Friday, May 6, 2011

Alchemists Level 3

The third level begins in the center of the map, and drifts in a clockwise spiral until ending at the lake in the upper right corner. There is no connection with this level and the three shafts on the right except back up to the first level and down the shafts; some of what's written on this level should give the reason. Describing it, the players should get the sense that A) some kind of accident occurred; B) the piled furniture in front of the two doors was an attempt to close off the interior; and C) things have been left deliberately behind for reasons that are unclear. It might also occur to players that what was left behind is somewhat more active than might have been expected ... since the 'closing off' effort is fairly weak considering. Ah, but this is human nature.

As before, this can be read more clearly on the wiki, here.

 
These are kind of fun.  I'd like to point out that none of the odd or unusual things described above are rehashes from campaigns I've run in the past.  To the best of my mind they are completely original, being what I thought of to fit the overall concept as I was designing and describing that particular room.  This had a lot of description only because the things I thought of were hard to outline in just a few words.
 
I'm enjoying how well things are coming together.  Of course, there's only a slight chance the party would even come down this way at all ... and I ought to get around to describing the shafts from the beginning.  A few of you might have guessed that those shafts lead to a second attempt at whatever the first attempt failed at.  You'd be right.

4 comments:

  1. Just reading the hex descriptions in the sludge room makes me psychosomatically itch my scalp with great vigor (at least I hope it is psychosomatic).

    I like this approach to presentation a good deal. I am far, far more likely myself sitting at the gaming table to pay attention to details on the map than I am to separate linear notes in the heat of the moment.

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  2. I am, as before, intrigued by the various "experiments" in this dungeon. There's some genuinely interesting stuff in there, even if the intention isn't clear yet.

    I wish I had something more constructive to say, but I really am enjoying these maps as they are.

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  3. Hello Alexis,

    I have gathered a bit of things I wish to comment on. I probably should put the stuff it in the appropriate comment sections, but please forgive me for serving them all at once here instead. I don’t know the keep-alive time of a comment here (a day, a week..?), anyway, enough babbling.

    I really felt your article about what some people might do to others, in the name of fun, moving. If your books are anything like that, I’d really love to know which one I should start reading, providing you kept up the writing aspect that is. In that particularly article I began to give thought to why I seldom comment on a blog, even though I spent a lot of time reading them. I came to the following conclusion; First and foremost, most of my reading is done in transit on the iPhone or iPad. Any commenting done with one of those is either insultingly short, or a complete pain to write. Secondly, I consider most of the articles I read in the blogosphere as news tailored specifically for my taste; call it news 2.0 if you like. Like normal news articles, I don’t feel the need to blabber my mouth at everything I read. Though sometimes I will leave a little comment, if the writer is expressing frustration over the lack of feedback (and yes I can easily understand how frustrating it must feel if ones work seems unappreciated). Therefore I think it is more telling to look at the number of people that follows the blog, instead of the number of comments.

    Thank you for the nice article about the time consumption and hazards of traveling in “Breaking camp”. I shall be sure to remember this article next time I am having the old and tiresome argument with someone about why a party of various adventures will be hard pressed, traveling for many hours, for many days.

    About the “no one bathing in the medieval period” I stumbled upon a semi scientific article about that, when I had yet another stupid argument with some players regarding whether my character should bathe or not. You might find it interesting, I certainly did. Now if only I could persuade the lazy bums to actually read something… Article “Bathing: A history”: http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/baths.html

    Thanks for supplying me with great 2.0 news :)

    Edit - Previously comment got lost when trying to make the html link work. Now it appears like my comment won’t show up at all. I don’t know if this thing is pending approval, so please forgive me if I spam you with the same comment a few times.

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