The Temple of Thul-Gaal

So, last week I had a dream. No, seriously, it was a real dream of GMing an RPG. The rules were a bit fast and light, and there weren't any dice rolls... more of an interactive cinematic sort of thing. But that's beside the point. I have, in the course of the last week or so, come up with the beginnings of a one-shot. Or some-shot. A short campaign.

When I first started writing it all down, I was pretty excited - this would fit into the current campaign, and be a lot of fun. For me. Because I would kill everyone. I realized that maybe, just maybe... that wouldn't be fun for everyone else. So, I took a step back, and decided that I would tweak a few things so it would become a one-shot, where people wouldn't care if their characters get absolutely slaughtered.

Now, I still have some tweaks left, and a few puzzles to work through, which is perfect, because you guys have some work to do, too. You need to make up some characters.

Your character must follow these guidelines:

• Roll up character stats
  • Roll 3d6, five times, to make a column of stats; repeat to make 5 total columns
  • Choose a column; you may use the chosen stat column in any order
  • You may trade 2 points from a non-primary stat to add 1 to a primary stat
• Choose a character - any character class from the original list
• Your character starts with:
  • 620,000 XP
  • 815,000 gp
• You may trade gold for:
  • Normal equipment, mounts, etc.
  • Any magical item, at its base price
  • A chance for random magical items
    • Trade 1,000gp for a 15% chance of two magic items of a random type.
    • Trade 3,000gp for a 25% chance for a weapon or armor, a 25% chance for a potion, and a 10% chance for a miscellaneous magic item.
    • Trade 10,000gp for a 50% chance for four randomly determined magic items, one random potion, and one random scroll.
    • Trade 30,000gp for 1d4 random potions, 1d4 random scrolls, and a 50% chance for six randomly determined magic items.
    • Trade 100,000gp for 2d4 random potions, 2d4 random scrolls, and a 75% chance for each of the following: 1d3 swords, 1d3 armor, 1d3 miscellaneous weapons, 1d3 wands/staffs/rods, 1d3 rings, and 1d3 miscellaneous magic items.
    • Note: You may trade a (random) scroll or potion for two (random) recipes.
    • If you have the core rulebook, you can roll up your own magical items; however, I have a spreadsheet that does it instantly, so if you want to trade for magic items, let me know and I can do it automatically. If you want to trade scrolls/potions for recipes, tell me before hand, so I can roll recipes instead.
  • As many henchmen as you'd like
    • Roll up each henchman as a character
    • Trade 1 gp for 1 XP (a henchman with 100,000 XP costs 100,000 gp)
    • While henchmen can have henchmen, you cannot exceed the number of henchman your character is allowed in total (4, plus Charisma bonus, plus any proficiency bonus)
  • Creating magical items, new spells, ritual spells, constructs, etc.
    • To create a magical item (etc.), you must:
      • Purchase a library
      • Spend the money for the item/scroll/potion
      • Make any rolls required for research, etc.
      • Note: failed rolls still use money!
• Mages and other studious casters begin with 50% of their spell list generated randomly, and the rest chosen.
  • Researched spells (see above) count as a chosen spell
  • If you want to replace a randomly chosen spell, it costs 1,000 gp per spell level to replace; you may choose any spell you have as a scroll or recipe.
  • If you do not have the spell as a scroll, it costs an additional 500 gp per spell level to buy the spell. Only spells in the spell list may be purchased; spells not on the spell list must be researched (see above).
• Wishes will be neutered for this one-shot. They are allowed to be cast as any spell, or the reverse of any spell, instantly; they also allow a character to be resurrected, returned from another dimension, or cured of an affliction (insanity, possessed hand, etc.), but they cannot be used as an open-ended "true wish".

Whew! What a list! If you have any questions, let me know. I'll wait to run the one-shot until everyone has a character rolled up, spells and all. Also, if you want to roll up any number of backup characters, that would be awesome. I'll have some upper-level characters created, probably, so nobody is left out, but if you want to make your own backups, go for it.

Long ago, in a land far away, an ancient temple was built in the wastelands...

The temple belonged to an ancient race, the Thrassians, cruel, dark creatures, with scaly skin and terrible claws, with great leathery wings and horrible sharp teeth. These Thrassians ruled the land with iron fists, but like all terrible rulers, they were vanquished, and their ways were lost to history.

These days, the Thrassians of old are but legends; stories told by old soldiers to frighten the new recruits, and told by parents to get their children to bed or to eat their vegetables.

Nonetheless, the stories (at least most of them) are true. And, deep in the Desert of the Dead, our heroes gather to face the greatest threat these ancient monsters ever built: the Temple of Thul-Gaal. Undead - and worse - prowl its dark hallways, and magical traps pervert the very earth on which the temple stands. The tower is hidden behind a ridge of mountains; inside is an ancient volcanic desert, devoid of life. During the day, wind blows through the desert and shifts the sands, obscuring the path to the temple, but never burying the temple itself; that site juts out of the landscape like the hellish claw of an enormous demon...

Few have returned from the voyage; the dizzying heat, the blinding dust, and the unforgiving rocks have claimed countless lives. Only those who turn back from the temple's gates have survived, and even those have faced staggering casualties. No one who has entered the temple has returned to tell the tale.

Even so... stories persist of a treasure in the temple, unimaginable wealth. For ages, adventurers lost their lives in pursuit of that treasure; soldiers, mages, clerics, and thieves left and never returned. And yet, they must; as the adventurers stop coming, the undead grow restless. Like a cat sharpening its claws, if there are no adventurers to lay them to rest, the undead creep forth, raiding villages and destroying lives and livelihoods. It has come to the point that those nearest the temple feel they must step in and destroy the temple, or die in the attempt...

The Three Truths

Happy New Year! Well, in this world, anyway. The world of Mor-Thir has a few months yet.

Anyway, on to the main event. As far as the story of Mareten, Mor-Thir, and beyond is concerned, there are three sets of truth: "truth", truth, and TRUTH. And what, you ask, is the difference? Well, keep reading!

"Truth"

History may never change, but the stories about it certainly do. Some stories are ancient, so old that they have lost something in translation; other stories are passed along from bard to bard, and gain a few details along the way. Still others are pieced together from ancient texts, snippets of poetry, and nigh-on-incomprehensible journals, and are more guesswork than eye-witness accounts.

While there is a note of truth in many old stories, take them with a grain of salt - if you find facts that counter an ancient story, it's likely your facts are correct. Don't dismiss the ancient tales out-of-hand, but... don't assume they are exactly accurate, either.

Retiring and New Characters

From this point on, players wishing to retire their characters may create new characters, starting at 1/2 of the experience gained since the start of the campaign. As of this blog, that is 10769 total experience points gained; that is per-PC experiences, using party majority for party splits. That means new characters will begin with 5385 XP, plus whatever extra experience they gained from frivolous spending. That will place most characters at level 3, with Airwalkers, Ectomancers, Thieves, and Spies at level 4, and expensive characters like the Dwarven Fury, most Elves, Gnomish Mage, Nobiran Wonderworker, Thrassian Gladiator, and Zaharan Ruinguard at level 2.

As the adventure continues, I will keep a running total of current starting XP. Additionally, once that reaches 20,000 XP, new characters will begin with a flat 16,000 gp, and can trade some of that gold for various magical items, as described on page 253 of the ACKS Core book; at 310,000 XP, it raises to 240,000 gp, and at 640,000 XP, it raises to 815,000 gp. Not that we're going to reach that point in a while, of course...

Story Flow

In the previous adventure I ran, keeping track of loose ends was easy - they were built right in. I'd written a story, given the players the illusion of control, and allowed the story to play out around them. Apart from a few tweaks here and there ("Oh, they spoke with him, not her - I'll just switch who shows up later."), I could nearly have posted a write-up before the session. Like a producer of a television show, I knew what was going to happen long before the audience - the players - ever did. Don't misunderstand me; it wasn't a carnival ride on rigid rails, with obvious pop-up adventures and a slowly-clanking plot that leads you to an inevitable climax. The players could choose where they went, what they did, and how they affected the world. It was, however, scripted; the Big Bad Guy had zero chance of showing up until the very end, and the players had 100% chance of finding information about him, in one way or another. Events were triggered by specific actions, and information was designed to be found. Like the plot from a well-designed video game, there were countless options, but they all ushered the players into the next episode. Which may or may not have been the episode I had originally planned to use, but it was there. It was a story on rails - well-crafted rails, judging by how much my players enjoyed it, but rails nonetheless. Not any better or worse than any other kind of adventure, on the whole, but certainly different.

Improv Generators

In any situation (not just RPGs, or even games in general, but Real Life (tm) too), being able to think on your feet is a very important ability to have. Ever watch an improv show and wonder how those people could come up with so many funny gags in such a short time - often with only a split second of preparation? Here's a hint: they had more than a split second of preparation.

"Gasp!" You say. "They cheated! It was camera cuts! It's all scripted, like wrestling and elections! I knew it!"

Whoa there, buddy! Not so fast. There are no camera cuts, or scripts (or shouldn't be, if it's a good show). No, what I mean is that they took time to think up all sorts of funny stuff, and when it fit, they just repeated it from memory. That's the key - improv prep. It sounds oxymoronic, but nonetheless, it's incredibly important.

Designing a world

Framing

The first thing on the list is creating the framework for the world. Is it a modern film-noire place, filled with dark cities and gritty drama? Or is it a high fantasy world, with fairies and dragons and magical resurrection? Maybe it's a hard science post-apocalyptic world, where mutations are deadly and food and water are at a premium.

The framework sets the basis of the world, and thus the adventures played in it. Not that any genre rules out any style of game - but be aware of how much work it will be. A horror game in a dark, gritty setting is a lot easier to pull off than one set in a happy-go-lucky post-scarcity science fiction world of high society. It's possible to make those kinds of games work, and I've seen it happen... but it's a lot harder to do, and it takes considerable effort from the players, as well as from the GM. If you have lazy (or new) players, you might want to tailor your world to them, at least a little bit.

Scheduling

I have been posting a story (or other update) once per day since I started this blog. That's pretty prolific for me; it's rare that I have more to say than a blog or two over the course of a month. However, this has been an exception. It's a whole world (well, a continent - I'm staying pretty hush about the rest of the planet, mainly because I haven't given it much thought); that means it has stories, legends, and of course maps and other wonderful bits and pieces. It's a lot of fun for me to write all those snippets of flavor, and I hope it's been fun to read.

The Seven Scales

Long, long ago, before the First Age, when the great wyrm called Mor-Thir his home, there was a great battle, and Alehim smote the wyrm; in the end, the great wyrm was defeated. But during the battle, it shed seven scales, which were blown far and wide. As the scales were found, they were forged by the dwarves into items of power, and of war.

The first scale was found by a group of mechanics and tinkers; they wrought the great scale into an artifact of power, directing its power into a colossus to protect their cities. The scale became its great eye, through which the golem watched over the dwarves. During the dark days of the Age of the Beastmen, the giant golem was the only thing to stand between the dwarves and their doom; at the conclusion of the many wars with the beastmen, only the golem was left standing. It's eye resembles a great emerald, the size of a man; there are many rumors of the powers of the great eye, but there are few alive today who have seen the golem in battle.

Spies, Werehumans, and Ectomancers

Continuing in the trend of describing classes, here are a few of the classes I've created, and a bit of their stories.

The Spy

Every city has a Thieves' Guild, and most larger cities have an Assassins' Guild, as well. Though from the same family as Thieves and Assassins, the Spies do not have a guild - or at least, that's what they would like you to think. Spies are an elusive bunch, using subterfuge and trickery rather than theft or murder to meet their secretive goals. Not that they are above a bit of theft and murder, of course.

Populations and Trade

This is not a story. This is, most likely, Math. If you're interested in the nitty-gritty details of building cities, then by all means, keep reading! If, however, you are only here to read stories and look and cool maps, you might want to give this a skip. Don't say I didn't warn you!

The Adventurer, Conqueror, King System has very straight-forward rules about empires, kingdoms, all the way down to itty-bitty villages. That said, it can get quite complicated quite quickly; I'm not entirely sure how someone could create an entire world with fully-populated urban areas without that being their full-time job. That said, I took some shortcuts. Short-ish, anyway.

Calendars and Time

Time is a difficult thing to keep track of. Oh, sure, you can say that every time a party stops to rest, it's night time, and it takes a week to travel a hex, but does anyone actually keep track of those dates and times? I sure don't. In my Savage Worlds campaign, it's set in space, so I don't have to worry about any of that. I just make something up - "Oh, it's been about a week. Sure, that sounds right."

Making Mor-Tir

The continent of Mor-Tir is home to humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, lizardmen, and various other creatures both pleasant and foul; I have a lovely map of the area, but it didn't start in nearly such a beautiful way.