Forbidden Jungle
The winners of the 2010 One Page Dungeon Contest have been announced and I’m honored that The Heart of Darkness is listed among them. After last year’s honorable mention, I’m very flattered to have scored again.
It’s the winner of ‘Best Mini-Campaign,’ and that’s exactly what it was meant for. I hope it inspires some great adventures. Honestly, I didn’t really expect a huge outdoor setting to get much consideration in a dungeon design contest.
I’ve looked over at least a few of the other winners, and I can say that they’re top-notch. A free PDF of all 18 winners is available, but I’d also recommend the .zip file of all 63 entries available here. A wide range of gaming, either to be used directly or as inspirational material, for a few minutes of download time. Check ‘em out.
Tags: Forbidden Jungle
For our adventures in the Forbidden Jungle, we’ve had to modify our Labyrinth Minions system to include the native tribesmen who are hiring themselves out to hunters, explorers, and adventurers.
There is a steady stream of people from the settled lands across the sea arriving in the crowded town at the mouth of the huge river which snakes up into the Heart of Darkness. Many of these (which we call “old worlders”) arrive with hopes of gold, ivory, and glory but soon find themselves with nothing but a rusty sword and an empty stomach. They are only too willing to hire themselves out as porters, torch bearers, or men-at-arms to an expedition.
Also, the word has spread among the native tribes that gold can be earned by working for these crazy old worlders. So there is usually no shortage of natives looking for work as well. Unlike most campaigns I’ve run, in the Forbidden Jungle there is no shortage of potential hirelings.
And it’s a good thing, as the Forbidden Jungle is a deadly place. The natives know and accept this with a grim determination. The newcomers maybe don’t, but with no family on the continent there is no one to complain if someone heads out on an expedition but never returns. Most of the old worlders who don’t return are never missed by anyone. It’s sad, but the jungle has no sympathy.
Here is the modified version of the Minions sheet:
Jungle Minions
Free PDF
The native tribesmen are more lightly armed and armored than the old-worlders but are a bit hardier in the environment as reflected by their slightly better hit points. The scale mail for the tribesmen can represent either new world scale mail or perhaps some special tribal construction.
Tags: Forbidden Jungle, Kreations, Labyrinth Lord
Sickle Swords of the Exiles
These weapons are cast of copper or bronze and usually heavily stained or tarnished by the ages. Often they have various runes or hieroglyphs inscribed on the blades. These slashing weapons have always been associated with a people known as “the exiles,” though who these exiles were, where they came from, or what happened to them is a mystery.
The sickle swords of the exiles function as +2 long swords and are 75% likely to also possess a minor power. This power is not always beneficial. Some possible powers include:
- Double damage vs. poisonous creatures
- Glow (as per light spell) 3 times/day
- Walk on water for 1 turn 1 time/day
- Know Direction 3 times/day
- On to-hit roll of 20 damage caused (excluding +2 bonus) is healed in wielder
- Wielder gains 60′ infravision when holding sickle sword
- Cause fear to all within 10′ of the wielder when drawn
- On to-hit roll of 1 cause 1d4 points of electrical damage to wielder
- +2 reaction penalty when drawn
- Requires save vs. magic to draw
- Constantly emits low hum (-1 penalty to surprise rolls)
- Specific monster gains +1 to-hit vs. wielder due to racial hatred of the sword
Tags: Forbidden Jungle
The family reconvened for another foray in the Forbidden Jungle with new PCs they had rolled up since the previous TPK. My wife had a halfling druid (great move for the environment) while my daughter went with a dwarf fighter she had rolled up on her own one day. My son, meanwhile, took advantage of the fact that the rules for multi-classed characters using our new XP and advancement system* were finally coalescing and created an elf cleric/magic-user.
They decided to spend a day searching for hirelings as their previous trek into the jungle ended badly at the hands of goblin raiders. Being short of funds, they could only afford to hire two men at arms, an old worlder with leather, sword, and shield and a native tribesman* with scale mail, spear, and shield. I explained that the tribesman’s scale was in rough shape, and my daughter wondered if it might not be stolen. I did nothing to discourage the thought.
Rumors floating around town centered around a tower across the big river, off to the southeast. My son’s previous character, the ranger detailed here, had been to this tower but had told the boatmaster he had not been able to locate it. Despite the ranger’s story, the amount of loot he brought back out of the jungle had set the townsfolk a-talking. So the party decided to set out in search of this tower. They rented canoes and paddled across the river. The elf had trouble and was nearly washed out to sea, but after an hour of fierce effort they were all safely across and the canoes hidden.
After an afternoon of jungle trekking, they set camp for the night. Being as everyone was in good shape and the weather was good, they decided not to set a fire. All three PCs have infravision (simply good night vision in our game) and the three of them decided to take turns on watch. Shortly after the other bedded down, my daughter’s dwarf spotted a man and a mule loaded with packs and tools making their way southward. As the dwarf had surprise, he quietly watched as the man stopped and set up camp. Soon the man was snoring away. The dwarf let him sleep and waked the halfling druid for her watch.
The druid (played by my wife) cast a Speak With Animals and asked the mule what was going on. The mule complained about being awakened but informed her that they were headed toward the sea. Apparently the previous place had not worked out, though the halfling didn’t understand exactly what that meant. The halfling thanked the mule and let the strangers sleep. At the crack of dawn the man awoke, grumbled about his sore bones, and set off toward the south with his mule in tow.
The party continued on their way through the jungle, taking cover when a group of five elephants rumbled past. The old worlder man-at-arms, a newcomer to the new world, wanted to take one down for the ivory. Fortunately, both the elf and the halfling talked him out of trying. Soon they stumbled upon the tower they sought, but while they looked it over they were surprised by something in the trees.
An arrow flew into the tree next to the old-worlder’s head, and not waiting to see who was shooting at them, the party ran for the tower. A huge set of bronze double doors, one of them slightly ajar (from the ranger’s previous visit), was visible through the vines overgrowing the tower, and they fled inside. The native tribesman, slowed by his scale mail, lagged behind and was narrowly missed by another arrow. But soon they were all safe inside.
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Tags: Forbidden Jungle, session
With all due credit to all those who have written up sword & sorcery serpent people in past, here are some of the primary movers and shakers in the Forbidden Jungle:
Snake-Men
No. Enc.: 1d8 (3d6)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 90′ (30′)
Armor Class: 5 [14]
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d6+1 or by weapon +1 (due to strength)
Save: F2
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: IV (XIX)Snake-men are an ancient race of serpent people that inhabits the heavy, trackless jungle. Whether a cursed mix of human and snake or a part of the natural world, none can say. The more advanced groups of snake-men often inhabit ruins, and relics of what appears to be a lost snake-man civilization are to be found overgrown in the depths of the jungle. Snake-men appear as scaled humanoids, about five and a half feet tall with a tail. They have the heads of snakes, flicking tongues, and clawed hands.
Snake-man claws are formidable weapons, but more civilized tribes make use of weapons and favor curved scimitars and long bows. In melee, a to-hit roll of 20 indicates that the snake-man has also bitten his opponent for an extra 1d6 damage. Some snake-men are said to be poisonous.
Snake-men can be fighters, clerics, magic-users, and thieves. Snake-man women can also be druids and illusionists.
Snake-men are susceptible to all magic which affects normal snakes. Cold does double damage to them, but they get a +1 bonus to saves vs. fire or heat.
Half-Snakes: These appear to be some sort of snake-man/human crossbreed, and might more properly be called “quarter-snakes.” They appear to be more human than snake, and 10% of them can pass for human if they avoid close inspection. They can be assassins, fighters, and thieves.
Snake-Lords: The upper nobility of the snake-men consists of 20′ long snakes with a human-ish upper torso with arms. These fearsome creatures have 4-7 hit dice, venomous bites, and an innate ability to charm person if eye contact is made with a victim. They are 80% likely to be magic-users of 4th-9th level.
Snake people are a staple in so many genres of fiction that it’s tough to nail them down. They’ve been done to death many times over and yet never grow too stale. I wanted a simple archetype snake people for the Forbidden Jungle, and I think this will do the trick.
As our campaign develops, there will no doubt be some alterations to the details. I want something 1HD as we use the mook rules allowing fighters 1 attack per level against 1HD or lower creatures. But I also want a little extra bite (pardon the pun) to differentiate them from orcs. And the fact that classed snake-men will not be uncommon, serving as leaders, spies, and assassins, means that some of the villains will be tough foes, indeed. And there will always be exceptional examples of these beings, snake-men who do not fit any molds or conform to any standard rules.
Tags: Forbidden Jungle
Realized that my post of my One-Page Dungeon (which isn’t even a dungeon) is part of what vanished into the ethereal plane this week. Here it is again:
The Heart of Darkness
One Page Dungeon
As a side note, I’ve made several significant changes to this one-pager as we’ve begun playing. The most immediately noticeable is the scale of 15 miles per hex. My plan had been to map things out using 1-league (3 mile) sub-hexes, with 1-mile detail hexes only when/where necessary. However, I decided to go with an “everything conforms to hex sides” plan but was stuck with river hexes three miles wide. So I decided to go back to the good old “5 miles per large scale hex” scale, making the area covered by the one-page map only a third as big. I think, as it’s all heavy jungle, that it will still provide far more than enough territory for the low- and mid-level adventuring this eastern section of the Forbidden Jungle is intended for.
Tags: Forbidden Jungle
Got in more hours of gaming on Friday and Saturday than I’d managed in the previous six months, I think. The first session with my son on Friday night was one of the most enjoyable I’ve ever played, and we followed it up on Saturday morning with another (shorter) successful session.
His ranger was dismayed to discover that the trolls are keeping a closer eye on their hoard now that he’s stolen some of it while they were away from their lair, but was excited to check out a little more of the tower he’s been exploring and managed to get back to town with another ivory tusk. Another NPC bit the dust, this time a thief who fell victim to the undead monkeys within the tower when the characters failed to take sufficient precautions.
That evening my wife and daughter rolled up PCs and we had our third-ever whole-family game. The two new PCs joined my son’s ranger and yet another NPC and headed into the wild. After some tense moments when they became disoriented in the trackless jungle, they managed to find their way back toward town and drove off some jungle goblin raiders near town. Unfortunately, the next morning they ran into more goblins and were wiped out.
The first time we all played together, the party was captured out by goblins. The second session we all played together was a successful rescue mission with new PCs. And now the third time was a TPK. Though I want the threat of danger to be very real and want 1st-level characters to be justifiably frail, the death rate is discouraging. My son, in particular, was pretty upset about losing the ranger that had done so well in the first two sessions.
He and I have discussed this extensively and we are going to be making a few tweaks to improve the survivability of PCs. I’m going to up the binding of wounds from 1d4-1 hit points per battle to 1d6, and the overnight healing is going to be upped to 1d6 hit points as well. I think this is in keeping with the sword & sorcery vibe I’m going for. Battles are savage and death is not uncommon, but soon the characters are back into the thick of it. So we’re going to give it a try.
I’ve got another change, much more significant, in mind as well, but I want to think on it a bit. The goal is to increase survivability at the first couple levels without altering game balance or making mid-level characters TOO powerful. I also want the risk of PC death to remain significant, and even a threat to well-played characters. It’s a fine line and one that I think a lot of people have trouble with.
Tags: Forbidden Jungle, session
Well, it is with a heavy heart that I’ve finally decided to shelve my Forbidden Jungle campaign indefinitely.
My design never really progressed very far, and I fear that most of the potential players would rather adventure in a more “standard” fantasy world than the lethal Lost World sword & sorcery environment I was planning for Forbidden Jungle. Rather than water it down with high fantasy, I’ve shifted gears and am starting to work on a new, more traditional campaign setting.
Though I am disappointed that Forbidden Jungle won’t see the light of day, at least for the time being, I am actually quite excited about the new world. Like Forbidden Jungle, it’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time. Hopefully I’ll be able to make some real headway in the next few days and will unveil things shortly.
Now that I’ve made the decision, it feels like a weight has been lifted and I am ready to charge in on the new project.
I know that a number of readers have expressed a great deal of interest in Forbidden Jungle, and I’m sorry if you’re disappointed. I am quite disappointed, myself. Hopefully, the new campaign will take shape as I intend and it will be a worthy substitute.
UPDATE: Now that I’ve started on the new setting, a brainstorm has led me to wonder if many elements from Forbidden Jungle can’t be worked into this new world. Much of it would fit very nicely, and doing this would eliminate the risk of the Forbidden Jungle becoming stale after a while, something I’ve felt was a bit of a risk.
At the same time, I don’t want to sell any of the Forbidden Jungle ideas short by editing them down to fit within another environment. This new campaign is going to be intentionally smaller-scaled, and I don’t want the Forbidden Jungle to just become a single encounter area. A couple of the ideas I was working on simply won’t fit within the space I’ve allotted for the new setting, so they’d have to be trimmed way back or ditched entirely. I’m not sure if I want to do that, but I also know that it might be the only way Forbidden Jungle sees the light of day for years. Or for ever.
Tags: Forbidden Jungle
