No-Art, Punk Contest: Baleful Bastion of the Beastly Boys

Broo - I wasn't able to identify the artist

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Baleful Bastion of the Beastly Boys

Princeofnothing, a fellow with large opinions, and a fondness for the Old Ways, is hosting a dungeon design contest, an undertaking which he dubs the "No-Artpunk Contest!"

The design brief: 20-30 rooms stocked with book items and book monsters for a 0e - 1e D&D (or clone) system. 5 -20 pages. "Presentation and layout should be whatever you want. Worddoc, Plain text or Paint. Homemade maps, terrible self-drawn paint art, is all welcome."

Now, to be sure, I tend to be a fan of much of what is labeled artpunk in the old-school-ish D&D scene. I backed the new Patrick kickstarter the day it became available (you should back it too!) and I ran a 20+ session Mork Borg campaign. However, I am a sucker for a contest and constraints inspire creativity. 

In preparing an entry, I decided to full embrace the Fundamentalist D&D ethos and produce an adventure that uses the most basic possible monsters, in the most basic possible set up and try to imbue it with fun solely through the clever arrangement of situations, traps and monster tactics. The adventure should work, swapping out all of the monsters for different ones. 

For the layout, I took my cues from the spare, functionality of DM prep notes rather than the verbose, blocky text of early modules. My hope is that the brevity and convenience of the layout would let most DMs run this without even reading it all the way through first (though reading it will take 10 mins max). 

Anyhow, whether or not the Nihilian Potentate appreciates my efforts, I like the little castle I have created and hope that folks enjoy it. 

Demoniad (Part 3): Practical Demonology

After two posts blathering on about the creeping chaos of demoniac meta-physics and planar cosmology, it's time to get down to practicalities. 

• Part 1: Azathoth, Manifestation and Masking
• Part 2: The Abyss, the Warp and the Ruinous Powers

Design Goals

In a recent episode of the Monster Man podcast, James talked about the "Creatures of the Warp" and the importance of making chaotic outsiders from beyond normal space, feel truly alien. In game terms, they should break the rules, and do things that other monsters can't do. They can't be just another stack of hit points.

Another priority for me in exploring demons in my setting is showing their mutability. Not only are demons existentially corrupting to everything they touch, they themselves are also changed. Consequently, once you start finding demons, you'll see lots of mixtures of demons and other things. Demon-dragons, demon-possessed sorcerers, demon-animals, demon-oozes... and on and on. 

Since I'm prioritizing, reality-bending and inconsistency, I can't just pull a standard stat blocks for Tanar'ri.

Bocage Crawl

 

Maybe this isn't anything, but I had the idea that the mixed terrain of woods and small fields of a bocage landscape could make for a fun and picturesque landscape-crawl. 

According to Wikipedia: 

In English, bocage refers to a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture, with fields and winding country lanes sunken between narrow low ridges and banks surmounted by tall thick hedgerows that break the wind but also limit visibility.

This differentiated topography is more interesting, both tactically and aesthetically, than the wide open farms that I (as an American) typically imagine. The restricted sight-lines and labyrinthine  structure lend themselves naturally to a area-by-area crawling exploration style. The sunken lanes are analogous to corridors and the hedgerows break the fields into well-defined rooms.

If we exaggerate the features of bocage, shrinking & diversifying the fields, reinforcing the hedges with vorpal ferns, and dotting the landscape with ruins and eccentric dwellings we have an effective outdoor dungeon. 

One Page Dungeon Contest: Kill Several Demons

 

Download Here! 

On Friday, I was catching up on my D&D blog feed and I saw a post about this year's one page dungeon contest. I thought to myself, "Awesome! I've been meaning to enter but I always forget and miss the window, I wonder when submissions are due..." 

Turns out it was Saturday. To make a long story short, Saturday morning, I set myself the goal of making a One Page Dungeon in one day, from idea to finished PDF. 

Needless to say, I don't think I'm a real contender for the contest but I had a lot of fun making my dungeon and I hope folks will enjoy it. I'm pretty proud of what I produced on a tight deadline.