Last Day! - Of Funding and Dungeon Design
over 6 years ago – Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 02:34:41 PM

Achievement Unlocked: Fully Funded!

As you may have noticed, we hit our funding goal! This means both Pathfinder and 5th Edition versions of this adventure, along with full digital assets, will be coming to YOUR game table. We are tremendously excited to continue work on this adventure path, and we cannot thank you enough for helping us make this module a reality. The Sphinx (seen on the cover art) is most ingratiated toward you for funding his ruthless slaughter of paltry adventurers.

Any support we receive past our funding goal goes into developing Part 4, currently titled Zahur's Legacy!, so by supporting this module you are also supporting the development of the entire Fate of the Forbears adventure path! As we reach this epic halfway point that started with the Domes of Ishaq-Zahur, we want to share with you our thoughts on game and encounter design in higher level territory. We've run a lot of games of Pathfinder and 5th Edition, so read on if game design is a topic of interest for thee!

Anatomy of an Encounter: 5th Edition and Pathfinder dungeon crawls.

Believe it or not, a good dungeon crawl is hard to find. As Lion's Vault will feature a titular dungeon crawl as its main centerpiece, we are bringing all of our talents to bear to ensure it is one of quality and style. Many of the dungeons we have run became tedious, boring, or confusing for both Players and Dungeon Masters. The challenge of creating a good dungeon gets more complicated as players learn skills and abilities that can trivialize normal obstacles. Most Pathfinder players by level 10 can (and will) be flying as often as possible, making simple pit traps a thing of the past. 5E players likewise can Misty Step out of horrifying conditions or use magic to remove even the most severe of diseases. We keep these things and many more in our minds as we build our encounters. Here are some principles and guidelines we are using to create this high(ish) level dungeon experience for you in The Lion's Vault.

• Rooms of Style and Substance: Have you ever walked into a bathroom in a Dungeon? Probably not, but if you did, there likely wasn't anything interesting in it (we hope). We appreciate having a dungeon that features an element of realism. Its nice to see a place where the monster prowls for food be separate from where it sleeps at night, but its essential that both these rooms are interesting to players. When we build dungeons, each room needs to contain one or more of the following for players; Danger, Knowledge, Tools. The more of these we have in a room, the better (Though obviously we must be mindful about overcrowding a dungeon). Dangerous elements can include traps, hazards, and monsters. Knowledge often includes descriptive elements or world building pieces, to make the dungeon feel more alive and unique. Tools are things the players can use, from keys for hidden doors to magic items of great power.

• Intuitive Layout and Structure: A dungeon for 9th-11th level players is more than just a hole in the ground. It is a place well warded against powerful abilities that would seek to easily navigate its guardians and protections. For our higher level dungeons, making sure the layout of the structure is sensible and challenging is one of our highest priorities. Getting lost in a dungeon due to poor or uninteresting architecture is a huge no no for us. We want our players to be able to make sense of a dungeon as they explore it, not after they've cleared the room and taken 20 on their Perception (Pathfinder players, I'm looking at you). This means building a environment that speaks to the players and communicates important information. To do so, we fill our rooms with detailed visual information that inspires players to be proactive in their approach, rather than respond to the Dungeons Masters prompting and hints. The map below from Part 1 of the Fate of the Forebears series demonstrates this combination of simple layout with rich details.

•  To protect our Dungeon from higher level shennanigans, we have to fill it with powerful defenses and wards. An easy solution would be to just make the Dungeon proof against spells like Teleport/Dimension door, immune to scrying and clairvoyant powers, and filled with incredibly dense doors and walls. But no player likes being told; "Sorry, that ability that costs a lot of resources to use has NO EFFECT". So instead, we provided protections that only mitigate these powers, allowing them to still be useful, but not trivialize the location. Perhaps scryers who spend too long peering into the vaults secrets are psychically assaulted by the sphinx. Those that teleport find themselves transported to magical stones that must be disabled to allow those abilities to function properly. And those disrespectful vandals that break down a door covered in beautiful religious iconography are cursed by an angry deity.

• Mechanically Masterful Monsters: 5th Edition has been out for a while (and Pathfinder even longer). This means that most adventurers have faced a good chunk of their respective bestiaries. For us, this screams the need for something new. Using a monster from a core rulebook is not enough. It must be new. It must be dangerous. And most importantly, it must play and feel different from what players are used to. This helps provide an element of challenge that stems from a lack of familiarity. Everyone knows that trolls regenerate and vampires suck blood. But what does a living curse do? When a cloud of malignant magic roils down a hallway and you say to your players "Roll for initiative" the look of confusion and horror on their faces is a sign we did a good job.

For the sake of brevity, I think we will end this little shop talk. We hope this insight into our approach as we build your next adventure gets you as excited to play it as we are to write it! We also want to hear your opinions and comments. We may be writers and designers, but we certainly do not have a monopoly on good ideas for adventures. Lets hear what you have to say, oh noble backers!

Best regards,

Ryan Servis - 2CGaming Team

Week 3 - Music Spotlight!
over 6 years ago – Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 06:51:44 AM

Let's Get Musical!

Every part of the Fate of the Forebears Adventure Path includes music, and the Lion's Vault is no exception! For City of Sands, we worked with Kole Hicks, but he recently got a job with Riot Games, and is a bit too busy to do freelance work at the moment! He recommended another composer for this project, and lucky for us, he's awesome too. The soundtrack to the Lion's Vault is provided by Pontus Rufelt, and he really knocked it out of the park. Let's take a listen at some short previews of two versions of the main theme, one ambient, and one cinematic. The tracks have similar beginnings, but diverge quickly into different moods.

The ambient version is perfect for setting the mood as the party explores the treacherous mirrored steps. It's challenging to compose a piece that can fit all the possible moods of an adventure in a tabletop RPG, but I think Pontus handled it masterfully. The full version of this track fits well with tense delves into ruins, trekking across a vast desert, or trying to catch your enemies by surprise.

You might recognize the cinematic version of the track from the video for this Kickstarter! This piece features some more uplifting vibes, at least initially, but also contains some darker elements that reflect the corruption spreading from within the deep desert. Again, Pontus did a great job, this version works tremendously as a background piece, with just enough variety to stay interesting during repeated loops without being distracting.

Working with Pontus was a lot of fun, and I'm so happy with how these pieces turned out, I wish I could just share them in their entirety right now! But that wouldn't be fair to everyone picking up the digital assets, so you'll just have to be patient. Soon you'll get to enjoy all the music in its full glory!

The full version of the artwork for the Naga encounter didn't get included in the last update, so I want to show it off here:

Jason's work is fantastic, as usual, making a dynamic scene that looks exactly the way an in-game encounter feels.

That's our latest sneak peek behind the scenes of the Lion's Vault! Tune in next week for a look at an encounter with the badass Sphinx on the module's cover.

Steven Gordon - 2CGaming Team

Naganna Believe This
over 6 years ago – Thu, Aug 17, 2017 at 05:15:42 PM

I woke up a 3:30 this morning and thought about snakes. That’s not true, actually I woke up and thought about being thirsty. But after I had some water, my mind wondered to snakes. Because when writing about a desert setting, snakes inevitably come up. And my thinking this morning was about how to be creative about their inclusion beyond the temple with snakes in it trope.

We’ve already created an encounter featuring nagas—cobra nagas (which we call desert nagas), in fact. And like the rest of the creatures and beasts in the Mirrored Steppes, they’ve been corrupted by a mysterious force. These snakes have become intelligent mutants who can rejuvenate and cast spells like a naga, but constrict like a python. I know cobras don’t constrict, but desert nagas do. Because they’re big. They’re sneaky buggers and will use magic to deter and detract while they take their prey one person at a time.

But I digress.

Here’s another creature reveal, enjoy!

The Desert Naga

We are now halfway through the campaign and are looking forward to escalating outreach. I had the pleasure of talking with Michael at The RPG Academy, check out the episode when you get a chance. We’ve also sponsored Misdirected Mark and its sister show Down with D&D, as well as the podcasts on Don’t Split the Podcast Network which are all excellent podcasts and if you don’t subscribe, please do!

Also you can help us close the gap to funding. Round up your friends, families, co-workers, enemies, frenemies, intelligent familiars, demons with whom you have made pacts, whomever you can and get their support.

Thanks for tuning in and more to come!

Week 1 - Let's Talk Tokens!
over 6 years ago – Mon, Aug 14, 2017 at 07:36:35 PM

Artist Spotlight - Natalie Kelly

Like the previous modules in the Fate of the Forebears series, Lion's Vault includes a set of tokens in the Digital Deluxe version of the adventure. Here's a preview of some of the tokens you can expect to see!

These were sized and based by me (not an artist), so the finished versions will have that extra touch of quality with perfectly sized tokens and bases for easy use in Virtual Tabletops.

Our token artist is Natalie Kelly, who we've worked with on several projects before starting the Fate of the Forebears Adventure Path. Our goal from the start was to find a style for the tokens that made them look a bit like miniatures on a gameboard, but still dynamic and energetic. We shied away from highly realistic tokens or those need a token ring to work, and while I've used many of both in my personal games, it's important that an Adventure Path has a consistent style!

In my experience, good visuals are incredibly helpful when running RPGs over a Virtual Tabletop. At the physical table, I rely heavily on Theater of the Mind, but when players are sitting at their desks, staring at screens, it really helps focus the party if you have vibrant, colorful renditions of the maps, monsters, and anything else the adventurers run into.

I'll keep this a pretty quick update. We're over 1/3rd funded, so let me say thank you to everyone backing the project so far! Keep spreading the word, sharing your enthusiasm, and generally being fantastic people! Chris Grey will be appearing as a guest on a podcast, and we have some more behind-the-scenes sneak peeks planned for the upcoming weeks! Stay tuned.

Steven Gordon - 2CGaming Team

48 Hours - Monster Spotlight #2
over 6 years ago – Thu, Aug 03, 2017 at 06:34:47 PM

You Jackal-Headed Golem!

I’m not ashamed to admit that I desperately wanted giant Anubis statues in the game that would drive massive pikes into the hearts of their enemies. But since “Anubis” is “from Earth,” I had to concede and sigh … use jackal-headed statues instead. (But you all know it’s Anubis, so I win). 

Okay, so the idea here is that the vault (SPOILER: the one the game is named after), holds some deep, dark horrible secret. And that secret needs to be protected for all time. What better way to do that then to create monstrous undying golems to protect the entrance to the vault?

These guys are no ordinary golems. I mean they have some of the same traits, but they were created by an all-powerful ancient civilization, so they have properties no one has ever heard of. For instance, they aren’t really statues. They live the walls as a mosaic and then come into statue form when they wake up. Better to trick you with! 

Also, their very presence won’t allow anyone to enter or leave the area through magical means. Which is important, because we can’t have some jerk misty step into the vault past them, can we? And they’re quick with those giant pikes and will skewer down anyone that comes close as a reaction. 

These horrifying works of awesomeness guard the entryway into the vault chamber, which is at the end of a trap-ridden maze of a pyramid. You see, unlike some boring dungeons you often come up on in games, this was not created for nameless bad guys to live in. Oh no. 

The whole thing was created eons ago as a deterrent to keep persistent adventurers from finding the very room these golems are protecting. The traps and pitfalls throughout the pyramid will make Tomb of Horrors look like a nice visit to your Aunt Betsy. I mean no offense to your Aunt Betsy.

Grab the stat blocks and ready-to-use tactics right here: https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/15HdARv7o9wXq2tnXaApRhFF

We are now two days in. Help us make it happen! And you too can have Anubis (ahem) jackal headed golems in your game!

Our next update will come out next week with more information on the creature tokens! But don't worry, we'll be back with more monster spotlights later in the campaign!

-Christopher Grey, Pillager of Ancient Egypt Gods, Trap-Maker, Drinker of Aunt Betsy’s Tea