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roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
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roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#1
Strolen,
I'm gearing up for another content-generating contest in the e-zine. I was wondering if you'd like to join forces on it? Perhaps we take entries through both our communities and then post a combined and edited version at each of our sites? I have some prize sponsors lined up. I'd need help with entry editing, but I'd be happy to put together a co-branded PDF of contest entries once editing is done, plus I'd put some entries in the ezine and you could host them all on your site in the relevant section.
Cheers,
Johnn
I am going to jump on this one. You guys in for creating a quest associated with it...whatever the hell it is going to be?
Johnn has PM'd a couple times and is really taken by the site and the community. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#2Holy Shitballs! yeah, yeah, yeah!!!
lets do it! -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#3Aren't you glad I invited him over here? I have submitted a thing or three to his newsletter. We were exchanging pings the other day and I told him, oh soooo casually, that I was spending most of my time here. And I gave him the URL.
The rest is Strolen's site's magic.
Remember, when you post on other fan or rpg sites, link back to here. Reference submissions and articles here. Lure people here. You will sometimes be suprised on who comes.
And I still apologize for Kevin.
-
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#4From what I remember, those contests are usually about small entries - think an ordinary sub, or even a solid scroll post for us. So depending on what it is, we might not even have to break our Quest - or just slightly prolong it.
And I like the idea!
Got to know the details now, too - what will be the contest about (in general, no need to spoil the fun), how long are the entries to be, and most importantly, how will we choose the best of the best? -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#5(MoonHunter posted in-between, so...)
1. No need to apologize for the dice guy - he turned out to be useful after all.
2. Not to be outdone with boasting this time, I can claim a share on the luring as well. It was through silly generators, of all things! :p -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#6choosing will be...dicey, me'thinks. Must come up with a fool-proof plan to avoid all possible unpleasantries. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#7manfred is a submitter to the site, I have seen his goods in there. Moon's fishing and manfred's awesome work have hooked us a good chance.
It will be an interesting collaboration, but with his viewer base it will be a sweet plug...I like the fact that he came to us too. Now THAT is awesome!
And I have come around to Kevin now and like the guy. He is just Kevin and likes dice? What the hell?
My thoughts were similiar to manfred's (length question) but if he is making a pdf, depending on the topic, it might not matter. I would assume the topic will drive the size so it might simply be a scroll type thing which we could do.
Be worth coding some extra quest stuff to use it with scrolls somehow. May have to have some temporary changes to accomodate it. All that is conjecture, we will see what he has up his sleeves. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#8My PM. Hope I didn't sound stupid. ;)
Strolen,
I'm gearing up for another content-generating contest in the e-zine. I was wondering if you'd like to join forces on it? Perhaps we take entries through both our communities and then post a combined and edited version at each of our sites? I have some prize sponsors lined up. I'd need help with entry editing, but I'd be happy to put together a co-branded PDF of contest entries once editing is done, plus I'd put some entries in the ezine and you could host them all on your site in the relevant section.
Cheers,
Johnn
I thought it sounded like a fun idea and my admins are all for it, so let's do it!
We still have 30 days left in our current "quest" and I would hate to cut that short. This one has been in the planning for awhile and is probably the most challenging yet. It won't get our normal amount of quest submissions because of the difficulty level, but those that will be submitting are spending some time on them.
Not sure the timeframe you were looking at, but if you could wait for about 35 days or so to do this, we would be much more concentrated on it and the results from our side would be much better. That would give us time to finish and vote for a winner.
I am not super firm on this as I think we would agree to adjust our quest to accomodate your time frame, but if timing isn't a must for you, we would much appreciate the delay.
PDF sounds great and we would greatly benefit from your experience on that. It is on our list to compile some of our stuff into netbook/pdf type things to distribute but none of us have messed with pdfs so it keeps falling off the priority list. Once we see one with our stuff that idea may be rejuvinated.
Editing and all that is no problem, we have quite a few people that would be able to help with that. We aren't grammar experts, but we are sticklers for submissions that are readable. :)
The only other questions were:
How long would expect the typical submission for this to be?
- We tend to get wordy with much of our stuff so if you have limits, that would have to be established early.
What is the intended topic?
-While not super important, it will also help us get an idea of the size and how we will treat it on the site.
That is all that came up in a short discussion I had with my admins. (Moonhunter, manfred (both of which you have published) and Murometz) The other admins weren't around in time to speak up tonight but I am certain they will all be excited about this. Your ezine has been part of all of us for a long time. Thrilled that you took interest in our little part of the web.
We LOVE challenges!
-Mike
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Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#9He is changing the date to accomodate us. :) -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#10It would be nice if 3.0 was in place before all this happened, but still it will drive a ton of traffic here.
So what kind of quest do we have in mind for this?
-
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#11Will be fun.
Don't forget the question about how the final winners will be determined. That should be known before it starts. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#12He just asked for an email contact and said that he told the sponsor about the change in timeframe. Two short sentences.
So I sent him my email and will wait. :) -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#13::raises hand::
I've gotten a few little pieces out in Johnn's e-zine and I've won one of his contests a few years ago. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#14Well, this looks like a dandy idea. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#15Hi Mike,
> Not sure the timeframe you were looking at, but if you could wait for
about 35 days or so to do this, we would be much more concentrated on it
and the results from our side would be much better. That would give us
time to finish and vote for a winner.
Ok, done. Let's touch base mid-August to see where things are at. My
contest entry windows last about 3 weeks on average - is that ok with you?
> PDF sounds great and we would greatly benefit from your experience on
that. It is on our list to compile some of our stuff into netbook/pdf
type things to distribute but none of us have messed with pdfs so it
keeps falling off the priority list. Once we see one with our stuff that
idea may be rejuvinated.
Unfortunately, I'm no artist. :) I'll just be using Open Office to lay
out simple pages with a common header and footer. I'll append our logos
either to a front page or in the footer, with maybe site blurbs at the
front or back as well. I haven't used OpenOffice to produce PDFs before,
so it'll be an experiment. If you know of any artists who might want to
contribute some B&W art, let me know. We could use a header/footer
divider, and inline art. No problem if the PDF goes without art, it's
just a nice-to-have.
Anywho, I'll send you what I whip up before release for feedback,
tweaks, and suggestions. I'm always looking to improve.
> Editing and all that is no problem, we have quite a few people that
would be able to help with that. We aren't grammar experts, but we are
sticklers for submissions that are readable. Smile
Awesome. I'll send you a file of compiled entries and you can batch them
out for editing.
> What is the intended topic?
>-While not super important, it will also help us get an idea of the
size and how we will treat it on the site.
This is open for discussion. Currently, I'm thinking of plug 'n play NPC
personalities. I'd like to see a list of roleplaying cues GMs can
instantly attach to any NPC. Just before the contest runs, I'll write an
article in the e-zine covering tips for NPC personalities, along with a
"stat block" type of format, and ask folks to use that for their
submissions. That way all entries have the same format and contain the
same info. How could we work this into your community? We could post my
article at your site as well, or maybe a web form?
I'm also open to suggestions. I'm still digesting Moonhunter's 30s
series, and maybe you folks are tired of NPCs. :)
> How long would expect the typical submission for this to be?
I need short entries. I prefer topics that are accessible to most Tips
readers, where even the busiest reader would have time to dash off an
entry.
I don't mind long entry types of contests, but I haven't run one in
awhile and I'd like to make this one as accessible as possible.
I have an idea for another fun contest that would run 1000+ words per
entry. If the NPC contest works out and we're both happy with things,
maybe we can follow-up with that. More details to come after the current
contest is over.
Feel free to ping me if you have any more questions.
Cheers,
Johnn
http://www.RoleplayingTips.com
==============
Seems to me that we already have a generator chalk full of these, right manfred. :)
http://www.strolen.com/random.php?page=npc
Any comments before I send a response.
-
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#16Hi Mike,
Just checking in, as I see there's two days, 11 hours, and 13 minutes
left in your Five in One challenge. :)
I have an issue coming up about dungeon themes, and I've always wanted
to hold a contest the revolved around my 5 Room Dungeon tip:
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=156#1
What do you think about a contest where entrants write-up 5 Room
Dungeons? I'd edit and revise the 5 Room Dungeon tip and then let the
hounds loose. Dungeons would need to be fairly generic (stat blocks
optional and seperated from the dungeon room descriptions). They could
be of any genre (sci-fi: abandoned space ship, planet colony; modern:
abandoned building, gang hideout; fantasy, etc.). And they don't need to
be long (I'm thinking 1 paragraph minimum for each room, so entries
could be as short as 5 paragraphs - 500 words).
I figure this format makes it accessible to many folk who don't have
time to write larger adventures, plus entries would be highly valued by
the community.
What do you think? My worry is that it might be too similar to your
current Five in One quest....
Cheers,
Johnn -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#17I like the idea, and as long as we don't have specific elements that they *have* to use, it should be fine. And will probably get a better turn out... -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#18I'm up for it :twisted: -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#19This week I've got some dungeon tips queued up to get folks warmed up to
the topic. On September 2nd I hope to send out the 5 Room Dungeon Tips
revised and launch the contest.
I'll get sponsors and details to you both this week so you can mirror
the contest at Strolen.
So:
Aug 27-29ish Johnn to get you contest and prize details
September 2: Johnn sends out e-zine with contest announce. Launch
contest on Strolen.
September 23: contest ends. Want more time? Maybe end September 30?
September 24-28ish Johnn collates entries, coordinates with Strolen's
entries.
September 30 - Announce winners. Johnn sends Strolen compiled entries
for editing.
That's a rough timeline.
Cheers,
Johnn -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#20Wooo! -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#21I haven't had a chance to read through the entire article and won't until later tonight.
If anybody has any thoughts on how to do it, please let me know. Otherwise I will put this up sometime tonight or first thing in the morning!!
================================================
Hi guys,
Attached is newsletter issue #372 with the contest details in it. You
are free to launch the contest at your site any time (hopefully today or
Monday). I'll wait until you've launched it to send the e-zine so I can
get a specific URL to put in the e-zine.
Notes:
* Feel free to chop the issue up and post only the contest details, or
details + article, or the whole issue. Or re-word everything / anything
to your satisfaction. Whatever works for you and your community. As long
as the contest rules are consistent between the e-zine and your posting.
* I shifted the end date to Sep 26 as that gives me one more issue
mailout with a final reminder.
* If you want to change anything about the contest rules, or if you spot
any errors, let me know. Everything is still open for discussion until
you post.
* Are you happy with your coverage in the issue? I figure I'll have
opportunities to point folks your way to the contest thread to see
examples in upcoming issues. If you want to change how/where Strolen's
is mentioned, just let me know. I'm also hoping to grab an entry or two
from my submissions and/or yours to show people additional examples.
And, of course, we'll have Strolen's featured in the final PDF.
* Note that the HTML version of the e-zine will appear at
http://www.roleplayingtips.com in the next week or so. Once it's online,
I'll send out news to various sites.
Cheers,
Johnn
=========================================
- Show quoted text -
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #372
5 Room Dungeons + Contest
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
Sponsored By Expeditious Retreat Press
http://www.xrpshop.citymax.com
Sent by Subscription Only with Compliments
From: Johnn Four, http://www.roleplayingtips.com
johnn@roleplayingtips.com
Contents:
--> A Brief Word From Johnn
--> This Week's Tips:
1. Why Do I Like 5 Room Dungeons?
2. Room One: Entrance and Guardian
3. Room Two: Puzzle or Roleplaying Challenge
4. Room Three: Trick or Setback
5. Room Four: Climax, Big Battle, or Conflict
6. Room Five: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist
7. Example 5 Room Dungeon - Library of the Ancients
--> Readers' Tips Of The Week:
1. Cyberpunk Resources
2. Easy Method For Creating Objectives
--> Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Switch/Submissions/RSS Info
Do you know a GM who doesn't subscribe? Please send them a
copy of the e-zine or suggest they drop by the site. Thanks!
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
Advanced Adventures in Stock!
Expeditious Retreat Press has all your old-school needs
covered with Advanced Adventures, modules compatible with
the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game! Pick up
your copy at XRP's online store or stop by your FLGS to buy
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_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
A Brief Word From Johnn
5 Room Dungeon Contest
============================================================
This week's tips are about a quick format template for
making easy designs and entertaining game sessions. The 5
Room Dungeon is perfect for busy GMs with little prep time
or those who dislike long crawls.
In conjunction with the fine folks at Strolen's Citadel, the
5 Room Dungeon contest gives you a chance to win some loot,
have fun wielding your creativity, and help other GMs with
your designs.
Entries
------------------------------------------------------------
To enter the contest, send in one or more 5 Room Dungeons of
your own creation. Use the tips in this issue to help build
your designs. Use the example at the end of the tips as a
model.
* Make each room 1-3ish paragraphs long. Your 5 Room Dungeon
can be as short as five paragraphs, or longer if you like.
Room One: Entrance And Guardian
Room Two: Puzzle Or Roleplaying Challenge
Room Three: Trick or Setback
Room Four: Climax, Big Battle Or Conflict
Room Five: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist
* Keep your designs as rules-free as possible. The best
designs should serve as skeletons that other GMs can pick up
and flesh out for their game system and campaign. No need
for stat blocks or complex rules annotations.
* Maps are definitely optional. Most 5 Room dungeon designs
won't need a map as the layout will be intuitive.
* Multiple entries are welcome.
* As with past contests, entries will be edited and given
back to the community for free so all GMs can benefit from
your designs.
* Winners will be drawn at random, so don't worry if you
aren't confident about your designs - every entry has an
equal chance of winning, and it's just your participation
that counts. Have some fun with it.
* E-mail, text files, Word docs, and Open Office files are
welcome.
* E-mail your entries to johnn@roleplayingtips.com or submit
them at the Strolen's Citadel website:
http://www.strolen.com/index.php
Deadline
------------------------------------------------------------
Please submit your entries by September 26.
Prizes
------------------------------------------------------------
The following prizes have been generously supplied to
support this contest. Please visit sponsor sites and check
out their products.
1 x D&D Icons Gargantuan Black Dragon
From: Legend Games
http://www.legendgames.co.uk/
3 x MyInfo Personal Reference Software licenses
From: Milenix Software
http://www.milenix.com
3 x D&D modules:
* DCC #46 Book of Treasure Maps
* DCC #47 Tears of the Genie
* DCC #50 Vault of the Iron Overlord by Monte Cook
From: Goodman Games
http://www.goodmangames.com
5 x Adventure PDFs:
* 1 on 1 Adventures #5 Vale of the Sepulcher
* #6 Shroud of Olindor
* #7 Eyes of the Dragon
* #8 Blood Brothers
* Advanced Adventures #3 The Curse of the Witch Head
From: Expeditious Retreat Press
http://www.xrpshop.citymax.com
To summarize, craft your own 5 Room Dungeons and submit them
for a chance to win some great loot. Entries will be edited
and formatted and given back to the community so others can
have more fun at every game.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Johnn Four
johnn@roleplayingtips.com
_______________________________________________________
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5 Room Dungeons
By Johnn Four
The following tips originally appeared in Issue #156, and
they are among my favourite. I thought it was time to
feature them again with some edits, a new tip or two, and a
contest.
1. Why Do I Like 5 Room Dungeons?
============================================================
This format, or creation method, has a number of advantages:
* Any location. Though I call them 5 Room Dungeons, they
actually apply to any location with five or so areas. They
don't have to be fantasy or dungeons. They could take the
form of a small space craft, a floor in a business tower, a
wing of a mansion, a camp site, a neighbourhood.
* Short. Many players dislike long dungeon crawls, and ADD
GMs like to switch environments up often. In addition, some
players dislike dungeons all together, but will go along
with the play if they know it's just a short romp. This
helps ease conflicts between play styles and desires.
* Quick to plan. With just five rooms to configure, design
is manageable and fast. Next time you are killing time, whip
out your notepad and write down ideas for themes, locations,
and rooms. Knock off as many designs as you can and choose
the best to flesh out when you have more time and to GM next
session.
* Easier to polish. Large designs often take so long to
complete that game night arrives before you can return to
the beginning and do one or more rounds of tweaking and
polishing. The design speed of 5 Room Dungeons leaves room
most of the time to iterate.
* Easy to move. 5 Room Dungeons can squeeze into many places
larger locations and designs can't. If your dungeon goes
unused or if you want to pick it up and drop it on a new
path the PCs take, it's often easier to do than when
wielding a larger crawl.
* Flexible size. They are called 5 Room Dungeons, but this
is just a guideline. Feel free to make 3-area locations or
10-cave complexes. The idea works for any small, self-
contained area.
* Easy to integrate. A two to four hour dungeon romp
quickens flagging campaign and session pacing, and can be
squeezed into almost any story thread. It also grants a
quick success (or failure) to keep the players engaged. The
format is also easy to drop into most settings with minimal
consistency issues.
2. Room One: Entrance And Guardian
============================================================
There needs to be a reason why your dungeon hasn't been
plundered before or why the PCs are the heroes for the job.
A guardian or challenge at the entrance is a good
rejustification why the location remains intact. Also, a
guardian sets up early action to capture player interest and
energize a session.
Room One challenge ideas:
* The entrance is trapped.
* The entrance is cleverly hidden.
* The entrance requires a special key, such as a ceremony,
command word, or physical object.
* The guardian was deliberately placed to keep intruders
out. Examples: a golem, robot, or electric fence.
* The guardian is not indigenous to the dungeon and is a
tough creature or force who's made its lair in room one.
* The entrance is hazardous and requires special skills and
equipment to bypass. For example: radiation leaks, security
clearance, wall of fire.
Room One is also your opportunity to establish mood and
theme to your dungeon, so dress it up with care.
3. Room Two: Puzzle Or Roleplaying Challenge
============================================================
The PCs are victorious over the challenge of the first room
and are now presented with a trial that cannot be solved
with steel. This keeps problem solvers in your group happy
and breaks the action up for good pacing.
Make Room Two a puzzle, skill-based, or roleplaying
encounter, if possible. Room Two should shine the limelight
on different PCs than Room One, change gameplay up, and
offer variety between the challenge at the entrance and the
challenge at the end.
Note, if Room One was this type of encounter, then feel free
to make Room Two combat-oriented.
Room Two should allow for multiple solutions to prevent the
game from stalling.
Room Two ideas:
* Magic puzzle, such as a chessboard tile floor with special
squares.
* An AI blocks access to the rest of the complex and must be
befriended, not fought.
* A buzzer panel for all the apartments, but the person the
PCs are looking for has listed themselves under a different
name, which can be figured out through previous clues you've
dropped.
* A concierge at the front desk must be bluffed or coerced
without him raising the alarm.
* A dirt floor crawls with poisonous snakes that will
slither out of the way to avoid open flame. (A few might
follow at a distance and strike later on.)
* The PCs must convince a bouncer to let them in without
confiscating their weapons.
Once you've figured out what Room Two is, try to plant one
or more clues in Room One about potential solutions. This
ties the adventure together a little tighter, will delight
the problem solvers, and can be a back-up for you if the
players get stuck.
4. Room Three: Trick or Setback
============================================================
The purpose of this room is to build tension. Do this using
a trick, trap, or setback. For example, after defeating a
tough monster, and players think they've finally found the
treasure and achieved their goal, they learn they've been
tricked and the room is a false crypt.
Depending on your game system, use this room to cater to any
player or character types not yet served by the first two
areas. Alternatively, give your group a double-dose of
gameplay that they enjoy the most, such as more combat or
roleplaying.
Room Three ideas:
* The PCs rescue a number of prisoners or hostages. However,
the victims might be enemies in disguise, are booby-trapped,
or create a dilemma as they plead to be escorted back to
safety immediately.
* A collapsed structure blocks part of the area. The debris
is dangerous and blocks nothing of importance, another trap,
or a new threat.
* Contains a one-way exit (the PCs must return and deal with
Rooms One and Two again). i.e. Teleport trap, one-way door,
2000 foot water slide trap.
* The PCs finally find the artifact required to defeat the
villain, but the artifact is broken, cursed, or has parts
missing, and clues reveal a solution lies ahead.
* Believing the object of the quest now lays within easy
reach, an NPC companion turns traitor and betrays the PCs.
Another potential payoff for Room Three is to weaken the PCs
as build-up to a dramatic struggle in Room Four. It might
contain a tough combat encounter, take down a key defense,
exhaust an important resource, or make the party susceptible
to a certain type of attack.
For example, if Room Four contains a mummy whose secret
weakness is fire, then make Room Three a troll lair (or
another creature susceptible to fire) so the PCs might be
tempted to burn off a lot of their fire magic, oil, and
other flammable resources. This would turn a plain old troll
battle into a gotcha once the PCs hit Room Four and realize
the are out of fire resources.
Don't forget to dress Room Three up with your theme
elements.
5. Room Four: Climax, Big Battle or Conflict
============================================================
This room is The Big Show. It's the final combat or conflict
encounter of the dungeon. Use all the tactics you can summon
to make this encounter memorable and entertaining.
* As always, generate interesting terrain that will impact
the battle.
* Start or end with roleplay. Maybe the bad guy needs to
stall for time to let PC buffs wear out, to wait for help to
arrive, or to stir himself into a rage. Perhaps the combat
ends with the bad guy bleeding to death and a few short
words can be exchanged, or there are helpless minions or
prisoners to roleplay with once the threat is dealt with.
* Give the bad guy unexpected powers, abilities, or
equipment.
* Previous rooms might contain warning signals or an alarm,
so the bad guy has had time to prepare.
* The bay guys tries to settle things in an unusual way,
such as through a wager or a duel.
* The lair is trapped. The bad guy knows what or where to
avoid, or has the ability to set off the traps at opportune
moments.
* The bad guy reveals The Big Reward and threatens to break
it or put it out of the PCs' so reach so they'll never
collect it.
* The bad guy has a secret weakness that the PCs figure out
how to exploit.
* A variety of PC skills and talents are required to
successfully complete the encounter.
6. Room Five: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist
============================================================
Here's your opportunity to change the players' bragging to
"we came, we saw, we slipped on a banana peel." Room Five
doesn't always represent a complication or point of failure
for the PCs, but it can. Room Five doesn't always need to be
a physical location either - it can be a twist revealed in
Room Four.
Room Five is where your creativity can shine and is often
what will make the dungeon different and memorable from the
other crawls in your campaigns.
In addition, if you haven't supplied the reward yet for
conquering the dungeon, here is a good place to put the
object of the quest, chests of loot, or the valuable
information the PCs need to save the kingdom.
As accounting tasks take over from recent, thrilling, combat
tasks, this would also be a good time to make a campaign or
world revelation, or a plot twist. Perhaps the location of
the next 5 Room Dungeon is uncovered, along with sufficient
motivation to accept the quest. Maybe the true identity of
the bad guy is revealed. New clues and information
pertaining to a major plot arc might be embedded in the
treasure, perhaps sewn into a valuable carpet, drawn in
painting, or written on a slip of paper stuffed into a
scroll tube or encoded on a data chip.
Room Five ideas:
* Another guardian awaits in the treasure container.
* A trap that resurrects or renews the challenge from
Room Four.
* Bonus treasure is discovered that leads to another
adventure, such as a piece of a magic item or a map
fragment.
* A rival enters and tries to steal the reward while the PCs
are weakened after the big challenge of Room Four.
* The object of the quest/final reward isn't what it seems
or has a complication. i.e. The kidnapped king doesn't want
to return.
* The quest was a trick. By killing the dungeon's bad guy
the PCs have actually helped the campaign villain or a
rival. Perhaps the bad guy was actually a good guy under a
curse, transformed, or placed into difficult circumstances.
* The bad guy turns out to be a PC's father.
* The true, gruesome meaning behind a national holiday is
discovered.
* The source of an alien race's hostility towards others is
uncovered, transforming them from villains to sympathetic
characters in the story.
* The true meaning of the prophecy or poem that lead the PCs
to the dungeon is finally understood, and it's not what the
PCs thought.
7. Example 5 Room Dungeon - Library of the Ancients
============================================================
Here is an example 5 Room Dungeon to inspire your contest
entries. In your campaign, you'll need to flesh out some of
the details, but this skeleton format is perfect for GMs to
pick up and customize for their own memorable sessions.
Room One: Entrance
------------------------------------------------------------
The guardian is a permanent hurricane situated over a small,
rocky island that is far from civilization. Approach by air
and sea is too difficult by normal means. The storm energies
have attracted numerous elementals to the region as well,
and though most can be bypassed with caution, it's likely at
least one or two will be encountered and fought.
Room Two: Puzzle or Roleplay
------------------------------------------------------------
The island has been swept clean so now it is bare, slippery
rock. Winds threaten to carry away anything not secured to
the ground. High up on one of the cliffs is a cave with
flickering light streaming out. The first challenge is
puzzling out how to reach the cave.
At the back of the cave is a large portal sealed by magic. A
command word is required to open the valve, and the PCs
should have enough clues found previously to figure it out.
Perhaps it is the name of an item or NPC.
A castaway lives in the cave, though he is either out or
cleverly hidden when the PCs arrive. He survives by climbing
down a hidden, sheltered path that leads to a protected bay
where he fishes and salvages what the currents wash up. He
knows the command word but is insane from solitude and the
continual violence of the storm. He craves to see the sun
again - if the PCs can show him the sun he'll reveal the
password.
Room Three: Trick or Setback
------------------------------------------------------------
Using the command word, a special ability, or quite a bit of
destruction, the PCs bypass the portal and travel down a
long set of stairs. Angry booming from wind and wave echoes
through the tunnel.
If the PCs don't spot and flip a switch, the tunnel
continues on until it opens up into a huge cavern full of
bookshelves and dry, ancient tomes. Invaluable knowledge is
stored here, as are a pair of immortal fire guardians.
The guardians are sentient and can be parleyed with. If they
deem the PCs worthy, they provide knowledge of the switch
back up in the stairwell, which opens an entrance to a
second tunnel.
Their primary task is to protect the library from evil, and
they will start torching the books if the PCs attack or if
the guardians deem the action necessary.
Room Four: Big Battle
------------------------------------------------------------
The secret passage leads down to a cave where a powerful
elemental has been imprisoned. The elemental was tricked by
the builders of the library and was told his realm was under
attack. Over the course of weeks, the builders brought
evidence that the elemental's home had been destroyed.
Already angry at being imprisoned, the elemental's rage grew
and grew as he came to believe that his home and kin were
destroyed. As intended, the creature's rage was funneled and
amplified until it fueled a small hurricane that surrounded
the island.
The builders told the elemental his prison sentence was
1,000 years, which is true, and with that deadline and plans
for revenge, his rage has not diminished over time.
The elemental is free to move about in his cave, and can
communicate in broken common with the PCs if they try. It's
not true that his realm was destroyed all those years ago,
which can be confirmed by any of the elementals outside. If
the PCs can convince the creature his realm is safe, or calm
him down another way, the hurricane will disperse after a
day.
Killing the elemental will be very tough. The hurricane also
disperses a day after the creature's death.
Room Five: Reward or Twist
------------------------------------------------------------
The object of the quest lies within a chest protected by the
elemental at the centre of the cave. The builders lied and
told the creature the last of his realm's essence was
trapped inside the chest, and opening the chest would
release the essence, forever ensuring a new realm could not
be built. This further fueled the creature's rage, the chest
serving as a goading reminder, but the creature is unwilling
to destroy the container as it plans to wait the 1,000 years
and rebuild.
The chest can contain the object of the PCs' quest, or it
can contain a map and clues to the real location of the
treasure, which happens to be deep inside an active volcano
thousands of miles distant. It also contains a note to the
elemental, in case it did break open the container,
revealing the builders' lies and rubbing the creature's nose
in its own stupidity. This should reveal the twist of the
backstory to the PCs if they opted to attack the creature
and killed it. If the creature still lives it will demand to
read the note, which will likely send it into a blind rage
all over again, giving the PCs a bit of a dilemma.
* * *
The five room format is simple yet allows for variety and
permutation, thus it's a powerful little GM tool. I feel a
GM is always better off improving their dungeons by making
them smaller because it gives them more planning time for
clues, plot hooks, character involvement, twists, and so on.
Don't forget to enter contest. If you have any questions,
feel free to e-mail me.
_______________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
Readers' Tips Of The Week
Have some GM advice you'd like to share? E-mail it to
johnn@roleplayingtips.com - thanks!
1. Cyberpunk Resources
From: Kate Manchester
============================================================
In cyberpunk campaigns, I find visual aids are quite
helpful. Location layouts can be generated using Google
Earth, and there's always lots of other pictures to be found
on the web.
Event-wise, there should be some sort of disaster(s) that
happened. Shadowrun mentions the Crash of '29, which took
out all the computer systems, the eruptions of 5 volcanoes
in the Pacific Rim, and the Goblinization that turned
ordinary humans into meta-humans, just to name a few.
A Cyberpunk campaign should have a gritty sort of feel to
it, in my opinion. The future has arrived, but it's a
dystopia instead of the promised paradise. Blade Runner is a
good example of a cyberpunk world.
Here's a couple links that might be helpful:
Cyberpunk Authors:
http://www.euro.net/mark-space/Cyberpunk/CYauthorsR.html
The Cyberpunk project, with all sorts of resources:
http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/index.html
Cyberpunk 2020 sites:
http://www.cyberpunk2020.com/news.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_2020
Now, some equal time for you Shadowrunners:
Shadowrun on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun
An interactive map of Seattle:
http://www.wizkidsgames.com/shadowrun/shadowland/article.asp?cid=37607
Site with the SR missions (that don't seem to be available
on the Fanpro site now):
http://shadowrun-fr.spaces.live.com/
A forum devoted to Shadowrun, with PbP gaming available:
http://www.theshadowrun.net
2. Easy Method For Creating Objectives
From: Brody Guest
============================================================
In pretty much every game I've played you have objectives of
some sort, be it mission objectives in a military game or
quests in a role-playing game. However, it all boils down to
a similar thing: something you want/need to get done for
something good to happen. So, I thought, why not see how it
goes giving my players objectives that were more than just
quests. I came up with 3 categories:
1) Primary
2) Personal
3) Secret
Primary objectives are the big quests and obvious ones. They
are usually a good reason for all the PCs to stick together,
defeat the evil tyrant, escape from prison and clear their
names, and all the "forced to work together" ones.
Personal objectives are individual motivations for each
character, that might not be party goals, and are something
the individual hopes to achieve during the course of
adventure. These objectives help the party know what kind of
person their new friend is.
Secret objectives are those the PC would not or cannot tell
the others about. It might be a dark secret they hope to
fulfil or an old grudge they aim to settle. The reward is
often substantial (family heirloom weapon, gaining a title,
self satisfaction, and most of all: EXP).
Let's see how they apply to William, the bold Fighter:
Primary Objective: William, before now, was just the usual
hired muscle, guarding caravans, stopping raids - the usual
stuff. On his last mission, however, he wasn't quite working
for who he thought he was. He ended up attacking the wrong
people and was put in prison. So, his primary objective is
to escape with the help of others, clear his name, and bring
the real bad guys to justice.
Personal Objective: William has been working the trade
routes in a hope to find better work. He wants to be spotted
by a veteran group that needs an extra sword. He wants fame,
fortune, and glory through using his physical talents.
Secret Objective: Little does his party know, William only
wants all this fame and fortune because he wants to be
better than his childhood rival who always put him in second
place as a youth.
Even with only these three objectives in mind, you can
quickly start to get a feel for what kind of person this
warrior is, and for a GM, there are plenty of plot hooks you
can throw at the PC while they try to complete these
objectives.
Rewarding Objectives
------------------------------------------------------------
Primary: Primary objectives are your standard main quests,
so a reward that suits the quest is expected: saving the
village and being rewarded with a plot of land, helping the
king and being granted a title of some sort, looting the
ruins and finding a horde of gold.
The reward would be something that could be divided evenly
between the part members, or would benefit everyone in some
way.
Personal: These are often a character development quest, and
most objectives I've thought of would be rewarded with just
experience points. However, saying that, feel free to reward
your players generously for completing these. Keep in mind
that most rewards for these objectives will focus on the
player that completed it.
Secret: This is my favourite objective, because with my
players I've added the condition that they aren't allowed to
let the other players (or PCs) know they are trying to
complete this objective. At the same time, the reward for
the individual is much greater than any other quest or
objective.
If they do tell the others I lower the reward accordingly,
but if I know they managed to get the group to help them
pull it off without them knowing, then full marks – lots of
EXP and a big sack of loot (within reason).
Once your player completes an objective, replace it with
another. So, during the course of your games, your players
constantly have up to three things they want to do all at
the same time. I'm currently playing with only a group of
two players, and looking at expanding, but with more players
the amount of objectives and plot hooks just goes through
the roof!
_______________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________
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That's it for this week's issue.
Have more fun at every game!
Johnn Four -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#22I talked with Muro, and we can add two or three T-Shirts on the heap. If we are part of the competition, we should add something of our own. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#23All his are donations from retailers, nothing out of his pocket...but nobody will say no to the offer. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#24Yay for prizes. As for the contest itself, I would say post the rules (of course), and maybe the descriptions and/or examples, although I'm not sure about that so much, since I'm curious to see what we'd get just going from the contest rules and base descriptions. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#25We can post the whole article in a thread, and use a summary for the Quest itself - of course linking to the forum thread. (And once it is up on his page, a link to RPG Tips as well.) -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#26OR we could post the article as an article... sounds quite meaningful, actually. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#27Should I use this joint quest as an opportunity to send out a mass email to the entire citadel? I only did that once before on accident. Would this be a chance to do it again...on purpose? -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#28Hi Mike,
5 entries here so far. I suspect that will be the bulk of them for this
week. I should get a couple more with each issue reminder, so my early
forecast is 12.
Johnn
-
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#29If anybody is interested in editing (and/or reading) the other submissions. Here they be.
Any editing would be appreciated, just let us know what you are doing and upload the new document. I won't get a chance to touch it till late this week at the earliest.
Thanks in advance to those that help!
====================
Attached is a Word doc with the entries. If you need another format,
such as RTF or OpenOffice, let me know.
Editing ideas:
* Each entry should have a title. A cool, descriptive name that makes
GMs interested in checking out that particular 5 Room Dungeon. If a name
isn't present, please create one.
* Each entry should have a Written By: credit.
* Formatting consistency. A general editor should take any and all
edited fragments and go through the master doc for consistency. i.e.
Room #s are either spelled (One, Two, etc.) or numbered (1., 2., etc.).
The whole document should be formatted with the same set of styles, and
so on.
* Spelling
* Grammar - just edit for readability. i.e. I wouldn't be worried about
comma use unless it ruins the meaning of a sentence or creates ambiguity.
* Edit for professionalism. I'd switch out cuss words, for example, and
make any changes that would tarnish the participation of our sponsors.
Overall, I figure the editing style should be light. This is a community
document and we can let the authors' styles and voices come through. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#30If some nonadmins wish to help edit or read, feel free to distribute it. I just didn't want to post it for any of the public to see prior to the official release. Once the editing is done and it is compiled it will be a pdf that will be free for all. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#31I have breezed through it, there doesn't seem to be much editing to do (some spell check and cleaning up of the format will do half of the work).
On an even more positive note, we can certainly supply more quality than these guys. :up:
(Okay, there are quite a few interesting ideas inside, but most don't seem to break out of the dungeon lands.) -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#32First round of spellchecking and editing done. Wasn't that hard, only one had more than a few typos (it still looks ugly, but it would have to be rewritten so it can stay). I guess we can start considering the right formatting.
To do:
- the titles are still missing in some places
- is 'pissed off' to be edited out? (seems like the only cuss word anyway)
- formatting (note: will need to be compatible with the Citadel submission format)
- ??? anything else -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#33Formatting will have to be compatible with a pdf is the main thing. The Citadel submissions may require the most reformatting to conform to whatever we do with word because we get creative with that. He will take word and zap it to pdf using OpenOffice or something similiar. He gave us everything so whatever format we decide on will be the standard. We could probably get fancy with borders or headers/footers if somebody can find some open source or free ones. Where was that thread with somebody that had examples of pdfs?
I will hopefully jump into it tomorrow night, but Friday night I should be able to whack away at the formatting if nobody else jumps into it. Like manfred said, probably won't take long after something is decided.
I would probably edit pissed off myself. If that is the only thing then it will stand out, better to just change it. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#34Added all the formatting and broke it up into the categories and added a little icon by each title.
Room One: Entrance and Guardian
Room Two: Puzzle or Roleplaying Challenge
Room Three: Trick or Setback
Room Four: Climax, Big Battle, or Conflict
Room Five: Reward, Revelation, Plot Twist
I haven't read any of them, just formatted them.
Still needs:
A few need to be read and appropriate titles added.
There are one or two that need to be read and properly broken up in Rooms. They didn't just jump out at me so I skipped them.
(will attach in a moment, need to up authorized file size)
-
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#35Here is round 2 from Johnn.
Another 42 unedited pages of 5 room dungeons. :)
-
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#36Ow. Another batch processed.
- formatted according to your standard, just left out the fancy graphics for now
- a few titles still missing, named them Insert Title for reference
- two were reposted here on the Citadel by Stomphoof, marked them Citadel Duplicate so we know of them
- some rooms have actual titles supplied by posters, many don't; chosen format: bigger font for general room title, empty line, poster's title in bold followed by the description itself (no empty line in-between)
Btw, how will we call/separate the authors of our own submissions? Don't want to wave the flag for it's own sake, but it would be nice to do something in that direction. Plus, we have to provide a link to the submission here... or will we just make the title a link?
- best idea award (but I didn't read them all): "A resourceful party could even decide not to inform anyone of their success, and have the locals keep delivering gold and goods and beautiful virgins to what used to the dragon's lair." -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#37Sweet! Will check it out tomorrow, have midnight deadline for some homework tonight. Will edit the first one to match you separate title format.
For giving our site some props, maybe add the source under the title
Title
www.strolen.com
manfred
Title
www.roleplayingtips.com
Juniper -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#38For the future: in the following collaborative Quests, we may need to institute limiting rules for linking in Citadellian submissions. Some people posted a crapload of links to other subs, which is generally fine; but not necessarily for outside consumption. -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#39Since we have a little inofficial time, until we collect our subs, I have declared via shoutbox there is still time to polish the submissions. Some of them need it badly (Thewizard63, definitely).
So... how about we leave tomorrow for polishing, and attack the thing in the weekend? -
Re: roleplayingtips and Johnn Four
#40Absolutely, continue to spread the news. Will accept lates ones too through this weekend.