Dungeonometry

Varying encounter tables by location and environment is a standard practice for many game masters. Varying with season is another way to make the world feel more alive and dynamic. It's also important to show the world moving on and changing in a manner unfocused on the player characters. Beltane is quickly approaching. This marks the cultural beginning of summer. Here are some themes worth exploring for this holiday and season in a mythic Ireland setting. ### Cows The early summer sees the cows being taken out to pasture. Many rituals are likely to hope for good omens for the cows. Some specific rituals include: - Decorating cows with flowers or ash; - Walking cows between bonfires; - Taking cows to faerie hills and sacrificing their blood. I also think it's noteworthy that a feast with a sacrificial lamb is held on Beltane. Lambs are an important symbol for the previous holiday of Imbolc. With this feast we observe the transition from the season of the lamb to the season of...

The Order of St. Laisrén is a group of scholars, investigators, and mercenaries dedicated to researching and containing otherworldly threats in Eire. The Order was founded following the death of St. Laisrén mac Nad Froích in the 6th century. St. Laisrén worked closely with his brother King Oengus to strengthen Christianity in Munster. As its first Christian King, he faced strong opposition from the druids and their otherworldly allies. Laisrén found success researching and bargaining with the faerie folk. They were then able to identify and remove the greatest threats. For centuries, the Order of St. Laisrén has continued in their patron's example. They seek to understand the Otherworld to protect Christians. Since the arrival of the Celtic Twilight, the Order has moved away from its roots. They are more openly hostile to all faerie folk. Bargaining is no longer an option. More members now think of themselves as hunters than investigators. # Denizens ## Abbot Gobrian Abbot Gobr...

In many RPG campaigns, GMs use random tables based on the local terrain. Ireland is beautiful, but the land is not varied to the extent we see in more fantastical settings. I've had success altering my encounter tables with the season. Aside from varying the encounters, it provides players a concrete feeling of time's progression. This helps reinforce that the world is dynamic. Today is Imbolc! This Celtic holiday marks the cultural start of spring. It is associated with the Celtic goddess Brigid. Here are some themes surrounding the holiday and Irish late winter/early spring. ### Lambs, Birth, and New Life Sheep, cattle, and all manner of animals give birth at this time. All manner of festivals across Europe celebrate this time of year for that reason. Imbolc is one of these. It only makes sense that such life will be encountered in the broader world over the coming months. If you've ever wanted to run an encounter of cute baby animals, this is it. ### Coming of Age for ...

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...

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...

When I first started running *Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok*, I had already been game mastering RPGs for over a decade. Over that time I had adapted a pretty improvisational style across a handful of different games. I initially had difficulty adapting this style to *FotN:R*. The game's deep tactics are part of its appeal. Building out encounters to leverage those tactics takes preparation. Worse still, I struggled to adapt when players took a left turn. Over time, I found ways to adapt enemies on the fly. One of the main things was being able to improvise talents just as an encounter started out. I hope this article will help other GMs who find themselves in the same position. The talents listed here are easy to remember. They are also easy to breakdown and to learn how to approach making our own combat talents. # Whirlwind Attack The most obvious talent to include for a combat encounter is an Attack. Whirlwind Attack targets up to three creatures with a Weak Attack. Essentially, ...