One Page Dungeon Contest 2020

I submitted to the One Page Dungeon Contest this year. This was my first entry since 2013 with The Iron Cloud. Like the Iron Cloud, this one is also intended to be used in a "Space Mutant DnD" milieu. In other words there are wizards and there are also robots. 

Though they won't realize it at first, there are three different clocks that the PCs are working against in this adventure. 

The first is the deadly lazer magiks of two dueling wizards who are trapped in a some type of slowed time distortion. There is a tracker for noting how long the lazer magiks have before they meet their intended targets. The tracker  from the one page dungeon is shown below, with five squares marked out for each wizard to indicate that 2 and a half days have passed since the wizards were embroiled in their freaky duel. The starting point for this tracker is not stated in the adventure but since refugees have been appearing "a few days ago" I would start with 2 to 6 days marked off of this tracker. MBV represents the Magi Bon Vai and ATI represents Anthropath The Inhumanist. 

Lethal Lazer Magik Tracker

Another clock or timed element is the impending arrival of squid men dignitaries from the mist worlds.  I leave it entirely up the the Space Mutant DM to determine when this occurs and what the squid men dignitaries look and act like and what they are capable of. I imagine them as something similar in appearance to the aliens in the film Arrival, but they could be anything from cthuloid horrors to foppish dandies in squid form. 

The final clock the PCs may be working against is likely a result of the first encounter. Anyone who gets near the slime will find a bubble of slime break off from the mass of slime and follow them draining their strength until they die at which point the slime assumes their form becoming a slime doppelganger. 

What I enjoy about One Page Dungeons is the opportunity for text and image to combine and interact in ways that are not found in typical published adventures where the standard is map + key text with maybe some illustrations. There are things I would do differently with this one if I did it over but it was fun. 

Here is the pdf:

The Slime of Magi Bon Vai OPDC 2020 - pdf

Sleestak Mafia Capital City

Just to make sure I don't get too good of a reputation, here's this:

SLEESPORT
The Big City. A den of villainy. A hive of magical research. Inequality. Larceny. Gambling. Robo-sorcery. 

Obvious facts:
Kobold ghetto
Huge casinos, Sleestak managers, human and kobold workers
Sleestak overseers, with robot servants 
Visiting dwarf merchants, buttoned down, loathing the whole place
Visiting dwarf merchants, cutting loose

Rumors:  (roll D30.  Most of these are true, but that's up to the DM)
1There is a robot underground movement, robots who have shed there Sleesy schackles and escaped and now plot against their former masters
2 There are pylons in the desert, remnants of ancient Sleestak techno-magic 
3 The Sleestaks have secret research facilities in the desert.
4 There is a pylon hidden in Sleesport
5 The Sleestaks can see into the future
6 There is going to be a massive shipment out of the Sleestak treasury soon
7 There are strange lights in the Desert at night
8 The visions you see while on Kobold psychedelics are true
9 the Sleestak treasury is guarded by a pair of giant robots and a squad of some of the toughest members of the Sleestak Mafia
10 the Sleestak Mafia is hiring outsiders for a secret mission (capture escaped robot wizard who can cast Detect Sleestaks at will)
11 The gladiator pits are a good way to make some quick dough (this rumor will come from a kobold, the gladiator pits are the only gambling facility the kobolds are allowed to control)
12 weird strangers are in town (giant intelligent cats, plant people riding rhinos, blue people, a flying squid, etc) are they here on business with the Sleestaks?
13 there's a big reward for a human princess last seen in one of the opium dens
14 the latest fashion craze is growing an eyeball on your chest by swallowing a pill. 
15 giant monsters attack Sleesport every 100 years. The last attack was about 100 years ago.
16 Sleestaks all share the same memories
17 the latest fashion craze is dressing like a dwarf (heavy blue and grey wool) and wearing stilts
18 a human wizard has figured out how to crack the anti magic shell around all of the Sleestak casinos
19 no one is ever seen coming or going out of the Romulon warrior temple
20 a secret treaty between the Sleestaks and the Romulons just went south
21 the latest fashion craze is wearing a tiny robot on your shoulder
22 the latest fashion craze is already passé
23 the latest fashion craze is pretending to be your future self who has traveled back in time to the present
24 some of the dwarf merchant houses of Foulcrest hire bandits to steal their own trade shipments because they have a great insurance policy 
25 the flying ships seen landing in and leaving the Sleestak imperial citadel are diplomats from other worlds
26 the Sleestak Mafia's secret technology comes from a place called Illinois
27 purple camels are highly intelligent, they only pretend to be dumb animals
28 somebody in the caravanserai is hiring thieves to break into the Sleestak imperial citadel
29 there is a beast in the sewers giving the kobolds all kinds of grief, killing and maiming, they need help
30 the guy who runs the giraffe stables is selling a map to treasure in the desert.

Sleestak Mafia Amulet
works like a mystical cellphone.

Sleestak Mafia Tommygun
Once per day, can shoot a ray that turns the target into a robot. It's possible but difficult to save or dodge.  Any character hit, in addition to being a robot, will be under the control of the Shooter.  Over the course of days, weeks or months it's possible for some to resist the Sleestak's control, but they're still robots.  This is where the robot underground comes from.

Otherwise the tommygun shoots lazers that don't have to go in a straight line and do as much damage as a pole arm.   

Mind Mage and Space Wizard

Here's two Space Mutant D&D Character classes:

Mind Mage:
XP and Saves as Cleric
HD: D4
Prime Req: INT, WIS, and CHA
Restrictions: none

Special Abilities:
Powers per Telecanter. Skip step one at first level. Assume the character has the gift. roll step one every time the character gains a level. or +1 rank/lvl to an existing power or roll new power randomly and new power starts at rank 1.

Roll D12 or choose for one or more Psionic Traits:
1 third eye
2 pale blue skin
3 really big head
4 no hair at all even eyebrows
5 no iris - eyes are all white
6 finger and toenails look like microchips
7 blood is bright purple
8 weird stone flies around head at all times. If it is taken away the psionic becomes magnetic and will eventually die.
9 skinless cranium. transparent bones.
10 casts no shadow
11 people cant help but stare at character when present, but no one remembers what he/she looks like
12 ears like Yoda

Space Wizard:
as M-U except as noted.
Restrictions: none
Special abilities:
Must commune with Space Gods every night in order to get powers. Whether or not a Space Wizard gets a full nights sleep does not effect their ability to cast spells. powers are granted like clerics. Spell books don't have spells in them, rather their full of maps of constellations, the names of long dead gods from distant stars, rocket fuel recipes, things like that.

Space wizard wands look like this:

Space Wizards don't make scrolls, instead they can store spells in their wands.  By performing a ritual that's one day long per level of the spell and putting 100 gp worth of powdered meteorites, crystals, moon fungus, etc. any spell the Space Wizard can put any spell they know into their wand.  A Space Wizard can use another Space Wizard's wand.  A non-space wizard can try, but there's a 2 in 6 chance that something really bad happens.

A flying dungeon for 1PD 2013

My entry in the one page dungeon contest 2013 was inspired by Archigram's Instant City.  

Their idea was that this airship descends on a hum drum little town and they have a party, and then the airship takes off, leaving behind a taste for miniskirts and high technology.

If you're ever like, "I need to come up with a Space Mutant D&D adventure and I'm looking for inspiration  but I don't have time to watch a whole episode of Thundarr the Barbarian" then spend 5 minutes at the Archigram Archive.  Guaranteed.

Any way...

Here's IRON CLOUD.

My goal was to carefully plan an adventure that has all of the glorious stupidity and potential for hijinks that something that I pull out of my butt while the players are rolling characters would.

Vault of the Romulons

Not too long ago I bought this:

Mine looks just like this, but more beat up.  It's not written all over like a lot of these old modules are though.  I've never been big on published adventures at all, but lately I''ve been wanting to try them out more, the classics like this one as well as newer ones.  It is great to have more Gygaxian prose on my shelf, and reading through it I REALLY want to use it.  So, I'm thinking of using it in the Space Mutant DnD campaign.

The thing is, I don't like the Drow at all.  But I've come up with a great solution:

In Space Mutant DnD the elves seem to be all gone, but they used to be major players a long time ago and really they were a space faring race that crash-landed on the planet and they looked like this:

They called themselves the "Volk."

The Volk, if the players ever find any maybe by reviving them from a cryonic chamber or something, will use Eladrin stats but have "nerve pinch" as an encounter power and a chance to have some psi powers instead of their teleport power.

Anyway, in this situation who are the Drow? that is who are the Anti-Elves?

The "Romulons" of course!

I'm thinking of calling the city in Vault of the Drow Romulopolis instead of Erelhei-Cinlu.  maybe the Romulons call it one but everybody else calls it another.  Or maybe Romulopolis was built on the bones of Erelhei-Cinlu... There will be much amok there for the players to run in, I shall use Vornheim.  On the way there there's a good chance they'll run into some of Peddlers of the Deep Dark. (I'll have to add tribbles to one of those tables of goods they carry)  I bet the Romulons and the Sleestaks have all kinds of high-stakes backstabby trade shenanagans going on between them too.

I can't find in the module right now exactly what the drow's spider silk cloaks do, maybe that's in one of the earlier modules?  But I would make each cloak have woven into it a "cloaking device"  which makes it so that only other people with a Romu-cloak can see you.

Ahhhhh! and the big canyon where the Kuo-toa are supposed to be is gonna be called "The Neutral Zone"

Ok, I better stop now.

Maybe if we can fund Broodmother Sky Fortress then I can have the players go back in time and run around with kaiju inspired giants that they will already know are being used by the Romulons (because they're from the future), but then the Romulons will send a Robo-Romulon back in time after them....

Sleestak Reproduction and the Grand Adventure Campaign

We ran our first game of Space Mutant DnD.  There was one more player, so in addition to the characters I listed in the last post, there was a Chaotic Good Sleestak Cleric.  Because I made Slestaks have free hirelings the party of five was actually a party of nine.

The new player, for reasons I don't think i can even begin to speculate on, drew six boobs on her character in the little "character portait" box.  This lead to a brief discusion of speculation on the anatomy and reproductive physiology and rituals between the two Sleestak players as they hashed out their respective and seemingly conflicting views on the subject.  I freaking love D&D.

The characters were in town preparing for an expedition to the bleak forest to raid the Tomb of the Elf King when the sky opened up and this fell out and landed over the next hill:

They investigated, snuck into the Star City and rescued the Lazer Dwarves from their subjugation under the evil Psi-Witches.  along the way they met the little guy in the top picture (They could talk to him because one of the players spoke Space Imp.  We  rolled a D6 and it said so)  When they where victorious the Lazer Dwarves gave them a tank.

If we keep playing it'll turn into a hex crawl via tank.  At least until they find one of these:

Also, I really really really really really hope that Jeff Rients and Vincent Baker and everybody else in the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Grand Adventure Campaign get to make awesome adventures for us to play.   These guys will each make an awesome adventure, but the fact that they are both (especially Baker) are planning something that can be used again and again is brilliant.  A kit to make random wizard towers inspired by Jack Vance, full of moving parts for PCs to mess with and back story and where did the wizard go... are you kidding?  Why is The Seclusium of Orphone not way past it's goal already?

Space Mutant DnD

I wrote up Jeff's 20 Questions and gave them to the players to introduce the campaign since I'm aiming for something other than vanilla DnD, something I'm calling:

 "SPACE MUTANT DnD"

SETTING:

Characters begin in Foulcrest, a dwarven factory town on bluffs overlooking mud flats At the top of an inland sea/lake.  Sleesport is on a peninsula at the south end of the lake with access to a larger sea.  Across the lake from Foulcrest is the ruined city of Xenos.  The Elf King's Tomb is in the bleak forest: a place even the elves don't go.

Character Races:
Sleestak, Dwarf, Human,  Kobold.  More playable races can be unlocked in game.

Character Classes:
all PHB classes.  Maybe more may be unlocked in game.

TWENTY QUESTIONS:

1.    What is the deal with my cleric's religion?
You're Cleric most likely worships the Lord of Light, the Lazer God.  He lives in the City of Angels and looks like this:

There are also rumors of cults of Warlocks in Xenos.

2.    Where can we go to buy standard equipment?
 Foulcrest for most things or Sleesport for larger sea-going ships or weirder items.

3.    Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?
 Pay the dwarves of Foulcrest extra and they can do it.  They are quite industrious.

4.    Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?
 Well there used to be the elves...  Maybe the Shroud of Xenos? Who knows really.

5.    Who is the greatest warrior in the land?
 The chief of the Dwarves of Foulcrest is pretty tough, otherwise maybe one of the barbarians.

6.    Who is the richest person in the land?
 One of the Dwarf or Sleestak merchant houses who run Foulcrest and Sleesport.

7.    Where can we go to get some magical healing?
 The Temple of the Lord of Light in Foulcrest.

8.    Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?
 The Clerics of the Lord of Light in Foulcrest might have to direct you to one of their monasteries in the Blade Mountains.  You can hire a Runner to guide you.

9.    Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?
 Nope.  Wizards are lonely weirdos.  They may find items or spells on their adventures.

10.    Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?
 Maybe Sleesport.

11.    Where can I hire mercenaries?
 Foulcrest is full of disgruntled workers (mostly human and dwarf) in the dwarven mills.  Offer them two weeks pay and they'll follow you, offer them 2 months pay and they'll follow you anywhere. 

12.    Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?
 Well, it's bad news to get on the wrong side of the law in any town.  The Sleestaks are known to be especially nasty.  They run Sleesport like bug-eyed, lizard-clawed Bugsy Siegels.

13.    Which way to the nearest tavern?
 Plenty in Foulcrest and more in Sleesport.

14.    What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?
Funny you should ask...

15.    Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?
Maybe later.

16.    How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?
Some say the Lord of Light has contests to determine a champion who is granted special boons, but these are usually quests, not gladiatorial fights.

17.    Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?
Yep: The Sleestak Mafia.  The Dwarven Counter-Sleestak Insurgency.  The Cults of Xenos. Just to name a few.

18.    What is there to eat around here?
Deep fried dinosaur.  Giant Strawberries.  Dwarven Ale.  Sleestaks are vegetarians for the most part, though some say they prize certain mammals as delicacies.

19.    Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?
There's the Crown of the Elf King...

20.    Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?
Some say there is a secret court of alien vampires in Xenos.  And there is a Chimera to the north.

Finally: Lazer Dwarves!

This is going to be kind of a catch all post, starting with some self interest and navel-gazing, but stick with me and there will be a sweet finish!

CAMPAIGNS

So here are the games I'm working on running:

#1 will get written about more here in the future I'm sure.  It will take some work to get together and then there will be players to find... this one is definitely on the back burner.

#2 will use my DMing improv tools, but also would be a good place to drop in things like Death Frost Doom or Tower of the Stargazer.

#3 is on the front burner as the players are asking "when are we gonna start?"  The system will be 4e D&D but the soul will be Encounter Critical.

#4 is just an idea and maybe won't happen but if it does it's going to draw heavily from the Black City and Land of Ice.

BLOG PROJECTS

Ongoing things I need to write about/finish: 

Monster Remixes: these are maybe not quite half way done.  I'm still hoping that someone will be able to tell me where I found the undead remix so I don't have to do that one.  I've decided that I'm definitely going to do the mundane animals, they will be fun though not entirely mundane.

Image of the Dungeon: Will likely finish this with one post.


Castle and Dungeon Maps: that huge castle I did is still my most popular post thanks in no small part due to Paul, so I've done another castle map and plan to do more.

Orc Cult Cave and Castle Lyongast - Map-less Adventure Generators with roll mat.  These will be used in the pick-up game.

Player Handbook Giveaway for pick up game (with house rules, like Planet Eiris, but as clear and concise as possible)

DM Book (for pick up game)

BLOG ROLLS

I've noticed that several folks who used to have me on their blog roll no longer do.  If your reading this and you're thinking "this dude is on my blog roll for sure" maybe check and see.  I know a few times Blogger has dumped blogs off of my roll and I had to re-add them.

and now.... 

LAZER DWARVES!

I promised lazer dwarves on my first post, here they are!  These are for the 4e-esque space-fantasy game.  I was to lazy to draw the robo-claws on the "storm trooper" (they're an air elemental inhabiting a robotified stormtrooper suit, get it?)  The face of the Psi-Witch is from Skinner.  These are half-assed but they were a lot of fun to put together.  I'll print these out to use in-game (and so I can draw on those robo-claws).

SLEESTAKS

Brendan liked the idea of re-skining Dragonborn as Sleestaks in my last post, so I'll expound on that idea a bit.  I'm sure there have been write ups of Sleestaks and a playable race but this is specifically for 4e D&D or a simplified/hacked facsimile. 

SLEESTAKS:

Sleestak PCs are identical to Dragonborn, but they look like the guys pictured above and they have no breath weapon power.  Instead they have one of the following powers:

"Sleestak Memories"
one in ten Sleestaks can, in brief flashes of insight, remember the ancient secrets of their ancestors.  (Roll D10 at character generation.  They have this power if a 1 is rolled.)  Once per session the Player can make up a detail about any dungeon environment the characters find themselves in, details may include secret doors, passwords, codes, the location of a pylon or how to operate a pylon.  The DM should let the player throw their idea out there in one short sentence, but then further details are for the DM to determine.  Note that ancient Sleestak technology allows for structures that are larger on the inside than the outside and other warping of time and space, so dungeon maps need not be modified except to note the location of any new Sleestak generated details.  It is of course the prerogative of the DM to declare a dungeon off limits to this power because it was not built by Sleestaks or has been otherwise untouched by their weird lizardy claws.

"Sleestaks Come in Threes"
All Sleestaks that don't have Sleestak Memories have this power.  At character generation, the PC will have 2 Sleestak companions who appear to be identical to the PC, have identical equipment, but have 10s in all stats, no powers, and only 1 HP.  These accompanying Sleestaks may be controlled by the Player.  They will not be automatically replaced, but more may be recruited if the Player wishes and the DM allows. 


These are weird and maybe overpowered compared to typical 4e powers, but I don't mind.  To put this in perspective, I played Rifts and liked it.

Here is where the PCs could start out or venture to in a campaign with Sleestak PCs:

Sleesport

On the bluffs overlooking a huge briny lake sits the city of Sleesport (pronounced Sleaze Port).  Founded by a bug-eyed and lizard skinned version of Bugsy Siegel and resembling both Vegas and Lankhmar, Sleesport is largely owned and operated by a criminal gang of Sleestaks.  Anything can be had in Sleesport.  Non Sleestak NPCs feel a mixture of respect, fear and loathing for the Sleestaks.  Sleestak PCs may be drawn into the machinizations of their powerful brethen, however, this will almost always prove to be more of a pain in the ass than a benefit for the PCs.  It is rumored that a lost city lies hidden beneath Sleesport.

SPACE-FANTASY CASTLE INHABITANTS

Planet Algol has just posted about one of the great old OD&D tables. I've reskinned that table for gonzo space fantasy and I thought I'd share. I don't think anybody needs me to say how many HD a laser knight has, or what the special attacks of a brain orchid are. And you probobly already know that a necroid is a zombie robot summoned from its robot grave, right?