RIP Mark, a heroic yet sad character death in this weeks game. Link to our Death and Dismemberment House Rules

Tuesday night is our groups game night. They were in the sewers of Deepfall trying to discover the mystery of who or what tried to break through the sealed magical door to Odyssious’ Wizard Tower. Odyssious called on the party to investigate this after he had successfully defended the door which had completly drained him. The party was headed back to the tower, somewhat battered and running out of resources, as they approached the last interesection with just another hundred feet or so to get back to the magic door. With loud footsteps a massive rat ogre abomination came around the corner, lead in massive chains by six ratmen and a Corvinian priest. This was obviously the creature that had almost broken through the door, and was on the way to try it again. The party attacked with ranged weapons all trained on the abomination, this hurt it and enraged it, yanking the chains from the ratmen’s hands. It turned to face it’s attackers. The Corvinian priest began chanting up a spell in the ratmen’s language. Mark, the gnome fighter rushed up and leaped at the abomination with his bastard sword, (Scoring a natural 20) felling the abomination into the sewer, but then one of the ratmen fired his crossbow at Mark, (also scoring a natural 20) reducing Mark to zero hit points. Mark had to roll on the Death and Dismemberment charts (Our own house rules for reaching zero hit points) He rolled a 5 and only had two rounds to be saved, and only heal spells or potions would save him. Unfortunately, the Corvinian priest cast a ratmen spell, Caustic Mist, which enveloped the all the party members in the front, immobilizing them for three rounds. None of the remaing party could enter the caustic mist, so Mark died before anyone could reach him. He died after killing the abomination (which was epic and heroic) only to be felled by a ratmen’s crossbow bolt.

Here is a link to my Death and Dismemberment charts. The original inspiration was from the Dungeoncraft YouTube channel. His chart in the episode #171 video “Why D&D Charaters need to die” was what I based my chart off of. I am a dungeon master that plays old school, and I believe that reaching zero hit points should mean death, the game is best when there is a real threat of death. That said, I am also a softy, and I hate to see characters die. These charts still give the characters a chance to survive, but there could be consequences. I always roll my dice out in the open for the players to see, so there is no fudging dice in our game. We implemented the Death and Dismemberment charts to lessen the blow of death, but it can still be brutal. Now my players are as scared of rolling on these charts as they are of reaching zero hit points.

….”Friday’s Mystery Meat”….An encounter from last week’s Game.

~ Attention. Here’s an update on tonight’s dinner. It was veal. I repeat, veal. The winner of tonight’s mystery meat contest is Jeffrey Corbin who guessed “some kind of beef.”~

I felt the need to post something, and figured I would start posting “Fridaqy Mystery Meat” posts again. These posts are just for anything I feel like sharing, and or showing off.

This week’s is a small map / encounter straight out of my campaign notebook. The party is currently tracking down a mysterious force that almost broke through a strong magical door under Odyssious’s wizard tower (An NPC). Odyssious was drained trying to keep the force from breaking through the door. He called on the party to help find out what it was that almost broke through from the sewers into his tower. Being a strong ally of the party, and Marvollo the party’s wizard in particular, this was a no brainer for them.

After their first encounter in the sewers vs. some ratmen and a large rat ogre, they found a secret door that lead down some very old stairs. This was the encounter straight out of my DM’s notebook, just a picture, unedited, in all it’s ugly, messy glory. The stats and to hit numbers I use from AD&D / Osric. The centipede stats are from AD&D, I need to update it with Osric stats (Which are usually exactly the same, but once in awhile I find differences.) For example in AD&D a level one and level two fighter use the same to hit numbers, in Osric a level one fighter might hit on say a 14, while a level two hits on a 13. The orange highlighted line is what the corpse needs to hit the AC’s listed above it. The blue and green highlighted lines are what my group’s characters need to hit the animated corpse. It’s a way for me to keep all the info I need to run the encounter right there on the same page.

What’s in the Barrel? 1d100 Random Table

Here is another random table I use all the time in my game. The players seem to enjoy these, and they are a lot of fun during the game. Here is the link, What’s in the Barrel.

Random Potion Effects…1d100 Random Table

Last year I created a random potion effects table, in my campaign world, elixer makers, apothocaries, etc. always seem to have a box of failed potions in their shops. They always want to sell them dirt cheap, and the players really liked it. The random effects have a way of driving the adventure in unexpected directions, they are lots of fun. Here is the Link: Random Potion Effects.

Some more Sewer Tiles

I scanned in some more of the sewer tiles I made this weekend. I cut them out and glued them to some black foamboard, then cut those out. It was a lot faster than actually drawing them in the first place. Now I can just print them out, instead of spending all that time drawing them. I will be adding some “flats” wooden bridges, doors, barrels, crates, etc. then combine them all into a single PDF you all can download and print for yourselves. Enjoy!

Tiles I cut out, ready to be pasted on to black foam core sheets.

Just WIP picture, with the sheet of small encounter maps (which is what startedthis whole thing)

Intersection I did this weekend.

3×6 Floor Tiles

Assorted Floor Tiles.

ISO Sewers, cutting and pasting for the hell of it.

So, I had that isomorph sewer map in photo shop. Decided to do a little cutting and pasting, with a touch of editing, just for the hell of it. It was fun, I can see how I could make some basic elements then toss them all together in random combinations. Might work on that sometime. The black and white rat men I drew just so I could populate the map with an interesting visual (at least I think it’s interesting.) I love playing around with this stuff in photoshop. As always, enjoy.

First Sewer Tiles Group

I have scanned in a few of the sewer tiles I cut out the other night, thought I would share these right now. I will be scanning in some more tonight, then combining them into a single PDF to download, hopefully. Enjoy.

Playing in the Sewers and other ISO Map Shenanigans.

I have been very busy keeping up with my current D&D campaign, we have a very regular group of players and the sandbox style game I play has mushroomed out of control in a fun and insane way. The characters have taken to exploring and surviving in the sewers beneath Deepfall. I decided to play around with an isometric map. I have drawn multiple versions of this, and am learning that less is more when it comes to drawing and my line work. (I tend to over do it, the fieldstone brick walls on this one is a perfect example of that.)

I will be posting some more like this, and soon I want post my sewer tiles I have been working on. Enjoy.

Here is a teaser on my sewer tiles.