Out of Curiosity

Tzashazul - The Dimensional Terror

[If this link does not work try this one: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S8qJnzcz43vwsYMgRhOKWkCBqyPPgkVR]

Patrons in DCC

Normally when designing i start with an idea. With a story to tell. When running fantasy games i always ask myself. Where do i want my party to go and what do they want to do there, way before i ask my self what this place looks in detail. I wanted to break out of this routine and try something else. I sat down and drew a Dungeon map. I had nothing in mind while drawing it, i didn't ask myself questions about the place or the layout, i did not want to know what was inside the rooms and who lived there.

I posted the Dungeon map about two weeks ago with the promise to finish it up within a week. whoops. At least it's done now. I finished the Details of the map and here it is. Curious Dungeon Number 1. The Temple of Oyraka.

I randomly determined what this Dungeon will be. I used the tables i created for rolling through regions and found out that this was a submerged Temple inhabited by Lizardfolk. I did not quite stick to the premise as i decided that the temple was abandoned, but the Lizardfolk left their mark on this place.

But what is inside? The first room was huge, so it obviously needed a Statue. The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis provided many inspirations for this Dungeon, its arrival at my doorstep was one of the reasons i made this dungeon. It has a quite neat table for creating random statues, so i used it to roll out the table in Area 1-2 and 2-6. The Altars in Area 1-7 got randomized in a similar fashion. But there were still many rooms left empty.

It was quite easy to determine the former use of most of the rooms but for some i had to randomly determine a use. At this point i just looked at any table i could find for inspiration. Room by Room the Dungeon came together. I stopped rolling out random things and just picked what i liked out of this book and many other resources i could find in my bookshelf.

Here is the result. The Temple of Oyraka.

If the Hyperlink is not working just follow this link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NJDRr0_w-FqRCvSVEUh8o5ZEbSErY48d

I liked the idea of having the Dungeon set inside a lake. So i did it. It was submerged anyway, right? Now one question was left to answer: Why should adventurers go into this Dungeon? A mighty artifact had to be placed inside this Dungeon. I found no good spot to hide it. No room that made for a nice final room. So i placed it in the entrance and made a journey through the entire Dungeon necessary to retrieve it.

Writing this Dungeon down was way more work than designing it and i did not expect it to take this long. But i did learn a lot from this and be ensured that this won't be the last curious Dungeon.

The old tower looms over your small village. In the past it was a sign of resilience, but now it has turned into something else. As you step out of your small homes into the Towers shadow, the fear of the wizard Broshgar creeps back into your hearts. He took your food and your goods, he abducted your friends and your family and without remorse he killed anyone trying to stop him. Only a few months ago he took four of your children at once. And you let it happen. But today is the last day you'll ever be afraid of him. Assembling in front of the towers entrance you are ready to end his reign of terror.



FATE OF THE RUTHLESS WIZARD - A DCC RPG FUNNEL

Enjoy!

Today i give you only a small update to the World of Thireila in form of another god, following up on last weeks entry for the Gods of Thireila.

The Gods of the Human Race

Those gods are the gods humanity worships today.

The Gods of Humanity
Lawful	Neutral	Chaotic
Imna - Goddess of Honor	Janu - God of Diplomacy and Secrets	Elyra - Goddess of Mysteries and Magic*
Parthia - Goddess of Justice and Nobility	Molyk - God of Creation	Hog - God of Beasts and Combat
Paturo - God of Wisdom and Age	Tirif - Goddess of Nature and Weather	Matho - God of Desperation and Hope
Ralwonir - God of Purity and Health	Tjorael - God of Hospitality and Alcohol	Olnoth - God of Pestilence and Illness
Torgej - God of Craftsmanship and Trade	Travendra - Goddess of Death and Fate	Shantu Sulfar - Goddess of Alchemy and the Moon
Vorlukay - God of the Undead	Urr - God of War	Zeyai - Goddess of the Sea

* Elyra has only few clerics and mostly acts as a patron to aspiring Magicians  

Clerics in Thireila 

The existance of the gods is not up for debate so the only question for most beeings is wheter they can identify with the ideals of a single god or a group of gods enough to worship them over all others. It is common for humans to follow the path of a god but some take it one step further and devote their entire life to a single god. Those people are called "clerics" and are able to summon the power of the gods.

Some clerics and faithful organize in churches or ordos but others find faith on their own. Not all people choose the god which they follow sometimes a god chooses a human to carry out his will. The Gods don't take the servitude of their followers lightly and reward them by helping them on their encounters and lending them powers. But a Human who abuses his powers or betrays his god might soon find out how the real wrath of his god can feel.

The importance of the churchs and gods varries on a regional basis, depending on the interest of the gods, the faith of the people there and the intents of the rulers. Some rulers even forbid the worship of specific gods. While the gods mostly lend their powers to humans some of other races have been able to follow their calling and join the ranks of the clerics.

Playing a Cleric 

 

Thireila hosts some changes to the way Clerics are played in Dungeon Crawl Classics. There are two major changes. Disapproval and Deity specific abilities. These changes all depend on the specific Godthe cleric follows. If no Entry for the god of the cleric has been released than these changes don't take place and the cleric follows the normal rules presented in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Book.

Deity Abilities

Each Deity alters the way of the core abilities in some minor or major way. Specifics are detailed in each gods entry. 

Deity Spells

Each God gives his clerics access to one or more spells only his clerics may use. These spells can be aquired once a cleric has a level high enough to learn spells of that level. Deity specific spells use a "Spells known" slot as normal spells do and a cleric does not have to learn them.

Deity Requests 

Each god entry comes with a table of six god specific deity requests. These can be used instead of the table in the core book or in addition to it. If combining both simply use a d16 and treat the results in these new tables as entries 11-16.

Disapproval

In Thireila the gods are more aware of the deeds of their faithful. So their punishment is more concrete. Every God has its own disapproval tables, which are divided into three categories. Lay on Hands, Turn Unholy and Spellcasting. Instead of rolling a Number of d4 equal to the result of the roll which caused disapproval, simply take the result and compare it to the table corresponding with the action, which caused disapproval. If the disapproval has come up as a result of a Divine Aid roll, then refert to the table best fitting to the request and deed.

Ralwonir - God of Purity and Health.

The Pure god, The savior of Mankind, the Helpful Hand. Ralwonir is all this and far more. He watches over the humans, protecting those, who follow the right path and are of pure heart. He rejects those who only thirst for power and fame, those who willingly put others at risk and those who have any malicious intent. His vision of humanity is a vision of humble, grateful, helpful and loyal beings and he will do everything to protect his faithful who are building this vision. Those who failed his Vision may have the chance of redemption, as Ralwonirs hopes for humanity are far too high to let people fall easily.

Deity Entry (click to open):
Ralwonir - God of Purity and Health

Every Story needs to take place somewhere. This somewhere is not the entire continent, or world. It is a small region. Some landmarks, a few cities, some history, nothing more. Most Stories and Adventure Modules don't need a predefined world and DCC is built around the idea of creating the world from within. Taking the focus towards the individual places and persons.

This system i present you here will provide you with a randomized region for fantasy roleplaying. While some of the designs and ideas are directly catered towards Dungeon Crawl Classics, the regions provided here can easily used inside every fantasy setting or system.

A huge shoutout to Last Gasp Grimoire, which inspired this Setting with its amazing City and Village Generator.

Let's get started.

1. Prepare the Region.

We need some tools for creating our region. We need a normal piece of paper, some pens and dice. Specifically d4, d6 and d20. Which dice of which sort you take is up to you but for trying out the system i recommend 6 of each. Put all the d4, d6 and d20 on a pile or into a bag. Now we can start.

2. Roll the dice.

Pull a hand full of random dice out of the bag or from the pile. Throw them all onto your sheet of paper. Those refusing to land on the sheet of paper will have to find their way back on there. Just pick them up and place them somewhere or roll them again until they stay there. Every Die will represent something in the region. The d4 form the landscape, the d20 create the settlements and the d6 fill the region with places of interest.

3. Create the landscape.

Every d4 represents a big area of terrain. Take the die out and draw the landscape corresponding to the number rolled onto the map.

1 - Mountains
2 - Forest
3 - Lake
4 - Hills

The size of the landscape is up to you but if you can't decide. Reroll the d4. The number that comes up shows the diameter in inch. If landscapes overlap with other dice, then so be it. If a dice is close to the edge of the map you can expand the landscape out of the map. A Lake might become the sea by doing so.

4. Create Settlements

Every d20 is a settlement. The number rolled represents the size of the settlement. Everything below 10 has to be considered a town or smaller, while 11 or higher represent cities. Draw a Settlement of corresponding size and write the Number next to it. If you want a more in depth city creation look at the Optional Steps after this.

5. Create Special Places

Every d6 represents a special place. Higher numbers mean more important, mythical or dangerous places. There are two systems of which to choose. They obviously can be mixed without further adjustment.

5.1. Place Adventure Modules

This method replaces the d6 with pre made adventure modules. Every die represents the location at which a Module takes place. The recommended character level for the module equals the number rolled -1. Note that thiss will not provide with adventures for characters of level 6 or higher. Level 0 reffers to Funnel Modules, which are more or less specific to Dungeon Crawl Classics.

5.2. Place "Special Places"

Just get creative! Ancient ruins, secret wizard lairs, ruined chapels. The higher the number, the bigger the danger, the greater the reward. Within the optional steps, a set of random tables can be found which provide inspiration. If planning on using them, mark the number of the dice at the location.

6. Create Roads and Rivers

We begin with the largest settlement. If the Size of the Settlement (the number on the d20) is bigger than 10 connect it to 1d4+1 other Locations. This proritizes close settlements and big settlements over special places. If the settlement is "close" to the edge of the map, there is a 50% chance that one road will lead out of the region. For settlements with a size of 10 or lower, if they have no roads yet, create one. Afterwards, no matter how many roads there are, roll a die. At a odd number draw a road between the settlement and another random place.

Every mountain spawns 1d4-1 rivers. Also, there are 1d4-2 rivers, which spring from somewhere else or come from outside of the region A river begins at the spring and then flows towards a random place, be it a settlement a lake, or a special place. At every place reached roll for another one towards which the river will continue. Rivers will never go closer towards their spring. If all "valid" targets are closer to the spring than the previous targets it simply flows out of the map. Rivers crossing each other join up and become a single river.

7. Finishing touches

The map you have now is a rough sketch of your region. Giving names to places will transform it into a place to play at. If you don't wish to give more details to cities and special places, then you are done. If you want to do so, then either follow these optional steps or any other method you see apropriate.

Optional steps:

The following steps are not required in Order to create a functioning region. Often they have to be chosen in order to fit the narrative, but sometimes rolling them out can lead to more creative fun.

O1. Who rules here?

Every Region needs a Ruler. In order to determine the Ruler roll a d20 and add the size of the largest settlement ontop. Then consult the following table.

Things inside a settlement
Result	Who rules?	Modification
2 - 4	Anarchy. People here have somehow arranged with each other. Stranger might find the inner workings quite confusing.	none
5 - 8	Clans. Old families rule this land. They are not noble and not wealthy but their rule has been accepted by the people.	none
9 - 12	A Chief. A Warlord or some other form of archaic king rules here. His laws might be erratic but they work.	none
13 - 16	Rulers from the outside. Some Ruler from a distant land have all the saying in this land. There won't be any direct rule, just an embassy within the biggest settlement. Roll another d20 and add it to your previous roll. This determines the outside rulers.	Embassy in biggest settlement
17 - 20	Religious Leaders. This region is governed by the Church of (1d6) 1-2. A lawful god. 3-4 A neutral God. 5 A chaotic God. 6. A demon lord.	Add a Temple of the entity to every settlement
21 - 24	The Merchants Guild. Trade is the essence of this land, as it is owned by wealthy traders	Add a Merchants Guild building in every settlement
25 - 28	Place of the People. The People Rule over their own land. Decisions are made by (1d6) 1. an assembly, voted for by the people. 2. the rich and wealthy. 3. the military leaders. 4. the noble. 5. the oldest. 6. the literate and scholars.	Add a public meeting hall to the capitol
29 - 32	A mighty Person. This region is controlled by (1d6). 1. a powerful mage. 2. a powerful noble. 3. a holy person of a random god. 4. the child of a king. 5. a military leader assigned to this place. 6. a young rebel, who overthrew the old regiment (roll again to determine the former rulers)	Add a fortress befitting the ruler to the capitol
33 - 36	The Count rules. While neither as noble, nor as powerful as the king, the count and his family reign over all settlements in this region, with no one above them.	Add a Castle to the capitol
37 - 40	The King rules. A mighty King reigns supreme. Not only is this region under his rule, he also reigns over all the land surrounding it. This is the centre of a big kingdom.	Add a Castle or even a palace to the capitol

Note on the table: This table does assume, that humans are in charge, but if this is not the case by design, then there is a 10% chance of the ruler beeing a dwarf, elf or halfling. If  one of those rule the land there is a 50% chance, that the population mostly consists of his race.

O2. Give life to Settlements

Settlements are not well defined within this method. If you want to give them more Detail, then you can use the system provided here. You need to know the size of your settlement in order to use this system:

 - Determine Population.

Each Settlement is populated by about 50 * [size]² People. You can adjust the numbers for larger, big cities by increasing the power to the size to 3 or even 4.

 - Determine whats inside the Settlement

Settlements consist of more than just huts to live in. First of all. Every settlement has a building for those who reign there. To randomly determine other buildings or places of importance look at the list provided here. Roll a d20 for each entry. If you roll lower than or equal to the size of the town, then such a building is present within the town. A natural twenty never adds anything.

Things inside a settlement
Guilds	Temples*	Military	Shops
Guild of Magicians	Temples of lawful gods	Soldiers Academy	Legendary smith
Guild of Mercenaries	Temple of neutral gods	Walls**	Salesman for everything magic
Guild of Merchants	Temple of chaotic gods	Castle**	Thriving Black Market
Guild of Thieves	(Secret) Cults

 * Cities can have multiple temples. If your settlement gets a temple decide if it si for one or many gods. If it is for only one, then roll again for a temple of the same alignment, until you roll too high or run out of gods.

** Cities with a size of 11 or bigger automatically have walls around their centre. This adds another layer of walls. Also every city, ruled by a Chief, Count, King or anything similar automatically has something like a castle. This option then imporoves its looks or fortification.

O3. Randomize your mysteries

This little table can provide you with a randomized special area. You just have to roll a number of six sided dice, equal to the number rolled for the special place (between one and six d6) and compare it to the table. Reroll for each individual column. This tablehas four different entries that make each Place special. The Place itself, it's dominant feature,and its current inhabitants. You may roll twice for feature and / or inhabitants in order to give to place more character. Substract or add 1d6 on your second roll.

Random special place table
Result	Place	Feature	Inhabitants
1	Encampment	abandoned	Roll 2d6 instead
2	Swamp	forgotten	giant spiders
3	Forest	destroyed	humanoids
4	Town	overgrown	goblinoids and orcs
5	Graveyard	forgotten	beastman
6	Cave	corrupted	Un-Dead
7	Fortification	ancient	lizardfolk
8	Mine	gigantic	giants
9	Tower	trap-ridden	plants
10	Laboratory	submerged	elementals
11	Temple	covered in mist	cultists
12	Crypt	frozen	constructs
13	Arena	crystallic	magical [2d6]
14	Prison	glassy	fey
15	Ritual Site	unholy	Shapeshifters
16	Wreckage of a ship	sentient	demons
17	Labyrinth	mechanic	devils
18	Holy Site	flaming	dragons
19	City	gravity defying	giant [3d6]
20	Portal to another realm	toxic	Un-Dead [2d6+7]
21	Magical Tree	moving	mutated [3d6]
22	The Underdark	teleporting	spirits
23	Ancient Battlefield	demonic	vampires
24	Dragons Lair	cursed by a god	Creatures from the underdark
25	Treasure hoard	flying	[4d6] from another plane
26	Pyramid	ontop of another site	shadows
27	Corpse of a giant	shrinking	the child of a god and a demon
28	Portal to another Plane	pitch black	a unspeakable horror
29	Throne of a dead god	devouring	immortals
30	Inside a living creature	multi-dimensional	a crossbred between [2 * 5d6-1]
31	Birthplace of a race	from the future	the last of his race
32	Demonic Rift	made of pure gold	time travellers
33	A Cloud	place of negatives	a demon lord
34	Megadungeon	teleporting	a 10 000 years old mage
35	Portal to another time	older than time	a forgotten god
36	Home of a deity	extraplanar	chickens

 

O4. Hexcrawls

By throwing all the dice onto a Hexmap one can easily create a hexrawl out of this. I recommend taking more special places then and adding some coins or other markers at which random encounters will occur.