Pyramid #3/104: Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Despite the fact that it came from a very obscure game, that particular buzz-phrase achieved impressively wide circulation.

So did "Still Alive".

[Nemoricus]

I wrote a review of this issue, for anyone interested: http://librisludorum.blogspot.com/20...ntasy-rpg.html

[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by PK

In fact, is there anything -- anything at all -- in the actual content of that section that disparages sandbox play or insults those who use it? Because I've reread it multiple times now and I don't see it, so if I'm missing something, I genuinely want to know. In fact, everything there looks like advice on how to run a campaign that feels like a sandbox even if the GM doesn't have the time to craft a thousand plot hooks in advance.

I just finished reading Christopher's article and he clearly states

So how can you give your players a “sandbox” feeling without spending all your free time creating things you might never use?

So I don't consider the section giving sandbox campaigns any type of insult. However I do consider parts of that section an inaccurate description of a sandbox campaign.

He is assuming that the prep for a sandbox campaign is doing the same thing you do for an individual adventure except multiplied by the number of possibilities the referee is willing to lay out.

He needs multiple possibilities prepped, which means an increase in prep time for the game itself, which can lead to GM burnout, and then nobody is happy.

When the folks involved, including myself, in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy Boxed Set project started talking about sandbox campaigns. One of the things we stressed is you don't do the same kind of prep as most people talked about for their campaigns. Rather the prep is about building a "Bag of Stuff", NPCs, Locales, and other details that can be combined on the fly to handle whatever it is the players are trying to do at the moment. For example I have several different types of peasant huts along with their occupants to use if that part of what the players are doing at the moment. Similar how GURPS focuses on presenting a bunch of stuff in the form of advantages, disadvantages, and skills that when combined can to handle different genres and types of campaigns.

Having said that. Overall the article is solid. Even if a referee doesn't organize adventures in a Quest mosaic the Random Quest Generator is a good idea generator for many different styles of running a campaign.

[joncarryer]

Birthday today, and Pyramid has given me a wonderful birthday present, of sitting here working my way through the solo adventure with my seven-y-o daughter. Haven't finished yet, but it was a special moment hearing her run upstairs at bed-time yelling "Mummy, we just defeated two swords, that were flying through the air by MAGIC!!!!!!"

[dbm]

Originally Posted by joncarryer

it was a special moment hearing her run upstairs at bed-time yelling "Mummy, we just defeated two swords, that were flying through the air by MAGIC!!!!!!"

That is 100% awesome! :-)

[Steven Marsh]

Originally Posted by joncarryer

Birthday today, and Pyramid has given me a wonderful birthday present, of sitting here working my way through the solo adventure with my seven-y-o daughter. Haven't finished yet, but it was a special moment hearing her run upstairs at bed-time yelling "Mummy, we just defeated two swords, that were flying through the air by MAGIC!!!!!!"

That's an amazing story; thank you so much for sharing!

[Joe]

Originally Posted by joncarryer

Birthday today, and Pyramid has given me a wonderful birthday present, of sitting here working my way through the solo adventure with my seven-y-o daughter. Haven't finished yet, but it was a special moment hearing her run upstairs at bed-time yelling "Mummy, we just defeated two swords, that were flying through the air by MAGIC!!!!!!"

And a new roleplayer is born!

Originally Posted by dbm

That is 100% awesome! :-)

Originally Posted by Steven Marsh

That's an amazing story; thank you so much for sharing!

Let me just join the chorus by saying that this made my day.

[SolemnGolem]

I tried playing the solo adventure. I was laid low by the forces of fervent literacy.

I must go back and try again!

[Johnny Angel]

Can I post my results from using the random background generator for the first time?

[Johnny Angel]

I thought it might be interesting to see how the background generator played out.

I didn't bother with some of the finer details because I'm not currently in a campaign, but I did try to come up with a brief story inspired by each step of the process.


Dorgrim Stonehand - Dwarven Martial Artist (I rolled randomly for race and profession by counting how many of each were in DF 1 and DF 3)

Dorgrim was born in a remote monastery (step 1) in the desert (step 2). His father is also an adventurer, a Dwarven Swashbuckler. His father is still alive and they have a close relationship. (steps 3 &5). His mother is currently a vampire, and hates Dorgrim (steps 3 & 5).

While his father was out adventuring, Dorgrim was raised and mentored by Qui Chang Picasso, the humble master of the monastery who has world-class skill at painting. Qui Chang Picasso is still alive and views Dorgrim a family member. (steps 4 & 5)

An only child, Dorgrim was born during a battle (step 6 & 7). In fact, the same battle is what lead to Dorgrim's mother becoming a vampire. The monastery was beset by a horde of undead lead by a vampire lord. The vampire came across the chamber in which Dorgrim's mother was giving birth and sought to feed before Dorgrim's swashbuckler father intervened and killed the vampire lord. Returning to the fight against the horde outside, Dorgrim's father later came back to find only a child; his wife missing. He would later learn that she had started to turn and fled. Qui Chang Picasso, while meditating on the events of that night would prophesize (step 8) that the Dogrim would be the source of a great victory, but would have nothing for himself in the end.

During Dorgrim's early years, an unusual event occurred (step 9). Qui Chang Picasso was teaching him the wrist movements needed to achieve smooth brush strokes (and which would lay the foundation for the later teaching of martial arts). As Dorgrim practiced and painted, a rug under his feet would vibrate and come to life; young Dorgrim was lifted a few inches into the air before being unceremoniously dumped onto the floor when the rug crashed back down as his mentor came back into the room. Master Picasso would comment that the rug had once been part of a flying carpet, but it was believed the magic had long since stopped working. As it responded to Dorgrim's presence, it was given to him as a gift. In it's current weakened state, the rug can float about 6 inches off the ground for a total of about an hour per day before the magic fizzles and needs to recharge. It is theorized that finding the rest of the material which was part of the original carpet and sewing it all back together would restore the rug to being a properly-working flying carpet.

In addition to the rug, Qui Chang Picasso sent for his niece, a woman trained as an armored fighter (knight) and tasked her with accompanying Dorgrim on his adventures (step 10), the first of which was to help Dolgrim track down and recover Dolgrim's fiance (step 11), the daughter of a wealthy merchant who had been kidnapped by an evil wizard (controller).

(blank result from step 12)

(Step 13) In his years prior to adventuring, Dolgrim's time at the monastery lead to being educated in the ways of the monks, both physically and spiritually. After having been officially ordained as an acolyte of the monastery's religious teachings, he was given the job of being the spiritual liaison to the nearest village. In fact, it is during this service that he met his fiancee.