Sunday, June 30, 2013

Working on an adventure for Halfling's Den

In my spare time during the next month(s), I'll be working on a short adventure to be uploaded here on Halfling's Den and available for FREE. The adventure will be suitable for a party of 4 to 6 characters, levels 1 to 3, and uses the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game system. Obviously a party of four 1st level adventurers would have a bit of an hard time, and a party of six 3rd level characters wouldn't even sweat a bit, so I'm gonna include some suggestions for tweaking the various encounters based on the group's composition.
This is quite a challenge for me, because:
1. It's the first time I have to write down an adventure for anyone other than me or a friend, so I have to be super clear about everything;
2. I have to gather informations on the open licenses and the various agreements in order to avoid legal troubles;
3. Although this whole blog is written in English, my native language is Italian. This means I'll have to check every sentence a hundred times before I feel it's right. Also, I'm gonna look for someone well versed in English that can read it and find the (inevitable) errors;
4. Not knowing who is going to play the adventure means I have to put together something that has a little bit of everything: roleplaying, combat, skills, traps... This way, my creation will appeal to the broadest possible audience.
These are (roughly) the reasons my adventure will be a short module playable in 3 to 5 hours; this way I'm able to work on a little, safe gem rather than a vast, unpredictable contraption. You could say I'm a coward, well, not really, I just want to advance step by step. I'm quite the cautious person.

What about the plot?
I don't want to give too much away, so I'll leave you with some teasers:
1. It will involve those little trapmaking fellows known as kobolds!
2. There will be some roleplaying/alignment play involved, and managing it well could grant the PCs a small bonus during the adventure.
3. There's a pig, and its name is Rosie. Yup.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Maps Ahoy!

As I stated in the previous post, this blog will be rich with materials for RPG adventures... and how can an adventure be considered as such if it doesn't involve a map? Good fantasy adventures DESERVE good maps, and sometimes the whole adventure revolves around a map (I'm talking dungeon delves here). However, GMs are often quite busy (school, university, and after that, a job) and while they can afford spending some time building a story and its setting, producing elaborated maps can be problematic.
In my current Pathfinder campaign, the setting is a vast ocean dotted with islands of varying size and degree of civilization. I had to provide my players with maps representing ships, small fortresses on the coast and the likes.
Here are some of those maps.

Saltwatch Keep
This old fortress was built about 100 years ago. Elves needed to keep the Sea of Tears under their heel, and constructed many strongholds on the coasts of the islands they ruled. This particular building was one of the smallest and housed a garrison of about 20 men, including an alchemist conducting studies on black powder. Nowadays, the keep is deserted, and some believe it to be haunted. If the PCs explore it, they can find some useful items in the alchemist's lab (second floor, lower right building) and discover a mysterious hole in the fortress' captain's room (first floor, the room along the diagonal wall), which leads to a network of caverns under the building. What will they find there?
(You can use this map for your games, both as I described it or as a normal fortress with soldiers by removing the hole in the floor and the bloodstained tables in the dining room on the first floor.)

Saltwatch Keep: 2nd floor.

Saltwatch Keep: 1st floor.

The Steadfast
Sometimes players need a small boat for themselves. The steadfast is perfect for this. I originally thought of it as a fishing boat, but it can be OK for short-term maritime travels.

Statistics:
Huge ship
Squares 2 (15 ft. by 40 ft.) Cost 3,000 gp
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DEFENSE:
AC 5; Hardness 5
hp 360 (sails 60)
Base Save +3
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OFFENSE:
Maximum Speed 90 ft. (wind); Acceleration 30 ft.
CMB +4; CMD 14
Ramming Damage 2d8
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STATISTICS
Propulsion wind or current
Sailing Check Profession (sailor)
Control Device steering wheel
Means of Propulsion 15 squares of sails (one mast)
Crew 2
Decks 2
Cargo/Passengers 3,000 pounds/up to 4 passengers (only four beds on the ship however; any other passengers must sleep in makeshift hammocks)

Introductions are in order!

Halfling's Den is a modest blog through which I hope to contribute in a small way to the roleplaying games community. Articles and posts will focus on RPGs, specifically the material will be oriented towards Pathfinder (and D&D 3.0/3.5) players, but adventure ideas and maps can be useful for any fantasy RPG.
Please understand that, while you can use everything I put here in your games as a Game Master or player, I'd love to be mentioned in that case, and maybe get some feedback from you. Other than that, I'd also like you to remember that the stuff I create is free for personal or non-published use only (you get it, right? Use it freely as long as you're not promoting yourself with my work! :D ).

Hope you enjoy your time on this page!
- Emanuele