiration).

I've mulled it over for a while now and I've decided that I'm going to compile a 'campaign folder' for each genre of game that I may feasibly wish to run sometime in the near future. Each of these folders will ostensibly be outfitted with the fixings of my 'dream' campaign for the respective genre.

This, in turn, will allow me to dump a load of those systems and supplements that I've been holding on to 'just in case'. I don't think I really need 20+ fantasy RPG systems, for example. One should do just fine, I need only be a little more committal.

Right now, I'm working on my 'old school' mega-dungeon, high fantasy, campaign folder, in which the cities above exist purely (or, at least, largely) as points for characters to resupply. At the current time, I've decided that the following things are queued to be printed and are going in with 100% certainty:

• Swords & Wizardry 2nd Edition (Mythmere Games)
• Eldritch Weirdness (Mythmere Games)
• The Random Esoteric Creature Generator. . . (Goodman Games)
• City Encounters (Mythmere Games)
• Quick Primer for Old School Gaming (Mythmere Games)
• Great City Blueprint (0One Games)
• Great City Graveyard (0One Games)
• Great City Prophet's Court (0One Games)
• Great City Cutthroat's Alley (0One Games)
• Dungeon Under the Mountain 1 (0One Games)
• Dungeon Under the Mountain 2 (0One Games)
• Dungeon Under the Mountain 3 (0One Games)
• Dungeon Under the Mountain 4 (0One Games)
• Town of Fourwell (0One Games)
• Cairns (0One Games)
• Hamlet of Wodfeld (0One Games)
• Caverns of Chaos (0One Games)
• The Ruined Town (0One Games)
• The Ruined Town, 13 Undead (0One Games)
• The Ruined Town, Old Observatory (0One Games)
• The Ruined Town Castle Falconflight (0One Games)
• WG13 The Castle of the Mad Archmage (Joseph Bloch)
• Hill of Many Dungeons (0One Games)

I have pretty much limited myself to things that are non-setting specific as I figure, if I want to stay true to the 'old school' spirit, I should generate my own larger world as play progresses (i.e., I shouldn't be messing about in somebody else's world setting).

I'm also throwing in some pre-printed stuff (some old Armory d30 tables and Bob Liddil's latest effort in that vein), as well as The Tome of Mighty Magic from Gamescience and an overland map (of my own design) consolidating all of the aforementioned 0One Games adventure sites into a setting sketch of sorts.

All of that said, I suspect that there are some really good (or at least entertaining) fan-made supplements out there covering such things as random encounters, dungeon adventure seeds, etc. This is where I need your input. What 'old-school' goodness am I missing?

 

[Orius]

Hmm, I thought you were going to talk about putting together a typical binder of DM notes, like the 2 or 3 I have. To be honest, I don't keep track of web published stuff, so I don't really know what to recommend. Haven't done any serious downloading of this stuff in a few years, and that's because I have too much material to digest ATM.

The only thing off the top of my head that I can think of is WotC's Return to Undermountain feature. Undermountain of course is the Realm's big mega-dungeon, so even if you're not using the 3.5 rules that the feature has, there might be some ideas you can yoink. In particular, the intro has a big poster map that you could probably use somewhere. Heck, you could just chop sections out of it and mix it up for a custom dungeon. Also, the Dungeon Room Descriptor Generator might be helpful if you get stumped for room descriptions or contents.

And of course there's always Map-a-Week. But you knew that, right?

 

[jdrakeh]

Hmm, I thought you were going to talk about putting together a typical binder of DM notes, like the 2 or 3 I have.

I'll build up to that. . . it's not like I can throw together three binders full of notes over the weekend

The only thing off the top of my head that I can think of is WotC's Return to Undermountain feature. Undermountain of course is the Realm's big mega-dungeon, so even if you're not using the 3.5 rules that the feature has, there might be some ideas you can yoink. In particular, the intro has a big poster map that you could probably use somewhere. Heck, you could just chop sections out of it and mix it up for a custom dungeon. Also, the Dungeon Room Descriptor Generator might be helpful if you get stumped for room descriptions or contents.

And of course there's always Map-a-Week. But you knew that, right?

This is pretty much what the Dungeon Under the Mountain maps from 0One Games are for. I know you said that you don't follow electronic products but, if you get a chance, these are highly recommended at less than $4.00 a pop. They're basically customizeable PDF maps of mega-dungeon levels. You can turn numerous features such as colors, furniture, and room numbers on or off to print GM maps and player maps all from the same file.

I think they're up to 8 levels now, which means that the entire collection actually covers more ground than Undermountain (no pun intended). That said, they are just maps — but no pre-determined encounters suits me better anyhow, as that means I get a chance to make this mega-dungeon my own. I'm pretty certain that it is going to end up beneath the City of Dunraven in the Gothe Hundred of Firth.

 

[Lanefan]

If it were up to me, there's four things I'd keep (which may or may not already be on your list; I don't recognize about 95% of it) no matter what:

1. Some sort of book/binder/whatever of spells and spell write-ups
2. One of the many different arms and equipment guides, for weapon and armour write-ups
3. A book/binder/list/whatever of magic items
4. A binder of any and all tables, charts, etc. that you have designed yourself in the past that suit the particular genre you are running - you can always find generic stuff in one book or another; but your homebrew bits need to be organized.

Check Dragonsfoot - there's lots of good old-school stuff there.

Lanefan

 

[jdrakeh]

If it were up to me, there's four things I'd keep (which may or may not already be on your list; I don't recognize about 95% of it) no matter what:

1. Some sort of book/binder/whatever of spells and spell write-ups
2. One of the many different arms and equipment guides, for weapon and armour write-ups
3. A book/binder/list/whatever of magic items
4. A binder of any and all tables, charts, etc. that you have designed yourself in the past that suit the particular genre you are running - you can always find generic stuff in one book or another; but your homebrew bits need to be organized.

Check Dragonsfoot - there's lots of good old-school stuff there.

Lanefan

Thanks for the suggestions! Most of that is on my list (or covered by products on my list), with the exception of #2 and #4. I do have a copy of Arms Law (Rolemaster) that I've toyed around with using to fill the void suggested by your #2, above (descriptions of arms and armor aren't so important to me as detailed effects of such items in combat are). As for #4, that really can't happen until I start running the mega-campaign, so it might be something to consider in the future but, right now, it's impractical.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Well, I was going to recommend the random esoteric. . . thing, but you got that. Hm. Seems like you've got it all figured out, actually. And that's a good thing! But it also means it's a lot harder for people, like f'rex me, to tell you what to do. Oh noes!

But anyway, apart from also adding that you appear to have (as usual, IIRC) thoroughly eclectic and damn fine taste when it comes to RPG stuff - not that I've heard of all those things there, mind - I would say that pages 169-172 (I think) of the AD&D DMG could be handy. . . but, I don't know if that's quite the thing you need. I'm still trying to grok the kind of game that will eventuate, how you'll be DMing it, and so on. I guess it's that I haven't run anything quite like it in my time, if I'm even understanding your intended approach correctly. Also, never run or played OD&D (or S&W).

And besides, you've got tons of mappage there, presumably. So, a neat little build-your-own dungeon thingie mightn't be that useful anyway.

Really struggling to think of other stuff here. . .

 

[jdrakeh]

I would say that pages 169-172 (I think) of the AD&D DMG could be handy. . . but, I don't know if that's quite the thing you need.

Things like the 1e DMG appendices are exactly what I need

 

[Croesus]

I'd recommend the City Guide series by Darkquest Games, available in PDF. They are collections of various shops for populating a town or city. Easy to drop into just about any campaign to add a bit of flavor, or when the players go somewhere you weren't anticipating.

I also recommend one or more of the available PDF's that are just collections of names. Always useful when you need to drop in an npc or three in a hurry.

 

[jdrakeh]

I'd recommend the City Guide series by Darkquest Games, available in PDF. They are collections of various shops for populating a town or city. Easy to drop into just about any campaign to add a bit of flavor, or when the players go somewhere you weren't anticipating.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I also recommend one or more of the available PDF's that are just collections of names. Always useful when you need to drop in an npc or three in a hurry.

I have a copy of the old "Everyone, Everywhere List" from my pre-d20 days that I'm going to throw into the binder In fact, at this rate, I might have two binders — one of rules and one of maps/dungeons.

 

[Mythmere1]

Lots of town and city stuff there - if you need encounters for them, email me at mythmere AT yahoo dot com and I'll send you the City Encounters pdf, if you don't already have it.