War of the Roses Infantry Batch 2

 Second batch of Billmen and Archers

War of the Roses Infantry Batch 1

 I got a box of 40 War of the Roses era English infantry back in April.   I assembled them all this past week and on Saturday I painted the first 6 Billmen at the Adventurer's Academy, and then painted the first 6 archers this morning.

Wooden Watch Tower

 Assembled and painted a wooden watch tower  I had gotten back in April

Carolingian Swordsmen, group 2

 Here are the other 4, the second half of the Carolingian Swordsmen I got a few months back.   I must have been thinking of these 4 when I remembered not liking the casts.   These are the 4 without mail shirts and they look generally worse all around.   In fact, 2 showed up with their swords broken off and I had to improvise something.   The one I attached a dragon-standard (from a Late Roman set I'd gotten years ago).  They still used these in Carolingian times I seem to remember).   The other one I found a war-hammer on a plastic sprue from another set (I might have just been a piece of sprue that kinda looked like a war-hammer, but it worked).  

After I took these pictures, I noticed up close how bad the paint job actually was.   I had added a sepia wash, but it caused a lot of areas to run, and left big dark spots and muddied things up too much.  So, I did another touch-up.   I didn't want to go crazy, since the figures will probably end up being used for bandits and henchmen more than likely.

Carolingian Swordsmen

 It's been a while.   Finally, since I got the basement back in order in advance of last night's in-person game.  I got some painting done last night.   Here' are 4 Carolingian (Age of Charlemagne) swordsmen.  I didn't really like the sculpts when I got them, but now that they're painted, I'm much happier with them.

Alternative Saving Throws for Thranconia

BECAUSE I DON’T WANT TO LOOK UP SAVING THROWS, AND THE CATEGORIES ARE STUPID

I MEAN, HONESTLY, WHY A DIFFERENT SAVE FOR SPELL AND WAND?

 

When a Saving Throw is called for:

1)      Roll 1d20 and get a 17+

2)      Add Level or Full Hit Die (i.e., monsters and non-classed npc’s with less than 1d8,  +0) to a maximum of +11

3)      Clerics:   +2 to all saves

4)      Fighters:  +2 vs. breath weapons, petrification, energy drain, weapon effects, paralysis

5)      Magic-Users:  +2 vs spells, wands/staffs/rods. magic items, magical traps

6)      Thieves:  +2 vs. poison, magical traps, mechanical traps, falling

7)      Lackeys:  +2 vs. poison and disease

8)      Undead and Demons:  +2 on all saves except vs. Clerical Magic

9)      Elementals and other extra-planar creatures:  +2 on all saves except vs. Magic-User Magic.

10)   All other saving throw bonuses in species or monster descriptions still apply .

My Dungeon Making Process

 

I’ve been making a lot of dungeons lately, because I really like to make old school dungeons, and the new tools make them easier to make and neato to run online.

Here’s the process I’ve been using;

Step 1:  I make a map of 1 level, usually 20-30 rooms, sometimes more.  I label stairs, corridors, and secret rooms, plus any special purpose rooms all in the key.  I have decided to stop putting marks for Secret Doors on the map, because they are visible, I just have rooms with no doors and explain the secret door in the room key.

Step 2:  after picking a dungeon level, I generate some random monsters using either the old D&D Monster/Treasure Assortments or the dungeon monster encounter tables I’ve made (expanding the ones in the Blueholme book considerably).  I like to have about 2/3 as many monsters as rooms.   Old Gary would have made it about 1/3, but while empty rooms are critical to have players not expect a monster in every single room.  However, 2/3 empty rooms gets to be snoresville.    If I had a definite theme in mind ahead of time, I'd likely pick the monsters from the lists instead.

Step 3:  I look at the monsters and try to deduce a theme, a story behind them being there.   For example, in the first level of Quellintan, I saw that there were quite a few Dwarves and Hobgoblins.  Most everything else were bugs and undead.   I came up with the Curse that kept these two groups in the dungeon.   I then adjusted the monster list, changing any orcs into hobgoblins and elves into dwarves, making the berserkers mercenaries of the dwarves.

Step 5:  I put the monsters on cards.  I found it’s better to have all the monster stats together rather than type them in as I go with the room keys. 

The Cards look like this:  (QU-3 stands for Quellintan, Upper, Card 3)

Encounter Card:    QU-3   7 Hobgoblins   AC 6, HD 1, Move 30, Thaco-19, LE DEX-11 , MOR- 17 Hand axe, SR-2, 1d6 damage   Hit Points:   3,   7,  7,  5   6,  2,  6

 

Step 6:  Then I place the monsters on the map.  Each room in the key I’ll now write a short description of its purpose and noteworthy features, then the Code (e.g. QU-3) for the monster card that’s in the room.  I try to keep factions (like dwarves or hobgoblins together) and try to come up with rationales for things being where they are.  If there’s monster that seems like a boss of a faction, I’ll make note of that and place him accordingly.

Step 7:  I then go through the key and scatter Chests, Sacks and Garbage in each room as befits its monster or position.   I tend to roll for treasure randomly, either using the old D&D monster/treasure assortments, or using my Random Dungeon Maker.  I must admit that regularizing “Dungeon Garbage” has been quite interesting.  I’ve always had the occasional pile of junk lying around, but it’s better when you know it’s going to be there and it’s sometimes good, but often bad.