Day 25: Longest running campaign

I suppose, my Queston Campaign world is my longest running campaign.

It started in 1983 with two players, JD and NC. 

JD played Sharky Dangerthorn, an heroic ranger.

NC played Skanderbag the Unexpected, a more introverted but still heroic elven wizard.

Both adventured for several years until we all graduated from high school.

Later, while I was in college, I gathered these same friends around the table and for about three years, The Questians adventuring company traveled the lands of Queston.

At one point I even used Queston as the basis for a Fantasy Hero campaign and a FATE campaign.  Both didn't last long.

Most recently, my Castle of the Mad Archmage campaign of more than three years took place on the island of Whair in Queston.

If you want to read more about Queston, here's a link.

Queston NPCs and ALL CALL

TL:DR -- I share NPCs and I call for submissions for the "Rapscallion Registry" a new, OSR version of the old TSR "Rogues Gallery"

In 1983, I started my Queston campaign world.  It was a mish-mash of bad puns, some clever ideas and a lot of fun.  I always think of Queston as a funny, slightly silly world where the comic heroes face real, dark horrors and evil.  In any case, I think that most who adventure there enjoy it.  I know that I enjoy running games there.

My recent CotMA campaign has added to the mythology by fleshing out parts of Whair (a large island to the East) and continues to be great fun.

Back in 1983, however, most adventures took place on the central continent with its dominant Fyrkingdom.  (hat tip to Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice)

Anyway, in the spring of 1983, I turned 16.  I got a car (thanks Dad!)  He gave me his old Buick Electra 225.  It looked like this, but the Arizona sun had pretty much ruined its paint.

With a car came responsibilities and a job.  With a job, came cash!

I started working that summer at a golf course -- for $3.35 an hour! -- and eventually I got a job as a cook at KFC.

I paid for my insurance and my gas and I started buying gaming stuff, most of which I still have today.

One item I purchased was the Rogues Gallery.  I really used this product a lot for on the spot NPCs.  I also REALLY love the section of characters from the original games.  That section is where this product really shines.

I set about writing up NPCs for my Queston game and I put them in a ring binder for use in my games. Here's the first one.

Brash was an NPC that had a friendly rivalry with Sharky Dangerthorn in my game.  He was always trying to one-up Sharky.  Usually, Brash was able to bed the tavern wench whereas Sharky would win the big pot at the local Orcish Nod game.  Brash was the literal "wall that walks like a man" and was valuable for keeping the tiny party of PCs (two) alive during adventures.  We just didn't do hirelings back in the day...

Now, if you'd like to contribute a favorite PC from any of your games -- please fill out the form below. I'd love to compile all the PCs of days gone by into a book, like Rogues Gallery, that could be purchased from Lulu POD.  Many thanks in advance for your contributions!

Queston Globe

My good friend DB just gave me a fantastic gift last night, a globe of my game world Queston!

I've never conceived of Queston as a globe; its always been a sheet of paper (since 1983!)

There has always been a desert pole to the north and a frozen pole to the south, but there's something about seeing them as a sphere that is very impressive.

Thanks DB!  This is amazing!



This is the Fyrkingdom, heart of most of my Queston campaigns.  Many landmarks and adventuring sites are located within this picture.

The desert north, populated by the nomadic Dragynne and the dark towers of the dark elves, githki and psiaki.


The southern reaches of the Fyrkingdom.  You can see South Hold and the wastes ruled by the Frozynne.  To the east you can see the Dropoff and the edge of the Trollands.


The island country of Whair, home to my CotMA game.  Ravenport (not on the globe) is in the bay to the right of the picture.  CotMA is nearby.

Making a World Globe

Happy Holidays everyone!  It's been a long time, but I'm going to try and post more often in the new year.  I know, I know, famous last words!  :)  I do have a Hulks and Horrors campaign going right now and it seems like there should be some things I could share.  :)  Wish me luck!

Not that anyone cares, but I changed careers (again) and I'm a 7th grade science teacher now.  :)  It's fun and I (mostly) enjoy the students, but the level of work required is daunting.  The last time I taught school, I was 13 years younger than I am now.  Things have changed -- a lot!

Anyone who thinks teaching is a cakewalk should try it for a week or a month.  Sometimes you hear people suggest teaching for a day.  Anyone can do anything for a day.  A week or month would require real commitment.  End of rant.  :)

Some time ago, my friend DB gave me an awesome gift -- an actual GLOBE of my home-brew game world, Queston.  See post here.

Several people asked for a "how to" on it, so I asked DB if he would be a "guest poster" on my blog.  He obliged (some time ago) and sent me this info.  Enjoy!

-=-=-=-=-=-

Hello! My name is Dave… also referred to as DB in some of Jim’s posts. I am an artist and art teacher. Jim was kind enough to post pictures of the globe I made for him as a gift. He had said there was chatter about how I made it and asked if I’d be willing to do a “guest post”… so here I am!

    I have been a long time player in many of Jim’s campaigns, many of them set on his “world” of Queston. I had seen many of his maps of the world and was surprised that he never translated it to a globe before since he is a pretty handy/crafty guy himself. It started off to be a homemade Christmas Gift… but I ran out of time and the project got put on the back burner and ended up coming over a year later, but I am pleased with the result. Alright… On to creation!

    I found an old globe through school sources. Try thrift stores if you don’t already own one. I started by carefully removing it from the stand so I could paint it easier. This one was an old vacuum formed plastic globe from the 80s, so the plastic had some give, but it also had low relief mountains which I didn’t care for. I toyed with the idea of removing them somehow or coating the globe with another material to cover them to make a clean slate. I figured that these would be far too difficult, costly and take too long, so I let them be but I chose the smoothest section to apply a majority of the land masses. Once it was off the stand I suspended the globe with wire and primed it with spray paint then used a nice blue color spray paint as a base surface.

    I knew Jim had a digital copy of his word map… one I believed he made on an Apple 2E back in the day (he might correct me). He sent me the file without asking why, which was nice because it added to the surprise). It was in color but had patterns to denote various environments… swamp, forest, hills, etc. which were helpful since I intended to print it out in B&W. I measured my globe from pole to pole so I knew how big to make the land masses and then used Photoshop to enlarge the map to the dimensions I needed. After enlarging it I then broke the map into chunks with overlapping sections from chunk to chunk so that could be printed on standard 8 ½ X 11 white copy paper. I printed each section multiple times out in black and white. I knew I was going to be cutting them up, gluing and painting them down so standard copy paper was just what I wanted… cheap, easily cut, flexible for gluing, and the surface is perfect for accepting acrylic paint. I printed them out on a laser jet which uses toner. I would not recommend using a standard inkjet printer or color printer. The ink will bleed when glue or paint is applied. With everything printed out I set about cutting it up into pieces that would be overlapped here and there and were small enough to allow to conform to the curve of the globe without much buckling or folding as it conformed. Now the hard part…

    Jim originally designed the world as a flat rectangular map… not a true globe, so as I set about gluing sections of the map onto the globe using Mod Podge and a 1” wide stiff bristled brush I had to tweak the position of areas… Things that were once close became a little more separated. Areas that were once level with one another became skewed. I tried to keep things as close to the original map as I could, but liberties had to be made. I used Mod Podge to glue the map to the blue globe surface and then used a layer of it on top to help seal edges and prevent curling of the paper. I let this then sit until completely dry. Now the time consuming part…

    I printed off a small version of the map in color to act as a guide for the painting process. I started with the coast line, painting blue acrylic color matched the spray paint base to define the edges of the main continent and around all islands. This covered up the excess white paper I left because I didn’t want to die cut around the coastline. I found it easier to glue down as well with a cleaner, straighter edge on the map chunks. I made sure to color match the blue spray paint color with the acrylic I used for the cover up to make it as seamless as I could. Because of the intricacies of the coast, painting the edge took the longest. After that was done I set about painting each of the biome types. This made it easier to paint because I only had to deal with one color at a time. Because the map had pattern denoting each type already, it became basically paint by numbers. I chose colors to represent each biome that fit that environment best.

    For city/area names, I painted as close to the printed words as I could then on a scrap piece of paper I would redraw each area and label each city or title. Then I’d paint over the words on the globe. Once dry, I’d use a fine point sharpie to hand write back in the names. I did this practice in blocks as I moved around the globe, being sure to relabel each city/area as I went so I wouldn’t get mixed up. For areas that were dark in color I used a white gel pen to label areas to they could be read. I also used sharpie to draw the various icons Jim used to denote cities of certain sizes, square, circle, starburst, etc.

    Painting in the biomes required adjustment of the map as I mentioned before. Gluing it down in chunks there where places where the same area of city existed twice and I had to make judgment calls as to which to eliminate and where to put it so it made sense. Borders changed some, mostly vertically to shift with the curve of the globe. At the poles, I “rounded” off the land masses since they were cut off on Jims map.

    For the third of the globe that didn’t have any part of Jim’s world on it I decided to put a label. I went to Michaels and bought two sets of stickers in a font I liked and labeled the globe “Jim Pacek’s Land of Queston” to fill the space. With everything completed I did another coat of Mod Podge over the entire globe to seal the paint, stickers and give a consistent shine to the thing.

[Holy Humpday!] Anarch of Mayhem

Thus begins an ongoing series of posts.  Until I run out, I will post one "specialty priest" from my Queston Campaign world each week.  I'm posting them "as is," which means they might be incomplete or really crappy.  I wrote these up about 20 years ago.  :)

In Queston, the priests of Mayhem are called Anarchs.  I had a couple of great PC Anarchs in my game, Sondor Lawbender and Calidor Darkblade.

Here's a write-up that describes Mayhem and his clerics.  Houseruled 2nd Ed. AD&D.

MAYHEM ( Laugh Lord )

Alignment:  CG
Portfolio:  Freedom, humor, laughter
Requirements:  Any one attribute above 15;  Spell bonus based upon this attribute
Weapons Allowed:  Any
Armor Allowed:  Any
Major Spheres:  All
Minor Spheres:  None
Magik Items Allowed:  Any not restricted only to another class

Granted Powers:

•  Anarchs of Mayhem may Taunt their enemies once per day as the wizard spell of the same name.  It seems they always know what to say to provoke a fight.
•  At third level Anarchs of Mayhem may stand up in front of a crowd and begin to tell amusing stories and jokes to them.  If the crowd understands the Anarch, this is similar in effect to the Enthrall spell.  They may do this once per day.  At the end of the routine, the crowd typically has a favorable reaction toward the Anarch and his party unless their alignments are drastically different.
•  At 7th level an Anarch of Mayhem may cast the spell Free Action upon himself or another once per day with a duration of 1-6 hours.
•  Anarchs of Mayhem gain a bonus of +2 to any saving throw, versus spells such as Hold Person and Slow.  In fact this bonus is gained versus any spell or spell-like effect which hampers movement or immobilizes the Anarch.
•  Each and every Anarch upon reaching fourth to ninth level is typically bestowed a spell unique to that Anarch.  The spell is usually first or second rank and the effects vary widely.

Other Notes:  •Anarchs of Mayhem have the reputation of being stalwart opponents of tyranny and oppression.  They have fought many battles against vicious overlords and evil monarchs.  They currently focus a lot of their attention on the terrible conditions found in the Empiracy.  •Anarchs fervently oppose the Skulls of Morbus.  •Anarchs also have the reputation of being quite funny and never, ever losing their sense of humor.  They have a gift for always finding the bright side of a bad situation.  Bad puns abound.  •Anarchs typically dress in an astounding variety of mismatched clothing and armor.  They have an interesting perception of aesthetic taste (some would say no taste at all).  The colors they favor are purple, green, orange, and red.  They are quiet a motley group and no two Anarchs look or dress alike.  They wear their symbol out in the open and often decorate their shields with it.  If they didn't everyone would recognize them anyway  •Anarchs quite often receive a random assortment of spells from Mayhem, instead of their spells of choice.  •Mayhem has few major temples and requires no temple service from any of his Anarchs, but a rare few choose to venerate their deity in this way.

The Dvarik Mk. IX, Sharky's ride...

You've seen Sharky Dangerthorn in several different incarnations.  Now you can experience the awesomeness that is "Dave",  the Dvarik Mk. IX, Transdimensional Battle Tank!

Most of the stuff on Dave was never statted out; I just adjudicated it as needed.  In fact, I still don't know what some of it does.  I created some of the items/powers with the idea that I'd make it up later when I needed it for story/plot/adventure purposes.

Farium Armor Plating!  Copyright ME!  It seems that someone in the Star Wars Universe made this one up in 1990 -- and for STARSHIP ARMOR PLATING!  Hah!  How about that!?!  I said it first!  Dibs!  Actually, in Queston, Farium is a strong, light metal that can be found only on the continent opposite the one that the Fyrkingdom is found on.  Extremely rare material in Queston.

Hellfyr Missiles are just huge fireballs, 15d6 or so, and they work swimmingly against dragons...

Discordant Field Generator?  Probably something that makes folks angry.

Field Warper?  I think that kinda "Passwalls" the tank through stuff...

ChaoCannon?  Do you know what an infinite improbability drive does?  What about a genesis device?

[Holy Humpday!] Curate of Malko

MALKO ( The Preserver )

Alignment:  NG
Portfolio:  Healing, Destruction of Undead, Lightning
Requirements:  Wis 14,  Con 14
Weapons Allowed:  Any Blunt Weapon
Armor Allowed:  Ring Mail, Scale Mail, Chain Mail, No Shields
Major Spheres:  Healing, Necromancy, Charm, Sun, Any Lightning Spells
Minor Spheres:  Protection, Divination
Magik Items Allowed:  Any not prohibited to priests, Javelins of Lightning, Hammer of Thunderbolts

Granted Powers:

•  Curates of  Malko may turn undead at two levels higher.
•  Curates of  Malko gain the Thunderhammer at 4th level.  The Thunderhammer may be called down once per day outdoors from a cloudy sky.  The Thunderhammer may be thrown to a range of 15" with a +4 bonus to hit.  It may be thrown once for every two levels of experience of the Curate.  It causes 2-12+4 points of damage to the target on a successful hit.  Upon scoring a successful hit, the hammer causes a  tremendously loud thunderclap, hence the name.  The victim may save for half damage.  The Thunderhammer causes double damage to undead creatures and they save at -3.
•  Curates of  Malko gain a +2 bonus on all saves concerning undead and their powers.
•  Curates of  Malko are bestowed the following spells as if they were one rank lower;  Slow Poison, Cure Serious Wounds, Cure Critical Wounds, Heal, Cure Blindness, Cure Deafness, Cure Disease, Negative Plane Protection, Raise Dead, Regenerate, Restoration, Resurrection, Remove Curse, Remove Paralysis, Protection From Evil 10' Radius, Protection From Lightning, Dispel Evil
•  All Healing spells cast by Curates of  Malko gain the benefit of an additional 1-8+4 points of effect.

Other Notes:  •Curates of Malko are ascetic men and women who have dedicated their lives to helping others.  The health and well being of others is their main concern.  Most Curates spend their lives working within the villages and towns of Queston, rendering aid to the less fortunate and impoverished.  •They violently oppose the followers of Girgun the Putrifier, as well as cults devoted to Orcus.  •Curates of Malko dress simply in robes of a single color, usually brown, black, or blue.  They carry the symbol of their order around their necks on a silver chain or atop a staff which serves dually as a weapon.  •Most Curates dwell within small communities around Queston, while still others travel between very rural areas.  These 'circuit priests' typically spend one to three days per month in a single community before moving on to the next.  Nearly every major city in the Fyrkingdom has a large temple to Malko, and it is the temple in Fyrkeep itself which holds the holiest of objects, the Lifestones.  These are the only objects capable of Raising or Ressurecting the dead.

The Evil Temple of Fraz-Urb'luu

Back in '83, as a fledgling DM, I decided to kick off my first campaign.

Queston.

If you own (and 66 people do!  Thanks so much!) my "Wilderness Alphabet" then you'll have read a few of my references to this campaign and this campaign world.  It's still my dream to write it up and put out a book a'la the Arduin Grimoires...

I started off by drawing outdoor maps on that 11x17 hexpaper TSR used to sell (I hope to find and scan those someday...) and eventually I started writing adventures.

"The Evil Temple of Fraz-Urb'luu" was my very first.

Its obvious that I was influenced (early on) by the concept of "module".  It's got maps and very complete descriptions for each room.  I'm ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that the thing was COMPLETELY WRITTEN UP before play began.  I did improvise some during play and it's these bits that I remember best.  It was in a ring binder originally, but now it's in a red paper three-hole folder.  I probably moved it into the folder soon after play concluded (for safe keeping!)

For the next few weeks, I'm going to go through this module in a series of posts.  Little by little, I'll document my rememberings and thoughts about the adventure.  I'll put up some scans of the maps and the room descriptions.  Eventually, I'll post the whole thing so you can see it in one piece.

Maybe you'll even want to use it in your campaign somewhere!  :)

Sharky Dangerthorn

Awhile back, I posted an adventure called "The Evil Temple of Fraz-Urb'luu".  You can see all those posts by clicking on the "Q1" tag.

One of the protagonists was the ranger, Sharky Dangerthorn; played by my good friend JD.

JD kept his copies of Sharky all these years and he gave them to me to scan.

I present to you "Page 1" of a multi-page document.  It's intended to be a bit of an appetizer.  I hope you enjoy it.  Sharky was a great character and we played for many years in person and via the US Postal Service (when we lived in different states).

My Queston campaign was a bit eclectic.  PCs had magical items as well as technological ones.  Sharky had the granddaddy of them all, "Dave" the Dvarik Mk. IX trans-dimensional battle tank.  :)

You'll get to look at Dave sometime very soon!

Godsymbols - Good

In my Queston AD&D Campaign of old, I had a pantheon of Good gods and Evil gods (well, demons really)

Each god had a "specialty priest" type associated with it.  Eventually, I'll post those here.

Here's a pictorial map of the "Good" deities.

I designed these on my Mac-128 using MacPaint in about 1984 or 1985.   I designed them to print to my dot-matrix printer, so no color.  I printed them at one point and "colorized" them using markers... Maybe I'll scan that sometime...

The big symbol is the larger (more complicated -- HA!) holy symbol.  The smaller symbol is a kind of "sigil" associated with the deity.

From the top, then left to right, the deities are:

• Solon (The Illuminate, The Sungod) - LG
• Aerylyn (The Magistress) - CN
• Mayhem (Laugh Lord) - CG
• Valorian (Sword of Honor) - LG
• Monon (Nightglow, Goddess of the Moons) - N
• Fayn (The Incomprehensible, The Question) - N
• Malko (The Preserver) - NG
• Jarba (The Rectifier) - LN
• Slyke (The Sly, The Unseen, God of Thieves) - N

Box Golem

In my Queston Campaign, a terrorist/crimelord named Kerrick the Fist ran a crime syndicate in the city of Traderton.

He protected his wharf warehouses with some automatons made from reinforced old crates and boxes -- the box golem.

Here's an artists take on a similar creature from io9

Box Golem

Number Appearing - 1d4
Attack - 2 fists (2d8) or 2 snapping claw-boxes (2d10)
Special - Surprises, Capture, "Mystery Boxes", Golem immunities, Vulnerable to fire, Immune to electricity
BD - d6 = [1][2] the box golem "opens a mystery box" to hinder its attackers.  Typically, this one is designed to hamper or slow its attackers
MD - d6 = [3][4][5] the box golem "opens a final mystery box" to deal with its attackers.  Typically, this one is extremely lethal
MV - 12
AC - 3[16]
HD - 12 (60 HPs)
Save - 3
Mor - A
HC - Nil
CL/XP - 13/2300

Built from reinforced wooden crates and boxes, the box golem looks like an inanimate stack of storage containers until it is disturbed by intruders or thieves.  It will surprise on a 1-3 on a d6.

When active, a box golem can be built to have nearly any shape.  Most are humanoid in appearance with  boxy fists that snap like claws.  More "stylized" versions look like crabs, spiders and giant hounds.

Box golems attack by bashing with their wooden and steel reinforced box fists or some attack with snapping claw-like boxes with sharpened edges.

Box golems are often built with a number of "mystery boxes" contained within their structure -- poisonous snakes, scorpions, centipedes, caltrops, bear traps, explosive runes, poison gas, sleep gas, acid spray, etc.

If a box golem hits a target with both fists, it will attempt to catch and capture it within a box.  The target must save or be trapped and locked within the body of the golem.  The compartment is cramped and suffocating, but the victim will be safe until released.  If the victim possesses exceptional STR or certain skills or magical abilities, escape might be possible at the discretion of the GM.

Box golems take half again as much damage from magical fire attacks.  They are immune to electrical damage.

Totemic Paladin (S&W Appreciation Day)

Totemic Paladin

In my Queston Campaign, all those years ago, I replaced regular Paladins with a different type of Paladin called a "Totemic Paladin."

These Paladins had powers based upon their totem animal, rather than the standard list of Paladin powers.

Here is a list of Totemic Paladins and their powers:

Totem	Replaces "Lay On Hands" 1/day	Replaces "Immune to Disease"	Replaces "Dispel Evil" 1/day	Replaces "Detect Evil" 1/day
Bear	+(Level/3)d6 in Unarmed Combat (round up)	Immune to Exposure and Harsh Weather	Fear (MU 4)	Strength (MU 2)
Dragon	Breathe Fire in a cone, 1d6+2 pts/level	Immune to Fear	Dispel Magic (MU 3)	Pyrotechnics (MU 2)
Gryphon	Can glide safely to the ground; up to 10' fall per level	Can see 10x further than a normal human; can see at 100' what a normal human sees at 10', etc.	Fly (MU 3)	Levitate (MU 2)
Hydra	Regenerate up to 2 HP per level, per day, when  reduced to negative HPs	Can wield 2 weapons, gaining +1 to hit and -1[+1] to AC	Confusion (MU 4)	Mirror Image (MU 2)
Snake	Neutralize Poison (C 4) (1/day for every 5 levels)	Immune to Poison	Sticks to Snakes (C 4)	Snake Charm (C 2)
Tortoise	Age at half normal rate	-2[+2] to AC	Protection from Normal Missiles (MU 3)	Shield (MU 1)
Wolf	Darkvision (60')	Move of no less than 9 regardless of Encumbrance	Haste (MU 3)	Speak with Animals (D 2)

Created with the HTML Table Generator

You could certainly make up your own variants following a similar pattern.  Enjoy!

Dungeonland and the Magic Mirror

When I was running my Queston campaign in the late 80's for my high school friends and college buddies, I used parts of DUNGEONLAND to fill out the mythical continent of (this is a mouthful) Mythophantarealean (!)

I used the Smilodon Cat, the Mad Hatter and the Caterpillar atop the mushroom to great effect.

I have no experience with BEYOND THE MAGIC MIRROR, but it looks like it comes from a similar vein and could be of great use in any madhouse dungeon.

Gary Gygax must have used these (or similar) in Castle Greyhawk.  Here's part of the introduction from MAGIC MIRROR:

ENTERING THE LAND BEYOND THE MAGIC MIRROR

The entry point for The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror will be

shown on the proper level of the Greyhawk Castle Dungeon

series when it is finally done. As that is likely to be years from

now, it is probable that you will be inserting this module into

your existing campaign.

I don't know if he ever reference these modules in Castle Greyhawk (or elsewhere).

DOWNLOAD BOTH MODULES HERE BEFORE THEY ARE GONE!

Questoni Trolls

James over at Grognardia has asked us to share monsters that we've "made our own."  

I humbly submit the Troll.

I was never a big fan of the rubbery, regenerating troll, though I've come around a bit lately.

I think that this green beastie does have a place in my sandbox game, so the players had better watch out!  :)

I always preferred the trolls that I first encountered in the Rankin-Bass version of "The Hobbit."

These trolls had a sort of canny intelligence and they had more personality than old rubbery up there.  I also liked the fact that they couldn't survive the sun.  They turned to stone when exposed to it.

Well, I took that idea and ran with it.  In Queston, there are three species of trolls -- Stone, Steel and Sapphire.  They are named that way because that is the substance that they turn into when exposed to the light of the sun.

Each type of troll has their place in trollish society.  

Stone trolls are hulking giants.  They are the muscle and laborers of the trolls.  Not too bright, but they have a long reach and strong backs.  They are essentially stone giants.

Steel trolls are the warriors.  Cunning and clever, they wield wicked weapons and are constantly at war with the humans of the Fyrkingdom.

Sapphire trolls are wizards.  They are the leaders and they are the true power of the trollish legions.  They are capable of summoning fogs and darkness so that the troll army can march by day.

In fact, the trolls are such a threat to the Fyrkingdom, a powerful wizard created "The Dropoff" (a one-mile high cliff) to separate the trollands from the humans.  Blask is the capital of the trollands, it's a pillar of rock one mile in the air connected to another pillar by a stony bridge.  Edgewatch is a Great Hold in the Fyrkingdom.

Q1 - The Evil Temple of Fraz-Urb'luu (FH Chars) Graash

Here's the lizardman shaman, Graash that Sharky liberated from the dungeons of the Temple:

Graash is pretty straightforward.  He's tough, the way you'd expect a lizardman to be.  He has a klanth (an obsidian edged sword) and some magical spells.  I think the klanth is a RuneQuest weapon that I ported over to Queston, but I'm not sure.

Detect Magic is simple to understand, but "Second Chance" was the equivalent of a Cure Light Wounds.

26 Years Ago TODAY!

Twenty-six years ago right now, a younger me was scribbling on the pieces of paper RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

I'm not kidding.

Twenty-six years ago right now I was scrambling to write an adventure for my friend Norman.  I'd just realized earlier in the week that we had Veteran's Day off from school and that meant we had some prime gaming time right in the middle of the week.

After dinner I grabbed some mechanical pencils, pens and paper and retreated to my bedroom.

I was creating for HOURS AND HOURS the very dungeon I have right here!  Amazing!

I know that I'm a packrat, but this is too cool.  :)

I just moved from my old house to a new one.  During that move, I was forced to pack up and look through my gaming stuff.  I came upon this lost adventure --

"The Barrow of King Grothegarka'an"

It's obvious to me that I was serious about this one.  It has WAAAAAY more detail than most of my other adventures.

The maps are shaded in.  I use pencil AND two colors of pen.  I name the different levels and I have an ornate key.

There's even a "cover image" of the barrow with the dark night sky above it, the three moons of Queston floating above...

I need to take a little bit of time tonight and tomorrow to write up a post-mortem for the adventure as far as I remember, then I'll post that AND the entire scan of the adventure (well, what there is of it -- I never finished it...)

More tomorrow!

Godsymbols - Evil

These symbols represent the evil forces within my Queston Campaign world.  Each of these baddies has a "specialty priest" associated with them too.

Starting at the top and going clockwise, they are:

• Morbus (Death) - LE
• Girgun (The Putrifier, The Decayed) - NE
• Blech (The Vacuous One, Lord of Entropy) - NE
• Thrun (The Destroyer) - CE

DM Prep Page

Years ago, when I was running my Queston campaign, I used AppleWorks spreadsheet (!) to randomly roll dice of all types.  I then printed out pages of these random rolls and just crossed them off whenever I needed them.  I rarely rolled dice at the table.

Now, I think that certain rolls should be made right at the table -- initiative, saving throws, surprise -- but rolls on random tables could easily be made in advance.

Awhile back, I wrote about how you can roll percentile dice to determine WHEN the next wandering monster will appear -- essentially preparing in advance for that inevitable event.

Well, here's my next attempt at GM prep.

click to embiggen

It's a page of PRE-ROLLED random encounters along with some other inspirational rolls.

I used Djeryv's Graveyard, Risus Monkey's DungeonWords and Seventh Sanctum as my inspirations.  The right-hand column is over 800 random dungeon oddities that I've culled off the web or created myself.  Thank you to all that have inspired this spreadsheet/tool.

The left column are "pips" that represent rounds.  When all the pips are crossed off and gone, the wandering monster to their right appears on the scene.

This IS NOT another random list that you roll against -- the rolls are already done.  You just work your way down the list in order.

The same is true of the inspirational words, containers and traps.  These ARE the one's you rolled up (or that the computer rolled up) you just use them in order...

So, on game night, I'll just print one of these pages and then use it at the table as an "on the fly" inspiration!

[Bones] Progress So Far...

Here are the first two Bones I've painted...

This is the "Iron Golem" from the set.  I painted him in gold to represent an adamantine golem that exists in my Queston campaign.  The golem is called Lomax and serves the Fyrking as the leader of the Golden Fyrguard.  I suppose he's more like a warforged than a golem, but there weren't warforged back in the day.

Here's a crypt.  Who doesn't need a nice crypt during the odd dungeon crawl?

26 Years Ago TODAY! Part 2

Twenty-six years ago today, on a fall day much like this one (cool, crisp air; sunny) I woke up after a long night of dungeon building to get ready to run the adventure I'm sharing with all of you today.

My good friend Norman and I planned to get some gaming in.  It's Veteran's Day in the US and there's no school.  Today, I'm not at work because I now work for a school district.  :)

Anyway, Norman had his new fighter (or perhaps a paladin or cavalier) named Brandon Broadblade all rolled up and he was ready to go.  He had a squire sidekick and I believe BB was 2nd or perhaps 3rd level.

Brandon was the son of Duke Brandorian Broadblade, an NPC in my Queston campaign and the ruler of Fort Doom, one of the great holds of the Fyrkingdom.

Brandon had been sent to "clear out" the last resting place of King Grothegarka'an (an ancient king).  It was being used as a secret outpost by bandits and at least one sorcerer/necromancer/etc.

Thus, our hero, gathered his weapons, put on his armor and mounted his horse  to ride to the BarrowRock.

I obviously had something important planned for the "BarrowRock" because I mention "see endnote" in the text of my adventure.  There is no endnote, so whatever that was is lost to memory.

I know that Brandon entered the barrow and avoided many of the traps.  I know that he and his squire slew many brigands and juju zombies.  (Note: you can really tell I was tired and a little punchy when writing up some of this adventure!  Enjoy!)

I also know that he fell victim to the chute in room 3 on level 3, sliding all the way down into the unfinished fifth level...

...and that's where the adventure ended.  :(

Looking back on it now, I'm very disappointed in myself for not "improvising" on the spot.  Or I could have allowed Brandon to catch somewhere halfway down.  The key states that the chute goes right through room 6 on level 4.  He could have gone on from there...

Alas, I didn't know what to do when he missed his "easy" and "hard" avoidance rolls (Note: I used to have a sub-system for saving throws... maybe I'll find those rules sometime...) and down he went.

I've matured in all those years as a person and a DM.  I know that there's no sense in ending the adventure when the "key" runs out.  Hell, that's what random tables and geomorphs are for!  Perhaps someday in the future, I'll finish this thing -- maybe rebuilding it in its entirety -- and then Norman and I can pick up where BB "dropped off"...

I still think about an alternate universe where BB is stuck in limbo somewhere just before entering a nebulous, unformed fifth level of the "Barrow".

Download the adventure here

PS: there were several blank, yellowed, unused sheets of paper in the folder with the adventure.  This morning, I got up and took a shot at mapping the dungeon to see how Jacquayed it was.  By my estimation, its so-so.  The beginning is a bit of a railroad, but then you do get choices and you can avoid some encounters altogether.  You can also find multiple paths down into the other (undeveloped) areas of the dungeon.  All in all, an interesting exercise.  :)

I look forward to your comments.  I know that I enjoy reading and looking at other peoples adventures from those long gone days...  Enjoy and happy Veterans' Day!