A couple of blogposts ago, I briefly mentioned Dungeon Master’s Book of Cartography (DMBoC hereafter), which is available over at Amazon for $7.99. Matt Jackson is a talented fantasy map-maker. I’ve used several of his maps, most recently this past Sunday as part of the 5E D&D game I’m DMing.
DMBoC includes several maps, each one facing a lined page on which notes about the map can be written. The maps include a variety of dungeon and wilderness locations. None of the locations are particularly large, making them suitable for short, site-based adventures. As always with Matt, the maps are clean and clear, and they have character. These are not cookie-cutter, computer-generated maps. The last several pages of DMBoC are mapless, featuring a sheet of graph paper with a facing page for notes, encouraging me to add my own cartographical efforts to the collection.
All in all, I’m digging DMBoC. It’s a fine addition to my collection of gaming books, and I’m looking forward to Volume Two, which I assume must be in the works since DMBoC is subtitled as “volume one”. I know the maps in DMBoC will get used, even though I doubt I’ll ever write in the book. Maybe I’ll add some maps of my own on those graph paper pages, but filling in the lines with dungeon details? Probably not. I work better with a word processor than with a pen.
Matt has a book available over at Amazon. With a $7.99 sticker price, Matt’s Dungeon Master’s Book of Cartography has made it onto my Amazon wishlist. If no one else gets it for me for Christmas, I’ll get it myself. Matt’s book’s blurb reads (in part):
Dungeon Masters should never get caught without a good dungeon map! This booklet contains 15 detailed maps with a note page to allow Dungeon Masters to flesh out write their own adventure.
Sounds excellent, and having seen Matt’s talent as an RPG cartographer and having confidence in his work ethic, I’m excited at the prospect of adding this book to my library.
Anyhoo, speaking of The Black Hack, which is a astonishingly good rules-light game, part of that system’s rules has made it into the Tanelorn Keep Player’s Guide, a campaign starter inspired by my recent revisitation to my 2E AD&D books.
(Nota Bene: The link for The Black Hack is an affiliate link; if you click and purchase, I get some cents.)
Action resolution in The Black Hack is based on rolling against an ability score, which are the familiar six from the various versions of D&D. When your character levels up, you roll to see if certain ability scores improve. I like this idea, and so I glommed and tweaked it to read as follows:
Increasing Ability Scores
When your PC gains a level, choose one of his prime requisites (assuming he has more than one) and one other ability score. For the prime requisite, roll 2d20. If either result exceeds your PC’s prime requisite score, increase that prime requisite by +1. For the other ability score, roll 1d20 and follow the same procedure. Apply all of the benefits of an increased ability score as appropriate.
A short post today to announce that Matt Jackson’s CoronaCon! Map 2 has been posted. What’s more, I wrote a short dungeon crawl for the map. If your Swords & Wizardry heroes have defended the tiny village from the devotees of the Hopping Prophet, it might be time to take the fight those wicked cultists. If so, your heroes can track them back to their lair and attempt to end their evil once and for all.
Also, on the topic of S&W adventures, I’ve bundled my three Dangerous Places scenarios into, well, a bundle, which is available at DriveThruRPG for $2.50. For that price, you get Goshari: The City in a Cave, The Bishop’s Secret, and Narvon’s Sinister Stair. Click here for more information.
Matt Jackson is at it again, this time offering up a walled village map to kick off CoronaCon!, and you can take a gander at the map by clicking here. Shortly after I gandered at the aforelinked post, I saw one of those hybrid animal pictures. The photomanipulator had added a jungle frog’s head to the neck of a large-breed dog. Something like a mastiff. For the Facebook group in which I saw the frog hound, I added 5 D&D stats for the creature, noting that frog hounds are used by devotees of Wastri the Hopping Prophet to hunt demihumans.
Of all the minor deities of Greyhawk, Wastri is my favorite. What DM could fail to love the demi-god of bigotry, self-deception, and amphibians? According to the Dragon magazine “The Deities & Demigods of the World of Greyhawk”, penned by E. Gary Gygax for issue 71 way back in March 1983:
Wastri, the Hopping Prophet, Hammer of Demi-humans, dwells on the Prime Material Plane (now in the region of the Vast Swamp). It is he who preaches the ultimate superiority of humankind. While humanoids can serve, demi-humans are fit only to be slain — especially dwarves, gnomes, and halflings. These, with the aid of his gray-clad “Servants,” he hunts with his toad packs and exterminates whenever possible (Dragon 71, March 1983, p. 56).
I mean, seriously, that is all sorts of awesome, and it gets better. Wastri’s chief Servant, his “Immaculate Image”, is a 12th/6th-level cleric/monk who hops like a giant toad. Wastri’s “Lesser Servants” work “to breed and maintain superior toads.” And there are Wastri’s ceremonies that “involve sacrifices, strange musical instruments, and croaking chants.”
Ha!
So, what’s this got to do with Matt’s CoronaCon! map? Simple. Someone playing Swords & Wizardry has to defend the tiny village from these guys.
Lesser Servants of Wastri Hit Dice: 1, 2, 3, or 4 Armor Class: 7 [12] Attack (Damage): Weapon (1d8+1) Move: 12/6 swimming Save: 17, 16, 14, or 13 Alignment: Chaos Challenge Level/XP: 1 HD (1/15), 2 HD (2/30), 3 HD (4/120), 4 HD (5/240) Special: Speak with Amphibians, Spells (2+ HD)
The Lesser Servants of Wastri form the bulk of the Hopping Prophet’s clergy. A Lesser Servant casts spells as a Cleric of a level equal to the Lesser Servant’s Hit Dice. These wicked beings fight with polearms and wear leather armor. Once per day, a 4-HD Lesser Servant can jump 30 feet forward, clearing a height of up to 15 feet.
The masterly Matt Jackson continues to post captivating CollabDungeons. Numbers two and three beg to be admired and adapted into adventures. When Matt posted the first CollaboDungeon, I imagined it as one of several tombs now lost in some remote wilderness region. Then, I wrote this:
For centuries, persons of wealth, power, and achievement sought to be buried in the wide, winding valleys near the wooded frontier of the kingdom. The villages nearest to the frontier adopted various funerary specialties. The coffinmakers here, the masons there, the mourners elsewhere, and so forth. Representatives from each village, elected by their constituents, formed the Mortuary Moot, a rowdy assembly of leaders who met regularly to debate and settle disputes related to the economic governance of the region. The people prospered until Mount Beinn, looming on the eastern horizon, roared back to life. Enormous clouds of volcanic ash rushed down the valleys, blasting the forests away and burying most of Mortuary Moot under yards of debris. Thousands died. In the aftermath, evil humanoids from the Wilderlands ventured into the frontier, killing or driving away those who survived Beinn’s fury.
In recent years, baronial mayors closest to what had been Mortuary Moot have increasingly sought to reclaim the devastated region. To this end, the mayors have made it clear that they welcome adventurers who seek fame and fortune. With sword, spell, and stealth, those adventurers may drive back the hordes of evil humanoids that plague the region, making it possible for the baronial mayors to send soldiers and settlers back into the frontier. Among the most tempting targets drawing adventurers into the area are the tremuli, the numerous artificial hills under which persons of wealth, power, and achievement were buried. Who knows what treasures wait the next intrepid band of would-be tomb robbers?
I like this idea. It could work its way into a sort of Indiana Jones meets the Magnificent Seven meets Mad Max. The PCs would try to recover lost artifacts while avoiding roaming bands of savages while helping protect the re-establishment of civilization while slowly discovering sinister forces working to exploit, destroy, enslave, et cetera. I wonder if I could talk Matt into doing a blighted wilderness map suitable for a starting campaign location? Perhaps if I threaten him with ash goblins?
Ash goblins are small, murderous humanoids that lurk in volcanic regions. They appear much like normal goblins, albeit with gray flesh and small, close-set eyes. Ash goblins tend to be smarter and more organized than their more common relatives.
Ash Goblin Small humanoid (goblinoid), lawful evil
Armor Class 13 (leather armor) Hit Points 18 (4d6+4) Speed 30 ft., burrow 15 ft.
STR 10 (+0), DEX 14 (+2), CON 13 (+1), INT 8 (-1), WIS 11 (+0), CHA 9 (-1)
