Let’s Make a Hexcrawl Setting

[Daztur]

Well it seems I'm the old man in this thread (being 31) so it's to be expected that the people in college will be busy on vacation and whatnot. I'll write up a big extensive post fleshing out the Olmsteds later but here's some more rough ideas for now:

A while back my kick-off adventure for an Icelandic Saga-based campaign with Conan d20 rules included some Viking festivities including Viking stickball and horse fighting. It resulted in a PC castrating a horse and flinging what he had cut off at its owner's face because that's what PCs do and was a lot of fun, so I thought I'd recycle some of that, add in a bit of Korean stuff and have the main sources of entertainment in the Lands of the Night Cattle (including Olmsted Keep) be stickball and bullfighting. Bullfighting involves two bull fighting each other by locking horns and trying to push the other back. These bulls are often ones that are marred in someway and cannot be sold to temples and are often bet on heavily. Often bulls from two different keeps will fight with the winner granting its home fertility in the coming year. Stickball involves a long stick and a bladder ball and is a bit like field hockey only a lot more violent and with a bigger ball.

For the Olmsted family itself we have established Zeem/Barnabus Olmsted, his dead son Alard (at the Garden of Amelar) and his daughter Nara who's living off at Cragsend. We've also established that people can be adopted into the family if they're half elves and that the Lord has no other living sons.

I'll use this: THE LAND OF NOD: Family Feuds generator that chutup used earlier and tweak it a bit to make up more Olmsted people.

Lord Zeem has one sibling who is female, let's call her Aerlane. She is married and I'll say (making this up) that there's a 75% chance her husband is alive. Nope, he's dead. She has no children and Lord Zeem only has one other daughter aside from Nara.

That's a small family then, I suppose the adopted members can be used to fill it out a bit. Aerlane herself has 9 charisma, is a merchant anmd is generally ambitious and domineering. I'll say that she runs the financial end of the Keep, especially with her brother being Barnabus part of the time due to his were-man infection.

The other daughter, meanwhile, is married and has two young daughters. Her husband is *rolls* also dead. Damn all of the males of this family keep on dying, what's up? The daughter is named Ronya, has a sanguine personality and 12 charisma. She's an artisan. I'll say that she's a talented painter of irreverent images.

Let's make up six adopted half-elves while we're at it.

1. Adult Female Cha 10 Cleric Sanguine

2. Adult Female Cha 9 "Venturer" Sanguine

3. Adult Female Cha 7 Merchant Melancholy

4. Adult Female Cha 9 Merchant Choleric

5. Adult Male Cha 11 Artisan Sanguine

6. Middle-aged Female Cha 13 Sage Sanguine

I swear that all of this slanting towards female is completely random.

Since there's only one (!) male adopted or otherwise in the entire family I'm saying that Aerlane is angling to marry him to cement her power after Zeem dies while there's an anti-Aerlane faction pushing him to marry Ronya. Meanwhile everyone's wondering where all of the male half-elves have gone...

For assets, aside what has already been established, the Olmsted have:
-Tied by blood to a noble family (I'll have that mean that the rumors that Zeem Olmsted is the Bloodied King's son are true).
-Enjoys a family blessing, ancestor was saint or martyr
-Lots of silver: I'll combine the last two and have their main hall be covered with fanciful whirls of silver sculpture, which has the natural effect of bringing heal and good feelings to those within the hall (double natural healing, gives those within a new saving throw against disease or poison)
-Has a seat on the King's privy council: hmmmm, I'll have this be that elves sometimes drop by during the day to ask Zeem advice about human matters.
-Has a hired duelist and all family members have been trained. Nifty! This generator says that the duelist is goal-oriented and vengeful. He's obviously very obsessed with getting revenge. What's he doing with the Olmsteds?

Let's do this randomly. He wants revenge on whatever is the closest to a random hex. Let's see which hex: 07.13, that's closest to 06.13. I'll interpret that to mean that he swore an oath and blood brother to someone (see 06.13) and his blood brother betrayed him and how he's out for vengeance. Who is his blood brother? The dice say that it's one of the southern dwarves. So we have a southern dwarf Inigo Montoya who adventured with another southern dwarf, swore that they were blood brothers and then his blood brother did what? Let's go to TV Tropes and pick some random tropes for ideas. We get: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SealedEvilInATeddyBear Hmmmmm, what? I'll have to sleep on this one...

 

[Sanglorian]

I swear that all of this slanting towards female is completely random.

They're also a fairly uncharismatic lot!

 

[Daztur]

The Last Window
Hex 29.14.XX

If the musings of the Weeper are to be believed there is only one window of the City that yet remains open for it was spared by Chimalia's curse. Now it still lies in the very deepest recesses of the Undercity below the dens of the Whispering Sisters and even the troglodytes.

Those who look through this last window see an endless vista of steel-grey skies, great shining arcs of metal pitted with vast fungoid cavities and quicksilver dragons that twist and writhe as they fly.

From this last window strange unnatural beings have come. They are a mass of lines and angles that beguile the eye, with triangles that possess three right angles and twisted loops that circle about while each part of the loops manages to wind ever downwards.

Those few humans who have ventured down into the levels near the last window report that something is being built down there, something strange and alien in its geometries. One adventurer who was able to return from an expedition of the window lived out her days drawing circles upon the dirt of the White Road and screaming at them while another refused to set foot out of windowless rooms and soothing dark tunnels because of what he had learned about the shapes of the clouds.

Hooks:
-Is the Weeper right that this is the only operational window or is there another? Why is it still open?
-Was anyone ventured through this last window and lived to tell the tale?
-What about the creatures that have come through this window and their works is to dangerous to human sanity?
-What is the purpose of the machine they are building?
-What's wrong with the clouds?

 

[Sanglorian]

This hex is inspired by the Land of NOD araneas and one of the worlds in Monte Cook’s Beyond Countless Doorways.

THE GLOOMPATCH (23.08)
The trees here are thicker and closer together than in most other parts of the Kingswood, and their leaves do not match those of any species of tree known elsewhere in the Shrouded Lands. The reason for this is a closely-kept secret by the human-armed spiders (‘araneas’, in their own language) that live here: before the Shuttering, the araneas escaped the conquering of their home plane and brought with them saplings and seeds.

The forest is dark and dank, and a permanent mist obscures anything more than a few paces away. The elves do not walk here.

The araneas are keen astrologers and capture all who they find on their land. Once the captives are securely webbed, the araneas ask them for their date of birth. They then consult elaborate star maps engraved on bronze before acting upon the horoscope: sometimes sacrificing the captive, or setting him or her free, or harvesting some body part, marking their captive or giving him or her cryptic advice. Occasionally, the araneas will swear to serve the captive and help her (so far, only women have been chosen) to achieve her destiny.

Hooks
Is the araneas’ home plane at all accessible?
What properties to their plants have?
Who has had his or her horoscope read by the araneas and lived to tell the tale?
Why do they read horoscopes?
Have any of these plants since been grown elsewhere?
Did the araneas bring any animals from their plane here?

THE SHIELD OF ALBERON (16.17)
The strange metal of the Broken Spear is also found in a recent discovery: a smooth shield-shaped artifact about the size of a castle that has been uncovered on a hill overlooking Castle Tarengael. There is a door that was opened by the tomb robbers sent by the Collector, but the team that entered was not heard from again and the door is now sealed.

Inside are peculiar fungus people who work strange magic using blinking wands that shoot lightning or fire. There are also golems made of the impervious metal of the exterior. There are shards of glowing blue stone scattered about the shield - the golems occasionally venture forth to collect them.

The Collector is currently collecting shields, and has set his heart on adding this unique specimen to his collection.

Hooks
How does the Collector hope to retrieve the shield?
What is the strange metal?
Where did the golems and fungi folk come from?
What are the effects of the blue stone, other than the mutations it caused in the gnolls of the Broken Spear?
Did the shield really belong to Alberon? Does he plan to get it back?

 

[Daztur]

Those spider guys were also the inspiration for the Tower of the Bastard Prince (post 321). I just lost this message so I'll try to retype it as quickly as possible. Every setting needs its own custom spells so here are a few:

Bogarus' Safe Escape

This spell allows the caster to escape otherwise fatal circumstances. It teleports the caster 1d100 x 10 feet in a random direction. If this results in the caster being placed within a solid object then they instead appear in the nearest open space. However, if the caster appears above ground level then they will fall as normal.

Bogarus Bolger has had his brooch enchanted so that when its pin claims a drop of his blood this spell is triggered. Presumably after doing so this brooch must have its enchantment replaced in some way, for Bogarus is no wizard. Despite this spells massive unpredictability, it has allowed Bogarus to escape for several sticky situations.

Severard's Ferrous Imperative

When this spell is cast a magnetic ray emanates from the caster's hand and all iron objects caught within this ray are launched towards the caster with great force. This is enough to fling small objects about and to haul all but the strongest armored men off of their feet. It is, however, dangerous to cast as it can result in various objects (such as swords) being flung with deadly force at the caster.

Severard's apprentices strenuously deny that this spell was mostly used to by Severard to fetch is dinner fork.

The Piquant Premonition

Another spell developed by Severard, the Piqaunt Premonition is cast over a meal as the caster cooks it. Thereafter, the caster is able to sense the mental reaction of those who eat that food as long as they are within 100 feet of the caster.

Severard's apprentices were most dismayed when their master cast this enchantment over a dish of eel chowder and found sundry excuses to miss dinner.

The Whispered Caress

A divine spell cast by members of the Whispering Sisters, this spell results in the caster growing a set of black feelers. For the duration of the spell, the caster can then make an attack roll that ignores the target's armor (in ACKS terms a straight attack throw, would be a touch attack in 3.5ed) with these feelers that results in the the defender having to make a save or be overcome with unreasoning terror. These feelers are incorporeal and do not have any other effect except for looking quite creepy.

 

[Daztur]

Have come down with a nasty bit of tonsillitis and between that and the Shrouded Lands game I'm running next week I won't have much time to do stuff with this thread. After that be able to do more...

One idea that won't get out of my mind recently is (after the compilation and stuff gets done) to make a spin-off of the Shrouded Lands as a game that's a mash-up of En Garde! and D&D. En Garde! is a very old quasi-RPG (that first came out in 1975, here's a houseruled/expanded version of the rules here: Elan En Garde! Rules) that I tried to run on rpg.net a long long time ago that didn't work out well due to me GMing it in a rather stupid way.

The basic idea would be that each player is a young gentle(wo)man who has just arrive in the City of Shuttered Windows and is trying to climb the ranks of society, but there would be many ways to go about doing this. En Garde! focuses on regimental life and the various internet house rules have expanded on that a lot, but I'd go with the basic D&D 4 classes tradition of having various military and para-miltiary organizations for fighters, several temples for clerics, beggar's/thieve's/assassin's guilds for thieves and magical orders for wizards.

I'd try to tweak the rules so that characters are more interdependent than in vanilla En Garde! I'd try to make it so that new characters need the help of established players to advance quickly, that established players need the new players to cement their power and to put in some limited resources for people to squabble over. For example a arch-mage could up her magical power while casting a ritual by having a bunch of newbie apprentices helping her cast it and there'd only be so much mojo in the ley lines each month to fuel the rituals so if too many wizards try tapping into the fire ley line then bad happens. Similarly a thief could frame a captain of the watch so that a fighter PC could get a promotion and then have the fighter PC turn a blilnd eye on the thief's crimes. That sort of thing, hopefully simple rules with complex emergent results.

Just like vanilla En Garde! each turn would be an in-game month with players saying what they would do each weak for their orders. The GM would be as passive as possible and let the players drive the game. Could be fun, but this is just in the brainstorming phrase now. Will try to write it up in a while (perhaps September) after doing some more brainstorming and finishing more Shrouded Lands stuff.

Thoughts?

 

[Sanglorian]

Have come down with a nasty bit of tonsillitis and between that and the Shrouded Lands game I'm running next week I won't have much time to do stuff with this thread. After that be able to do more...

One idea that won't get out of my mind recently is (after the compilation and stuff gets done) to make a spin-off of the Shrouded Lands as a game that's a mash-up of En Garde! and D&D. En Garde! is a very old quasi-RPG (that first came out in 1975, here's a houseruled/expanded version of the rules here: Elan En Garde! Rules) that I tried to run on rpg.net a long long time ago that didn't work out well due to me GMing it in a rather stupid way.

Looks interesting--any game that has 'Marry mistress' as a potential character action is worth checking out! Personally, I've been planning to run indie darling Dungeon World in the Shrouded Land. Definitely Google it to find out more; I'm a big fan.

 

[Daztur]

Looks interesting--any game that has 'Marry mistress' as a potential character action is worth checking out! Personally, I've been planning to run indie darling Dungeon World in the Shrouded Land. Definitely Google it to find out more; I'm a big fan.

I've heard good things about that game but never read it.

In any case En Garde!, like Diplomacy, is one of those games that plays BETTER online than face to face (would do it with one week turns real time each representing one month game time) so it'd be able to have you guys play as well as my schedule doesn't allow me to play with you guys via videochatting and I don't much care for D&D via PBEM/PBP.

 

[Daztur]

Will post a free module as a document for an adventure at Olmsted Keep after Saturday's session with a play report. One of the players is going to be a Deep Dwarf machinist with magitech legs, the other will be a Thringish knight who voluntarily had his memories wiped to turn over a new leaf as a cleric of the Green Lady, not sure about the other 2-3. The Thringish player made up a few new Thringish Laws, to quote him:

Law of the Breath of Man: that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: All shall die, and all shall perish, yet the just shall have precedence over the wicked.

Law of Splintered Steel: In combat, When thine opponents have been defeated, act both with justice and mercy. Slay not a maimed foe, Slay not the unarmed and weak, and in bouts of honor, Yield when your opponent is broken and defeated.

Law of the Lake: Do not desecrate my waters. Act swiftly and vengefully upon those who wish me ill.

Law of Bread and Salt I'll steal from Game of Thrones.

 

[Daztur]

We finally had the first session of my Shrouded Lands campaign yesterday and it went very well. Lots of great role play and some first level PCs managed to down a troll. The party was an amnesiac ex-knight of Thring who had turned over a new leaf as a cleric of the Green Lady (Gyrwyn), a bookish wizard and scribe of Shuttered (Rincilus) and a feral forest halfling (Rowlian). We had some last minute cancellations due to schedule conflicts, so only three players and we got a late start and only played 3.5 hours due to character creation and various delays but the actual gaming was great with virtually no distractions or side-talk at all (and only one Monty Python joke) so I was very happy.

Here's the play report that I sent out to my group: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g03HBd89Ms_AVcfZ8UufnEOoF9nPUPE0U1OzaVhydQg/edit

I'll have to do a more complete write-up of Master Var and Laera, they were the most popular NPCs of the session by a long shot.

The upshot of all of this is that if any of you want to take part in the play by email side quests (which will happen parallel to the face to face game) you're more than welcome to join in, just be warned that I'll be very concise with my posts and not at all literary as many play by post/email campaigns tend to be. By default each player is doing their own thing, but if you want to do something with any of the PCs I'll make it happen if the player in question gets involved in the play by email side quest stuff.