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12 Hexes

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 This could be a fun holiday tradition, the 12 hexes of Christmas. That would be fun. That's not exactly what I did, but you are free to your own interpretations.   I sat down and wrote 12 hexes with pen and paper. Here they are, all typed up. For use with Troika! or Vaults of Vaarn, or for anything you like. 1-6 are in one column, 7-12 in the next. I might do more. This is incomplete, a game of fill in the blank, and you get to place the blanks where you think they go.   1. A pocket of forest holds the same amount of life as the miles of desert surrounding it. There are signs of past civilization - abandoned homes and fire pits. A large sinkhole contains a giant blind porcupine and a heavy chest. The chest contains an egg-sized lump of priceless metal - recognizable only by a blacksmith or machinist of high skill. 2. The desert slopes down into a canyon of a rushing river. Traveling along the riverbed invites attacks from the local raiders and bandits. Signs of scuffles ...
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Open invitation to my IRC server

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 I have spun up an IRC server, for fun. If you want to try it out, visit  my web interface  for a temporary glance, or download an IRC client of your choice (e.g., hexchat ). You can connect to quajzen.page port 6697 (TLS).  Email me  for concerns logging on (or find me on discord).   If you are unfamiliar with IRC, it's Discord from the 90's, but a protocol (chat room structure) and not a centrally managed app. That means when you log into my server, its entirely run by me and not a company. All server maintenance, server moderation is up to me! That means if the server ends up busy, you may have to wait on me or my appointed moderators to respond. Like a Discord server, I suppose. On the other hand, I do solemnly swear not to scrape your data.  IRC has a remarkably similar structure to discord (huh! funny...). In each server, there are individual text channels (but no voice channels). It's less feature-ful than discord (though the web client handles ...
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Nightwick Abbey, several months in

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 I have been running  Nightwick Abbey  for a few months now. It's been a journey, in out-of-game logistics and in-game exploration. I'm here to spill the beans, beyond  my last post Logistics  I am running this game at my local library.  Beyond that last post, here's how it's gone.  I am traveling a lot this fall for school, and can thus offer fewer sessions. I've had to make adjustments to various aspects of campaign procedure. I waived two months of upkeep since there are a cumulative two months without a session. I have struggled to find players when most of my recruitment is through my grad department and the semester gets busier. I am considering moving the game from the library to a game shop for easier recruitment. The Dungeon  I also feel the weight of procedure in this game now. Map calling needs expediting, combat needs speeding up, and something more exciting than slow attrition would be nice every once in a while. A "big break" would b...
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How I have been week-to-week running a library game

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 I have been running a public library game of Nightwick Abbey, this summer, and it's been a lot of fun. I'm going to tell you how to make your public library game a success! If you want more details about my game in particular, check out the campaign wiki  for it.  The Dungeon First off, choose a megadungeon. I've been using a prewritten one, which is mostly a great help. Check what system it requires, note any conversion that has to be done, and take stock of all the materials included (map, bestiary, lore bits, etc.). I recommend taking room descriptions and  somehow  getting them into an editable format (not pdf). This will ease the restocking process. I have been writing down in a notebook all room restocks, and have risked losing track of room contents several times. This is annoying. Don't do this. Take the time to copy everything out of the pdf.   Megadungeon creators! I would love plaintext versions of all your documents for the above reason. I don'...
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Something to Entertain You, Pt. 3

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 Books: Buddhism Books: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind Everyday Zen: Love and Work Each Moment is the Universe To Meet the True Dragon Beyond Thinking Realizing Genjokoan The rest:   Teatro Grottesco The Hellbound Heart Jung: A Graphic Guide   A minor haiku collection Some Flannery O'Connor stories, scattered TBR: Current Read: Frankenstein     La Morte D'Arthur  Reread some Gene Wolfe (did not finish The Wizard Knight , would love to)   Let me take a minute and gush about Frankenstein. I love it. I think it is beautiful only halfway through. I love the emotional, poignant prose as a man takes retrospect on his sins against nature. I love the joy and stinging profundity of a newborn monster as he discovers himself profoundly human then rejected by anything else that might call itself such. The prose and story is so simple, but so penetrating. Its rich first-person narrative is incredibly moving. Reread this tired high school assignment and question your hu...
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Interesting Monsters

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 Here are three quick principles for an interesting monster:    Give them interesting tools/abilities/skills.  I'm thinking something mechanical or pseudo-mechanical. 8HD is an ability to tank hits, as is AC18 (though in slightly different ways). Incredible movement speed or climbing ability don't have a number attached to them, but still give unusual ways for a monster to interact with a party. Have the monsters leverage their interesting features.  Tankiness lets them take a few hits, so these can sit up front and be bruisers. Agile creatures can get to the back of the marching order in, say, a turn, and attack the squishy magic-users. Have the monster be initially unpredictable, but easy to figure out.  There's nothing more tense than coming upon a monstrosity and having no idea how it might fuck up your party. But after a successful or failed encounter, the party should have an idea of what it can do.   Has anyone done mixed-creature random encount...
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On the Releasing of the Necessity of Content

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 No dungeon room is ever really empty. This is because every room starts with nothing. It goes through various contents, a monster, some treasure, an adventuring party. Between sessions, there is nothing.  Is an empty room ever encountered? No, that is wrong thinking. If you think this is because a party must encounter a room with nothing in it, and thus it is not empty, that is also wrong thinking.  When a room is encountered, one may think "combat encounter," or "social encounter," or "stealth encounter." It is from this that actions are adjudicated and consequences are resolved. These myriad interpretations fail in the face of a room with nothing.   The duality of design is thus: a room must give the opportunity to do anything imaginable and feasible, but still keep a coherent playstyle and encourage the party into those constraints. There is a freedom in constraints, and it breeds creativity in play.   When your constraints are four stone walls, the op...
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