Systems Matter: Exploration, Encounters and Intent in the Megadungeon

Dungeon Explorer

I am a firm believer that the "3 E's"--Exploration, Encounters, and Extraction--do a pretty good job of capturing the essence of megadungeon play. There are plenty of rule sets that will support 3 E megadungeon play: The various editions of D&D (and its clones), GURPS, Tunnels & Trolls, and Savage Worlds are just a few of the many rule sets that will do more than an adequate job supporting dungeon play.

This being said, rule sets are not interchangeable (this, as my college physics textbook says, "is intuitively obvious to the casual observer"). Some rule sets better support tactical choices in combat while other rule sets support quick play and exploration.

Of the three, extraction seems like the least affected by the rule set used. This leaves exploration and encounters. Of these two, encounters are directly impacted by the rule set used while exploration is indirectly impacted.

Gibson Explorer

Let's assume that a dungeon-based gaming session is going to last 4 hours. Those 4 hours are going to be made up of two primary activities: Exploration and encounters. Exploration is typically a systemless activity. Player characters move through a dungeon and, regardless of system, can cover about the same amount of distance on a map per hour of session time. I am sure that there are some exceptions to this, but, in general, the speed of exploration is more a function of GM and players than it is a function of rule set and system.

This is not the case with encounters. Assuming that most encounters result in combat, then the speed in which a rule set decides an encounter determines how much time is spent on the encounter. Simple, abstract rule sets, like Swords & Wizardry, have short real time encounters. More complex tactical rule sets, like GURPS and Pathfinder, have much longer encounter resolution times. On the positive side, these rule sets offer players and GMs plenty of tactical options (I am true fan of GURPS in this regard). The down side of this tactical richness is the time it takes to resolve the encounter.

What this means for the 4 hour gaming session is that, with a more complex rule set, more time is spent on encounters. By default, less time is spent on exploration. Reducing the number of encounters is the only clear way to mitigate the impact of a tactically complex rule set.

This is where intent comes in. If the GM and players have a common intent within the dungeon campaign, then it becomes much easier to be select a rule set and, more importantly, be content with the strengths and limitations of that rule set after many sessions of play. If the intent is to maximize tactical choices for players in a dungeon setting, then GURPS is the way to go in my book. If the intent is to maximize the amount of geography covered so that it is feasible to explore a really really big dungeon, then a simpler rule set like Swords & Wizardry Core would be my choice. In each case, GM and players have to be content with what they have and also what they give up. After all, it is entirely possible to revisit the same dungeon with a different intent and rule set.

I have been thinking about rule sets and intentionality from time to time, just because I think about things like this. More recently, I have been thinking about this since we have switched to D&D 5e. It is a slick, well-designed system...I like it a lot. However, it is slower than Blood & Treasure, our previous rule set, when it comes to encounter resolution. In turn, this has taken time away from exploration. And, D&D 5e doesn't have a lot of tactical crunch in combat, thus leaving our tactical crunch guys yearning for more. There is a lot of out-of-combat decisions that the players must make--which was one of the goals of D&D 5e (perhaps the subject of a future post).

As for me, my intent in creating the Montporte Dungeon was to focus on exploration, by creating a huge dungeon that would be too big to completely explore. And this dungeon would also have lots of connections to the Deep Dark...more connections to what lies below than to the surface world.

Goodies in the Mail

I have been playing a lot of music lately on the weekends which, when combined with work, has cut into the blogging time. On the flip side, more musical gigs means more gig money. And this has been reinvested into some game-related items. I did get the PDF version of the AD&D 2e Dark Sun setting, but the real joy comes when hardcopy gaming stuff arrives in the mail. Here is what has arrived recently in my mailbox:

The Hollow Ground: A Novel by Natalie S. Harnett: Okay, this is not gaming stuff but it is the debut novel written by +Erik Tenkar's (Tenkar's Tavern) sister. I figure that it makes it gamer-related (maybe? sort of?). My wife, Deb (World So Sweet), just finished reading it and gave it two thumbs up. Once she started, she didn't put it down. It sounds like she will be recommending it to her book club the next time they meet. It is on my "To Read" shelf for this weekend, right behind the latest Jim Butcher Dresden novel, Skin Game.

A Magical Medley (Fudge): A collection of magical systems for Fudge-based games, although it would fairly simple to convert to GURPS or Fate. African, Celtic, Chinese and Occult magic are all included, plus Bioenergetics (which seems like a bit of an outlier here).

A Magical Society: Silk Road: A supplement with lots of info and tables for using the Silk Road as an RPG setting (or at least borrowing from it). The print version is out-of-print, but I was able to order it used from Amazon for less than $15 (including shipping). The PDF version is still available for purchase/download. I have toyed with a Silk Road based setting that could be used with GURPS, Savage Worlds, or a D20 rule set. 

Red Tide: Campaign Sourcebook and Sandbox Toolkit: I decided to get this in print and PDF. It is quite good and it has a lot things that could be lifted to incorporate into another setting.

Goodies in the Mail

I should be finishing up my Manor #6 edits for +Tim Shorts (Gothridge Manor). Instead, I have been playing my wife's new guitar (purchased today), watching three Game 7's in the NHL playoffs, and reading my new gaming stuff. I send my apologizes to Tim and I know forgiveness will come more quickly when he checks out the good stuff arriving at my front door:

Fantasy Companion (Savage Worlds): I haven't played Savage Worlds, but I keep hoping. I am inching my way towards running a campaign by picking up a used copy of Fantasy Companion. I am wondering how well a Savage Worlds megadungeon campaign might work, particularly if I borrowed some stuff from the Solomon Kane setting for Savage Worlds. I like the idea of a flintlock dungeon and haven't found the rules for it. There are a couple of conversions from D&D to Savage Worlds out there (check out the free Dungeons & Savages, for example).

Kefitzat Haderech: Incunabulum of Uncanny Gates and Portals: Any book that starts with Hebrew on its title page and ends with a few paragraphs about Dr. Who is going to be fun read. Paolo Greco provides a quirky set of tables that allow the GM to generate gates and portals to send player characters into the great unknown. +Tim Shorts' mini-review of this little booklet convinced me to buy it. I do wish I had paid more attention when I took Hebrew in graduate school many years ago.

NOD #5: It is no secret that I am a big fan of all of John Stater's stuff. He is the Isaac Asimov of the OSR. He cranks out product after product after product. We have been using his Blood & Treasure ruleset for the Montporte Dungeon Campaign. His PARS FORTUNA is my favorite OSR-style ruleset. I have been acting out on my man crush for John by purchasing an issue of NOD every month. NOD #5 features an article on medieval mining and another on vampires in found in various cultures. There is also Ibis, a city crawl that continues his expansion of his world of NOD.

Five for Friday 28: Shameful Desires

I have tried. God knows that I have tried to not lust after gaming stuff. But I am a weak man, so here is an accounting of my current sins in the form of a wish list of hard copy gaming items (in alphabetical order):

• Castle of the Mad Archmage: I love megadungeons and I have heard/read lots of great stuff about +Joseph Bloch's revamped entry into the field.
• The Dungeon Dozen: How could I not add +Jason Sholtis's collection of d12 tables to my dungeoneering bookshelf?
• Horror Companion (Savage Worlds): I haven't played anything using the Savage World systems, but I keep coming back to it again and again. I just picked up the Fantasy Companion and it has piqued my interest.
• Microscope: Ben Robbins' award-winning RPG game is described as "fractal role-playing." No GM. No prep. The more I read about it, the more I am intrigued. It can be used as a game in itself, but it can also be used by a gaming group to create settings via Microscope game sessions.
• NOD #6: I have been buying issues of +John Stater's NOD at a rate of one per month. This is next up on the list. I am currently using his Blood & Treasure rules for our Montporte Dungeon campaign. 

I will quietly break the rules here and add a few extras to the list...don't report me to the blog police. I'd like to pick up some GURPS stuff in hardcopy: GURPS High Tech and GURPS Powers. I might have to settle for the PDF version of GURPS High Tech, as it out of print and the priced for print copies is steep. Tome of Horrors 4 has also caught my fancy.

Sadly, the purchase of a custom order bass guitar dented the bank account but not my shameless desire for musical possessions. Daddy wants an upright bass and a high end acoustic guitar. And I have to postpone my wish fulfillment as my wife also wants a new acoustic guitar...hard to argue that it isn't her turn when I have my new bass guitar on a stand in the living room. Obviously, the solution is a winning lottery ticket, but for now I have to balance the spending across two money-sucking pastimes.

Five for Friday 26: An Updated RPG Product Wish List

I don't really buy much in the way of RPG gaming products anymore, with our money pit of a house, a child in college, and the expensive hobby of playing music (which never pays for itself despite getting booked a lot). However, a kid can dream so here is my wish list of hard copy gaming items (in alphabetical order):

• Fantasy Companion (Savage Worlds): I haven't played Savage Worlds, but I'd like to, assuming I will have the time and get the opportunity.
• Fudge, 10th Anniversary Edition: I like the idea of Fudge and it has been fun to be in on some of +Rob Conley's (Bat in the Attic) recent Fudge-based playtesting. I know that Fudge is available for free, but the Fudge website is not particularly user friendly.
• GURPS High Tech: Unfortunately, this has gone out of print and the prices for used copies on Amazon is sky high. But when the price drops, I might be there to scope one up.
• NOD #4: This is one product that I will be ordering in the near future. +John Stater's (The Land of NOD) materials are uniformly awesome. I have no idea how one person can crank out so much high quality material, especially as he is a husband, a father, and appears to hold down a job. The early NODs use Swords & Wizardry as the base ruleset, but I am already seeing in the first few issues of NOD how he was developing the Blood & Treasure ruleset (which we are currently using for the Montporte Dungeon Campaign).
• Tome of Horrors 4: This is a bit pricy, but one can never have too many monsters (in the humble opinion of this blogger).

When it comes to gaming, the reality is that all I truly need is a set of dice, some paper and a pencil or two. I try to remind myself of that from time to time.

Five For Friday 25: Dungeon Campaign Ideas

"Underground City" by Elias Lewinsky

We have made it to Session 25 of the Montporte Dungeon Campaign and our sessions are still going strong. It has me thinking about some other ways to use the dungeon setting that I have already created for some future campaigns (this won't happen for a while because the other four guys in our Monday Night Gaming Group are all chomping at the bit to GM). Here are five thoughts that I have had, in no particular order:

• Montporte Dungeon + GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: I really like what I have been reading about GURPS Dungeon Fantasy on other blog posts. More specifically, I have thought about GURPS templates based on the Holmes version of D&D (or maybe B/X), except I would drop halflings and add gnomes (based on what has already transpired with the Montporte Dungeon. I'd be tempted to start at 175 points for characters, but I think I would be fine with 250. I had also thought about a American Wild West or Victorian smash-up and then an hour later saw Peter D's (Dungeon Fantastic) review of Pyramid #3/60: Dungeon Fantasy III, I am definitely interested in checking out the article by David Pulver, "Eidetic Memory: High-Tech Dungeon Crawl."
• Montporte Dungeon + Fudge: I have been really interested in watching +Rob Conley adapt his Majestic Wilderlands setting to Fudge. I have played two campaigns in the Majestic Wilderlands, with Rob as GM--the first campaign using Swords & Wizardry and a second using GURPS. I have been in on one playtest session with the Fudge version of the Majestic Wilderlands and really liked it a lot. 
• Montporte Dungeon + Savage Worlds: This just looks like loads of fun (no apologies to those gamers who hate fun). I am not sure how Savage Worlds would hold up under a long campaign, but it would be groovy to do a shorter mini-campaign perhaps just to see how Savage World works (I haven't actually played it yet).
• Montporte Dungeon + Heavily House-Ruled Swords & Wizardry: I would combine the human classes of Crypts & Things (warriors, barbarians, thieves, and sorcerers) plus dwarves, elves and gnomes (using the race-as-class concept). Maybe I would drop the non-humans and just go with a slightly modified version of C&T.
• Montporte Dungeon + Onyx + GURPS: I thought about combining my half-baked idea for a medieval urban fantasy campaign (Onyx) with the dungeon by placing the city of Onyx deep in the Underdark. GURPS would be my preferred system. This seems like a lot of work, but I have parts of it already done.

Not sure if any of this will happen, but a boy can dream.

Good Savage Stuff in the Mail

My book purchases tend to reflect my mood, so you can draw your own conclusions about the two books in the Amazon box about the Eastern Front in World War 2. However, the box did include a third happier item, Savage Worlds Deluxe: Explorer's Edition.

I don't buy a lot of gaming stuff that I do not intend on using, but I am not sure when I will get a chance to play Savage Worlds. This being said, I am liking what I am reading. I am not sure how much time and energy I have for another rules toolkit (a topic for another post), but the tweaking of the rules looks like it would be easy enough.

Anyone (reading this) have actual gaming experience with Savage Worlds? If so, what did you think?

Onyx Thoughts: Medieval Urban Fantasy Campaign

I have overwhelmed with work over the course of the calendar year as the place where I am CEO is going through a merger with a larger organization. The merger itself is a good thing, with no one losing their job, and lots of new initiatives on the horizon. But there is a huge amount to do in the meantime, so that it will be a success. There are a lot of organizational synergies on paper that can only become actual synergies through getting a boatload of crap done (that the kind of CEO lingo you learn in management school and executive courses). I am moving to a COO position with the responsibility for about 400 people, so I have a lot to wrap my mind around. Not to mention the legal, financial, HR and fiddly bits that goes with a merger. I guess my point is that the embryonic medieval fantasy campaign that I was working on several months ago, Onyx, disappeared from my blog.

The merger plus me running the Montporte Dungeon campaign put Onyx on the back burner, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking about it from time to time. Since some of the other Monday Night Gaming Group guys will be GMing after we are finished with the Montporte Dungeon, I will plenty of time to work on a city setting before I come up to bat again as GM.

Right now, I am thinking that:

• I will use the cosmology from the current Montporte campaign. I like it and I can expand on it in a different setting.
• GURPS is my likely ruleset, but I want to take a look at Savage Worlds and Fate Core (or Fate Accelerated) before I decide for sure. I was really unhappy with AD&D 1e years ago when I using it in an urban setting and I think I would be even less satisfied with a d20-based game now.
• My campaign concept will be a mash-up of Constantinople, Thieves World, and Oceans 11. I think GURPS would really support that sort of combo. I thought about some sort of steampunky thing, but that seems to add more complication than it is worth.

Given that +Tim Shorts (Gothridge Manor) has been working on a campaign (pics of his maps here) and Dan is working on a high fantasy GURPS campaign, I have plenty of prep time ahead of me. Maybe I can engineer another merger while I wait.