Revisions Part 1: The D&D RC was never complete or finished

WotC tries to be a moving target in a bullet storm right now. Whoever thought it was a great idea to ACT as if a document that needs recourse to legal advice can be open to public review just by calling it a "playtest" to associate it with some sort of development process in gaming, must think gamers are GULLIBLE enough to actually think they are involved that way and not just shut up. And if you did their survey and believe it'll have any value to WotC, then I have a bridge to sell you might be interested in. In other words: revision your work away from that bullshit. I'll do just that! 

Edit 28JAN23: I stand corrected, and I'm proud of all the fans standing up protecting D&D. Good show! The dragon is sleeping again ... I'll just say that we have no way of knowing if they actually looked at the surveys. It's actually still a bit ridiculous to assume they did, as what they are saying now is EXACTLY mirroring the original first response: the OGL 1.0a cannot go without lots of hurt for WotC. That has been clear from day 1. To claim now it's the survey from last week, well, it's disingenuous. Either way, it is the result that counts! Big Corp still sucks :)

I never used the OGL

I always found it suspect that something that isn't protected by law (like rules) needed a license to begin with. A lot of this is lawyer speak (think: smoke and mirrors) to widen the grey area for the corporation to act in, and that was pretty obvious from the beginning. If you make it your own, it is, by the same logic, your own and someone else may rewrite it and use it just the same. Them's the rules ...

Now, the main problem with Big Corp thinking in this very special situation is: they want to deviate from what they claim "stewardship" for (a term that only came up just now, and it is ludicrous to believe something like that might be compatible with a hyper-capitalist, neo liberal locust-think), well, they want to deviate just enough to act as if they are selling something new while keeping the old barred from any further use. The illusion of infinite growth colliding with the open source mindset ingrained deep into the original game and its first couple of iterations.

 

WotC be like ... [source]

We have seen over the years how they tried to mutilate the original game to get some resemblance of the D&D theme park they are trying to have you pay for ... forever and ever. This latest stunt is a reminder not only of the incompetent greed involved in this whole affair, but also of what your worth as a customer is with these guys. Shut up, do as your told and pay for it, too, while you are at it. It is not about "stewardship", it is about interacting commodities (and yes, we are also commodities in this regard ... for them, anyway).

So I avoided the waters those sharks frequented, and that included avoiding their OGL. What I did, however, was licensing Monkey Business with Labyrinth Lord, and they are licensed via OGL1.0a (as far as I know). So that's still protected under some legacy rulings. Or whatever ... Still, MB needs a revision anyways, and with be67 as far done as it is now, that revision will be a conversion to my own game.

About the RC being unfinished ...

We always said that the D&D Rules Cyclopedia is the most complete D&D book out there. That is still true, it is just a very low standard to have, because that book was only as complete as they could make it. It's open for debate if an "official" revision of what was offered back in the 90s would even be possible, so it is what it is, and it will most likely stay that way.

When I started compiling be67, the first thing I thought I would do was setting it up as a module to alter Labyrinth Lord, which is, of course, a CLONE of the Basic Expert rules and therefor in the same family of rules as the D&D RC. It didn't take long to realize that making be67 its own game was not only just a couple of steps more to take, but it might become necessary as well, because it was so very much its own thing (hence, a MUTANT rather than a CLONE).

Unconditional love? [source]

So I went for writing a complete game, which made it necessary to take a very hard look at the source material, if only to see what a "complete" version might entail. The first insight gained from that was a reminder of the damn scope of the RC. It is huge. Decades worth of playing it just once in its entirety.

The second insight was how much of a patchwork job it actually is: Weapon Mastery and Skill System are incomplete, lack proper editing and are definitely at best minimaly tested additions. It is full of little oddities that show what a hard job it must have been to compile all of that into one book. In the 90s, no less. Bits and pieces don't fit or are incomplete. Encounter matrix doesn't completely match the monster entries and while there is a lot of advice how to do a lot of what the book offers yourself, it left some huge parts unexplained (how to prepare proper dungeons, for instance).

What's more: once you take a REALLY close look, you'll find that it ALL connects just very loosely, as far as the numbers are concerned. Some of it is just copy/pasted and then expanded on without revision (or just checking if the math is right). How the original design connected is a black box, most of the time. The whole "race as class" discussion is a great indicator for that. Looking at the design it becomes obvious that there is a underlying logic to the classes offered in the book, with some of them offering some ideas where to go with that (druid and monk come to mind).

If you understand how that works, you can build every class you'd like, race is just a feature of that process. One more aspect to add. There is a chance for this to be so open, it'd allow complete customization of all aspects of the rules. It just was never done.

And fair enough, you don't have to look under the hood to play the game. But you have to when you are writing your own. Turns out, reconstructing that "black box" that is the original design will have you end up with something else entirely. And the deeper into the design the changes are, the bigger are the implications for how the game manifests on the surface. Especially if you gear it towards another setting, as be67 tries to do (Weird Sixties Grindhouse ftw, people!).

 

If I try to explain how monsters relate to challenge rating so a GM can potentially diy the shit out of it, I have to write that myself. If I want the GM to be able to build their own classes, I'll have to come up with something myself, because it doesn't exist in the original book. If I want to connect the numbers the game produces with how to structure adventures, or campaigns even, I have to do that from scratch, as the original book doesn't offer that ... And so on and so forth.

In that sense, the D&D RC is a very unfinished and incomplete book. Luckily so, because if they aren't able to connect all those dots, and a designer is to find their own solutions, there's no way they can claim it to be theirs, just for the tranparence of it all.

As a matter of fact, I'm not sure they are even able to entangle what has been the originl design and what has evolved because of fan or hobbyist initiative. The D&D RC, following that logic, was a very specific interpretation of one specific strain of the D&D family of games, already incorporating not original design, but concepts, insights and ideas established elsewhere (not only from the fan base, but also through many, many other successful rpgs out there).

An incomplete patch work that cannot be true to the original design due to being exposed to external and uncontrollable influences and bases its design on some unknown and obscure metric, barely makes a good argument for being protected by any means. In my opinion.

DIY, all the way ...

As things stand right now, it doesn't seem safe to associate with the D&D brand even superficially. Therefore, all publications I can manage to put out here in the next 5 months will deny all connection to the source other than it being inspiration. I'll be open about how it all connects, so it will be my very own take on some of the same principles established so many years ago. A retroclone mutant, if you will.

There is freedom in going it all the way all alone (and I might not be alone, actually). We'll see if I can claim be67 to be part of the OSR family or not. It's all still easily enough hacked and connected, but that's just something tainted now. What you guys do at your table is yours to decide, naturally, I just can't believe that it'll be open discourse from now on. At least it's not safe to assume so right now.

We'll see.

Right now, WotC tries to play it for time while funneling critique into non-existance, but the damage is done and gears started moving all over the place. Interesting times.

In closing I want to share a double page from be67 that took me a long time to complete, for the reasons I stated above. It might need more context, but I think the basic premise is easily enough grasped: it is a dynamic random encounter table that should help propelling the narrative in a way forward that supports the Grindhouse Feature the GM has prepared. Here we go:

Isn't she a beauty? Anyway. What I'm trying to say and show here is that be67 will not only be its own thing, it'll also be "complete" in a sense that there'll be no part of the rules that's not so throroughly and openly connected, that you'd have to guess why it is the way it is in its context. The above in part of a little machine that'll allow a GM to always keep the game within the parameters it establishes. with very little bookkeeping, I might add.

And that's that. If you've published something that may be construed to be close to what the Wizards do at that Coast, my advice would be to revise the hell out of it and build as much distance to those greedy fuckers as possible. I'll definitely do that.

And if you are in it for what I'm trying to do here, I hope you'll enjoy be67 as its own thing, just as much as you'd have while I could have associated it with the origins of the hobby. The hint needs to be enough.

Take care, friends and neighbors. Thanks for reading!

Tell them to show and not tell ... (a look inside the be67 GM chapter)

One of the most difficults tasks when writing a set of rules is to not necessarily to make those rules understood but more so to write the book in a way that allows the reader to produce as close as possible to the same experience as you make happen when you play the game you are writing. You need to get them into the same headspace, if you will, to share the same vision you have. One of the first rules in that regard (I think for writing in general, actually) is to assume they know nothing you know.

We need to be told that we should show and not tell ...

Readers might even know more or just "differently", but if they don't go along with what you are proposing (for whatever reason), they won't get it. And the worst case scenario for that would be that they'll have a bad experience when playing your game. So I'm extra meticulous about making myself as clear as possible.

Part of that exercise is to put the reader in a position to compare their own frame of reference to mine and find the overlap. To be totally fair, the ideal mix for a text like this is in huge part "telling" and in some parts "showing" (examples and all that), but to some degree it needs to be an exchange of references in order to build common ground.

Therefore, today I'll show you how I tell them what can be seen as inspiration to show the players the Weird Sixties instead of telling them ... This is part of the beginning of the Chapter about GMing be67:

SOURCES & INSPIRATIONS

The first part of this chapter seems a bit excessive at first glance, but we strongly believe that (1) many of the inspirations collected here are already known but so popular that it’s easy to lose out of sight how deeply rooted they are in the Sixties, that (2) it needs at least all of that to show how versatile popular culture had been almost 60 years ago and (3) that it is necessary to visualize that psychosphere where grindhouse publications would borrow their ideas from.

There’s furthermore a long upheld tradition in role-playing games to have something akin to what was called “Appendix: N” in AD&D 1e. It’s not as much “required reading” as it is a guide towards what informed the designers to do what they did. Some of the same is true here, of course, so the following is neither complete nor canon, but recommendations what could give a Gamemaster in be67 an edge or two.

What’s more, many of the titles collected below would find sequels and reboots and additions for decades to come, some inspired or initiated whole new genres or cultural shifts. What happened in the Sixties build the foundations for the main cultural identity of the 20^th and early 21^st centuries. That’s a lot.

What are the Sixties?

What follows is a somewhat romanticized and decidedly US-centric description of the Sixties. Other cultures definitely contributed to our idea of the Sixties in this context (Japan and the UK, mainly), and we will give some examples of that, but for length alone we have to cut corners here and give some pointers instead.

In short, the Sixties could be characterized (for the purpose of this game) as “psychedelic optimism”. It was happy and colorful and feminine, with a good dose of “weird” intruding popular culture in form of the freedom movement and some strong and distinct subcultures all across cultural niches in the US to boot. There was movement and palpable friction between poor and wealthy as well as traditional and more non-conventional values.

There also was Vietnam, but it wasn’t (yet) the war that would traumatize the US for decades to come. Careful observers would see first signs of that early on and the soldiers that came back had went through hell, obviously, but without an audience. And yes, people demonstrated against the war, but it was an ongoing process with the hallmarks of disaster only.

A huge part of the positive spin (or feel) the Sixties had was due to the introduction of several psychoactive drugs to the populace. The first drugs that come to mind in that regard are, of course, marijuana and LSD (or Acid) popular with artists and the counterculture (as well as some scientists). However, an impact just as big had the invention of Valium and derivatives in 1963. Popular- and counterculture had all been on very mellow drugs, and that, arguably, took the edge of the Sixties while making them more fun all around (again, for the purpose of this book … things, naturally, had been a little bit more complex than that).

There was some technological optimism as well, with lots of innovation and people with enough money to buy it. The Sixties saw an economic surge in the US, mostly due to government finishing what Kennedy had started. And while that would fall flat in the 70s, it certainly helped spending in the Sixties. In general we can assume that the average citizen in the 1960s had access to most of the accommodations we have today, minus computers and cell phones. Things like ATMs or hand-held calculators had been invented, but weren’t in heavy circulation at 1967. Maybe something you’d see an article in the newspapers about. Computers did exist, but only to the degree that people in general had been aware of them and it gave authors some strange ideas about the future. When in doubt, accept that a more “primitive” version of the tool in question might have been available.

Those are the basic tones of the game.

But what did that look like?

TV in the Sixties definitely had some highly recognizable staples. Here’s a great sample how weird it could actually get in mainstream TV:

• The Addams Family
• The Avengers
• Batman
• The Beverly Hillbillies
• Bewitched
• Get Smart
• Gilligan’s Island
• Hogan’s Heroes
• I Dream Of Jeannie
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• The Munsters
• My Favorite Martian
• Rawhide
• Star Trek
• The Twilight Zone

Before we go into the grindhouse experience, we also should take a look into mainstream cinema. It featured some genuine classics. Let’s see what had hit cinemas that decade until 1967 alone:

• A Fistful of Dollars
• A Shot in the Dark
• The Birds
• Blow-Up
• Bonnie and Clyde
• Carnival of Souls
• Cool Hand Luke
• Dr. Strangelove
• For A Few Dollars More
• The Godson
• The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
• The Great Escape
• House of Usher
• The Innocents
• James Bond (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice & Casino Royale)
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Lolita
• Mary Poppins
• The Pink Panther
• Planet of the Apes
• Psycho
• The Time Machine
• The Wild Bunch

That’s only a small selection of popular movies with comedic, violent, horror or surreal elements and only in the first seven years of the Sixties (and mostly US). Great movies have been done before and after that and all over the world. For instance, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Night of the Living Dead and Easy Rider didn’t make the list because they had been released in 1968 and 1969 (but had been in production in 1967).

Movies, documentaries and TV shows from later decades but playing in the Sixties also offer great sources of inspiration. Here are some definite highlights (as far as the game is concerned):

• American Graffiti (1973)
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
• Catch Me If You Can (2002)
• The Doors (1991)
• Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
• Green Book (2018)
• Inherent Vice (2014 for the movie, the book was 2009)
  
• JFK (1991)
• Mad Men (series, 2007-2015)
• Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
• Perfect World (1993)
• The Rum Diary (2011)
• Taking Woodstock (2009)
• When You’re Strange (documentary, 2009)
• Woodstock (documentary, 1970)

This is, again, just the tip of the iceberg and very mainstream, but for that reason easily accessible just the same.

The seedy underbelly of 60s cinema?

The one thing lacking in the Sixties was proper special effects. They did good with what they had. In some cases, anyway. But most of the time the results will fall under “acquired taste” today. Every one of the Science Fiction and Horror movies of the Sixties will make fantastic pitches for be67 adventures, however, so we encourage looking all of them up for inspiration (or even viewing, for that matter). That said, we will name a couple of favorites just to show a glimpse what’s there to discover and explore:

• Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy
• Billie the Kid v. Dracula
• Black Sabbath
• Blood Feast
• Brides of Dracula
• Dr. Who & the Daleks
• Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
• The Gorgon
• Hillbillies in a Haunted House
• Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter
• The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
• Matango (a.k.a. Attack of the Mushroom People)
• Mothra vs. Godzilla
• Onibaba

That’s just a small selection, already bordering hard into grindhouse-territory,

Also authors and books and music, oh my!

Many, many authors of weird tales still highly popular today had already successfully published books in the 1960s. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, for instance, got published as a paperback only early in the Sixties and then became hugely popular in colleges (the famous “Gandalf for President” pins started then and there). It resonated very well with the Zeitgeist of the 60s. And of course the old and fantastic classics had also been around back then: H. G. Wells, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker …

Mix in Eastern influences feeding new impulses into the Western collective unconscious and some drugs and you end up with the Beatnik movement and all the blues and rock and folk music opening up to new psychedelic realms, all of that eventually amalgamating into the Summer of Love in 1967 and Woodstock 1969.

We can’t possibly map all of this here, but we will name a couple of our personal favorites to give an impression what we might refer to when GMing be67 (in the tradition of the famous Appendix N):

• Isaac Asimov
• Peter S. Beagle
• William S. Borroughs
• Charles Bukowski
• Anthony Burgess
• Raymond Chandler
• Arthur C. Clarke
• Philip K. Dick
• E. R. Eddison
• Philip José Farmer
• Dashiell Hammett
• Robert A. Heinlein
• Frank Herbert
• Ursula K. LeGuin
• Mervyn Peake
• Thomas Pynchon
• Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
• Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Roger Zelazny

All of the above contributed a lot to what was imaginable back then, which naturally also ended up one way or another on grindhouse movie theater screens (while being watered down immensely and somewhat more sleazy) .

As for music: using the soundtracks of all the collected entertainment above should give a GM more than enough material about what the Sixties sounded like. All the bands and artists performing at Woodstock are a good start, the Beatles should be in that mix, some country, some folk, but also classic music like Mozart or Bach and the like (see Apocalypse Now, 2001 or Clockwork Orange for ideas).

That said, even contemporary music can help a Gamemaster getting some inspiration … More on that in the next part.

Summoning the Weird Sixties!

We have used throughout this book quotes from movies that wouldn’t be considered original grindhouse features by any sane movie aficionado. Mostly, anyways. The material we quoted for inspiration is also pretty much mainstream popular throughout, although many of them wouldn’t exist without exploitation cinema. Why is that? The idea behind this was to give some pointers where one actually would find inspiration for grindhouse features and how common those tropes are now because of it. This is how it works:

Exploitation movies take what is popular and use it shamelessly, often towards the sensational and uncouth. It’s where the name came from, as a matter of fact. Aspiring GM of be67 should take this to heart and have some fun with doing the same.

Basically, every popular story idea, doesn’t matter what medium, can be made into a grindhouse feature just by mixing it relentlessly with other ideas and making it somewhat less reputable in the process but glorious because of it.

The gold standard that produces would nowadays be something akin to a Tarantino movie. A daunting proposition, one might say. As would be to assume that all D&D games are on par with Tolkien’s work. In both cases, however, players can have just as much fun as they’d have watching a Tarantino movie or reading Tolkien. The reason for this is that the rules will already get you half way there! So far we have provided:

• Characters you would find in those movies,
• with backstories that already sound like bad movie plots, and
• an award system that motivates players to go all-in on the premises of their Characters (if they like xp), but furthermore
• with a combat system as gory as it gets and
• lots of other rules like Funk Rerolls and the Bubblegum Barometer to give the game that specific feel!

This chapter will add some more tools and insights to help Gamemasters of be67 with their games with The Rule of Cool, some basic structuring for adventures, what High Level Play will look like, how to work Skills as a GM, Environmental Effects, how to keep players happy with Special Loot, how to convert other gaming material, how to make Character Classes from scratch and how to handle Monsters. All of that and some more general advice should offer a Gamemaster more than enough material to prepare and run games set in the Weird Sixties for years. Future publications will add Adventure Modules, new Classes, different Settings and even more Tools to that.

-----------------------------------

And that's the introduction for gamemasters to the game, giving you an impression what this book will read like and what scope it'll offer on it's, roughly, 140 pages A5. We here at Disoriented Ranger Publishing take our funny games serious like that ...

I'd be happy to hear thoughts on the above, of course. What baffled me most when I researched this was how much of the Sixties is still mulled over to this day, one way or another. So, was this helpful at all? Did it convey a frame to work with?

Anyway, back to work. I still have high hopes that be67 will see the light of day this year, at least in pdf form. There's other things in the works, and I'm currently a bit scattered. But it'll sort itself out, I'm sure of it. Until then, have some artwork for the book (still in the process of collecting those and experimenting with this on Midjourney ...):

Funky Vampire Queen?

 

Ghosttrain, New York, 1967 ...

Summer of Love ... but it's Zombies!

Still undecided about those colors ...

How Computer Games ruined Leveling Up for RPGs (Intermission to the Player Motivation Series)

That part two about motivation is still in the works. It's going to be interesting, but also means some work, so it'll happen. It'll just take the time it needs. Easter, maybe. Anyway, now this occured to me while writing on be67 (and had been a lingering thought for a while, tbh), so I thought I should address it here in the blog as king of an intermission to the Motivation series, since it relates). The thesis is, of course, hyperbole. But there is some merit to it, so hear me out. Oh, and I'm all over the place with this one, so buckle up ...

Where does that come from, 'to level up'?

If anything, characters having levels they can reach through gaining experience points was innovative design at the time D&D originally came out. I'd even wager that it'd been an original design of D&D, at least in pushing the idea to it's limits. I'm guessing here, but it seems plausible that the war games D&D was based on bore the seed of this idea to some extent. Although the term isn't used in Chainmail, for instance, which is one obvious precurser of OD&D. 

OD&D itself has an illuminating passage:

"It is also recommended that no more experience points be awarded for any single adventure than will suffice to move the character upwards one level." (OD&D: Men & Magic, p. 18)

Close, but not quite it. In general, they'll be speaking about 'gaining levels' or 'advancing a level' in all the old D&D books I could get my hands on (OD&D, AD&D 1e, D&D RC ...). 

So the concept of 'gaining levels' is OD&D, for sure. How that was conceived is not public knowledge (nothing I could find by researching it online, that is). OD&D doesn't say 'level up' in any satisfying way shape or form. Same goes for B/X and AD&D 1e (1977). When D&D gaming culture seeped into the first computer games and consoles able to do anything with the concept, gaining levels became a successful trope and the SNES Super Mario RPG from 1996 already uses 'level up' casually, so it's already an idiom then.

It's interesting, isn't it? The term 'to level up' just appeared in the context of gaming* and made it's way into pop culture without anyone questioning it or even thinking about it twice. It's just ... there. Loaded with meaning. How come?

Your guess is a good as mine. My best idea is the popularity of Tolkien that lead to D&D to begin with (and why the game has hobbits!), because The Lord of the Rings, as we all know, has one of the most famous stories about character advancement out there: the change from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White!

The original Leveler? [source]

Aragorn levels up as well, actually, but not in the middle of the story, so it only counts a bit. The thing is, however, that character growth in LotR can be seen as a growth in power, which neatly applies to that famous shift from war gaming to playing individual characters in a skirmish context, which in the end lead to D&D. And that went viral (as much as things could go 'viral' in the 70s).

Furthermore, (fantasy) war games would already offer units with 'experience' as the differing characteristic (Warriors, Veterans, Heroes, stuff like that). So it's not a stretch to assume that all of that came together to form the idea that the limit of playing one character should allow for that character to advance over time ...

As I said, all guesswork. Fact is, the idea of leveling up originates in D&D to the degree that it was the source for all further innovations in that regard. And since D&D never, imo, explored the concept to its full potential, peak popularity of the term should be located with computer and console games as that's how most people today understand it. That comes with implications, of course.

Leveling Up in early D&D is BORING!

To gain a level in D&D wasn't understood as getting more powerful as soon as a certain XP limit is reached. On the contrary, from OD&D onwards all the way through to AD&D 2e there was an extra effort involved to actually gain that level when the xp for it are collected. It was all about playing the class properly or even getting teachers for certain skills (an idea we even can find in obscure places of the D&D RC).

As soon as one fulfilled all the criteria, the new level is gained. D&D also had a barely visible meta structure where gaining a number of levels should lead to a shift in gameplay (name level shifts to domain play which eventually leads to high level play ... but where that second shift is will stay a mystery, since it's never explained properly).

Barely visible, as it wasn't understood completely when the design was conceived (is my guess), which lead to people just playing the first phase and declaring that as the 'sweet spot' because the game starts to fall apart if the shift to the next phase isn't done properly (if you don't shift focus around levels 6 to 9, you still play the same game but it just isn't as satisfying a gaming loop anymore).

As I said, underdeveloped design. Level titles had been another great idea, but all of it was more about describing how the gaming world perceives a character and that has NOTHING to do with what a character experienced or gained. It is given to the character, but it carries no meaning that deepens the connection between character and player. Or only the meaning the GM is able to instill, which might very well end up being nothing.

If I have one main criteria when designing rules, it would be that a rule that isn't used doesn't work and needs changing. That's how I feel about leveling up in D&D. You gain HP, some powers, sometimes you hit better by +1, sometimes your Saving Throws improve, but most of it is marginal and, considering the range of levels the games offer, takes way too long to achieve.

Now consider computer games: you gain a new level instantly with a flashy animation of sorts, you get to chose some benefits for the character and (when done well) all of it seems "meaningful". You achieved something and get an award for it with a little celebration and then we move on with the game. Sometimes you'll even get new items (or item upgrades or pets) just because you leveled up and it's not even questioned where they come from (things just 'manifesting' is another one of those computer game tropes). The fact that you also get more powerful is almost secondary to the emphasis on offering some form of individual customization.

It's a very different approach altogether, but arguably the more succesful design. If a player knows the concept from playing computer games only, a Gamemaster will have a hard time explaining how and why D&D is different. And that leads, more often than not, to disappointment. I have seen this way too often. Character of a new player levels up in basic D&D and they look at me with eager anticipation what's going to happen next. They want bells and whistles and when I tell them they get 1d6 more HP (or whatever) they usually end up confused, asking "That's it? I played 4 sessions of this game to get ... 2 more Hit Points?". I agree. It doesn't meet modern expectations.

[source]

If nothing else, D&D (and other rpgs going by the same premise) using an underdeveloped system for leveling up basically forced designers into copying popular computer game design choices, which lead to neglecting the aforementioned meta structure and ultimately developed into a very bloated version of that first phase with lots of little powers characters can earn between levels. In 5e characters start with the classic D&D equivalent of 3rd level and never really advance beyond Name Level, even if they advance higher. The game doesn't shift gears anymore.

I'd say that's just as bad design as the original design is underdeveloped. But did it ruin leveling up for D&D?

Innovation should have split, maybe?

Computer games took the ball and ran with it, arguably shaping not only popular culture, but also changing what players like to see in a game. Not expect, but actually like. Leveling up is a fun experience in most succesful computer games I know. So much fun, in fact, that the concept ended up being a familiar trope in mangas and anime. It's even used in management circles to express progress ... The term is known and used, is what I'm saying.

The question is, does it translate to rpgs?

Well, in parts it does, in parts it doesn't. Depends on the stories you are telling. Or rather, on how you are telling your stories.

I can see three design approaches here:

1. Using computer game concepts basically 1:1 (which we see all the time now with the big brands, especially in the advent of twitch streams and the necessity to design games with an audience in mind as well)
2. Dismiss the concept entirely or at least down to an echo of the original system (levels mainly as flavor, basically, or hybrid systems where you gain xp but buy benefits and powers and it doesn't translate into 'levels')
3. Innovate anywhere from the point of diversion (peak OSR was exploring that, imo, but didn't gain enough momentum to have a lasting impact other than ACKS)
   

Personally, I have nothing against making the D&D gaming experience as playful as computer games can be. be67 will feature concepts like that quite excessively, as a matter of fact (as you might have guessed, I started writing the chapter on character progression when the thoughts above occured to me).

What makes bad design, imo, is not the imitation of what's popular with computer games but doing so without understanding the original design to begin with. Add market incentives like popular twitch D&D games (or rather, theater play doing a theme park impression of D&D for an audience that has no idea what D&D is or don't care) and you'll end up with games full of design choices distorted by lazy corporate greed.

[source]

To be totally fair, why should big players like WotC care if you are able play their game for years? The game needs to carry the illusion of functioning for the first couple of levels and should be fun enough to summon the resemblance of its manifestations in popular culture. You can be like Sheldon playing D&D, even buy the t-shirt. Doesn't need to be deeper than that. If that. They are basically milking D&D tropes for money by morphing it into something akin to World of Warcraft.

On the other hand, dismissing the system altogether or going for a hybrid system works but means missing out on one big dimension role-playing games have to offer. Still, very much viable. It leads to shorter campaign cycles for those games (down to being nothing more than one-shots), but that can be a benefit as well. Actually, as far as scope goes, there's lots to explore going from the basic premisses D&D formulated back in 1973, not just campaign play.

And yes, I assume we are still exploring the implications of that first game.

As for the innovation part ... well, that is a loaded proposal, isn't it? Computer games are dominating to a degree that a direct comparison makes role-playing games look bad. Computer games you can play all the time, any time if you pay the moneys for it. You don't need others or can reach likeminded others easily. It's also a market so powerful that lots of money is spent on research and design (although with making money in mind, not necessarily with creating "good" games). Novelty is high with already decades of products worth exploring and more to come.

Actually, if things aren't taking a turn for the worse, we are about to see some genuinely mindblowing technological advances in the near future with ai in vr and ar ... That'll be that. For individuals, it is better gaming if it is considered to be the same.

So one could argue that the window of opportunity to have some meaningful innovation in all thing rpg is closed and done with, which leads to the question "Why even care?". Especially when the popular kids start defining what the game is and that would be something like "analogue computer gaming".

Which is where we end up with the original premise: computer games ruined leveling up for rpgs, because exploring where that would have led if computer games wouldn't have interferred, might not even be beneficial for the hobby at that point. It's gone too far, so it's ruined.

That said, this ain't my conclusion yet ...

Conclusion

For the big finish, I'd say we go and look at this from a First Principle perspective, asking: what can leveling up in a role-playing game do for you? The simple answer would be it supports the campaign arc of a game in a way that makes progress palpable by being part of an important overall structure:

• Encounters that accumulate to
  
• Sessions that accumulate to
• Level Ups that accumulate to
• Campaign Phases (name level & epic level gaming) that accumulate to
• The Campaign

The original design offered campaign play for years on end. To make that work, every aspect of this needs to work flawlessly to elevate the gaming experience to the next higher part of the structure. You leave something out (or not working), the upper parts will fall short (the shortest form where you are still actually playing would be "Encounters that accumulate to A One-Shot).

But leveling up carries another important aspect of the game. This is the part where it connects to the Motivation Series: while all other parts of that hierarchy above are basically offered to the players by the game, leveling up is the only one that directly alters their characters in a way that allows them to manipulate the game on the system side of things. Characters get stronger and grow as a system response and not as something developing out of the narrative. It's where players can tinker with their character's system response, if that makes any sense.

Meaningful choices do matter ... [source]

What I'm saying is, if that's done well, it motivates players to invest the huge amount of time it takes to play an original campaign. And we can learn a lot from computer game design in that regard.

However, computer games work in cycles way smaller than what a proper D&D campaign would need, which has us end at an impasse, of sorts, as creating the demand for visually stimulating novelty-impulses in faster and faster cycles is another well working feature of computer games. So what's the take away?

For me it would be that if designers would not have bowed to popular demand and instead kept working on the original design, we might have now a proper representation of role-playing games in popular culture. Integral part of that would be a design for leveling characters up that helps carrying the social structure role-playing games need to have long campaigns.

Computer games had some neat ideas in that regard, but since playing computer games mostly seek way faster satisfaction cycles mostly for individual players (or with other players being abstracted to digital entities), it doesn't translate easily AND misses dimensions playing as a group in meatspace would add.

That means, for all we could learn from computer games (which is a lot), they also undermined role-playing games so profoundly that, paradoxically, the only thing that really could help role-playing games right now, would be to totally distance them from popular gaming culture. Make it a distinct experience, it's own thing. Put an emphasis on the social aspects of the game and give people some additional value they wouldn't gain from playing computer games (personal interaction and growth, for instance).

To go that way means designing and marketing role-playing games decidedly differently.

Because computer games ruined leveling up for rpgs ...

So what do you guys think? You see what I'm seeing? 

------------------------ 

Still hustling this one: You can check out a free preview of Ø2\\'3||, that rpg I wrote, right here (or go and check out the first reviews here). I'm (still, but not for long) doing a sale on the game proper ...

If you already checked it out, please know that I appreciate you :) It'll certainly help to keep the lights on here! I'd love to hear about that, too.

Just look at that beauty ...

 ------------------------

* It was used earlier in social sciences to express a shift in social class towards a higher class, but meant that it leveled upwards in a hierarchy. Arguably, 'to level up' in a gaming context means upping ones level ... Or so the distinction is made.

The Monkey Business Ruin Generator in Action (Part 1: Basic Results & 1st Area)

So a good friend of mine recently informed me that the Ruin Generator I provided in Monkey Business (that OSR module I wrote) had no merit at all. The results were too vanilla and for the time you'd spend using it, nothing of value would be produced. He admitted, though, that this judgement was superficial and only based on his read-through, not on actually testing it. Fair enough. I value his observations a great deal, so I should pay attention. If my description of it wasn't enough to inspire him to use it, I'd go as far as agreeing that I failed to make him use it. That doesn't mean, however, that the tool doesn't have merit, it means I failed to make my case properly. This series of post will try to rectify that (this is going to be a big one, so I decided to go with two parts or more here).

Presumptions 1: Can Complex Environments be Randomized?

DMs using the tools provided will create a huge jungle sandbox from scratch, including factions, villages, treasure and ruins as well as having an idea how those interact. It is a tall order and people seem to mostly find it all usefull. Treasure got some heat, but I make my case about that in the post linked above ... in short, I believe the treasure generator gives a DM a shitload of information to build on while IMPROVISING treasure on the fly, even creating quest items (among of lots of other things). Test it in specific gaming situations (it needs the context of the game to build on) then tell me it doesn't work and, more importantly, why.

Anyway. The Ruin Generator got no love at all and was deemed to baroque to be even used. I mean, it definitely is high concept and not using it will have you missing out (imo), but not hinder you from using the module at all. It is just (and here's why I even bothered to write it) that a DM will create 19 hex fields with each containing an average of 3 ruins, some of them small (not so much work), some of them huge (that'd be modules in themselves, actually).

You don't have to have all of them prepared (players will only explore one hex at a time ...), but you'd be well advised to have the hex prepared the characters are in and the adjacent hexes as well. Starting at the border of the hex map would mean you'd have some concepts for round about 12 ruins ready enough for the characters to explore on a whim. Looky here (from the module):

Open in new tab for details ...

Now, either way you prepare for that will be lots of work, because that's just what it is. You sure can have some maps handy or some other product or even some random online generator to help you through this, but you will not get around preparing all of that. At the least you'll have to adjust what you get to your game.

The problem is, obviously, the level of detail players will expect when exploring ruins or a dungeon. It can barely be handwaved (if at all) and it'll have lots of moving pieces in the air as the players gather information about structure and inhabitants and how to work that to their benefit.

My design goal for the ruin generator had been to have a system easy enough to complete in a couple of steps, but with complex enough results to allow for depth and variety while summoning all the little tropes one could encounter in such an environment in the order they would be encountered.

That last part ("the order in which they are encounteres") turned out to be the crucial part, as it mirrors the hierarchy of information from "most general" to "most detailed" when the narrative starts zooming in on something that warrants more detail. Having the information build up that way a DM will have at all times a superficial pattern on hand to expand on as well as some detailed hot spots to work with as the characters explore.

That is, admittedly, a tall order. But if pulled off properly, it'd be a mighty tool for a DM to get all of those ruins prepared within some reasonable time frame (imo). If a DM has fun doing so (because we are nerds like that), it'd be even better. It'd be the DM playing AND creating at the same time (like, you know, How To Host A Dungeon, for instance). If nothing else, DMs using this tool will spend time creating something themselves instead of learning to use something someone else wrote (well, it's kind of both ... you know what I mean).

Naturally, one could critizice now that you don't buy a module to do something yourself that should be provided instead. However, that argument does not stand with all the sandbox creation tools I have encountered so far. It is always assumed that the DM interprets and builds on the pattern any such tool would provide. Why should this be different with ruins or treasure created that way?

It isn't different at all, imo. The DM creates. Ideally a module will provide a great frame to make what they create shine and maybe even give it some direction. But DMs will create or they end up being the mouth piece for something someone else created, and where's the fun in that?

Anyway, I digress. Sorry. I believe that a certain amount of complexity for such a tool as described above is warranted, even necessary to get results worth anything (considering said complexity). Still not saying I managed to create such a tool, but I hope I was able to explain where I'm coming from in this and how I went about it.

Show, don't tell, man!

Alright, lets get rolling. I'll just go ahead and use the module as intended so you guys get an idea what's happening. Our hex-field is a 52, that'd be "rolling plains with some jungle". The Resource Level is a bit lower here (-1), so we get to roll 2d6 for ruins here ... a 7. That means we have one medium sized ruin hiding here as well as two overgrown remains (a piece of road, a pillar, something like that). As for factions, this hex also contains a hidden Gorilla Base (with 2 orangutans, 3 chimpanzee ninjas and 9 goblins stationed here) and two hidden drug stashes, 2 Cannibal Villages, some mushroom artwork (5 times, spread across hex) and some artifact and weird effects from the Alien presence as well as some (4) areas showing signs of radiation.

First, the Cannibal Village (just going with the dice here) actually is within the ruins. They currently have lots of wounded due to some sort of war and people are afraid of something (quest is indicated!), but are poorly equipped. They have a shaman who's faking his magic abilities (which is somehow connected to the people being afraid) and have a crazy chieftain (reason for the wounded and the poor equipment, although they live within the ruins).

The second Cannibal Village fights with some sickness but has the population happy as something nice had just happened (I'd go with them finding a cure or remedy). They are quite primitive and have only basic farming and rudimentary tools available, but their fighters are capable veterans and have a level 3 Shaman that is in contact with the spirits. Their chieftain, however, is quite incompetent.

There are no conflicts in the area, but the next time the gorillas will expand here, it'll mean to go to open war with the cannibals, so tension is high.

That's the stage as far as we'll need it for this example (we'll ignore the surrounding hexes and the vistas they'd add to this as well as the results about what the villages would exactly look like). This is what's going on in the 790 square kilometers of this hex (an area about two-thirds as big as Los Angeles) ... everything is in a distance equivalent to couple of hours travel across those plains. 

What ruin over yonder?

This is for the results!

Now for the Medium Ruin. First roll is 1d100+50 to see how big we'll go ... that'd be 115 points for building this. The result of our first Ruin Section is 9 (d12), 20 (d20), 5 (d8), 10 (d10) and 2 (d6) (a total of 46). First sign of those ruins is a big overgrown Stone Arc (adds includes Inside Area). It should be in a jungle area this hex is featuring, visible between the green growth.

The Theme for those Ancient Ruins is "Time Loop Destruction" and it'll feature some Residual Magic of sorts. There are also some harmless ghosts here and a zombie problem as well as Kobolds. One Jungle Treasure can be found here.

TREASURE 1: 17 (d20), 2 (d20), 1 (d12), 6 (d8) - This is one dose of a rare drug made from vermin and worth 208 gp.   

Our 115 are reduced by the value of that first roll (46) to a 69.

For the second Ruin Section (an Inside area) the results are 3 (d12), 5 (d6), 7 (d10), 20 (d20) and 7 (d8) (a total of 42). This is a former Green House. The entrance to it is hidden, Stone Faces are heavily featured in this area, it is quite swampy and here are some crude and natural traps. Here are two factions present: Kobolds and Troglodytes, but it also has a Dragon! So a dragon has its lair in a tower here ... Furthermore adventurers might find 4 Jungle Treasures and access to clean water here (additionally to what the Factions and the beasties carry, that is).

TREASURE 1: 4 (d20), 15 (d20), 2 (d12), 5 (d8) - This is some ancient weapon made out of iron and worth 130 gp.

TREASURE 2: 1 (d20), 12 (d20), 8 (d12), 7 (d8) - This is some alien wear made out a strange leather with usability 8 (high) and worth 56 gp.

TREASURE 3: 6 (d20), 10 (d20), 4 (d12), 1 (d8) - This is some crested container made out of wood with a usability of 4 and worth 21 gp.

TREASURE 4: 2 (d20), 1 (d20), 5 (d12), 7 (d8) - This is 5 doses of some alien alcohol made out of herd animals and worth 30 gp.

Our remaining 69 are reduced by the value of that second roll (42) to a 27.

On to the next area. The results are 15 (d20), 4 (d6), 4 (d12), 5 (d10) and 2 (d8) (a total of 30). First Impression here is a "Mountain Side", which should translate to something like a cliff of sorts with the features "hiding" in the jungle atop the cliff. I'd go as far as saying this is a wonderful stone wall featuring a mountain scene and hiding some stairs that lead to the top. The high result here also adds one Inside and one Feature Area to this.

Main Theme here is "Roots"and the Complication is "Uneven Footing", both adding to the hidden aspect of this area. Some harmless monkeys reside here and there's one Jungle Treasure hidden here as well. I'd put the cannibals here in relative distance to the Kobolds and the Zombies (and the Dragon, for that matter).

TREASURE 1: 3 (d20), 16 (d20), 11 (d12), 1 (d8) - This is an ancient artwork made from salt and worth 62 gp.

Our remaining 27 are reduced now below 0, but there are still two areas to be resolved (an Inside and a Feature). After that the ruins are complete (for now).

For our Inside in this area we get 6 (d10), 5 (d6), 5 (d12), 1 (d8) and 5 (d20). This is a Boneyard (a huge hall, at that) with the Stone Faces returning as a Theme, more harmless ghosts and some termites. Three Jungle Treasures can be found here. The Cannibals are aware of this area, but mostly avoid it because of the ghosts.

TREASURE 1: 13 (d20), 13 (d20), 3 (d12), 6 (d8) - This is some mysterious knowledge conserved on iron sheets with a usability of 3 (low) and worth 70 gp.

TREASURE 2: 15 (d20), 1 (d20), 9 (d12), 7 (d8) - This is 9 doses of some primitive alcohol made out of herd animals (blood?) and worth 32 gp.

TREASURE 3: 4 (d20), 8 (d20), 1 (d12), 1 (d8) - This is some big ancient accessory made out of bone with a usability of 1 (very low) and worth 14 gp. 

The Feature is connected to the Inside and for that we get 3 (d8), 13 (d20), 3 (d12), 1 (d6) and 2 (d10). An Ancient Gallery with some hidden spaces can be found here. The main Theme is "Bridges" and these ancient halls still have some magic working here. The complication here is that it's crawling with insects, mostly Termites, it seems. One Jungle Treasure can be found here.

TREASURE 1: 17 (d20), 13 (d20), 2 (d12), 2 (d8) - This is some rare knowledge written on some vermin based medium with a usability of 2 (low) and worth 272 gp.

That's it for the random results and what they sum up to. All of this is somewhat basic, so far. What we haven't done yet is interpreting how the dice used for those results connect with each other and what that looks like. A map, so to say (see below).

And all that for what?

I had scribbled on the side how all of this comes together, roughly. This will need some fleshing out in places as well as produce some very specific necessities for the ruins here (mostly due to residual magic and a dragon).

What I will do now is putting in some extra effort, since this is a blog and not a DM notebook. If I were doing this for my home game, I'd just make a sketch, put down some notes and be done with it, which would be much faster. Since this is also a proof of concept, I'll go the distance and show how the provided information helps creating a very individual and fitting location for Monkey Business.

It goes without saying that this has a very high variation due to basic variables like location alone. Have this location high in the mountains and it will look totally different as well as offering different challenges (different hidden areas, different ways to get from A to B, different populations, ...).

Other than that, there might be many different reasons to explore those ruins derived from how the adventure is going. Those cannibals have a problem that needs solving. The dragon could be a problem in the area or even a possible ally versus the gorillas ... or it's all just treasure hunting (again, that dragon will have a hoard!).

You won't get the same result twice, so there is that as well. In the end, if you do 12 ruins like that, even without fleshing them out properly (there are cheat sheets to keep the information straight and with that it should be easy to even improvise a ruin), they all will be distinguishably different with lots of variety for exploration and enough information established to keep the players busy for some time.

And now for the first Area ... this is me as the DM now, building on the established. The map for what is presented here looks like this (preliminary and to be expanded on, of course, but this is what you get):

Just a sketch, but all the pieces are there!

The Hidden Everdying Galleries of Karrik-Thazzar

These ruins of a long lost civilization once flaunted its greatest achievements and victories for its people to indulge in. It featured a magical gallery where the rooms connected via magical bridges, a boneyard where the remains of overcome foes could be admired in artful displays and a green house showcasing the most beautiful and magical blossoms throughout the realm.

It fell, as all things do eventually. Now only the ghosts and ruins left behind give careful observers a hint of the serene beauty this place once held.

This location contains five major areas, some of them hidden, as well as two factions to interact with (Cannibals & Dragon Crew). It's low in treasure and in traps.

The whole complex is hidden under heavy plant growth and the easiest access to the ruins is through a overgrown but still well visible artificial and ornate stone arc.

Encounters as per rules for exploration (in this case using Labyrinth Lord and the module itself).

Random Encounter Table (1d12)

1-2     Ghosts 

3-5     Signs of Dragon Presence

6-7     Sight of Dragon in Distance

8-9     Kobolds on Patrol

10      Troglodytes having Fun   

11     Cannibals, but lost

12      Dragon Close-By

Add (1d4-1) 1 Random Jungle Encounter, as per the module (results 12 & 8):

There are some stoned lower monkeys somewhere in the location (where the DM thinks it appropriate ... I decided for Area 1 Site 3).

AREA 1

Basic mixture of jungle and ruins. Sites are connected via paths that allow easy traversion. Cutting through the jungle between sites is (mostly) possible, but tiring and time consuming in comparison. Sites are between 30 and 50 meters apart, visibility of surroundings is noted if applicable.

There is some Magic Residue in this Area with a "Time Loop" as a theme. Let's have some fun with this one: once per character (not enough magic to trigger this more than once per character!) death in this area creates a loop where the character is sent one combat round back in time instead. First time this happens, the character has to make a successful check to not be surprised and just die again (because, duh!). Second time around they know what's happening and can take the knowledge about their surroundings and the fight into account to avoid their death. Each time they willingly die to learn from the experience, they either get +1 to attacks or -1 to AC until death is avoided (as for the DM: that last and deadly last attack will stay the same, of course ... no additional rolls needed!).

If they die more than 10 times, a succesful Save versus Death Rays becomes necessary to stay sane. Unsuccessful save implicates fear against [mode of death] and means that each time a character is confronted with similar situations (same weapon, same monster, whatever applies) they have to make a Save versus Paralysation to not freeze in place instead of acting.

Please encourage players to come up with creative alternatives to allow their survival. Characters willingly facing death in this Area after surviving their first loop, will just die as per the rules of the game you are using.

Area 1 Site 1: A once glorious Arc

The top of this arc is well visible when the jungle containing those ruins is approached from the plins due south. Even when entering the jungle during daylight, the top of the arc will function as an easily visible guide to the location.

On site, this turns out to be a roughly 40 meters high, 60 meters wide, 20 meters deep triumphal arc. Very ornate heavy stone blocks that mostly feature edged but expressive stone faces.

Features:

• An eery whisper is omnipresent here. It sounds like the distnat buzz of a town.
  
• The remains of a cobblestone street lead downhill towards WWN (Area 1 Site 2).
• The surrounding jungle is littered with big overgrown stones, but no complete structures are visible.
• Everything but the arch seems thrashed.
• Climbing the arch will reveal two more close-by features: a half-sunken building with a tower due NE and a massive cliff artificially cut to appear like a mountain panorama due west (Area 3 Site 1). The panorama can be recognized and located in the distance after a succesfull INT check (and might lead to other locations, if the DM so desires).
  

Area 1 Site 2: Kobolds & Decaying Ghost Shadows

This has been a plaza of sorts, located at the foot of a artificially altered, 30 meters high cliff bordering it due W. The cobblestones here resisted some of the roots reclaiming this area, resulting in a bit of a clearing. Still, it's full of big debris and growth, making this the perfect camp for the kobolds residing here. They are the preliminary guard for the Dragon living in Area 2 Site 5.

Features:

• The residual magic remaining in this place makes things even more irritating: glimpses of the past of this location flitter ghostly over the remains, making the whole area very restless with ghostly people and buildings telling of the downfall of this place, if one cares enough to observe the phenomenon for a long enough time (at least 4 days before it loops back to the beginning).
• The Kobolds are well hidden here, allowing for an ambush 4 in 6 times.
• An optical illusion hides a staircase up that cliff (leading to Area 3 Site 1).
• Rests of one cobblestreet leads up SEE to the arch, one leads up NEE (to Area 1 Site 3)
  

12 Kobolds, 1d4 HD (4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1), AC 7, C, 1 Attack, D 1d4 or Weapon-1, Saves 0 level Human, Morale 6, Hoard Class I

Area 1 Site 3: Hidden Durst Jamboree

This clearing borders above a swampy area due N (some 20 meters down from the clearing). It has only big debris marking the area, like overgrown partial walls and half broken passage ways. Some stoned monkeys have set up camp here (the Random Jungle Encounter set up above ... it fits here quite well becaus of the Treasure hidden here). There's a shabby tent, some carpets, wooden boxes and dirty cushions. There's also a table set up with six monkeys playing poker and five more commenting on it (in Common Tongue, of course). It's a lively scene and they are unafraid and relaxed (the Dragon allows their presence, thinks them entertaining). The monkeys are not associated with the Hidden Gorilla Camp in the area (just customers ... those monkeys are too flimsy for military duty).

Features:

• From here the half sunken building due N (Area 2) is well visible.
• The monkeys will allow characters joining the poker game, but they cheat and are careless about it. Still will take the gold, though. They are easily threatened and intimated, however, and will make concessions if pushed hard enough.
  
• One shady monkey will offer the character some Durst (see Monkey Business p. 42 & 43), but has no idea what the dose is actually worth (or what the drug does ... he'll sell it hard, though). He'll claim 100 gp, but can be haggled down to 60 gp.
  
• One path leads down due W into swampy territory (to Area 1 Site 4), one leads down due WWS (to Area 1 Site 2)
  

[using the Monkey Generator provided in the module, adding the stats myself:]

11 White Howler Monkeys with flat wide faces and naked prehensile tails (black skin), 1d4+2 HD (6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3), AC 4, C, 1 Attack, D 1d6-1 or Weapon, Saves 2 level Human, Morale 4, Hoard Class IV

Area 1 Site 4: A damp place, but sunny

This little clearing is bordering on a swampy area with a half sunken building due NNE surrounded by lots of water patches between the dense jungle as a main feature (Area 2). Other than that, there's not much else to be seen on a first glance. There's no such thing as an empty space, though. It's quite nice here, actually. And no ghosts at all. Coming to rest here, one can admire the beauty of nature integrating what's left of this once thriving place. Thick roots, rustling green, ornate stones and sunlight glittering on water ...

However, spending more than half an hour here will trigger an encounter as described above.

Features:

• Taking the time to enjoy the scenery will heal 1d3 HP.
• There are two hidden paths leading away from this location. Finding will take 10+1d20 minutes each (unless characters very actively look in the right places, going by the description the DM provides).
  
• One leads underwater NE and into the building adjacent to this site (into Area 2 Site 1, sidenote: the building can be entered by climbing as well, see entry Area 2) and can be discovered by looking into the clear water between this site and the building (which will reveal a stone doorway). Characters will have to dive through it into the building (simple CON check will suffice, though).
• The other leads through an ascending tunnel due N (to Area 1 Site 5). The Stone doorway leading into the tunnel is hidden behind some rubble (covering the lower third) and heavy undergrowth. This is former service tunnel used by slaves and it is very well intact, even features some graffiti mocking the long dead masters of those long dead slaves (texts will need read magic to be deciphered, the pictures of profanities speak for themselves).
  
• There is one obvious path leading up and due E (to Area 1 Site 3).

Area 1 Site 5: Foul Kitchen Service

The building that stood here is long gone and only some foundation and debris are left to frame this site. The service tunnel this site is entered by opens into what has been a kitchen (which could be found out if someone where to study the remaining foundations). This is not a clearing, but somehow bushes did not overwhelm this part of the ruins. The jungle only gets thick right behind the remaining stones marking where the building stood. The Dragon Crew is not aware of this area, which would make it a nice place to hang out. However ...

Features:

• Main remaining feature in this place is an open well with a 2m diameter. The water deep down is black and muddy. On opposing sides of this well, somewhat hidden below earth and grass, it has two skeletons. The rests of their clothing indicate that they had been soldiers of some kind. They seem to have stood guard here.
• Only the night reveals the tragedy that befell this place, albeit only incomplete. The scenery will come to life ghostly, showing the two soldiers forcing what seems to be the household into the well, with all the tears and drama one would imagine. Women trying to protect their children, people trying to climb out of the well only to be cut down. The soldiers do their job relentlessly, but with tears streaming down their stoic faces. 20 people die in that well. The Soldiers commit suicide after the deed and die where their skeletons are found.
• Those 20 souls forced into the well are Zombies now that will climb out as soon as they sense the living above. It'll take them two rounds to get out of the well, and even though characters being aware of what's coming will be able to shoot some of them down before they get out, most sure will make it. And they will follow those adventurers mercilessly unless destroyed.
• Service tunnel leads out of there due S (to Area 1 Site 4).
  

20 Zombies, 2d8 HD (adults: 15, 13, 12, 12, 11, 11, 10, 9, 9, 9, 8, 8, 8, 7 children: 7, 7, 7, 5, 4, 3), AC 8, C, 1 Attack, D 1d8 or Weapon, Saves F1, Morale 12, Hoard None 

That's enough for now ...

I think it's already a lot, actually. The rest will follow as I get down to it. As I said above, just going with the notes and sketches is way less work intensive, especially if the DM is somewhat familiar with the tool and uses the provided Cheat Sheets.

Okay, I have to admit this was more fun than I thought it would be :P Reminded me why I enjoyed writing MB to begin with. However, as I stated above: if you actually use the tool, you'll get lots to play with and it does allow for a deeper exploration of the setting while allowing room for what the module established. This is an, I'd say, average result (you can get a crystal skull, ffs, and more quests that connect this with the hex ... a lot can happen).

In realted news, since the PoD version of this is overdue and a revision is warranted (it is my first, and I love it for that, but it can be better!), I'll aim for a Kickstarter of the Revision in 2022. So stay tuned! You want a teaser? You'll get a teaser :)

Sexy, no? More 2022 ...

The module itself already does a lot, of course, so make sure to check that out if haven't already! It is PWYW, so you can get it for free, give it a try and show some love afterwards, if you are so inclined. This beast of a module received 3 five star ratings since the reviews had dropped. From people I do not know, I might add (and still love for their commitment!), so this actually is received quite well.

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If you are thirsty for more,  you can check out a free preview of the Ø2\\'3|| (that rpg I published) right here (or go and check out the first reviews here). We will do a sale in October when the banner goes live. Stay tuned for that ...

If you are in Europe, I'd put this on hold for a bit (wishlist it, or something). OBS still prints in the UK and since that isn't Europe anymore, tolls are mandated. No one needs those extra costs. They are working on the problem, and I'll do a happy sale as soon as they switch printers.

If you already checked it out, please know that I appreciate you :) It'll certainly help to keep the lights on here!

Just look at that beauty ...