More art: Blood Angel meets Genestealer

 Here's another one. 

Spess Muhreeen

 More art that nobody asked for - there went most of my morning. :-) Got a bit carried away here. The recent announcement of a new edition for Warhammer 40k has far-future lobster-shell marines back on my mind. This guy has some issues but I drew him from memory with no visual reference, so I'm pleased overall. 

[EDIT: I later went back and added a chapter/legion logo, as seen below].

The earlier version, pre-logo:

Swordsman sketch and Song of Ice and Fire minis

 We recently designated Wednesday evenings as 'family art night' chez Gundobad. Although my sketches won't be winning prizes anytime soon, I enjoy developing my drawing eye/hand. I decided to use a recent miniature purchase as a posed model - that sure helps!

The dude's left foot is ... a big plaster cast? Yeah, um, moving on. But I am pleased with him overall. I am starting to experiment with inking fine-liner over a pencil sketch, and then using the ink for shading via hatching. 

Worth mentioning, since this fella is guest-starring: this is an "Unsullied Swordsman" from the Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones, yo) miniatures wargame. We discovered these box sets a few months ago - some of the sets in this line make great proxies for various Warhammer or other fantasy minis, at a decently lower cost. And they're already assembled... 

EVA foam DIY terrain ruins

 

Wow! I recently watched a Youtube tutorial on making 'corner ruins' wargaming terrain out of EVA foam - not that 'pink stuff' but the even more accessible, if a bit less rigid, material used in 'jigsaw-puzzle' interlocking floor tiles (for gyms, baby rooms, etc.). I have really had a hankering to try it out, and I took the plunge yesterday. Although this took me a while (most of the afternoon), I aimed to be more ambitious than the tutorial video, and produced something that I absolutely love for a first-time product. This is light, resilient, and stays just fine if dropped. It lacks the fine detail of some of my other (= 'more expensive') terrain, and it isn't painted yet, but I already like it a lot. 

I may just whip up a table's worth of this stuff...and since making this only took up about $2 CAD of the supplies I bought (from a $16 pack at Wal-Mart), I have lots more cheap stuff on hand. That's good, as I have more ambitious designs in mind (along with some more basic scatter terrain). 

These ruffians approve.

If you enjoy making wargaming terrain, I heartily recommend you check out this method. 

Party Stances for Dungeon Turns (a Dungeon Procedure idea)

 I've been noodling at some thoughts about dungeoncrawl procedures, turn tracking, resource management, etc. The recent hubbub around the new Shadowdark game, which uses 1 hour of real-world time to track each torch, got me thinking. I don't think that's a solution I favor, but it's not a bad idea to keep thinking about creative ways to handle some of the ol' sacred cows in dungeoneering. 

So I've been scratching at some new (to me, at least) combinations. I haven't tested these out yet and I suspect they still need some work, but I like this approach in concept. There are a few key ideas mashed together here. One is that resource management is important in dungeoncrawling, but I don't really see a TON of regular utility in tracking torches and rations; it's more like a tax to keep the threat of running out part of the game. But actually having the players just sit there in the dark doesn't sound as fun. :-) Are there any simpler ways to handle all this, without giving up resource management completely?

The other idea I'm working with is inspired by Pathfinder 2e's dungeon exploration activities (of all things!). This is an idea that caught my fancy when I started running PF2e, though in practice I'm finding them a bit less awesome than I'd hoped. My intent here is to salvage something of the core approach, while hopefully improving a bit on the experience. 

Again, this is all a bit work-in-progress, but here goes. 

DUNGEON EXPLORATION STANCES

You know how some games let players choose a combat stance, usually applying Advantage to attacks and Disadvantages to defense (or the opposite)? This is kind of like that; each dungeon turn, while exploring, the party chooses a posture. This commits them to excelling at a particular kind of dungeon activity, while imposing some liabilities in other areas. It's important to note that this shouldn't prevent players from attempting certain kinds of activities; this just makes them a bit better at X than Y. Also, I thought about allowing a 'Neutral' base stance, but I kind of like the idea that dungeoncrawling is always risky, and every moment requires you to gamble focusing on something over other things. There is no 'casual tourist mode' in a lethal dungeon. 

In what follows, I'm thinking in Into the Odd-ish terms, albeit with room for standard fantasy class/heritage hacked in, so adjust accordingly to suit your favored mechanics. 

First: the party carries Supplies, an abstract measurement of their consumables (water, torches, and rations). The assumption is that every available inventory slot not filled with something else at the session's start is filled with Supplies, but no more. 

Each (approx.) 10-minute turn, the party (by default, as a whole, but see below) chooses to operate in one of the following stances. To switch to a different stance (usually at the beginning of the turn), somebody in the party must spend one slot of Supplies (this incentivizes staying in a stance longer, so players have to push their luck and think about their options). 

The stances are:

+ ALERT: The party automatically wins initiative rolls and passes WIS Saves against being surprised. But, DOWNSIDE: the party's militant demeanor imposes a penalty on NPC reaction rolls! 

+ HASTY: The party moves twice as fast, but DOWNSIDE: the hurried party loses Initiative rolls and automatically fails Saves against being surprised. 

+ DECLAMATORY: Now is a time for bold and encouraging words! The party gets advantage on NPC reaction rolls, and the encouraging pats-on-the-back and dramatic pep talks give each PC Advantage on their first Save rolled this turn. But, DOWNSIDE: the party automatically loses Initiative. 

+ STEALTHY: players get +Advantage to rolls to be sneaky. Anyone who would already get +Adv for such rolls due to some cool class hack gets an EXTRA bonus roll. Yowza! But, DOWNSIDE: if you're in a dark area, lugging a lit torch around will instantly give away your position, so sustaining a STEALTHY posture requires accepting some low-light consequences: penalty to NPC reaction rolls if discovered, and PCs inflict Impaired damage if they get in a fight. 

+ INVESTIGATIVE: the party slows down to check out an area in more detail. Each PC automatically detects their class/heritage detection items (see below), but DOWNSIDE: it costs TWO Supplies to enter this Stance instead of one. 

+ RESTING: The party may hunker down and take a Short Rest, gaining its benefits, but DOWNSIDE: it ain't a rest if you aren't resting, and if you're resting when something goes wrong... the party automatically loses Surprise Saves AND Initiative when in this posture. 

+ STAND GUARD: the stances above apply to the entire party. For an additional cost of one Supply per PC, one or more PCs may pay to adopt a separate individual stance of ALERT or STEALTHY, although the rest of the party is in some other stance. The PC standing guard gains the benefits and drawbacks of ALERT or STEALTHY and does NOT gain whatever benefits the rest of the party is enjoying (a party might use this rule to have a healthy PC stand guard on ALERT while the rest of the party takes a short rest, for example). 

+ RUNNING OUT OF SUPPLY: if the party has run out of points of Supply, then we can assume that either they are actually groping in the dark, or (let's say instead) they are down to a few desperate candle nubs, burning sheets of paper and spare socks to keep the fire going, etc. This means we don't have to disrupt play massively at this point - but there is still a real cost to mis-managing the resource game. When a party has run out of supply while operating in a dark underground environment, the following apply to all PCs: PCs inflict Impaired damage, penalty to NPC reaction rolls, and ... maybe ... Disadvantage on all Saves? For a mechanically interesting but perhaps too generous alternative, just say that the party can (and MUST) still select a Dungeon Stance, but they ONLY get that stance's DOWNSIDE - none of the benefits. This option means the players keep having to make choices about the least of all evil options as they try to get out of the dungeon (you'd have to say you can't choose Investigative stance in this context, of course). 

A BIT MORE ON THAT INVESTIGATIVE STUFF...

I may really be out to lunch here, but how about...

When the party enters a new room, every player rolls 1d6. On a 1-2, the following happens:

+ Fighters and Halflings detect any ambushers present

+ Thieves and Dwarves detect any traps or secret doors

+ Magic-Users (all kinds) and Elves detect magic 

When in Investigative Stance, the above detections happen whatever the player rolled. 

The idea here is to hand the players more information, inviting them to focus on the bits that really push toward choices in play. So secret doors should still require some engagement - as I've suggested before, make the door easy to find but challenging to open. Traps should follow Chris M's suggestions: easy to spot, but trickier to circumvent if you need to do so in a hurry. 

With all these stances, of course, it's important not to nerf an action that any PC should be able to do at any time. So Investigative stance isn't the only stance in which, say, a PC can mess with a treasure chest for information: it's a way to mechanically make the players more confident about certain pieces of information, but at a known mechanical cost. 

Anyway. Whaddaya think? Any thoughts on the potential utility (or otherwise) of such a system?

PARTING SHOT: THIS PARTY HAS CLEARLY CHOSEN THE DECLAMATORY STANCE. 

I DON'T THINK IT'LL HELP THE REACTION ROLL. 

A map (WIP) - my "Fauxhammer" project

 This is a work in progress (WIP), a thing I've been noodling at for fun. It needs more work (and the work already done needs more cleaning and processing) - but I'm having a great time with this big map spread. 

This is an alternate, homebrew setting for my own Warhammer battles - a place closer to really old sword and sorcery Oldhammer, with its Moorcockian, Appendix-N, almost science-fantasy vibes, instead of the faux Renaissance feel of WFRP - or the almost mindbogglingly large scale of the current Age of Sigmar setting. It's a nod to the vague but deeply evocative thing that Warhammer once was - during my youth, and to the many "jeweled thrones" of Conan's Hyboria. The setting, as presented here, also draws on some of the "Middle Earth/Warhammer" mashup I toyed with last year, along with a bit of inspiration from the "howling emptiness" of parts of the old Greyhawk setting. I'm having lots of fun imagining the various petty rivalries and histories that have shaped this map. It's a setting not threatened by one Dark Lord, but by many (who wage jealous war upon each other, too); defended not by one alliance of the free, but by many, who just as often suspiciously eye their neighbors' ambitions (if they're lucky enough to have neighbors). The central subcontinent was once three kingdoms, then one great realm, and then -- after shocking betrayals and setbacks -- it became the fragmented (and in some regions the really points-of-light) setting represented here. 

One thing's for sure: I've got loads of ideas for narrative-based fights on this map, from mass battles pitching cursed (but still 'good') undead against the deceptive Enchanter's hordes, or the Silver Legion's greedy mercenaries against trade-rich Toharon ... to small-scale skirmishes -- perhaps a band of funeral singers holding off cultists in the Azure Necropolis, dwarves trying once again to infiltrate the Darkmount so they can pacify its feral elemental energies, or rival adventuring bands squabbling over treasure in the shattered ruins of the once-mighty central capital. 

Procedures for an OSR- and PbtA-influenced Pathfinder 2e sewer-crawl!!!!!

 So, last night's session in our PF2e campaign ended in a hideous TPK against a Black Pudding (as discussed here). Urk! That aside, the evening was separately interesting, too; I tried out a new approach to large, winding dungeons in Pathfinder 2e. In short, the PCs needed to explore an ancient sewer complex, looking for guarded halls holding stone keys that could open an underground archive door. Ok, great. 

However, PF2e -- which is excellent for running fun, tactically-minded encounters -- can be a little bit of a beast for 'traditional' dungeoncrawling. Fights can take a long time (an issue I discussed recently, here), and the resource-management game doesn't seem to fit very well with PF2e mechanics (my mid-level party has Light as an at-will cantrip, and many of the standard OSR-style resource counters just don't do much to a group like this). 

But I wanted to highlight the experience of pushing your luck while exploring a really large, winding dungeon - without taking FOREVER, and without just hand-waving past the exploration to the fight scenes. (The campaign that just ended had a vast dwarven-hold on the forecast, so this was a bit of an experimental prototype with a really large dungeon in mind). Note, PF2e does include its own Exploration rules, which are alright, but I wanted something a bit different, a bit meatier, and a bit closer to the OSR- and/or PbtA-system games that I'm more accustomed to for handling the dungeon as a threatening/promising, vast space.

So, drawing on influences ranging from OSR/NSR-style dungeons, to the various forms of Jason Cordova's PbtA Labyrinth move, I put together some rules, which I'm pasting below in case they're of use to anyone else. 

The key concepts to note here:

+ There are probably widely applicable ideas here, though the current form is tailored closely to a unique environment - the sewers are flooded perpetually by magical pitchers of everlasting water, and then drained by a pressure-gate into an underground river. Much of the punch of this dungeon, and these rules, involved the cycles of waxing and waning danger as the tunnels fill and empty. To apply these procedures to a different dungeon, you'd need to think carefully about some analogous source of time-sensitive pressure and risk (sentry patrols, sleep cycles of drowsy monsters, etc.). 

+ I wanted RANDOM ENCOUNTERS, but actual random fights in PF2e would slow things down like treacle in your gas-tank. PF2e's HAZARDS and HAUNTS rules fit the bill, however! I just ran with "Simple" Hazards (no Complex Hazards), which pitch a quick Saving Throw against the risk of some kind of consequence - either a lasting Condition (Fatigue, Drained, etc.) or some Hit Point loss.

+ Our PF2e characters could nerf most HP loss with a few ten-minute rests, so I added a significant set of time pressures; flooding tunnels that made exploration harder and more dangerous in 100-minute cycles, and then "above-ground-world" political shenanigans to make overnight rests more costly.

+ I wanted to keep everyone involved and give at least a nod to the narrative implied by dice rolls, so I made two players roll skill checks each turn, tied to narratively justified exploration tasks on a continually-narrowing field of eligible actions. Two skill rolls each exploration turn allowed a PbtA-style "2 successes, 1 Success with a consequence, or 0 Successes and a Consequence" structure that helped add tension to the exploration. 

Ok, here it is.

+++

SEWER-TUNNELS AND ARCHIVE BENEATH THE TOMB-CITY - DEC 2022 PF2e CAMPAIGN

 

TRACK:
WATER level; Time spent (6 turns = 1 hour); Skills used; PROGRESS. 

 

Each 10-minute turn…

 

1) raise the water level by 1 at the start of the turn (this runs from 1-10)

 

2) party chooses to REST for ten minutes (can recharge focus points, etc.), PRESS ON, or RETREAT

 

3) Before rolling, party chooses/updates their Exploration stances

 

+ To PRESS ON: 2 different players each choose one dungeon-appropriate skill check, vs. DC 22 PLUS the current water level as the DC. 

⁃            with 2 successes: players gain 2 progress to find another Hall

⁃            with 1 success: players gain 1 progress and have 1-in-3 chance of an 

                   Encounter

⁃            with 0 successes: players gain 0 progress and have a random encounter

 

+ To RETREAT: all players choose a known safe/dry destination (the starting hall or another discovered dry hall) and then roll against a dungeon skill check of their choice from the list. 

⁃            Critical Success: this PC safely reaches their destination, and may raise one 

                   other PC’s result by one level (up to Success).

⁃            Success: this PC safely reaches their destination

⁃            Failure: this PC fails to reach their destination. If water level is at 10, trigger 

                   drowning procedure.

⁃            Critical Failure: as Failure, but raising safely will take 2 Critical Successes. 

 

+ RANDOM ENCOUNTERS:

 

1: Exhaustion - all PCs make DC 25 Basic Will OR Fortitude Save, or gain Fatigued 1 (Fatigued 2 on Crit Failure)

2: Swarm of water-snakes: all PCs make DC 24 Basic Reflex Save vs 4d8 + 18 dmg 

3: Ghostly specters seeping from drain-pipes: all PCs make DC 27 Basic Will Save vs. 2d8+9 dmg, 1/2 dmg on Success, Drained 1 on Failure, Drained 2 on Crit Failure. 

4: Large Electrical Eel discharges - all PCs make DC 24 Basic Fortitude Save vs 6d6 damage

5-6: Green Slime drops on 1 random party member (Lvl 9 Hazard)

 

Lvl 6 SIMPLE HAZARDS (see GM Guide p. 76)

+20 Attack vs AC - or - 24/27 DC (High/Extreme) - 4d8+18 dmg 

 

In most cases, the failed roll that led to an Encounter counts in lieu of the failed Perception or Initiative roll - move right to the encounter trigger. For some, may ask PCs to make a fresh Save or Skill roll as relevant for one last chance to perceive a trap.  

 

+ Eligible Dungeon Skill Checks (each time one is attempted, cross it off the list of eligible Skills. Reset the list when all have been attempted):

⁃            Acrobatics … you move out along a very slippery, narrow ledge as you scout a 

         way forward…

⁃            Arcana … you observe very, very old arcane symbols carved into a walls; a 

         flash of insight about their likely meaning helps you use them to find your 

         way. 

⁃            Athletics … a pile of rubble nearly blocks your way. Will it? 

⁃            (Forerunners Lore – Tullem only…)

⁃            Nature … You’ve some experience with caves and underwater rivers, which 

         helps you stay focused and oriented now. 

⁃            Occultism … you’ve read rumors about the obscure logic of this ancient 

         civilization’s constructions. You use that knowledge now to hazard a guess 

         about the right direction. 

⁃            Religion … faded but uncomfortably bizarre religious carvings on the tunnel 

         walls dimly suggest a directional orientation in line with very ancient creedal 

         constructs. 

⁃            Society … You remember a nugget of historical information about the fey 

         architects’ language. Can it help you decipher the directional symbols carved 

         on the wall before you?

⁃            Stealth … A noise - is something creeping nearby? Try to lead your party 

         sneakily away. 

⁃            Survival … The rising water is cold, and its ever-gurgling echoes are 

         disorienting. But you’ve been in tough spots before; can you keep the party 

         moving, warm, and focused? 

⁃            Thievery … the way ahead is blocked by an ancient lock, or threatened by 

         what looks like a very old trap meant to cull large vermin. It could still pose a 

         problem for you and your friends. Will it? 

 

 

 

 

+ Flooding and Drowning: the under-sewers are filled, flooded, and cleaned by an ingenious arcane system: far away in the bowels of the narrow tunnels lies a chamber eternally filling with water from a great many Ewers of Endless Water; elsewhere in the tunnel system is a similarly-remote chamber with a pressure-activated, resetting release gate. Every 100 minutes, the whole tunnel system floods completely and then drains (into an underground river) in a great rush of water. (Locating either the water-supply or water-draining rooms should be nigh impossible, but if the party insists, set a 12-Progress clock specifically dedicated to finding each room). 

 

Mechanically - the Water Level count goes up to 10, at which point the entire complex except for the Halls is flooded to the ceiling. If any PCs end an Exploration Turn in the tunnels while they are at Water Level 10 (before they reset to Level 1 on the next Turn), those PCs are at severe risk for drowning. As there is a double risk present - running out of air, AND being dragged and smashed along the walls - having access to an air supply still requires a roll, but grants a +10 bonus. Sharing an air supply (like the Air Bubble spell) cuts the bonus in half for each extra person sharing the supply. 

Roll a Fortitude Save, DC 32 (this includes the Water Level penalty): 

Crit Success: Almost mathematically impossible…but you survive, and suffer no lasting ill effects. 

Success: Miraculously, you find a few pockets of air in hollows in the ceiling, and just barely survive, though you feel like trash. Take condition Drained 1. 

Failure: The fact that you aren’t dead is almost inconceivable. Take the condition Drained 4. 

Critical Failure: your character dies. 

You may spend all your Hero Points to escape death - either from damage caused on a Failure, or the straight fatality on a Crit Failure. However, doing so from a Crit Failure ‘upgrades’ you to a Failure, so you are Drained 4. 

 

 

The Halls - it takes 6 PROGRESS to locate a new hall; roll randomly to find which hall is discovered next, as the party wends through the twisting underground labyrinth of the tomb-city’s under-sewers. 

 

+ Entrance Hall (lone shabti who can explain some of what’s going on) … uh-oh…do they only speak the ancient tongue? 

+ Hall of the First Keeper: one glass golem with an Archive key in a hinged, clear glass compartment/box on its hip. (could be combat OR thievery encounter)

+ Hall of the Second Keeper: one glass golem (as above), along with 2 Shabti who will warn the golem if they observe a theft in progress. Need to flesh out this encounter. (could be combat, thievery, and/or social encounter the shabti are upset about the destruction of the iron golem in Room 3…they don’t want anything to happen to their golem ‘friend’ here, and they care more about him than they do about the silly key he carries. They will warn him of a theft attempt in progress, UNLESS the party destroys the horror in the Third Hall. Ah - maybe the shabti are on the approach to a raised pedestal where ‘their’ golem is (they visit him daily in a mock ritual). They will see and warn the party. 

+ Hall of the Third Keeper: few remnants of an iron golem, along with the Black Pudding that dissolved it. The stone Archive key is here, half-in the pudding. 

+ Hall of the Archive Gate: a large round portal, bearing three large key-holes, and sealed by ancient, eldritch magics. It won’t open without the three Archive keys turned together. A winding stairway leads up to a distant locked door. Beyond it, horrible moaning sounds – death clearly awaits on the other side (ca. 20 Wights)