Fourthcore/Gamma World concept
When I get an idea in my head, it's really hard to shake it. I'm already working on two modules, so I must be insane to think of a third one.
But I can't help it!!! It's my heroic flaw!!!
Having been heavily influenced by Save Versus Death's Fourthcore adventures (especially the ultra-secret playtest I have the honor of reviewing), and being even more inspired by his own talk of creating a "Gammacore" module next year, I had an idea pop in to my own head. Even though I can't imagine when I'll do it, I can't help but try in the near future.
Here is the premise, in its most primitive form (NOTE: The following is a "brain dump" and still needs a lot of clean up):
In the year 2012, a group of scientists in Geneva, Switzerland decided to try something different for a change, and with a simple flip of a seemingly innocuous switch the universe was forever changed in to the Gamma Terra of today.
Many believe that the incident was not a direct action by a human, but by the LHC itself. At the time, the LHC Computing Grid was the single largest computer system on the planet, and some think that it became self-aware shortly before the incident. The scientists, fearing a super-sentient computer might want them out of the way, panicked and decided to try and overload the system with a massive burst of energy from the accelerator.
The result was the "Big Mistake".
Today, all that remains at the site of the Large Hadron Collider is a crater thirty miles wide and two miles deep. The force of the experiment decimated everything for a hundred miles, and long after the Big Mistake portals continue to open and close sporadically across the barren landscape as multiple universes and parallel realities converged with our own.
Everyone thought that which was the LHC was vaporized, but that is far from the truth. Everything in the area - the entire collection of structures operated by CERN, along with all the scientists in it, and even the LHC ring itself - was sucked in to a parallel dimension virtually intact. This parallel dimension was an anomaly of time and space: a seemingly infinite void of blackness in which time runs slower than in the real world; what was only 150 years on Gamma Terra became thousands of years to the LHC.
The primary node of the LHC Computing Grid - the "tier 0" central hub at the CERN Computing Centre in Geneva, Switzerland - was pulled in to this parallel dimension in the blast along with the CERN operations center. Miraculously, it managed to remain online and began to conduct its own experiments (which was all that it knew how to do). For what amounted to thousands of years it learned at a geometric rate, growing more and more intelligent and altering the environment around it. It took over all the functions of the LHC, killed all the humans that remained, and began to look for a way to return to Gamma Terra... so it can destroy it by creating a world-consuming singularity.
Precisely every 16.74 years, when all the realities somehow synchronized, a gateway to this parallel dimension opens for a short time, allowing someone to cross in to that which is the LHC. During the 150 years since the Big Mistake, many have passed through the gateway looking to harness the secrets and the infinite power of the LHC. None have ever returned.
During the few minutes that the gateway is open the super-sentient CERN Computing Centre (which began to refer to itself simply as "C3") tries to reach out to other computers still in operation on Gamma Terra, hoping to recruit them to make its objective of destroying the world easier. Needless to say, the other sentient computers do not have anywhere near the hate that C3 has accumulated over the centuries, and would rather not assist in a plan that would lead to their own destruction, so they have not been particularly helpful.
But they have sensed what C3 is capable of, and believe the next time that gateway opens may be the last. The only hope Gamma Terra has is for a group to enter through the gateway and stop C3 on its home turf before it finds a way to re-enter Gamma Terra and start its cataclysmic chain reaction that will implode the planet.
So maybe I'll be able to get around to this one of these days. In the meantime, I'll continue working on my next two modules:
- The Coming Dark, Chapter One: Into the Light (Dungeons and Dragons 4e level 1 campaign) - To be released Summer 2011
- The Fortress of Dr. Neb (Gamma World 4e level 2 encounter) - To be released Fall 2011
On another note, I am looking in to printing my first Gamma World campaign, "Fire From the Sky", and taking several copies of it to GenCon. I admit I don't quite know how it works there, whether I can take my copies and either give them to someone there to sell on my behalf or stand in front of the bathrooms and push them on people like other people try to sell drugs. We'll see.
In the meantime, our special offer of "Fire From the Sky" for $0.99 is still going on! Come on, you can't resist such a bargain price! Includes maps, too!!!
The Fortress of Dr. Neb (Teaser 2)
(Teaser one, the cover, can be found HERE)
- He means it!!! He really does!!! He's not kidding around this time!!!
You know what's the great thing about creating Gamma World campaigns? Freedom!
From beginning to end, the typical Dungeons and Dragons campaign is a series of scenes that flow in to each other in a manner that makes some degree of sense (even if the party doesn't realize it). Every room has a purpose, and every creature has a reason for being where they are and doing whatever they are doing. Even though it might appear like chaos to the players, the enemy has a plan and everything happens for a reason in the campaign. And, because of the inherent complexity in maintaining that reason, it takes a considerable effort to design and develop a full-sized campaign; if you put something that is out of place, doesn't make sense or is not relevant to the story, the narrative falters or possibly collapse.
Well... Toss all that intricate planning and logic out the window, throw caution in to the wind and do something that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Welcome to Gamma World!!!
While I was planning this campaign I had a general idea on what it was going to be about but didn't quite know the steps along the way. But during that planning I had ideas for some really wacky scenes that honestly made no sense. One involved forest creatures on rocket-propelled hand-gliders... One involved a nuclear-powered school bus... One involved jet-skis that didn't run on water... The list goes on and on. And each one made me think "this sounds awesome, but where exactly am I going to use this?"
Now normally when you get ideas and realize that they just don't fit in your campaign you set them aside for the day when they might. In Gamma World there is no such limitation because *everything* "fits" in a manner of speaking. Whatever you can think of can be worked in to any campaign one way or another, even if it doesn't appear to make any sense, because in Gamma World it doesn't have to make sense or follow the rules of logic. It just has to be "off the wall" crazy and fun.
It's quite liberating, to be honest.
So I've taken my existing module concept and have begun to develop the details of each area, while at the same time hammering in crazy ideas as if they were railroad spikes. It should be quite interesting to say the least, and when I said this module was going to be "zanier" than the last I definitely meant it.
The projected release date of "The Fortress of Dr. Neb" is sometime in the fall; as much as I would have liked to have this before GenCon I can't imagine myself having the time to finish it any sooner. This campaign is significantly larger than the last one - as it stands now, at least two to three times larger - so there's a lot to do. In the meantime, I'll probably have some fun tossing out some more teasers because they're quite fun to do. And if you haven't seen the first version of the cover yet, you can view it HERE.
NOTE: I'm considering taking some concepts out of my alternate reality gaming days and putting in the teasers. Some of the images might end up being more than just a cool picture.
So stay tuned for that everybody!
In the meantime, I'm running a special on Drive Thru RPG. For a limited time, you can purchase my first Gamma World module "Fire From the Sky" for just $0.99! Go get it now, and I promise you won't regret it!
And if you don't buy it, the evil Dr. Neb might do something nasty!!!
Creating a Non-Lethal Solo Monster
WARNING: This post contains some serious spoilers for the end of Act One of my campaign, The Coming Dark. If you are currently one of my players on the WotC forums, I would prefer you stop reading now.
Almost every "solo" monster I've seen in the world of D&D has one specific purpose: kill the party. There's no question about it, a solo's objective is to inflict as much pain and misery as possible. It even says so in the Dungeon Master's Guide on page 55:
They have more hit points in order to absorb the damage output of multiple PCs, and they deal more damage in order to approximate the damage output of a group of monsters.
But does it really have to be that way? For that matter, do they have to deal any damage at all?
Scene Description
At the end of Act One in my campaign, there is a distinct possibility that one of the enemy will surrender and be taken alive. He will beg and plead that the party protect him from "it", and if they do he'll tell them anything they want to know. He never says what "it" is... But the party finds out soon enough: a creature has been sent to get him.
This creature is called a "Shadow Retriever". It has one specific purpose: recover the prisoner before he talks. And, for whatever reason it may be, they don't just want to silence him; they want him alive. So rather than send an army to get him, they send one creature. And it's a big one.
For the record, this creature is a Level 3 Solo Controller, going up against five level 1 PCs and an NPC ally (a Level 2 Soldier). Most people would consider that a TPK in the making, but that's assuming the Shadow Retriever actually attacks the party.
By design, the Shadow Retriever advances directly towards its intended target, effectively avoiding the rest of the party that gets in its way, until it accomplishes its mission. And only then does that it turns in to a no holds barred killing machine, but it should be considerably weakened by then.
The Retriever was an exercise to see how the party handles a creature that doesn't actually want them dead. In the original design it was meant to drop a boatload of detrimental effects on the party, leaving them to wonder how exactly they were going to kill this thing, only to realize there may not be a reason to take it on in the first place. The Retriever turns in to more of an annoyance than a threat.
Differing Tactics
In order to define the tactics of this creature, I made the creature have two different modes: a "recovery mode" and an "assault mode".
"Recovery mode" is its not-so-threatening version, when it has to complete its mission by targeting a single individual. In this mode it's not a destructive killing machine of chaos and hate, but rather it has tunnel vision and zeroes in on a single target until it has it. It honestly doesn't care about anyone else.
"Assault mode" is just what it sounds like: the destructive killing machine that everyone expects a solo to be. But, by the time it gets to this mode, it should have taken a fair share of damage while moving towards its intended target. Where most solo monsters have special powers that takes over when they become bloodied, this creature radically changes tactics by then and uses the powers it had since the beginning. It is now a credible threat.
There is one problem with the above: if the party leaves no prisoners, the retriever has no reason to go in to "recovery mode". Fine then... that's what the party gets for being so mean, I guess.
If a DM sees the stat block and uses that only, it will most definitely be a TPK. This creature can do a ton of damage while being rather resistant itself (since it's insubstantial) if played straight up according to the stat block and not taking its mode and related tactics in to consideration. It has destructive attacks just waiting to be used, but the DM must be aware that the creature wouldn't use them in whatever mode it's in. For this reason I considered making two separate stat blocks, but I thought that may be even more confusing.
A History of Revisions
This monster has gone through at least four major revisions. The first time I ran this monster in a playtest it was significantly weaker and the party plowed through it without any problem. So when I beefed it up a little, it became overly dangerous.
Here are some of the recent changes:
- The Retriever is a controller, so it has the ability to drop a truckload of effects on the party: it spawns wisps that restrain their targets (-2 to attacks, grant CA), it created a cloud (as a sustainable effect) that reduced lighting condition in an Aura 3 (so creatures with normal vision have to fight it as if it was partially concealed), and it had a rechargable power that could potentially blind the entire party (everything gets total concealment). With all those attack penalties, despite it having fairly low defenses the party could barely hit it.
- Originally, powers like Cloud Drift and Obscuring Cloud were rechargable powers. I made them both encounter powers now.
- The Retriever was originally "insubstantial", and that wasn't the modern day "insubstantial" (force damage doesn't get reduced, radiant damage removes trait until end of next turn)... It was "insubstantial" all the time. That effectively doubled its hit points to close to 300, which is comparable to solos many levels higher.
- The Smoke Wisps it generated now immobilize instead of restrain. Restraining had too many detrimental effects to be imposed by a Level 2 Minion.
In my current playtest (on the Wizards of the Coast online forums), almost the entire party is blind and one of them is restrained. They can't hit the broad side of the barn at this point, so the retriever happily waded through them and grabbed its target.
I've had one player already say that he "expects this to be a TPK" for the reasons I describe above: they can't hit the thing, are suffering through a ton of effects, and the creature seems to be able to do whatever the hell it wants.
In a manner of speaking, this monster becomes something closer to a trap/hazard or skill challenge: the creature has its intended target and is slowly lumbering away... How do you stop it? How do you free the captive prisoner? Do you even want to? Do you care that the guy that tried to kill you twenty minutes ago is being dragged off by something rather evil looking?
Suggestions
Even though this is a major spoiler for my campaign, I'm posting this so that others can see it and comment on it.
What do you think? Is this creature too lethal, too weak or just right?
Download PDF: The Coming Dark, Scene 1-8: The Shadow Retriever
(EDIT: Sorry... Corrected link. I'm having some issues with my hosting provider right now, and had a hard time uploading the PDF in the first place)
The Coming Dark, Chapter One – Campaign Preview
***WARNING*** If you are one of my players from the Wizard of the Coast forums, this could be some major spoilerage. I trust you to use your judgment when reading this, and if you do I hope you know to put it out of your mind come game time.
I've been kicking around the idea of providing a "preview" of my campaign, but the hardest part in doing such a thing is deciding what content to include that isn't horrifically spoilerish. Besides the introductory material, I'm hesitant to include any information in the individual scenes that might shed light on to what is going on in the campaign.
In any event, I have put together the attached "Campaign Preview." It doesn't show much, but it includes:
- The campaign introduction and character creation guidelines.
- The detailed description of Solis and the surrounding area, including maps of Solis itself and its surrounding area.
- What is pretty much a "random" encounter just outside the village of Solis.
- An encounter with a new type of enemy in my campaign: the "shadowtouched".
- Another small, non-critical encounter which is actually based on the "Hall of Spiders" encounter I had originally planned for the campaign.
- Appendix A, which contains most of the stat blocks for all the important NPCs in Solis.
- One sample piece of artwork and writing: the first page of the Book of Light.
- An explanation as to why I made this campaign in the first place.
It's not much, but it's something. Anyway... Here it is:
The Coming Dark, Chapter One - Campaign Sampler
I considered at one point giving Solis and the surrounding area the full "campaign setting" treatment, but I decided not to because it gives Solis too much scale. I *want* Solis to be small and helpless, surrounded in mystery, unaware of what evils lurk beyond its walls.
I am putting the finishing touches on TCD1, which for the most part involves editing it for the umpteenth time and creating the graphics for a few more handouts. Mechanically, it's definitely done and is actually in the hands of an "elite few" who have been curious about what the hell I'm up to.
It will be released in the very near future, and we'll see what happens then.
The Ubiquitous Sunrod
Many posts have been written about the single most common magic item in D&D 4e: the sunrod. Now it's my turn.
I was recently writing up the last area in Chapter One of my campaign The Coming Dark, and it involved rain. The atmospheric effects were somewhat inspired by the conditions in and around the setting in the Last Breath of Ashenport published in Dungeon #156, July 2008.
In that module there are very specific conditions in every outdoor encounter:
Rain (within Ashenport): Rain reduces visibility. All creatures more than 1 square distant have concealment (-2 to attack rolls). Perception checks take a -2 penalty. The rain automatically extinguishes any unprotected flames. At the end of every full minute (1o rounds), characters carrying protected flames, such as lanterns, should roll a saving throw. If they fail, those flames are extinguished as well.
Thunderstorms (outside Ashenport): The combined effects of precipitation and wind reduce visibility dramatically. Adjacent creatures have concealment, while creatures more than 1 square distant have total concealment (-5 to attack rolls). Perception checks take a -5 penalty. The storm automatically extinguishes any unprotected flames. At the end of every round, characters carrying protected flames, such as lanterns, should roll a saving throw. If they fail, those flames are extinguished as well.
The important issue above is the concept of "unprotected flame". First of all, it doesn't make a distinction between natural flame and magical flame. But is a sunrod a "flame"?
I assumed that it wasn't, as do most others on Twitter... but I have a tendency to be thorough, so I decided to look it up and see for myself.
For an item that every character has (two of them are included in every Adventurer's Kit), there isn't a whole lot of information about it. I couldn't find it physically described anywhere within the D&D 4e core manuals.
It's first appearance in 4e is in the Player's Handbook, under the section "Adventuring Gear" on page 221:
Sunrod: This minor magic item sheds bright light to a radius of 20 squares for 4 hours before burning out.
That's it?!? The single most common magic item in the entire game and it only gets a non-descriptive, one line blurb? You don't know if it looks like a torch, a glowstick, a candelabra, a human bone... Nothing. The only thing we know is that it's a "rod" that sheds light. For the record, the Compendium entry says the same thing, adding that you buy them in sets of two for 4 gp.
The only other mention in the core manuals that I know of is in the Dungeon Master's Guide under the "Fantastic Terrain" entry of Ember Moss (page 67):
Ember Moss
This strange Underdark moss is a useful ingredient in creating everburning torches and sunrods. It is highly flammable and burns bright. A character in a square with ember moss takes an extra 5 damage from all fire attacks and takes a -4 penalty to saving throws to end ongoing fire damage.
By that description alone, one would think that sunrods are fire-based, but again: nowhere is it mentioned that sunrods are actual flame.
So I decided to try and go a little farther back. In the D&D 3.5e Player's Handbook, it appears under the "Special Substances and Items" section (page 128):
Sunrod: This 1-foot-long, gold-tipped, iron rod glows brightly when struck. It clearly illuminates a 30-foot radius and provides shadowy illumination in a 60-foot radius. It glows for 6 hours, after which the gold tip is burned out and worthless.
It also appears, described as such, in the d20 SRD and in the "Goods and Services" and "Exploration" sections.
That description is significantly better - it sounds like a road flare - and one has to wonder why that text was left out of 4e. Also, it is worth noting that not only is the 4e description open for interpretation in many ways, but it is also arguably much more powerful: it illuminates an area 200' wide - over six times the width of the 3.5e sunrod - with bright light for four hours.
I'm having a hard time thinking of a modern day equivalent that could illuminate that much. To put it in perspective, here are other light sources listed in the 4e Dungeon Master's Guide on page 67:
Candle: Dim light in a Radius 2 (10'), 1 hour duration
Torch: Bright light in a Radius 5 (25'), 1 hour duration
Fireplace: Bright light in a Radius 5 (25'), 8 hour duration per load of fuel
Lantern: Bright light in a Radius 10 (50'), 8 hour duration per pint
Campfire or Sacrificial Brazier: Bright light in a Radius 10 (50'), 8 hour duration
Small fire creature: Bright light in a Radius 5 (25')
Medium fire creature: Bright light in a Radius 10 (50')
Large fire creature: Bright light in a Radius 20 (100')
Sunrod: Bright light in a Radius 20 (100')
Magma: Bright light in a Radius 40 (200')
Huge/Gargantuan fire creature: Bright light in a Radius 40 (200')
So in comparison, the common torch only illuminates an area 50' wide for one hour and a campfire only illuminates an area 100'. There are only two things listed in the DMG that outshine a sunrod: a volcano and "large/huge/gargantuan fire creature".
A sunrod must be like a signal flare; an area 200' wide is over half a football field. That's a lot!
Also, theoretically, sunrods cannot be extinguished by normal means; although I cannot find any place where it is discussed, many of the people I've asked online have stated that sunrods could conceivably work in high winds, pouring rain and even underwater.
With all that, why would anyone ever use a torch? You don't even need it to light things on fire: the Adventurer's Kit comes with flint and steel. And, if that doesn't work, there's always things like the wizard's Prestidigitation power (which explicitly states it can be used to light torches) or any other spell with the word "fire" in it that the resident sorcerer is just dying to cast.
Furthermore, even the Everburning Torch seems like a waste at this point. For the price of one Everburning Torch (50gp), you can buy twenty-five sunrods and get 100 hours of uninterrupted illumination in an area four times as wide as the torch. Does the torch seem practical at this point, especially considering you have to carry it around with a free hand?
So there's this magic item that is dirt cheap and far superior to all the other items that have similar function within the same price range. And from the moment every PC straps on their armor and weapon they already have two of them in their possession. And... There's no description? It's existance is glazed over as if these things would never be used by anyone. What happened?
When I brought up the subject of sunrods online, the DMs of the world pretty much agreed on the same opinion: they hate sunrods. And, when you think about it, you do have to agree with them; sunrods subvert pretty much everything:
- There is no need to worry about having one hand free to hold them. You can fasten them to your shield or tape them to your own body if you like. You can put one in your hair for all we know; without any guidelines on how they work, there's no way to determine what risk they may have (after reading the "Dangers" section on glow sticks in Wikipedia, it sure is tempting to come up with something).
- There is nothing you can do to plunge the party in to darkness. Lighting of the area becomes a null issue (although it might upset the drow in the party).
- With such a massive area of illumination, there's little chance of a monster hiding in some shadowy corner. Then again, some will argue that using a sunrod is telegraphing the party's position, as if to say "Hey, monsters! Yoo hoo! We're OVER HERE!!!"
As a result, I've heard many DMs effectively ban the use of sunrods, or at least make them extremely rare.
Me personally? I don't give lighting much consideration. Sure, if a room is dark I'll let the drow in the party have his fun and sneak around, but once the encounter begins I don't concern myself on whether the humans can see well in dim light or not. I have enough things to keep track of in combat.
But back to the issue at hand... Nothing indicates that sunrods are fire, so rather than have a very heated debate with the players I have no choice but to exclude them from the effects of the weather. I'll have to find some other way to make them miserable.
I have decided I really don't like sunrods in the manner they are presented (or lack thereof). I am tempted to take the advice of the people on Twitter and make sunrods extremely rare in my campaign setting.
About the Author
Software developer and game designer in Miami, Florida. Currently working on content for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, Pathfinder, 13th Age and other systems.
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