Keep on the Badlands — Character Creation

I asked my Monday night players how they felt about switching to a different rules system for the new campaign. I explained that I really wanted to run Basic/1e D&D using one of the retro-clones, but my suggestion was met with a resounding, "No, thanks." The guys know 5e and are confident playing it, so they have zero interest in learning a new game (even if it's sort-of the one we used to play 40 years ago).

I like core 5e well enough so I'm not terribly disappointed, but I was jazzed about trying something different (especially for this campaign, my adaptation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands). I haven't played/run AD&D since the late 80s—going back to that system or even Basic sounds like great fun to me, but it's not the hill I felt like dying upon.

Fifth Edition it is, then. To capture the feel of Basic/1e under the 5e framework, however, I established the following character creation guidelines. Because the Caves of Chaos are filled with lots of enemies, I also boosted some of the class abilities to give the party a little more endurance and enable them to press on longer without stopping to rest every other combat (which might be difficult or even impossible during an attack on one of the humanoid lairs).

The Badlands

The Badlands are a desolate range of broken hills located along the southeastern border of the kingdom of Remedios, across the Plains of Yorum. The region is harsh and unforgiving, a labyrinth of boulder-filled canyons that wind through high, craggy ridgelines.

The air here is hot and dry, and vegetation is sparse—mostly dry grass and low, thorny scrub. An occasional stream trickles through the deeper canyons, where thickets of pine trees and brambles grow. In some low-lying canyons, the streams get trapped and form weed-choked marshes that teem with mites and biting flies.

The craggy hills are rich in mineral wealth, however, and mining camps have popped up all over as prospectors, assayers, and merchants flock to the region seeking their fortunes. Caves abound and shelter can be found among the terraced ridgelines (though such caves are often the lairs of dangerous creatures). The ridges are also said to hide mysterious ruins that hold all manner of ancient secrets, treasures, and terrors alike.

The locals consider the entire land cursed. Some say an ancient evil once held dominion over the area—and that shadowy remnants of it linger still. Prospectors tell tales of ill-seeming creatures slinking through the hills... and of an evil cult stirring them up.

To the west sprawl the arid grasslands of the nomadic horse-clans, who compete for territory with herds of aggressive centaurs as well as bugbear tribes who dwell in the fringes of the Badlands. The territory to the east is the stomping grounds of a trio of hill giants—brutish brothers who war constantly with each other. The eastern hills are crawling with their evil minions—goblins, orcs, and much worse. Nobody goes into the east, not even the brave soldiers of Irongate Keep. Beyond the Badlands to the south lies the inhospitable Red Desert, home to the savage red orcs.

Keep on the Badlands

I took a brief hiatus from the blog due to real-life work projects. In the meantime, Jeff decided to end his campaign and asked me to resume DM duties for our regular weekly Roll20 campaign. The only thing I had ready to go was a set-up I created during the 5e playtest (D&D Next). The playtest packet included a conversion of the Caves of Chaos (sans keep or surroundings) from the Basic D&D module: B2 Keep on the Borderlands.

Erol Otus captures it all so perfectly.

B2 was the first module I adventured in when I started playing D&D, and the caves hold a special place in my heart as my first foray into a "dungeon" setting. I still vividly remember flipping through the module for the first time and seeing all those illustrations that cemented what D&D was in my young brain.

My plan during the playtest was to run B2 as a mini-campaign to introduce my players to the new ruleset. I re-imagined the keep as an outpost on the edge of a desert wilderness called "The Badlands," and created a new regional map for the players to explore (much of it cribbed from the original module). I never ended up using any of the materials when we started playing the published 5e rules, even though I'd done a lot of work on it. This seemed like a great opportunity then to dust off the setting and start a new campaign: Keep on the Badlands.

The setting is a sandbox with several active plot-lines occurring in the area (one of which is the restoration project underway at the Caves of Chaos—the existence of which is NOT currently known to the residents of the keep). Part of the early campaign will involve uncovering the knowledge of the caves and the evil cult behind it.

Irongate Keep — the last bastion of civilization on a desolate frontier.

Letting My Players Choose the Next Campaign

I recently resumed work on my Deep Vaults adventure, but a complication arose this week. Our Tuesday night campaign is currently run by my friend Jeff, who I've known since college and with whom I swap off DM duties so we both have opportunities to play. He's been running a simple megadungeon concept, sort of an urban Caves of Chaos, to experiment with using some of the OSR principles I've shared with him.

We've been using the Into the Unknown (O5R) rule-set with some house mods for his campaign, and I think everyone is enjoying the simpler, more-grounded approach. Our players have grown a little jaded and lazy from computer games, though—and the isolation of Roll20 doesn't help in terms of player engagement—so Jeff and I both like 5e's core game engine to provide a framework for player actions (even though we loathe the setting and current direction of the game). 

Jeff's done a great job adapting to the OSR methodology but now wants to experience it as a player, so the plan was for me to run one area of his megadungeon. He still wants to do that, but has also indicated that he wants to wrap this experiment up soon and take a break from running while he applies what he's learned to a "real" campaign. As a result, my concept for the Deep Vaults is too ambitious for the near-future. I adapted the adventure from another concept that exists in my own campaign, so I don't want to waste it on something that will soon end and make it all irrelevant.

Thus, I'm forced to switch creative gears again. I'm still developing the Deep Vaults (which I will continue to post here along with the other adventures I'm working on), but for Jeff's campaign I've decided to run an older, unused dungeon I've had in my folder for awhile. It's an as-yet unnamed cavern crawl, sort of along the lines of Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, for levels 4-6. It's mostly done, I just need to finish up a few places in the key and create the Roll20 assets.

As for the future...

Like many DMs, I'm certain, I have a folder full of campaign concepts—half-baked ideas and scraps of worlds I'll likely never visit. As I discussed in an earlier post, I'm already working on multiple long-form dungeons, but I haven't committed to any single one. Those adventures represent old projects I'd like to finish, as opposed to starting new ones. 

I feel like if I can at least get those finalized and shared online, then I'm okay if I never actually use them in my own campaign. I've released that creative energy into the world and they can live or wither on their own. I have no illusions of fame or glory by sharing them, nor am I interested in how I can make a living writing game material...I think the barriers are high, and the effort-to-reward ratio is too low. It's fun to feed the creative beast, though, and if I can inspire even one other person with an idea, then it's worth it.

In any case, I have all these campaign concepts but I can't decide which one to pour new creative energy into. I have a few months...maybe a year to prepare. To combat the decision paralysis, I've decided to let the players choose. I've compiled a list of ten campaign ideas, some of which would be based on an old-school 5e rule-set and others on different rule systems altogether.

I've asked the players to rank the campaigns in order of interest level, from 1 (lowest) to highest (10). Unless one concept just blows everything else out of the water, we'll then take the top 3 scores and re-vote. The winner will be the campaign I develop over the next 4-6 months.

The survey list I sent them follows the break...

The Heroes of Brackleborn -- Game-Play Report (Sessions 9 and 10)

I took on a big writing project last week, so my work on the Deep Vaults has slowed to a crawl (although I completed my hazards table and am pretty happy with it...I will likely post that next). I’m getting jazzed about resuming my Wednesday night campaign, which is moving to Thursday nights every other week. Scheduling five adults for an entire evening on a regular basis is near-impossible, so I feel like we’ve really accomplished something. We’re also going to try to have at least one longer weekend game session each month. It warms my heart that the girls can’t wait to get back to slinging some dice.

After the last session’s light-hearted adventure (which I ended up naming “The Right Stuff”), I was ready to hit the players with a major shake-up to their reality. At this point in the campaign, we’d been playing a little over over three months and they got “the game.” Now it was time to show them what playing in a “campaign” was like.

To now, the setting’s background consisted mostly of rough bullet points, some of which I gave to the players at the start of the campaign—just some hooks to create points of recognition later. As I started prepping for this session, I added some details for the players to begin making choices. I knew they wanted to be closer to Emelia and her family, so I expanded on that portion of the setting for the players to explore.

I love to world-build, but whenever I start a new campaign, I immediately start looking for ways to subvert what I’ve presented and shake up the status quo. I’m not sure why I do that, but D&D needs dynamism, and the historical eras it emulates were certainly dynamic ones. Dungeons & Dragons could easily have been named Cash & Conflict, and both of those things come to the fore during these next  sessions.

This game-play report covers sessions 9 and 10, which occurred on 7/15 and 7/22, 2020.

Previously...

The girls lent a hand to the bakery moms, who needed help gathering ingredients for a feast to be held that night—an order commissioned by Lord Ferril, himself. Not only did doddering old Mr. Mulberry forget to place the order in a timely manner, as requested by the lord,but he also forgot to give the girls invitations to the feast, which is being held in their honor!

Despite the screw-ups, the heroes gathered the ingredients, the moms made the food, and everyone, along with Mr. Mulberry in tow, arrives at Brackleborn Keep on time.

The Heroes of Brackleborn -- Game-Play Report (Session 8)

My in-person Wednesday-night campaign is still on hiatus due to scheduling conflicts, but it looks like we'll be resuming the campaign in the next few weeks. One day, I'll be caught up with these gameplay reports. 

This particular session was super-fun and mostly spontaneous. The girls really latched on to Emelia, and they had some impressive role-playing moments with her and her father, Lord Ferril. I had decided to expand the party's involvement with the lord's affairs, since the girls seemed content to remain in the village and serve as its protectors.

I planned a "heavy" session with an important event to shake up the status quo and give the heroes a chance to step up and become major players in the town, but I wanted to give them a bit of a breather first, while also lulling them into a false sense of security. I came up with the idea for this adventure a few hours before the session as a series of amusing skill challenges and a test of their general organizational and time management abilities. It was also a good way to introduce more of the village and its townsfolk to the players. 

This session occurred on 07/08/20 (and now feels like a lifetime ago).

Previously…

Inside the goblin cave, the heroes slew several goblins and their boss, a hobgoblin called Gurd. They rescued Emelia from his clutches and recovered some stolen supplies, including four of the six stolen barrels of dwarf ale. They hurried back to Brackleborn Keep to reunite Emelia with the grateful Lord and Lady Ferril.

Development Diary: The Deep Vaults - Outer Gallery

Based on my sketch of the whole dungeon, I have completed maps for the Outer Gallery (both main and upper levels) and the Outer Vaults (East and West, main and upper levels)—six maps in all. I've started on the East and West Gallery maps, and have the Central Chamber and North Gallery sketched out. I've keyed the (mostly empty) Outer Gallery, as well as the Outer Vaults (West), and am working on the Outer Vaults (East).

The idea for the Outer Gallery is that it serves as the entrance/nexus point for the rest of the dungeon. The central part of the cavernous hall (which is 300 ft. long, 100-160 ft. wide, and 60 ft. high) has completely collapsed, meaning direct progress into the deeper dungeon is blocked off. 

The PCs will have to choose whether they want to start off on the ground floor or climb to the upper level balcony, and then whether they want to explore the passages into the Outer Vaults on the east side of the gallery or the west. Their chosen route through the Outer Vaults can lead them into either the East or West Gallery, or back into the northern half of the Outer (South) Gallery, on the other side of the collapse. This last area will be covered in the Central Chamber key.

This is the map of the main level of the Outer Gallery. It is the first area the PCs will enter upon descending an exterior shaft.

 

OVERVIEW

This entire complex was once a city inhabited by a race of subterranean humanoids called the Leng. The dungeon is actually made up of (10) different sections.

The main dungeon feature is a series of four gallery wings that form a cross radiating out from a central chamber. Each gallery wing is an open space 160 ft. wide by 300 ft. long at the floor level, shrinking to 100 ft. wide at the balcony level, which is 20 ft. above the main floor. Massive pillars hold up the gallery ceiling, which is 40 ft. high and flat.

Each wing is "separated" from the central chamber by a 20 ft. high, 30 ft. wide wall, atop which is a catwalk with no railing. Thus, the central chamber is 160 ft. square. 

In the quadrant area between each pair of gallery wings is a series of interconnected chambers—the remnants of the ancient Leng city. Each of these quadrants features a main and upper level with multiple access points into the two gallery wings it touches. Finding the routes between levels is one of the challenges of navigating each quadrant. The balconies/catwalks of the upper level provide another route to navigate the dungeon.

The tenth and final dungeon section is a sprawling series of flooded, cave-like passages and chambers beneath the city. This sub-level touches all other parts of the dungeon, and can be used to quickly reach more remote areas if the PCs can discover the paths. 

In addition to numerous hazards and threats found throughout the complex, the PCs will encounter various creature factions. The party’s interaction with these factions forms the basis for conflict in the dungeon.

There is very little in the way of traditional “loot” to be found in the vaults (coins, jewelry, etc.) Instead, the PCs will find remnants of the Leng’s advanced society, including bizarre crystal formations—some loose; others "blooming" in large clusters from the stone—as well as unknown materials and weird technologies powered by these crystals. Much of the value of these items is derived from their utility, rather than their inherent worth, so each item has an XP value associated with its discovery to compensate for the lack of conventional treasure.

INTERIOR FEATURES

The original architecture was of uniform construction, hewn from ancient bedrock to a high degree of precision and angularity. Throughout the dungeon, except where noted....

• Ceilings in passages and chambers are 10 ft. high and flat. There is 10 ft. of solid* stone between floors. (*There are actually lots of ducts and mechanisms within the stone, but this is not apparent.)

• The stonework is carved without ornamentation; a person familiar with stoneworking will notice that the tooling marks are strange (smooth ripples instead of angular chisel marks).

• Perfect angles once joined every seam between floors, walls, and ceilings, but the seismic event that created the rift has fractured the stone, forming large cracks and fissures in every surface, shifting whole sections of the dungeon, and even collapsing portions of it.

• As a result of the Leng’s curious biology, there are no stairs between levels—only ramps and elevator platforms.

• There are no doors, although most thresholds between passage and room (where a door might be) feature a 3-in. wide band of translucent crystal embedded in the stone. It takes great effort to destroy or remove the crystal.

• Any stone objects or furnishings are carved directly from the surrounding rock. They are not separate pieces that can be moved.

• Streams of water trickle from the many cracks in the ceiling and walls, then pool on the floor and drain away through more cracks. The whole atmosphere in the dungeon is cool and moist, and the wet makes it difficult to track creatures as there is little dust and any tracks quickly wash away.

The key to this area is under the break...