Let us herald in the third installment of the endeavor to revitalize the hobby by considering a statement by the well-known Bryce Lynch of Tenfootpole, the Hunter S. Thompson-like champion of the OSR orthodoxy, the most charitable, most artpunk friendly review blog imaginable, dedicated to usability, layout and short, evocative description.
One of the many terrible consequences of Artpunk D&D, and this is besides the influx of disgusting perverts, the unwelcome introduction of factional infighting based on political as opposed to gaming preference and the dilution of the meaning of the term ‘OSR’ to the point where it has become meaningless has been the near extinction of whole swathes of gaming from public perception. Everything is now adventures for levels 1-3, 1-8 if we are generous. Anything that requires genuine engagement with the game, which requires study, contemplation, long-term investment and experimentation instead of a neurotic outpouring of the deranged fancies of the mentally infirm is either dead, exiled or on the endangered species list.
Who gives a SHIT? you ask.
Well I do and so should you. Why? Is it because the game of oldschool D&D and the community and culture that grew around it originally, before it became such a disgusting display, is worth preserving? Yes. Is it out of sheer indignation, a righteous scorn at the mind-vomit plastered all over the online boutiques and thoughtlessly smeared with the label ‘OSR’ in letters of reeking excrement? Absolutely. But there is a greater reason.
How about, because it is fun? Perhaps it is far more rewarding to immerse yourself into a rich, multi-layered, absorbing game, refined through more then a decade of play, then to fiddle around with yet another rules lite for a session or two before casting it aside in favor of the latest thing? Perhaps we would like to have more then 2 hit points and trundle around in yet another level 1 dungeon for a change.
A while ago, I participated in an adventure called Dreamhouse of the Nether Prince by the inimitable Anthony Huso. I don’t have a review yet, but here is a pretty good one. For the last half year, I have been running and reading high level adventures. It is an absolute joy, an engaging challenge to player and GM alike, and no session is ever the same. High level adventuring existed for a short while during AD&D’s original run, with the ideal level range somewhere between 8-12, and some good adventures rising even above that. There was a short stretch at the tail end of second edition when the topic received a second renaissance under Bruce Cordell & Monte Cook. With the exception of Anthony Huso, there are virtually no published adventures in the OSR that try to tackle it with any degree of seriousness or success.
With this NAP, we are going to change that.
But Prince I don’t know how to play High level D&D!
That’s the challenge. You are going to have to learn on the fly. You are going to have to scramble for something, experiment, get a feel for what High level play actually looks like. Unlike a level 1 dungeon, you cannot ‘fake’ high level D&D. You will need to gain first- or secondhand experience of what that type of gaming actually looks like.
To all you Grognards: Let age empower you. Prove that you are more then fossils and relics, remnants of a bygone age, no longer worth remembering. Use all your experience.
To all you Newcomers and Zoomers: Let the raw strength of youth empower you. You have quick, agile minds, time and energy aplenty, the power of search engines and fresh eyes.
To all you Artpunkmen, who are not too cowardly, pathetic and morbidly obese to seethe on the sidelines this time: Prove that my words are empty. The last two contests saw only a single one of your kind elevated to the Anointed, a man, nay, a legend made manifest, who successfully wedded the power of Artpunk to the power of core D&D and became the stronger for it. You call yourselves the masters of design? Then Design. Personally I expect every last one of you to collapse from despair before you even put a single word to writing, and do everything in your power to avoid competition.
And to all you who call themselves TRVSR, who have walked the path of NAP before: Now is your time. Prove that our way is the leyline of history, and sweep all before you. With cunning, with daring, without mercy. GO.
As always, there are rules:
– You may use only systems and supplements from this list. Do not deviate from these. We had a great entry last competition, but it was for the wrong system so it was disqualified.
– Your challenge is an adventure for levels 7 or above. The spirit of the competition is high level D&D, you are encouraged to go the extra-mile and go for level 9 or higher. Whether you make this a hex-crawl, dungeon or something altogether different is up to you. The minimum size is 20 keyed entries, unless your adventure format is so different that this does not apply (good luck).
– Because of the greater challenge, previous year’s restrictions have been loosened. You can add up to 10 items & monsters of your own creation. That is a combined total. Will this aid, or hinder you? We shall see.
– Your adventure must be for actual play. No matter how good your ideas, you will be judged on your ability to turn those ideas into gameable content and integrate it into the extant framework of D&D.
– The format MUST be in PDF. It is not difficult to convert a worddoc to a PDF. It is vastly preferred that you use portrait and not landscape.
– Although it is in the spirit of the competition that you write a new adventure, I will generously allow people to submit existing work that has already been published, provided that it A) abides by the contest stipulations and B) is no older then 1 year. This shall include modifications of previously published works. This is a privilege, not a right, and may be revoked at any time for no reason then my whim.
– Submissions may be sent to princeofnothingblogs@yahoo.com. If a received submission is not confirmed within a week I have likely missed it or it got eaten by my spam folder. If this happens, leave a message in the comments and I will get back to you within a day or so.
– Submission deadline is November 30th.
– UPDATE RULE: For the love of Gygax include premade characters with your adventure. Ideally the ones you playtest with.
The top 8 (or more, depending on how many entries I receive) will be collected in a volume entitled No Artpunk Vol. 3, and published on itch.io for PWYW, with the proceeds going to the Stop Aids Now non-profit organization, which has since merged with another charity to become Het Aidsfonds, with similar goals. That reminds me, I should make Vol II free and donate the proceeds to the previous charity.
So what can I win this time Prince?
YOU WOULD HAVE SPOILS? THE DREGS AND SLIME OF THE EARTH? THE TRINKETS OF YAL-DABOATH? WHAT OF GLORY? WHAT OF ENLIGHTENMENT?
Ahem…
Professor Doctor Primarch D.M. Ritzlin, of the grand DMR Books, has graciously donated two of his exceptional volumes as prizes for the Victor and Runner up.
The Winner shall have THIS.
The Runner Up Shall Have THIS.
Am I not generous?
Oh…
One more thing.
You will not only be competing against your fellow men.
Over the course of my last holiday, I was bereft of books on my sojourn to canada.
I did have an empty notebook.
I have over a hundred keyed entries in my adventure Slyth Hive for AD&D 1e, which, barring playtesting, will end up somewhere between levels 12 & 15 at the lowest.
Can you defeat not just all of Artpunk, but the Creator of NAP himself?
We shall see.
So begins NO ARTPUNK III.
UPDATES:
1. The Winner shall get to CHOOSE from the DMR prizes that are offered unto him.
2. THERE ARE MORE (UNOFFICIAL) SPOILS. John Roberts, a benefactor, a philanthropist, an ardent FAN of NAP has vowed to donate his SIGNED COPY OF POUL ANDERSON’S THE BROKEN SWORD FROM 1954 to the Highest Ranking AD&D 1e/OSRIC module in the competition, vowing he will even pay for shipping to ‘any civilized country, plus continental europe.’
3. YET MORE SPOILS. The brilliant YEOLDEJEFFE, long time NAP supporter, author of the fine Swords & Sewercery series, Co-President of Buddyscott Entertainment Group and overall great guy, has offered up an ultra rare copy, only 1 of 25 to the Runner Up of NAP III!!!
4. GRIM NEWS FOR THE WEAK OF SPIRIT. The competition this year shall be fierce indeed. Not only are the listings filling up with former NAP champions but we have attracted the notice of THE SPREADSHEET EMPEROR, THE ARCHON ALEXANDER MACRIS HIMSELF.
The formidable champion Olle Skogren, author of the excellent Temple of Hypnos, has also sworn to re-enlist. Many other ACKsmen are sharpening their blades. Competition will be grand, the OSR shall be swamped by Odysseys, Great Ordeals, Archmage Duels, Titanomachies, Battles at the End of Time, Sojourns into the Lands of the Dead and the VERY PLANES. WHAT EDITION CAN HOLD ITS OWN IN THE STRATOSPHERES, WHERE NONE HAVE DARED TO TREAD?
5. There are two challenges already, from frequently asked questions. One is the generation of higher level characters. The other is layout related (lol!). These will be the topic of a post after my next commissioned review (or two).
DISCORDS SHALL BE SPLINTERED!
PLAYTESTS SHALL BE HELD!
LET ALL THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES OSRMEN AND LIE BEWARE!
HIGH LEVEL D&D SHALL LIVE AGAIN!
QuestionsComments:
Previously you had an upward limit on page count, including maps. Has that limit been lifted? Or was that an oversight?
Just wondering: I mean, YOU are the one that’s going to be reading/judging submissions (in addition to writing your own).
I’ve been contemplating what I’d do for NAP3 for a while now, and I think I hit upon a pretty good idea/concept a couple months back. Should even be in this “mid-high” level range you’ve chosen here (above 6th level is “high?” Ha!).
BUT I don’t know if you’ve heard about this little “EuroCon” thing going down in October. Some of us are needing to write (and play test) new adventures in advance. of that. Six months?
It’s going to be tight.
Fortunately, I’m not a person who feels compelled to make my adventures “pretty.” Functional works quite well, thank you very much. Still…tight.
Looking forward to it, however.
: )
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The level range. I’ve heard rumors of people already starting so 7 is a nice lower range for beginners, although I did mention I expect at least 9, which seems like a fair upper limit.
Six months for Cauldron seems like it should work, and you have a whole month afterward. Take a notebook and write in the train or on the plane. To share in your pain I will also be converting my notes too.
I think you will perform well Dr. Becker.
I am not sure about page count. I probably should set something. 50 for an upper limit maybe?
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To be clear, I assume that 50 excludes the pregens?
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Yes.
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To be fair, plenty of the Artpunk have fathers. They just hate them because their dads only paid their rent for a measly 3 years while they filmed their documentary, and so they weren’t even able to finish the post-modernist exploration of body modification among girls who won’t date them.
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Yeah no sleight against people genuinely without dads, thats a heartrending thing. The sleight is against spiritual fatherlessness only.
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I quite like this post, btw. It focuses very well on that which needs to be rooted out and burnt.
I shall now commence my traditional “ponder making something, decide I have too much to get caught up on, don’t do anything” cycle.
Also, as a Canadian, I wish to note that we do, in fact, have books. Sometimes even good ones. I shudder to think where you went that lacked a good used bookstore.
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Saskatoon had decent ones, I ended up ordering a copy of Arabian Nights on Amazon.
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@Prince:
…why in the name of God would you end up in Saskatoon?
I mean, I’m told the Netherlands is very flat, so you wouldn’t even get that novelty…
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Expect my submission by the end of the month
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Wow another one, and not a finished Bear Jam in sight. No surprise there.
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Several questions:
For starters, who is judging? If you’re competing it can’t be you…
If I win, can I get the Swords and Steel omnibus instead?
Additionally, why was Seven Voyages of Zylarthen removed from the retroclone listings?
Finally, you’re really deciding levels 7+ is high level D&D? I can’t reliably mow down Fog Giants at that point.
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– The identity of the Judge shall remain mysterious until the time of judgement.
– The prices are what they are. I don’t want to change them now as I would have to also honor similar requests. Perhaps I will honor the victors request and throw in a gift of my own.
– I decided against it because it has too many ideosyncracies. I have played it, I like it, I’m not sure if I want to clutter up the format with too many rules variants and systems. Any variant of OD&D should be close enough.
– I have done level 7+ as an ABSOLUTE LOWER LIMIT for newcomers. I already mentioned I expect anyone with experience to try their hand at level 9+ and much higher.
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I think it would be fair if the winners get their pick of either Renegade Swords or Die By the Sword, rather than having specific prizes for first and second place. But I agree, the SOS Omnibus shouldn’t be added to the prize pool.
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THE WINNER SHALL BE GRANTED THE RIGHT OF PRIMA NOCTIS!
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Prima Noctis? You’re getting married soon? I’ll have to enter then, I suppose.
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What am I? Californian? You shall not have my flame, however you shall have ETERNAL GLORY should you compete.
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Hint to any who enter:
INCLUDE FULLY MODIFIED SAVING THROWS IN MONSTER DESCRIPTIONS
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Yes. Any other #layout tips welcome. Also don’t forget premades, under pain of death.
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Gosh golly, what else…Size categories.? Including ranges for spells or spell like effects? Cumulative to-hit bonuses for monsters? Int+Wis if the monster’s psionically active? Surely settembrini or other members of the international brotherhood of people who actually use high level modules will descend like angels and give a few pointers…
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I will put up a keyed entry from Slyth Hive for discussion after my next submitted review.
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@Giant Goose, I applaud your insight! Wisdom is in them words!
The “International Brotherhood of-DMs-who-actually-run-these-things” aka IBDM-WHOAR will bust the kneecaps of any scab.
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/grabs graph paper and sharpens pencil
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Clarification:
“Because of the greater challenge, previous year’s restrictions have been loosened. You can add up to 10 items & monsters of your own creation. That is a combined total. Will this aid, or hinder you? We shall see.”
What of new spells?
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I should have said “clarification requested,” but you get the idea.
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I assume he meant “10 new things total”
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Probably…but once there are rules, I’m a stickler for them.
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New spells are added to the pool. So you are still at a maximum of 10 ‘building blocks’ or whatever you call it.
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Questions!
What was the time given for previous contests 6 months seems way longer than before but I could be wrong.
Who will review your entry and judge it’s worth vs what you deem the creme of the crop?
Can we ask Gabor or Bryce?
Will Trent’s entry be ready in time or will be be sated by a great review of something I can not bring to my players
The mouth waters with anger and scenes of screaming
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I would be so down for Bryce to be brought in as a judge, but I’m cool if it’s all Prince.
(I mean, they’ve both given me really nice reviews, so they must both have great taste.)
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[Duration]
The assignment is harder.
[Judge]
That is secret.
[Trent]
Ask Trent
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For the love of god don’t use Bryce as a judge. I’d like someone to actually read the entries
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Honestly, at the rate I’m going I’ll be lucky if *last year’s* entry is complete by November 30th…
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@Trent: Tease. Accept that perfect is the enemy of done, damn you. I want to see it.
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I know. I’ve literally got like 3 pages left to write, one more mini-dungeon (but alas not one I can realistically justify leaving out). Then the “first” draft will finally be done and I can turn my full attention to editing and polishing. A guy recently read the WIP draft & gave me a bunch of notes that were all good but would involve a ton more work (like major restructuring and rewriting of multiple sections) so I suspect I’m going to end up ignoring most of them. I’m honestly way over working on this thing and really want to be done with it and put it behind me. Not that I don’t think it’s good stuff, but it’s been in half-finished limbo for WAY too long.
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Cool, looking forward to seeing what comes out of this. If we can get a full complement of top-quality adventures for high level play, I’m happy that some effort has been made to filling a big, empty space in the product line. My only only gripe is the low-level you’ve set, but understand the reasoning behind it (I usually associate high level with at least 12th+).
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Your words are true but consider this a pilot. If it does well we can narrow down the formula.
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Prince, you scoundrel! I had plans to submit a refreshed mid-level dungeon adventure for NAPIII. Now I have to think everything over. Simply adjusting power levels feel cheap. I feel obliged to come up with something new, that better encompasses high-level play.
So, as a certain witcher once said… f*ck. 😉
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If it is any consolation, you can always publish this brilliant module as a standalone 😛
Yeah mea culpa, I’ve talked on and off about what I was going to do for NAP III but it took a while to formulate.
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I want so hard to participate on this one, I have all summer to soak in high level play. Why includig the sample characters, though? All level 7, 8 or 9 fighters will essentially be the same.
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Magic items make a huge difference.
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Oh Eldrad has the juices flowing and a high level trashy OSR Zine forming in his head!
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Well, you’ve just motivated me to finish the lower section of my kilodungeon and its final fortress level within 6 months, sweet. I hope you’re ready for an appendix N that says “Lovecraft’s The Mound and the book of Revelation”.
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The mound is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories, highly underrated.
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Playtesters are moving along, getting close to the beginning of The Underplain, which leads to the end dungeon. They’ve picked up a very eclectic set of gear on their way, though, is the odd-but-authentic loadout they’re going in with acceptable or do you want pregens to be more normal? Organically grown characters of 10+ have a lot of custom nicknacks and paddywacks.
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Go for authentic. Its all about having a baseline.
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Magic-User with a Belt of Giant Strength it is then.
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Know, oh Prince, that thy deadlines are most lenient, thy list of legal supplements most generous, and thy level range is an enormous relief, as I thought it would be for level 12+ at the lowest.
I haven’t played BECMI for a quarter of a century, and 2e for 20 years, but I am seriously inspired to throw my gauntlet into the ring.
I briefly pondered a Queen of Spades 2.0, but then I realised it’s a bit too strongly tied into Forgotten Realms metaphysics, and you discourage copyrighted settings.
So, as much as I’d love to produce something intricate and elaborate for 2e, I ‘d probably go with a bare minimum 20-roomer with BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia, my first love.
(Are there any adventures for beyond Expert that have been actually played by anyone, anywhere? Has any living soul actually reached level 36 and fulfilled all Immortal requirements by the rules? These questions have baffled me forever, and the answer is probably in the resoundingly negative.)
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“Are there any adventures for beyond Expert that have been actually played by anyone, anywhere? Has any living soul actually reached level 36 and fulfilled all Immortal requirements by the rules? These questions have baffled me forever, and the answer is probably in the resoundingly negative.”
I disagree, only because there were plenty of DMs back in the day who softballed, railroaded and fudged rolls in their players’ favor. A few years ago I had a coworker who was part of a 40-year 1e campaign, and his elven ranger was 37th level. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that one.
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BITD we played CM1-3 using the pregen characters from CM1 (I think, maybe we rolled up new 15th level characters – we definitely didn’t use characters that had been played up from 1st). They were mediocre. Prince’s recent review of CM1 encapsulates it pretty perfectly.
If we hadn’t been kids (we were no more than 11 years old at the time) and had the actual experience of multiple years of preliminary play instead of jumping into the deep end I’m sure we’d have found them even less satisfying. I owned a couple of the M modules (the ones by Moldvay and Jaquays, natch) but never played any of them. Never even bothered to look at the IM modules because I’m not convinced that game was actually playable and even if it was am very sure I wasn’t at all interested in doing so.
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Whoa! That autographed copy of The Broken Sword is a tempting prize! Maybe I’ll have to submit something (and actually make an effort to abide by the contest rules) after all!
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Yes! Yes! Yes! Iron sharpens iron! Do it for the good of 1E! Remember you can use as many wackjob Monsters and Myth and White Dwarf monsters as you want!
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Hey, Prince! I went through the list and just want to double-check if the LotFP banned? Like when I started to write my entry for No Artpunk 2 (which I never finished) I was using lotfp, it’s just the retroclone I’m the most familiar with. I kinda assumed it’s an eligible retroclone to use…
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Pretty tough to write an adventure of this type…heavily focused on making the game work with standard book monsters and magic items…using a game that has neither monsters nor magic items in its text.
B/X is closest in system to LotFP. I’d suggest using that rule set.
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Hey! Yeah Lotfp is not allowed. Not because I don’t like it, but it is too different from what I’m looking for with NAP. You can probably find a version of B/X to convert it too, it shouldn’t be THAT different.
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Thanks for the answer! Of course it’s not that different. I was just double-checking.
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Do randomly generated creatures of the lower planes from Appendix D count against the monster limit?
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That’s cunning. No they would not count, provided the creature remains within the boundaries of the random table.
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An interesting choice, since doing so allows an effectively unlimited number of new monsters, but I suppose they all have to originate on the lower planes.
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Uh…this is sort of true, with a few exceptions.
HD/AC/MV are all within a fairly narrow bandwith, as are special abilities and defences. I don’t know, it shouldn’t quite count the same as a unique creature.
How about this:
They count for 0.5, rounded down.
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50 pages!? Lets go
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And he didn’t say anything about font size. I can fit literally any document into fifty pages, so we’re good to go.
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There was also no mention of which font was acceptable. Encrypt the walls of text with wingdings.
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This reminds me of one of my college history professors. We had to turn in weekly assignments addressing a couple of discussion topics and had to limit ourselves to a single page, but after 1-2 rounds of that realized he still expected detailed and substantive responses to get a good grade, so it became an arms race of shrinking margins and font-sizes to try and squeeze, like, 1200 words onto that single sheet (and also to write as cogently with as few wasted words as possible, which – unsurprisingly – I always struggled with).
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There are more dignified ways of cultivating praise than entering your own competition. Licking genitals for example.
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Kent would know, he’s been licking his genitals in OSR comment sections for the better part of a decade and landed a cameo in a Melan book as a result! Good job Kent!
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Kent has also landed a cameo in my book lol.
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Gezellig.
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Long time reader and amateur of OSR. An yet, I lament my experience gap now more than ever. I have thoroughly enjoyed modules such as Deep Carbon Observatory and 6 Faces of Death, having been tipped off about them from this blog., but my troubles lie in the fact that I have never played any retro clone. I have extensive experience in 3.5, 5e, and a dabbling over other minor TTRPGs. While it may be entertaining for myself to enter something written in 5e, I would love to hear suggestions on what system may be easier to pickup ad hoc to begin penning down what has been ruminating in my head for some time.
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Hi,
Glad to hear you are enjoying the blog. For a 5e fan I might also recommend Beings From Beyond which I found to be an exemplary entry for 5e.
That being said, don’t do it in 5e, I’ll disqualify. I’m torn on the recommendation. On the one hand something like B/X (or Lablord) is easy to pick up but it doesn’t give much support for longer games, it doesn’t have much in the way of advice and the high levels are a bit wonky. Maybe try the Complete Swords & Wizardry?
Good luck pilot.
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I had a similar discussion with a friend sometime ago and… well there’s really no easy way to do this.
If you really want to understand some stuff you gotta put in the hard work at least once.
Read through the AD&D 1e PHB and DMG, then try to DM some old Adventures in the system… and then take it from there. Why AD&D 1e? Because if you are familiar with AD&D 1e all other OSR system will be no burden to you anymore 😉
If AD&D 1e is too much of a hurdle for a novice, listen to Prince and try Swords & Wizardry.
Just for the love of god don’t try to take some shortcut by trying one of the more rules light versions of the game or skipping the important part (which is playing the damn game as much as possible). That’ll only hurt you in the long run.
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Great initiative!
Indeed, in 2023 a good amount of solid work is available for levels 1-6, but more useful work for the higher levels is needed. Looking forward to it speaking as a consumer.
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Haha, I’m as excited as you are.
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I would love to contribute, but I’m afraid I am far too inexperienced to do a good job. I am beginning to seriously consider submitting a ChatGPT-written entry just to see how well it does, though. 😉
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I would caution you against it. ChatGPT does not understand the significance of the underlying structure so you would likely get something that is considerably worse then even an unexperienced human being could do.
There is always the level 7 baby pool!
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Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be very good, but at least it might be interesting. So far I have gotten some very interesting concepts out of it, but nothing really gameable. As an example, here are some of the rooms in the dungeon key:
Chamber of Shifting Shadows:
Upon entering this room, the adventurers find themselves in complete darkness. Light sources are extinguished, and infravision fails to function. The walls, floor, and ceiling are made of a shifting, shadowy substance that seems to absorb all light. The key to progress lies in dispelling the shadows or finding the hidden ethereal portal that leads to the next room. However, any attempt to create light triggers an ethereal trap, summoning a swarm of shadowy creatures that drain life force.
Monsters: Shadow Creatures
Treasure: A pair of ethereal goggles that allow the wearer to see through the shifting shadows.
Hall of the Time Eddies:
The room is filled with swirling vortexes of time energy, each leading to a different moment in history. These time eddies transport the adventurers to various periods within the Sanctum’s past, present, or future. Some eddies hold valuable information, while others present dangerous encounters with echoes of ancient guardians or glimpses of possible future challenges. The key to progress is deciphering the pattern of the time eddies and navigating to the correct exit point.
Monsters: Time Echoes, Temporal Guardians
Treasure: A chronomancer’s journal containing lore and hints about the dungeon’s shifting nature.
Gallery of Mirrored Reflections:
This room is lined with ornate mirrors, each reflecting a different image or event. Some mirrors reveal truths about future obstacles, while others are illusory and lead to dangerous traps or dead ends. The adventurers must carefully examine and analyze each mirror, searching for the one that reflects the path to the next chamber. Touching the incorrect mirror triggers a trap, creating a mirror image doppelgänger that attacks the party.
Monsters: Mirror Image Doppelgängers
Treasure: A mirror of true reflection, which reveals hidden secrets and illusions.
Vault of Gravity’s Grasp:
Upon entering this room, the adventurers find themselves floating in mid-air, as gravity shifts unpredictably. The room contains platforms, walls, and ceilings, all of which can become floors or barriers depending on the changing gravitational forces. The adventurers must cleverly utilize levitation, flying spells, or magic items to navigate the chamber and reach the exit. However, the room is also protected by gravitational anomalies that cause damage upon contact, making precision and quick thinking vital.
Monsters: Gravitational Anomalies
Treasure: Boots of Gravity Control, which grant the ability to manipulate personal gravity.
Maze of Infinite Paths:
This room appears to be a sprawling maze with countless corridors, all identical in appearance. The adventurers must navigate through the maze, encountering illusions, dead ends, and hidden traps along the way. There is no definitive map, as the maze continually reshapes itself, making traditional mapping ineffective. However, casting spells like teleportation or creating interdimensional portals can aid in bypassing sections of the maze or revealing shortcuts.
Monsters: Minotaur Guardian
Treasure: A sentient maze map that can mentally guide the party through the labyrinth.
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Its not bad as a prompt for ideas but you have to do the work of converting the ideas into something gameable. As we’ve seen time and time again, thats where most people make mistakes.
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I have a question about the contest rules. In my adventure, there will be rival NPC parties. I’m wondering to what degree these NPCs must adhere to canonical character rules. Here are a few possibilities I considered:
Option #1: This is the most permissive option. NPCs can have unique abilities that don’t correspond to any spells in the book. A good example of this would be your rival group in Palace of Unquiet Repose.
Option #2: NPCs may possess abilities that have the effects of spells, but they don’t necessarily have to use them the same way. For instance, an NPC who could cast magic missile every round, or an NPC who could cast more than one spell at a time.
Option #3: NPCs have spells, but the options and number of slots per level don’t necessarily correspond to any class, nor are they necessarily bound by typical class restrictions. For instance, a burly magic-user wearing plate and armed with a two-handed sword, with five lightning bolts memorized and nothing else. Or an NPC who can cast spells from both the magic-user and the cleric lists.
Option #4: This is the least permissive option. NPC adventurers must belong to specific classes and adhere to the same rules as any PC.
Are any of these options other than #4 permitted under contest rules?
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Follow-up: And if any option other than #4 was considered “non-book,” could each such unique NPC be counted towards the unique content limit of ten elements i.e. like a new monster?
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An excellent question:
– I consider minor modifications (a magic user wielding a scimitar, a fighter that can throw two daggers at the same time) to be within the purview of the GM if done tastefully and in moderation.
– Major modification (unique abilities etc.) should count as a monster choice.
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Totally reasonable. I can definitely work with that.
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How do the rules take minor modifications to existing creatures? I’d like to reskin existing monsters at times to add variety without truly creating a new monster (which I’ll be doing elsewhere), but is a 8-HD Chaotic cave moray that is a plant a “new” thing here, or does the fact that it still uses the rules for cave morays make it still essentially a cave moray? Similarly, there’s things like “boss” trolls or whatever that have an extra HD or two but are still trolls.
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Those are both fine.
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I’ve just uploaded my entry. Hopefully you’ve received it.
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I certainly did! See you in the octagon!
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