csyphrett Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Guys, I need two things from the brains of herodom. 1) I need suggestions for a dudgeon crawl. 2) I realized that Dragonia is going to be a finite flat land. What's on the bottom part? CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Jogger Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: Need suggestions The classic dungeon crawls: 1) Tombs or Crypts 2) Treasure Hoards 3) Lost Cities/Ruins (good if you need to find something ancient relic or research on how a past civilization did something) 4) Dimensional Vortex (sounds like you have extra-dimensional realms, the gateways may be guarded to prevent people from escaping or invaders coming in) 5) Monster Lair (think of it as a bunch of low-rent apartment complexes that happen to be underground and filled with monsters) Non-standard ones: 6) Scenic Route (if you think about it, traveling to another city can be like a dungeon crawl) 7) Dreamscape (the party has a realistic adventuring dream, the items gathered are not physical, but have symbolize the characters hopes and desires, and the monsters are manifestations of their fears and nightmares) 8) Shopping Trip (the party goes into a nearby city to restock on supplies, however, monsters, thieves, and con-men see walking money bags) What's on the bottom? You lost me at infinity. In fact, I think my gameworld might actually be on a part of Dragonia where the local inhabitants just think they are on an extremely large planet. After all, no one has travelled to the four corners and found out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowsoul Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: Need suggestions The old 'artificial dungeon' trick works quite well. Someone creates a dungeon filled with monsters and traps and people pay to enter it and try to escape with the treasure in the end. A cruel GM might even make the treasure a con and so force the party to take their reward forcibly from the dungeon organiser. Otherwise. A grand aqueduct or sewer complex has become infested with infected monsters and must be cleansed. An ancient gothic castle beckons the unwary to explore its haunted corridors. Or an actual dungeon. Players are dumped into the fantasy equivalent of an Early Modern gaol and left to rot amongst monsters and vicious criminals. The guards enforce no order other than to prevent prisoners from escaping through the final gate, everything else is up to those inside. But an ally or wellwisher has managed to get the party's equipment to them and even arranged for them to be wearing light chains. As for under Dragonia. How old is your son? One idea which might appeal to a child would be having a mirror world on the other side of the land, everything there is upside down of course but everything else is reversed as well. Milk is black, the sky is red, all good characters are evil and so on. So peaceful steam men might be defending themselves from the ravages of the merciless dragon riders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted July 21, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: Need suggestions Right now, Donnie can see the four corners of his world with the four giants. Thinking about how things have been going, everything is in the center of the map so far. I have been thinking about a journey to the center of the earth with an expedition to the core of the world and out the other side. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted July 21, 2008 Report Share Posted July 21, 2008 Re: Need suggestions Guys, I need two things from the brains of herodom. 1) I need suggestions for a dudgeon crawl. 2) I realized that Dragonia is going to be a finite flat land. What's on the bottom part? CES I used a flat world once...the "bottom" was hell, inhabited by all the supernatural critters that were not welcome. The "gods" were mostly critters that had got loose topside, and set themselves up in business. The "real" gods, tolerated or coopted them as best they could. The "real" gods made the world, the rest are just squatters.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted July 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 Re: Need suggestions I used a flat world once...the "bottom" was hell, inhabited by all the supernatural critters that were not welcome. The "gods" were mostly critters that had got loose topside, and set themselves up in business. The "real" gods, tolerated or coopted them as best they could. The "real" gods made the world, the rest are just squatters.... Donnie isn't really interested in that kind of thing, and he can see his real gods from a high mountain. I think maybe some kind of monster kingdom other than the King of Windy Mountain. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 Re: Need suggestions An idea I've favored for a complex dungeon is a sort of ad hoc, haphazard underground city beneath a surface city. The surface city can be thriving, and ancient ruin in its own right, or anything else; in the one setting I started to write up for it once, it was under a thriving, large-population city. The story goes something like this: back in the early days of the city, several people built underground rooms, chambers, and mini-complexes for one reason or another. They ranged from paranoid shopkeepers who wanted a safe place to hide in the event of a monster attack, to smugglers and fences who wanted some way of sneaking their illegal wares about, to wizards who wanted someplace secure where they could research the darker parts of their craft away from suspicion. Over time, some of these individuals built connecting sections so they could trade with one another -- for example, a smuggler made a tunnel to the wizard's complex so the wizard could buy the smuggler's goods without anyone on the surface any the wiser. Over time, various underground wildlife emerged, mostly as vermin. Rats, snakes, bugs spiders, and other common vermin found their way in first, and slowly other predators well-suited to underground living got in. Some of those predators simply emigrated from elsewhere, others were exotic "pets" whose owners had lost interest, and a few were summoned creatures that the wizard lost control of. The more intelligent of these new creatures started digging out and building their own sections of the underground complex. And, as the city-beneath-a-city grew, some of the less sociable of the surface dwellers took up residence down there as well, each carving out their own niches both literally and figuratively. The more a newcomer despised the surface society, the deeper underground he went. And so it's continued, until the present day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtelson Posted July 22, 2008 Report Share Posted July 22, 2008 Re: Need suggestions The Oubliette is an Inn with an interesting past, it's a pleasant enough place, the fire's always warm, the drinks are cheap and not too watered down and the barkeep a friendly sort who enjoys endless hours regaling patrons about how it's been built on the sight of the worst prison the kingdom had ever known. The stories are obviously exagerations and everyone tends to have a good time seeing how far old O'Bannon will get before his wife Clair tells him to knock it off (On busy night's there're bets). It's also very secure, a safehaven on the open road. The group is meeting a client, or just happened across it on a rainy night and the warm light seemed appealing however the team ends up at an inn for the night. In the dark of the night a fire breaks out, sure the party might be able to escape but what about the other patron, the host. Slowly or quickly many have fallen back into the cellar as the building begins to collapse someone (One of the party?) finds a trap door in the cellar floor leading into the dungeons of the infamous prison, inhabited by all maner of foul things and it's up to the group to lead a cluster of civilians, townsfolk and simple travelers through the darkness. Welcome to the Oubliette.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted July 23, 2008 Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Re: Need suggestions 2) I realized that Dragonia is going to be a finite flat land. What's on the bottom part? CES What "bottom part"? The universe ends a few hundred meters (or a few kilometers) down. Just like it ends at the edge of the land. There's nothing beyond. The entire universe has edges, that's the way it is. Saves a lot of work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted July 23, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2008 Re: Need suggestions I'm going to use the underground society for Mole men, Bob. The obliette could be a secret dungeon, maybe not a state run prison. Those tend to be their own castles/towers. ACtually I am thinking of having the four giants add on to the land by grabbing material out in the space. Maybe the bottom half suffers from meteor strikes. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Need suggestions Donnie mentioned wanting to deal with Crystal Golems in the land of the Lamias, and a kingdom of underground monsters. So we are going to add that in with a journey to the center of the world. Then a sea voyage. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Re: Need suggestions Guys, I need two things from the brains of herodom. 1) I need suggestions for a dudgeon crawl. 2) I realized that Dragonia is going to be a finite flat land. What's on the bottom part? CES Much better for the bottom part to be the Underdark where the land is in eternal darkness and the things there have adapted to life in that way. There are all kinds of implications as well as having things work in a turned around fashion. Some of the basic implications of life topside can be reversed for the Underdark. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 Re: Need suggestions I don't about an underdark. Still something opposite from the civilizations on the other side might be okay. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2008 Re: Need suggestions While I still need more thoughts about underground, I now also need ideas for an extended sea voyage. Bring on pirates and sea monsters. We also decided that the flat Dragonia spins like a coin so there is an explanation for day and night. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowsoul Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Re: Need suggestions You could always nick some stuff from Pirates of the Caribbean. Fish people, skeletal pirates etc. Perhaps a dashing pirate captain who signs on as a henchman in return for help in getting his ship back. There's a book called The Red Wolf Conspiracy about the fate of a ship riddled with intrigue. Adding to the confusion are the efforts of a band of Borrower or Lilliputian style people who are searching for their homeland. That could add some interesting complications to a sea voyage. Sunken ruins are always useful. Perhaps some mischievous water-folk steal the ship's anchor or perhaps its keel. Fortunately the ship's wizard can provide a spell which will allow a small band of heroes to venture beneath the waves and get the missing item back. One random thought which has just occurred to me. If you get tree nymphs, (Dryads), and Sea Nymphs, (Naiads), then perhaps you sometimes get a creature which is somewhere in between. E.g. a Kelp Dryad which is tied to a kelp field or seaweed forest. The ship gets entangled in the kelp field or whatever and its crew must perform a favour for the Kelp Dryad if they want to be set free. Perhaps a giant shark or squid has arrived in the area and keeps trying to eat her. An attack by an advanced 'mad-scientist' type in a submarine can also be fun for the crew of a sailing ship. Or at least it was great fun when I tried it. Assuming that you'll be using a sailing ship. Perhaps the young knight manages to get passage on a steamship run by renegade steam-man pirates? The ship would of course be fully equipped with steam cannons and a steam operated mechanical parrot. But a merciless saboteur has smuggled a rust monster on board! Can the young knight locate and destroy the beast before it gnaws its way through the ship's hull? If you want more ideas on sea monsters then, - Giant carnivorous sea-horses. - Dune style giant sea worms. - Sea-Devils. A terrifying combination of shark and flying fish which is known to make prodigious gliding leaps over ships' decks in order to snatch a meal of human flesh. - Giant jellyfish with acidic blood. - A Roc. While your son is scanning the waves for the first sight of a big nasty sea-monster this thing can creep up on him. - Sea dragon ridden by a mer-knight. Challenges the human knight to a duel for mysterious reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Re: Need suggestions While I still need more thoughts about underground' date=' I now also need ideas for an extended sea voyage. Bring on pirates and sea monsters.[/quote'] You can't beat the giant turtle that looks like an island but sinks out from under anyone setting foot on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowsoul Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Re: Need suggestions There's a webcomic called Neo Earth which has just moved into a sea adventure arc. The first page might give you some ideas. Book 4, Page 1. http://www.neo-earth.com/latest.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTaylor Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Re: Need suggestions City adventures are interesting to spice things up: political intrigue, mysteries, an assassin after someone and you have to find them to protect the guy (the more obnoxious and unhelpful they are, the better). Throwing in an odd complication to a mundane adventure adds a lot too - what if the dungeon is flooding? During an earthquake? The party has to escort a non-combatant to a certain place in the dungeon? What if the party has been hired by a thrill seeking noble to see what it's like? What if instead of a kill and grab, the party has been hired to scout the place out and leave as little evidence as possible they've been there? How about an archaeologist who goes along? What if one of these escorts is actually a werewolf, and doesn't show until a critical fight? What if the dungeon is actually made up of noble, good creatures, and the party has to get into it to get an item without really hurting anyone? What if the party is chased into the dungeon by a rampaging horde they can't beat and has to flee the pursuers while trying to make it through a monster- and trap-infested passage through a mountain? Hazardous environments are useful as well. Lava, desert, undersea, outer space (!), extreme cold are all possibilities. What if the party has some disaster and loses their gear, facing a dungeon practically (or really) naked? No lights, no weapons, no armor. Now those wimpy creatures you ignored are dangerous and a rusty sword is treasure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palaskar Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Re: Need suggestions Way back in '92, the people at Princecon (that was my gaming group) had decided on the exact same thing. The "top" of the world was a suppressed, socially stagant place where magic had literally died out. The "bottom" was where magic had survived, complete with teleport mazes and killer hobbits. Reverse thing for your world. It didn't help, though, that we kept calling the world "the chipwich.":D "Will you STOP CALLING IT THE CHIPWICH!" True quote from one of us. As a pointless aside: I played an NPC in some of the games, and tried to catch the last batch of killer hobbits we faced in a Web spell. The GM refused to let -- or even comprehend -- the casting of the Web spell horizontally, so it would catch all the hobbits, and not just the ones in front. That's what you get when you play with an evolution of the Blackmoor rules (as far as I could tell, anyhow.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Re: Need suggestions Thanks, guys. Maybe a joint mission through a mountain at sea could be good. I like the sea devils and serpents. Donnie would recognize the turtle but maybe I can use it somehow (He's beaten about half of the zelda games and Smash Bros melee). Good points about the environment hazards. Donnie has thrown this out for play ideas: Capsules that can be bought that hold monsters, spells, temporary skills. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Monster Posted August 16, 2008 Report Share Posted August 16, 2008 Re: Need suggestions The 'top' of the world is the one tha campaign runs in - normal fantasy world, with all the trimmings. The 'bottom' of the world is a blissful paradise, filled with the departed spirits of those who were a blessing to those around them. In other words, the 'bottom' world is heaven; which means the 'adventure' world - the one with all the wars and monsters and turmoil - is... (cue theme music and Rod Serling: 'Submitted for your approval...') Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Re: Need suggestions The 'top' of the world is the one tha campaign runs in - normal fantasy world, with all the trimmings. The 'bottom' of the world is a blissful paradise, filled with the departed spirits of those who were a blessing to those around them. In other words, the 'bottom' world is heaven; which means the 'adventure' world - the one with all the wars and monsters and turmoil - is... (cue theme music and Rod Serling: 'Submitted for your approval...') That's good. Maybe I can use it. I don't know how. Life is extended immeasurably thanks to instant reincarnation. On the other hand, the turtle did get some action tonight. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Re: Need suggestions Okay, spill! How'd you use the turtle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted August 17, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Re: Need suggestions As a roving sea monster that attacked their ferry to Queen Lamia's Grasslands where they were supposed to pick up the boat. Donnie and his team of Npcs did okay but they only made it pause. It plowed into the ferry and ripped the back end off so Donnie is thinking about trying to save the ferry before it sinks. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted August 17, 2008 Report Share Posted August 17, 2008 Re: Need suggestions That sounds very cool. Good luck to him! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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