Designing Your Own Rolemaster Adventure, Pt. 1

Although a lot have been said about this in the past, there happens to be some guidelines in designing an adventure. The most basic way of designing and adventure for your own Rolemaster Adventure is to know about your characters.

Are they farm boys and girls, or military brats? Do they come from the brothel or from high society? These questions help shape your first adventure. For the sake of simplicity, however, lets explore the assumption that they want to explore the world around them.

1. The heroes are farm boys living in the Town of Oaksprings.

Question 2. What sort of environment does Oaksprings have? For simplicity, lets assume it has a valley. With a ruin connecting to some caves and such. I'll provide a picture to said ruin . . .



( Yes that is the Crac des Chevaliers)

Not something you would find in Conan, but something you can find connected to the Crusades. This castle is overlooking Oaksprings from atop it's hill. It's ruined, as it was destroyed some twenty years ago. So, now, we have a place where your adventurers come from, and a place where they can explore for adventure.

But an Adventure is not without it's dangers. It's time to plan what we put into the castle. Make a list of what your heroes would encounter. Here's a list of dangers the usual Rolemaster Hero may come across in a world like the Known Realms.

1. Pit Viper
2. Orcs (lesser)
3. wolf
4. Gorgon
5. Minotaur
6. Werewolf
7. Skeleton (minor)
8. Zombies
9. Naga
10. Alothere (Elothere)
11. Giant Spiders
12. Kobolds
13. Troglodytes
14. Tatzelworm

After completing your list of creatures, you need something to reward your player characters with. Treasure is often the best answer to that question. Lets open Creatures and Treasures for Rolemaster Classic and make a list of treasure.

The general rule for handing out treasure for low levels is simple enough. Never give out too much, or you go into Monty Haul style campaigns. Treasure is something that is a reward for a job well done in bringing down your opponents in defeat. Realistically, our castle already has been sacked, so whatever the treasure reward is often had by our monsters or our foil.

So, lets design a bad guy for our player characters to encounter. If you are planning a campaign, a villain (like a Dark Lord type, or Femme Fatale type) must be already in your head. But since this an adventure, a foil (i.e. walk-on bad guy) would be perfect. If you design your foil well, and the PCs like him, or better yet -- love to hate him -- then you have your major villain for your campaign.

For simplicity's sake, lets look through our Rogues Gallery and plop in an illusionist for our foil. Lets say that he is a she. And also for simplicity's sake, lets name her Juno.

So we have our foil: Juno the Illusionist.

So, now we have a good plan for our adventure. Designing the rest: the floorplan and so forth, is the tough part. But there are work arounds for this. :)

I'll have Juno's stats up in a second. For right now; enjoy the D&D cartoon below for some inspiration.

Classic Dungeons and Dragons and Rolemaster

Did you know that the Rolemaster supplements were designed to supplement Classic D&D? Classic Dungeons and Dragons the grand daddy of all RPGs that is based either on pencil and paper, the computer (CRPGs and MMORPGs, is there such a thing as a Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Game?), or Live Action (although Live Action roleplay has been existing for seven thousand years).

Classic D&D allowed you to do anything you put your imagination too. You want to fight a dragon, just make a cave, a dragon, and something you want that the dragon wants and has (like a princess). And go at it. There wasn't any thing complex to Classic D&D, and you just played it to your heart's content. There was nothing stopping you and your friends from having a good time.

However, along the way, several supplements were developed. Sometimes by third party publishers. One of these publishers was Iron Crown Enterprises. They developed three products that helped D&D play greatly, adding a sense of realism.

The first of these was Arms Law.


Arms Law brought to the table new rules on how to handle combat. Although the Weapon Mastery rules were wonderful in their own way, Arms Law brought realism to the fore of combat; introducing concussion hits, critical strikes, and what would happen if you were critically striked by a weapon or a claw. It came in two supplements: Arms Law and Claw Law. These were eventually merged into ARMS LAW, like you see on the left (which is the 2003 Revision).

This brought Classic D&D on a more dangerous level. Not only can your character die, but can die from a critical strike. Here's one infamous critical strike from said book:

Strike to foe's groin area. +10 hits. All vitals are destroyed immediately. Foe is stunned and unable to parry for 12 rnds and then dies.

That is the E critical Strike from the slashing table with a result of 100. That means any foe, of any level, can die instantly or after a period of time (ie. 12 rounds). This made playing D&D much more lethal to your character, but instantly more fun since it added the realism some players so craved.

Not to be outdone, we have Spell Law. Besides adding rules for weapons, we have rules for spell casting; a lot of new spells to work with, and -- the happy Critical Strikes that such spells can cause.

So, not only can your character die by slashing hits, bludgeoning damage, crushing blows, and the Full Nelson, your character gets to be blown up -- and be blown up -- in style.









For instance, to quote the Fire Ball critical result table:

All that remains of foe are charred bits of teeth and bone. Add +20 to your next roll.

Doesn't sound like a walk in the park: for you or for your foe, right? But that is exactly what would happen if you cast a fireball spell at somebody! I refer you to the video above to see how dangerous fire can be if you don't believe me. Spell Law brought that kind of realism to the Classic D&D game.

Finally, we come to the third installment to the series, Character Law. Character Law is designed to bring advanced character development to the Classic D&D game by allowing you to define what your character is capable of. This went so far as to define what your character knows: in terms of total basic knowledge that pertains to adventuring (hiding, swimming, running, etc.). The rest: such as where your character came from, how he got there and what he does on his spare time; was up to you.

So there you have it: Rolemaster is really a Classic D&D toolkit. These supplements enhanced everything pertaining to Classic D&D: weapon and combat rules, critical strikes, spell effects, and defining your character.

These concepts were eventually adapted into the D&D game little by little. Today, 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons exist -- a game that has been influenced by ICE's game -- Rolemaster. Also, today, Rolemaster has evolved into a perfectly good game by itself. You can play Rolemaster by itself, or added to D&D. However, as for what Rolemaster has been designed, I suggest classic D&D.

National Geographic News

I thought I would add a daily news widget from National Geographic in order to keep posting. This will keep you up to date as to what National Geographic is doing.

Another 3D creation, Angel Portrait will figure in a new roleplaying game supplement for D20 Modern. So far, Arcane Dispatch seems to be a good thing to work with. At the moment, here is what the cover art might look like. :)

As I continue, though, I had a thought on the kind of Husband I wish to be. I'll post more on that when I can.

More DAZ Studio adventures

I have completed a new image, Elton's Angels Reworked. Each character is from a roleplaying game I game mastered. Each character is mostly distinguished by the color of their hair.

Lilac color = Nanami
Walnut brown = Seito Risa
Honey blonde = Seiko

I enjoy working in 3D.

Daz|Studio, Comics, and More!!

My Blog is not dead.

Keeping up with your blog writing can be a chore. Especially since you have been working with Daz Studio as of late. Daz|Studio is a free program from DAZ 3D, which you can use to create your own 3D content and be your own artist in a strong manner. Not only does DAZ 3D produce Daz Studio, but they are one of the best places to get Poser content.

Besides Daz|Studio, DAZ 3D produces Carrara, which is in its seventh incarnation. Bryce, Hexagon, Mimic, and other products. So, what can I do with Daz|Studio? Almost anything I want (one reason why I am strongly considering Carrara).

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Comics using Daz|Studio, Photoshop, and Comic Life

So, I am producing content for my own comics. One of these comics is a series I'm calling, "Shaper." It's a manga series staring Aiko 4, Hiro 3, Hiro 4, Victoria 4, Michael 4, and Apollo Maximus. Three of these are located on the people category.

The Aiko figure plays most of the women in the comic.
Hiro 3/Hiro 4 plays some of the men.
Victoria 4 plays the women of authority. Teachers of that sort.
Michael 4 and Apollo Maximus get the other men parts.
Maybe and Deco will be playing special parts.

Using these figures I can generate some good comics using Photoshop and Comic Life. Updates about my comic will be made on this blog. Including the premise. I currently have an account on Web Comics Nation to show the comic. I just need more actors (Hiro 4 and Apollo Maximus), Wardrobe, and Sets. This will be cool!

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How do I get into Daz|Studio?

Rule number 1: Don't buy Poser! Although most people use Poser, and most 3d Merchants on Renderosity, RNDA, and other places support Poser, DAZ Studio is a free product that is easy to use for the 3D content beginner. I also recommend buying Photoshop, since that program is very powerful to use and you can use it in so many creative ways.
And remember to click on the link below to find out how to get Daz Studio for free!

Also, if you are in need of an actor for your scenes be sure to check out Apollo Maximus. Click both links below.


That should be it, and:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

STAR TREK

IRON MAN DVD WIDGET

The Election

The election affects all of us. Find out who will win, and who will lose. Personally, I think the election is a sham.

Day 3 of thinking I'm Healthy

It is currently the day after my birthday, Oct. 16, 2008. So far, my thinking of being healthy has gotten me to cough up and eject -- yes eject -- mucous from my respiratory tract. This is actually a good thing, even though my ear is swollen and my eyes are weeping puss (pink eye?).

I am currently encoding Iron Man from the DVD-ROM; ripping it into my hard drive into Apple T.V. Format so that my brother and my sister in law could enjoy watching it through their apple-tv. Currently, my ear is getting unswollen. I was not feeling well on my Birthday, even though I have now lived 34 years. And my ear itches. So, lets see what is happening on the front.

• There is an interesting Nudist video I recently watched. Produced by Hollywood, young women predominate. Also there is a fat woman who is constantly made fun of. This is all Hollywood's fault. This is not "work safe" so you have been warned. But its also not pornographic in anyway. In fact, it's a social documentary.

Day 1 of thinking I'm Healthy

I cought a cold/the flu awhile back and it has knocked me out for the past three days. While talking about my sickness with my friends, one suggested to stop thinking I'm sick. Well, that is what I am going to do.

Day 1 of thinking I'm Healthy!

Right now, the common cold has lodged in my right ear behind the ear drum. I have effectively lost all hearing in my right ear. It is hard to sleep in this condition. I have tried sleeping through the night, but to no avail.

Some important points to consider:

* A witer argues that our definition of beauty needs some work.

* A girl has found out that her friend is naturist. I say, "good for her!"

* Did you know that over half of Austrian Youths rely on pornography for their sex education? Apparently, Australia has the same problem. Is it getting that way here in America?

School on my mind

I've been in school.

I've not been updating any posts because I've been in school and concentrating on school work.