Dungeonometry

In a [previous post](https://blog.dungeonometry.dev/2024/08/fotn-3-active-talents-for-your-back.html), we went through a few combat talents to keep in mind. Social talents provide a unique twist on this same challenge. So many social talents are dependent upon the details of a character. "Lunging Attack" could be performed by nearly any denizen. But "Acknowledge Me Peasant" makes no sense for a pickpocket. Having "Demand Confession" can make all the difference between a common mercenary and a zealous crusader. These unique talents are great when you have the time and know exactly which one to use. But sometimes, you just need some fallbacks to keep the game moving and social combat interesting. Here are a few you can readily drop-in. # Will Not Budge When in doubt, this is about as generically useful a social talent that a character can have. Nearly every social talent has some limitations: social standing, emotional condition, or how the action is perfor...

*These are notes for a game I ran at Gamehole Con 11. It was written for 6 Dwellers at Level 8*. The Abbey at Kells has a new illuminated manuscript. Word is spreading that it is something to behold. Tomorrow, the Coarb of Iona and his retinue arrive to assess it. The Dwellers were hired as security in preparation. The Dwellers likely believe they are to keep the manuscript secure from raiders. Though they would never own up to it, the monks have hired them to protect it from something more sinister. # Setting ## The Abbey The abbey consists of a round tower surrounded by a ring wall. The ring wall stands roughly 12 feet high and has a single wooden gate in or out. The tower stands in the center about 100 feet from the wall. Within the walls is a garden, well, and small graveyard. ### The round tower The round tower is a stone building with 3 stories and a cellar below. It is 24 feet across and has a conical roof. The opening is 10 feet from the ground. A ladder can be pulled up or d...

*These are the notes for a game I ran at Gamehole Con 11. It was written for 6 Dwellers at Level 8.* The Dwellers learn that the King's caravan is making its way nearby. It already has a substantial haul, but is far from full. This is a chance to disrupt King's Sitric plans and make some quick money. It's a straightforward heist. The players have about 8 hours before the caravan passes through this area. # Setting The caravan will be passing over a bridge this evening. It and the surrounding areas are described here. ## A bridge between worlds The bridge is little more than an old stone archway. The road is just wide enough for a single wagon to cross at a time. The river below runs through a gulch with steep, muddy sides, tangled with roots. Looking upstream from the bridge, the river is little more than shallow, rocky creek. The water rushes with great speed but is little more than a few inches deep. Downriver is an entirely different story. The water rushes just as qu...

To help show-off *Champions of Rag & Bone*, I decided to make a terrain set to highlight the climactic Hurling Match. This is my first terrain project. I'm very pleased with how it turned out! # Components ## The Goals These were the very first thing I made. Not much needs explaining here: balsawood bases and balsa wood for the goalposts. Then I applied some battlefield mud and static grass after painting the posts. When I first built these, they were just enhancements for placement on a Chessex hex mat. That made the hex counting pretty straightforward. With the entire board made, I may need to go back and make the grass match the pattern on the pitch. I'm also considering adding a mesh for the goals to look more the part. ## The Pitch The primary component here is an 17"×11"×1/4" piece of quarter-inch XPS foam. I got this from an Army Painter terrain kit provided by Gary Con for GMs. (The timing there really was a happy coincidence; I made the g...

I've run a few home campaigns of *Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok*, and run dozens of convention games. In such a mechanically heavy game, it can be easy to forget or overlook some rules. Here are a few that I have seen players struggle with, or that took me a while to grok. # Stacking Amplify meta tags `Amplify` is probably every player's favorite meta tag. It's also an easy one to remember. "Double all the numbers." Double the damage, double the healing, double the move, double the knockback, double the intensity. It's fantastic. But that simple rule, "double all the numbers," is easy to misinterpret. Specifically, it fails to hold up when a player plays several `Amplify` runes. Each `Amplify` meta tag played increases the multiplier by 1. So an attack that deals 8 damage with 2 `Amplify` meta tags would deal 8 × 3 = 24 damage. Many players incorrectly calculate this as 8 × 2 × 2 = 32. In actuality, to get a multiplier of 4, 3 `Amplify` runes must be...

The social combat rules introduced in *The Children of Eriu* bring the same mechanical depth I love in the base game to the social sphere. I am always excited by alternatives to the traditional skill based approach of most other RPGs. That said, social combat was a point of difficulty for me and my players when we first encountered it. The system is innovative, but it requires a mindset shift, too. So what's the real payoff here? This subsystem is wildly different from approaches in other traditional RPGs, so what's the point? Why go through all this trouble? For me, it's the same value we get from having rigorous mechanical combat rules. Rules for physical combat provide a consistent method to determine when a character is hit, harmed, or killed during the course of play. Likewise, characters may find themselves on the ropes, socially speaking. A character may yield information they hadn't intended to. No one can always keep a cool head. Characters may find themselv...