This will continue our examination of the more interesting creatures of the world, Haerth. Our emphasis will be on the region of Marsilon, but we shall pepper in those creatures of particular interest from the world at large. This evening's lecture will focus on the invisible world of the sky and the thraefaestir in particular. You may be more familiar with its name in the common parlance, the aerial servant. Much of this information comes from the writings of the MageKing, Cyrill Kikendall, who was the last spellcaster powerful enough to summon such a creature. Also, sadly, or not so sadly, depending on your politics, he was the last to be slain by one as well. The rest of our information comes from deciphered fragments found by scavengers, extractors, and researchers. Enough preamble, let us proceed. AERIAL SERVANT ( thraefaestir ) The aerial servant is a semi-intelligent form of gaseous creature that can be found high in the sky; living, hunting, and procrating amongst and abov...

DougCon 2022 is fast approaching, Oct. 21-23, and while it is primarily focused on board games, this year there may be a couple three table top roleplaying games in the mix. Well, I know there will be at least one… assuming I get my shit together in time. I’ve offered to run a game of Dungeons & Dragons for anyone that might be interested. Nothing fancy, just a little five room dungeon (5RD). My plan is to run something in 3-4 hours for 4-5 players. A thing I have not done since 2004-2005 in a game system I haven’t run before. Should be a cakewalk. The basic structure of a 5RD varies a bit, depending on the particulars of the dungeon and who is telling you about it. I’m using the following guidelines which might make up the ‘traditional structure’ for this type of adventure. Room 1: Entrance And Guardian Room 2: Puzzle Or Roleplaying Challenge Room 3: Red Herring Room 4: Climax, Big Battle Or Conflict Room 5: Plot Twist The term “Room” could be read as an area, challenge, encounte...

I screen captured some google maps with the labels turned off and stitched them together. Then I tweaked the color, contrast, and depth. Put the whole thing in Photoshop and started rebuilding it. It’s not done, but I’m not really sure what else will get added, removed, or changed. I just know that I’ll make changes or additions. It’s kinda what I do. I scaled the map down to 4k resolution, but it’s still a big file (3.5Mb). You’re looking at an even further reduced file. The scaled version here is 1440 by 2560 pixels and its hard to read. If you click on the map you’ll open the full-size image. This is the Player Map, I have a DM Map that has all the various adventure locations marked on it. Adventure Campaign Map Cities are marked with castle icons. Towns look a little like the capital building. Villages are a handful of little houses. Hamlets and thorps are the black circles. It’s mostly ridiculous that I’ve put villages on the map, normally I don’t show anything smaller than a tow...

I’m going to reveal the secret formula that turns the real world into the Realms of Adventure. So here’s where it starts. Take the 2020 census population number of any given place and divide by ten. Bam! You know the size of that same place on Marsilon. Pretty easy conversion. For the most part that reflects pretty well the world I’m trying to portray. But you’ll note that both Weaverville and Eureka don’t reflect that formula. central region of the big map Weaverville would be a Hamlet of 331 people, which is not large enough to support the businesses that I want to put there. That number is probably good for the map of Phandalin as presented, but we’re not using that map. The map being used shows Weaverville back when it’s population was 1,000 people. I’m going to turn some of those buildings into ruins to reflect the rebuilding going on in the region. That will drop the size of the town, I think we’ll set it at, say, a population of 931 people. That’s large enough to support an inn ...

You can't play D&D without a map... well... you can, but why would you? Maps are great. Anyway, my plan to use the real world as the basis for my fantasy world was supposed to make things easier. It did not. See, there is a LOT of data available on the real world, enough to swamp all my plans to keep things simple, because the real world is not simple. Anyway, what do I want from the real world? I want Crater Lake. I want someplace rugged and untamed... that translates to mountains. I also want ocean. I've decided on a stretch of northern California and Oregon. So with the aid of google maps, a bunch of screen captures, and some photoshop magic you get something like this. This is my new campaign map.  

I don’t want to run the Ghosts of Saltmarsh parts of my Adventure in a giant city like Waterdeep or Greyhawk, but I think the town as presented in the book is a little on the small side. Also, the source material seems at odds with itself over how big the town is. Is it a place with a population of 2,000 or a place with a population of 5,000? That map seems too small for either number. So I’ve gone back to the Sanborn Maps I mentioned in my Weaverville post and I found a few I like. Eureka, 1886

Sunday, I had a list of outside chores to do, but it rained on and off all day. So, instead, I did laundry and worked on my Adventure project. I spent a lot of time on it, but I’m not sure how much I actually got done. It was that kind of day. But there was a big announcement coming from the other side of the state… No details have been forthcoming, but the announcement was made this past weekend that one of the most anticipated game conventions in the Midwest will be back this year. DougCon ’22 will be held October 21-23, 2022. I’m looking forward to it. It was a lot of fun last year. DougCon is traditionally focused on board games, but I may put together a short D&D scenario if there is any interest. I’m thinking a small 5-room dungeon with pregenerated characters and a clear goal. Could be doable in a short block of time. It’s something to think about.

I've put in orders for two more canvas maps, because I want to put them up in my office as inspiration for writing and gaming. And also because I get very into new projects and this one seems pretty easy to finish. Just click to order. The first is the map that began as an unnamed world map with a big black sword as the compass, and so I called it the black sword map. It's been renamed Inner Sareth, which represents the idea that it is part of a much larger continent. original map of Inner Sareth The original was drawn on a large 22x30 sheet of preprinted hex paper (Chessex, I think) and colored with Berol Prismacolor pencils. You can see it there, all taped up, because I cut it up to scan it many years ago. I never used it for gaming or writing in any substantial way. The new version is a WonderDraft creation. The second map I had put on canvas is the one I used for the Baenrahl campaign. I once said that Baenrahl: Shadow of the 13th Regent was a game of dark swashbuckling and...

One of my more recent purchases from Audible was worthy of being mentioned here at arohenRPG. Clocking in at 10-hours and 22-minutes, Appendix N: The Literary History of Dungeons & Dragons, written by Jeffro Johnson, narrated by Brandon Porter, and published by Castalia House, is an investigation into the various works of science fiction and fantasy that Gary Gygax listed as being the primary influences on the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Appendix N: Inspirational and Educational Reading being the list of reading material published in the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide. The author takes us on a fascinating dive into the literature of SF/F's past, we get a look back at fandom/geek culture and why these materials were so influential, and he does a good job of critically reviewing all the works and authors listed by Gygax. Furthermore, he hypothesizes and draws conclusions from his investigation as to what parts of those works were most...

I have a very soft spot in my heart for TSR's World of Greyhawk—if not the campaign setting, definitely the map. It's one of my favorites. That may be because it was my first exposure to a D&D world setting. But this, this I never noticed. The lake of unknown depths is very obviously Lake Superior. Which is very cool. But being a Michigan native, I feel like I should have noticed that at some point in the last 30 years. Fortunately, the internet stepped in and pointed it out to me.

Seth Skorkowsky is a writer and gamer. I've only listened to one of his books on audible, but I enjoyed that, so I bought the rest of his Valducan series. I do enjoy his YouTube channel, though he talks mostly about Call of Cthulhu (a game I've never played). He also waxes poetic about other games and the hobby in general. I appreciated this one enough that I want to share it with my peeps. Just a little video on what responsibilities and expectations are required of everyone participating in a Tabletop Role-Playing group. This is good stuff. You can find his books here at  amazon

The essential elements for building a world? I hesitated in using a $12 credit to buy this one. It’s short. Really short. Audible says, 4 hours and 42 minutes, and I tend to not spend my audible credits on anything less than 10-hours long. But I fell for their marketing and took the creative leap towards creating dazzling worlds of my own. I shouldn’t have used my audible credit for this book.   maybe the PDF is a better choice First, let’s talk positives. Everyone contributing to this book has serious RPG cred. There are essays by Keith Baker, Wolfgang Baur, David "Zeb" Cook, Monte Cook, Jeff Grubb, Scott Hungerford, Chris Pramas, Jonathan Roberts, Janna Silverstein, Michael A. Stackpole, and Steve Winter. The essays are good and offer solid, but rather vague advice. I think beginners will get more out of this than experienced world builders and game masters. Ray Greenley does a good job with the narration, but still comes off sounding like the friend with the pleasant voice...