Cephalon Dusp's Archives

     I have been plugging away in preparation for Dungeon23, and come up with a pretty cool location for the megadungeon. The location has enough going for it that I think it could be used on its own, but I probably won't be fleshing it out much more until the dungeon comes together more. Enjoy! The Hissing Delta      Originally expanded (created actually, but people don't remember that) as part of a "royal conservation" effort, this delta is now filled with a wide variety of rare plants and fauna not normally found elsewhere. It is dangerous, but the possibility of rare finds always brings people to explore the waters.     The delta is overseen by the College of Wings, which has existed in its current location (or there-about) since before the delta was formed. Legally and practically, the college has near total control of the delta but this is tempered by the college's historic faction struggles and regular coups. This has in fact caused much of...

    This is the final week of the Gygax 75 challenge! Unfortunately for me, this week ended up being surprisingly busy and I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked. Still, each part I did complete ended up being larger than was probably necessary, so I think it evens out.    Back to part four Week 5: The Larger World Calendar     For this, I decided not to do a standard calendar but use the approach for events from Oriental Adventures, where you have events rolled over time to ensure you get dynamic changes. For background information, the calendar has 12 months of 4 weeks each, with each week being 7 days long. Additionally, there are 2 days "outside the calendar" at the end of the year, which are a time of hedonistic celebration. Seasonal Events     Roll 2d6 on this once per season (3 months), with a d12 roll telling you what week the event begins in earnest. 2.  Dragon Sightings, lasts 1d3 weeks. External Chaos. 3. Nomads Vis...

     Another week, another portion of the Gygax 75. This week ended up being much more difficult than I expected, because of the two thorny problems of mapping the town and how to name things. I spent a large amount of time fiddling with Vulgar , a piece of software that helps automate language creation. I still keep finding issues, but I also need to be done with this week at some point so it will stand. Back to part three Week 4: Town Features      For your viewing pleasure, I present the City of Soorzel Somfawt (the nobles). It was made very quickly in Watabou's City Generator , though I am not particularly happy with it. The estimate on this map is that it would contain 800 buildings and be about a mile across after generously doubling the size of everything. Thus, I have decided this is the main portion of the city where the clans live and things generally happen. Outside of the walls are smaller compounds for smaller clans and the clan-less, explainin...

     Wow, slightly over a week later and I can say this was the biggest week so far. Didn't help that I was apartment hunting and travelling while doing it, but I do have the first three levels of the starter dungeon to present! I haven't completed the dungeon as much as I would like, particularly levels 2 and 3, but it is once again enough that I could probably run a session or two with it.     For the curious, all mapping was done in  dungeon scrawl , which is a nice free dungeon mapping software that runs online! Back to part two Week 3: The Dungeon The entrance to this dungeon is a sunken hole in the ground, leaking cool air from below. Level 1      This level is themed as a buried temple, though it ended up being pretty small. Still, it should provide some interesting adventures, particularly on repeat visits. The Statue in 05 can very easily become a recurring problem/feature of the level depending on how it is handled. The entrance to ...

Week 2: Surrounding Area Back to part one Hex Map     Mapping this setting has been an interesting challenge. I tend to get a little in-depth with worldbuilding, but did my best to hold off on the details. So, without further work I present, The Map:     I did this in Worldographer , after doing most of the work on paper first. Now, the most important detail of this map is that the hexes are 1.5 miles across. The larger, grey, hexes are 6 mile hexes. While 1.5 miles might be a weird number, but works well with my travel system, which makes use of Leagues (how far someone can walk in an hour). Another interesting thing about this map is that inside of the canyon is entirely filled with hills, because the interior of a canyon is basically only flat if someone comes along and manually flattens it.     For the sites on the map, you can see the main city located around 07:07. It has a population of about 5,000 people, making it small but still notable. At 03:11,...

Some Background      For those who are not aware, Gygax 75 is a sort of challenge (available  for free here ) based on creating a new campaign. It is based on an article written by Gary Gygax in 1975, less than a year after the original editions of D&D were released. The challenge itself is broken up over a series of weeks, with each one focused on a different concrete task.      I have been interested in trying the challenge ever since I first encountered it, and now that I have some inklings of an idea for a Mars inspired setting, I decided that now is the time. Week 1: The Concept Pitch Points Everyone lives in enormous canyons . This red planet is inhospitable outside of enormous canyons which snake across the surface of the planet. Every canyon has a river snaking through it, providing life-giving water and supporting the agriculture necessary for large, organized society. The soil is iron . The planet is red, because nearly all of the soil is...

     In the past weeks that I haven't been writing here on the blog, I have been creating and running a Pirate Campaign for my normal table. We have been having great fun with it, but as I have worked on cobbling together the systems to run it, I have hit quite a few brick walls. A Standard for Every Ship      Among the most annoying problems I have encountered, is the handling of ships. Every system I have encountered has its own ways of handling ships and they rarely agree, even if they are ostensibly easily convertible between them.      Now, historically, in the pirate age one of the most popular boats was called a Sloop, usually being a single-masted sailing ship that was quick and maneuverable in the water. If a Sloop has 2 masts, it becomes a cutter though that doesn't change much about the ship other than making it slightly bigger.      After robbing some nobles' pleasure flotilla, my players earned a massive haul and w...

     Recently, prompted by the Wandering DMs podcast, I have been thinking about the trade of magic in all of its forms. My own setting is still incomplete, but I also have enough detail to it that I can start thinking about how magic currently works in it. So, I will be doing a small case study on some fictional average wizard's apprentice. Background Information     There are several important pieces of information to know about my setting, but I will be quick. The single largest change I have made is transitioning off of vancian spell slots to a Magic Points (MP) system with spell costs equal to the spell's level and odds of failure depending on the caster's level. As casters gain more experience, they will even get chances to cast spells for free, though it is very unlikely for an apprentice. A caster will have MP equal to Level + Arc, and they will recover 1d3 + Arc for every week of recovery time (no creating magical items, primarily focused on meditation ...

 I am alive! I have recently been doing quite a bit of playtesting with my system, but I haven't wanted to commit any of my thoughts on it to paper yet, so I haven't had too much to write about. However, I recently came across a worldbuilding idea that I think would be very interesting to see implemented. 10-8-21 Update:  After some discussions and feedback, I have clarified below the fact that in this system, everyone would be human (or whatever) and the Castes would just be named elves, dwarves, and so on. Hopefully this will make my intentions a bit clearer.  What is a Caste System?     Now, to most Western readers the idea of a caste system is very strange, so I will be doing some basic background before I get to the core idea.      Anthropologists generally classify systems of social organization into Open and Closed systems. An open system allows people to change their place in the structure, potentially moving up or down in terms of power o...