More Work on the Campaign World - Worldbuilding with Monsters, A Quick Idea

One of the things I've found that truly helps me in working on a campaign is creating monsters or factions. Worldbuilding through tangible statistical creatures seems to really help me. For instance, instead of just picking through monsters and placing them, I'll figure out where a creature would be, and then name it something along the lines of Ruby Goblins of Rime (which you can see on this blog, just go to the Monster page). Since I want to run BECMI, I have to re-stat them a bit, of course. 

The process works for established monsters as well, if I give them an ability or a stylistic tweak or a personality change and make them fit into a region, such as a group of dwarves (and I completely stole this idea from somewhere but I can't remember where) that have gone insane and are trying to build a stairway to the sun so they can mine it, in the belief that it holds unimaginable riches in ores and gems to make it so bright and shiny. Imagine how precarious that encounter could be if a PC spouts off and begins to laugh at the idea that they take so dearly and seriously, with a bunch of ill-tempered dwarves now driven to insane anger. Those guys are going to go near to the equator since the sun is always high in the sky for hours on end, and led to their insane quest to try to mine it.

Anyhow, on the mapping front I am now 31 pages deep into the 49 pages of re-mapping the world it took to break things down into 6 mile hexes. It's a long, tedious process, and I'm trying to get through between 2 and 4 pages per day, so I'm very close. For individual adventuring areas I think I'll break them down further into 1 mile hexes and use a few resources like random tables to give me extra ideas and to tweak the terrain when it gets that granular. By the end of this, after I dabble in a few different beginning campaign areas, I'll be able to go on the hunt to start a game somewhere. 

Working on My Campaign World

After having moved to Detroit a few years ago, I'm finally getting the itch to play again, which means finding friends to play with. That's not terribly easy for me to do. I'm middle-aged, my kids are grown, and I've relocated to an area where my wife was pretty much the one person I knew.

All that aside, I keep plowing ahead on the Antediluvia setting, putting all other settings I'm working on to the back burner. Expect to see more here as I forge ahead.

I've recently taken the world map I have had for 15 years and bought a small light pad so I could trace the features onto a hex grid map (I like working in pencil and pen, not digitally). Those I declared 24 mile hexes, and now I'm breaking down all those hexes into the traditional 6 mile hex with a hex paper notebook I have. It all goes to hell when I accidentally misnumber a hex, but fortunately that's only happened once. I'm now in the process of scouring all the hex-crawl PDFs I have to steal ideas, and it's going to lead to a gonzo D&D setting that's very much in line with the picaresque stylings of Jack Vance, with weird cultures that have weirder customs. There will be some bog-standard D&D stuff in there, i.e. orcs, goblins, and gnolls, but with a twist. I took a cue from Hiero's Journey by Lanier and made all the humanoids mutations of humanity. It not only explains why so many different humanoids exist, it gives them a reason to be downright awful to the PCs - the struggle of Law vs. Chaos, where the one goal of the humanoids is to unite the world in worship to ancient, possibly evil technology, and the PCs fight to resist them. But for that they'll need some weapons of their own for the fight ahead, and where better to find them than in ancient haunted halls below-ground?

Indeed, this whole setting is a pastiche of ideas culled from different Appendix N sources. I'll be pleased if someone recognizes references or styles, if they're well-read enough, but I almost want the players to be unfamiliar with the source material when I reference it like I have with the humanoids. They might recognize references I've pulled from more common sources like the Bible (the overall setting being in effect a pre-cataclysmic Earth before the flood), but those references are few. Those of us who play these games that haven't read Appendix N are legion, so hopefully I get some younger players who have no idea who Fritz Leiber or Sterling Lanier are. That would be a wonderful way to play, and introduce these youngsters to the giants of the genre. 

Now, I just have to find players willing to try an old game. The BECMI Rules Cyclopedia is calling for me to introduce them to a simpler game.

Game Balance Should Not Be Your Goal

I've opined before on the myth of game balance, and my ideas run parallel to the author of this post over at RPG Gazette:

https://therpggazette.wordpress.com/2025/03/31/the-myth-of-balance-why-perfectly-balanced-ttrpgs-are-a-pipedream/

The author makes the case for interesting imbalances, and I agree wholeheartedly. Part of what makes OSR games interesting are the different strengths of the different classes. They have a role they excel at. They shouldn't be pigeonholed according to average damage output per level or whatever your metric of choice tells you should be the case.

In fact, I make this argument for Palladium's system all the time, especially Rifts. Yes, you can play alongside near-invincible creatures, but player agency should win out in the end. Use your brains. There is ALWAYS something for you to do, if you are creative enough. The GM should be providing opportunities for everyone to shine, also. If the GM is not, the GM isn't doing his or her job.

Antediluvia: The City-State of Jelkkor Than (Overview)

(This City-State hasn't been placed on the map of Antediluvia yet, and was directly inspired by a Jack Vance tale, but I add my twist to it.)

The City-State of Jelkkor Than, couched in deep swampland, is a dismal place full of dismal people. The people of the city are physically short in stature, not often above five feet tall, but are stout and hardy. They have to be. The swamp is an unforgiving place where existence is often carved out only by determination alone. They whitewash their hair, and never cut it, leading to them all having pure white shocks of hair from an early age. The rest of their body is entirely hairless, which is a blessing in the swamp.

The leader of Jelkkor Than is a priestly role, with the title of Than-Speaker. He (or she, rarely) leads the populace in their observance of religious rites (of which there are many, in varied forms, featuring many local gods), makes new laws, and enforces the existing ones. The tenor of leadership is generally authoritarian, of course, being a theocracy, but most Than-Speakers attempt to be fair. There have been leaders who are not, however, but the populace often runs them out of the city when this happens and the people become tired of the ruler. Than-Speakers are chosen by lot from the many priesthoods in the city.

It is rumored that the scepter that the Than-Speaker carries as a feature of his station is magical in some way. Indeed, popular Than-Speakers of the distant past have been said to have lived for a thousand years, but whether that is due to the scepter or some other means is unknown. No leader has lasted more than thirty years in the last few centuries, so there has never been a recent opportunity to test the theory.