Tag Archives: Game Design

RPGs

ENCOUNTER TABLES Aren’t Just For Monsters

This is an idea I am putting up so I can flesh it out. Many other RPG bloggers have said the same thing. Variations on the numbers of goblins, orcs, kobolds, ogres, etc. and their appearance and weapons only go so far to be interesting and avoid a slog.

Now throwing monsters into an odd situation, like a group of orcs with some stuck in quicksand, or kobolds climbing up or down a sheer cliff, can add some interesting spice to an encounter. Do the orcs help their comrades, do they stay and fight, or run away? Why are the kobolds climbing a sheer cliff? Did they find a cave with treasure, or are they fleeing something big and bad?

Encounter Tables don’t have to be just monsters. They can be natural phenomena, landscape features, special locations, etc.

If not an encounter table or tables, these things need to be kept in mind for wilderness, dungeon/underground, and town adventures.

Phenomena/Things/Locations

Pits/Traps/Deadfalls -> Monster or Fen or Special

Quicksand/Muck & Mire/etc.

Crevasse/Cliff/Landslide/Avalanche

Tangle of Vines/Dense Foliage

Patrols/Special/etc.

RPGs

Megadungeons Gone Wild

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Megadungeons are something that interest me. As a player I may have played in a megadungeon, but did not know it.

I have read lot of articles and gather lots of notes.

As I think about my own campaign, that I touched on yesterday, and its ten great ancient cities with teleport chambers, I realize that the sewers and tunnels and caverns under each one is its own megadungeon, but each is connected to the other by the teleport chambers. The chambers have a mechanism to specify which destination, so players could end up on the far end of the empire, or on one of the islands they settled across the sea.

Obviously, I don’t want or need to map out all of this that would never be played, but the various megadungeon tables on different sites to help populate them would come in handy if players managed to jump from one ancient city to another.

I think that general areas of the city would be a natural for certain kinds of buildings, structures, events, and encounters. For example, the cemetery/necropolis would have plenty of undead from the time of chaos when the empire collapsed and troops were needed quickly to deal with the dead and defend the city. The nice people fled and the bad guys have set up shop. There would be a near limitless supply of skeletons and zombies. A high magic society would tend to have magical constructs like golems and homonculi. Perhaps trapped demons or elementals. Magic mouths to give directions around the city.

There would be places where treasure in the form of coins might be more likely, and treasure in the form of ancient weapons and other items that might not be magical, but a sage might pay for them. A collector of ancient relics might like a statue or a tapestry. There is more to treasure than just coin and magic.

If there were a zoological garden, would there be small groups of wild animals about the city? A pride or two of lions that fed off the goblins and orcs running around. Other types of creatures attracted by the niche they could fill in such a place.

Whether a city or dungeon, thinking in terms of areas and what was there originally and what is there now will help group what adventurers might find or encounter there.

An ancient cistern overgrown with vines would be a 30 foot or deeper pit, a deadly fall, unless it still held water, then it could still be a deadly fall. Ancient barrows of the early kings could be infested with wights, or other grave loving creatures. Different parts of an abandoned city could be controlled by different factions. Pirates could use the docks to trade goods to orcs or evil humans in the employ of a wizard seeking some powerful device he read about in an ancient tome. Intelligent monsters might control another area, perhaps a dragon of an appropriate size has claimed the ancient treasury. There could be turf wars by the various factions trying to control the city. There could be a big bad trying to consolidate his power and is working to sway other factions to his will and destroy those who don’t come along. Players getting in the midst of such a turf war could be in for a wild ride.

Lots of ideas present themselves, palace, barracks, temples and shrines, colleges of magic, palaces of nobles and the rich, merchants of all kinds, the old bazaar, docks, an abandoned thieve’s guild tower, homes of the populace.

Would each city be built on a similar plan, or would each be unique?

I like to think or areas or pigeon holes for parts of large areas, like a city. All you really need for a map is the rough distance from one “quarter” or section of the city and how long it will take. I just borrow maps for cities online for my use. Of course, to publish my own, if that were every to happen, would take new maps and a LOT more detail for others to be able to use it. There is a HUGE difference between enough notes for a DM to run a session, and enough description for someone new to the campaign to run it. For making your own cities or megadungeons, you just need enough information to keep play moving. You may even have to have some tables for quick random generation of buildings, their condition, and contents.

There needs to be something to break up the sameness. As I wrote this, I recalled a scenario when I GM’d Gamma World and the players found a high rise hotel and in every room were skeletons of people in sexual positions as they obviously were going to do it one last time before the end of the world. Ah the mind of an adolescent teenage boy. After a while I ran out of scenarios for number of people and positions. It was all on the fly. I did not do enough preparation to have more variety. The other guys laughed at what I came up with, so we had fun, but it had an aura of sameness to it. A list of some sort for  100 houses, 100 merchant shops, etc. like many other lists of 100 other bloggers have come up with can go a long way. If you have the spare coin to buy a PDF of a city, you can save Googling for lists, or making up your own.

I would suggest making a list of the different types of things you expect to find in a city, wells, cisterns, fountains, houses, shrines, temples, tombs, etc. and make a list of 100 of them. Use a spreadsheet like Open Office or Libre Office Calc and have a column for a present day, in-use item/building/object and a second column for what it is like in a ruined city or town. You can make your lists as detailed as you need to make it useful for working down the list or picking at random. For a more complex choice and variety, you could have columns for different descriptors to use when applying to the object or building. Obviously, more substantial buildings like temples, palaces, forts, and wizard towers would need more preparation, especially if there is anything there to find or find you. Again, there are lots of maps and free modules describing these very things.

Building your own lists has the power of giving it your own flavor. You don’t have to come up with everything from scratch, you can mix and match ideas and lists from others you find online or in your rulebooks. There is a lot you can do if you are a cash-strapped teen or an adult with other things you need your money for, like bills and trying to save for retirement. Or if you have a few dollars to spend there are a lot of good resources available on DriveThru RPG or RPGNow in the $5 or less range. The D30 DM Companion and the D30 Sandbox Companion are two great resources for the time strapped DM and give lots of ideas for how to organize one’s own tables.

I really appreciate all the other DMs and players who share all their ideas online and so much of it is free. Thank you all, fellow gamers!

RPGs

Resources and Their Source

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I have a BA (Bachelor of Arts) degree in History. I like the ancient and medieval period, Meopatamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. I like following different websites and one of those is the archaeology page on about.com.

Last week they had an article about Roman aqueducts.

That article got me to thinking about other types of construction, like Roman roads, buildings, city walls, etc. I have ancient cities that I will need to plan at some point in my campaign. Large cities need things like water and food, which mean ancient wells, cisterns, canals, irrigation, aqueducts, etc. and ancient fields and farms. Farms for simplicity sake would include cropland, grazing land for herds, fishing banks along the coast or a lake or river.

Huge stone structures require quarries for the source material. Abandoned quarries and still used quarries would be places an adventure might turn. Granite, marble, sandstone, etc.

Large building project of wood, whether a temple, fort, fleet of ships, or housing for the masses will require access to a large amount of forest. Were ancient forests depleted, are they restored to their former bounds after a thousand years? Stone building projects usually rely on wood for bracing and scaffolding. Without fast growing wood or woody plants, like bamboo, a large city would quickly deforest a huge area. How do sylvan creatures, elves, and druids react to this?

Metals require mines for coinage, armor, weapons, tools, etc. Copper, silver, tin, gold, platinum, iron, mithril, adamantite, etc. FYI – Copper and tin make bronze, copper and zinc make brass. The working of metals will require either large forests to supply wood for making charcoal, or coal mines for coal.

The above mentioned herds for food would also supply the leather for armor, belts, pouches, saddles, etc. Exotic herds could be culled for exotic leather items.

Other types of materials used in civilization are bricks, from simple mud dried bricks of earth, straw, and water, to fired bricks of clay. Again back to using wood for charcoal or mining coal to handle a large number of brick buildings and walls.

Glass is not a necessity, but does require sand and other ingredients, plus wood for charcoal or coal from coal mines to fire it.

Add to that the bakers in a huge city and all their ovens for bread.

One does not need to stat out or write up every little detail of an ancient city. However, keep these things in mind when there is a city or town adventure in a living town or the remains of such things in and ancient ruin of a town or city. For example, the fountains of Rome were the pressure release for the aqueduct system and were the source of fresh water for those who could not afford to have water piped to their homes. Will there be ancient fountains that are silted in, but contain coins from wishes? Or fountains filled with rainwater, but stagnant and smelly, but also have coins, or a monster and coins?

Roads are needed to connect cities and towns, to tie an ancient empire together. Roads, walls, and buildings can all be constructed using mud to rock, for sandstone; or wall of stone, for granite. Yes, they can be dispelled, but in AD&D you have to be a high enough level to do it. If an ancient empire was magic rich and had lots of high-level friendly wizards making buildings, it would explain a lack of or fewer quarries than is otherwise needed. Was a temple devoted to creating food for the masses, and the cities thus needed fewer farms and herds? I can see a very lawful civilization doing such things. Would there be ancient magical fountains that never ran out of water? Magic bread ovens that never ran out of bread?

What problems and challenges of modern civilization would a high magic society be able to solve using magic as their technology?

  • Sanitation: Sewers send it all to a pit of a permanent disintegration to avoid stink and disease. Or if they didn’t have that level of magic available, would use carrion crawlers and otyughs.
  • Construction/Infrastructure: Magic to assist with building roads, walls, forts, castles, etc.
  • Ships and wooden construction: Cooperation and trade with sylvan creatures, elves, or druids would provide all the needed wood while preserving the bounds of the forests.
  • Food and Water: Can be created magically, as suggested above.
  • Communication: Crystal balls, palantirs, mirrors, or other devices could facilitate communication between an emperor/king and his governors, nobles, and generals.
  • Travel:  Magically created roads for the less well to do and caravans. Teleportation rooms/chambers/stations for travel between cities, or across cities, or to neighboring kingdoms.
  • Trade: By the use of superior and coordinated magic in the running of an empire, it could simplify trade due to superior communication and travel capabilities.
  • Health: Sanitation as described above. Health care by clerics of temples.
  • Education: There would be great centers of learning, colleges and universities for the study of magic for the benefit of all. Great temples and seminaries for the study of divine magic.
  • Light: Donations to temples or commerce with wizards would mean everyone has a bulls eye lantern with continual light. Streetlights would have continual light. There would be less need for candles and lamp oil, other than for the poor or ritual use.

A strongly lawful society learning to good with a high level of magic would have a tendency to have these things. War would be far off and the orcs and goblins would be far away, just a story to most people. But if something happened like a strange disease that spread rapidly via the teleport system faster than it could be cured, chaos would ensue. The chaos caused could bring down the whole system. Wizards who survive try to keep things going and end up fighting for turf, thus accelerating the collapse. Troops are needed to keep order, generals who are lawful, but not good would be tempted to pay orcs and goblins to help fill their depleted ranks. Soon wizards are mistrusted and on the run. Civilization as we know it is gone, cities are abandoned as the masses flea disease and civil war. All the neat things that the ancients knew are mostly lost to the knowledge of all but a few after a thousand years. This is the scenario of my campaign. The players don’t know or need to know any of this, just that centuries ago, there was a lot of magic and many wonderful things that a brave and successful adventurer can find.

In a way, my campaign is a “post apocalyptic” world, but there is no radiation and mutants. Although there might be strange creatures brought about by ancient wizards and their experiments. There are powerful ancient artifacts and devices that require study to use without destroying one’s self.

RPGs

City Districts Posted on G+ World Building Community

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I posted this comment and question about names for districts/quarters in towns and cities on the G+ World Building Community.

I am working on ideas for different districts/quarters for towns and cities in a fantasy (D&D) setting.

I have come up with a few from memory and my own ideas:
– Temple quarter
– Wizard quarter
– Royal & Noble quarter
– Government/Bureaucracy quarter
– Merchant’s quarter
– Non-human quarter (for areas where they don’t just mingle right in)
– Rich/Poor
– Docks/Wharves/Shipyards
– Thieve’s quarter

I then turned to Google, and Jerusalem and it’s four quarters, based on religion, tends to predominate the results. I found that old cities often had 3 to 5 quarters, Paris has 18 districts. Usually, there is the old town/city which may or may not be a citadel/acropolis/medina.

So a lot of them also have government quarters, lower/upper town, old town/city, and royal quarter.

I am curious what sorts of Districts/Areas/Quarters/Divisions of town and cities do you have/use?

I have one large ancient abandoned city that I am working on ideas to help with dealing with the players running around it. I have a general idea of what is where, and then am adding my own ideas to some city tables I have found on various blogs to generate some things ahead of time, but also to have on hand for on the fly generation as needed.

It is tricky to avoid every other house/building being the same without some options to help mix it up.

NOTE: I see developing large ancient cities whether active or ruins as related to megadungeons, and it may just be the above ground level of a megadungeon.

RPGs

Index For Grouping Types of Monsters

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I have not seen, nor tried very hard to find, a list that cross references creatures in all the add books by types. For example, all the insect or insect like creatures in MM, MM2, FF, OA, etc.

That is something I have worked on because if you have dinosaur island, you want all the dinos from all the books.

If you want an all insect dungeon with ants and thri-keen.

Slimes, molds, fungus, undead, etc.

My working lists have which book and page and hit dice. This way, I can develop areas, dungeons, and encounter tables that are level specific.

This type of index beats having to look through all the books trying to find what you want.

Board Games, RPGs

Using Game Boards from Boardgames for Other Games

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I ran across this post today that reminded me that my brother, Robert, and I used the game board from Avalon Hill’s Waterloo as a star map for a science fiction space combat exploration game we made up in the 80’s.

My planet/system had the brilliant name of Erloowat, I don’t recall what Robert named his.

There were two or three games we made up back then. A Science Fiction/Space RPG we called Scout, and a space pirate game centered around ship capture/combat. I don’t recall now if our space combat game built on the rules from our space pirate game. The rules for all of them were pretty broad. The space/interplanetary war game was actually more like an RPG without a GM. We didn’t have enough rules to cover certain scenarios to make it truly playable the way we intended. I think we just played at it for an afternoon or two and it faded away.

The problem with making your own game is defining the parameters and limitations of it so that there is an agreed upon framework to make it playable without a GM or the creators on standby to deal with scenarios as they develop.

The benefit of RPGs is that you only need enough rules to build enough framework to be able to have fun, and as play develops, the players and GM work together to fill in the gaps, thus the prevalence of house rules and homebrew games that are a freankensteinian combination of multiple ideas from other RPGs and the experience of actual play and house rules. Our Scout game was just such a one. We took ideas from Traveller, Star Frontiers, Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, and probably others I don’t recall to get mechanics/rules for things we had trouble fleshing out ourselves. Robert also wrote great short stories that tied into Scout. We passed them around in high school and kept asking for more. (I wish he would publish his writings, he could even do the artwork for the book covers.)

As I was writing this I recalled another RPG we had was based on Androids, I think that was more of what would be a LARP. However, we did not run around in costume, it was more a sit around and talk about things our characters did. We drew ships and different kinds of androids and robots and wrote little scenarios and stories. I don’t recall if this preceded our discovery of Blue Box Holmes Basic D&D or not. I know one guy involved moved away at some point, and I don’t recall what grade. It was spring of 7th grade we discovered D&D, I don’t recall when David moved away.

RPGs

24 Hour RPG

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Design a campaign in 24 hours.

http://www.24hourrpg.com/

I don’t know which blog I ran across this. The way the blog that mentioned this described it was a new campaign in 24 hours.

As I look at the website it looks like it was only active for 2003, 2004, and 2005. I’m not sure why the owner of the domain would keep paying for the domain name and web hosting if it was not an active contest.

At one point their was a Yahoo Group, but it no longer exists.

Looking at the 2005 entries, it looks like people designed whole new games and rules instead of campaigns based around existing rules. Looking at their rules it is about designing a whole new RPG.

24 hours to design a new RPG? We need more RPGs? What niche does not have rules? The basic mechanics of dice for character stats and dice to do stuff and lists of equipment for the genre, and mechanics for how it all works can easily be done by taking what you like from existing games you have and make your own homebrew game. My brother and I and our gaming group did that in high school 30+ years ago.

Are any of these RPGs doing a new take for rules? Are stats different? If you have stats, can you come up with names that are not synonyms for stats in existing games?

For me, I don’t need another game. I wouldn’t put time to develop another game, unless I thought I had an idea I could market and sell.

Designing a campaign in 24 hours, I can see the value in that. Whether we do a 24 hour marathon, or 24 one-hour sprints, it could be a way to force oneself to focus on designing a new campaign, or new area of an existing campaign. I can see having different categories: 24 hour marathon, 24 1-hour sprints, 12 2-hour sprints. Set a timer for those sprints and an alarm for the marathon. There would be a total honor system.

I know that I have the ability to pull an all-nighter, but my thinking gets fuzzy after awhile and I would lose the ability to focus. It is not the same as running a game session that runs all night. There are notes to guide and ad-lib is not the same as designing a campaign that makes sense/fits together.

The idea of a 24 Hour Campaign Design sounds like a monumental contest to organize. I know I don’t have the time to run a contest. I know I wouldn’t pull an all-nighter for this. With one or two hour sprints it could still take a couple weeks to do this. Perhaps a 24 hour sandbox design using one of the sandbox design structures from Bat in The Attic or West Marches would be a way to structure it.

For all I know, there has already been some sort of 24 hour campaign or sandbox design blogathon or contest in the past.

Interesting ideas. Not sure any of them are my thing.

I wonder what other’s think about these ideas?

RPGs

30 posts in 60 days on new campaign setting

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http://exonauts.blogspot.com/2014/02/blogger-contest-30-posts-to-create.html

 SO HERE’S AN IDEA…

  1. Pick a game–any old rules will do. Stick to one set though.
  2. Dream up a campaign setting–it can’t be anything you’ve previously posted, published, or talked about before. It doesn’t have to be “new” per se, just new to the rest of us.
  3. Create a new blog–yes a new URL and everything, but use your current account so we can tell it’s still yours. Name if after your campaign settting.
  4. Write 30 posts in 60 days. (C’mon, that’s less than 1 a day!) You have just that long to outline the major key elements (setting, monsters, rule modifications, classes, races, etc.). This is straight-up worldbuilding using elements you’d normally talk about on your home blog. But here, you’ve got economize and decide what the most important elements are. Here’s some general guidelines:

30 POSTS TOTAL

  • 13 on monsters or villains, one type or one specific individual per post (so “hobgoblins” is one, a “kaiju” is another, “Vader’s granny” another, etc.)
  • 4 on special treasure, a lost artifact, weapons, vehicles, etc., however you choose to parse.
  • 3 on setting, this is all aesthetic so you’ll want to focus on places, maps, NPCs, the way magic works, how the local ruling space authority, uh…rules the galaxy, etc.
  • 3 on classes with each dedicated to a separate player class.
  • 2 on house rules, specifically how your campaign either strays, modifies, or embellishes on your chosen rule set (posts can be as detailed as you like); carousing rules, etc. all apply here
  • 3 on any topics you like, these help you round out the rough edges and could be additional classes, races, setting, etc.
  • 1 intro post to set up your premise for your campaign (e.g., , declare your ruleset and acknowlege participation in the contest
  • 1 report of actual play, which should include at least one picture, be it from the campaign or actual play; you can make this your final post with a big sign off or you can use it as a playtest, but you gotta play it at least once and record it for posterity

My Take:

I don’t like the idea of a whole new blog. A category on existing blog, yes. Whole new blog to manage/maintain, but only for two months. I don’t see the value. If you have to link it to your current blog, it can’t be to hide it from players.

I’m not sure I will be blogging on this topic. I know I won’t be any time soon. I can see the value of using the topic ideas and counts on certain topics to help build a framework for a campaign fast. I may use this for ideas, but use a NoteTab outline.

What are your thoughts on this?

RPGs

My idea for a Monster Island

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I have an idea to combine the giant crustaceans and insects of Mysterious Island, with dinosaurs. I did not realize that Mysterious Island was based on a Jules Verne story. I have read some of his writings, but not all. I have a large backlog of them on my Kindle. That is the nice thing about stuff going out of copyright. Also the combination of creatures on Kong Island in the King Kong movies. (Note to self: Stat out Kong.)

I have a few ways I am thinking of handling this. Either one big island that has the giant insects and crustaceans and Pleistocene creatures and another area with dinosaurs, or two islands one with the dinosaurs and another close by with the rest.

Another might be an island with all giant insects, with the Thri-Keen at the top.

Definitely cavemen & Neanderthals with sabre-toothed tigers and mammoths would be cool.

An island could also be defined as an area with high mountains and no viable passes, or separated by a huge surrounding desert, center of the earth type scenarios, pocket dimensions, etc.

My idea it to design something that I would find fun and challenging to play.

I went through the Monster Manual, Monster Manual II, and Fiend Folio and collected a list of all the dinosaurs, giant animals, insects, etc. That is a long set of lists!

I am sure someone has done all or parts of these ideas. As I did not buy or play in most of the classic modules, I don’t know if TSR or other companies did something.

With the size of the dinosaurs, it would take a large land area to support viable sized groups of each. Random encounter tables would be quite long.

The thing with this is a party would have to use their brains and avoid trouble. Finding and allying themselves with primitive humans who know the best hiding spots and refuges and what parts of the island to avoid.

The challenge could be complicated by needing something the primitive humans prize or worship and are reluctant to part with it. If the party just takes it, they are all on their own. If they do things to gain the trust of the primitives, they might be able to borrow it or if a great enough service just keep it. All kinds of different ideas there.

Throw in some giants here and there and other humanoids and regular monsters to spice it up. Maybe the giants have always been there, but the humanoids and other monsters have washed up on shore, or they are after the same thing the party seeks.

Or the party could just be shipwrecked there in a storm, teleported there by a teleport trap in a dungeon and have to figure out how to get home. Is there another teleporter back? Can they figure out how to just travel home? Do they have a wizard with teleport?

I have too many ideas. I want to use them all, but always leave them wanting more. I know I have the more. I just want to use it all! Am I the only one fighting the temptation to use it all?

RPGs

Patience and Scope

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As a DM, patience and scope of campaign and session preparation are my biggest weaknesses. I have so many ideas for higher level characters, but I want to have players work their way up to get there.

I have always had trouble with scaling encounters, dungeons and sessions to low level parties.

As DM there are so many things you can do and experience in play.

I agree that there can and should be things that low level characters should stay away from, but if players ignore the famous DM question, “Are you [really] sure you want to do that?” It’s not the DM’s fault if the players make bad choices. That is easy.

The hard part is having low level characters have fun and excitement without everything being instant death.

I designed an area with some simple tombs and the weakest of all creatures for them to go up against, centipedes, the weakest spiders, and such. I even had a couple skeletons. The tombs go back 40 to 100 feet or so with alcoves on both sides every ten or twenty feet. Some have a room at the end, bigger ones have a room in the middle and the end. Those were appropriate encounters.

The temptation to avoid is throwing higher level NPCs at a situation, just to get into it. This is what I did playing with my sons. It was fun and they enjoyed the way I handled it. The problem is, I got into that rut and ended up with another scenario. The boys are having fun, etc. The hard part is for me to have the patience for them to work up to that level.

One solution to this is to get some other players. My oldest is on his own and not available most weekends, and my youngest is back living with his mom. So I can only dream of playing. I have been on Pen and Paper Games for a few years now. I live just far enough away from areas with a large concentration of gamers that I haven’t had much traction. I am hoping to get into an online game for at least a few sessions as a player to learn how it can be done as a substitute for in-person play. I definitely don’t have the patience for a play by post game in chat or email. Video or audio chat of some sort is the way to go.

The other solution to my problem is the concept of challenge ratings from Swords & Wizardry. I am not sure, but I think that came along with D&D 4.0. I missed the whole 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 rules, so I only know the good and bad I have read from others online. What I like about the challenge rating as it exists in S&W Complete, is that it gives you an idea of how to configure sessions, encounters, dungeons, adventures, whatever to fit the level of the party. There can still be a larger challenge rating monster or two so there is a challenge and an incentive to use their brains.

Scope is my other problem. I like the idea of a sandbox, and the campaign world I have been fiddling with for years is like a Western Europe sized sandbox. It is not detailed down to the low level, but I have a lot of the grand concepts and ideas to tie it all together. I want to have more of it “complete” and have worked hard to make myself work on the smaller area where I have players starting for a more reasonable scope for the sandbox. I will still jot down notes of ideas for campaign scale items so I don’t forget them. When I get to reading other RPG blogs, I get wrapped up in them and make notes and copy tables and maps.

It is like I am at an all you can eat buffet and am trying to pile some of everything onto my first plate rather than making multiple, more manageable trips.

I have ideas on my own plus a flood of new ideas from what I read online and elsewhere. It all looks so good, so where to start….

The lack of success in finding players has also made it easy to excuse myself from focusing and making area specific wilderness encounter tables and more low level possibilities. I do have quite a few, some just ideas, but for now, I need to focus on organizing what I have so I can find it when I need it and finding an online game I can join as a player to learn the technical ropes. Running an in person game is easy, it is throwing all the technology into the mix. I work with computers, so I can figure it out, but I would like to participate in how others do it, so I can decide how I want to do it. Then I can make an effort to find players.