Game Date: 7/25/2021 - 7/27/2021
Characters:
Aldwyn Hale, human knight (345 points)
Varmus the Hanged, human apprentice wizard (170 points)
Bruce McTavish, human barbarian (329 points)
Crogar, human barbarian (350 points)
Galen Longtread, human scout (498 points)
Gerrald Tarrant, human wizard (418 points)
Rahtnar the Skeleton (~125 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (354 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (353 points)
We started off in the swamps of the Cold Fens, with the PCs heading towards the giant's lair.
The plan was to scout it out, move inland, and then come at them early in the morning to surprise the nocturnal giants.
That is more or less what they did. They moved inland, and quickly found a deadfall trap. They spent a good deal of time on it after Galen climbed up the tree to identify its trigger mechanism. They then put Silence down and triggered it with arrows. This cost them a good 20-30 minutes, though, mostly spent deciding how and if to disarm it. The mist really slowed them down, as they can't see more than a few yards clearly in any direction and not at all past 6-7 yards even at the best of times. They found yet another trap soon after - a pit, with a dead maned rat at the bottom, and a bent-back spiked branch ahead. They used Silence and set that trap off, too.
Once past it, they reached the giant's lair and backed off. They entered a Sanctuary and Ulf put Vigil on himself and Galen. Galen stayed outside all night, watching the cave. After a few hours of nightfall, they came out. They moved out into the night to the east, laughing and joking with one another. They were armed with swords and one carried a large rock. They were soon lost to the night and mist.
Galen stayed observing, and smelled smoke from the cave. He took a scout around the entire hill, and found a "back door" blocked with a mossy boulder but no other way in.
Come nearly morning, the giants returned, without rocks but one had an animal carcass over his shoulder and a bag of other animals over his shoulder. They headed in. Galen noted they now had mail gloves, and their mail curtain had been replaced with a single heavy animal hide curtain with no central divide.
In the morning the others came out of their Sanctuary. Galen briefed them, and they waited until 10 am and then headed in.
They made Galen, Ulf, and Wyatt invisible and buffed them with some other spells. The plan was they'd go in and kill all of the goblins while under a Silence spell. They headed to the curtain with Ulf dragging a stick to leave a mark so they'd know where he was. Galen had See Invisible on, and Wyatt followed the stick mark.
They moved in, sans light, sighting by the firelight flickering around the edges of the curtain to the kitchen. They reached it and heard goblin voices.
Ulf cast a 4-area Silence just this side of the curtain, covering much of the kitchen. They pushed the curtain open and saw two goblins. Galen shot them both down. Three others on the far end, outside of the Silence, could be seen to be yelling. Galen shot them all down, too, over the next couple of seconds, as Wyatt rushed the north exit to prevent them from fleeing (in case Galen missed them or another one.) Five down, two to go? But where were the two?
They split up a bit. Ulf stayed near the curtain. Galen moved forward in the Silence. Wyatt faced the curtain, listening.
Then the southern curtain opened up, and out charged the two giants, swords out, fully armed and armored. They started swinging at Galen. Galen dodged back and away, and managed to get behind one of the tables. He shot at them as he moved, but his arrows simply missed - Missile Shield, in all likelihood.
Wyatt didn't hear them - they were in the Silence - but caught them with a glance back a second later. He ran back after crushing a Walk on Air spellstone. Ulf backed off to the curtain. He was afraid to turn his back, so he ended up taking a few seconds to get there and grab the curtain.
One giant, in the black armor, kept after Galen. The other moved up and waited. As Ulf moved the curtain, he slashed across the hexes where anyone touching the curtain should be. Ulf dove prone under the blade.
Wyatt arrived just as the black armored giant moved away from Galen and toward the curtain. He was also still Invisible and used Run and Hit to stab the giant's eyes out. It was still up, but blind. It retaliated by attacking where he was, but Wyatt was able to avoid the attacks.
The white-armored one two took swings at Wyatt and rolled a 4, which Wyatt cancelled out with Luck, causing a miss. The giant's other swing was also a 4, though, and it chopped off Wyatt's left leg.
The white-armored one held his sword up to his eyes and it glowed. Wyatt tried to attack him but the giant defended, and then it stabbed still-invisible Ulf in the vitals. Ulf went down to -54 HP . . . with automatic death at -60. He narrowly avoided dying again.
The black-armored giant drew out a potion.
Galen ran up behind the giants and past them. As he did, he chopped the potion bottle and broke it. After that, he managed to get out of the curtain as Wyatt used a Levitation stone and then floated up, still prone, and attacked the giants.
Galen ran out and called for help. The others began to run in. Ulf remembered he could cancel a spell, and did so on the Silence.
The white-armored giant tried to kill Wyatt while backing off, as the black-armored one blindly stumbled to the north curtain.
The other PCs arrived, using spellstones and casting buff spells as they came. When they arrived, the white-armored giant had ducked out, following his brother.
Galen ran after them and opened the curtain, nearly getting stabbed by the white-armored one. He followed as he ran - and the giant quickly outpaced him . . . plus, in the dark, Galen couldn't see much once the curtain fell.
The eventually followed them to the boulder-blocked exit - it had clearly been moved and put back. The giants were gone.
The inside of the rock had runes on it. Gerry identified them as your standard "evil runes." Dangerous, permanent, and possibly passable with a password . . . which probably isn't knowable without divination magic.
They returned to the kitchen and then to the "main room." There, they pour 4 minor and 6 major healing potions into him, getting him mostly healed up. They searched the altar while discussing how to go about looting the place before the giants returned.
They found the statue on the altar was magical, and Bruce picked it up, all 500 pounds or so of it. Underneath was a cavity with a jug and two flat rocks carved to resemble crude claws. They took them all. Ulf tried Gift of Letters on the carvings but they weren't in trollish, despite the statue being a crude troll-like figure that was probably Old Father Troll. They put the statue back, since it clearly couldn't be broken easily. Dismissive Wave didn't clear any curse from the area.
As they did so, though, the curtain to the NW opened and in rushed the two giants, straight at Crogar, who stood guard in the middle. They were both Great Hasted. Crogar fought them off for a couple of precious seconds, while they destroyed his shield and cut off his left arm. He kept them occupied as Gerry buffed him with Shield +6. Bruce tried to flank them. Wyatt used another Levitation stone and floated at them. Aldwyn rushed them. The others mostly stayed away, although Ulf moved up closer as is his wont. Varmus tried Counterspell and failed a couple of times.
The giants kept fighting, backing off towards the front door, using their reach and multiple attacks to try and smother one foe at a time, but were forced to contend with two. The black-armored one crippled Bruce's arm, narrowly missing a dismemberment (by 1 point of basic damage!), but otherwise they didn't harm the PCs. The PCs didn't land any blows back. They kept backing off and then suddently started to hit, and then run back on their second turn. They reached the curtain before the PC. The black-armored one held the curtain for his brother, who ducked out. As he did, Galen, who'd been loosing 3 arrows a second the whole time, finally rolled a 4 and beat his Missile Shield.
They fled in two directions, the black one stumbling out one-eyed, and into the mist.
The PCs quickly beat it themselves, covered their track as they moved away and then popping into a Sanctuary in what Galen decided was an unlikely place for the giants to look.
They stayed 24 hours and then popped out, bushwacked to the north, and began to hike home.
I handwaved the hike home because of real-world concerns.
They made it back to Ulf Hollow in a few days, and then used Regeneration on Wyatt and Crogar.
Notes:
- the PCs wisely suspected Watchdog or something similar, and put Mage Sight on Gerry. But Gerry didn't go in and couldn't see in, so they don't know if that's what woke the giants. It's possible they just sleep lightly and in their armor, like PCs do. They just don't know because they didn't leverage their ability to check.
- again the giants proved a problem. The giants are canny. They fight and act like delvers - they use magic liberally, they fight in a coordinated fashion, they flee when it's not going well, and they heal up entirely (somehow) between fights. Only equipment costs - like the gloves the PCs disposed of in town - seem to be an issue. The PCs don't seem to have an answer for dealing with this any more than the monsters in Felltower and elsewhere have a solution for dealing with the PCs - where even killing a few of them doesn't change anything. The giants, same. It's a conundrum. I have thoughts but I'm reserving them for now.
- We had an interesting Luck interaction, which deserves its own post.
- We determined that if you're in a Sanctuary, you can't maintain spells on someone outside of the Sanctuary. You're in a different world, and thus when the spell needs more energy to maintain you're not there to provide it. So it just ends.
- I handwaved the trip back because I had a lot of stuff to do last night that couldn't wait. Real life saved the PCs some trouble. It happened back in the day, too.
- XP for both sessions was 2 for exploration, 0 for loot.
- MVP for the session was Crogar for fighting off Great Hasted giants solo for several seconds, at the cost of his arm and shield. It wasn't Wyatt, despite writing a song about the combat, which I shall post tomorrow.
- Gerry's player (and Wyatt's, and Galen's, and others) deserve a mention for not telling Ulf's player that he could just cancel Silence. They just waited, especially because they knew he couldn't be told because he was under Silence. It's tempting to just say it out loud, rationalizing that "he'd know that." Anyway, lesson learned - know your abilities!
Showing posts with label wilderness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wilderness. Show all posts
Monday, August 16, 2021
Monday, July 19, 2021
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Session 156, Cold Fens 14 - Hexcrawling the Cold Fens (Part I)
Game Date: 7/18/2021 - 7/24/2021
Characters:
Aldwyn Hale, human knight (345 points)
Varmus the Hanged, human apprentice wizard (170 points)
Bruce McTavish, human barbarian (329 points)
Crogar, human barbarian (350 points)
Galen Longtread, human scout (498 points)
Gerrald Tarrant, human wizard (418 points)
Rahtnar the Skeleton (~125 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (354 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (353 points)
Before the session, Ulf took swimming lessons. Otherwise, the PCs just gathered up food, purchased potions, and otherwise got ready for a trip. They decided on exploring the area between Sakatha's island the the giant's island, to see if anything was there.
They headed out into the swamp. They contended with the usual - biting flies, mosquitos, leeches, leaping leeches, wasps, etc. - but the weather held up. They were able, in general, to avoid any real trouble.
However, one night, Aldwyn and Varmus heard some rustling. Aldwyn stalked out to see what it was - some kind of rodent-like thing in the bushes. When he approached, it flung spines at him, twice. They clunked off of his armor. He waved his knife at it as it fled. In the morning, they found short quills tipped with a sticky, probably toxic, substance. Galen didn't know of any animal that fit that description.
Another night, a big anaconda - 21' worth of anaconda - slithered out of the darkness and towards the camp, right around dawn. Galen and Bruce were awake. Bruce moved into its way. The snake tried to bite him in the groin (11 on the random hit location table is still groin to me) but he was able to dodge, and then grabbed it with both hands for 9 CP after dodging aside. The snake tried to grapple him back with its slinky coils, but missed. Bruce proceeded to start punching it in the skull. The snake writhed and tried to grapple, but ultimately failed as Bruce punched it over and over in the skull, breaking its skull after a few hard hits.
They spent an extra hour skinning the snake and then Ulf used Create Food on its meat to make it edible without having to cook it. Galen skinned the snake for Bruce so he can make boots.
Still another night, as they began to do a circuit of the giant's island (seeking, apparantly, a trail that reaches the water's edge to follow into the island - they didn't find one), they camped not far off on some other dry-ish land. A quarter-mile off they saw a light moving back and forth, like a lantern. They woke Galen and Ulf put Resist Lightning on himself. They got the others up and buffed away. Galen shot the light but it moved aside, and then went out. Nothing else came of that as they hopped into a Sanctuary and Ulf put Vigil on himself so they could camp within.
The next day, they ate some food that Ulf made with Create Food . . . but he'd rolled an 18. He ended up spoiling all of the food, but subtly. They ate it . . . and most of them (except Wyatt and Crogar and Bruce) vomitted it back up and were nauseous for the whole next day, and got very little proper sleep.
Despite that, they headed to the giant's island and spent some hours exploring the coast until they found their previous landing point.
For some reason, they headed back right to the area they'd seen that light, and camped close by. This would have fateful consequences.
That night, as Varmus and Aldwyn were on watch, a 6" sphere-ish of light appeared less than a yard from Aldwyn and touched him - zap! He took 3d electrical damage, burning and stunning him. He shook it off as Varmus yelled for everyone to wake up, and moved closer to Ulf. They started to get up - some quickly, some less so. The light - Galen called it a will-o-the-wisp - kept shocking Aldwyn, putting him to negative HP and barely holding on to consciousness. Ulf woke and cast Resist Lightning, which seemed to stop its attackes. Wyatt tried to stab it with a wooden sword, Galen shot arrows at it (one seemed to pass through it, and maybe did something?) The wisp then disappeared. But Aldwyn was badly hurt, there was a lot of noise of people yelling for Resist Lightning and whatnot, and the sound carried far.
They finished buffing themselves and then looked around . . . nothing. So they went back to sleep. Ulf heard the sound of something in the water - it sounded like something big, wading. So they decided that they needed to get into another Sanctuary. Ulf made one, and they piled in, putting Vigil on himself again.
They next morning, though, when they emerged, their boats were gone. Galen had concealed them, but clearly not well enough. Something had dragged them out into the water, clearly, and they were gone. Bruce had left his snakeskin in the boat, and was inconsolable.
They decided it must be the giants. They debated going home and giving up on the boats, but took a vote. Going after the giants narrowly won - with a few undecided voters like Crogar and Varmus.
So they crossed overland to the north, and camped overnight after Galen did a little scouting to ensure they were west of the giant's island.
We ended there, with the PCs determined to get their boats back.
Notes:
- the PCs almost went home, but they had a big discussion and settled on killing the giants. Wyatt's player argued that in-game, there was no way the PCs would just walk home. I usually let them discuss on their own . . . but that just didn't seem correct. They'd walked off from sunk costs and from potentially lethal challenges in the past. That they might not walk away from this one was fine, but not the logic that they wouldn't. They had multiple times in the past. This is more of a break with the past than a continuation of prior conduct. It sure suits the couple of guys with Overconfidence.
- in typical adventurer/PC logic, I'm sure they'll now justify every thing they ever do and have done to the giants and/or their allies in terms of justice for the stealing of their boats. Not that they'll do anything they wouldn't have done just because the giants have money and they want it. If it somehow turns out the giants didn't steal their boats, they'll justify it based on that, instead - for allowing their boats to get stolen. Nothing sets off the righteous anger of PCs more than people fighting back.
- Bruce was MVP for punching a snake to death. XP wasn't otherwise handed out as the delve is not complete.
Characters:
Aldwyn Hale, human knight (345 points)
Varmus the Hanged, human apprentice wizard (170 points)
Bruce McTavish, human barbarian (329 points)
Crogar, human barbarian (350 points)
Galen Longtread, human scout (498 points)
Gerrald Tarrant, human wizard (418 points)
Rahtnar the Skeleton (~125 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (354 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (353 points)
Before the session, Ulf took swimming lessons. Otherwise, the PCs just gathered up food, purchased potions, and otherwise got ready for a trip. They decided on exploring the area between Sakatha's island the the giant's island, to see if anything was there.
They headed out into the swamp. They contended with the usual - biting flies, mosquitos, leeches, leaping leeches, wasps, etc. - but the weather held up. They were able, in general, to avoid any real trouble.
However, one night, Aldwyn and Varmus heard some rustling. Aldwyn stalked out to see what it was - some kind of rodent-like thing in the bushes. When he approached, it flung spines at him, twice. They clunked off of his armor. He waved his knife at it as it fled. In the morning, they found short quills tipped with a sticky, probably toxic, substance. Galen didn't know of any animal that fit that description.
Another night, a big anaconda - 21' worth of anaconda - slithered out of the darkness and towards the camp, right around dawn. Galen and Bruce were awake. Bruce moved into its way. The snake tried to bite him in the groin (11 on the random hit location table is still groin to me) but he was able to dodge, and then grabbed it with both hands for 9 CP after dodging aside. The snake tried to grapple him back with its slinky coils, but missed. Bruce proceeded to start punching it in the skull. The snake writhed and tried to grapple, but ultimately failed as Bruce punched it over and over in the skull, breaking its skull after a few hard hits.
They spent an extra hour skinning the snake and then Ulf used Create Food on its meat to make it edible without having to cook it. Galen skinned the snake for Bruce so he can make boots.
Still another night, as they began to do a circuit of the giant's island (seeking, apparantly, a trail that reaches the water's edge to follow into the island - they didn't find one), they camped not far off on some other dry-ish land. A quarter-mile off they saw a light moving back and forth, like a lantern. They woke Galen and Ulf put Resist Lightning on himself. They got the others up and buffed away. Galen shot the light but it moved aside, and then went out. Nothing else came of that as they hopped into a Sanctuary and Ulf put Vigil on himself so they could camp within.
The next day, they ate some food that Ulf made with Create Food . . . but he'd rolled an 18. He ended up spoiling all of the food, but subtly. They ate it . . . and most of them (except Wyatt and Crogar and Bruce) vomitted it back up and were nauseous for the whole next day, and got very little proper sleep.
Despite that, they headed to the giant's island and spent some hours exploring the coast until they found their previous landing point.
For some reason, they headed back right to the area they'd seen that light, and camped close by. This would have fateful consequences.
That night, as Varmus and Aldwyn were on watch, a 6" sphere-ish of light appeared less than a yard from Aldwyn and touched him - zap! He took 3d electrical damage, burning and stunning him. He shook it off as Varmus yelled for everyone to wake up, and moved closer to Ulf. They started to get up - some quickly, some less so. The light - Galen called it a will-o-the-wisp - kept shocking Aldwyn, putting him to negative HP and barely holding on to consciousness. Ulf woke and cast Resist Lightning, which seemed to stop its attackes. Wyatt tried to stab it with a wooden sword, Galen shot arrows at it (one seemed to pass through it, and maybe did something?) The wisp then disappeared. But Aldwyn was badly hurt, there was a lot of noise of people yelling for Resist Lightning and whatnot, and the sound carried far.
They finished buffing themselves and then looked around . . . nothing. So they went back to sleep. Ulf heard the sound of something in the water - it sounded like something big, wading. So they decided that they needed to get into another Sanctuary. Ulf made one, and they piled in, putting Vigil on himself again.
They next morning, though, when they emerged, their boats were gone. Galen had concealed them, but clearly not well enough. Something had dragged them out into the water, clearly, and they were gone. Bruce had left his snakeskin in the boat, and was inconsolable.
They decided it must be the giants. They debated going home and giving up on the boats, but took a vote. Going after the giants narrowly won - with a few undecided voters like Crogar and Varmus.
So they crossed overland to the north, and camped overnight after Galen did a little scouting to ensure they were west of the giant's island.
We ended there, with the PCs determined to get their boats back.
Notes:
- the PCs almost went home, but they had a big discussion and settled on killing the giants. Wyatt's player argued that in-game, there was no way the PCs would just walk home. I usually let them discuss on their own . . . but that just didn't seem correct. They'd walked off from sunk costs and from potentially lethal challenges in the past. That they might not walk away from this one was fine, but not the logic that they wouldn't. They had multiple times in the past. This is more of a break with the past than a continuation of prior conduct. It sure suits the couple of guys with Overconfidence.
- in typical adventurer/PC logic, I'm sure they'll now justify every thing they ever do and have done to the giants and/or their allies in terms of justice for the stealing of their boats. Not that they'll do anything they wouldn't have done just because the giants have money and they want it. If it somehow turns out the giants didn't steal their boats, they'll justify it based on that, instead - for allowing their boats to get stolen. Nothing sets off the righteous anger of PCs more than people fighting back.
- Bruce was MVP for punching a snake to death. XP wasn't otherwise handed out as the delve is not complete.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Hexcrawling the Cold Fens
Charles Saeger asked in the comments on my Friday post about the hexcrawling procedures in the Cold Fens for Felltower. He's done a lot of hexcrawling in GURPS and written on the subject and created useful procedures for it as well.
Hexcrawling the Cold Fens
Daily procedures
Weather Check using DF16's weather table. Weather Sense can reduce the effects of the weather on travel rates and Survival rolls.
Hourly procudures
- Roll Boating for all boats. Critical Success means double speed movement, success means normal movement, failure doubles movement time, critical failure costs one hour and there is no movement and something bad happens, 18 means a boating disaster. Boating rolls are made per-boat.
- Roll Survival for the group using the Part of the Solution . . . rules. Failure means delays and problems.
- Move the boats into the next hex and advantage the time tracker 1 hour (or spend 30 minutes to move to a specific point in the same hex.)
- Roll wandering monsters. If an 18 was rolled on boating, that's when they come.
- Resolve any combat, etc. from wandering monsters.
Effective useful daylight for travel is 6 am - 6 pm, for 12 hexes worth of travel. After nightfall penalties increase for Survival and Boating go up by the lighting penalty. Wandering monster chances increase.
Camping is resolved by a Survival roll per DF16.
If boats are concealed with Camouflage, roll only when it is required in a contest of skills against a searcher.
Wandering monster rolls occur every four hours at night, and dice are rolled to determine which shift they occur in (assuming a typical 4-shift watch.)
Notes:
I didn't originally see the Cold Fens as a hexcrawl. The PCs had only one main goal, originally - clear out Sakatha's island of evil. They failed in that and lost everyone except Gerry. I had seeded the area with nasty wandering monsters, though, and some fixed encounters - the giant brothers in the abandoned shrine to Old Father Troll, the dragon's lair in the old ruins, and one or two others. I figured the PCs would eventually come back, even from the first, but I didn't really think out how that would work.
I did take the time originally to set out the speeds of travel and the procedures for wandering monsters and so on. That paid off when we came to do this recent hexcrawl.
We did have to make some rulings along the way. Weather Sense changes the effects of weather but not the weather - it's still raining, your bows still get wet and the boat still fills up with water and must be bailed, you just don't get a -1 on Survival rolls and travel isn't affected as your expert knows how to prepare for and navigate the weather. Boating criticals improve speed of travel but don't provide miraculous effects (even on a "3") but an 18 does cause a disaster. Life isn't fair. Stuff like that. One little bit that was especially an issue was "Concealment" - I think the players started to think that reduced the chances of wandering monsters. It did not. It just reduced the chances those monsters would spot you first (or at all). Once they knew that, they did tend to choose Line-of-Sight as a camp feature as they worried more about their own Per than that of the monsters . . . who might not be impressed by visual concealment!
Having rolls per boat does mean it's unlikely one boat doing well really helps. Yes, traveling in groups means you tend to go at the slowest speed, and then a bit slower than that for coordination. Having four shifts at night for camping means a small group has less hours per day to travel or less sleep!
Overall it's been fun, and I hope to use a similar method for overland. I would change up the "how" a bit to match the overland approach we used in the Lost City, but the basic rules in DF16 work very well.
Hexcrawling the Cold Fens
Daily procedures
Weather Check using DF16's weather table. Weather Sense can reduce the effects of the weather on travel rates and Survival rolls.
Hourly procudures
- Roll Boating for all boats. Critical Success means double speed movement, success means normal movement, failure doubles movement time, critical failure costs one hour and there is no movement and something bad happens, 18 means a boating disaster. Boating rolls are made per-boat.
- Roll Survival for the group using the Part of the Solution . . . rules. Failure means delays and problems.
- Move the boats into the next hex and advantage the time tracker 1 hour (or spend 30 minutes to move to a specific point in the same hex.)
- Roll wandering monsters. If an 18 was rolled on boating, that's when they come.
- Resolve any combat, etc. from wandering monsters.
Effective useful daylight for travel is 6 am - 6 pm, for 12 hexes worth of travel. After nightfall penalties increase for Survival and Boating go up by the lighting penalty. Wandering monster chances increase.
Camping is resolved by a Survival roll per DF16.
If boats are concealed with Camouflage, roll only when it is required in a contest of skills against a searcher.
Wandering monster rolls occur every four hours at night, and dice are rolled to determine which shift they occur in (assuming a typical 4-shift watch.)
Notes:
I didn't originally see the Cold Fens as a hexcrawl. The PCs had only one main goal, originally - clear out Sakatha's island of evil. They failed in that and lost everyone except Gerry. I had seeded the area with nasty wandering monsters, though, and some fixed encounters - the giant brothers in the abandoned shrine to Old Father Troll, the dragon's lair in the old ruins, and one or two others. I figured the PCs would eventually come back, even from the first, but I didn't really think out how that would work.
I did take the time originally to set out the speeds of travel and the procedures for wandering monsters and so on. That paid off when we came to do this recent hexcrawl.
We did have to make some rulings along the way. Weather Sense changes the effects of weather but not the weather - it's still raining, your bows still get wet and the boat still fills up with water and must be bailed, you just don't get a -1 on Survival rolls and travel isn't affected as your expert knows how to prepare for and navigate the weather. Boating criticals improve speed of travel but don't provide miraculous effects (even on a "3") but an 18 does cause a disaster. Life isn't fair. Stuff like that. One little bit that was especially an issue was "Concealment" - I think the players started to think that reduced the chances of wandering monsters. It did not. It just reduced the chances those monsters would spot you first (or at all). Once they knew that, they did tend to choose Line-of-Sight as a camp feature as they worried more about their own Per than that of the monsters . . . who might not be impressed by visual concealment!
Having rolls per boat does mean it's unlikely one boat doing well really helps. Yes, traveling in groups means you tend to go at the slowest speed, and then a bit slower than that for coordination. Having four shifts at night for camping means a small group has less hours per day to travel or less sleep!
Overall it's been fun, and I hope to use a similar method for overland. I would change up the "how" a bit to match the overland approach we used in the Lost City, but the basic rules in DF16 work very well.
Sunday, March 28, 2021
DF Felltower: Field trip!
Galen and Wyatt headed about a bit under a week ago, seeking the local Drum Circle of Druids.
They're brining the vine suit they found to find out what it is and does.
Wyatt took care to carefully wrap it up in cloth, to protect it from the weather and wear, although he did note it was intact even as it was found with a skeleton. And, to be noted, it does seem to be extremely fresh plant material.
This is tough because no one knows who they are, or what they are doin'.*
They need the council of Warlock, head druid**, and his fellow druids.
Warlock, the Head Druid and Drum Circle Leader
Amusingly, Galen wants Wyatt to "do the talking." Galen has something like a net +4 reaction roll from druids - +5 from Outdoorsman, his Ring of Animal Friendship, and his +1 reputation as a Cleanser of the Garden of Trent Oakheart. Wyatt has a +1 from the same reputation. Even with Galen's -1 for his callous nature, and his -1 for roleplaying (heh, mostly joking), he's the best
They didn't bring anything but the vine suit. I think they're hoping for information in return for information, or the usual PC offer of exchange - "completing a quest." Yes, video games have permanently altered how gamers think of negotiation and personal value. "Are you sure you don't need something killed, or something brought from point A to point B, and way, way, way too much money to give for that?" We'll see how that works - it's a reaction roll at +4, so a 7-22, average 14.5.
We'll resolve their rolls to find the druids (Naturalist), living along the way (Survival), talking to the druids (reaction roll), and getting there and back (Orienteering). It should be routine, given the skill level of Galen.
And we'll quickly, pre-game, sort out the results next Sunday.
* This is official Felltower canon.
** So is this.
They're brining the vine suit they found to find out what it is and does.
Wyatt took care to carefully wrap it up in cloth, to protect it from the weather and wear, although he did note it was intact even as it was found with a skeleton. And, to be noted, it does seem to be extremely fresh plant material.
This is tough because no one knows who they are, or what they are doin'.*
They need the council of Warlock, head druid**, and his fellow druids.
Warlock, the Head Druid and Drum Circle Leader
Amusingly, Galen wants Wyatt to "do the talking." Galen has something like a net +4 reaction roll from druids - +5 from Outdoorsman, his Ring of Animal Friendship, and his +1 reputation as a Cleanser of the Garden of Trent Oakheart. Wyatt has a +1 from the same reputation. Even with Galen's -1 for his callous nature, and his -1 for roleplaying (heh, mostly joking), he's the best
They didn't bring anything but the vine suit. I think they're hoping for information in return for information, or the usual PC offer of exchange - "completing a quest." Yes, video games have permanently altered how gamers think of negotiation and personal value. "Are you sure you don't need something killed, or something brought from point A to point B, and way, way, way too much money to give for that?" We'll see how that works - it's a reaction roll at +4, so a 7-22, average 14.5.
We'll resolve their rolls to find the druids (Naturalist), living along the way (Survival), talking to the druids (reaction roll), and getting there and back (Orienteering). It should be routine, given the skill level of Galen.
And we'll quickly, pre-game, sort out the results next Sunday.
* This is official Felltower canon.
** So is this.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
Stericksburg's environs
Let's look at the wilderness environs of Stericksburg.
Stericksburg sits up against the Silver River, which is polluted by a mix of spillover from its tanning, alchemical, and non-magical concoction industries. Possibly from other sources - it's a bit too nasty even for a combination of those.
The Silver River largely divides "civilization" from "wilderness" and "uncivilized."
Only the slums and Sterick's Landing sit north of the river but are considered part of the city. Sterick's Landing is the original site of later-Baron Sterick's arrival near Felltower. The slums are where the day laborers who work in a variety of industries in Stericksburg live, as well as assorted other people living on the fringes of society or forced out of the city due to Social Stigma (Savage) or worse or sheer poverty (Dead Broke, generally.)
To the immediate south of the city are farms and orchards, fanning out from the city to provide its base of support. They heavily cling to the roads along the river, and to the south bank of the river. Despite the pollution, the river is useable enough to be valuable to sit next to. Smaller villages exist with a half-day's ride of the city, and a full day's ride out are somewhat larger towns.
Immediately north of the river are some farms and cultivated lots - orchards and grain crops. Some farms south of the river own and work land north of the river, traveling by small boat to their fruit orchards, but this isn't common. Mostly the north bank is used for wood, gathering mushrooms, trapping, and hunting. Even then, due to the number of owlbears, maned rats, occasional griffin fly-bys, threat of orc raiders, and so on, it's a risky business.
Further north are rougher and rougher hills (forested to the west, just hills to the east), mountains, and eventually the Bay of Ice. Due to unfavorable air currents and possibly magic, it's cold year-round and it's not uncommon to see chunk ice late in Spring and early in the Fall. Many cold-acclimated barbarians come from those regions.
In gameable terms, then, adventure happens north of the Silver River. It's also where those "camping" outside of town largely are doing their camping. The "local" druid cirlce is some miles off to the west in the woods. It's a trip to get there. The Silver River divides the game in half - it's largely safe south of the river. It's largely dangerous north of the river.
Next wilderness update - a little more on the rulership of the surrounding areas. I'd say states, but "nation" and "state" don't really fit in this pre-Renaissance structure. Short version - it's still largely feudal rulership and a manorial economy but slowly transitioning away from such.
Stericksburg sits up against the Silver River, which is polluted by a mix of spillover from its tanning, alchemical, and non-magical concoction industries. Possibly from other sources - it's a bit too nasty even for a combination of those.
The Silver River largely divides "civilization" from "wilderness" and "uncivilized."
Only the slums and Sterick's Landing sit north of the river but are considered part of the city. Sterick's Landing is the original site of later-Baron Sterick's arrival near Felltower. The slums are where the day laborers who work in a variety of industries in Stericksburg live, as well as assorted other people living on the fringes of society or forced out of the city due to Social Stigma (Savage) or worse or sheer poverty (Dead Broke, generally.)
To the immediate south of the city are farms and orchards, fanning out from the city to provide its base of support. They heavily cling to the roads along the river, and to the south bank of the river. Despite the pollution, the river is useable enough to be valuable to sit next to. Smaller villages exist with a half-day's ride of the city, and a full day's ride out are somewhat larger towns.
Immediately north of the river are some farms and cultivated lots - orchards and grain crops. Some farms south of the river own and work land north of the river, traveling by small boat to their fruit orchards, but this isn't common. Mostly the north bank is used for wood, gathering mushrooms, trapping, and hunting. Even then, due to the number of owlbears, maned rats, occasional griffin fly-bys, threat of orc raiders, and so on, it's a risky business.
Further north are rougher and rougher hills (forested to the west, just hills to the east), mountains, and eventually the Bay of Ice. Due to unfavorable air currents and possibly magic, it's cold year-round and it's not uncommon to see chunk ice late in Spring and early in the Fall. Many cold-acclimated barbarians come from those regions.
In gameable terms, then, adventure happens north of the Silver River. It's also where those "camping" outside of town largely are doing their camping. The "local" druid cirlce is some miles off to the west in the woods. It's a trip to get there. The Silver River divides the game in half - it's largely safe south of the river. It's largely dangerous north of the river.
Next wilderness update - a little more on the rulership of the surrounding areas. I'd say states, but "nation" and "state" don't really fit in this pre-Renaissance structure. Short version - it's still largely feudal rulership and a manorial economy but slowly transitioning away from such.
Monday, June 29, 2020
DF Cold Weather Gear
One of my players (he runs Wyatt) put this together:
The blank spot for crampons/foot spikes is on the assumption that "doom cleats" are some cinematic upgrade and "normal" crampons should be available. They are not. GURPS High-Tech says they are TL5. They are rules-identical to doom cleats. I may allow a jury-rigged approach of spiked books, but it, too, will be a permanent change to boots and be expensive.
So the PCs are equipping up for the "Arctic Gate."
Some rulings:
- Yes, even with Armor Mastery you suffer a -1 DX from wearing Arctic Clothing over your armor. No, you cannot wear it underneath your armor.
- Cold will affect exposed gear. You can put your potion belt and delver's webbing on the outside . . . but it may suffer from the cold. It will be cold. The rooms near the gate are frozen. In GMing terms, we call this a hint!
- Arctic clothing does not include mukluks. Clothing sets never include any protective footwear. They probably include socks, but not external footwear.
- Polar beer isn't available in Stericksburg.
- Yurts have an upside over tents - see DF16 p. 18.
- No one asked, but my cousin would if he was currently playing - Riding (Tauntaun) is not a learnable skill . . . in Stericksburg.
Hopefully someone springs for Survival (Arctic). Galen has a solid default, but I require IQ-based rolls to figure stuff out and sometimes you can't use gear or claim benefits without at least a level in the skill. From a game design perspective, I wonder if defaults of types like this works better as 1-point perks or techniques off a basic "Survival" skill? That's a post on its own.
The blank spot for crampons/foot spikes is on the assumption that "doom cleats" are some cinematic upgrade and "normal" crampons should be available. They are not. GURPS High-Tech says they are TL5. They are rules-identical to doom cleats. I may allow a jury-rigged approach of spiked books, but it, too, will be a permanent change to boots and be expensive.
So the PCs are equipping up for the "Arctic Gate."
Some rulings:
- Yes, even with Armor Mastery you suffer a -1 DX from wearing Arctic Clothing over your armor. No, you cannot wear it underneath your armor.
- Cold will affect exposed gear. You can put your potion belt and delver's webbing on the outside . . . but it may suffer from the cold. It will be cold. The rooms near the gate are frozen. In GMing terms, we call this a hint!
- Arctic clothing does not include mukluks. Clothing sets never include any protective footwear. They probably include socks, but not external footwear.
- Polar beer isn't available in Stericksburg.
- Yurts have an upside over tents - see DF16 p. 18.
- No one asked, but my cousin would if he was currently playing - Riding (Tauntaun) is not a learnable skill . . . in Stericksburg.
Hopefully someone springs for Survival (Arctic). Galen has a solid default, but I require IQ-based rolls to figure stuff out and sometimes you can't use gear or claim benefits without at least a level in the skill. From a game design perspective, I wonder if defaults of types like this works better as 1-point perks or techniques off a basic "Survival" skill? That's a post on its own.
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Felltower: What does Arctic Gear include?
The players in my Felltower game debated either the "Icy Gate" or the "Forest Gate" for next session. Although they ultimately chose the "Forest Gate," the question of arctic gear (DF 16, p. 16) came up.
When meshed with DFRPG armor, it's a really good deal. Better DR for less weight than some non-metal armor. Assuming, that is, that it includes full coverage from head to toe.
Here is what I ruled:
Arctic Gear (DF 16, p. 16) includes coverage for the head (skull, face), torso, arms, legs, and hands. It does not include boots. It covers the face but not the eyes - for that, get snow goggles. Also gives +1 FP for heat when worn in in non-arctic conditions; otherwise as written.
Clothes don't generally include boots, so no boots. Nor do they include goggles, so no to goggles as well. The extra FP cost is to discourage people from using it as a general-purpose armor booster/ersatz lighter non-metallic armor.
It seemed like the most fair way to do it.
They went with the "Forest Gate" after all. So Al at Al's Arctic Adventuring Aemporium isn't terribly happy right now, but he'll be on standby with arctic clothing and snowshoes for next time.
When meshed with DFRPG armor, it's a really good deal. Better DR for less weight than some non-metal armor. Assuming, that is, that it includes full coverage from head to toe.
Here is what I ruled:
Arctic Gear (DF 16, p. 16) includes coverage for the head (skull, face), torso, arms, legs, and hands. It does not include boots. It covers the face but not the eyes - for that, get snow goggles. Also gives +1 FP for heat when worn in in non-arctic conditions; otherwise as written.
Clothes don't generally include boots, so no boots. Nor do they include goggles, so no to goggles as well. The extra FP cost is to discourage people from using it as a general-purpose armor booster/ersatz lighter non-metallic armor.
It seemed like the most fair way to do it.
They went with the "Forest Gate" after all. So Al at Al's Arctic Adventuring Aemporium isn't terribly happy right now, but he'll be on standby with arctic clothing and snowshoes for next time.
Thursday, May 16, 2019
We go to the lands of the ice and snow: DF Cold Weather Gear notes
Last session in Felltower, the group found what's been dubbed the "Icy Gate." Mostly because it leads to a land of ice and snow, it's ice-bound, in a freezing room, and beyond big metal doors that are themselves frost-limned.
So you can see why it picked up the name.
If the PCs go beyond it, what is around for icy weather gear?
It's getting on Summer in Stericksburg, but it's been a cold, wet spring full of owlbear attacks, so it's reasonable to expect you can still go right out and get some cold-weather gear.
DF1
Sleeping Furs (p. 23) are required for camping successfully.
Tents (p. 23) are also a great idea, even if Weather Dome is available.
DF16
Arctic Clothing (p. 16) This is a must-have. The old "Dryst will use Create Object to make us some!" is a risky choice. It beats plain-old Winter Clothing (p. 16) with a stick; it might be overdoing it but it might not be.
Camouflage Clothing (p. 16) is also a good choice.
Yurts (p. 18) would be a solid upgrade from tents, but they're heavy and special-order.
Skates, Skis, and Snowshoes (p. 18) are worth looking at. Snowshoes would probably be the best choice for the area just past the gate.
DFD Barbarians
Polar Beer would be a an interesting choice, to reduce damage from friendly-fire flame attacks. However it's not commonly sold in Stericksburg. So that's two strikes right there.
Beyond these sources, magical support would be very important - Resist Cold, Warmth, fire spells (for offense and fire-starting), Water Vision, and Weather Dome can be delve makers or delve breakers.
So you can see why it picked up the name.
If the PCs go beyond it, what is around for icy weather gear?
It's getting on Summer in Stericksburg, but it's been a cold, wet spring full of owlbear attacks, so it's reasonable to expect you can still go right out and get some cold-weather gear.
DF1
Sleeping Furs (p. 23) are required for camping successfully.
Tents (p. 23) are also a great idea, even if Weather Dome is available.
DF16
Arctic Clothing (p. 16) This is a must-have. The old "Dryst will use Create Object to make us some!" is a risky choice. It beats plain-old Winter Clothing (p. 16) with a stick; it might be overdoing it but it might not be.
Camouflage Clothing (p. 16) is also a good choice.
Yurts (p. 18) would be a solid upgrade from tents, but they're heavy and special-order.
Skates, Skis, and Snowshoes (p. 18) are worth looking at. Snowshoes would probably be the best choice for the area just past the gate.
DFD Barbarians
Polar Beer would be a an interesting choice, to reduce damage from friendly-fire flame attacks. However it's not commonly sold in Stericksburg. So that's two strikes right there.
Beyond these sources, magical support would be very important - Resist Cold, Warmth, fire spells (for offense and fire-starting), Water Vision, and Weather Dome can be delve makers or delve breakers.
Friday, March 23, 2018
Unearthing sunken tanks from marshes
This falls under my interest in WWII tanks, and my tendency to make my gamers put their PCs into nasty, miserable marshes:
The Salvagers Who Raise World War Two Tanks From the Dead
How are the places they look?
Awful.
"“It is easy to hunt when you are shown a definite point,” says Mikalutski. “But to get to the point you may have to go five kilometres through marshes or snow. You reach the place and then you have to crawl back...”
For the sake of their own safety, the tank hunters never go into the marshes alone."
Winter, it's been -33 C.
Summer? "“What a buzz it is at night. It seems mosquitoes will overturn the van.”
Insect repellents do not help in marshes. The conditions are extremely difficult in hot weather: they have to work in thick jackets and hats even when it is 30C because of clouds of insects."
And that's in a normal, Earth marsh. No monsters, no mutants, not even an enemy army. Add those and you get ADVENTURE!
For loot, note how well-preserved some of these things are - still-edible chocolate, untouched textbooks, etc. It's not unreasonable for PCs to have to unearth something from a nasty marsh in either the peak of summer or the depths of winter, dealing with natural hazards on top of whatever threats surround the long-buried and lost loot . . . it need not even be a tank. If you insist.
The Salvagers Who Raise World War Two Tanks From the Dead
How are the places they look?
Awful.
"“It is easy to hunt when you are shown a definite point,” says Mikalutski. “But to get to the point you may have to go five kilometres through marshes or snow. You reach the place and then you have to crawl back...”
For the sake of their own safety, the tank hunters never go into the marshes alone."
Winter, it's been -33 C.
Summer? "“What a buzz it is at night. It seems mosquitoes will overturn the van.”
Insect repellents do not help in marshes. The conditions are extremely difficult in hot weather: they have to work in thick jackets and hats even when it is 30C because of clouds of insects."
And that's in a normal, Earth marsh. No monsters, no mutants, not even an enemy army. Add those and you get ADVENTURE!
For loot, note how well-preserved some of these things are - still-edible chocolate, untouched textbooks, etc. It's not unreasonable for PCs to have to unearth something from a nasty marsh in either the peak of summer or the depths of winter, dealing with natural hazards on top of whatever threats surround the long-buried and lost loot . . . it need not even be a tank. If you insist.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Keeping camping interesting using DF16
Marcus Orealias shot me an email essentially asking me to talk about my experience using the DF16 camping rules.
Let's talk my experience, and then ways to make all three choices worth considering each and every time you make the roll.
Experience
I love the camping rules in DF16. The roll + choice combination made for some interesting debates.
In my experience, my players always took Comfort plus one additional. They may have taken Concealment and LoS when concerned about a patrolling dragon, but I don't recall.
Comfort wins out for them because the loss of FP for lack of a comfortable campsite is steep. Losing 1 FP for the day - not recoverable except in town or by spending a night in a comfortable camp - really hurts the spellcasters. Throw in extra losses if they lack gear, if the weather slams down, or the GM is just being mean about the conditions, and spellcasters can be seriously weakened. It doesn't help Chi skill dependent Martial Artists any, either.
The tossup was always between concealment and lines of sight. This was an interesting choice.
Lines of Sight gives a bonus to spotting foes approaching the camp, and it was critical to allow the PCs to spot incoming creepy-crawlies, identify sneaky goblinkin, and otherwise ensure they made their Per rolls and weren't surprised. That often allowed the party to break out ranged weapons and spells and keep things off of them. Against very high Stealth creatures, the bonus to Per can make or break you.
Concealment, on the other hand, gives your opponents a hard time to find you (assuming your Camouflage is up to standards.) On top of that, it potentially gives you a second roll to spot incoming foes - again, if Camouflage is high enough. Hide well and you get two chances.
Ideally you have all three, which is what Serendipity and critical successes are for.
Making the choices tough
Drive home the importance of Lines of Sight with foes who sneak well. Make it so that the +1 to Per and the -1 to Stealth is potentially the margin between spotting a foe and being awake and ready or have an obsidian tiger or ooze or troll jumping you from behind while the rest of the party sleeps. Also, make it clear that choose Lines of Sight can mean good Lines of Fire, too, and that you may spot foes far enough away to engage them with ranged weapons and spells. Scouts generally prefer this to "you'll wake up just in time for melee!" since their skills make range valuable to them and a hindrance to foes.
Challenge Lines of Sight with foes that sneak very, very well. Also, challenge it with foes for whom spotting isn't an issue - invisible foes, teleporting foes, or extremely fast foes. For those, Lines of Sight really don't matter very much.
Make Concealment useful by using foes who hunt by sight. Especially lethal foes - dragons, eyes of death, scouts for large armies of fodder or worthy foes, etc. - these make hiding well a critical issue. Although the rules don't specify this, it's quite possible that foes failing to spot you might just pass campers by.
Challenge Concealment with foes who hunt by senses other than sight. Detect Life (Precise), Discriminatory Smell, exceptional hearing, etc. work well for making Concealment a sub-optimal (or even useless) choice.
Make Comfort important by including encounters that push PCs to the FP limits, and strictly enforce the rules for recovering the FP lost, here. If you handwave it and say, "I let them rest 10 minutes and get it back" it's just not going to be worth taking. If it's as written, it's critical to seek comfort - and bring the appropriate shelters (DF16, p. 24)!
Challenge Comfort by making Lines of Sight and Concealment more important. It's foolish not to take comfort as a default, if only because of your spellcasters. But given foes that hunt by sight and are potentially seeking you out, it might be worth being down 1-2 FP the next day and getting +1 to Per and +1 to Camouflage and giving -1 to Stealth and -1 to Vision.
Final Notes
Given the right mix of potential foes - especially if you've been aggressively signalling what's out there (dragon sightings, rumors of trolls, signs of an orc army, slime trails from oozes, etc.) - the players have some real choices to make. By following the spirit of the rules - sometimes you'll hide well enough and they'll miss you, sometimes nothing comes and only comfort was worth having, sometimes LoS means you spot them far enough off to break camp and leave - you'll make it a fun choice, too.
Let's talk my experience, and then ways to make all three choices worth considering each and every time you make the roll.
Experience
I love the camping rules in DF16. The roll + choice combination made for some interesting debates.
In my experience, my players always took Comfort plus one additional. They may have taken Concealment and LoS when concerned about a patrolling dragon, but I don't recall.
Comfort wins out for them because the loss of FP for lack of a comfortable campsite is steep. Losing 1 FP for the day - not recoverable except in town or by spending a night in a comfortable camp - really hurts the spellcasters. Throw in extra losses if they lack gear, if the weather slams down, or the GM is just being mean about the conditions, and spellcasters can be seriously weakened. It doesn't help Chi skill dependent Martial Artists any, either.
The tossup was always between concealment and lines of sight. This was an interesting choice.
Lines of Sight gives a bonus to spotting foes approaching the camp, and it was critical to allow the PCs to spot incoming creepy-crawlies, identify sneaky goblinkin, and otherwise ensure they made their Per rolls and weren't surprised. That often allowed the party to break out ranged weapons and spells and keep things off of them. Against very high Stealth creatures, the bonus to Per can make or break you.
Concealment, on the other hand, gives your opponents a hard time to find you (assuming your Camouflage is up to standards.) On top of that, it potentially gives you a second roll to spot incoming foes - again, if Camouflage is high enough. Hide well and you get two chances.
Ideally you have all three, which is what Serendipity and critical successes are for.
Making the choices tough
Drive home the importance of Lines of Sight with foes who sneak well. Make it so that the +1 to Per and the -1 to Stealth is potentially the margin between spotting a foe and being awake and ready or have an obsidian tiger or ooze or troll jumping you from behind while the rest of the party sleeps. Also, make it clear that choose Lines of Sight can mean good Lines of Fire, too, and that you may spot foes far enough away to engage them with ranged weapons and spells. Scouts generally prefer this to "you'll wake up just in time for melee!" since their skills make range valuable to them and a hindrance to foes.
Challenge Lines of Sight with foes that sneak very, very well. Also, challenge it with foes for whom spotting isn't an issue - invisible foes, teleporting foes, or extremely fast foes. For those, Lines of Sight really don't matter very much.
Make Concealment useful by using foes who hunt by sight. Especially lethal foes - dragons, eyes of death, scouts for large armies of fodder or worthy foes, etc. - these make hiding well a critical issue. Although the rules don't specify this, it's quite possible that foes failing to spot you might just pass campers by.
Challenge Concealment with foes who hunt by senses other than sight. Detect Life (Precise), Discriminatory Smell, exceptional hearing, etc. work well for making Concealment a sub-optimal (or even useless) choice.
Make Comfort important by including encounters that push PCs to the FP limits, and strictly enforce the rules for recovering the FP lost, here. If you handwave it and say, "I let them rest 10 minutes and get it back" it's just not going to be worth taking. If it's as written, it's critical to seek comfort - and bring the appropriate shelters (DF16, p. 24)!
Challenge Comfort by making Lines of Sight and Concealment more important. It's foolish not to take comfort as a default, if only because of your spellcasters. But given foes that hunt by sight and are potentially seeking you out, it might be worth being down 1-2 FP the next day and getting +1 to Per and +1 to Camouflage and giving -1 to Stealth and -1 to Vision.
Final Notes
Given the right mix of potential foes - especially if you've been aggressively signalling what's out there (dragon sightings, rumors of trolls, signs of an orc army, slime trails from oozes, etc.) - the players have some real choices to make. By following the spirit of the rules - sometimes you'll hide well enough and they'll miss you, sometimes nothing comes and only comfort was worth having, sometimes LoS means you spot them far enough off to break camp and leave - you'll make it a fun choice, too.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Other People's Posts 12/13
Not to turn my blog into a list of other people's blog posts, but again today I'd like to highlight some blog posts I read that I really got a lot out of:
The Twilight:2000-themed minis blog It's 500 Miles to the German Border has a great post on weathering vehicle minis. Wear Value 5 comes from the game scale wear value of vehicles in T2K. Vehicles are valuable but hard to maintain, and since many if not most military units have broken up into small bands vehicles are worn-out, parts-starved, gear-covered combination wagon/fighting vehicles. This is just a nice bit of advice for taking any modern vehicle and making it loot used.
Joseph Mason has more issues with GURPS Dungeon Fantasy than I ever did, but has one of the same issues I've had - he can't put it down and walk away. I've said this before and I'll say it again - we played a playtest of Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 1 just because we'd been board gaming but hadn't roleplaying gamed in a while, and then turned that into a DF game. That DF game was meant to be "mess around until we get bored" . . . and that hasn't happened yet six years on. In fact, that biggest and most consistent complaint about my DF game isn't my GMing, the wildly unbalanced encounters I use, issues with XP systems or treasure, TPKs, etc. but that we don't play often enough.
Greyhawkery has a very evocative post listing the swamps of Greyhawk. The post "Poll Result: Most Dangerous Swamp really highlights what makes each one interesting and dangerous. I love swamps, marshes, and river deltas as adventuring places, and all of these put me in mind to encourage my players to explore the Cold Fens a bit more . . .
This is pretty much what happens in my game when people decide the best rear guards are the Per 10 hirelings they hired for 1/3 of a pittance each (success only):
And finally, the roper in this picture always makes me think it's a guy in a costume. It just looks like a guy in a costume to me, maybe for Halloween or maybe in a surprisingly well-made low-budget movie.
The Twilight:2000-themed minis blog It's 500 Miles to the German Border has a great post on weathering vehicle minis. Wear Value 5 comes from the game scale wear value of vehicles in T2K. Vehicles are valuable but hard to maintain, and since many if not most military units have broken up into small bands vehicles are worn-out, parts-starved, gear-covered combination wagon/fighting vehicles. This is just a nice bit of advice for taking any modern vehicle and making it loot used.
Joseph Mason has more issues with GURPS Dungeon Fantasy than I ever did, but has one of the same issues I've had - he can't put it down and walk away. I've said this before and I'll say it again - we played a playtest of Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 1 just because we'd been board gaming but hadn't roleplaying gamed in a while, and then turned that into a DF game. That DF game was meant to be "mess around until we get bored" . . . and that hasn't happened yet six years on. In fact, that biggest and most consistent complaint about my DF game isn't my GMing, the wildly unbalanced encounters I use, issues with XP systems or treasure, TPKs, etc. but that we don't play often enough.
Greyhawkery has a very evocative post listing the swamps of Greyhawk. The post "Poll Result: Most Dangerous Swamp really highlights what makes each one interesting and dangerous. I love swamps, marshes, and river deltas as adventuring places, and all of these put me in mind to encourage my players to explore the Cold Fens a bit more . . .
This is pretty much what happens in my game when people decide the best rear guards are the Per 10 hirelings they hired for 1/3 of a pittance each (success only):
And finally, the roper in this picture always makes me think it's a guy in a costume. It just looks like a guy in a costume to me, maybe for Halloween or maybe in a surprisingly well-made low-budget movie.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Why I don't sweat long-term fatigue issues in my game
One reason I don't really fret the generous fatigue point (FP) rules in GURPS is personal experience.
At the moment I'm doing some MMA training in Japan, as well as visiting old friends - the experience blends, as almost all of my Japanese friends are my MMA training buddies from living here and past visits. I do this routine of doing every single class while I'm in town, travelling to friendly associated gyms and training there, hunting down old friends and the toughest-seeming new guys to train with. I push nonstop, make some Carousing rolls in between, and sleep little thanks to an early dawn and early rising neighbors where I stay.
This isn't the first time I've done this. My record is training the same day I got off the plane, and then training 12 days out of 14 (two Sundays messed that up) including at least one extra mid-day class. Going hard 4-5 days in a row on minimal sleep (5-6 hours, not my usual 7-8) while jet-lagged and doing almost every round of training isn't that hard. I'd do all of the rounds but sometimes partner switching means you really can't or lack of mat space means waiting. And I'm always here when it's brutally hot and humid except when there is a typhoon. Plus my carefully arranged diet goes out the window in favor of randomly selected foods and travel-ready portions.
It's a pace that burns the candle at both ends but generally gets bracketed by a short break before (albeit with travel stress) and a long one after. Not a big deal if you don't do it every single day for a long time.
The individual bouts of combative training and fine, too - I generally feel like I've got as much power at the end as the beginning.
Anyway, this informs my opinion on whether I should enforce long-term fatigue penalties or more strict FP recovery issues in my GURPS games.
My DF game is a case in point. Megadungeon delving is a lot like this in my campaign. The PCs are off for a while. Then they gear up and do a half to a full day off walking, fighting, sneaking, healing, running, dragging, climbing, searching, etc. with only snatches of rest here and there to make up for FP spent in battles or movement. And once FP are back, they're back - no Last Gasp or Long-Term Fatigue rules wanted, needed, or used. After a day of this, the PCs take their haul back to town, sell it off, and presumably get some rest before doing whatever they do in Stericksburg that pays for most of their upkeep.
Even the overland isn't that bad - travel for a few days by boat (Cold Fens) or by foot (Lost City of D'Abo), spend a day or two trashing the "dungeon," then repeat. You might be tired when you get there but not enough to really bother anything.
The fact that no one took Light Sleeper helps, too - no one is literally asking for points in return for special issues with travel and fighting and lack of sleep thrown together.
There is nothing wrong - and a lot right - with the rules I referenced above. They just aren't appropriate in my game.
I don't like to generalize from only my personal experience. But I do find that my personal experience provides a nice explanation for why the delvers in my game aren't slammed for many delves in a short time or intense delves in general. And why I don't fret cumulative effects of hard combat beyond that caused by direct injury. Here is where the generous rules do match my experience with doing this in the relatively short term - intense effort is possible even when tired, especially combative effort. Penalizing the PCs for it doesn't seem that fun, and would run counter to something I've done personally. So yeah, thanks to my own "vacation" plans ("Let's full-contact spar for 9 out of 10 3-minute rounds with 15 second breaks!") I don't worry about the PC's fatigue issues ("Let's kill orcs for 12 seconds and then hang out for 15 minutes resting and looting, then fight again in two hours.")
At the moment I'm doing some MMA training in Japan, as well as visiting old friends - the experience blends, as almost all of my Japanese friends are my MMA training buddies from living here and past visits. I do this routine of doing every single class while I'm in town, travelling to friendly associated gyms and training there, hunting down old friends and the toughest-seeming new guys to train with. I push nonstop, make some Carousing rolls in between, and sleep little thanks to an early dawn and early rising neighbors where I stay.
This isn't the first time I've done this. My record is training the same day I got off the plane, and then training 12 days out of 14 (two Sundays messed that up) including at least one extra mid-day class. Going hard 4-5 days in a row on minimal sleep (5-6 hours, not my usual 7-8) while jet-lagged and doing almost every round of training isn't that hard. I'd do all of the rounds but sometimes partner switching means you really can't or lack of mat space means waiting. And I'm always here when it's brutally hot and humid except when there is a typhoon. Plus my carefully arranged diet goes out the window in favor of randomly selected foods and travel-ready portions.
It's a pace that burns the candle at both ends but generally gets bracketed by a short break before (albeit with travel stress) and a long one after. Not a big deal if you don't do it every single day for a long time.
The individual bouts of combative training and fine, too - I generally feel like I've got as much power at the end as the beginning.
Anyway, this informs my opinion on whether I should enforce long-term fatigue penalties or more strict FP recovery issues in my GURPS games.
My DF game is a case in point. Megadungeon delving is a lot like this in my campaign. The PCs are off for a while. Then they gear up and do a half to a full day off walking, fighting, sneaking, healing, running, dragging, climbing, searching, etc. with only snatches of rest here and there to make up for FP spent in battles or movement. And once FP are back, they're back - no Last Gasp or Long-Term Fatigue rules wanted, needed, or used. After a day of this, the PCs take their haul back to town, sell it off, and presumably get some rest before doing whatever they do in Stericksburg that pays for most of their upkeep.
Even the overland isn't that bad - travel for a few days by boat (Cold Fens) or by foot (Lost City of D'Abo), spend a day or two trashing the "dungeon," then repeat. You might be tired when you get there but not enough to really bother anything.
The fact that no one took Light Sleeper helps, too - no one is literally asking for points in return for special issues with travel and fighting and lack of sleep thrown together.
There is nothing wrong - and a lot right - with the rules I referenced above. They just aren't appropriate in my game.
I don't like to generalize from only my personal experience. But I do find that my personal experience provides a nice explanation for why the delvers in my game aren't slammed for many delves in a short time or intense delves in general. And why I don't fret cumulative effects of hard combat beyond that caused by direct injury. Here is where the generous rules do match my experience with doing this in the relatively short term - intense effort is possible even when tired, especially combative effort. Penalizing the PCs for it doesn't seem that fun, and would run counter to something I've done personally. So yeah, thanks to my own "vacation" plans ("Let's full-contact spar for 9 out of 10 3-minute rounds with 15 second breaks!") I don't worry about the PC's fatigue issues ("Let's kill orcs for 12 seconds and then hang out for 15 minutes resting and looting, then fight again in two hours.")
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Weather in the Dungeon
So Dungeon Fantasy 16: Wilderness Adventures covers weather (p. 30-31) for wilderness adventures.
For reasons unclear to me, Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons doesn't mention weather for dungeons. Let's fix that oversight. This is based on the rules in DF16, but weather is less changeable in the dungeon so the ranges have been modified. Weather in the dungeon is fairly stable; roll once per delve (for short delves), once per level (for large or mega-dungeons), once per area (for superdungeons), or once per 1d hours.
3-5 – Perfect. The tunnels are clear, the usually noisome corridors, creaky doors, damp air, etc. is absent. All Prospecting, Cartography, Tracking, and Perception rolls are at +1. Reduce lighting penalties by -1 out to the normal limits of the light source.
6-14 – Passable. The usual creaks, groans, moisture, drafts, etc. are present. No effect on travel speed or skills.
15-16 – Bad. Even dungeons have nasty weather. Drafts - natural and unnatural - abound and seem to blow into the delvers at all turns. The flagstones are slick in spots and rough in others, either naturally or due to mold, mildew, blood, and bits of grue (or actual bits of Grüs.) All Prospecting, Cartography, Tracking, and Perception rolls are at -1. Sound and smell-based Stealth and any Climbing rolls are penalized as well. Light sources are unnaturally dimmed from strange mists, flicker in the drafts, or just seem drained of brightness by the supernatural darkness around the delvers. Light sources project out to 2/3 of their usual distance.
17-18 – Dire. As above, but the dungeon is hostile to you in a seemingly personal way. Black or grey mists obscure vision, flagstones are slick or feel uneven or warped, drafts abound and occasional real winds blow down corridors. Travel speed is only 75% of usual (round down, and all footing is treated as Bad Footing - and normally bad footing has its penalties doubled. Light sources project out to only 1/2 of their usual distance, and double the penalties beyond that. All of the above skills are at -2.
During Dire weather, one additional side effect will occur. Choose one of the following or roll randomly:
1 - Supernatural Storms. The Mana (1-3), Sanctity (4-5), or purify of Nature (6) drops significantly. For either mana or sanctity, roll a further 1d, on a 1-5, the level drops by one. One a 6, the level drops by two levels. For nature, roll 1d and add that to the existing penalty for the surrounding area, or reduce the level to -5, whichever is worse.
2-5 - Monster Warping. During the weather event, monsters sometimes change . . . roll 1d. On a 1, add two prefixes to the monster (usually distorted, chaos, or berserker plus one other, or two of those); on a 2-4, add either chaos or distorted, on a 5-6 the monster is unchanged. Roll individual or for whole groups.
6 - Delver Warping. The delvers might warp - characters suffer 1d x -5 points worth of additional disadvantages. Choose any, but temporarily missing or crippled limbs, Delusions, Post-Combat Shakes, Wounded (a state which will automatically be visible to all foes), Unhealing, Magic Susceptibility, and so are are especially appropriate. When the weather event ends these go away completely - but the consequences of having adventured while having them will not!
Happy April Fools day. And if you think this isn't useable in play, and that I won't use it . . . then double April Fools on you!
For reasons unclear to me, Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons doesn't mention weather for dungeons. Let's fix that oversight. This is based on the rules in DF16, but weather is less changeable in the dungeon so the ranges have been modified. Weather in the dungeon is fairly stable; roll once per delve (for short delves), once per level (for large or mega-dungeons), once per area (for superdungeons), or once per 1d hours.
3-5 – Perfect. The tunnels are clear, the usually noisome corridors, creaky doors, damp air, etc. is absent. All Prospecting, Cartography, Tracking, and Perception rolls are at +1. Reduce lighting penalties by -1 out to the normal limits of the light source.
6-14 – Passable. The usual creaks, groans, moisture, drafts, etc. are present. No effect on travel speed or skills.
15-16 – Bad. Even dungeons have nasty weather. Drafts - natural and unnatural - abound and seem to blow into the delvers at all turns. The flagstones are slick in spots and rough in others, either naturally or due to mold, mildew, blood, and bits of grue (or actual bits of Grüs.) All Prospecting, Cartography, Tracking, and Perception rolls are at -1. Sound and smell-based Stealth and any Climbing rolls are penalized as well. Light sources are unnaturally dimmed from strange mists, flicker in the drafts, or just seem drained of brightness by the supernatural darkness around the delvers. Light sources project out to 2/3 of their usual distance.
17-18 – Dire. As above, but the dungeon is hostile to you in a seemingly personal way. Black or grey mists obscure vision, flagstones are slick or feel uneven or warped, drafts abound and occasional real winds blow down corridors. Travel speed is only 75% of usual (round down, and all footing is treated as Bad Footing - and normally bad footing has its penalties doubled. Light sources project out to only 1/2 of their usual distance, and double the penalties beyond that. All of the above skills are at -2.
During Dire weather, one additional side effect will occur. Choose one of the following or roll randomly:
1 - Supernatural Storms. The Mana (1-3), Sanctity (4-5), or purify of Nature (6) drops significantly. For either mana or sanctity, roll a further 1d, on a 1-5, the level drops by one. One a 6, the level drops by two levels. For nature, roll 1d and add that to the existing penalty for the surrounding area, or reduce the level to -5, whichever is worse.
2-5 - Monster Warping. During the weather event, monsters sometimes change . . . roll 1d. On a 1, add two prefixes to the monster (usually distorted, chaos, or berserker plus one other, or two of those); on a 2-4, add either chaos or distorted, on a 5-6 the monster is unchanged. Roll individual or for whole groups.
6 - Delver Warping. The delvers might warp - characters suffer 1d x -5 points worth of additional disadvantages. Choose any, but temporarily missing or crippled limbs, Delusions, Post-Combat Shakes, Wounded (a state which will automatically be visible to all foes), Unhealing, Magic Susceptibility, and so are are especially appropriate. When the weather event ends these go away completely - but the consequences of having adventured while having them will not!
Happy April Fools day. And if you think this isn't useable in play, and that I won't use it . . . then double April Fools on you!
Thursday, September 24, 2015
DF Lost City Jungle Rules
So I made a cheat sheet of the player-facing rules I'm using from DF16 for my DF Lost City game.
That way, my players are looking at the exact rules I am, and can prepare appropriately. After all, the characters can sense tiredness or know how hot they are or experience the jungle, but the players can only make decisions based on descriptions and roll mods. I'll describe as I go, but I wanted to put the roll mods in front of them so they can make informed decisions.
(In game, the characters will have put up with this crud on the way to the starting point, so they'll be experienced with it. This helps explain why their loadouts reflect the area so well.)
Vic suggested people would like to see it. I think this is true, but it's mostly from DF16 so I can't just cut-and-paste-and-post what I largely cut-and-pasted. It's stuff that is in DF16. But what stuff?
Here it is!
Movement and Travel Time as written, from p. 23. We don't using Hiking skill but successful Navigation will keep you on the x0.4 trail instead of the x0.2 jungle. Sometimes, "I'm pretty sure it's the right fork" and being wrong means backtracking!
Nasty Weather is from p. 30-31, but I simplified Weather Sense down to mitigating the effects because you do some unspecific "preparations" and "adjustments." Why don't you do them all the time? Because it'll slow you down even when the weather is good.
Camping, p. 24-25, as written. Actually I didn't put these on the cheat sheet as people have them down by now. Everyone say it with me, success means pick two!
Scouting, from p. 25, as written.
Heat and FP, from Harsh Climates, p. 30 and Travel Fatigue, p. 24. I adjusted the +1 FP for "plate" to "metal armor" because GURPS is extremely generous about armor worn in heat. The daily Survival roll is at -2, net, for conditions and temperature.
It's a trek to a known destination, not an exploration, so those and some random encounters with bad conditions and trail problems as well as biting flies and jungle leaping leeches and the dreaded tree lobster is really what it's all about. These ensure being heavily equipped and under-prepared suck, but also ensure being prepared means you know, in game, what you're getting for giving up DR and heavy but useful gear.
That way, my players are looking at the exact rules I am, and can prepare appropriately. After all, the characters can sense tiredness or know how hot they are or experience the jungle, but the players can only make decisions based on descriptions and roll mods. I'll describe as I go, but I wanted to put the roll mods in front of them so they can make informed decisions.
(In game, the characters will have put up with this crud on the way to the starting point, so they'll be experienced with it. This helps explain why their loadouts reflect the area so well.)
Vic suggested people would like to see it. I think this is true, but it's mostly from DF16 so I can't just cut-and-paste-and-post what I largely cut-and-pasted. It's stuff that is in DF16. But what stuff?
Here it is!
Movement and Travel Time as written, from p. 23. We don't using Hiking skill but successful Navigation will keep you on the x0.4 trail instead of the x0.2 jungle. Sometimes, "I'm pretty sure it's the right fork" and being wrong means backtracking!
Nasty Weather is from p. 30-31, but I simplified Weather Sense down to mitigating the effects because you do some unspecific "preparations" and "adjustments." Why don't you do them all the time? Because it'll slow you down even when the weather is good.
Camping, p. 24-25, as written. Actually I didn't put these on the cheat sheet as people have them down by now. Everyone say it with me, success means pick two!
Scouting, from p. 25, as written.
Heat and FP, from Harsh Climates, p. 30 and Travel Fatigue, p. 24. I adjusted the +1 FP for "plate" to "metal armor" because GURPS is extremely generous about armor worn in heat. The daily Survival roll is at -2, net, for conditions and temperature.
It's a trek to a known destination, not an exploration, so those and some random encounters with bad conditions and trail problems as well as biting flies and jungle leaping leeches and the dreaded tree lobster is really what it's all about. These ensure being heavily equipped and under-prepared suck, but also ensure being prepared means you know, in game, what you're getting for giving up DR and heavy but useful gear.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Nature is Noisy
When your PCs enter the woods, are the woods quiet? Maybe too quiet?
Are your jungles quiet and sound-suppressing except for a few monkey noises?
Are your prairies and hills lacking noise until the wind kicks up to signal danger?
Yeah, mine are too.
One thing I get reminded of whenever I'm back in Japan (like right now) - nature is really, really noisy. It's not car noises and fire trucks and neighbors fighting at 2 am. It's not the whine of engines and the buzz of lawnmowers at the exact minute they're allowed to start working.
But nature? Nature is cricket noises, cicadas buzzing, bugs and beetles, birds chirping, animals in the undergrowth moving around. Cows lowing, horses nickering, trees creaking in the wind.
Unnatural noises can be louder - much louder - but the idea that nature isn't a din of continuous noise and action is easy to think if you live in the city or suburbs. Natural surroundings seem like they'd just lack the man-made noises and thus be quieter.
No such luck.
For example, the cicadas in Japan are astoundingly loud - so much so you have to flee indoors to get a respite from the noise of the trees in the suburbs. (Sadly, I don't have the video I took a few years back on a small island off Shikoku, Japan - it's just a nonstop drone of insect noises meshed together. It's on another computer or I'd post it here.)
I think some of this also comes from fantasy fiction - the woods are always quiet. The caves are always dark and quiet. The outdoors is a place of peace, serenity, and bucolic calm even in the presence of humans. One fleeing adventurer steps on a stick or a leaf and alerts the entire woods to their presence and gives them away to the honed ears of the pursuers. In other words, nature is always -0 to hear anything.
In my own games, even when I mention noises I don't always keep mentioning them. It happens once, then I let it go in my distraction doing everything else.
Maybe I need to make a general "noise and disturbances" number and put it up on the GM screen. It's -2 to hear, here, for everyone. You make a normal Stealth check, but your opponents get a -2 to their Per roll to hear. Putting it up on the GM screen or out on the table would mean it's easy to remember. It'll also make it clear how painfully easy it is to be heard underground when that becomes a bonus.
By the way, I'm all for Survival being a constant Complementary Skill check for Stealth while outdoors. Make both rolls, always - the wilderness newbie doesn't sneak as well as the experienced survivor.
In short, though, nature is noisy. Don't let all of your woods be quiet and your grasslands peaceful. Add some noise - it's realistic and makes the environment matter more.
Are your jungles quiet and sound-suppressing except for a few monkey noises?
Are your prairies and hills lacking noise until the wind kicks up to signal danger?
Yeah, mine are too.
One thing I get reminded of whenever I'm back in Japan (like right now) - nature is really, really noisy. It's not car noises and fire trucks and neighbors fighting at 2 am. It's not the whine of engines and the buzz of lawnmowers at the exact minute they're allowed to start working.
But nature? Nature is cricket noises, cicadas buzzing, bugs and beetles, birds chirping, animals in the undergrowth moving around. Cows lowing, horses nickering, trees creaking in the wind.
Unnatural noises can be louder - much louder - but the idea that nature isn't a din of continuous noise and action is easy to think if you live in the city or suburbs. Natural surroundings seem like they'd just lack the man-made noises and thus be quieter.
No such luck.
For example, the cicadas in Japan are astoundingly loud - so much so you have to flee indoors to get a respite from the noise of the trees in the suburbs. (Sadly, I don't have the video I took a few years back on a small island off Shikoku, Japan - it's just a nonstop drone of insect noises meshed together. It's on another computer or I'd post it here.)
I think some of this also comes from fantasy fiction - the woods are always quiet. The caves are always dark and quiet. The outdoors is a place of peace, serenity, and bucolic calm even in the presence of humans. One fleeing adventurer steps on a stick or a leaf and alerts the entire woods to their presence and gives them away to the honed ears of the pursuers. In other words, nature is always -0 to hear anything.
In my own games, even when I mention noises I don't always keep mentioning them. It happens once, then I let it go in my distraction doing everything else.
Maybe I need to make a general "noise and disturbances" number and put it up on the GM screen. It's -2 to hear, here, for everyone. You make a normal Stealth check, but your opponents get a -2 to their Per roll to hear. Putting it up on the GM screen or out on the table would mean it's easy to remember. It'll also make it clear how painfully easy it is to be heard underground when that becomes a bonus.
By the way, I'm all for Survival being a constant Complementary Skill check for Stealth while outdoors. Make both rolls, always - the wilderness newbie doesn't sneak as well as the experienced survivor.
In short, though, nature is noisy. Don't let all of your woods be quiet and your grasslands peaceful. Add some noise - it's realistic and makes the environment matter more.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Show them the map
Probably the best wilderness adventure advice I found in Dungeon Fantasy 16: Wilderness Adventures was pretty simple:
Show them the map.
I put down a map of the swamp of the Cold Fens (at least the wet, everglades-y waterways portion they are in) and cover up the bits they can't see. Then I move and reveal it as they go. I leave it revealed from then on, so exploration always widens their (wholly accurate) map.
All they know is, they can still get lost (from bad rolls or bad decisions), they still don't know what happens in any given spot on the map if they go there. They still don't have fully actionable knowledge about the entirety of the map. But they have enough to make clear decisions.
It makes it easier to run as the GM, almost as easy as (actually maybe easier than) dungeon adventuring. It's also exciting. The players get into it more. They are more active in marking the map and making decisions. Everyone can see at a glance just how nasty the surroundings are, and decide based on it. The only thing that could make it better is if I could draw pictures of the swamp I see in my head when I'm describing the place.
You can see this in Delta's sandbox games, too. Having the whole map in front of you means choosing your path with more clarity, but it doesn't reduce the mystery of what is to come.
I highly recommend doing this with wildness adventures - show them the map. Let them find out as they go what's in the dark places and ruins on it, but spare yourself and them the hassle of describing a wilderness.
Show them the map.
I put down a map of the swamp of the Cold Fens (at least the wet, everglades-y waterways portion they are in) and cover up the bits they can't see. Then I move and reveal it as they go. I leave it revealed from then on, so exploration always widens their (wholly accurate) map.
All they know is, they can still get lost (from bad rolls or bad decisions), they still don't know what happens in any given spot on the map if they go there. They still don't have fully actionable knowledge about the entirety of the map. But they have enough to make clear decisions.
It makes it easier to run as the GM, almost as easy as (actually maybe easier than) dungeon adventuring. It's also exciting. The players get into it more. They are more active in marking the map and making decisions. Everyone can see at a glance just how nasty the surroundings are, and decide based on it. The only thing that could make it better is if I could draw pictures of the swamp I see in my head when I'm describing the place.
You can see this in Delta's sandbox games, too. Having the whole map in front of you means choosing your path with more clarity, but it doesn't reduce the mystery of what is to come.
I highly recommend doing this with wildness adventures - show them the map. Let them find out as they go what's in the dark places and ruins on it, but spare yourself and them the hassle of describing a wilderness.
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