Darkness #RPGaDAY2025

 

I don't think I've ever managed to convey a proper sense of darkness, which is why the “Veins of the Earth” made by this blogger  ...The module appeals to me so much. The module includes different ways to generate natural caves, with their obvious risks and a description of the creatures based on the sounds they make, their scent, and changes in the ambient temperature.

The creatures are divided into two types: individual creatures that can cause problems for adventurers, and others that are neither aggressive nor carnivorous, but whose alien behavior or inability to relate to our reasoning causes them to oppose the interests of explorers who have made the ambitious error of delving too deeply.

The other type of beasts are presented as societies or communities, plagues, entire species that function differently from simple individuals, whose descriptions can be an entire adventure or campaign in themselves. In reality, there is a lot to review. Some entries, however, are simply incomprehensible, but this aspect is not overused, as the incomprehensible barely covers a few pages.

I find it very difficult to work in the dark, as we are generally asked to rely on other senses that we are not very familiar with. And I think that the fact that a character cannot even see their own hands leaves them somewhat immobilized.

If you add a torch to the terrible darkness, everything becomes much more manageable. But if we find ourselves in a game where practically everyone has night goggles, what's the point of night or darkness?

So I dare to point the finger at the fifth edition of DnD for steering me away from the habit of storytelling that emphasizes darkness, too many spells, environmental elements, and abilities that come from ancestry... Perpetual and eternal day, for fear of causing fear and despair. The tyranny of joy sweetened with sugar glass strikes again.

Path #RPGaDAY2025

 

A Path ?... Why?

I have often tried to go out and walk without any destination in mind, but my anxious mind always wants to set a goal, a mission. I feel that many players are the same and find it difficult to deal with the sandbox in its raw form, an objective role-playing game where the world simply reacts to the truly significant actions of the adventurers, leaving the big storylines as side quests that can become central over time. However, other points of departure could arise. At the end of the day, it's a sandbox, and the adventure is defined by the wandering paths that your boots leave in the mud.

Inspire #RPGaDAY2025

 My sources of inspiration are varied, so I really appreciate this blog post because it gives me the opportunity to share a little bit of what I love so much about life.

I especially seek to focus on the literary world and other role-playing modules when I set out to create a new adventure, because I believe that creativity is simply a recombination of what already exists, of what is known. Originality is just jargon that means nothing in reality. When I created a module based on one of the islands from the Forgotten Realms setting, I wanted to make my own version of a story that many others have already touched on... The Shadow Over Innsmouth

So, taking elements from the story and mixing aspects of the official setting, he created a kind of mystery that I think combines well with different aspects of the story, although the beginning is more like the old Simbad films.

In the end, if I think about the different aspects of the story, I'm sure I could figure out where the idea came from in most cases, although sometimes the inspiration gets totally blurred by the passage of time and the recombination of memories.  The results are HERE !!

Another version is Fish Fu**ers by LOFTP, which generally has interesting ideas, but due to the company's style, it doesn't seem to structure a particularly unique background plot, leaving it a bit up in the air in my opinion.

In the case of my adventure "Diamond", the main inspiration was the film Three Days of the Condor. It fits perfectly with the world of Eberron, specifically the city of Sharn, which has a corrupt air reminiscent of Al Capone's New York. Huge skyscrapers, criminal gangs that dominate the black market, corrupt authorities. Everything provided in Sharn combined effectively with the story, but I preferred to give it a more personal touch. 

The adventurers live alongside a group of actors who have become the sacrificial pawns in the schemes between the city's criminal gangs. After spending time with the actors, the adventurers return to the theater to find the poor actors turned to stone and broken into dozens of pieces. 

The group flees, asks for help, but everyone turns against them. If they manage to stay alive long enough, after the third day the persecution ends and one of the killers tells them to stop worrying, the new boss has them off the hook.

Fear, persecution, paranoia, and ultimately indifference in a city corrupt to its very core.

And in regard to the most recent adventure, which I still don't dare to release, the inspiration comes from Goya's black paintings, seeking to ensure that each of the rooms in the dungeon contains magical traps that are directly related to one of the paintings. 

A half-submerged dog, despair, a room slowly filling with mud. If you want inspiration, it could be...

Tavern #RPGaDAY2025

 To get a little more substance out of the conversation about the tavern i así for some help from the random results.

A melancholic moment comes up, upon climbing the mountain peak above the clouds, a cantina full of cockroaches can be seen at distance.

The image is not pleasant; I worked in a bar for a short time with some friends. In the bar my friends ran, exchanges of all kinds were common, and according to what they told me, cockroaches would crawl over the faces of sleeping drunks.

I saw uncomfortable things, that strange feeling that bars give me, and I think it can be conveyed in the scene where Frodo walks through the Prancing Pony. The uncomfortable atmosphere perfectly conveys the feeling of wandering around a bar that is uncomfortable, smelly, and terrible, as long as you're not drunk. If you've already had a few beers, the place isn't so bad; it can even be quite enjoyable. That's how those dark caves of perdition work in my hometown.

And I think that the feeling of the bar as an unsafe, dirty, and dangerous place only comes across when the plot or the players' actions are leading to a conflict inside the establishment.

If nothing is going to happen inside the bar, I admit that it's my fault. I don't always remember what bars are like, and I often describe them as if they were restaurants with beds, which is a waste of space.

Of course, it's not that every bar the party enters will be a smelly place full of conflicts that will explode in their faces. That's not what it's about, but it's worth remembering that when you spend a lot of time in a bar, conflicts can arise, and we all know that in a role-playing game, conflicts generate sweat and laughter...the fuel of every good DM.

Bars are places of risk and adventure, although largely lacking in any tangible reward beyond the simple fact of having a story to laugh about with your friends the next time you get drunk.

Not my tabern