Issue 156
Issue 156
Issue 156
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
CONTENTS:
--> A Brief Word From Johnn
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/cd/
Mac users: the files are all plain text and should be 100%
compatible. UNIX: have any Unix subscribers had luck
downloading and reading the files?
Special thanks to Richard Ballin for assembling the
archives!
Cheers,
Johnn Four
[email protected]
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
www.TheHeroFactory.com
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
If you have a tip to share with your fellow GMs about making
dungeons more interesting, send it on in to
[email protected] -- thanks!
Room 2 ideas:
* Ye old classic death trap.
* Magic puzzle, such as a chessboard tile floor with special
squares.
* An intelligent entity grants access to the rest of the
dungeon but must be befriended, not fought.
* A being far more powerful than the PCs must be roleplayed/
negotiated with.
Once you've figured out what room 2 is, try to plant one or
more clues in room 1 about potential solutions. This will
tie the adventure together a little tighter, will delight
the problem solvers, and can be a back-up for you if the
players get stuck.
Room 3 ideas:
* "The passage ends in a 'T'. The right looks well-travelled
and the corridor is unremarkable. The left looks untouched,
smells faintly of cinnamon, and there's a mysterious orange
glow that can barely be seen at the end. Which way to do you
go?" The left passage leads to the red herring.
* A fake sarcophagus that contains another guardian.
* A collapsed structure blocks part of the area. The debris
is dangerous and blocks or hides nothing of importance.
* Contains a one-way exit (so the PCs must return and deal
with rooms 1 and 2 again). i.e. teleport trap, one-way door,
2000 foot water slide trap.
* Room 3 does contain the PCs' goal but hides the presence
of room 4, which contains an even greater reward.
Room 5 ideas:
* Another guardian awaits in the treasure container.
* A trap that resurrects or renews the challenge from
room 4.
* Bonus treasure is discovered that leads to another
adventure, such as a piece of a magic item or a map
fragment.
* A rival enters and tries to steal the reward while the PCs
are dealing with the big challenge in room 4.
* The object of the quest/final reward isn't what it seems
or has a complication. i.e. the kidnapped King doesn't want
to return.
The five room format is simple yet allows for variety and
permutation, thus it's a powerful little GM tool. I feel a
GM is always better off improving their dungeons by making
them smaller because it gives them more planning time for
clues, plot hooks, character involvement, twists, etc.
If you make a few theory and journal notes like this for
each player, you are guaranteed to build a realistic profile
over a short period of time to help you successfully plan
for each session.]
[Johnn butts in: thanks for the tip Trav. Related to this
tip, time limits, you could have the dungeon slowly becoming
more deadly for some reason:
* Filling up with water.
* Filling up with lava.
* Filling up with gas.
* Slowly shifting to another plane.
* * *
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gmmastery/
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
* http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/pastwx/extract.htm
This has daily temperature (mean, max, and min), rainfall,
humidity, sunshine, cloud cover, wind speed/direction data
for Hong Kong going back to 1997.
* http://www.smhi.se (Swedish)
SMHI (Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut)
have the longest recorded history of weather in the world.
Sadly, their site is in Swedish, but some readers might make
use of it. SMHI also links a few internet pages that could
be useful even for those unlucky enough to not understand
Swedish.
* http://www.ecmwf.int/
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
* http://www.meteo.be/ECOMET/
An economic group of interest for European Meteorological
Cooperation.
* http://www.ices.dk/
International council for the exploration of the sea.
* http://www.eumetsat.de/en/
EUMETSAT is an inter-governmental organisation created
through an international convention agreed by 18 European
Member States. They have a lot of satellite data.
* http://www.wmo.ch/index-en.html
World Meteorological Organization
* http://ioc.unesco.org/iocweb/
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
* http://www.eumetnet.eu.org/
* http://www.iea.org/
* http://www.weatherbase.com/
* http://www.yeahplaza.com/
3. Dream Technique
From: Stu
==================
I'll share a way in which I've used dreams in past
campaigns. This method works best if you have a couple
players in on the scheme.
When running the dream, ask for player actions like normal.
The players that are in on the scheme can help you by
encouraging actions that lead toward the 'meat' of the
dream. You'll have to coordinate this with them before hand.
You need not reveal the whole dream before hand. Small
snippets will suffice: "When we reach the cave entrance,
have your fighter volunteer to check it out alone."
Other thoughts:
Maybe the dream serves as a way for the group to scout the
overlord's lair without having to physically scout it out.
After the dream is ended, the characters arrive at the cave
entrance and find it is identical to the one seen in the
dream.
* In regards to dreams...
Those people playing D&D 3E will find an excellent set of
game rules for lucid dreaming and even a dream realm in the
Manual of the Planes rulebook. If DMs wish to explore the
world of dreams in a more in-depth way, I highly recommend
this book.
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
Johnn Four
mailto:[email protected]
_______________________________________________________
*******************************************************
SUBMISSIONS
Submission Guidelines, send blank email to:
[email protected]
email: [email protected]
web site: http://www.roleplayingtips.com