Along the Road of Tombs - PDF Adventure Locale

Recently the Tenkar's Tavern wrapped up a competition called OSR Superstar.  Perhaps it's a silly name but I figured I'd enter and managed to keep going until the final round.  The final round was completing a map by Matt over at msjx.org (who's Maps for Heroes campaign is wrapping up today and could use some support - it's got some cool maps in it and supports the Wounded Warrior project) and then keying it.  I finished a map but went a bit beyond my original intent.  Below is a 42 page adventure set in the Fallen Empire setting that I've mused about here before.  It's a fairly vanilla setting, and stated up for Sword's and Wizardy Complete.  Anyhow hope people like this adventure - it's a romp about bandits, cults and slumber ancient war machines.

ALONG THE ROAD OF TOMBS

This version is far better edited then the one submitted to the contest, and I've added some art - sadly no my own, but some of the plates by Piranesi that inspired this adventure.  Also special thanks to the folks who took a look at this a few days ago and let me know what else I might want to include.

OSR Superstar Round II Submission

So Tenkar Tavern's OSR Superstar contest continues.  I've made it to the 3rd round,and decided to put my winning monster submission up below.

Robber's Bride

"The Robbers’ Bride a nightmare of settled man, the keening memory of a kidnapped daughter and the shadow of a wife fled into the night.  To the vagabond, the proscribed, the outcast and the criminal they are the manifestation of hopes and dreams.  Robbers’ Brides appear both as the motherly prophets of blood-soaked wilderness brigand bands and as the child saints of the urban underworld.  These thieves’ oracles been reported to hold court in the low dens of tomb robbers and self-proclaimed ‘Adventures ‘, where these murder and gold crazed vagabonds pay homage to them as voices of true prophecy."

PDF of Robber's Bride 

The One Page Dungeon Contest also ended this week, and Dungeon of Signs Thunderhead Manse managed to make it to the final round. 

OSR Superstar contest - Round 1 entry

Tenkar's Tavern is having a tiered contest dubbed "OSR Superstar".  Now given that the concept of the OSR is a maze of delusions without a distinct meaning I don't really know what it means, but the Tavern managed to get 330 entries for the first round, winnowed down to 50 in the second.  My own entry in the first round was one of those picked by two of the three judges, which surprised me.  The next round fast approaches and I am hard at work on my monster, but in the meantime I figured I would share my last entry. Tenkar has already posted the raw text of the entry, but here's the actual item as submitted.

Coward's Heart PDF

Dungeon of 1,000 Coppers - A Map

Dyson, over at Dyson's Dodecahedron is running a small contest to finish a map he began and fill in the empty areas.  Now Dyson's technique has become something of the standard for hand drawn dungeon maps in the past few years, but what makes his maps great is the way they are constructed with a great deal of verticality, looping and extra entrances - so they're not just well drawn, they're well designed.

Lost Copper Isle

Anyhow, I figured I'd draw up a Dyson style map for his contest.  I have tried to make the vertical element important and use it as a way of splitting up nearby areas while offering hints of thier existence.  I've also tried to use a fair amount of water both as obstacles and to maintain the maps nautical flavor.

The map turned into some sort of fantasy version of El Fraile Island, a sea fort carved out of a rock outcropping.  Now the way I figure it the fort is relatively new and recently occupied by pirates who made a few improvements before being driven off.  Prior to that the whole island (let's call it "lost copper island" was some of temple complex or ritual site for a sea deity and its best if it's some kind of icky Cthulhu style sea deity I think.  The abandoned pirate fort fills only a third of the space with  set of sea caves, a flooded shrine and perhaps some crypts filling out the island.  There's even a little cave for a creepy old hermit in a battered coracle who might be able to impress upon characters the danger or potential glory of the island.

One Page Dungeon Contest - Brittlestone Parapets

Hey look the One Page Dungeon Contest just ended!  My submission, the Brittlestone Parapets, is linked below.

Honestly I'm not especially happy with it, even though it has Owlbears and killer swamp hillbillies.  It might provide a few hours of non-setting specific fun though.

Above is the Map, a overland sort of thing, showing the broken trench of the Brittlestone Parapets, where lich and wizard once battled for petty reasons. It's theoretically a land ripped by strange sorcery with looming pillars of crystal and piles of mouldering bones - but the limitations of the one page format didn't let me get the level of detail I like into it. I like the idea though, exploring old battlefields torn by the mad wars of missing warlocks/gods has a certain appeal.

Here's a link to the PDF

Tomb of the Rocketmen - Overland Map.

Really who needs hexes?

Labels will be added later - with science.

MAP CONTEST - Tomb of the Rocket Men!

Dungeon of Signs will be hosting its FIRST CONTEST! There will be prizes, there will be glory, there will be maps!

WHAT? WHEN? While I do spend a large majority of my time guzzling cheap Scotch and shouting about cat memes on the internet, I think it's time to leverage this blog (approaching a year old) into getting other people to generate my game content, so that I have more time for the above mentioned Scotch and cat .gifs. Starting March 15, 2013 and running until April 1, 2013 I will be accepting maps for a CONTEST!.  Stop cheering, it's not a big contest and I won't be asking a lot of you contestants.

FABULOUS PRIZE! The fabulous prize is a hardcopy of ASE 1 or 2 as selected by the winner, which I will have mailed anywhere you want by Lulu.  If you already own ASE, well maybe I'll send you a drawing of a scientist and a moktar arm wrestling - but you'll still get another copy of ASE.

It doesn't sound like much, but ASE is still the best mega-dungeon in the OSR today (by my estimation) and I'm not asking much.  As an additional prize you will also get is me turning your map into an adventure locale PDF with at least two pieces of art (this may take a few months).  You'll also receive the right to ask me to map anything you want of a similar size.

WHAT DO I DO? You draw a map.  That's it, all I want is a .jpeg, .png or .bmp of a map.  Not even a big map, somewhere under 20 keyed areas. However you do maps, however you draw them or otherwise prepare them, that's what I want.  I don't even want your original art.

WHAT'S THE CATCH? The map is of the locale described below.  I've left a lot to the imagination, but you can't just send me a crudely redrawn version of the caves of chaos.

WHAT IF I CAN'T DRAW?  It's a map, on graph paper. They're really not that hard.  Additionally, I'm not just looking for a pretty bit of cartography, I'm looking for something I can hang a richly described environment on that is also a playable adventure.  The greatest isometric beauty will not win if it's a linear snooze-fest.  I am promising to write this thing up after all.

OK YOU'VE CONVINCED ME, I WANT ALL THE FAME AND FORTUNE DUNGEON OF SIGNS CAN BRING ME! (Warning: It's not much fame and blogger carries only $5.00 in change).

WHERE DO I SEND MY MAP?
oldmanlaru (at) gmail (dot) com

ARE YOU STEALING MY MAP? No, you can do whatever you want with your map besides sending it to me.  Put it on your blog (mention this contest though perhaps), key it and turn it into a PDF of your own, roll it up in a bottle and cast it out to sea, sell it to WOTC - I just want the darn thing for my contest.  All I ask is that you don't steal anyone else's map or use one that you've generated in the past - that could be embarrassing.

Without further hedging - here's the subject of the contest.