On Maps, Dungeons, and VTTs

For a long time I didn't use maps and minis in my games. When I first started to GM, I would draw up a map and just show the players the portions that they had discovered. Later, I no longer ran “dungeon crawls” so maps were not that important.

After discovering GURPS, I started to draw up combat maps. Just a quick sketch or using a large laminated hex grid, I would jot down some walls, cover objects, etc.

By the time my games when online, I NEEDED a Virtual Table Top that could handle hexes, facing, etc. With that, I could quickly draw up a room, place the tokens, and have a fight.

Now I am running Dungeon Fantasy... and a few issues have cropped up.

For the first time in a very long time, maps are important to my games. Players need to know where they are, what alternative passages they might need to back track and check out, when a hall loops back around, etc.

At first I thought that I would use the guidelines on B491 and just give general descriptions of size and space, and let the players make their own maps. But I want accurate combat maps, and it is fairly easy to import maps into a VTT, place monster minis, etc.

Now I’m importing these huge maps (which I think might be causing some of the technical issues I have with the VTT I use). I like having the map, but I also wonder if it might be more interesting if the players were making their own map (much harder to do a “turn-around” trap if the players always know where they are on the map.)

I could just import the “combat rooms”, but then this is DF! There are LOTS of combat rooms. There are wondering monsters, etc. Combat could happen anywhere.

I’m still not sure what would work best. I want to eventually run a sort of “mega-dungeon”, but I don’t see any way of handling mapping in a VTT wit that.

So, does anyone else have any experiences with this? How do you do dungeon maps in a VTT?

DF Monster: Gecklings

Because I always felt that Kobolds, were more little "dog-men" than lizards, but I wanted to have a lesser reptile race in my DF games. I came up with "Gecklings." These are small, weak, cowardly little monsters that tend to group up. They served as the bottom of the food-chain in the Caverns of Chaos (both figuratively and literally).


Geckling

ST:	8	HP:	8	Speed:	5.25
DX:	11	Will:	8	Move:	5
IQ:	9	Per:	11
HT:	10	FP:	10	SM:	-2
Dodge:	8	Parry:	9	DR:	2

Short Bow (13): 1d-3 imp
Sm. Spear (13): 1d-1 imp, Two-hands: 1d imp
Traits: Cowardice, Infravision, Sharp Claws, Sharp Teeth, Social Stigma (Savage)
Skills: Bow-13, Spear-13, Stealth-14
Class: Mundane.
Notes: Gecklings will flee at the first sign that the battle is not going their way, unless they have had Bravery cast on them by one of their shamans. They use their SM to offset the penalties to attack the legs (-0) and feet (-1) of their opponents. They carry 1d cp each.


Geckling Shaman

ST:	8	HP:	8	Speed:	5.25
DX:	11	Will:	12	Move:	5
IQ:	12	Per:	11
HT:	10	FP:	10	SM:	-2
Dodge:	8	Parry:	9	DR:	2

Short Staff (12): 1d-2 cr
Spells (all @ 13): Bravery, Fear, Flash, Might, Minor Healing, Panic, and Spasm
Traits: Infravision, Power Investiture-2, Sharp Claws, Sharp Teeth, Social Stigma (Savage)
Skills: Staff-12, Stealth-14
Class: Mundane.
Notes: Will cast Bravery on other Gecklings at the first sign of trouble. Then will try to Flash or Panic away some, and force weapon drops with Spasm. If there are more than one Shaman, one might start casting Might on some of the fighters. Staff is a 2 point power item.

***

The biggest issue with these guys is their very weak attacks. The Shamans can weaken a player group some, but don't tend to have much casting endurance. Even using Might, isn't that effective, as it can be expensive to even start getting to the point where the Gecks can start to get through armor.

Gecklings work best when mixed in with other, stronger enemies.

An Irrational Hatred of Halflings

I hate halflings! Ever since I stared gaming, I think I hated them. Back then, there was something about halflings that was just too... Tolkin. Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, etc., I could accept these as "generic fantasy." But not Halflings. They were too ingrained into my head as something unique to the Middle Earth setting. They didn't "feel" right anywhere else.

For what it is worth, I felt the same about Orcs for a long time. But enough video games had orcs in them that the uniqueness I felt about them faded over time.

Then a few years ago, it just stopped bothering me that halflings were rooted in Tolkin. If I could get over orcs, then halflings should be fine too... but they weren't.

I realized that there was another reason that I hated halflings: they made no sense. In almost any setting that has halflings, the flavor text will undoubtedly tell you how they are little friendly homebodies that everyone likes. They just stick to home, eat too much, and ... are master thieves of the highest skill!

Wait, what!?

That is the way it is. If you are an adventure, and have ever been in a group wit a halfling, that halfling would probably be a skilled thief or even assassin. Do you really think that the reputation of halflings would remain "good natured homebodies" if every halfling you met was this way? And since most ARE homebodies then the only one you SHOULD be meeting are the acceptations.

Prefer simple comforts... riiiiight.

It is like the vikings (stick with me here). You ask just about anyone about what the vikings were like, and you'll get the same answer. Pillaging warriors how would raid and burn down villages. But Viking culture could not have just been a bunch of roaming raiders. But since people were far more likely to meet a raiding viking rather than the one who stayed home and kept sheep, then the word spread.

And that is my real problem with them. Sure, you can say that adventuring halflings are rare, but that has never really come through in any game I've played. And if you are going to play a game about people that are capable of going on adventures, and halflings are on that list, then I have to assume that they are capable as a race.

For my DF game, I just didn't allow them. I had planned on writing up a "rat-folk" race, that not only filled the same role as halflings, but also had the the reputation that you would expect from a race that is skilled at sneaking about and stealing.

But during play, I came up with a something even better than rat-folk: raccoon-people. This race, "Arakun", fills the roll, though they are not just "halflings that look like raccoons." In a future post I'll post the the template.

Eats a lot, seems lazy at times, and makes you want to lock up your valuables.

I know that this is a pretty odd thing to get worked up over and I should just "get over it," but I can't help it. I just don't like halflings in my games (unless the racial template, character rolls, and outsider opinions all match up). And at least I got a new race out of this.

Recap: DF 01 - Caverns of Chaos 01

January 9th, 2014

Characters:
Drog, Human Barbarian
Farthing, Faun Wizard
Phelix, Cat-folk Swashbuckler

Somewhere else:
Noide, Celestial Cleric


As the game starts the players are escorting the merchant Thammus Goodseller to Turnwall. They have been travelling for ten months from their starting point at the Spiral City. At the gates of Turnwall they are greeted by one of the local men at arms and asked to identify themselves and their business.

After getting in, Goodseller arranged for them all to have rooms for the night and everyone retired to bed. During the night, Phelix awoke to see several armed men taking Goodseller away. After waking the others, they learned that they have been working for a fence, who was now on his way back to the Spiral City to face justice, along with all of the stolen goods and any chance for the party to get paid.

 The party returned to the inn to enjoy the last night they will have beds payed for.

 In the morning the down and out group decide to start looking for some work that might help them out. They quickly hear rumors of some trouble coming out of a series of caverns somewhere east of town. Eventually they find a old man who claims to have been to the "Caverns of Chaos" and gives them directions.

 The parties takes off while it is still early and other than a short stop to fish and eat, they do little more than travel for half the day. Eventually the find the caverns. Across the small stream that divides the area, they spot several small reptilian humanoids scurrying up a tree and into a cave. Since this was across the river, they decide to check the cave nearest on their side.

 Here they meet an old Ogre, named Ogre (as well as he can remember). He's more or less friendly and offers them some stew made from the small reptiles they saw earlier. He recommends that they start in the lower caves and gives an general overview of the area. He also told them to start by getting rid of the thieving reptiles across the way, but warned that they worship some sort of god that supposedly lives in a pool in their cave.

 After the short visit the part headed north, crossing the stream to the reptiles' den.

 Approaching the door, they were ambushed by these "gecklings" (because Kobolds are furry dog-faced monsters not reptiles, right?). Several jumped down from the tree and more emerged from the cave. They had small half-spears and a form of leather armor. Though not very strong they outnumbered the party and after Farthing fumbled his 2d lightning spell (causing it to hit him instead) and Drog tripped and fell shortly after. Things were still not going very well for the party. Still they were able to clean gecklings (in no small part due to Phelix's skill with his sword), but only found some pocket change on them.

 Inside they found a resting chamber filled with more gecklings including one who wore robes and had a staff. They were able to catch this group by surprise and took them down fairly quickly. In the next room they found lots of junk and rats, so they decided to head back to the first hall and and head further into the area.

 Here they found a large pool where another geckling with a staff stood barking something at them. Several others jumped into the water and disappeared into the the dark water. Then the staff geckling began moving to a door on the far side of the room. Drog rushed over to him and cleaved him in two just as he unlocked the door. Then Drog could hear some sort of wet movement from the other side.

 The others joined and quickly decided to let Farthing power up a strong lightning shot and fire it as soon as Drog opened the door. This worked incredibly well and stunned the Slugbeast that was making its way to the door. Another shot knocked the creature out for good.

 After making sure that no gecklings were making their way back out of the water, Phelix jumped over the beast and discovered a well in the small room that it had come from. Down the well he saw some sparkle, so he lowered himself down and collected several fist-fulls of gems.

 They explored the room behind the pool chamber and fund the female and children Gecklings in the back. They decided not to engage these creatures and instead went back to the junk room. Behind that they found a hall that forked onto to areas, and along the center part they found a false wall that was hiding a hall that lead to another cave. From there they could hear louder voices, but by then it was getting late so they decided to head out, make camp and head back to town in the morning.

 Back in town they sold gems, the shaman staff, but found they had not made quite as much as they had hopped. But still came out richer than they were (though they will need to head back soon.

 ---
Notes:
XP: (base 5, -1 for unprofitable, +1 clearing the dungeon): 5

 Overall things could have gone better, but I feel that this was a good test to see what works and what didn't. Lots of weak mobs can be interesting, but not when there is nothing to contrast them against. A single worthy mob doesn't stand a chance against a prepared mage. There were a lot more secret doors (and treasure) to find in this cave, but the groups was not use to thinking about searching for chambers like this.

 We'll see what the next cavern has in store, I am sure it will be a very different experience.

Dungeon Fantasy, or "Let's go a-kill'n!"

Last year (2013), I made a lot of effort to start and maintain a regular GURPS game. I ran games of Traveller Interstellar Wars, a couple of one-shots (one GURPS the other FUDGE), a GURPS Fallout game, and played in two games set in Yrth (GURPS Banestorm). I also participated in a few playtest sessions for the next edition of D&D.

There might have been more, but if there was, it escapes me at the moment.

And aside from a few short breaks during transitions, or a occasional issue that prevented a game, I had a fairly good run of having weekly games.

After the last swap with the other GM of the group, I had planned to go back to the GURPS Fallout game, but just wasn't motivated to run it anymore. I can be a very fickle GM, but I really wanted to run something that I could maintain my interest a bit longer. I also wanted to have something less morally ambiguous and just visceral fun.

I had tried running a GURPS Dungeon Fantasy game awhile back, with mixed results... but I was willing to give it another go. I had been reading about other peoples experiences with DF and wanted to dive back in.

To start out I wanted to just have a some random dungeon-ing, and looked a a various old DnD modules. I almost decided to use the Caves of Chaos from the old Keep on the Boarderlands, but decided to instead go with something a bit larger. 0one's Blueprints are pdf maps, many inspired by old modules (thought they don't include stats, NPCs, etc., just maps, and maybe some plot hooks). So, I got the "Caverns of Chaos" and we started.

I had five players and we started with the standard 250 characters, sticking to the templates. Out first game was on January 9th 2014.

Over the next few weeks I'll start to work through the backlog of session recaps.

New Blog!

Ah-ha! I've decided to join in the ever growing community of RPG bloggers. This'll give me (another) place to post some of my thoughts on RPGs (especially GURPS!), and post my game logs... and whatever else comes up.

I'll probably start by posting my recaps from my current Dungeon Fantasy game.