Changes to OSRIC 3.0 from AD&D

Changes to OSRIC 3.0 from AD&D

A list of changes from OSRIC 2.0 to 3.0 can also be found here:

https://garysentus.blogspot.com/2026/04/osric-2022-versus-osric-30-whats-really.html

My list based on potential at-the-table differences:

OSRIC 3 noted as O3

Ability Scores

1. Intelligent has no reference to minimum spells known.

Classes and Equipment

1. Fighters are presented (optionally) with the UA optional rule of Specialization.
2. Experience tables differ slightly. (ex. A fighter only needs 17,000 XP to get to level 5 instead of 18,001)
3. Classes gain weapon proficiencies in O3 at a rate different than AD&D. (For example, clerics get their 3rd at level 5 in AD&D, 4 in O3).
4. Differences in ability score headers (minor and major tests of strength).
5. Elves, Gnomes and Dwarves could only be NPC clerics in AD&D, but now can be PCs. 
6. Half-orcs are capped at level 15 for assassin and level 7 for thieves.
7. Assassins get -3 non-proficiency with weapons instead of -2.
8. Assassination percentiles are formulaically much higher than the AD&D chart.
9. No psionics or bard classes.
10. Certain details of the weapons table (ex. crossbows do more damage and "pole arm").
11. Details of the thief's skills progression are different.
12. No weapons vs. ac type.
13. No weapon speed factor.

Combat

1. Charging is stated to happen after the charge terminates on initiative roll in O3. In AD&D, initiative it not checked at the melee at the end of a change.
2. Damage in O3 taken by an unconscious character aside from bleeding is instantly killed.

Spells

1. Some spells have been renamed.
2. OSRIC specifically allows spells learned to be 'dropped' to learn a different spell.
3. The Fly spell in the AD&D is 1 Turn/level + 1-6 turns. O3 is 6 Turns/MU Level + 1d6 Turns.
4. Wall of Ice in O3 is definitely 10 feet thick, rather than AD&Ds common interpretation of non-map unit inches.

Monsters and Magic Items

1. Some creatures and items have been renamed or removed ( ex. No Mind Flayer or Eye of Vecna).
2. O3 does not list item XP values.

Part of my AD&D House Rules, Part 4 - Restocking Notes

Part of my AD&D House Rules, Part 4 - Restocking and Negative Hit Points

Restocking Adventure Sites and Lairs

Restock your dungeons! The world keeps on moving even if the player characters do not. Those dungeons that had all 30 rooms cleared all the way to the 140 room dungeon floor do not stay empty. Opened dungeons do not necessarily have their treasure remain and someone might have heard of of the players haul and gone after some of it themselves.

As written in B2 - Keep on the Borderlands: 

EMPTIED AREAS: When monsters are cleared out of an area, the place will be deserted for 1-4 weeks. If no further intrusion is made into the area, however, the surviving former inhabitants will return or else some other monster will move in. For instance, a troll might move into the minotaur's cave complex (I.), bringing with him whatever treasure he has.

Vague, but this should be enough for a dungeon master to take the idea into account for developing a system. There may be no real need for codification but it's nice to have a reliable system. This is how I do it, which might be of use to someone with no better system. There might be typos as this has been rewritten three times from my scratch notes, but I think I shook out the bugs.

For my game, to start, roll a D100 each interval (described below):

Restocking Table

• 1-40       One encounter from the local hex random encounter table moves in to an emptied floor.
• 41-50     One encounter restocks from it's original type and number appears in a cleared area.
• 51-60     Two encounters from the local hex random encounter table moves in to an emptied floor.
• 61-65     One encounter restocks from it's original type and number appears in a cleared area and one encounter from the local hex random encounter table moves in to an emptied floor.
• 66-75     Three encounters from the local hex random encounter table moves in to an emptied floor.
• 76-80     One encounter restocks from it's original type and number appears in a cleared area and two encounter from the local hex random encounter table moves in to an emptied floor.
• 81-100     No restock.

For example, if you cleared the first floor (or the entire thing for single floor small dungeons), you would roll your encounters which would be weighted already. I only reroll the physically impossible. For example, if the dungeon is nothing but 10' corridors in and out, a massive dragon won't have moved in. Using the chart from MM2 or anywhere really:

Say you rolled a 68. Then rolling for the two encounters the results come up as 7 and a 6 on week one (plus a room restocked by the original inhabitant type), a green dragon (1 appearing, treasure type H) would take up a cavern entrance, while a giant boar encounter (2-8 appearing, no treasure) would lair up in the dungeon proper.

Next week, the roll comes up as 33, and the encounter of 8 is rolled giving a Kobold encounter (40-400 varying treasure) and from there, you practically had a dungeon restock write itself. Having analysis paralysis about where to place these encounters can simply be resolved randomly (for example 20 cleared room options, just roll a d20), but a lot of it will make a lot of sense when thinking about 'where would 158 kobolds shack up in here?'

Mega Restocking Table

• 1-40       Two encounters from it's original type and number are restocked per floor.
• 41-50   Two encounters restocks from it's original type and number and one encounter of an non-faction monster appears per floor.
• 51-60   Two encounter restocks from it's original type and number and two encounters of an non-faction monster appears per floor.
• 61-65     Three encounters restocks from it's original type and number and two encounters of an non-faction monster appears per floor.
• 66-75     Three encounters restocks from it's original type and number and three encounters of an non-faction monster appears per floor.
• 76-80     Three encounters restocks from it's original type and number and three encounters of an non-faction monster appears per floor and one NPC encounter has taken up territory in a cleared room. 
• 81-100     No restock.

Intervals

Lairs and Sites (1-19 rooms)

1) Roll on the Restocking Table for rooms cleared over 4 weeks from last visit.

2) Roll for d4 rooms affected, 1-in-6, another party got there first (95% looted, 5% still in the act of looting - generate NPC party) 4 weeks from last visit.

3) If the need to generate an NPC party, generate one, and they will always be the ones who looted if looting happened.

Small dungeons (20 to 40 rooms)

1) Roll on the Restocking Table for rooms cleared over 1-2 weeks from last visit.

2) Roll for d6 rooms affected, 1-in-6, another party got there first (90% looted, 10% still in the act of looting - generate NPC party) 1-2 weeks from last visit.

3) If the need to generate an NPC party, generate one, and they will always be the ones who looted if looting happened.

Large dungeons (41+ rooms)

1) Roll on the Restocking Table for rooms cleared over 1 week from last visit.

2) Roll for d8 rooms affected, 1-in-6, another party got there first (65% looted, 15% still in the act of looting - generate NPC party) 1 weeks from last visit.

3) If the need to generate an NPC party, generate one, and they will always be the ones who looted if looting happened.

Megadungeons/Gigadungeons/Super Dungeon (100+ rooms)

1) Roll on the Mega Restocking Table for rooms cleared over 1 week from last visit. 

2) Roll for 2d6 rooms affected, 1-in-6, another party got there first (65% looted, 15% still in the act of looting - generate NPC party) 1 weeks from last visit.

3) If the need to generate an NPC party, generate one, and they will always be the ones who looted if looting happened.

s or encourage the play of an alternate character, thusly expanding the campaign in some ways. 

OSRIC 3.0 Project: The Backer Adventures

The OSRIC 3.0 Backerkit is getting close to completion. Sounds like next month is when the physical books will be mailed out. PDFs for the Players and GMs book are already available on DTRPG and the adventures that we're part of the Backerkit have already had the initial PDF versions mailed out. I believe sometime in March is when non-backers can just purchase the adventures on their own.

Update, I have been informed that these are being released:

Whispers of the Death God

Hawk's doesn't appear to be live yet.

Cult of the Crooked Tower

Among them are the insane talents of Hawk and Chomy, both adventures at the top of the heap in terms of quality and badassness. 

Hawks adventure, I had not only the ability to play a session DM'd by EOTB (and made some new friends along the way), but also got to read it early. Hawk is great and the Fortress Tomb of the Ice Lich theme delivers on a deep gaming level as well as atmosphere.

Gabor Csomos, one of the best of our time, delivers in the Whispers of the Death God. The map design, the branching opportunities for play, the scale of the combat are incredible. The magnitude and sheer cool factor of this module goes on the short list of just a few modules that come out a year that I'd love to run.

My own adventure, Cult of the Crooked Tower, was cribbed from my own campaign, was the adventure I offered for the project as a complete, tested, low level adventure. I had originally planned for this to be part of the content I aim to release and did my own maps and artwork for it.

My maps are in the Mythmere published version, however the art is entirely done by the excellent Brett Barkley and Del Teigeler. 

Originally slated to be an addition to my normal campaign world, this was play-tested a few times, through a few different iterations. I should have added this to the manuscript that was submitted, but I didn't. A huge chunk of it appeared in my Spire Campaign as two different low level areas. This was also tested two more times, once with my real life friends.

• Venio, C1 bled to death by Stirges in the Crooked Tower
• TPK, after and unfortunate chains of cleaver hits from the Mongrel Men and misses from the party.
• Ghor, D1 exploded by Deviling deaths.
• Georl, F2 and Olaf, C2, eaten by ghouls.
• Snog T3, Grog F2, and Sven C2 to the Necrophidius.
• Elias, F2/M2 burned to death by a Pyrozombie
• TPK to deceitful Huecuvas.

There was some art not used, which I'll use somewhere else. Spoilers ahead for the art below:

Keep your eyes out for the wider public release sometime in March, I think.

No Face wanders Finsburg as a violent and lost soul. The undead former constable rings an old hand bell, his face melted over his waxy skull, underneath the cowl of his storm cloak. When he arrives, it is always accompanied by the tolling of his hand bell, a relic from when he paced the town as constable.

Rope hanging over the (well) surface tied to a skeletal hand like a grappling hook clutching the well. Moving the rope alerts a necrophidius lurking in the well's depths.

Not Just Low Levels, All Levels Part 3: The Phases of Difficulty for Scaling Characters

In the sample campaign world that I haphazardly slapped together last time, we wanted many more adventure sites, more lairs, and some more supporting tent poles on a broader map. There's also a thoughtful placement of certain challenges, campaign world cohesiveness and interconnectivity to consider, but that's next time. While mixing in difficulty is the right and privilege of a Adventure Gaming DM, much of the bands of difficult should roughly align to the phases of long term campaign play. 

In short, a starting (phase one) party shouldn't have to travel across troll valley, red dragon ridge, or past a nest of Umberhulks and Mind Flayers to get to their destination of an orc hole. Just like in the dungeon, the top floor would be goblins and kobolds and displacer beasts and 7-headed hydras (WotC IP not withstanding) would be on the encounter table for level 5. 

Given a hex world of at least 34x56 (ideally more like 51x56) hexes of about 5-6 mile scale, you should be able to accommodate, through distance and depth, all of the bands of difficulty for all primary phases of play. For reference, that's 4 Judge Guild sized maps. 

The gist being expressed best in Keep on the Borderlands where the Caves of Chaos is the main hook, but trouble can be found with lizardmen or the hermit in the nearby area. Players will enjoy options of going for a distraction, even if just information gathering, rather than simply trying to make a 1.5 day trip to the chosen adventure. Some of the time, that might not be an option and getting lost in the woods can lead you to the Swamp Witches lair instead of the Bullywug infested Ziggurat.

Below, I am going to elaborate on the phases not only to illustrate what they look like in my game, but also to differentiate a long term Fantasy Adventure Game from the typical shorter form game (phase one to two).

What are the primary phases of combat difficulty?

Phase one - Mathematical difficulty of low levels

The game play of level 1-3 is at a place where, mathematically, it's the easiest to challenge a player. Resources like food, water, light, encumbrance, and ammunition are specifically important here, as well. Monster encounters almost always tax the group. For example, consider the below encounters as they are all mathematically draining from an attrition standpoint, even potentially deadly.

• 6 Skeletons vs 5 level 1 characters 
• 5 Orcs vs 5 level 1 characters
• 10 Goblins vs 5 level 1 characters
• 2 Giant Spiders vs 5 level 1 characters
• 1 Owlbear vs 5 level 2 characters 
• 3 Ogres vs 5 level 3 characters

In modern D&D, those costs get rested away. In Old School D&D (both CAG and OSR), resources matter and leaving the dungeon to recover is a real tough decision. Aside from the ability to successfully turn undead on the skeletons or use Sleep on the goblins, engaging in combat is mathematically likely to drain valuable resources. Those resources are key to survivability towards the next challenge. 

If the party is missing half of its fighters hit points and the sleep spell has been spent, then an encounter with an another 5 orcs, the encounter can go wrong in the way that coasting on fumes to get to one more gas station exit can. A few lucky hits and a fighter goes down, the other gets overwhelmed, people are trying to escape, and more people die. Even if they skate that encounter without real loss, a random encounter on the way out/back to town might just finish people off.

Make a dungeon with 24 rooms, make 10 of them on this challenge scale, toss treasure in 7 of them (some hidden), make 7 rooms virtually nothing but supporting flavor, and finally add like 5 traps and 5 locked doors. Boom. D&D dungeon. Mix in another axis of attrition such as carry weight and light limitations and you have a balancing act that the game performs for you. OSR modules are largely set in this phase and these are the reasons why they have such gravity to both write and the ease for DMs to run.

Hirelings are highly valued, a well placed charm/sleep spell can eliminate a room enabling a push that much further, and turn undead has a chance to do the same. But overall, most combat encounters drain the sand out of the top of the hourglass at alarming rate. Veterans know how to balance this while newer people tend to make deadly resource allocation errors.

Even the modules that are considered the best in the past decade or so follow this formula. Add in a dash of seasoning for flavor (i.e. giant goose dragon, a fresh take on orcs, a fairy tale vibe, an undead horde to end the world, etc) with some fundamentals of dungeon layout and you get enjoyment for the 3 sessions it takes to complete it. Given the level spread of about 1-5, you can comfortable get 20 something sessions into phase 2, more so if your sessions are short, players are slow, and rooms are basic. And for a lot of people that's perfect.

In terms of CAG style gaming, consider that a play group is generally going to only hit a few of these before their options go to more lucrative options. If your group beats Keep on the Borderlands (B2), The Moathouse (T1), and Saltmarsh (U1) then they aren't going to also want to do Against the Cult of the Reptile God (N1) but another group might want to. If you plan on making the world persistently played by multiple groups, offer enough options. If you start your game at level 3, you probably don't need many of these. 

Phase two - accelerating campaign momentum

Starts at about 5th level. Resources change. Torches are replaced by magical items and continual light spells. Food, Water, and Ammunition are still considerations but spells (create food and water, bags of holding, etc) and resources mitigate some the need for such laborious tracking. Item saving throws are used more as a higher amount of situations can make that potion, scroll, or magic arrows ignite into flame.

The dynamic of encounters is trivialized or made more potent by an action economy, monster abilities, and more powerful magic. 

• 5 Ghouls and a Ghast vs 5 level 5 characters (either ambushed and shredded or turned and hand waved)
• 8 Gnolls vs 5 level 5 characters (party positioning is likely to trivialize the encounter)
• 4 Gargoyles vs 5 level 5 characters (12 attacks vs a party with 5-8 actions per turn)
• 3 Wights or 2 wraiths vs 5 Level 5 characters (Risk of someone getting level drained, though not particularly difficult otherwise)
• 2 Trolls vs 5 level 5 characters (action economy becomes more level, trolls deal significant damage and have 3 rolls each to do so, combined with a sturdy hp pool and regeneration, there will be attrition loss)

The bestiary of monsters start to widen as more of the Monster Manual(s) are able to be used. There are 350 monsters available in just the core AD&D Monster Manual and they aren't all for decoration. Relatively normal 'on-level' creatures (like a ghast or a troll) all pose a risk, surprise can be deadly, rewards become steeper tempting journeys to extend just one more room. With steeper rewards come the chance at more magic items that add another layer of complex decisions as well as increase power. 

Limited use items such as potions, scrolls, and wands ask the question if this encounter is worth it. Contextually good items become choices for setting up encounters (The crypt head is guarded by Caryatid Columns, so do you draw your Flametongue for the undead likely to be in the crypt or your Sword +2? Or neither because they could break? 

Encounters, such as those listed above, could be a handwave away. 5 ghouls and a Ghast surprise the party and paralyze two members or positioning of a Paladin. What if it was an ambush while the party was dealing with a patch of mold? What if the Cleric just turned all the ghouls round 1?

These encounters, for all their danger, hit that lower part of the U-shaped difficulty curve. The worlds factions become more center stage beyond vague familiarity. The group has been involved with many of them on some level at this point. This is the stride of a CAG D&D group and continues through the next two phases.

Phase three - full speed ahead

• Lycanthrope (good action economy, difficult lycanthropy risk)
• Hill Giant (high damage, high hit point pool, strong ranged attack)
• Ice Toad (punishing melee range ability, knowledge check)
• Hydra (great action economy, interesting foe)
• Mummy (fear brings high risk, mummy rot is potentially costly)

Phase three is the back swing of the mid-levels, a continuation of phase two. It's where cohesion in play becomes more advanced between the players while the players become more fluid in playing to the options that their characters provide. This could be anything by using class skills to spells prepared, to which magic items are available to use.

More conditional effects, a wider exposure to the breadth of the Monster Manual(s), and a realization of how the action economy plays out on a longer timeline. Specifically, in the context of a sandbox campaign, this is where the freedom of travel, adventure options, and selection of tasks become more decision points. The world expands, travel expands further, and delves become deeper.

Phase four - the base of high level

• Dragon (A deadly encounter in the open, a risk for subdual, or a carefully chosen battleground)
• Vampire (Double level drain, a perpetually escaping intelligent enemy)
• Vrocks (Innate abilities, magic resistance, potential gating of allies)
• Umberhulks (Confusion and Brawn)
• Drow Party/Other Mid-high level party (Steel against steel, bolt against arrow, spell against spell)

At the very top of mid level play, sliding into the real of higher level play, we have the infamous creatures that helped make the genre famous. 

Additionally, this phase largely introduces the concept of Magic Resistance, which can often take party members by surprise the first time. Dispel magic becomes doubly useful and more now than ever, the GM plays the enemies on a level deeper than tactically to make gameplay more challenging.

Take any dragon, vampire, or devil/demon and put them in a white room with 5-7 party members and watch whatever it is get shredded mathematically. A claw, claw, bite routine or a telekinesis isn't going to over come a slow spell and 10 attacks flurrying in the first round. No, the dragon would try to use its flight to an advantage, a demon would care to leverage a situation or incapacitate or gate in help rather than forcefully engage on it's own, and a vampire wouldn't just take gas-form to it's coffin 17 feet away. No, these are true villians, they plot, they scheme, and they prepare. It's another layer to the game to require the same of the adventurers to fairly get a leg up on a powerful opponent.

Lastly, these kind of monsters would be often be systemic in a bigger campaign organism. A lich, a dark god, or Orcus himself. By this point, these figures have been present indirectly the whole campaign and can provide the motivating force for the following high level play.

Phase five

• Demons and Devils (Not only serving to be an in-world threat, with each tier being more powerful and influential than the last, but also the roster of a destination of high-level play.
• Lich (The set up of the lair, the minions, the deadliness of fighting a powerful magic-user)
• Mind Flayer (In groups, in lairs, attack on a different axis than a traditional party is used to)
• More Dragons (More elaborate lairs, top end of the age category, with potential minions)
• The horrors from the planes beyond existence

This is where High-level play starts to take on different forms.

High level adventure gaming is a broad array. It's not just inflating numbers to scale with higher level play, though that can be some of what makes up play. It's also big outer plane adventures, possibly in strange environments that affect movement, casting, magic items, or are even just plain dangerous without taking precautions. It's also moving through armies on a domain scale, leading to massive wars or even territorial skirmishes. It's high risk deadly adventures that leans less into the numbers of the characters, it's so many things in addition to domain/research. It's the tricky/trappy Tomb of Horror type dungeons.  It can border or cross over into PC->NPC progression. 

It's all of these things that the campaign has earned the right to by unwrapping each of these bands slowly to provide the options for high level play. The impressions over the past 15 years of the OSR seem to be like 'yeah man, do politics and domain management' or 'yeah let me just roll up 14 purple worms on the random encounter table' which is kind of like just eating the frosting off the whole cake.

While high level is varied, the world persists. Lower phase adventuring is still taking place in a world shaped by those who came before them. Have the cake, with the frosting, with a coke, and the ice cream on the side. High level diabetes can set in, though. Make sure to balance it with a healthy diet of low to mid range adventures.

In Part 4, I talk about a more cohesive world. Fleshing out more hex entries, interconnectivity, random encounter tables, and a functional world without the players.

Not Just Low Levels, All Levels Part 2: Not Just the Dungeon is Gameable

Not just the Dungeon is Gameable

Part of the CAG identity is a full realized world that allows exploration across all levels of gaming. That starts with exploration, scalable content, bands of difficulty, and giving the world variety with a multitude of biomes. 

Making a world

You can skip all the below and get a proper sandbox setting premade to start. Suggestions being with:

1) Melan's Beyond Fomalhaut zines - Ready to go, ready to expand! Alternatively, Khosura is an excellent starting point, adventurable city, with surrounding hex area.

2) G. Hawkin's Gunderholfen setting. Including Twice Crowned King, Zorth, Nekemte, and Halith Vorn.

3) Nod Magazine or Hex Crawl Chronicles by John Stater. 

There are others, to varying degrees that might fill your needs. These all can be liberally stolen from, as well, for your own world. Making your own map is a matter of generation and tweaking.

Two programs I can recommend are Hextml and Worldographer. Generate something intentional or at random, smooth out the areas until it make sense to you and get yourself a base map with many biomes.

What are the biomes?

Forests, Crypts, Caves, Temples, Ocean, Lakes, Plains, Hills, Swamps, Mountains. You may not deeply adventure in all of these, but you have a feel for most of them. Biomes also serve a sub-purpose (which can be applied to your dungeon design too) to where a change of scenery is nice. For example, if you're playing Barrowmaze only: you're going to get tired of undead crypts with bugs and swamps with undead crypts and bugs. Imagine the breath of fresh air of fighting through a dungeon full of lava, an underwater temple, a mountain in the clouds, or a cool forest. Campaign fatigue can set in if it's always the same.

The world map should have hundreds of hexes ready for exploring in all these biomes, from snowy mountain trails to humid swamp gases. I made a sample map on hextml, I took the default and doodled with no thought or consideration. You'll want, ideally, a 26x17 map to start and probably 2 quadrants to get going, plan on at least 2 more to expand. Give yourself some avenues to add on to the world later.

This map has biomes to work with to start. Hills, plains, mountains, forests, swamps, shoreline, there's the edge of an island. Do one for yourself and number it via both axis's. 

Starting to Take Shape

Add some towns, villages, and cities. Looking here, we'd have a coastal city (City A) right near the bend, a town (Town A) inland along that path, and a village (Village A) to the north for starters. If you have no ideas, maybe my blog post about towns will help.

As an example, we have an ongoing space for people to write lairs and hex entries. So lets just take some of those and add them to the map.

A1 Were-Tiger Lair by SandboxSorceror - in that swampy area in the north eastish area.

A2 Bandit Camp by the_howell just at the foothills to the north west, just in range of easy pickings from travel/trade between Town A to Village A

A3 Mongrelmen by Scott A in the southern most swampy area, just north of City A.

A4 Goblin Lair by the_howell, along the coast south from City A in the forest (add a river going inland)

A5 Ogre Lair by the_howell, right in the middle of the forest where the north edge of the mountains meet.

A6 Night Hag's Farm by Henchman 52, down river (see Goblin Lair) far into the forest.

A7 Tomb of the Storm Giant by Zoranu, right at the whirlpool icon in the ocean.

A8 Lonely Homesteader by Scott A in the middle of the grasslands, opposite from the foothills of the Bandit Camp

A9 Dragonfly, Giant by Zoranu, a hazardous hex in the same swamp as Mongrelmen.

A10 The Whale's Grave by Zoranu, along the northern coast.

A11 The Bleeding Marsh by Zherbus, a hex in the same swamp as the Were-tiger lair.

A12 The Shrine of Sound by Zherbus, in the hills just north of the south west forest.

A13 Boring Beetle Lair by VinoAzulMan, in the base of the mountains generally south-west of Town A.

A14 Snake, Poisonous by Anung Un Rama, which is actually a shipwreck, along the southern coastline.

A15 Ankheg, Anhkeg, Anhkheg by Zherbus, set in the very north west hills.

A16 Cyclops Lair by Scott A, a cave set on the island across the channel from City A.

A17 Basilisk by Scott A, in the mountains near an abandoned dwarven hold.

A18 Giant Eagle by Grutzi, on the mountain ridge overlooking the forest in the south west section.

A19 Gargoyle by Grutzi, a ruined keep on the north center area of the plains.

A20 Gloomwing by Zoranu, a good hex to help fill out the south west forest.

Plan a desert region to the north:

Thimrithi - Fire Dancer by Zoranu and Crater of the Cavemen by mgtlake.

Add about 3 main dungeons (some of those hex entries are smaller dungeons). We already can use an ex-Dwarven Hold (Dungeon A) in the mountains that runs several levels deep, we could use a main dungeon to rest on the island (perhaps greekish? Thracia?) (Dungeon B), and a good old fashion crypt somewhere in the center of the mainland (Dungeon C).

What are bands of difficulty?

In general, the further away from civilization, the harder the content to find is. It's not a hard and fast rule, a terrible dragons lair can loom over a town causing strange relations, sacrifices, offerings, etc but also may result in a town being left alone by marauders. These exceptions are among the spice of the world. In general, you want the Cave of the White Troll Clan and the Displacer Beasts of Murkfen to be between Civicsville and the Dark Citadel of the Thorn Magi. Keep this in mind when adding more hex entries and determining how your submaps connect.

Considerations should be made for Weather, travel, and campaign timeline (that is, how the world moves on with or without the players). A lot of that I have already addressed in this blog post. 

Where are we now?

What we end up with isn't perfect, but it's a start. Depending on the scale, you might want to double your hex entries. You definitely want to put it on a more complete map with standard dimensions, but it's a start. Rip apart some more books on your shelf, flip through your monster books, write some more entries. Double it, expanding it, let the world take shape. Then let your players change it.

Next Blog post: The Phases of Difficulty in a Scaling Campaign

Rooms Per Hour

There's a metric that has been used when talking about adventure gaming. It's an extremely contextually dependent variable, but it's also one of the easiest short hands to qualify 75% of a conversation. So when people say, "we do 5 rooms per hour", there are a few factors that really go into that metric.

How fast is combat resolution?

In my IRL game, running combat for 6 players takes about 90 seconds per combat round. This generally makes most fights last under 5 minutes. The online game is about the same clip, unless there's a technical burp in which we do our best to 'lets just do this and move on'. The OD&D spin-offs I play in aren't much different. The B/X derived game, and the online B/X games, I played in an 80+ session in through Barrowmaze weren't any faster. 

How fast is exploration?

The procedures for exploration with the passage of time aren't much different in time to perform procedure. Slowness in games, assuming system familiarity, is more a two-part issue with a DM that doesn't move the game along and players who 'dither', get caught in time traps (I know this statue has to have a secret lever, so let me ask 25 minutes of questions about it) or debate endlessly. 

How fast is challenge resolution and time tracking?

Having a cheat sheet/DM screen insert of how long common tasks takes to complete is handy. For instance, Opening a Lock takes 1-4 rounds, the player rolls, the time is ticked off, and then the party moves at an exploration rate and more time is ticked off, then eventually time events happen (usually a random encounter check). 

Players get to manage this at a large degree, but only if they are realizing that time matters. So as long as the DM is tracking time well enough, players won't be incentivized to take every single action on every single square inch of the dungeon by running down a check list.

Not all rooms are created equal.

Rooms per hour is kind of an iffy measuring stick too. But it's necessary to a point, as long as you realize that the two room keys, explanation, and resolution will be different for the two below rooms:

In some games, half of the rooms were empty rooms. In others, some have a more complicated scenario presented while others just have X things run out and attack you and there's nothing in the room behind them. If one wanted to truly crank the number, they'd bunch a ton of rooms together, make half of them empty, 3/4 of the remainder would have monsters that would die in 2-3 combat rounds.

The playtest, for example, for Carcass was timed at 90 second combat rounds and 63 out of the 67 rooms being done in 10 hours. There were an average of 4 combat rounds per encounter. That's 6 minute battles. That includes town set up, traveling through hexes on 3 occasions, and the adventure sites themselves.

Hex Exploration has open spaces and safer routes.

When Hex crawling, a lot of travel incidentally reveals terrain. And not every hex is going to have a keyed entry. Many of them will be countryside, possibly a lair for a random encounter, or just a village. Not every hex is going to have an ancient dwarven ruin or giant obelisk with strange markings. Being able to agree as a group on what to investigate and how much to get sidetracked will go a long way to having action packed sessions.

In summary:

A playgroup has control over practicing procedures, time-tracking, and exploration procedures. Rooms per hour is a loaded metric, but its how we differentiate between gaming styles. Those more efficient adventures will show more of the world that is adventured in and explored. This is particularly conducive to worlds that are rich in content and aren't afraid of advancement. Also, I find these much more engaging on both sides of the table. Does CAG own these? No. This is just solid old school gaming that is interesting to the kind of party that enjoys depth. 

Generating Cults

Generating Cults 

I saw a discussion asking about generating cults, what power level to give them, and some other related questions. For the Cults created specifically with NPCs or villains that serve the mode of a campaign world in a deeper sense or the backbone of an adventure site, there's a lot more intentional care that should go into creating that cult.

However, for creating a cult on the fly (either to serve in the moment or to build off of) I had worked on a cult generator for my campaign almost two years ago. While it's still in draft mode and subject to change, I'll share the images here so that some may get some use out of it.

Enjoy!