Adjusting N1 - Against the Cult of the Reptile God

Disclaimer:

I wrote this after running it, a few years ago. I saw this in my drafts and decided to clean it up and make it a bit more coherent. I have other modules write ups (you could call them reviews I suppose) in the wings, but I am only writing about the modules that I have actually played with alterations (or should have altered) because I feel there's something constructive to say that could be helpful to prospective DMs going in blind. 

The Blurb

Terror by night! The village of Orlane is dying. Once a small and thriving community, Orlane has become a maze of locked doors and frightened faces. Strangers are shunned, trade has withered. Rumors flourish, growing wilder with each retelling. Terrified peasants flee their homes, abandoning their farms with no explanation. Others simply disappear. . .

No one seems to know the cause of the decay -- why are there no clues? Who skulks through the twisted shadows of the night? Who or what is behind the doom that has overtaken the village? It will take a brave and skillful band of adventurers to solve the dark riddle of Orlane!

Overview

N1 - Against The Cult of The Reptile God was the first adventure made by Doug Niles for TSR in 1982. The work was finished in four weeks and for its time, it was a progressive module. The formula of town-with-nearby-dungeon had already been established in earlier works, notably by Gary Gygax himself. But N1 really set the adventuring to begin in the town, rather than having to travel to the nearby dungeon before some action (unless robbing people was the action). This would be something that T1 The Village of Hommlet would touch on, correctly, but not over-focus.

The Town Stuff

It contains elements of town-play, wilderness, and of course, a dungeon. There are layers of discovery as the characters arrive in the village of Orlane. People have mixed reactions, from friendly to suspicious, and an investigation begins. Eventually, the players will learn of the presence of an evil cult. Some amount of exploration later, and the players will enter the dungeon itself. There is a stronger degree of investigative roleplay than what I prefer, but I think this stuff could be a bit more directly fed to the players via rumors, preferably before the PCs would even arrive to Orlane.

The module contains a lot of detailed information on the village of Orlane, which is needed to get to the meat of the adventure. Some of that juice could be squeezed and repurposed for a wider campaign. There will be signs of the cult and even confrontation. An adept Dungeon Master could easily lift these connection points and drop them into a town in their own campaign or even simply just take Orlane and drop it into a Hex.

The local temple has also been corrupted which provides a miniature dungeon itself as it proceeds to the mazes and tunnels below. What starts off as a normal religious operation is quickly made obvious that the cult ideals have also spread here. Below, encounters are met with monsters that make sense thematically as they have been charmed, and naturally in the case of the Shrieker. 

Another interesting aspect of the adventure is that the party can’t just rest in town indefinitely. The cult will make attempts to abduct them. There’s a very good chance that the characters will become charmed or imprisoned. Even if they attempt to pretend to be charmed, if they are imprisoned, there’s a good chance that they’ll be fed to lizards or killed and animated as zombies. Depending on the status quo of the campaign, a DM might better tip the players off rather than tell them a story about being abducted. This is done by the suggestion to ask the players about sleeping arrangements. In most campaigns, it would be tedious to ask how PCs are sleeping every night in a town/city, so this should raise some eyebrows.

There is an NPC named Ramne who has a critical, as written, importance to this adventure playing out. This seems innocent enough at first, but we'll get to why this is terrible below.

I don't know what's funnier, the calm smiley face of the guy with a bag over his head, or the oof-man.

The Wilderness Stuff

Learning about the Cults Headquarters will kick off the wilderness portion of the adventure. The module has clear and generalized descriptions of the areas the party will move through as well as different appropriate random encounter tables. That's pretty much it. There are no interesting sites, obstacles, or encounters to speak of outside of random encounters. If you're dropping it into your own hex crawl, it's not really a problem.

As the group gets closer to the dungeon itself, it will be clear that Ramne is a critical NPC. The module advises that if he isn’t present or is killed to have the characters find a scroll of minor globe of invulnerability and a 7th level dispel magic scroll. Also, I should mention that Ramne’s familiar “Whiskers” is somewhat needed to trail the Troglodytes. This is the worst part of the adventure, needing the reliance of a 7th level wizard. The module does encourage you to play him up as a feeble old man, but the idea that he’s not only present in a low-level adventure, but also necessary to a degree is awful.

I'm sure that in 1982 that people coming into the hobby just didn't know better and that included a number of people hired at TSR. But looking at it with our crystal clear 2025 20/20 hindsight age-of-hyper-criticism, putting in a powerful NPC that gets you past a powerful obstacle is not a satisfying challenge to player characters. 

The actual dungeon itself is pretty good. I’d say it was reasonably well laid out and has a lot packed into it. It does have a few things that don’t make total sense, but in general, these are minor. I will go into more detail in the “How I’d change it” section.

The Dungeon

After two floors of the dungeon and overcoming its challenges, I’d expect that the party will need to leave and rest or risk some unfortunate random encounters. The entire dungeon is either naturally occurring or excavated with muddy walls held up by slightly rotting timbers. The top floor is largely a constructed dungeon with walls, cultist servants and other monsters. The bottom floor is a more natural cave system with few constructed areas.

Once the party gets to the final encounter, it is revealed that a Spirit Naga is Explictica Defilus, the Reptile God. Here is where Ramne provides a protective and countering magical measures, otherwise a low level party stands no chance in this fight. She will start with a fireball, which requires Ramne’s minor globe of invulnerability. He will cast Lightning Bolt, quite softening her up. She will cast Darkness, which he will counter with Light. And finally, his Dispel Magics will be used to remove Charm.

While I hate that it's in this adventure, there is some value here: When people accustomed to level 1-3 B/X play need context about what a spell battle is like, this is an example that could be used.

How I'd Change It

• The setup: First, it's best to structurally frame important information about this adventure within the rumors/information gathering in your campaign before arriving at Orlane. The play-time juice that you want to squeeze out of this is mainly the dungeon and, to a lesser degree, the church primarily. Seed in hints that The Golden Grain Inn and the Temple of Merikka seem to be at play somehow, likely with local rumors. Perhaps even that Inn of the Slumbering Serpent as a better option for staying out of sight. If the party is suspicious of The Golden Grain Inn, they make poke around there and perhaps even set up a counter-ambush. At the very least, the party will want to check out the Temple and there's a good chance they'll want to break in at night.
• Room 3: The Cultist treasure room wouldn’t make sense that they’d have to brave scary frogs to truck valuables in and out of the area. How about Zombie frogs since the dead work for the cult. Minor flavor change and nobody is any wiser to it.
• Room 6: Burial pool - why waste skeletons when the level below has them trying to keep up with undead production? I'd think it would be easier to expunge what they could, right in their own home, rather than abducting more people and risking exposure unnecessarily. Simple fix: just have it be bones and body parts. Femurs, a skull, somethings hand, and maybe a foot float at the surface of the water.
• Rooms 7-8: It doesn’t sit well that a slime would just be harmlessly hanging out right next to cultist living quarters. Close off the hallway with a door and have the slime hanging above the door way, telegraphed with an unfortunately cultist who wandered in. Or just get rid of this hallway, it's pointless and move the slime to 12a or 12b. Those are prime for this kind of monster and are empty rooms.
• Room 16-17: A harpy lives here. This should be more of a nest than an actual room and it would make sense more if the ceiling had collapsed here, but not required. I'd definitely blow the ceiling open though.
• Room 26: A “Zombie Factory” with a cleric who can Animate Dead once/day. What does Garath Primo do after the few minutes per day or raising a single zombie? I don't know, I'd have him doing other things like trying to assemble a flesh golem with parts, but no means to animate it. Promises of the Reptile God can have him working tirelessly to achieve something out of reach. Also, it would add a bit of gruesome detail to see a patchwork set of stitched together body parts. Perhaps he made a humanoid arachnid or the human centipede? Perhaps there are two or more clerics taking shifts.
• Room 37: Explictica is too strong for this level range of players. So strong that it is assumed that you railroaded your PCs to use the NPC help. She can cast clerical and magic-user spells, including fireball, and her gaze can charm. She's got 9 HD, 40 HP, and an AC of 4. The entire forced guiding around the NPCs of this adventure is there because she is too powerful. Make up something new or lesser, get rid of Ramne. What I did was had a priest (basically Lareth from T1) be the mouth piece of the Reptile God. Or the Reptile God itself could be a stone guardian (MM2) shaped like a serpent man. I also made Ramne a proper old man NPC, with some sagely advice, but not the kind of guy who was ready to run to the dungeon with the players. It worked fine, but in retrospect I might make something like a half-strength Yuan Ti that can cast charm person and replace the cleric with another, even weaker, one. There's really only so many ways you can meet the expectations of a low level adventure alluding to a 'god'.
• Overall: have the undead more detailed, towns people (might even be cool if it was 'oh thats the seamstress' husband!') or failed adventurers adds a bit of flavor.
• Beforehand: Setting this in a world, I would already have a lot of the information gatherable before heading to Orlane if you wanted the session time spent more on the cult and the dungeon and less on in-town intrigue.

Can it CAG?

N1 is not a sure crowd pleaser universally, especially in the CAG circle. It's an investigative adventure and that alone turns some people off. This is not T1 - The Village of Hommlet, you can't just order ales at the Inn of the Welcome Witch, decide "Well there is that pesky Moathouse that probably has some money sitting around even though its caved in and overrun with giant bugs and frogs... lets have at it boys.", head on down to pick up some torches, a 10 foot pole, and some flasks of oil and be on your way.

This is one of those adventures where PCs need to talk to people. They will need to look under a few rocks, flip a few mattresses over, and check under some proverbial carpets. The adventure will come to them eventually, they just need to have faith. It will be a bit rocky getting there if your players are eager to get to exploring, but it will be rewarded.

By putting enough information in the world that can allude to what's going on there, it'll be quicker to get to the adventure. Gaps in knowledge that the players will have can surely be shored up here. As an adventure properly set in the temple and the dungeon, it could be a nice addition to your world with those things considered. Like most things, it could be made to CAG. 

Out of the box, I give it a 2.5/5 but with some mastering of dungeons, you can easily make this a 4/5. There's a lot of baby in that bathwater.

AD&D: Why the -1 Casting Time Shortcut?

I've received some direct messages regarding why I use this in my combat examples. People are pouring over the rules looking for this to be mentioned. This is a practiced shorthand for a lot of us, not deep cited rules lore. Don't like it? Don't use it.

This is not a rule, this is a communication aid. It changes zero outcomes logically. It's great for new people understanding segmented casting times. This is not just useful for the Dungeon Master, but for the players who have a spectrum of system familiarity at the table as well. As someone who has not only taught a lot of AD&D, but ran many tables with a spectrum of AD&D experience, this has worked fantastic in practice for years.

If you remember that a combat round is just 1 minute with 10 segments of 6 seconds each, you can logically see how it works by mapping out a full minute in seconds, then segments. What we refer to is the short cut math for doing a spell in relation to a battery of other actions in combat. I'll demonstrate some of that below.

In short, this takes an abstract segment and places the spell in firm relation to other events within similar timing. There is no granular breakdown of inter-segment resolution in AD&D other that weapon speed considerations and that omits the use of the segment other than it being a tie.

Really, this is such a stupid movement of a <end casting> label and nobody should lose sleep over this. The idea isn't what should happen, but whether everyone understands what does happen.

Breakdown of a round goes like this: 

<<<PREVIOUS ROUND (1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 (2) 7 8 9 10 11 12 (3) 13 14 15 16 17 18 (4) 19 20 21 22 23 24 (5) 25 26 27 28 29 30 (6) 31 32 33 34 35 36 (7) 37 38 39 40 41 42 (8) 43 44 45 46 47 48 (9) 49 50 51 52 53 54 (10) 55 56 57 58 59 60 >>>NEXT ROUND

-1 method (Initiative + Casting time -1): 

An initiative of 2 with a stinking cloud counting 12 seconds. (1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 (2) <start casting> 7 8 9 10 11 12 (3) 13 14 15 16 17 18 <end casting> (4) 19 20 21 22 23 24 (5) and so on to 60.

The standard math method (Initiative + Casting time): 

An initiative of 2 with a stinking cloud counting 12 seconds. (1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 (2) <start casting> 7 8 9 10 11 12 (3) 13 14 15 16 17 18  (4) <end casting> 19 20 21 22 23 24 (5) and so on to 60.

What's the difference?

Either works fine, but consider the following scenarios (note that casting versus melee is handled very specifically in AD&D and is a separate topic):

Zombies are attacking Farmer Fred's homestead! The party goes to rescue farmer friend, a 0 level human, who is fending off a zombie from breaking through his front door. Zombies are everywhere and a melee has broken out. The magic-user is out of lower casting time spells and has to use disintegrate on the zombie before it hit's Fred. Remember that Zombies always attacks at the end of the round. Disintegrate is a 6 segment casting time. The initiative roll for the party comes up 4.

The standard math method (Initiative + Casting time): 

<<<PREVIOUS ROUND (1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 (2) 7 8 9 10 11 12 (3) 13 14 15 16 17 18 (4) <party initiative - start casting> 19 20 21 22 23 24 (5) 25 26 27 28 29 30 (6) 31 32 33 34 35 36 (7) 37 38 39 40 41 42 (8) 43 44 45 46 47 48 (9) 49 50 51 52 53 54 (10) <end casting> 55 56 57 58 59 60 >>>NEXT ROUND

What happened first? Did the zombie crush Farmer Fred? Or did Disintegrate do it's thing? We know that keeping in mind the described method that it happens at the top of the segment. But segment 10 and 10 is confusing to some players (and new DMs). 

-1 method (Initiative + Casting time -1): 

<<<PREVIOUS ROUND (1) 1 2 3 4 5 6 (2) 7 8 9 10 11 12 (3) 13 14 15 16 17 18 (4) <party initiative - start casting> 19 20 21 22 23 24 (5) 25 26 27 28 29 30 (6) 31 32 33 34 35 36 (7) 37 38 39 40 41 42 (8) 43 44 45 46 47 48 (9) 49 50 51 52 53 54 <end casting> (10)  55 56 57 58 59 60 >>>NEXT ROUND

What happened first? Did the zombie crush Farmer Fred? Or did Disintegrate do it's thing? We know, right away, that the disintegrate happened to the zombie before any attack was made.

The party is ambushed on the roadside by bandits! Two of them are crested on either side of the road by archers who have glistening arrows dripping in some green ichor. The magic user wants to mitigate the possibility of poison arrow quickly, so he declares magic missile. Initiative comes up 1 for the party and 2 for the bandits.

The standard math method (Initiative + Casting time): 

<<<PREVIOUS ROUND (1) <party initiative - start casting> 1 2 3 4 5 6 (2) <end casting> 7 8 9 10 11 12 (3) 13 14 15 16 17 18 (4)  19 20 21 22 23 24 (5) 25 26 27 28 29 30 (6) 31 32 33 34 35 36 (7) 37 38 39 40 41 42 (8) 43 44 45 46 47 48 (9) 49 50 51 52 53 54 (10) 55 56 57 58 59 60 >>>NEXT ROUND

The clarification of same segment ordering does tell us that the magic missile happens before the missile fire. But again, segment 2 and 2 can be confusing.

-1 method (Initiative + Casting time -1): 

<<<PREVIOUS ROUND (1) <party initiative - start casting> 1 2 3 4 5 6 <end casting> (2)  7 8 9 10 11 12 (3) 13 14 15 16 17 18 (4)  19 20 21 22 23 24 (5) 25 26 27 28 29 30 (6) 31 32 33 34 35 36 (7) 37 38 39 40 41 42 (8) 43 44 45 46 47 48 (9) 49 50 51 52 53 54 (10) 55 56 57 58 59 60 >>>NEXT ROUND

Same result, but we know "Hey Magic missile went off segment 1, so it should blast one of those archers before they fire" and so does the entire table if they've been introduced to the shortcut.

Debating on moving things one second marker forward doesn't change the outcome, only how you shortcut it and refer to it during the dozens of rounds of combat you play in a session. Hopefully this clears things up for people who see the casting time -1 shortcut around the AD&D spaces online.

EDIT:

My friend EOTB posted on this issue in another discord, interesting commentary by Gary. He states that all actions take place at the beginning of a segment, which makes a spell also occurring them real iffy if that is followed.

Basic Campaign Setup

Getting Started on the Classic Adventure Game Sandbox

This post isn't meant to be exhaustive, but it's meant to wrap up a lot of questions that I regularly answer for questions in earnest. A lot of people interested in the CAG playstyle have seen all of the advice over blog posts, adventure reviews, and discussion on the building blocks of a dungeon, but there's very little advice out there on how to build a sandbox.

Before you read my post, check out Melan's excellent post here on a simple Hex Crawl guide. Be sure to check out Rob Conleys exhaustive writings and book on the subject himself.

This guy in the tavern won't shut up about adventure rumors if you buy him drinks.

Tentpole Dungeon

Megadungeons are tentpoles, as the common saying goes. A fully realized campaign will have non-megadungeon adventures, towns/cities/villages, lairs, etc. My campaigns always start with the supports of the adventures, propped by the towns, the canvas that lays over the supports are the wilderness in between. You have a megadungeon and a city. Now make 3 smaller settlements, 2 normal sized dungeons, and then think about how they'd all relate to each other. Are there any ways they are symbiotic already? In what ways can you add to that? 

Now populate a wilderness region to connect all of it, put in your small dungeons, your lairs, and your landmarks based on the culture that exists (or existed) in that region. What are the potential conflicts, what are the major NPCs or monstrous forces moving towards, and how long does that take. Write your brief timeline. Now expand that. Double it, triple it, multiply it by 10, and with each section find ways that the chunks are symbiotic to each other. Look at more things NPCs/monsters moving towards, fill in more of your timeline. Every megadungeon campaign is going to get some level of fatigue at some point. Those events happen, make their way to rumors and town-criers. The world is living with or without the PCs. 

The best product I can cite that captures these elements is Khosura by Gabor Lux.

The Hex Map

The most difficult things for me to articulate are things that I feel come naturally. Mapping is easier than some than others. If you can make a relatively interesting hex map, you don't need my help. If you struggle, then try what's worked for others:

Use random hexmap generators that allow you to edit after the fact and just hit generate. Or use real world maps and make 'not England'. Get yourself something that you can manipulate. Smooth out some terrain that might be too random or too 'in the weeds' for a tabletop game. Make sure water is accessible by settlements, but otherwise make it make some sort of geographical sense. And when it doesn't (why is there a swamp hex in the middle of these rolling hills? Oh, that area has been affected by disease geyser that bubbles up from the depths and a town has sunken into that swamp? Cool, make that a dungeon).

Great to Use for Play or Template

Wilderlands of High Fantasy by Judges Guild

Fomalhaut by Gabor Lux

Nod Magazine by Jon Stater

Black Marsh by Rob Conley 

Generators

Worldographer

https://hexroll.app/

https://hextml.playest.net/

Blank Hex Maps (For Printing or Photoshop/GIMP)

Blank JG Maps (https://devilghost.com/blog/20140705153400.html)

https://molotovcockatiel.com/hex-map-maker/

https://hamhambone.github.io/hexgrid/

 

Starting Towns and Regional Network

One quick method of setting up your own towns, I've already written about here. I recommend, to start, a network of about 5 reasonably sized towns. 'Reasonably' being the term that would at least provide characters the opportunity to restock on gear, visit temples for healing, find some henchmen or hirelings, and rest. One of those should be a city, which I will go in to more depth under City Adventuring. Another few villages as way points may be desirable depending on the size and scale of your planned hex map.

City Adventuring

As mentioned in the Town blog, you can use Sandbox Generator to help you get the bones of a city generator. Personally, I just used my imagination for most cities and started building it organically. If you are not able to, you can use a generator to get yourself started.

Alternatively, this online fantasy town generator  can get you a map in a hurry. You can see I used an convenient sample from below. I simply downloaded the image, opened the file up and started the next step: establishing districts and neighborhoods.

How would you divide up these districts? Where is water coming from?

Once you have the districts laid out, you should have a top down macro view of the general flow of how the city is ruled, who it's ruled by, and who it's really ruled by. You should know which areas are generally non-adventure areas typically and which ones will need random encounter tables (the final step).

Then once you have drilled down just enough to get a real solid idea of what's really happening in the city, start thinking about organizations, military, mercenaries, assassins, spies, thieves guilds, churches, cults, and finally 'what lives below the city'.

Now write some dangerous places that could be adventured within the city. Dark alleyways, warehouses, sewers, territory streets being fought over by rivals, and magic-user abodes. Once you spend a bit of time to really have some meat to find in the city, the next step is random encounters.

Both City Encounters and The Nocturnal Table, as well as a strong template for City State of the Invincible Overlord, have encounters that can fit in any city. The Forgotten Realms City System might be helpful to you, as well as FR1 Waterdeep and the North for inspiration.

Establish a Rough Timeline

This doesn't have to be exhaustive at first. When did the current rulers come into power? What events led up to certain adventure relevant status quos? When were some of those more major adventure sites build and operational? That ziggurat was built by someone. What happened? Then some of the fun of running a long term campaign is sprinkling some specific events to happen in the future, informed by what's already on the hex map.

For example, maybe on session 20 (day xxxx on your timeline), the the leader of the 40 ogre Torn-Face tribe is rumored to have the Blade of the Frostking, (from Hex XXXX) is going to try to set up in the forest stronghold (Hex XXYY) to settle in for a permanent home. The PCs may hear some rumors, one about a forest stronghold to the east where the lost kings treasures were buried with his mummified contingent and has since been eroded until it was partially flooded, letting other foul things slither in. The PCs go travel to it and come across 2 barrow mounds, an ankheg lair, and a fairy ring that was a cruel dryad ambush going back and forth to it but explore/loot the dungeon. Later the Ogres take it over and are there on a revisit. Maybe the PCs need to stop some place for the night and 'shit, 40 ogres'. 

Or the PCs aren't interested when they first hear about the forest stronghold. The PCs, later, having spent 20 sessions in the megadungeon, hear about the ogre tribe smashing through the forest stronghold to the east. The PCs see a change in scenery as a palette cleanser and go check it out. 

The ogres are now part of the upper level that used to be manned by clerics of some peaceful god that had their own obstacle of getting past. The Ogres fear the undead and shambling mounds that were already underneath, but now that site has Ogres to contend with and the undead are restless. Had they acted on a rumor they heard 5 sessions ago, getting through to that dungeon level would have been a matter of convincing the clergy, a very expensive or violent endeavor, who have been keeping the undead pacified. 

That is how 1 timeline entry can facilitate play as you tick the days past and add another dimension to the strict time records that you should be keeping.

DIY: So you need some Adventure Game towns?

Disclaimer: I took a blank area of an expansion map of my world, which had nothing in the area. I created the concept of the towns and the adventures off the top of my head. There is no detailed adventure site of the Ruins of Ik or the Beastmen Mines. But maybe some day.

I saw some discussion on how to set up towns in an open world campaign, which I default to a hexcrawl. Many people use existing campaign materials to set up their world, perhaps even using the hexcrawl that they are meant for as a wholesale solution. But there are some people who aim to build out their own world, using others materials or not, and towns/cities/etc become one of the areas where it could be useful to see how other people create theirs.

With my campaign, I have a whole vision of how the world works and that informed most of the major civilized points. But sometimes, you need to fill in the gaps and introduce a more complete ecosystem to the world that requires some brainpower.

The first thing that people accomplish is knowing the adventures nearby, as this is the focus of the game. Veteran gamers have their own methods and mine is a mixed bag itself. There are a ton of tools for town and city generation out there as well. I figure it might be useful for me to detail some basics on how I begin in an area using The Sandbox Generator. (Not sponsored, I just find it useful and you can get it here.) And we begin by looking at the adventures nearby.

The adventures on a brief level:

Ruins of Ik

• Relatively small, 15 keyed area adventure site. 
• Crypt and monument built to ancient heroes.
• One of the ancient heroes, Ik, was a fighter who carried the Cat Claw, a renowned blade.
• Attracted looting once, but a lone survivor fled after seeing his friends slain in the dark.

Beastmen Mines

• Runs three tiers deep totaling about 100 dungeon rooms.
• The primary mining exports was iron. But silver and diamonds were found.
• Old mining town outside, now lies in rubble.
• The albino beastmen came from the depths and wiped out the miners.
• The demon cult of Baphomet has subjugated the beastmen.

The towns on a brief level:

• Tolrek, a Neutral Good farming village that deals in livestock. Population 100.
• Fendale, a Lawful Neutral palisaded town that primarily deals with hunting furs, fresh water fish, root vegetation, and has a small military force that protects the town from brigands and occasional beastmen who wander too close to the walls. A lake sits to the south.

That's it, that is all I know and we want towns that feel like a part of the world.

Filling out the Village in a Hurry:

Using Sandbox Generator, let's see about setting up Tolrek first.

I always start with an Inn. Small towns like this don't always have an inn. Looking at the map, it's out of the way of any primary travel. Flipping to page 28, a quick glance at the names pops something out for me: The Dream Orchard. Okay cool, I'll decide it can have an inn. Not exactly scientific and you could always use a name generator or figure out one.

I already know the basics of the village, so I go to page 34. I decide it's a heap layout. I draw the map and label one "The Dream Orchard". 

I know the occupation, so I move on. It's only got one other point of interest, which is the horse stables. That immediately clicks into my head that a livestock town also breeds excellent mounts. I label the stables on the map. I detail that out and check for defenses. It appears that Tolrek has built a moat around the town. After all, livestock being killed by wolves in the night would be bad for livelihood.

How about an interesting NPC? I roll a misunderstood witch. I decide that on the outskirts of town, an old female druid lives in a hut of mud and sticks. Perhaps she could be a source of poison removal in the future.

Who is the town ruled by? I roll a priest. Which means I need to detail a church. I come up with the oh-so-holy Church of Alaunus in my campaign world. Given the size of the town, he should be level 3. Not real useful for raising the dead, but he serves a purpose in town. And probably has his small town religious folk talking ill of the witch. Perfect. I label the church on my map.

I already know the towns general disposition, which is friendly. After all, travellers means more money flowing through the small village. But I hadn't considered a secret... Not being committed to the idea, I roll and there is no secret. No events.

That's generally it. Not the best place for adventurers to buy new swords, but a general store would serve this community by having poles, rope, pitons, etc. I label the general store. I now have a functional town, mostly.

Lets get some rumors for the Dream Orchard. In town we have the witch and the potential of predators stalking livestock in the night. Nearby, we may have something for Fendale. But we definitely should have something for the Ruins of Ik and maybe the Beastmen Mines.

1. The town seems pretty supportive of their Church, so a vicious rumor about the witch poisoning livestock is number one. We decide it's false and that visiting the witch shows she is caring for chickens and goats herself. One down.
2. We add a rumor about the moat protecting the wealthier residents, but wolves have been taking livestock from some outer residents.
3. We earmark a rumor for Fendale, later to become a rumor about thieves coming from Fendale and robbing homes in the night.
4. We add a rumor about the Ruins of Ik, particularly the folklore about the Cats Claw.
5. We add another rumor about the Ruins of Ik, particularly about the failed looting.
6. We add a vague rumor about the Beastmen mines, that it runs three tiers deep and the village is in ruins.

There, that's 6 rumors. This place is ready to game. Ultimate lazy map that I can redo later (or even use one of the map town generator tools online to make a cleaner map with):

Filling in the Town in a Hurry:

We next go to Fendale. Starting over on page 34, we come up with going with a round layout which facilitates the palisade nicely. I have decided to give a blacksmith, market, and tavern. I make up a name for the tavern, which is also an Inn called The Running Stag. 

A special location I roll up is a Library founded by a retired Magic-User (level 5), which can also serve as a trainer. I roll up a church to Aenahn (my god of justice) and also make the head priest level 5. I also roll a mill, and have decided that a retired Fighter lives here (I also rolled up 'Retired Mercenary on the notable NPCs). I have trainers. I label them on the map and draw the mill in on the lakeside.

I also roll up a lonely widow, I decide she's wealthy, and decide that she lost her husband to a giant catfish that haunts the lake to the south. It's a hunting town and I have decided that albino beastmen pelts are worth 50 gp. I roll for a secret and get a secret society. I make them a small thieves guild. This could play into thief training well.

The market should be able to provide arms and armor, food, supplies, as well as sell furs and trade meats.

The church can provide services up to level 3 cleric spells.

Knowing more about the town, I revisit Tolrek. I put in a rumor about the thieves guild. Seems like they tend to go outside the walls to rob from Tolrek from time to time.

I develop the rumors for Fendale and come up with:

1. The giant catfish swallowed a small fishing boat whole carrying a wealthy man. Surely he had valuables.
2. We add a rumor about beastmen wandering too close to town.
3. We add a rumor of the haunted Ruins of Ik, where the dead don't rest.
4. We add a rumor of the old mining town being a ruined nest of beastmen.
5. We add a rumor of cult activity deep within the mines.
6. We add a rumor of the lost diamonds and silver of the mines.

I can develop more, but there is 6 rumors.

That's it, I have something to go off from. I develop the NPCs of the thieves guild, the retired mercenary, the retired magic-user, the clergy of the church and decide how they would feel about each other. Given the hidden nature of the thieves guild, I decide it would be fun to have a basement-tunnel network of rooms underneath the town and write a 10 room set up in case investigations lead there for adventure. And I did all of this in 90 minutes. 

But I wouldn't feel done with this. This is a draft. I can run a session with this in a pinch, but the real work happens once you let it live in your head for a bit. You've familiarized yourself with the town, some of the people, and its surroundings. Think about it while you work out, while you're watching a boring movie, on a drive, whenever. Re-read your notes a few days later. Let it sink in and think about how you can make it cooler. Then go back and revise it. Then revise it some more. Then probably redraw it using a higher fidelity tool if you want to show it to another living soul.

So how do I do a city? That's a bit more involved. How do you whip off a draft for a town?

Major Contentions in AD&D: Part 1?

Debatable AD&D Interpretations

With the OSRIC Kickstarter looming in the new year, many wonder how different it is to AD&D. Further more, with people learning AD&D, questions come up that generate contention. The people who have been stewarding AD&D for newer generations have specific takes on the game. I am writing this blog post as a survival guide for navigating these conversations (or ignoring them).

An interpretation of a rule isn't the same as a house rule if it can be argued as Rules as Written (RAW) or By the Book (BTB). This is a oddly specific but necessary distinction as conversations about how to play AD&D are assumed to be RAW, which makes responding with a house rule without specifying it often like farting in a moment of silence. So people have a subconscious motivation to justify their interpretation as a RAW, which is natural, but some of those cases people are using the Law of Omission to stake a claim under the flag of "well it doesn't specifically say X", which makes things messy.

Messy is what we don't want in teaching spaces, because people are asking direct, often foundational, questions. Some people love watching debates fly, especially if they are wide-eyed first timers, but just as many people are lead to confusion by these common contentions. 

Other interpretations are reasonable readings of the rules, what was said, what wasn't said, and how it dovetails into the rest of the system. They have been debated, cited, counter-cited, and running on the fumes of belief for decades. These aren't posted here to invite debate: that's been done and it's tired. And I have no interest in it, only that people are aware of these. It's for information and reference. I am biased because I am me and this is my blog. These are the Major Contentions in AD&D and they will always be.

Overarching Initiative

First up, is the major one. AD&D Initiative Controversy There isn't a whole lot to say here other than what's written in that linked thread, but some of it's splinter-children result in some of the other major contentions. One of the major differences is that, basically, spill-over segments from actions that did not complete within the 60 seconds of a combat round, complete at the end of the round rather than work their way into the following combat round.

When does casting start in the combat round? 

The debate comes down to: "If the party initiative is 3, then when does the Fireball start casting?" 

I say that on segment 3 you start casting, and finish the end of segment 5. This means you can be interrupted (not merely struck to be unable to cast that round) to lose the spell while being hit on segments 3-5. 

Others say you start on segment 1 and finish segment 5. So you can be interrupted at any time to lose that spell.

Others say you start on segment 1 and finished the end segment 3, which greatly reduces the window of interruption outside of a melee condition.

And others say something else, usually involving not calculating the segment additive of casting time as X-1.

When does movement start in the combat round?

This is a contentious position in that movement cannot be totally free, but how people have walked away from the rulebooks with conclusions has varied quite a bit.

I say that any action that is not contested, that it happens along the timeline of segment to segment play. Therefore, if there is a combat round where your fighter and cleric are in a melee with 4 ogres, but the thief wants to head down the corridor away from the fight to watch the rear, he just goes. He doesn't wait 24 segments into a combat round to move: he just does. 

If he wanted to charge from outside of the room, then nothing is stopping him. He is running at the ogres recklessly and this is taken into account with the charge AC penalty. He begins the movement of his charge on segment 1, he does not wait 24 segments to start.

If he wanted to pull out a potion from his pack, drink it, and then move, I would calculate all of those actions as segment costs. Just like the example in the DMG:

The other point of view, while also being argued as RAW, is simpler to execute. You do the thing you need to do starting on your initiative. This removed some of the potency of a charge attack. And if a charge attack started in a surprise round and didn't complete into the next round, then that's a consideration for the very first point of Overarching Initiative.

How are characters with high dexterity who do not get surprised handled during segments of surprise?

There is a method that says they are simply not surprised. They don't get their own actions, as they don't have surprise. But they don't have the status that surprise would give such as being attacked at the rate of 1 round (or 3 if prepared missile fire) per segment.

There is another one that lets them act in their segment, therefore making the surprise segments a miniature round. 

In terms of game balance, it doesn't differ much in practice, but you are making surprise by a pack of monsters much less threatening if you have a few party members with reaction adjustments that can also react. 

Attacks at the end of a charge are attack routines?

The rulebooks are not clear on whether the attack at the end of a charge is an attack (singular), or an attack routine. I choose attack routines, which benefits haste and dual-wielding, especially at higher levels, and makes monster ambushes a bit more potent. 

When looking at this in conjunction with the surprise rules, I feel that it scales better into the level 8-9 range when monsters need more attack rolls to hit better AC heroes for there to be some attrition. While the special abilities and explosive powers they face can turn the tide of combat against the players easily, melee is one of the things that is the easiest to mitigate if the economy of attacks is too low. Likewise, shoving 200 monsters into rooms shows as a contrivance to the players, where is establishing a two-sided rule that always existed means that you can get your extra economical attack roll balancing naturally. It's also more fun.

Weapon Speed of Natural Attacks

Natural attacks have no weapon speed. Or they are the same as fists. This is a melee initiative tie-breaker issue. If they have no weapon speed, some rule that any weapon with a speed attacks first. Others rule that having no weapon speed, means they attack first.

Natural Weapons vs Weapon Length at the end of a charge

There is support in the DMG to use reach as a decider on what attacks hit first on a charge. But like weapon speed, it's never given any guidance. I have natural attacks return hits on their initiative. Trent over at mystical-trash-heap suggests using 1 foot for every 3 feet of height. 

Minor Honorable Mentions

When do Assassins get Thief Skills?

Assassins function as thieves at two levels lower. Some say that means they don't get thief abilities until level 3. Some say they function as a level 1 thief up until level 3. Others even look at the progression of thief abilities and map it backwards to reduce the rates.

How do we handle monsters with multiple ACs?

There's no direct guidance for fighting, say, a Bulette.

The AC is for different locations. You can randomize it, like firing missiles weapons into melee. But I prefer to just let you say 'yeah I know its tail is weak, I'll attack that this round'. One is going to reward knowledge of a monster (and obtaining it), one is going to make it more difficult by employing chance.

Does Attacking a Turned Undead "Unturn" it?

It's not stated anywhere in the rules exactly, though most people are pretty clear about cornering undead. If they can't flee, they will be cornered and fight back. Now if they flee and have room, I prefer in my games that it breaks the turn for that undead (not all that were turned). Some prefer that they will continue to flee, as if by a failure of morale so that the attacks at the back as they flee are free. And finally, others prefer that undead become useless.

Magic bows firing non-magical Arrows

It doesn't specifically state (and specially states differently on some other missile weapons) that magical bows cause the mundane arrows that are fired to be able to strike as magical weapons. Make sure to put enough ways to get magical ammo into your game if you're like me and don't have the bow enchant the arrow beyond it's +1 to hit and damage effect.

In Conclusion

The rules disagreements come from a weird place, particularly with people who have been running a certain way for decades. These ideas work into their eco-system of interpretations, they are instinctual, and allow them to run smoother games. People who successfully run AD&D campaigns with their particular set of interpretations are often 'correct' too as they have resulted in fun and successful campaigns, making it the ideal. I can only imagine that reading something counter to their ideal as possibly a badwrongfun declaration. It shouldn't be viewed that way. These are rules considerations to be made once you have a handle on the system overall, not infinite branching logic trails to learning the game.

AD&D Combat Example 3

Burlapsack the level 5 fighter (26 hp, AC: 1)

Loudandpreach the level 5 cleric (22 hp, AC: 2)

Darkandmoody the level 5 assassin (15 hp, AC: 3)

Puddlepoop the level 6 thief (16 hp, AC: 5)

The adventurers come upon a chamber, descending downward towards the skeletal statue of Nergal, it's flanked by alcoves set with coffins. They venture further towards the room, but just to the door or top steps. While they are discussing their next action, time has caused a random encounter check, which shows up as 4 gnolls, wearing a crude painted skull on their chests.

Surprise is checked and the party rolls a 2 and is surprised for 2 segments.

Encounter distance is checked and the gnolls are 20 feet away. (2 on a 1d3 x 10 feet)

Surprise segments begin. The thief and the assassin have high dexterity and negate being surprised, entirely. Both have reaction adjustments of -2 and therefore are surprised for 0 segments. The fighter has a reaction adjustment of -1, so he is surprised for 1 segment. *

The gnolls charge. It will take one segment to get into melee range (and charge termination range). Gnolls move at 9", which means per segment they move 9 feet. Charging in a dungeon doubles that, which means they cover 18" a segment, which is more than enough to terminate the charge. 

Each segment of surprise allows full attacks. Both the cleric and the fighter get charged by two gnolls on the first segment of surprise.

Surprise segment 1, the gnolls charging the cleric roll a 2 and a 12, that's a definite miss on the 2. The 12 (+2 for charging, with a THAC0 of 16, means it hits AC 2, which hits the cleric) is a hit. 5 damage is rolled and applied to the cleric.

The gnolls charging the fighter roll an 13 and a 9. The 13 (+2 for charging, with a THAC0 of 16, hits AC 1, which hits the fighter. The 9 is a miss. 3 damage is rolled and applied to the fighter.

Surprise segment 2, the fighter is out of surprise. The cleric is still in. The gnolls no longer have the ability to take bonus attacks on the fighter.

The cleric is attacked two more times. This time, the rolls are 18 and 12. The 18 will hit (THAC0 of 16, hits AC -2) and the 12 (THAC0 of 16, hits AC 4) will miss. 4 more damage is applied to the cleric.

Top of Round 1

We now go into round one just as the disturbance sends ghouls bursting out of the coffins in the west room and skeletons come through the double doors to the north.

The ghouls look like they are about to charge and the skeletons are moving into the melee. Declarations are asked of the party. The assassin will quaff his potion of invisibility. The thief will run up the stairs to join his companions. The cleric will turn undead.

Initiative is rolled. Monsters get a 1 and the party gets a 5, meaning the party acts on segment 1, the monsters act on segment 5. The ghouls all want to charge, but the two most eastern ones have to run around the staircase, so they'll be engaging in melee if they can find a spot. The other 4 will charge.

Segment 1, the fighter attacks, rolls a 19 for 9 damage to the south-most gnoll, killing it. The assassin takes a segment to get out the potion. The thief moves up the stairs. The cleric turns undead and rolls a 14, it has to affect the lowest HD undead first, so he affects the skeleton (rolling a 5 for the amount of undead turned for 6 rounds) and the skeletons immediately flee back north. The ghouls are unaffected but the cleric will be able to turn again since he hasn't failed.

Segment 2, the assassin drinks the potion, but two of the ghouls made it up the steps in their charge (covering the distance required by segment 2). Their attacks are a mixture of hits and misses, causing the assassin 8 damage, but he is able to save vs paralyzation despite being unable to dodge **. The delay on his potion is 2 segments.

Segment 4, the assassin goes invisible.

Segment 5, the gnolls attack, getting no hits on the now-unsurprised fighter and cleric.

The round is finished.

Top of Round 2

The ghouls are crowding up the staircase, but the assassin is now invisible, the cleric is going to turn undead. The assassin is going to hop off the side of the stairs and try to get a more advantageous position away from the ghouls. (speeding through this round since there's nothing new to show).

Initiative is rolled. Monsters get a 4 and the party gets a 3, meaning the party acts on segment 4, the monsters act first on segment 3.

The assassin was technically in melee, so him jumping away is going to open him up to attacks. *** Invisibility has saved him from the blind attacks, however. The rest of the ghouls press in to the rear of the party, unable to charge. The gnolls attack, hitting both the cleric and fighter for 4 points of damage each.

The skeletons are still fleeing. The cleric turns undead again, and the ghouls are turned for 4 rounds, they all flee back into the room. The party elects to not attack them as they flee, which would cancel the turning.

Top of Round 3

This is a busy spot! At the top of the round, a robed man appears at the doorway, shouting at the gnolls in their language just before casting a spell. The cleric is turning undead, the thief is going to throw daggers at the robed man. The assassin is invisible and will wait for the cleric to see if he's successful before sneaking in.

Initiative is rolled, and a 5 comes up for the players, a 2 for the monsters. The party will act on segment 2  and the monsters on segment 5. 

Segment 1, because of the dexterity of the thief, his daggers are thrown at the beginning of the round. He rolls two 8s (THAC0: 19 + 2 missile attack adjustment -5 because range = AC 14, which is a miss on the robed mans AC of 7).

Segment 2, the fighter swings at a gnoll, scoring a 15 which will hit and deals 7 points of damage to the gnoll, which isn't enough to kill it. The cleric turns undead, rolls a 15, and rolls a 7, making all the ghouls flee backward into the west room for 7 rounds.

Segment 3, the assassin waits for the ghouls to leave the staircase.

Segment 4, the assassin could elect to move silently (12' per round, making it about 4 rounds to get to the robed man DMG p19) but opts to take his chances of being heard and moves his normal movement rate to the main room.

Segment 5, the gnolls attack, rolling a 9, 11, and 13 which is not enough to hit the fighter or the cleric. At the end of segment 5 (spells are init + casting time -1 but last of segment), the magic missile from the robed man goes off at the cleric striking him for 12 damage bringing him to 3 hp (22 -5 -4 -12).

Segment 6, the assassin reaches just outside of the melee and decides that he'll continue silently.

Top of Round 4

The robed man is again casting. The cleric can fight now that the undead have been cleared. The thief steps into the melee. The assassin creeps towards the robed man. He'll get into a reasonable spot if his move silently works on the following round since he's only moving 12' per round (which is why he didn't move silently before hand - moving stealthily is very slow).

Initiative comes up 3 on the players roll, 6 on the monsters. Monsters act on segment 3 while the players act on segment 6.

Segment 3, the gnolls attack the cleric rolling a 9 (miss) and a 20 (hit) and score 4 on the cleric. The cleric is at -1 and now unconscious, bleeding out. The other gnoll rolls a 2 which misses.

Segment 4, at the end, the robed man successfully mirror images making 2 copies of himself.

Segment 6, the fighter rolls a 19 and kills a gnoll scoring 5 damage and kills it. The thief rolls a 5 and misses the gnoll.

Top of Round 5

The mirror images are all casting again. The cleric bleeds out. The thief and fighter attack. The assassin, now confused with three possible target, takes his chance at a backstab.

Initiative is rolled and the players score a 4 and the monster score a 4.

Segment 4, the thief/assassin are using short swords, the fighter is using a long sword, which are both faster weapon speeds than the gnolls spears. The thief goes first along with the assassin.

The thief rolls an 18, dealing 6 damage to a gnoll. The fighter rolls a 15 and scores 4 points of damage on that same gnoll bringing another gnoll down.

The assassin rolls to strike a clone, rolling a 1:3 (we say roll a 1 or 2 on a D6 and you get the right one, he rolls a 2) chance to strike the correct one with his to-hit roll of 16. He lucks out, hits the right clone in the middle of casting a lightning bolt (which would have happened at the end of segment 6) and deals 12 damage to the robed man, bringing him down.

The gnoll gets to roll, scores a 5, hitting nothing.

Now the party has to finish off the gnoll and stabilize the cleric before the undead come rushing back soon.

* BTB there is no distinction of what it means to not be a surprised individual of a surprised party, but here we make surprise a status effect. Surprise being: can be attacked during surprise segments, cannot use dexterity for AC (kind of optional), cannot use shields (optional). With this, it makes surprise segments resolve faster, rather than be micro rounds that take just as long as a combat round to resolve in real time, and surprised players can start acting sooner.

The alternative is to allow unsurprised characters react, fight, attack, cast, etc during surprise segments. In this example, we'd have to determine the order of action for the Gnolls and the party members on each segment and resolve them thusly.

**  I will not allow a dex bonus when someone is trying to do something other than concentrate on fighting.

*** All fleeing and charging happen at the top of the round.

New Adventure Site Contest II is ready to go!

 https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/home/adventure-site-contest-ii-purpose-and-standards

Ben runs a great contest. These community contests are the new bedrock of our community. I don't have the time to write something fresh myself, but if you got good ideas floating around in your head, you should have at it.

Best of luck!