Dungeon Scrawler

Bull-frog 8 HP, 1 Armor, 14 STR, 9 DEX, 4 WIL, bite (d8) Huge, hungry, solitary amphibians with thick rubbery skin and curved horns Sluggish unless hungry or it's territory is threatened, then fiercely persistent. Skull bash (d12): launches into a target within 40ft; if the Bull-frog collides with a wall or similar object, it cannot attack on it's next turn as it regains composure. Found in damp and humid places, these huge amphibians boast an impressive bulk and an even more impressive appetite. During the heat of the day, or times of rest, they will submerge themselves in deep water or cool mud, leaving only their eyes and nostrils exposed. Male bull-frogs are solitary and fiercely territorial; when a potential rival enters their territory, they puff up their stretchy throats in an attempted intimidation display. If this doesn't work, the competitors square up, cock their powerful legs, and crash their thick skulls into each other until some...

Deep in the woods there is a wall. If not for the trees, you would probably see it long before you reach it, for it towers above their boughs, and its depth is that of longboat. The stones are weathered, but large as boulders. Once, the wall might have spanned a hundred miles, but now it's crumbling remnants snake across a measly six, with ruined gaps every mile or so. Perhaps the stones have long since been carried off for other projects. Elsewhere, the stones are tumbled to the earth and overgrown--certainly in places moss and tree have reclaimed the wall so successfully that you could be forgiven for thinking it was only a natural cliff or rise blocking your path. It is inadvisable to linger near this wall, however. Bandits have been known to claim it's heights for their own purposes, and lurking predators can be found from time to time lairing in barely preserved tunnels along the wall's base. Inspiration There are two here: First, I'm sure everyone knows the Great ...

I'm pleased with my previous take on Spellbook magic. ...yet, at the same time, something inside me says it's too  detailed. Or perhaps, too "hard"; Brandon Sanderson is famous for (if not inventing the idea) popularizing the idea of "hard" vs "soft" magic systems. The explanations I proposed before definitely constitute a hard magic system. There's nothing strictly wrong with that, of course, it's just that everything else  about Cairn is so pro-abstraction. Other things in Cairn feel  "soft".  Mind you, this isn't a criticism; Cairn is quite practical--the focus is on good gameplay. But my motivation was to come up with a sort of coherent understanding of magic. I think I definitely did that (or at least about 80% of it), I just, y'know, wanted to do it again . In part to hew closer to the "spirit" of Cairn, but also, in part, to demonstrate that these things are malleable, and one person's explanation nee...

All things considered, I'm surprised this one took as long to materialize at it has. The topic began bubbling in my mind when I wrote my room post on Animal Rooms . I will repeat some of what I said there, but I realized I could say more, so get comfortable, because there's a lot more to say. So let's talk about monsters. Here there be monsters Why do dungeons have monsters? Resist the urge to get wistful and metaphorical (what is  a "monster", anyways?), I don't write this blog to lift your mind to new places (for one, based on my actual qualifications that would feel pretentious), I write it to give you practical tools. Simply put, "monsters" are there to: Present a challenge. We're not just walking around a museum, right? Monsters are a source of tension and excitement, and an impetus for problem solving. Explain why the loot hasn't been carried off already. If this was just a dusty basement surely someone would have come through here alre...

Within the last day or so, this blog crossed 25,000 views! Another milestone and source of encouragement. Thank you so much for reading and your comments. It really keeps me going. I started this blog for me; I found myself stuck without a particular kind of resource I wanted to have handy, so I decided to start building that resource. That work continues! And I'm happy that it seems to be resonating with people. Based on the categories of Dungeon Rooms I've worked out, I am expecting to put out about eight more Room posts. You may have noticed that my pace has slowed--that's partly  life  and partly just hitting that part of a project where the initial "honeymoon period" passes and the remainder is simply work. It's harder these days to drum up sufficient inspiration, but I have no intention of quitting!  It's hard to say how much longer the Index will take. A couple of weeks per room type would be a good steady pace, but that's more like a lower-boun...

This is a bit of an idle musing I wanted to put out into the world. In Cairn, magic is generally carried out in three ways. (More like two and a half really.) You've got spellbooks, scrolls (that's the half), and relics. Today's thoughts are all about those spellbooks and scrolls. Mechanical justification vs. diagetic justification For good, very OSR flavored, gamey reasons, spells in Cairn are contained within a single spellbook that occupies a slot. Casting a spell requires some level of safety, holding the spellbook open in both hands, and filling another  slot with Fatigue. That's more than enough for a good time, and we don't have to think about it any harder.  But , my brain is the sort that looks at this and says.... why though? I don't mean "why would you design it this way", the only reason needed for that is "it makes the game fun in the particular way we want it to be", but I do imagine some people with a stronger variant of my par...