The Island of Death and Rubies

Today I'm rolling up another random campaign.  I'm choosing two of the three starting adventure opportunities to test out their roll-up tables, then letting the dice decide the rest.

You can follow along with the process below, or you could skip straight to the resulting one-page campaign.

Settlement on the Frontier

The three adventure opportunities: a new Frontier Settlement, some sort of Raiders or Pirates, and a Military Expedition.  We'll start with the frontier settlement, which has plenty of details to roll up:

• The plan is short-term resource extraction: pan for gold, gather jade, etc., then go home.  No one wants to invest in this town, they're all just hoping to strike it rich and leave.
• But that's never going to get them rich.  They'd be better off growing crops for export: tobacco, coffee, tea, etc.
  
• On the way there, the settlers run into dangerous creatures who attack, eat their livestock, pursue them, something like that.
• The authorities from their homeland expect to extend their rule over the new settlement.  This is supposed to be an outpost of the motherland, not an independent settlement.
• The site is near a river, a lake, and a cavern.
• There's a local power here that makes demands of the settlers: taxes, tribute, allegiance, something like that.
• The settlers are well-stocked with food to start their colony, but they have a problem with how others view them: they're not respected by the neighboring people, they follow the wrong religion, the authorities back home find them a nuisance, etc.
• They'll have three projects that ought to be tracked for their completion: making peace or defeating a dangerous enemy, getting a consistent source of clean drinking water, establishing a proper food source.
• The people of this country all died in the apocalypse, leaving ruins that aren't entirely understood.  Everyone here is new to the land.
• There's a seasonal problem that they don't know about: flooding, drought, wildfires, hurricanes.
  

An Island Country

I think we need to see the country where all this is happening.  Let's roll that up now:

• It's somewhere near Alligator Gulf, down in the hot and humid southern part of the continent.
• There's a cliff / mountain range / escarpment that runs east and west with many waterfalls coming down it.  Up in the high country live independent or rebellious folk.
• Waves beat against rocky cliffs, making it hard to find safe landing sites.  This country is an island or a chain of islands.
• The south coast is deeply indented with many bays, inlets, and little coves.
• This is a largely-forgotten country with ruins of a lost civilization or kingdom, a place mostly known by legends elsewhere.
  

That's enough to start sketching up a map.  I'll grab a big messy brush and rough out some islands, then draw the coastline.

Continuing on the random country tables, let's see who lives here:

• Goblins (+1 modifier: +cliffs, +forests, -islands).  Villages of three major clans.  People travel here from far away to study, trade, visit renowned hermits.
  
• Elves (+1 modifier: +warm coast).  Largely controlled by a far-off company: resource settlements, trading posts, old fort.
  
• Giants (-2 modifier: -forests, -far south).  Scattered trappers, fishers, traders.

The frontier settlement we're following sounds like an elven one, so that's an easy choice.  They were sent here by a far-off trade company.

We already know the people are all newcomers to the land, within the last thirty years since the Starving Time.  Let's say the other elven stuff in the isles is all from before, from a colonial attempt that failed and left behind mysterious ruins.

This is a major center of goblin cultural activity.  Let's say their people lived here before the apocalypse, died off, then the region was repopulated by other goblins of those clans.  All their settlements today could be arguing over clan rights to different areas, since the people who knew the exact demarcations are now gone.

Recent elven ruins isn't quite a forgotten kingdom, though.  Let's check the ancient civilization tables to see who used to be here long ago.

• As the story goes, there were once five ancient cities that warred with each other.  The table gives several question prompts: Why was the greatest city overthrown?  How could they move such stones?  Where was the fifth city?  I think it was here in these islands.
  
• The symbol of the city is a mountain with a single eye.
• This city fell a thousand years ago, remembered only by one culture as part of their founding myth.
• Remnants: tunnels for irrigation or transport, hidden knowledge of ancient arts passed down in families, great stone statues of people or animals (marking sacred sites or buried treasure).
  

I think the city might have been the origins of some group of giants, so their ancient arts might still be known by some of the giants who fish and trade in these waters.

Populating the Map

We've got a lot of things to add to the map, so let's add those now:

• The mountains running east-west, cliffs along the north coast.
• A few rivers.
  
• The new elven settlement we're following, near one of the lakes.
  
• Hidden ruins of the ancient city.
• Ancient aqueduct tunnels.
• Ancient statues.
• Goblin villages, including one that's powerful and near the elven settlement.
• Elven ruins from the previous attempt at colonization.
  

Also I'm redrawing the coastline -- I did it with a really thick brush for some reason the first time and it's bugging me.

To figure out the icon to use for goblin settlements, I rolled on the clan tables.  As it turned out, all three clans in this country build different kinds of homes, making it easy for the map.

• The Shining Skull clan lives up in the trees, with hammocks and rope bridges.  They use tobacco smoke in rituals.
  
• The Red Snake clan prefers to live in caves or on cliff ledges.  They use the hunt for wild honey as an important ritual.
  
• The Wounded Hawk clan is originally from wetlands and prefers to build log dwellings in ponds with underwater entrances (like beaver dens).  They eat the flesh of their fallen enemies.
  

Red Snake Raiders

The second adventure premise is where desperate times have led many to a life of banditry.  Let's see what these pirates are up to.

• They are skilled in camoflage, hiding in this land.  (I'm thinking the raiders might be the goblins of the Red Snake clan, living up in the highland interior.)
• They raid settled towns, farmers, local forts and their treasure.
• Their fearsome sign is a circle drawn in blood.
• The die roll said they sell goods at some kind of lawless border town, but I'm not sure how to make that fit here.  Let's say they sell their plunder to someone from the mainland who visits the islands, willing to buy from these fearsome raiders.
• These people turned to raiding to survive after being on the losing side of the recent war.  This is actually a surprise
  

I'm starting to get a picture here: the other goblins here grow crops and gather gold or jade or something, the Red Snake clan raids them and sells their plunder to the mainland.  The first two clans came back shortly after the apocalypse, then there was the war, and then Red Snake came here to raid the others. 

Military Expedition

The third adventure premise is a military expedition to the isles.

• The expedition is sent by the remnant army of the Viceroy.
• They're moving against a trade company that owns vast lands.
  

That puts the frontier settlement in grave danger, though they don't know it yet.  The trade company must have extensive holdings elsewhere, maybe causing some kind of trouble for the Viceroy.  The settlement is going to have to make alliances with the local people to survive.

• The goal of the expedition is to scout out the trade company's strength here and to destroy a fort or ship of theirs.
• The expedition has no knowledge of this country, with bad maps or no maps at all.
• If they attack the goblins, both sides will be willing to massacre each other.
  
• This expedition is likely to spark another war.
  

I think the company settlement is going to be a great source of adventure drama.  They're in a lot of trouble from different sources, but they'll have some chances to play off those problems against each other. 

Some open threads that we'll need more information about before the adventure is ready to go:

• The company that's in charge of the settlement.
• The trade good that people are raiding these islands for.
  
• A few details about the different villages on the map.
• The second half of the random country tables.  (I just realized that this country doesn't have a name, which means I got distracted halfway through rolling up the country and never came back to it.)
• The dangerous creatures here.
• The secret art passed down from the ancient city of the giants.
• Hermits among the goblins here.
  

The Imperial Gem Society

The trade company that's sending the settlers:

• They have remote trading posts in many lands, but the company is short on arms for a conflict.  This means the settlement probably won't have much gunpowder with them.
• Their original purpose was to buy local goods (furs, silver, ivory, etc.) but since the apocalypse they've branched out into shipping as well.
• The company's charter for this region was recently revoked by the Viceroy.
• They're about to make people angry by engaging in trade of some unlawful goods.  (I think their charter to trade in the local products here is what was revoked.)
• They're called the Imperial Gem Society.  Probably just Imperial Gems or IGS for short.
  

As for what they want in this land, I think it's going to be rubies.  The goblins here have been finding them in streams or in certain types of soil, but they're not common.  No one has found a place to mine them from the rock.  It's hard to get rich just searching for rubies.

The giants come and buy the rubies then resell them on the mainland, unless the Red Snake clan intercepts them first.

Details of the Islands

Finishing the random country rolls, an interesting result came up:

• There's a rising warlord or a rogue general here.

Maybe the military expedition is unauthorized, its leader being on a vendetta against the company based on the previous war, and now the expedition might start a new war.  There might be a military group sent to rein in the leader, but if the expedition gets into enough trouble, the new group might just be reinforcements.

• A marsh/swamp in a low region.
• Waterfalls, rapids, sandbar, or hidden reef.
• Colonial goods that are traded here: alchemical products, copper pans/kettles.
• Country goods that are traded here: fish, shell beads, plus the rubies we already know about.
• These islands are named for local wildlife: the Cottonmouth Islands.
  

Settlement Details

The colonial settlement they're trying to establish:

• Smells like tar, from weatherproofing wooden structures.
• Doesn't have a defensive wall yet.
• Fearful of raiders, enemies in the woods.
• They've brought some indentured laborers to do the heavy work.  (Let's go with giants, so we don't have to introduce another species of people to this story.)
• They have many dead bodies to deal with.  (I'm assuming this is from the dangerous creature attack they had on the way here.)
• The settlement is called Crow's Nest.
  

The nearby goblins are of the Shining Skull clan, living up in trees with hammocks and rope bridges.  This settlement:

• Has shaped paths through thick undergrowth to funnel prey and passers-by into ambush points.
• They fear ghosts and avoid abandoned sites from the people who lived here before.
• There's a shipwreck nearby.
• They want to drive away the outsiders who have invaded their territory, also they want to take their metal.
• They make many smoky fires to seem more numerous than they are, and to lure would-be invaders away from their actual village.
  

I'll keep rolling on those tables for the other settlements.

Dangerous Creatures

What are the dangerous creatures here?  We know they attack the settlers early on.  I think I'd like them to be mainly based on crocodiles.  Let's roll for their features.

• Better at swimming.
• Inedible, as their flesh is poisonous.
• They hunt in packs.
• They dig impressive dens where they keep bones of their prey.
  

The Secret Art

The ancient city had some kind of magic art that has been preserved in secret, passed down by some lineage of giants.  Some of the ones who visit the islands know the art.

• Ability to go unseen.
• It only lasts as long as you hold your breath.
• Those who practice it don't make a sound when they walk, even when not using the art.
  

Goblin Hermits

Goblin society has a role for hermits, the hidden ones, recluses who live outside the village.  I'm going to roll up the hidden ones for the three clans in the isles, then only use whichever one sounds most interesting.

• They perform divination to see the future.  They live at an old ruin in the woods, staying hidden.  Anyone who visits them must not look at them or speak directly to them.
• They take you on a journey to the spirit world by way of hallucinogens.  They live in caves in the woods.
• They perform healing rituals.  They live up on hills and high places.  Visitors are to bring a gift of animal teeth.
  

There are other loose ends we could keep rolling for, but I think we've got enough here.  I'll make up an encounter table and write up all the moving parts, and I think the adventure will be done.

The Legend of Copper Isle - randomly generating a campaign

Last randomly-generated campaign worked well, so let's do another one.  This post is about the process of generating the campaign, then I'll post the writeup once it's done.

Here's a link to the writeup.  (or where it will be later)

Like last time, I have no idea what this campaign is going to look like.  I'm just rolling the dice, following the procedures, and seeing what happens.  Randomly rolled items are in bold (unless the text is very long, in which case just the first few words are in bold).

First we'd sit down with the players and talk about what kind of adventures sound like fun, but since we don't have any players, I'll just roll up some great opportunities randomly.  (If any of the ones from last time come up, I'll roll for something else because that sounds fun to me.)

• Exploring Expedition
• Legend of the Lost Place
• Wanderer's Tale (a new one I'm still writing up)

Through the Saw-Grass, a randomly-generated campaign (results)

In the last post, I rolled up an entire random campaign premise, starting from scratch and writing it up while going along.  Since then, I've drawn up a map, organized my notes, and cleaned up a few loose ends.

Here's the result:

(download as a pdf)

The first page (shown here) is taken up with the map and local descriptions.  Each one has some kind of trouble, something they need, or something else going on.  The second page has information on each faction, encounter tables, how to start the campaign, etc.

This adventure premise is based on three great opportunities: Lost Treasure, Gold Rush, and Shining City in the Wilderness.

As for the actual ruleset, I suggest choosing something low-magic, with good support for overland travel.  I've been using some homebrew rules myself, which I could post more about if people are interested.

If you could take a look at the pdf and tell me what you think, I'd appreciate it.  Let me know if there are any other big parts that ought to be included in a writeup like this.

Through the Saw-Grass, a randomly-generated campaign

Today I'll be rolling up a random campaign, full of opportunities for adventure, intrigue, and exploration.  That's the plan, anyhow.  We'll see how far my random tables take me.

Here's the final result (pdf).

The rest of this post is about the process of getting there.  Follow along with me as I roll up random adventury stuff and piece it all together.

By the way, I'm going to try using the term cazandi for the imperial elves.  If you're not familiar, they're the city-building people from the empire destroyed in the apocalypse.  Imagine the Spanish and British empires, with influences from India and China.

The True History of the Conquest of New Spain

First-hand accounts from history usually make for dry reading, but when a good author meets the front lines of change, the results are worth reading.  The True History of the Conquest of New Spain is a thrilling tale of adventure and brutality, the story of the Spanish discovery and conquest of the Aztec Empire, told by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, a conquistador who was part of the events.

It's a story any band of murder-hobos would understand.

The central figure of the True History is the expedition's leader, Hernando Cortés, the epitome of cleverness and cruelty.  Where he comes from isn't important -- his hometown never plays a part in the tale, and he's not really working for anyone, despite his claims of being loyal to the Spanish crown.  Cortés is, foremost, an adventurer out for his own interests.

Reading about the expedition, I was struck by how much it sounded like a roleplaying game.  Typical people only fight as a last resort, when they've been pushed far enough and have no other choices.

Adventurers, I think, are not typical people.  Cortés fights for his own gold and glory, and no amount of danger seems to deter him.

The story begins in Spanish Cuba, 1519.  Rumors of treasure come in from the west.  Against the governor's orders, Cortés gathers some ships and a party of soldiers and heads for the unexplored country.

It's a straightforward setup for an adventure so far.  Treasure is their only goal, in whatever form.  They've heard that the mainland might have gold.  But the truth is that the party has no idea where they're going; the coast is just a question mark on a map.

The first encounter is immensely helpful: they find a Spanish priest, the survivor of a shipwreck who has spent years as a slave among the Maya people.  Most importantly, the priest has learned the Maya language.

Next along the coast in Tabasco they have a combat encounter.  It doesn't start as one, but like proper adventurers, they take any opportunity they have to start a fight.  By the end, Cortés and his party sail away with a bit of loot: some golden jewelry, rich cloaks, and several women (one of whom speaks the Aztec language) as slaves for the men.

Brutality in this story runs deep, crimes highlighted all the more by their contrast with the noble words of those who commit them.  Cortés and his adventurers kill and rape and plunder without a thought, then speak of peaceful relations and spreading good deeds.  The priest occasionally complains of their behavior, but it continues nonetheless.

Each jaunt further into the unknown puts these adventurers in contact with another strange group.  From our perspective we can see that both sides are humans like ourselves, but to the people involved, it's more like first contact with an alien race.  The Tabascans have never seen anything like these Spaniards, being especially terrified of their cannons and horses.  From the Tabascan point of view, strange monsters have invaded from across the sea.

At this point, the party doesn't have a long-term goal.  They're looking for treasure, but they don't really know where to look, so they're just working their way along the coast, ending up in the region of the Totonacs.

Far away, in a highland country known as Mexico, a great emperor rules over cities and armies.  His agents travel far and wide collecting information and tribute, and word has come to emperor Moctezuma of strangers from across the sea.

A richly-appointed emissary of Moctezuma comes to meet the Spaniards at the coast, attended by sketch artists to record the event.  For the first time, Cortés and his men learn of the existence of this powerful empire.  The Totonac king is clearly terrified of the forces of Mexico, but he's also afraid of the guns and horses Cortés and his men have brought along.

All this leads to an argument among the adventurers.  Should they journey into the highlands and face the power of Moctezuma, or should they return home to the safety of Cuba?

Cortés resolves the argument by destroying their ships, leaving the party stranded in hostile territory.  In a way, this is where the adventure truly begins.

From that point on, they keep getting deeper and deeper into peril as Cortés drives ahead with little more than trickery and bravado.  I should avoid any spoilers -- we all know how the story ends, but what happens along the way makes for a thrilling tale.

There's treachery and murder, slaughter at a banquet, dignitaries arrested and humiliated.  Ships are built, great pyramids are climbed, and ancient cities are besieged.  They face the defiant yet impoverished Tlaxcalans, climb the volcano of Popocatepetl, and stand in awe of the splendors of the great city of Tenochtitlan.

There are many lessons you might draw from this when shaping your own adventure.  Three come to mind so far:

1. Conflicting motives create drama.  Everyone wants something different, causing alliances to shift as conditions change.  Is Xicotencatl a friend of Cortés or an enemy?  In the end, he's a bit of both, seeking power in his own kingdom first.
2. Shortage and hardship drive adventure.  Any time someone in this story is hungry or short on weapons, it forces them to make hard choices.  When Tlaxcala runs out of salt or Cortés runs out of powder, conflict is thrust upon them.
3. All people can be monsters in their own way.  While it's clear that the author wants to portray the conquest in a good light, all the major figures come across as monsters.  Cortés and his men rightly fear that they'll be eaten, just as Moctezuma rightly fears that his people will be branded and enslaved.  This is not a story of good and peaceful men.

The True History of the Conquest of New Spain is one of the most fascinating adventure stories I've ever read.  If you're looking for a thrilling tale, I think you won't be disappointed.

Unified wilderness travel table

I've been testing out some wilderness travel rules, and I'm pretty happy with them so far.  For the GM, the goal is twofold:

1. Reduce how much you have to think about in game.
2. Force the adventurers to make decisions.

There's a single die roll that drives all this, on a single unified wilderness travel table.  The table includes so many different things, and the best part is that I don't have to think about them until the table tells me to.  Some things that can come up on the wilderness travel table:

1. Signs of a potential encounter from far off (footprints, a bird in the sky, noises, etc.).
2. Getting exhausted from travel.
3. A change in the weather.
4. Getting lost.
5. Suffering ill effects from weather, like getting lost in the fog.
6. A rare encounter without any warning signs.

Each half day of travel, you roll once on the wilderness travel table.  The die roll tells you how far you travel (in "steps") and what else happens along the way.

The length of each "step" varies by terrain, which sounds difficult, but in practice it's been very easy.  On open, level ground, I put a little tick mark for a step every 2 miles on a trail.  In rougher terrain, I put the tick marks closer together.  On steep slopes with rough terrain, I put the tick marks really close together.

And that's it.  The party sets out in the morning, so they roll a die.  That tells me how far they get, how the journey affects them, and what kind of encounter they have.  If they decide to travel further in the afternoon, they roll again and repeat the process.

I'll post more on this process soon, but for now, here's a brief travelogue using this travel table:

• Day 1.  The party sets out from the tip of Ghost Cape on a cloudy day, traveling a few miles before spotting a warship out at sea.  It starts to rain around nightfall, when they make camp on a high area overlooking the sea.
• Day 2.  It's still raining as they head west across open fields, hoping to find the river on their map.  The rain grows heavy and everyone is drenched to the bone.  They find the river and head north along its banks, straggling into the town of Goose Meadow by nightfall, drenched and exhausted.
• Day 3.  The weather has cleared up.  The party hikes north, upriver.  Around midday they notice the dark form of a blood vulture circling over the falls up ahead.  They fire a few shots and scare it away.  They spend the rest of the day clambering up the bluffs near the falls, ending up a mile or so away from the river at the top.
• Day 4.  Cloudy skies and not much progress as they hike through the forested hills, continuing roughly north and getting back to the river.  By midday they've found the settlement of Hidden Rapids.  By nightfall, they've run across a trail heading in their direction.  They make camp just off the trail.
• Day 5.  A light rain starts up.  From a hilltop, the party can see the silhouette of a fort a few miles up ahead.  They arrive at Fort Protection by midday, finding it looted and abandoned.  According to their map, the elven settlement of Refuge City is only five miles or so past the fort, so they continue onwards.  The rain grows heavy, soaking everyone thoroughly, but they arrive at Refuge City by nightfall and get some rest at the inn.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this little vignette.

Behind the scenes: generating a completely random adventure

And by "adventure" I mean "bit of campaign setting" or more realistically, "gibberish you could hammer an adventure out of".

I've written up a lot of random tables.  For this post, I'm going to roll up a brand new Signs in the Wilderness adventure and explain the results as I go.  (Normally I don't recommend choosing everything at random.)  At this moment I haven't picked anything out yet, and I'm not going to backtrack along the way, so this is going to be completely at the mercy of the dice and my horribly incomplete tables.

Great opportunities

Let's start with the table of great opportunities, since those are what drive the story.

The first opportunity is an unexplored wilderness.  According to my notes, this could look like an expedition of discovery, charting the wilderness, cataloguing new species, or establishing a claim.  I haven't written up the subtables for this one yet, but that's four (somewhat overlapping) options right there, so I'll roll a d4 and...charting the wilderness it is.  That means I'll need to figure out who wants this wilderness charted and why.  This opportunity is shown by the existence of the unknown country itself, and by competitors being sent to do the same job.  Plenty of open questions.

In the meantime, the second opportunity is wealth, an opportunity for a salesman.  Some indicators of this opportunity: a new invention, shortages or high prices, eager/hungry newcomers, and isolated communities.  This could dovetail well with charting the wilderness.

Random adventure?

Would anyone be interested in reading about an adventure made entirely at the whim of the dice?

I've been writing up a lot of random tables for Signs in the Wilderness.  My usual rule is that if I can't think of three options for a concept, I probably don't have a good sense of that concept yet.  So every time I'm writing down notes for an adventure, I end up building a new random table or expanding an old one.

At this point, I've got enough tables to start rolling up a completely random bit of setting, enough to cause some conflicts, present some interesting stuff to do, and have a bit of the world to adventure in.  I know the random tables are incomplete, so trying to use them for everything would probably fall flat, but it might be an interesting experience to share.

Kick-Up at the Hazard Table, Thomas Rowlandson

So would you be interested in reading along as I try rolling up a completely random adventure/mini-campaign?