Gold the series

Gold is an illustration of how obsessive we (gamers) can be, especially in a slightly different reality where there are professional RPG leagues with championships.  It is a well-acted, strongly written, authentic and earnest work that deserves the many accolades it has received: Streamy Awards Nominee 2010, New York Television Festival 2009, Independent Television Festival 2010, etc.

The Gold Season 1 DVD assembles the series’ six web episodes into a 75 minute ride in a world where there are RPG league championships.   The series centers on the U.S. gaming group that has won the silver award for the past three years.  Due to an incident not fully revealed until near the end of season one, the group changes its captain.

The new captain, Richard,  is obsessed with running the group his way particularly regarding a player switching classes and learning to effectively play the new class.  The other gamers in the group are obsessed with practicing, at least until things blow up.  Jonathan, the former captain is obsessed with an injury he received in the previous year’s finals. Midway into the series we meet Oliver, the captain of the British team (and gold champions).   He is obsessed with two things: obtaining superior training and learning more about the new “wild-card” U.S. captain (Richard) of the silver winners.

I didn’t know what to expect when I agreed to review Gold‘s 1st season, which was recently released to DVD.  But I found that I truly couldn’t stop.  Like a good novel with cliffhanger endings for each chapter, I kept on watching “just one more” episode.  The final episode didn’t end the way I thought it would, but it sets up nicely for a second season, of course!

If you’ve determined that a given hex has some “Ruins” the following chart will give you some ideas of what those ruins may have in store. You may want to roll/pick multiple options from the last column:

Using the chart, if one rolls a 4, a 10, a 12, and a 4 (so we have two factions) one would get: a mostly intact but half underwater city that has been mostly ransacked but may still hold a few treasures.  It has a number of trolls and orcs to contend with.   From that jumping off point, you could sketch a quick map of a half underwater city and develop a reason why the orcs and trolls are there, what treasures may still exist, if there are any traps or secret areas, etc.  Crawling goodness.

Möbius Resistor in the form of a Möbius Loop (Source: Wikimedia; License: Public Domain)

Troll and Flame has had a couple of posts discussing Geomorph Cube Dungeons, which reminded me of my favorite weird dungeon geometry: a Möbius Loop.

I believe this came from Dungeon magazine issue #26 (or thereabouts).  At some point in the adventure, the party entered a corridor that was a Möbius loop.  (I’m guessing the party was on another plane or somehow gravity was changed so the party would always have their feet on the loop.)

You could probably do a whole dungeon in the same way, but only  in one dimension. (Joining the top and bottom edges of the map or the left and right.)  Draw a map on two sides of the paper. Make a loop and twist it as you attach it together.  Make sure the corridors, walls, and doors match up on both sides of the paper where the edges meet when you join it together.

What other weird dungeon designs have you come across?

(By the way, I’m revising the stylesheet of the website, so bear with me.)

Hopefully it isn’t too late to look back at 2009.  At Inkwell Ideas, the specialty is to give others tools and ideas useful for RPGs.

Although December was a little slow (working on the largest Inkwell Ideas project, Hexographer, as well as real life issues) there were a few November posts centered on random charts to create location names that sound similar to locations in various cultures. (The link goes to a main page that links to pages with charts for Chinese, English/UK, and Native American Indian sounding names.)

2009 also brought on some other random charts: random potion descriptions and charts of effects of expired potions, for fun.  Further, one set of random charts was converted to Javascript code to create the Magic Item Shop Random Inventory Generator.

Although the major projects at Inkwell Ideas are Hexographer and the Coat of Arms Design Studio, another large task was the 2009 RPG Blog Readership Survey. Hopefully something similar will happen later in 2010, but with more collaboration with other blog writers. Using the RPG Bloggers list it can have questions tailored to more blog writers and receive a higher number of responses.

Because of Inkwell Ideas’ Hexographer product, there are often several articles on Worldbuilding topics.  Three of these were: Timelines (tips for creating a constructed world’s timeline),  10 Ways to Vary Your Game World’s Cultures and 10 More Ways to Vary Your Game World’s Cultures.

By far, three of the most popular entries were for map collections: 101 Fantasy City, Town and Village Maps; Two Sites with Hundreds of Real Historical City Maps (which included direct links to many of the best); and 25 Inn and Tavern Maps.

The Random Dungeon Generators Reviewed article was also very popular.

My favorite advice columns described how our groups often use experience point bonuses and listed the Top 5 Overlooked Rule Subsets of RPGs.

Linked below is a list of 12 torture devices.  After reading the descriptions, I’m speechless.  How many times do some or all or the PCs get captured?  After taking a look at the list a GM will have some good ideas to mess up captured PCs/NPCs.

Read the List

A list of free inn and tavern maps continues this semi-regular series that features interesting and useful RPG resources.  I would highly recommend printing a few of these out and keeping them in a GM’s notebook so you can pick one out when you need it.

• Wizard of the Coast’s “Map a Week” archive has a few: The Styx Oarsman, The Meeting House [also high-res version], The Bottle and Blade Speakeasy, and The Drunk Duck Inn.
• The Game Mechanics’ Sea Wolf Tavern.
• Fantasy Map Maker’s Slipshod Inn.
• Typical Calishite Tavern from Mikhail Avatar Graphics.
• Hex Map Tavern Interiors (Print them out full page landscape to fit miniatures.)
• One posted directly to the DragonsFoot forums.
• Also from DragonsFoot, but from their maps and floorplans resources: The Greymoor Inn, Old Rotten Man Pub, Mama Bechoes, Jopee’s Tavern, Clive’s Fish Market and The Tavern (click the link and scroll down a little.)
• Wrafton’s Inn from Keep of the Shadowfell and The Yawning Portal of Waterdeep (scroll 2/3 down) posted at Gleemax.
• Zed’s Ford, posted at the ProFantasy forums.
• Sleeping Seal Inn from Selkie’s Secret (Scroll down the list, near the bottom.
• The Flaming Flagon from a Wizard in Dallas (Look at the right sidebar.)
• Eight Horns Inn and the One-Eyed Goblin from The Kyngdoms.
• The Green Griffon Inn part of a free web enhancement from Malhovic Press.
• The Broken Staff Tavern from Maldin’s Greyhawk.
• The Happy Mermaid Inn from True North Cartography.

The Terracotta army dates back to 210 BC when the first Qin Emperor ruled.  There are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses in the army. The soldiers stand six feet to six feet five inches high, depending on their rank.

Their purpose was to aid the emperor to conquer a new empire in the afterlife.  The excavation site is impressive enough on its own merits.  But how much more fascinating can it be in a fantasy world?

Perhaps these soldiers are part of some prophecy and have taken a vow to be ready for when their country needs them most.  On the other hand, maybe they were supposed to be part of a great battle, but they were cursed allowing the other side to win.  Or perhaps there really is an afterlife where they will aid their emperor.

Additionally, there are many stories of statues coming to life to defend an area.  Perhaps seeing the Terracotta Army will aid you in creating a more modest encounter for your characters.

Remember there are several creatures that may turn a creature to stone: the medusa and the basilisk come to mind at first.  Perhaps they had a hand in creating something like the Terracotta Army in your fantasy world.

Sticking with the recent theme of castles and showing that they can vary in many ways, today’s inspirational place of the day is the Citadel of Karim Khan, located in present day Iran.

The structure features large circular towers with ornate designs in the stone.  Small windows separated by tiny arrow slits dot the top of the towers and each wall.

The entrance gate of the citadel features tile works depicting legendary tales.

Photo by Zereshk.

In order to compare how different castles can be, today’s inspirational place of the day will be Neuschwanstein Castle.  The most recent other inspirational place of the day was Blarney Castle.

While Blarney Castle is beautiful and noteworthy in its own way, Neuschwanstein is the prototypical fairytale castle.  In fact, Cinderella’s castle is said to be based on Neuschwanstein.

The castle has beautiful white walls, round towers with minarets, is built on a hilltop with amazing views of the countryside, a long winding road leading up to it.

The castle’s interiors are even more amazing with murals throughout, large windows, hot air central heat and flushing toilets.  Exquisite furnishings complete the look with chandeliers, ornate beds, etc.

Castles are a fundamental part of a fantasy world, but they can vary in many ways. When you need to describe a castle it helps to look at a few real castles for ideas. For example, the picture to the right is Blarney Castle.

This picture shows several differences from other castles such as the vegetation climbing up the outer wall, some damaged areas that have been repaired, some damage that hasn’t been repaired, a very square primary structure, a separate out-tower, distinctive battlements, and very small windows in the center of the castle walls.

Not only does the castle have distinctive features but the castle’s website has stories about the castle, it has pictures of unique internal castle features and pictures of the castle’s views and grounds.

(Picture by Guilhem D. using the Creative Commons Attribution license.)