Here is How I handle Skills Now

For most of my time as a Dungeon Master calling for Skill rolls was my default position, it wasn't until the last few years that I began to take the good advice in many RPGs and apply it to my Dungeons and Dragons and OSR campaigns.

It started simple enough when a Rogue asked about information related to a nation and rolled a 2 on their History check. We all groaned and laughed but then the player said, "I live here and am trained in History shouldn't my character just know that?"

I'm going to assume that this argument very well could have begun the moment a player failed a check the DM asked them to make going all the way back to Braunstein. We've all been there, right? Excitement for a scene and then a bad roll blunts momentum. Sure, you can blame the rules or you can take a good hard look at how you run your game.

The Rogue's player had a point and honestly, there was no reason for them not to know that information, in fact, looking back how often did I muddy the waters on something I wanted or needed the players to know because of a failed die roll? How much extra work did I create for myself and the players? Or worse, how often did I dampen a player's excitement in my game?

The next time the Rogue asked a question related to their History Proficiency I said, "there is no need to roll because your training means you know X". The player was happier and the game didn't hit a speed bump, in fact, I made it became my default assumption if Proficient and things were going really well.

But if something's going really well that means I have to analyze it right? I can't just let it be. If I was willing to eschew failure and default to success and other modern RPGs were dealing with quality of success could I emulate that as well?

The next next time the Rogue asked a question related to their History Proficiency my answer was "You know X but if you want to know Y roll for it".

Hexenburg: A Shadowdark Megadungeon

The Hexagon has become Hexenburg and I've run the first session. I built the Ground Floor of the dungeon using Donjon.gin.sh and I learned that the Player version of a level INCLUDES Secret Rooms so I've definitely learned a lesson there. The players made it about a quarter of the way through the Ground Floor before discovering a short cut to a sub-level (the Enchantment School Lab four levels below) but were scared off because they encountered a Hook Horror and an Umber Hulk fighting each other viciously.

Session 2 will pick up with them returning to the Ground Floor.

The expedition is being organized and financed by Zebulon of Tane, who worked at the Library of Davion on the border of Ving and Borgia, he is looking for any and all books the delvers find and 30% of any treasure. Several member of the group are suspicious of him.

I had seven players and I think most will return for the next session in January.

The Hexagon for Shadowdark: Why Am I Building a Megadungeon? I'm Glad You Asked!

I blame Undermountain for my love of megadungeons.

The other day I posted about the Hexagon, a megadungeon I'm designing for an open table using Shadowdark. It dawned on me I could chronicle its development to showcase what I was thinking and why.

There are plenty of published adventures that I find myself wanting to run but then I start to read them and my eyes cross and I get bored or distracted and I check out. I want to be clear that I'm not throwing shade at anyone who has published an adventure it's just that the reading and rereading part doesn't work for me. My brain checks out if an adventure is more than about fifteen pages.

My brain likes very succinct adventures I can process easily, broad thumbnail sketch stuff not room by room detail. Robert Schwalb is great at writing these for Shadow of the Demon Lord and Shadow of the Weird Wizard. I can grab one of his adventures and be ready with ten minutes of prep if I have too. Joseph R. Lewis' Dungeon Age line falls into this category too. I've run a ton of their adventures over the last 6 years and heartily recommend them. 

I've been trying to push myself creatively too. I'm intimidated by designing an adventure for publication so I'm facing that anxiety head on. I look back at the early years of the blog and I don't know that I recognize that person from a design and storytelling perspective. I want to get back there, at the very least.

As a local game store owner I have a ton of customers that want to play DnD, but not many that want to run it and I only have so many hours in the day for in-store play. I'm hoping that developing Hexagon for open table play will allow me to serve more of those customers and maybe teach some of them how to GM. If they have played the Hexagon and enjoyed it I can hand them a fully formed dungeon to use and let them know I can give them help because we are working with a common module.

My ultimate goal is a successful in-store campaign and a product I can distribute other to play.

The Hexagon for Shadowdark: Pyreskulls

 

Pyreskull for Shadowdark

"What is a Pyreskull? Well a Flameskull is an undead guardian created by a necromancer from the skull of a dead wizard. It is some evil shit, but here is the thing...sometimes powerful magic, really nasty evil necromantic stuff can transform a wizard at the moment of its death into hat type of undead without the ritual. Thankfully, we don't see that too often unless you like dungeons...then...well, your odds of encountering one improve dramatically. How can you tell a Pyreskull from a Flameskull? I'm still working on that...but you should either blow one up or run when you see either of them."

-- Elgin Prawn, the Third Greatest Bard in the World

AC 14, HP 18, ATK 2 spit fire +4 (1d10), MV near (fly), S -1, D +2,

C +2, I +4, W +1, Ch +0, AL N, LV 6 

Animate Dead (INT Spell). DC 13.

Dispel Magic (INT Spell). DC 13.

Hold Portal (INT Spell). DC 11.

Fearless. Immune to morale checks.

Fire Bad. They are as bright as a torch in the Shadowdark.

Fireball (INT Spell). DC 13.

Mirror Image (INT Spell). DC 12.

Speak With Dead (INT Spell). DC 13.

Hexagon for Shadowdark: So I'm building a Megadungeon...

Even though this blog is well over a decade old and I've been a Game Master for more than thirty years the idea of creating a module to publish has always intimidated me. So I've decided to face that head on and I have begun work on a megadungeon featuring the Hexagon, a nearly forgotten school of the arcane arts on the outskirts of a trading post named Pwent. When it was in operation it was known as Hexenruul and educated wizards, both famous and infamous, for over seven-hundred years. 

These days the Hexagon is a gigantic six-sided monolith in the Shieldlands between Ockland and Hekatun. The Library in Brinhold is in need of numerous repairs and it doesn't have the coin to pay for them, but a young librarian named Hollister Wimble has managed to get his superiors to sponsor an expedition to the Hexagon to confirm it is the location of fabled Hexenruul. To make sure he doesn't die, they have assigned a veteran librarian, Opal Wintercrest, and the mercenary Topher Hume to accompany him.

Everyone but Hollister are surprised that his theory was right and now his team are recruiting adventurers to head into the Hexagon and (hopefully) exit with fortune and maybe even fame.

And that is where the players come in.

I'm designing it for Shadowdark.

I've finished the first level and about half-way done with the second level.

Starbarian: The Scarlet Citadel for Dragonbane

Starbarian is the working title of a Dragonbane setting inspired by Thundarr the Barbarian, Jack Kirby's work on DC Comics' Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, and Palladium Book's Rifts.

The Scarlet Citadel appeared via Wyrmhole, unpredictable gateways between worlds, nearly a century ago. Its name comes from the way the stone glows red under moonlight. It is situated in the area known as the Kentucky Bend, along the Mississippi River. The leader of the Citadel holds the title of Scarlet Sorcerer.

The Citadel became a haven for mages and Wyrmbound, those who had become stranded here via Wyrmhole, 60 years ago, when the Psalm of Earth, human supremacists out of what used to be Nashville, began a pogrom of genocide as it marched north and west.

The Psalm's defeat at the hands of the Citadel gave hope to other settlements in the area and established it as a force to be reckoned with within the region. It also caused the Psalm to abandon its northern conquest.

The current Scarlet Sorcerer is Fibbio Maladroit, an ogre from Livid, formerly known as Joplin, MO, who has mastered Mentalism and Elementalism and is proficient in Animism. Maladroit is seeking the Siege Perilous in the hopes of freeing Merlyn from Morgan Le Fay's captivity. The ogre is a longtime admirer of the legendary mage and hopes to recreate Camelot and the Knights of the Round Table here.

The citadel is home to about 1200 sentient beings from all over the Polyverse and currently has about sixty students studying under the Scarlet Sorcerer. Due to its study of magic and its diverse population, the Citadel is mostly self-sufficient and rarely trades with or maintains diplomatic relations with other settlements in the area, such as Covenant, Skunkape, or Lexing Towne. The current Scarlet Sorcerer, though originally from Livid, was exiled for unlawful magical research, so there is zero contact between the two settlements. Many citizens believe the Psalm has spies within the Citadel and relations with the Swarmmm, to the north, and Coal, to the east, are chilly at best. The Citadel's only official ally is the Free-City of Syzygy, which is located in what used to be Indianapolis. Syzygy has a full-time ambassador stationed at the Citadel named Jonen Qross, who is an accomplished knight and animist. It is well known that Qross has a keen interest in stories of Camelot, and rumors link him romantically to the Scarlet Sorcerer. Over the last decade, the Citadel's greatest threat has come from the Night's Templar, a murderous horde based in what used to be Jefferson City, led by the demon Baphomet.

Adventure Hook 1: A bard named Tiger Lily, a karkion from Western Gate in what used to be Topeka, KS, has a map for a dungeon, the ruins of A.R.E.S., about a two-day ride south from the Citadel.

Adventure Hook 2: Ezekiel Parliament, an ogre from Livid, claims to have proof that the Scarlet Sorcerer is innocent of the charges that exiled him from his home. Ezekiel claims to represent an insurgency within Livid that wants to topple its current ruler, Maladroit's Aunt Phinika Femur. The players need to escort Parliament from Livid to the Citadel while staying ahead of the Night's Templar, who were hired by Femur.

Night's Templar Harrier 

Mov.: 10          Damage Bonus: AGI: +D4          HP: 15

Typical Armor: Micromesh* 4

Skills: Awareness 12, Bushcraft 11, Evade 9

Typical Weapons: Laser Sword** (skill level 13, damage 2d6)

Bolt Rifle*** (skill level 13, damage 2d8 + 1d4)

*Treated as Chainmail

**Treated as Broadsword

***Treated as Heavy Crossbow

State of the Planes November 2025

Although I aimed for 31 posts last month, I actually finished 25, which is much better than any other month this year. At the beginning of the month, I was creating new material, but the last posts were reposts.

I'm currently playing DnD 2024 as a Thief Rogue in the Vecna campaign from a year or two ago. We are at 9th level. We've lost a couple of people, and schedules are becoming more challenging, so we'll see what we can achieve. 

I ran a Deadlands by Gaslight 3-paeter and demos of Pathfinder for Savage Worlds and Dragonbane in the last six weeks, and those went pretty well.

I have been running a Swords and Wizardry game for my DnD Campers (we've been playing together for over a year), and we did a special one-shot for Halloween where they made characters based on their costumes, and it was an absolute blast. It is amazing to watch these kids hang out together and build a community.

I've spent the last few months testing out Shadowdark, Savage Worlds, and Dragonbane, and I think Dragonbane is my preferred game going forward. I need a break from the d20 system, and while I love SW, Dragonbane is easier to teach IMO.

I'm working on a setting for it that is a total rip-off of Thundarr the Barbarian and Kamandi. 

I'll use the Bestiary's Ogres and the various Anthropomorphic races...maybe Dwarves too.