Amoral Alignment

Everyone's talking about alignment again. Michael Curtis, Michael Shorten (Chgowiz), pulcherius of Dice of Doom. I've already talked about it extensively, but I'll add my own quick thoughts to the current mix.

• To me, "neutral" isn't an alignment, it's the lack of one.
• I prefer a two-alignment Law/Chaos system to Good/Evil or a two-axis system, because...
• I don't interpret Law and Chaos as personality descriptions or moral guidelines, but as factions in cosmic conflict.
• Aligned people and monsters have a supernatural "taint" (which can be detected) and minor powers granted by this taint, which more powerful alignment leaders can take away at their (dis)pleasure.

Thus, servants of Law can kill people, even Lawful ones, and can spread anarchy, and may or may not get punished for their actions. Servants of Chaos and Law can travel together and aid one another; the powers that be don't care about stuff like that, only whether their servants are helping or hindering their cause.

Protection from Evil, in this interpretation, isn't protection from an alignment, but from evil intent.

I have a swords & sorcery setting with unique alignment rules on the backburner that I'm calling "Malignment" for now, unless I come up with a better name. It has two opposed alignments, locked in a cosmic struggle, but the alignments aren't Good/Evil or Law/Chaos, but Legend/Dream. It's a very Michael Moorcock/Elric-flavored setting. I'm proud of it.

MegaDungeon: GUAN-1

The next installment of the test megadungeon, GUAN-1: the raiding area. I wanted to include this specifically as a second entrance area; megadungeons should have multiple entrances. Also, since the list of monsters used in the dungeon is getting fleshed out more, I started using a technique mentioned briefly in the training series: using letter labels like "M:Q" directly on the map. I changed the letters for "extraordinary monsters" to lowercase so that I could make a temporary pair of six-letter labels off to the side of the map to act as my 2d6 monster roll. This enabled me to do room stocking rolls while drawing the map in Inkscape: add a label if a monster is indicated, draw a container if it's a monster with treasure, and draw a dotted box on a room floor or cache behind a wall if a hidden treasure is indicated.

MegaDungeon: CHIL-1

Next in the test megadungeon series is region CHIL-1: the smugglers' quarters. There's not much new to say about the design steps behind this page; I did use the wandering chamber principle on every room except 3, 7, 8 and 12, and made a decision that 7 would include skeletons of some kind (because it's a sealed chamber.)

Room 12 was slated to be a central goblin congregation point, but I left the decision about whether the goblins used the secret passage (3) or door (8) to the whim of the dice. No goblins were rolled for the rooms in area 2, so I left them unaware of the secret passage, and no goblins were rolled for 8, so I left them unaware of the door. However, there was 1 goblin rolled for the game room, so I arbitrarily decided he knew about the secret door in 8.

There were a lot more rooms on this map than previous maps, so I tried to compress descriptions more. Hence, the 2A through 2E, 10A through 10c, and 11 A/B numbering.

High-Level Spells

I'm not a big fan of 7th through 9th level spells. I like the old spell levels of 1 to 6. It keeps magic somewhat under control.

This doesn't mean I'm against ever using those high-level spells. Let magic-users learn 7th level spells and higher, but without the ability to prepare or memorize them. They have to spend time and money to inscribe a scroll and cast it, with a chance of spell failure or fumble, exactly as if they were casting a spell too high for them to cast. Add the MU's HD or half their level to their d6 roll. Likewise, I wouldn't let clerics cast 6th or 7th level spells on an adventure; these are miracles that must be prayed for at a shrine or temple, and they directly contact the deity for assistance.

Both options give high-level spells more of a ritualistic and risky feel.

Low-Level Magic

Writing about spell fumbles and Read Magic reminded me of another frequent complaint about low-level magic-users in OD&D/AD&D: they don't really get to use much magic. It's not so much that they aren't effective (the "wand of sleep with a single charge" complaint,) since there's more to being effective than just casting spells. But their shtick is being magical, and until they get a magic item, they aren't very magical very often. This is often cited as a reason to switch to spell points instead of using Vancian memorization.

I'm not so sure that letting MUs cast spells more often is necessary. Sure, I've dabbled with the idea, if it's necessary for a specific setting, like this fix I came up with for playing wizards from the "Legend of the Seeker" TV series: roll (spell level + 1) d6s, look for matches: if the total of the matching dice is higher than the character's level, there's an unfortunate side effect. If Zedd's a 13th level wizard, he can use Burning Hands all day without risk.

One solution I've seen proposed that doesn't ditch Vancian magic is to let MUs use minor (cantrip-like) spell effects that match spells they have memorized; that MU with Burning Hands can light his pipe magically. Or let that MU describe otherwise ordinary actions in a magical way: anyone can light a fire, but when the MU with Burning Hands does it, it's obviously magic.

That's fine as far as it goes, but if you want low-level MUs to be effective, you could just use the official solution, or one of the official solutions, anyways: in the Holmes Basic book, magic users can write scrolls for any spells they know and can cast. Cost is 100 gp and 1 week per level. I'd change the cost if the MU gets the ingredients themselves instead of buying them on the open market: 3d6 gp for common ingredients, plus a fresh quill from an extraordinary beast of HD greater than or equal to the spell's level, plus blood or ichor from a similar beast with an ability in some way related to the spell's subject. Figure you can also sell such quills for 30 gp/HD, or one inkwell's worth of blood/ichor for 60 gp/HD; you can buy them for about that price, but could try negotiating for a discount.

MegaDungeon: FING-1

Here's the next installment of the MegaLex MegaDungeon project: FING-1, The New Iron Mines. To spice this section up, I gave it a sublevel of four rooms where presumably the smugglers had started to dig support facilities for this expansion of the mines. The monsters are also a little weirder in this region, but the treasure is richer.

I also updated the overview for level 1 to include a "wandering chamber" list and master monster index. Neither are alphabetical, because the lists are meant to be added to, one to three entries at a time, as the level expands, so everything's in order of appearance. The wandering chambers haven't been used yet.

Wandering Dice

In the one-page dungeon maps I've posted for the MegaLex project, I've used this procedure for wandering monsters: roll 2d6, lowest die is the monster, highest die is the base number encountered, doubles are read from a subtable instead. This set-up is pretty quick and simple, but there's a couple quirks to this. The lowest die result, if doubles aren't rolled, will be in the range of 1 to 5 (6 is only possible for doubles.) The lower numbers will be more likely than the higher numbers. I knew this, and planned accordingly, placing the monsters I wanted to appear more frequently in the 1 or 2 slot.

But I forgot that the converse is also true: the base number appearing can't be 1, and higher numbers are more likely than lower numbers. Monster number 5 on the table will always have a base number appearing of 6. Not really what I want.

A better approach would be to use the approach I've mentioned elsewhere: read the two dice from left to right, with the first die as base number appearing and the second as which monster appears. This adds one more slot to the wandering monster table and makes a couple other tricks possible:

• If I want a monster to appear less frequently, I can pair it with another infrequent monster and using the base number appearing roll to select which of the two I want. This increases the potential variety of monsters.
• If the dice line up, I have the option of reading each die two ways, which means two different monsters wander by. This also gives the potential for different readings of the result: are the monsters allies, enemies, master and slave?

From now on, I'll use this technique in the region maps.

RPG Design as Setting Design

On Ken Hite's LiveJournal blog, he argues that the game designer's primary responsibility is setting. I'd agree, since I've said before that I prefer RPG rules that make fictional stuff happen, as opposed to rules meant to create a balanced challenge or to give players theme control. He gives some examples of mechanics to get players involved in the setting, then he addresses how designers should assist GMs in creating involved settings:

Gary Gygax gave us the answer. And then he immediately hid it from us. The answer is the Random Encounter Table, or Wandering Monster Table, or Random Dungeon Generator, and all those other wondrous time-killers in the back of the DMG. By stocking those tables, paying some attention to the probabilities, and adding modifiers here and there, you create an immediate, accessible method for GMs to understand your setting in the most visceral way possible: by co-creating it with you. They only have to read the setting bits they've generated, and they have a story and an adventure. This is an almost insanely powerful technology for setting design and presentation, and we've unaccountably left it back in its rudimentary Bronze Age form, like the Antikythera Mechanism.

I wanted to highlight that bit because it's exactly what I'm interested in, why I'm hacking away at this dice map approach to random monster, magic, dungeon, kingdom, and detail generation, why I produce lists of randomly-created content like the chaotic enchantments and wandering monsters I post to my blog. I want an updated, flexible approach to create interesting seed ideas that the GM expands on and players flesh out through play.

MegaDungeon Level 1 Overview

Just to show where I'm heading, here's the overview map for the entire first level, so far. This document is not a PDF, because it's going to be changed as the project continues. It's a "crude megalevel map" as described in Part V of the megadungeon training series. What to note right now is the way some regions are butting up against each other, but others are connected by lines representing tunnels. The tunnels leave room for expansion; the party could later find a map showing a secret door in the rail tunnel connecting the forge to the mines, for example, or the tunnel leading from the new mines can have simple codes indicating a reusable geomorph.

Next up are the new mines (FING-1); the map is done, just need to start stocking and preparing the key.

MegaDungeon: WOOD-1

Another addition to the example dungeon using principles from the megadungeon training series. This one is called the slave mines. As a reminder: the label "WOOD-1" does not mean that the region has anything to do with things made of wood, it's the leximorph used to provide structure for the region. I placed the treasures in areas 3 and 15 first; area 3's treasure is kind of open-ended, although I'd probably give a 1 in 6 chance of running out of gems; a couple hours of hard labor might restore the gem stream. This, plus the fact that I rolled really well for treasure placement and upped the base value for this region, means that WOOD-1 is more lucrative than LEXI-1. The unique monsters and magic item were improvised using the simplified system in this post with a lot of leeway for interpretation. I like the sage spider; it's not really dangerous, but adds a lot of color. A non-vocal spider crawls towards you, bows, and gestures that it likes your magic scroll? The magic medallion, although seemingly boring, is probably the best find; adventurers might not care for it, but it's probably worth hundreds of gold pieces to the right person.