Campaign Map Software

Once upon a time, I drew a big map of Alia with Dundjinni. I put a lot of time into it, and I liked it.

Then I lost the original source files. I still have the jpg's that were produced. And I still have a hard drive that probably has the original data on it, so I might be able to recover it.

I was thinking about how much effort I put into drawing that map of Alia, and while I enjoyed the time I spent on it, I'm not sure the amount of control over detail that Dundjinni provides is really required for a overland campaign map.

I do like to have nice maps though, so I was looking around to see if I couldn't find something a little easier for country sized hex maps.

The first tool I came across was Hexmapper and with it I quickly produced this:


Not bad for about 10 minutes work. It's old, but it's simple and clean. I like it. It may be worth while to do a bit of a zoom in on Prolia, and possibly expand the size and scope of the map to the entire known world of Alia.

I'm hoping to take a look at Autorealm at some point as well. I also took a brief look at Dungeon Crafter 3. While doesn't look like I'd want to use it for a map like this, it might be useful for buildings and dungeons.

Jarlsberg (Chapter 3)

The entirety of the this game session was spent in Jarlsberg. The session went mostly according to plan.

One thing that surprised me was how well the party did in the multiple-encounters-without-a-short rest. I expected that after two full fledged encounters with the zombie hordes that they'd be pretty desperate to find a place where they could hole up and take a breather, but they just demolished those zombies without a thought using almost entirely at-will attack powers.

Of the three zombie types that I used, I'd say the most bothersome for the party was the Corruption Corpse ... however Aeldric the Warlord had picked up a suit of Black Iron Scale Armor +1 from the armory in Tidemarch. The 5 necrotic resistance really made him quite tough, and Vipers Strike against a ranged attacker is a pretty effective way of managing them.

The Warlord is shaping up to be able to fill in as a back up defender in this group, which is handy. Also, Ragnar the melee ranger has been doing a fair share of minion control. Dire Wolverine Strike is an awesome response to being mobbed by zombies. I expected that without Lindrin to help manage the minions that they might have issues. I don't see them yet.

After a third encounter without rest, they were starting to feel the pain. I added a nice scary horde of zombies coming up the road to encourage them to head for the defensible Temple of Umos and they obliged.

What followed was their encounter with the three Phantom Warriors. I decided at the last minute to pull a bit of The Sixth Sense and have the Phantom Warriors not realize that they were dead. What followed was a rather starnge encounter wher the ghosts asked about how the battle over Jarlsberg was going. The phantoms pointed the party at the inn, and helped clearing that scary mob of Zombies that had gathered out front of the temple. After seeing the zombies and being confused about not being able to leave the Temple grounds the Phantoms came to the realization that they were dead, showed the PC's their armor and arms and bade them use it to carry on the battle against the Empire.

There was some interest in the ritual site at the center of town, but nobody had time to really stop and take a closer look due to the constant trickle of zombies shuffling after the party.

The inn battle went fairly quickly. The leveled down Ghoul was a decent challenge to the PC's getting off his immobilize power twice and took a nice chunk out of Ragnar, who despite being reduced to 0 hp, managed to survive. We were pressed for time at that point, so I narrated the conclusion of their exploration of Jarlsberg. They find the book, Last King of Prolia and manage to escape from the rest of the Zombies in the city without being overwhelmed.

Leveling without Arithmetic

I've never been particularly interested in rules for game masters. Guidelines are awesome, but rules are restrictive. The guidelines for putting together encounters are particularly good in 4th edition, but advancement due to experience has always been an aspect of D&D that I hated as a GM. If you follow the rules as written they are mathematical handcuffs on an aspect of the game that's really important. Reaching a new level is an important reward that evolves the way a PC plays the game, opening new options and keeping the experience fresh and exciting.

I'm currently using an alternate advancement rule. Characters advance in level when I say they advance. Pretty simple, no?

My recommended GM's guideline for when to give PC's a new level is "Advance your characters when you believe it will lead to the most fun." For me, there's a certain amount of fun that is discovering a character through playing him. There's the intrinsic fun of building a character by gaining power as they follow the campaign. There's the enjoyment of choosing that power that you've been looking forward to. There's also fun to be had in trying out that power of feat, seeing how it interacts with the other party members, or how it works against monsters or maybe how it doesn't work. When the shine is beginning to wear off and the players feel that they have a good grip on their new set of powers and abilities and are looking forward to their next level, that's when they should be advanced.

Usually, I'll have a quick discussion about how things are going at the end of a session and if the time seems right, I'll say, you're all now level N+1.

It's dead easy and it works. No arithmetic required!

I've found that a level every two sessions (about seven or eight hours of play) seems to be about right for the current game and if we're not having 10 encounters per level in these two sessions, it's really not a big deal.

I do use the XP values marked in monster stat-blocks. I use them as a guideline to balance encounters, because for that purpose XP works very well. For leveling, the informal approach works better for us.

Journey to Yuri's Doom (Chapter 2)

The next session saw our heroes fleeing the pursuing forces of the empire to the swamp, Yuri's doom.

The first order of business was switching out Ghesh for Ragnar. After a bit of discussion, everybody decided that the Party could do without a controller, and would rather just control one PC each, so Lindrin would be left out too.

Story wise, we narrated the travel from Tidemarch to Yuri's doom and some parallel events in Prolia. Ragnar had some disturbing dreams and was convinced by a crazy old beggar that his brother was in peril south of Yuri's doom. Ragnar paid for a small fast ship to take him south, but couldn't convince the crew to wait around for him to bring back his brother.

At the same time, Lindrin came down with a rather serious disease and bacame unable to travel. When Ragnar found the party, it was decided that Ghesh would remain behind to care for Lindrin and the group would travel through Yuri's Doom and send back a ship to pick up Lindrin and Ghesh at the spot that Ragnar was dropped off.

So Ragnar, Voden, Minos and Aeldric traveled into the swamp. The had an encounter with Deathjump spiders, who's "death from above" ability proved to be quite annoying. The warrior's combat challenge was not being applied when it could have. I'll mark it up as inexperience on our part. I need to make sure that my players are aware of and are going to keep track of their abilities, I caught at least one instance of an attack that Minos wasn't aware that he could have taken, I possibly missed a few as well. Next time I'll be more thorough in checking that players are using the abilities that they have.

They also meet a Fey trickster Frog-man encounter from a monster supplement that I found on the web and can't find the link to. [I think on ENWorld; I shall go looking again.] After defeating the challenge, the Fey offered a reward in the form of information. Gool ol' party played along and asked where they might find the Iron Crown of the Prolian kings. The Fey didn't know where the crown was but did offer directions to the ruins of Jarlsberg where they might be able to find something.

The party headed off towards the ruins and ended the session with a rest in a nearby half-sunken stone tower.

We decided that the party was now level 2. [Decided? What? More to come!]

Yuri's Doom and Index Cards

At the end of Chapter 1, the players indicated that Yuri's Doom was where they were going next. That was my indication of what needed further development. So I spend some time getting some things straight. I didn't need to write plot elements for this because I already had most of this planned in my head.

The short version was the following:

1. Yuri's doom is dangerous enough to prevent the empire from moving through it. I need to convey it's danger by some encounters with some "Swamp Nasties".
2. Jarlsberg is going to have a bunch of undead. More encounters.
3. Jarlsberg is where the druid Yuri cast his uber-powerful ritual that created the swamp there needs to be some evidence of it. Possibly I'll have the ritual in some time-stopped frozen tableau - something to look at with a bit of awe.
4. Jarlsberg needs to have some clues to the location of the Iron Crown to continue the main quest plot line.

Encounter Cards

I'm becoming a fan of the 4th edition Monster manual and the monster adjustment rules in the DM's Guide. After putting together some encounters, I'm seeing that the guidelines for putting together encounters seems to be balanced very well and it's pretty easy.

I've been starting to use a combination of index cards and what I call encounter cards to keep track of combat rounds, and I've got to the point to where I'm getting very comfortable.

I started out doing this by copying out the entire stat block of each PC and monster to an index card, putting those cards in a stack in initiative order and cycling through them. The problem with this is the PC or monster on the top of the stack is doing the attacking, but it's attacking a card deeper in the stack. This leads to constant shuffling through the stack to find out defense values and mark off hit points or status effects.

A better way of doing this is to have a separate place for the things that are needed off turn. These are commonly defenses, perception, hit points and a place to mark down damage and conditions. Additionally some mosters have resistances, immunitires, vulnerabilities, auras and other powers that take place on other's turns. My index cards have space for ten lines of information, and given that I rarely (never) have more than 5 types of monsters in an encounter, I developed a 2 line stat block. On it, I record: NAME, AC, Fort, Reflex, Will, Perception, HP, Bloodied Value, Role, and XP value on the left hand side of the two line block and have a free form area on the left to note other things like hp totals, powers of note, resistances etc.

It looks something like this, with an encounter card having five rows that look like the following:

NAME... | AC FR | Per HP | Notes......................
ROLE XP | RF WL | Int BL |

The Role and XP are additions that should help the re-use of some of the encounter cards, by mixing and matching. So for example, I decided that the undead encounteres in Jarlsberg would be mostly zombies, with an occaisional ghoul thrown in as well as Phantom Warriors for a special encounter. For this I wrote up a card with Zombie Rotter, Zombie, Corruption Corpse, Ghoul (level adjusted to 3) and Phantom Warrior.

I also copied out those five mosters to individual monster cards, with complete details. In particular, the information that needs to stand out on the monster card are abilities and stats that get used on the monsters turn, that is mostly the Speed and the Attack Powers. Monsters can be counted on moving and attacking each round, usually. The intent is to have the whole stat block on the monster card, but the movement and attacks are really the thoings that must be there. The monster manual is still available as a reference for full details if required and if space does not permit them to be recorded on the index card.

I have one encounter card made up as a quick reference for the party, with all their defensive stats. That way I don't have to query them all the time. I have an index card for each party member. The PC index cards are mostly blank. Hopefully the PC's will be able to keep track of their attacks and moves. It's there for mostly for initiative.

At the beginning of combat I'll lay out the party and monster encounter cards then grab the correct set of monster cards for the encounter. Next, I'll have each PC and monster roll for initiative, recording the initiative on the upper left corner. The index cards get sorted, and then the top PC or monster takes it's turn, getting placed at the back when finished.

When a PC or Monster gets attacked, their defenses and relevant abilites are referenced on the encounter card, and any damage or conditions that are inflicted are noted.

Encounters

For the Yuri's Doom part of the adventure I drew up about the following encounter cards.

1. The undead encounter card I mentioned before, with the Zombie Rotters, Zombies, Corruption Corpses, level adjusted Ghoul, and Phantom Warriors.
2. One swamp encounter card. I put Stirge, Fire Beetle, Deathjump Spider, Visejaw Crocodile, and Shadowhunter Bat.
3. One card with the solo "Hopper" encounter from Chris "Goober" Ramsley's Boss Compendium. [I sill can't find a link.]

I also noted a suggested sequence of encounters. I plan on putting together the wilderness encounters as the party travels. For Jarlsberg I plan to have several undead encounters, starting with rotters and regular zombies, with additional encounters introducing the corruption corpses and eventually the ghouls.

Level Adjusting

The DM's guide suggests that PC's should be able to handle creatures from Level-4 to Level+7. That may be the case, but I'm not sure it applies at the very low levels. And the very low levels suffer for a little bit of lack of monsters, since the only variety is to move up in the level range.

I have noticed that in particular when the monster's defenses get a little bit too good, everything sort of falls apart. Encounter powers that don't hit don't swing the battle as much as they should and high defenses combined with a larger pool of hit points can make these encounters a little bit too long.

I'm currently trying to limit the level difference of creatures that the party faces to +2 levels, at least on the upper side. Or at least having a long hard look at the monster's defenses.

Regardless, level adjusting monsters in 4e is very easy, and there's hardly a reason not to. The ghouls I added to Jarlsberg are level adjusted to 3. It doesn't make them trivial, it just balances things out a bit and allows me to bring in a larger variety of creatures that the party can face, without being overwhelmed or being caught in a fight that's lasting a little too long because of the enemy creature's toughness.

Jarlsberg Plot Elements

Jarlsberg will have the following non-combat features:

1. The tableau I mentioned previously of Yuri and his compatriots casting the ritual that created the swamp. I'm thinking a fountain in the middle of town, with a miagic circle containing five druid-looking individuals frozen in place at the conclusion of the ritual. The fountain's water is motionless, the druids's arms are outstretched and holding magical implements. The only movement from within the circle is a thick mist billowing forth from the fountain adn rolling outwards through the ruins into the mists of the swamp.
2. There is massive amnount of destruction around the city. All the non-stone buildings are essentially destroyed, with a few stone hearths visible among the lush swamp vegetation.
3. Only a few buildings still stand. A blacksmith, a stone tower half sunk into the swamp at the outskirts of the town, a temple of umos that looks as solid as the day it was buit and a not so solid but still mostly intact inn.
4. Around the town are hundreds if not thousands of (restless) zombies. They are mostly inanimate these days but will react to the presence of the PC's and to sounds of battle. The conflict with the undead will start slowly with a few zombie rotters slowly raising themselves out of the muck and pathetically attacking the PC's. This will attract Zombies in greater numbers over the next few minutes, until things start looking desperate.
   
5. Holing up in the Temple of Umos will afford the PC's a chance to rest and to meet with the three Phantom Warriors who still defend the temple. These will be helpful, provided things don't go badly. The Phantom's earthly remains are in the center of the Temple and have magical goodies for the Party, which the will gift if things go well, or may be taken if the Phantom Warriors are defeated. The Phantom Warriors can recount how most of the Prolian battle against the Empire went, and if asked about the Iron Crown of the Prolian Kings, they recall that a Skald named Eodwyn was collecting information about King Arnesson and was staying at the inn.
   
6. The rest in the temple will be followed by a confrontation my a rather large mass of Zombies that have surrounded the temple (mostly rotters). After this fight, the number of Zombies in the area will have been mostly exhausted.
   
7. The Inn has the final major undead encounter. Suggest 1 ghoul, 1 corruption corpse, 2 zombies and 3 zombie rotters.
8. In a room upstairs "The Last King of Prolia" written by Eodwyn the Skald may be found on a table beside an unoccupied bed.

The Party: The Non-Dwarves

Minos the Minotaur Fighter has been a slave of the Empire of Rhodes for as long as he can remember. His mythical name was given to him by his human slave masters and has long been used to promote his gladiatorial fierceness.

Minos has always lain uneasily under the Empire's yoke despite his favored status as a gladiatorial champion. He has made several escape attempts over his life, the latest seeing him recaptured in the far outpost of Tidemarch where he was set free by the party. He has joined his rescuers and is relishing the glory of the adventuring life.

Aeldric is a Human Warlord who recently was instrumental in fighting off a Goblin raid on his village north of Prauld. During his heroics he took command of the villages defenders, outshining the village's leader and commander and thereby saving the village and embarrasing the leader. After the victory celebration, he was informed in no uncertain terms that he would be welcome to depart from his village to pursue his heroics elsewhere. Taking this as an opportunity, Aeldric headed toward Shinar to join in the hunt for the Crown.

The Party: The Two Dwarves, Voden and Ragnar

Dwarves in Alia are... a little different.

They hate giants because the giants invaded their mountain kingdom, Krondhiem, in YK1339. The war decimated the dwarven population and led to the dwarven Eugenics program. Dwarves now send all their young men off to a life of adventure and battle against the giants. The ones who live and have proven themselves as great heroes and giant slayers (only a few do) go on to be named Thane, which gives them the right to settle down, marry as many Dwarf women as will have them and an have lots of super-dwarf offspring. dwarven females, live a sequestered life managing and defending their home and raising the many children they bear of the Thanes. A typical Thanehold has a single, Thane more than a dozen women and several dozen children.

Voden and Ragnar (Ghesh's old character is the player of Ragner) are two brothers from the same family, from the same mother. They are very close to each other but do not fit in well with the rest of their family.

Voden is a History and Arcana focused Warlock, who has made a pact with an Infernal being called Halictes. He's very interested in dwarven history, and is motivated to discover old giant-conquered dwarven ruins and discover as much about Dwarf history, tradition and lost knowledge. Ragnar is a hammer and axe using, two-weapon-fighting, dwarven ranger. He mostly follows his brother Voden's lead, and the pair of them make a good team in killing their enemies.