The Editioning, Weeks Seven and Eight, OD&D

iPod Future

I think I first heard this term on one of the Worlds Beyond Number Patreon podcasts. Lou Wilson was taking about his sci-fi influences. The main thrust of it was his fascination with Men in Black. There were a lot of reasons for this but one of them was the design of the MIB HQ. If you remember, dear reader, it was mostly a smooth, white plastic look, with elements of chrome. The WBN crew described it as an “iPod future” design. I don’t know if they originated the term but it was so evocative that I immediately stole the concept for the design of the dungeon in my OD&D game. Well, parts of it anyway. Level 1 was an old ruined wizard’s tower exposed to the elements (or , at least, that’s what it was supposed to look like to any nosey adventuring types,) Level 2 was basically a locker-room/ante-chamber designed to scare off any potential burglars/curious cats. That level was constructed almost entirely of untreated concrete, rather than iPod material since it was a transitionary area. From Level 3 down to Level 5, its iPod as all get out. I even gave the levels and many of the rooms rounded corners, as you can see from the maps below.

Why focus on such a design choice? Well, apart from the point that it sets it apart from other, more fantasy-based dungeons, and unifies the whole thing with a particular aesthetic, which works to emphasise a theme, I found it useful for descriptive purposes. I was able to describe these levels as being clad in some smooth, white, slightly translucent material that the characters could not identify, but for the benefit of the players, when I said the words, “iPod future,” they immediately got it. I even referenced the MIB HQ, which helped even more. I am not interested in being coy and mysterious with my players when it comes to this sort of thing. I want them to be on my wavelength. I enjoy sharing the vibe I’m going for with them.

Crystal Clear

After a short rest in the secret room on level 2, the party decided to tackle the evil in the northwest of the level. They gathered outside a door at the end of the hall. It was not trapped but it would not open easily. They used tools to open it after hearing rustles and squawks from beyond. Once they got it open they were immediately confronted by an angry cockatrice protected some eggs in its filthy nest. Despite the danger of being petrified they triumphed easily, by setting fire to its nest and then cutting its head off. This encounter, was, undoubtedly, underpowered for this party. They are all levels 4 or 5 at this point, so a single 5 HD monster was not going to pose a huge problem for them. However, there was always a danger of instant death. If the cockatrice got a single hit in, and the PC failed their save, they were going to be petrified. That would have been the end for that character. And when the players know that, they still take it seriously. Anyway, They found a bounty of treasure amidst the bones in the room, and took the cockatrice talons as a prize. Abiss then crept through the earthen tunnel on one side of the room. It led out to a ledge in the sea cliff where she was mercilessly battered by the raging storm. She went back inside. As I mentioned on my first OD&D post, if they had wanted to, they could have climbed down to the surface of the sea below from this ledge. It might even have been a shortcut to Level 6. But they would have had a difficult climb, especially as there was a storm blowing outside. Also, they did not know that there was a level below the waves. That’s on me. I think it might have been fun to hint at a submarine area and tempt them to take that plunge.

Instead, the party took the stairs down to the next level. There, they found a large open space. This is where the iPod future aesthetic began. There was a soft glow coming from nowhere and everywhere. Dotted around the chamber they discovered a number of tall, glass cylinders filled with creatures. They examined one with a goblin inside. As they did, they were bothered by a swarm of crystallised insects. The insects poisoned Siward, the Fighting Man and Ilaina, the Magic User, reducing their ability scores, before Tadhg, the Cleric did his fire breathing trick again, decimating the swarm in one go.

The swarm came along because of a roll on my Random Encounter table for this level. This is it!

1. 1d6 Crystal Security Drones phase out of the floor: i) Spider Configuration (Paralysis) ii) Bat Configuration (CON damage) iii) Cat Configuration (DEX damage) iv) Humanoid Configuration (Save v Stone or crystallise body part on touch)
2. Escaped insect swarm: Save v Poison or take 1 point of random ability score damage
3. Information Assistant in the form of a hardlight hologram of a crystalline humanoid:
   • If they interact with it, it will speak common to them asking for credentials
   • Can explain the purpose of this level as a lab
   • Expresses the requirement to continue the experiments for the makers
4. Specimen tube trap: Randomly select a party member. They must save v Death Ray or become trapped in a stasis tube that drops from the ceiling. Controls in Room 15 to release.
5. Stasis Malfunction:
   • 1-2 – Creature escapes from Room 10
   • 3 – Creature escapes from Room 11
   • 4 – Creature escapes from Room 12
   • 5 – Creature escapes from Room 13
   • 6 – Creature escapes from Room 17
6. Nothing happens

You’ll notice the list of escapees on the roll of a 5 there. Each of those rooms is a stasis chamber. They contained a selection of large, dangerous creatures, from a chimera to a hill giant, in various stages of crystallisation. The players were lucky that they didn’t roll that one. Instead, while they were on this level, they rolled the insect swarm twice, the stasis cylinder trap once, and the information assistant once. The cylinder trapped one of their dwarf companions, who was rendered inert until he beat the shit out of the tube, releasing him along with some stasis gas.

Now, the information assistant is the closest thing to a helpful NPC in this dungeon. It could, potentially, provide a lot of information about the nature of the place, its purpose and even how to work its systems. But, they hadn’t got any credentials when it appeared so there was only so much help it would provide. The one that appeared to them identified Ilaina, dressed in one of the bio-hazard suits they’d found in the lockers on level 2, as one of the “makers” and addressed her as such. They learned from this assistant that all other makers were in stasis in the the “ship” below. It told Ilaina to use the controls in room 15 if she needed to do anything on this level. Ilaina then dismissed the Information Assistant while one of the hirelings was sent upstairs to retrieve the other two bio-hazard suits that they had left there. When they searched them, they found a pair of crystals they surmised might act as credentials.

They figured out they needed to place a selection of gems into indentations in the outer wall of room 15 to enter. Rather than making this a true puzzle where they would have to guess the correct combination of gems, I asked for a luck roll, which they succeeded on first time round. Ilaina and Abbess entered the room and experimented while the others dealt with the second swarm of crystalline flies outside the door. I told them that control pillars rose from the floor as if by magic when they moved close to them and descended again when they moved away. Eventually, Abbess, with her shorter stature, noticed that each of the pillars bore a mark, or rune, similar to the ones they had seen in the hologram upstairs. She found one that simply bore a down arrow, just like the door they had found on the north-east wall of this level. She removed the gems from it and they went to investigate. They found a now operational elevator there. They all hopped on and went down to Level 4.

Getting High

I had fun coming up with the ideas for this level. I had always planned to have a level of the dungeon where one had to fly to achieve anything. I basically made this entire thing up in the last hour before the session on Friday night though, because of procrastination.

Anyway, It looked similar to the previous level, except the ceilings were higher 20ft to 50ft high, and there was a 50ft drop down to the water in area 2. The big crystal in the centre of the space allowed anyone who touched it to fly, but did not imbue them with the ability to do so with any sort of finesse. Only Abbess, the halfling thief, denied to touch it, and only after she had figured out what the plaque on the crystal said: Flight Practice Crystal. I told Abbess that she was floating upwards and asked her to decide which way she wanted to go. Then I asked her to roll 1d6. On the roll of 1 or 2 she would go the direction she wanted to, otherwise, she would have to roll another d6 on this table, which would determine the actual way she flew:

1. Up
2. Down
3. Left
4. Right
5. Forwards
6. Backwards

After a couple of dangerous experiments, they decided to tether her so she could be dragged around through the air like a bunch of balloons. They also discovered the effect only lasted about one dungeon turn. As they were testing this out, one of the crystalline gargoyles atop the ledge in the north part of the room came to life and attacked. This encounter came from the random encounter table for this level:

1. 1d6 Crystal Security Drones phase out of the floor: i) Bat Configuration (CON damage) ii) Giant Wasp Configuration (Poison damage) iii) Eagle Configuration (Bleed on hit until healed) iv) Flying Squirrel Configuration
2. Escaped insect swarm: Save v Poison or take 1 point of random ability score damage
3. Information Assistant in the form of a hardlight hologram of a crystalline humanoid:
   • If they interact with it, it will speak common to them asking for credentials
   • Can explain the purpose of this level as an area to practice flight and descend to the lower level
   • Explains the nature of the challenges on this level and the importance that flight will have for the makers in the future
4. 1d3 Crystalline Gargoyles on 1a come alive
5. A splash comes from the water below
6. Nothing happens

The splash referred to in no. 5 is from the surface of the water fifty foot below the room in area 2 on the maps. It has the purplish tint that other contaminated water they encountered so far had, and swarms of insects above it. It is impossible for the PCs to see from here but just above the surface of the water below, there is an opening that would allow them to get to Level 5.

Meanwhile, there are a series of challenges on this level. For instance, flying to the top of 1b, a tall pillar, and touching it, would reward the flyer with a gem. The other pillar, 1c, has a spiral pattern on it. If the flyer can manage to fly around it in a spiral, they will be rewarded similarly. Meanwhile in the tall section of the level, area 3, they can fly 50 ft up to a couple of platforms. These are more like traps, that, if the flyer is not fast enough, will hurt of kill them through the use of crystalline spikes or abrupt drops.

Conclusion

This is pretty much where we left off with the last session. They haven’t figured out where to go from here and they are not done experimenting on the level just yet.

I can’t quite express exactly how much I have enjoyed coming up with the content, the encounter tables, the traps, the challenges and the overall look and theme of this dungeon. I really should do it more often. And I would encourage other GMs to do the same. Your maps don’t have to look professional, you don’t even have to write everything down, you just have to know how it works.

It feels like a radical act of creativity in these times when you can buy a bundle of maps and tables for a fantasy RPG in their hundreds and thousands, and other people in the space are using AI to come up with scenarios, NPCs, even campaigns. The creation is play too. GM prep is play, drawing shitty maps is play, and seeing your players react when they start flying like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, because of something you did, that’s the really good sort of play and you won’t feel half as good about it if some robot came up with it.