A Staging Post for Adventure

Sometimes, you don't need an entire base town.

I recently started running one of the adventures from the OSE Adventure Anthology 2 for my young nephew (and others, but the game is primarily to show him the tabletop ropes). Neither of the anthologies come with a town of any kind. Most of the dungeons within are the kinds of low-level affairs where you can roll up new PCs and start them right at the entrance without issue. However, there is enough content here that a trip or two back to a haven to rest and restock seem likely. (Note: The same is even more true for other town-less low-level OSE adventures like A Hole in the Oak or The Incandescent Grottoes).

Given my nephew's unfamiliarity with the expectations of pen-and-paper RPGs, introducing a full base town in the middle of his first real delve could prove distracting. "Hey, there is the inn, and next door is a tavern, and over there is the smithy, and that's the thieves' guild ..." etc. etc. So, I sought an alternative.

One common and entirely valid alternative is to abstract the return to town. You don't need to go into detail regarding the people and places around town, just get in, get some gear, sleep, and get out.

My approach, though, is to offer a taste of town without too much distraction: a small staging post / coaching inn along the road, about half a day from town. Give it some personality so that he can experience a respite from the dungeon without so much to do that he loses momentum.

While I decided upon this approach to cater to a novice player, it could be useful for more experienced players as well. Maybe you want to run an adventure but the referee hasn't come up with a whole town yet. Maybe you aren't sure that you want to turn this adventure into a campaign that even needs a town. Maybe you haven't decided if you'll be going to Illmire or Brandonsford next and you aren't ready to commit.

If you fit into any of the categories above, check out the "A Staging Post" PDF for a small but detailed waypoint with an inn, a store, a few personalities, and some fun secrets. And, if you're interested in my "author's notes," keep reading after the download!

A Staging Post for Adventure

The premise of this point of interest is that it sits near a crossroads with a once-great trade route (in my game with my nephew, I called it the Royal Spice Road). Though there is a town "four leagues" away, any travelers just passing through could spot the buildings from the crossroads, rest for the evening, and continue along the trade route without delay in the morning.

However, I insinuate that trade has fallen on harder times, and that fewer travelers pass through this particular crossroads anymore. Perhaps this is because of whatever rumor or incident that your party is in the area investigating. Whatever the case, the waypoint isn't depicted as bustling with people. It's quiet and neither the innkeeper or the shopkeeper expect much traffic.

But, as I fleshed things out, the lack of site-based action gave me space to let the NPCs breathe a bit. They don't have anything to explain, any exposition to deliver, nor any fetch quests to offer. They can be people living their lives as opposed to people waiting around for PCs to show up. I enjoyed that freedom.

There are some secrets here to discover, if the players wish. But, I try to keep it passive. For example, I specifically say that the innkeeper will never ask you to take his wannabe-adventurer daughter along. He will let you if you ask, but the PCs have to initiate it. Later, if someone frees the whiskey-slurping Shadow, I suggest having it flee. The players may pursue if they wish, but not because they have to "protect the NPCs."

Finally, I need to shout out a few influences. The name for the "Shut Eye Inn" was inspired by Miranda Elkins' blog post The DM is a Shut Eye (which I heard about on the excellent Into the Megadungeon podcast). Herman's shield came from the treasure in one of Ktrey Parker's Dolmenwood Dozen. The "glamboge glim" and the magic dog whistle are from Sarah Grove's Sixty Pointless Items in Knock #2. And the "threshold putty" is roughly based on one of Chris McDowall's arcana from Into the Odd.

A Silver Lining to Everything

Most of my 5e books still take up space on my shelf, despite not playing the system for years now. Occasionally, I will browse the monster books for some ideas. Mostly, they get dusty.

One book still gets opened frequently, though. Xanathar's Guide to Everything. Is it for the sub-classes? Definitely not. The spells that have been so meticulously balanced so as to remove all magic from them? Nope, not those either.

It's for pages 175 - 192: the lists upon lists of d100 names. Without a doubt, these rank at the top of 5e's lasting impact on my tabletop gaming life.

Long live random tables!

Random art with a table in it

What Happened to the Dungeon?

A post on Reddit asked for advice: what should a referee do (if anything) when higher level players return to a dungeon populated with lower level monsters? Users provided some solid responses, including:

• Change nothing, it will remind them how powerful they have become
• Evolve the dungeon over time: new monsters have moved in
• Another adventuring party has already looted the place

Whatever choice one makes, I advise against considering "balance" as a major factor. Do not tune your encounters to make them all "level appropriate." Most good players will notice your heavy-handedness. If you're reading this, you probably already agree.

That said, in a sandbox where players can follow whatever leads they choose, the game world should not stand still waiting for them.

So, how should you determine what happens? Sometimes the answer will be obvious from the establishing fiction of the dungeon: the cultists finished their ritual, or the prisoner you were sent to rescue is already dead. When the answer isn't obvious, do what any good OSR referee does: consult a random table!

I created a d66 table to determine what happens to the dungeon while your party followed other leads. The results generally follow the reaction roll curve: lower results increase the challenge and higher results likely prove fortuitous in some way. Most results in the middle add complexity that isn't inherently good or bad.

What Happened to the Dungeon d66 Table

With these results you can simulate a living world without artificially tuning your dungeons to some "challenge rating" or relying solely on referee discretion. Enjoy!

EDIT: I created the same table in a slightly more attractive half-letter booklet format. I didn't like the way the original looked when printed.

What Happened to the Dungeon d66 Table (Booklet Version)

Scaling Up Player Tools

I often see a variation of this piece of advice in OSR circles:

Give players fun tools without specific applications and encourage them to use those tools in creative ways.

For example, many old-school spells exemplify this adage. They don't simply deal xd6 damage. Instead, they provide you with a tool in your toolbox - the power to warp wood or heat metal - and the spell descriptions lack the hyper-specific limitations included in the name of balance that you see in modern editions.

The principle behind the advice is that giving your players powerful tools without obvious uses enhances your game because it fosters creativity and lets players feel like they outsmarted the game. Use this advice, it's good. Don't try to balance your tools. Let your players "break" the game.

And, importantly, don't forget to employ this adage when your campaign transitions into the wilderness and domain tiers. Your tools don't have to necessarily be more powerful. You can scale them up in other ways: size, distance, duration, etc.

Some examples from my ongoing Age of Discovery campaign include:

• A talking mountain who will let you hide inside its cavernous mouth to avoid magical or mundane detection
• A lighthouse that, when lit, either enhances or repels magic
• A well the purifies anything that passes through its opening
• An entrance to a parallel realm with shortcuts to various places across the continent

A fantastic discovery waiting to break the world

All of these are tools in a party's toolbox. Need to lay low after making off with some hot treasure? Go hide in the talking mountain's mouth for a while. Need to sneak out a besieged army? Brave the freaky parallel realm's shortcut.

Open your mind to radical possibilities that the players suggest. Sure, the magic well purifies water. Is that water considered holy water if the blessing is maintained or enhanced? What happens if an undead creature crosses the threshold?

Too often I see referees saddle tools of all shapes and sizes with strange caveats to avoid making them "game-breaking" (whatever than means); lame restrictions like "you can only send fewer than 10 people into the parallel realm" or "you can only pass inanimate objects through the threshold of the magic well."

Restrain yourself from doing this with magic items and show the same restraint when your party starts discovering magic locations as well. Just like you let them unbalance an encounter with their magic dungeon loot, also let them change the world with their fantastic discoveries in the wilderness.