Burials of Teganshire Post 3 of 30
Moving right along to our locality-based adventure settings, i.e., campaign play, we’ve talked about starting small and staying small. Especially with NPCs, staying local is not just some lazy DM technique, it’s the cornerstone to having the PCs shape the world around them while at the same time, instilling a sense of verisimilitude that said world has a life of its own. That’s a neat trick, yes?
The more often PCs move beyond a local setting, the more they leave behind NPCs with their own motivations and dispositions. They arrive at a new location and start over.
And I cannot stress this enough—it’s that start over that lets apathy set into your game table. Suddenly your PCs went from drama-inducing machines to (wait for it)—murderhobos.
Do you want murderhobos? Well, that’s how you get murderhobos.
Beyond crunchy NPCs with their own drama (character), the DM has a crucial tool in their toolbox, the local map (setting). Handdrawn maps on hex paper to the hyper-detailed Anna Meyer map, your local map only needs three things:
- A map scale to reinforce the local boundary
- Terrian that identifies the varied flora (farmland, forests, water, etc.)
- And most importantly, sites on the map for the PCs to wander into when they go off the beaten path
The Trope of Moving Beyond the Village
Before we go map-happy, let’s talk about a medieval trope—most villagers did not wander away from their village.
In D&D, we dial this trope to 11. Not only can you run into hostile people who don’t like you if you wander away from the village, but you can get eaten by a monster! PCs should be romanticized by the locals—like men-at-arms, traveling bards, couriers, and traders—PCs for good or bad are the people with the gumption to wander beyond the beaten path in search of fame, fortune, and honor. Villagers will think they are either unique and heroic, or unique and foolish. Either way, the PCs are starting to leave a stamp. What they do starts to impact NPC motivations.
The Local Area Map
All those things can occur in a barony-sized chunk of land. Make it a large barony, 144-square miles, and that is a fantastic amount of land, from a medieval perspective, even on horseback. Or, a DM can go old school and use a single 30-mile hex, a whopping 779-square mile chunk of land. Personally, I like the hex grid method. It’s Greyhawk-like, and I love me some Greyhawk.
Adventure Sites on your Map
How many adventure sites do you need? I suggest a different approach—how many random encounters do you have, and how much conflict do you want to articulate ahead of time? In a localized campaign, PCs are generating conflict and solving conflict. A DM needs room for expansion, so putting down twelve areas with a paragraph description, with the idea of creating twelve more as the campaign progresses, is a viable campaign (linked adventure) plan. As a DM, you need both the flexibility for the players to wander a bit, but also the ability to add a location, based on players generating encounter locations for you.
Picture this scene around the table—an innocent conversation between players.
Player 1: “That eff’n mimic was annoying. I hate those things.”
Player 2: “I wonder where it came from?”
Player 3: “Somewhere needs to receive all the fire.”
DM: (secretly writing notes)
And thus, the Great Mimic Breading Ground (heh, heh, heh) in the abandoned wizard tower basement (of course it was a wizard) was born. Player 1 secretly loved everything about the adventure. Player 2 regretted opening his big mouth. Player 3 enjoyed having her PC buy a wagon full of oil barrels. Player 4, the Druid, was sure annoyed with the resultant forest fire. Player 5 was eaten by a mimic and later picked a place on the map of where his new PC’s ranger uncle had a hunting cabin.
Random Encounters on your Map
Just as crucial of generating encounter sites (and an encounter does not always mean combat), the DM should have Random Encounter Tables ready to go, the number dependant on the landscape and people therein:
- Village Random Encounter (rats, ruffians, drunkards, lost dog, belligerent guard, etc.)
- Road Random Encounter
- Woods Random Encounter
- The Other Woods Random Encounter
- Lake Random Encounter
- Repeat the above, except at night
Etc. Random Encounters are an essential tool in the DM Toolbox. It’s the mechanism in which the randomness of dice gives the game world a chance to interject itself as an entity, rather than careful plots, narratives, and plans. When they are location-based, they are just as important, if not more, than the static encounter placed there.
In a game world, “stuff happens.” There is a trifecta for localized campaigning, each as important as the other:
- DM created encounters
- Player generated encounters
- Random encounters
Consider random encounters the Game World having a say, and your gameworld needs to make itself known in a localized campaign.
Map-Based Random Encounters — Frequency
There are several methods for encounters, here are the rules we frequently use, rolling for an encounter when:
- The players are moving from point A to point B
- Players arrive at point B
- Every four hours
- Players do something that generates attention
Encounters happen on a d12 if the dice shows an 11 or 12. On a 12, the DM makes the encounter more difficult—adding a monster, making the NPC more belligerent, adding environmental effects such as rain or fog, maximizing monster hitpoints, etc.
Map-Based Random Encounters — the Table
Spending time on the encounter table is worthwhile, and there are several different ways to do it. My favorite method is a list from 2 to 20. Roll 2d10, and run the encounter indicated on the dice.
What to put on the table? It should be specific to the day/night cycle and location. Coming up with the 2 to 20 encounters, in 2020, is easy. If you’re having trouble, take encounter tables from anywhere–the web, old modules, your notes–and mix and match while putting in your own flair.
In addition to monsters, I always have:
- Mystery encounters (“you come across a campfire still smoldering, but no one is around”)
- Odd encounters (“riding a large centipede is a tiny sprite, complete with reigns and a tiny saddle”)
- Helpful encounters (“an apple tree with fruit ready for picking”)
- Fauna encounters (“several deer are nearby, oblivious of your presence”)
- Weather encounters (“an odd shift in the wind carries with it the hint of rain”)
The Local Map: Beyond the Village
So we’ve talked about the map, tropes, and placing encounter locations and leaving enough room for expansion, so now let’s talk about the map itself. We’re going to use an Anna Meyer map from Curse of the Lost Memories.
Click on the Map to Embiggen
This map has some locations therein outlined in the module. Even if you didn’t want to use the module, a DM could purchase the map separately. There are some exotic locations, a castle, a temple, tors, obelisks, a bog, etc. There is plenty of room on this map for the DM to place to expand.
And this is where Griffon Lore Game location maps are a cut above. With the amount of terrain detail on the map, the map itself generates encounter ideas due to its gorgeous precision. A flying monster can rost on top of one of the tors, or a rebel wizard can have a secret lair underneath it. Just by looking at our maps, the DM has a greater understanding of what the localized campaign physically looks like and can add his or her own flair accordingly.
And we’ve stripped this map of detail from 300 DPI to 96 DPI so it can display on the web. You can get the 300 DPI version at our web store.
Switching maps, here’s a web version of the local map in Burials of Teganshire.
Click on the Map to Embiggen
If I was adding an encounter to this map, you know what I would do? I would place an location on these three little river islands:
- Haunted camp-site, where the ghost of Marylou died in a flash flood waiting for her lover—who was with another woman
- Beligenant giant freshwater pistol shrimp
- Sunken treasure—a chest containing a magical folding boat
- The secret place where the horse-lord of Harasdra likes to fish with his buddies
And that was just a tiny portion of the map. This is a localized campaign map for sure, and it’s spectacular. Back Burials of Teganshire on Indiegogo to add it to your collection!
Go on, Crossbow Man. Step on the bridge.
