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Post by Zulgyan on Jul 23, 2019 11:48:40 GMT -6
In a dungeon or "mega-dungeon" campaign, players come and go from the dungeon to some kind of "safe base" like a town, a castle or a city.
Which are the best published "player bases" (towns, castles, cities, etc.) specifically meant for this purpose?
I can think of the Keep in the Borderlands (though it's very small) and Haghill in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy (minimal descriptions). These two are tiny and maybe I'm looking for something with some more meat.
I'm not really a fan of Hommlet. City State of the Invisible Overlord is too huge (and dangerous) for my purposes. I've read some people like Verbosh.
Tell me about the ones you know! Published means some product, a part of a product, or some free download on the internet.
Thanks!
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Post by tetramorph on Jul 23, 2019 12:04:46 GMT -6
The village and general area associated with Judges Guild's The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor.
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Post by Melan on Jul 23, 2019 14:44:38 GMT -6
Fortress Badabaskor is where it is at! However... for something more general, nothing beats Huberic of Haghill! |
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Post by Zulgyan on Jul 23, 2019 15:05:20 GMT -6
Fortress Badabaskor is where it is at! However... for something more general, nothing beats Huberic of Haghill!The issue with Fortress Badabaskor, is that it's too fused with THAT particular dungeon, and less modular. Though a great inspiration for making my own. Huberic of Haghill is awesome and more generic/modular. I specially like the map, it's near perfect. If I use it, I would revise and expand the details of the NPCs and places a bit. |
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Post by asaki on Jul 23, 2019 16:01:20 GMT -6
It's not very meaty or modular, but BECMI has Threshold.
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Post by everyfan on Jul 23, 2019 18:58:31 GMT -6
I will add that, maybe it's not the best ever, but Arneson's sample village in ADVENTURES IN FANTASY is a brilliant example on how to set up a settlement, with advice applicable just as much to RPGs today as it was in the '70's.
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Post by grodog on Jul 29, 2019 15:21:00 GMT -6
Which are the best published "player bases" (towns, castles, cities, etc.) specifically meant for this purpose? Even if you don't like T1, you can lift easily a settlement out from these other sources: - A3/4's Suderham - L1's Restenford, L2's Garroten - N1's village of Orlane - S4's Gnome Vale - Cook/Marsh Expert set gnome settlement - there are at ten cities in WG8 Fate of Istus too And that's just TSR books (there are undoubtedly some that I'm forgetting!). Among non-TSR sources, you have a lot more options to pick from: This listing doesn't yet include Melan's fabulous work in his Beyond Fomalhaut zines, of which Gont is my favorite settlement thus far (from BF#2): emdt.bigcartel.com/Nor does it include EOTB's Groat's End from K&K @ knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=14914Allan. |
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Post by eotb on Jul 29, 2019 19:34:25 GMT -6
Thanks for mention, Allan! I'll have to get it into downloadable form  The intent is for it to be a free resource for OSRIC. I'd echo Gont and the rest of Melan's Formalhaut zines as well. I've incorporated Haven into a couple of campaigns, though play didn't go there much. Maybe the next time's the charm as it's in a new world I have outlined. Modron is one that didn't work out so great in play; just didn't click for whatever reason. Most other times I've used the JG villages maps to sketch out a quick small base, and put the dungeon on one side and a city on the other, with the village a political satellite of the city. |
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Post by aldarron on Aug 3, 2019 15:32:59 GMT -6
Zulgyan I think the answer to that question has to depend on the setting of your dungeon. I mean, are you looking for a port town or an inland village, for example. The village of the Temple of the Frog in either the 1980's or 2000's versions is great, for example, but only if you are in a swamp setting.
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Post by aldarron on Aug 20, 2019 10:29:04 GMT -6
Which are the best published "player bases" (towns, castles, cities, etc.) specifically meant for this purpose? I've been going through Allan's great list (not all of which I have access to), and thinking more about this part of the question, particularly about the expected home base idea in OD&D, and I think Zulgyan is right that it isn't that easy to find something that fits the stereotypical idea of a generic, landlocked D&D land home base "town"near the edges of civilization. As Gygax put it in Europa 6-8 "The central features of the map must be the major town and the dungeon entrance." By stereo typical town here, I do mean town - a place bigger than a farming hamlet but still with only a few hundred to a couple thousand souls at most, whereas most of the published material are either fairly large cities or military fortresses or "special" places or simply un-detailed maps. Looking through my reems of stuff though I did come across (so far) one basic town that can be adapted to fit the bill - in an old Role Aids module called "Deadly Power". The Town is Shallotsville, and it has just enough shop and what not detail to be fairly easily adapted if you drop the backstory. Another possibility is Birka in the old Midkemia Press Towns of the Outlands, though it is a northern trade center and may take more more work to refit to a more typical setting. Anybody have any more suggestions? |
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Post by delta on Aug 20, 2019 10:56:54 GMT -6
There's an online generator by watabou that does a pretty great job of making a custom map for something like a town or city. Overview only, you'd have to add low-level details like individual shops and personalities. Poke at the options and you'll find it's pretty customizable (i.e., choose on/off to river, coast, citadel, etc.). The current version gives custom names to different wards (although I prefer an early version that gave subject of the wards instead). |
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Post by grodog on Aug 20, 2019 14:07:48 GMT -6
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Post by Zulgyan on Aug 20, 2019 14:18:07 GMT -6
That generator is pretty amazing.
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Post by aldarron on Aug 22, 2019 8:13:05 GMT -6
Cool! Turn West into North and that map looks just like Schenectady  |
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Post by doublejig2 on Aug 22, 2019 9:44:31 GMT -6
So the software doesn't use a random key afterall but instead indexes a database of old railroad maps for best fit and then applies a rotate river algorithm. Intriguing!  |
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Post by grodog on Aug 22, 2019 21:58:35 GMT -6
Hmmm, well I can't speak to the developer's intentions or content sources for the maps, but I "warped" his baseline map pretty extensively during the creation process (using his toolset), moving around the roads, river, the placement of the edges of the buildings, etc. I think any connection to the real Schenectady is coincidental  Allan. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2019 21:59:53 GMT -6
L1's Restenford [...] "Barnacus: City in Peril" (Dragon Magazine #80) [...] Irillian (White Dwarf 42-47) I don't have a particular favorite, but I'd like to echo Allan's opinion on these: All of them deserve way more love than they have been getting. Both as "historical" RPG texts, as well as for their modern gaming value. Checking them out, never wrong. Having recently run a TW campaign, I'm a bit sad to report that the city itself, as per the Chaosium box, appears to be sort of a mixed bag: The whole setting is, first and foremost, a literary product, not really balanced out in terms of a realistic environment. - And as soon as the players looked beyond the TW stories, and innocently so, the problems for me as the DM started, because the RPG setting doesn't really provide the intel for the gritty, "grimdark" realism it suggests in its stories. - Before I return to TW, I will probably rework the city from top to bottom, until it provides the sort of flexibility I'm looking for.  |
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Post by scottenkainen on Aug 23, 2019 7:59:44 GMT -6
This topic is trickier than I first gave it credit for.
My first thought would be T1 The Village of Hommlet, but Hommlet makes sense only in the strict context of being near the Temple of Elemental Evil; it's not a very good generic starting town you can just use anywhere.
My second thought is the City of Greyhawk, but Greyhawk City is less of a player base and more of an adventure locale of its own.
My third thought would be Verbobonc, which I used very successfully...but only after a lot of modification. As-is, I didn't find there was enough *there* to make it a good player base. Same goes with Prymp and Hexpools.
I'll need to give it more thought...
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Post by grodog on Aug 23, 2019 20:07:49 GMT -6
My third thought would be Verbobonc, which I used very successfully...but only after a lot of modification. As-is, I didn't find there was enough *there* to make it a good player base. Same goes with Prymp and Hexpools. I thought of your South Province Campaign posts over the past week or so, Scott, since last weekend Henry started me out in a solo Greyhawk campaign set in the borderlands between Sunndi and Ahlissa =) Allan. |
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Post by scottenkainen on Aug 24, 2019 10:02:17 GMT -6
I thought of your South Province Campaign posts over the past week or so, Scott, since last weekend Henry started me out in a solo Greyhawk campaign set in the borderlands between Sunndi and Ahlissa =) Allan. Very nice! I hope you head into Ahlissa. There is so much material for political intrigue in a stable Lawful Evil society, so many classic adventure modules fit perfectly there, -- and Icespire! |
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Post by stonetoflesh on Nov 26, 2019 16:16:34 GMT -6
Greenwax (Isles of the Blest 0313) has been a pretty good base for my Wilderlands games. You have the ruins of Satur right next to the town. I've placed the Barrowmaze in the next hex, the Lizardfolk Temple (JG Treasure Map) up north on that peninsula (0802), the Caverns of Thracia on the lower Padizan Peninsula (3118), and then there are tons of islands, swamps, jungles, etc. to explore besides.
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Post by makofan on Nov 26, 2019 20:59:59 GMT -6
I found Verbosh solid and successful in one of my campaigns. Not too dangerous, lots of interesting shops, and some plot hooks
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2019 2:36:15 GMT -6
JG adventuring bases are all pretty great - but none really stood out to me in a particular way. Modron *read* cool, but at the same time, felt fairly bland when we played it. Damkina in the Elphand Lands was a pretty cool location, though, even if I never came to use it in a campaign. I think it was mapped out and described in one of the Pegasus Mags, but I don't remember which one...
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Post by makofan on Nov 27, 2019 8:14:05 GMT -6
Well, if anybody wants a flavor of how Verbosh City plays out as a base, they can check the Inactive folder in play-by-post games. There are ten years of Makofan's Verbosh game there
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Post by stonetoflesh on Nov 28, 2019 12:37:25 GMT -6
JG adventuring bases are all pretty great - but none really stood out to me in a particular way. Modron *read* cool, but at the same time, felt fairly bland when we played it. Damkina in the Elphand Lands was a pretty cool location, though, even if I never came to use it in a campaign. I think it was mapped out and described in one of the Pegasus Mags, but I don't remember which one... Damkina is definitely a cool location, it's written up in Pegasus #8. I set my most recent Wilderlands game in the Elphand Lands (wanted a break from Isles of the Blest), starting in the river-port town of Quinden (just south of Vast Lake). The players haven't visited Damkina yet, we'll see if their adventures bring them there. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2019 21:50:42 GMT -6
I really don't get to do that, any more, but if I was going to roll out a game, like, spontaneously, ever again, then I think the Elphand Lands would be the place I'd most likely use. - Both the old material, and the "new" one from the WL boxed set by Necromancer Games (which by itself is already 15 years old), are just plain-out great fun.
Thinking of it, while it's not particularly oldschool-compatible, the city of Valaki, in Ravenloft's Barovia, was also an exceptionally well-balanced "player base", especially with the material that came through the Kargatane and the Fraternity of Shadows. (And should thereby remain free!) - Now that setting is one of a specific kind, but with the connection to the classic I6, this can make for a pretty good game.
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The intent is for it to be a free resource for OSRIC.
