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.

Different Kinds of Rest

As covered in my previous post on "the one rule," holding players to strict resting rules drastically improves the dungeon crawling (or hex crawling or point crawling) experience. So, it's worth diving into more depth on my current rest procedures.

Games tend to break rests down into two types: the breather (a short rest) or the full recovery (a long rest). With those options, however, why would a party ever go through the rigmarole of setting up camp if they can plop down for 10-60 minutes right outside the dungeon entrance, munch on a ration, and regain their hit points? For flavor?

A person pondering all of the fun things one can do around a campfire

My resting rules mechanize the benefits that come with setting up a campsite and building a campfire. They currently look like this:

Resting: PCs can spend at least one hour resting. If they make it through uninterrupted, they may expend resources to roll Hit Dice and regain Hit Points. They must expend a resource such as rations, bandages, or medicine for every Hit Dice rolled. PCs can only expend each type of resource once per rest.

For every resource expended, the character rolls their Hit Dice, then adds their Constitution score and regains that many Hit Points.

Sleep: PCs must spend a wilderness turn sleeping every day. If they do not, they must make a Constitution check trying to exceed 10 + the number of days without sleep. If they fail, they suffer a point of Exhaustion.

Exhaustion: Adverse conditions, such as going without food, water, sleep, or protection from the elements cause a PC to accrue Exhaustion. Each instance of Exhaustion takes up one item slot and imposes a cumulative -1 penalty to all checks and saves.

If you accrue more Exhaustion than your level, you cannot move and must make camp.

Campfire: PCs gain extra benefits for taking their rest around a campfire. Cooking and eating fresh food instead of rations allows PCs to spend another Hit Dice (without expending additional resources). Singing and making merry grants yet another Hit Dice but requires an instrument and may increase your chance of a random encounter.

Rest spent around a campfire also removes one instance of Exhaustion.

Full Rest: One week spent in modest lodging in a safe haven returns a PC to maximum Hit Points, restores all spent Hit Dice, and removes all Exhaustion. Living in luxury may confer additional temporary HP, while squalid conditions may not fully restore the PC.

One thing is missing: PCs all have some sort of "special" ability that they can only use during a rest taken around a campfire. A wizard can re-learn a forgotten spell, a fighter can repair weapons, and so on. This provides even further incentive for players to choose the option of making camp. 

Spending Downtime

Last night I played a 1-on-1 session with the referee in preparation of restarting a campaign. He tried his hand at a less scripted session and it went well. We came away with a few fun new NPC hirelings that he rolled on the spot (two of whom died, but c'est la vie).

We also tried to generate some random content by rolling on downtime tables for research found in one of the 5th Edition supplements. The procedure called for the player to roll an INT check to determine if they found 0, 1, 2, or 3 leads. Then, the player rolled for a 1-in-10 chance to experience a complication. If they did, they would roll a d6 on a complications table.

Successful magical research (art from Herrmann's Book of Magic)

What a waste. The up front portion of the downtime activity - rolling to discover some lore - is as uninspired as it comes. No choice involved, just roll and hope for a high number to learn.

I wanted to roll on the complications table, but as written I was so unlikely to do so. It held a few interesting, emergent outcomes. This whole mechanic should have presented a trade-off or choice from the start. You could do that by including the complications roll in the INT check.

Roll the d20 and the d6 simultaneously. If you succeed, you discover a relevant lead. If you fail, you discover an unrelated rumor. Either way, you experience the complication. This results in fun outcomes regardless of the roll.

To take this a step further, a referee could create a unique complication for every d20 result, with worse complications tied to lower results. Then, combine the downtime roll to a single check.