The Wisdom of Elders

 Years ago, I was trying to write an essay of helpful stuff about RPGs, when I found that as I did my research, I wasn't really able to better anything that had been said before by the essayists I respect.

So here are a few links to blog posts and essays by others on RPGs that I've found influential over the years. All credit to the authors of the originals!

Tucker's Kobolds An essay by Roger E Moore on making encounters difficult - and fun. Many high-level characters have little to do because they're not challenged. They yawn at tarrasques and must be forcibly kept awake when a lich appears. The DMs involved don't know what to do, so they stop dealing with the problem and the characters go into Character Limbo. Getting to high level is hard, but doing anything once you get there is worse. ... Don't Prep Plots An essay on RPG story design by Justin Alexander If you're GMing a roleplaying game, you should never prep a plot. Everyone's tastes are different. These matters are subjective. What works for one person won't necessarily work for another. Yada, yada, yada. But, seriously, don't prep plots. ... On the same topic: Justin Alexander's essays on Node-based adventure design can be found here. Getting the players to care Another essay by Justin Alexander I think every GM probably has a story about the time that they spent hours carefully detailing some piece of lore or a particularly intricate conspiracy... only to discover that their players didn't really care. Or you complete a dramatic and powerful series of adventures featuring the unraveling of a conspiracy wrought by the Dark Gods of Keht... but three months later you mention the name "Keht" and are met by blank stares from the players... The Wizard says: "This is a republished post from my previous blog - enjoy!"

Dungeon23 week 1

Continuing the dungeon23 plan, I've been laying out the districts and filling in some details for the city of Katravia.

I'm considering each layer of detail to count as one room - so the top layer "There is a city called Katravia" and its short description was what I covered in the first post, on Day 1, and over this first week, I've been digging down into more detail...

My next "room" is the next level of detail - the city of Katravia is made up of these districts:

I've got slightly more districts than 1 per month, but that'll be fine - some of these will get merged into just a few "rooms".

To help keep my ideas organised, I made a generic template for locations, years ago - I'll be using that for Katravia.

Now the next set of "rooms" are at this layer of detail - for each of the districts on the overview, I'll be making a Location Brief, and drawing up a few ideas for buildings and other locations, with an area map to show how they relate.

Once I have all the districts briefed, I'll be moving on to those buildings - or if something grabs my attention on the day, I'll get straight into it! Like I did with the Theatre map in the Entertainers' Quarter for example.

I'm also aiming to keep the one-location-per-day ration as a guideline, but not necessarily follow it perfectly - I'll aim for a buffer of a few extra locations each month to allow myself to have off days!

All in all, I'm pleased with the initial progress - it's not going to be a publishable setting guide, but it's the sort of thing I can happily use for myself.

Meanwhile, I'll be updating and re-publishing some old RPG blog posts, and posting any other RPG thoughts and reviews that come to mind - so that this doesn't just become the Katravia blog!

Prompted by the Guvnor at the Tavern, today, I'm starting Dungeon23!

A 365-room mega dungeon is the general idea - but I decided that the utility of the mega dungeon is too limited for me to invest all that time in. 

Instead, I'm going to do a city. With a city, I can cover points of interest and adventure, have lots of variety, have locations that are legitimately unconnected - whatever I'm feeling like on the day. Also, the districts and buildings I come up with should be useful to drag'n'drop into other games - which is always a bonus.

The city I'll be creating is Katravia, from a Pathfinder shared world I was GMing in a couple of years ago - I've got some basic layout and themes already drafted, so that'll be the framework for the project.

The format suggested is in a journal, so I'll be working on paper, and posting photos of the work, with comments. And rather than spamming this blog daily with updates, I'll collate things weekly.

Katravia outline

Katravia, City State of the Isthmus

The lush and properous city of Katravia in the Kalidian Isthmus bustles with commerce and rumour. It is a nexus of trade - and magic! Around the Well of Eyes, the Academy Arcanum clusters in dreaming spires and cloisters; industrious dwarves delve a new canal to breach the Isthmus; sweet gardens and avenues abound - and the Drax Presidium, the Courts of the Dragon King, Karaktakas Princeps, rule over all...

I've used the Pathfinder Gamesmastery Guide format for settlements to establish things like prosperity, crime rate, and other qualities - but it's my intent to keep things system agnostic, so those numbers from my old draft will need some explanation!

• "NN Metropolis": Katravia is a truly neutral place in terms of moral and philosophical outlook. Individuals of course have their own agendas, but collectively, there's only the market forces of trade and reaching for prosperity to guide.
• Corruption: The officials of the city are on the whole well paid, and slightly less easily bribed
• Crime: Petty crime is common-place
• Economy: Katravia is rich, so folk will pay well for your services and goods
• Law: Officials are slightly more inclined to stick to the rules and ignore appeals, but conversely, the Watch is slightly less primed to respond to calls to alarm
• Lore: With major academic institutions here, Katravia is a perfect place to do research and gather information
• Society: Katravians think themselves simply better than outsiders, and this makes them a little stuffy and suspicious
• Danger: With arcane experiments, fields of powerful magical flux, and a wealth of travellers, the city can be a hazardous place. If your random encounter tables are ordered by challenge, add about 20 % to the rolls to increase the danger.
• Base value / Purchase limit: Any item costing less than a family home can be readily purchased in the city without much fuss. Only the most rare and power magical items are unavailable to purchase.
• Spellcasting: There is no practical limit on the spell services one can find in Katravia - only the size of your coin purse.