21 December 2021

On Modules

Recently I've had one of my players badger me consistently to run this or that module, and I keep saying that if they go to that part of the world then they will encounter what's in the module. And honestly the modules I do have in my game world are all site based locations located in specific places in the world of mystara, they are part of the lore/background of the setting (for example I have the tunnels under threshold and the temple of the shield connected to my megadungeon which have both been partiallyexplored by my current group).  I almost never run modules that aren't baked into the setting. The modules put out for OSE recently are pretty good as far as modules go, but I have yet to buy a single one. And I tend to ignore all the modules coming out of kickstarter too, whether they are OSR-adjacent or not. I just have no use for them, and I feel they are a detriment to DMs really fulfilling their potential.

You might ask whats my beef with modules, or why I think they are a primary cause of bad games. 

First off, I dont need someone else to do my imagining for me (something gygax originally supported, until he realized the plebes would give him $$$); I already have too many ideas to actually put in play. 

The real problem with modules is prep. I realize most people use modules because they think it saves them on prep time, but I believe that's a false assumption. Time is one factor in my poor opinion of modules, but it really comes down to knowledge of the material (which is why prep time is a problem). My first rule of DMing, which I try to impart to others but noone really seems to take to heart, is modified axiom from my college days: "know your setting,  be your setting" (the original pertains to GIS, know your data, be your data). If you know your setting,  every other detail of dming will follow. And this is where the problem with modules arises, because the module is written by someone other than oneself it takes a tremendous amount of labor to really know it and thus dm it well. Sure modules can be run without being overly familiar with them, but that usually leads to a very poor running and some degree of obvious railroading. 

Essentially it comes down to the quality of game you want to run vs how much time you want to put into prep. In general, any game session I run will be better if I do a half-assed completely improv session, than if I do a module which I just skimmed through or read completely only once. And sure I can do a well-run session using  a module, but at that point it must be practically memorized, and in the time it takes to get to know the module to that degree I could have prepared so much more material myself. And even the well run module will rarely measure up to my own material. 

Now I can hear everyone saying that modules are a great tool for beginner DMs to learn from. I call BS. I've helped over a dozen(probably more, but I'm not really counting)  players transition to DMing, and the most common thing I've found is that they all have a lack of confidence, whether running a module or not. Yet in all cases the dms who start with their own material tend to run better sessions(but let's be honest,  every 1st time dm is pretty bad),  and more importantly, they tend to stick with it and want to learn to be better. The desire to learn and grow as a dm is stifled when half the job is done by someone else; it's nearly impossible to really know the setting if you didn't make it yourself.

12 December 2021

Weather Generation: Global Wind Patterns

So in conjunction with my last post I sketched a preliminary map of the predominant winds. Arrows show direction; cells of low and high pressure are marked, and these are all relative, I'm not creating a proper pressure map with isomers or anything yet; and a W marks where winds are weaker than normal. At those spots where there are weak winds, a -2 should be applied to the wind speed roll.


Weather Generation: Cfa Climate

 So a few months ago I finally got around to building a weather generation system I was satisfied with. But that was just a beginning baseline, providing averages and not accounting for climactic and seasonal variations. I have been using what I developed during play and it has been working exactly how I wanted, just not really reflecting the proper climate of the game world. So here are updated charts for the Cfa climate(humid subtropical, it would apply to the southern coast of Brun around Thyatis, Karameikos, and the Sea of Dread generally); given that climate is defined by precipitation and temperature according to the Koppen Classification system the only charts that see any real changes are cloud cover(which determines precip) and temp. Though I did make a few other tweaks through playtesting. A big caveat here, the actual percentage chances of it raining or being hot or cold are not reflective of actual data, it's meant to reflect averages and the feel of what that climate is like.

Cloud Cover

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Effect

Fog

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

-8 winds

Clear

3-4

3-4

3-4

3-4

3-4

3-4

3-4

3-4

3-4

3-5

3-5

3-4

-1 cloud

Partly Cloudy

5-7

5-7

5-6

5-7

5-7

5-7

5-6

5-7

5-7

6-8

6-7

5-7

-4 precip

Cloudy

8-10

8-10

7-10

8-10

8-10

7-9

8-9

8-9

8-9

9-11

8-11

8-10

+1 cloud, -2 precip

Overcast

11-12

11-12

11-12

11-12

11-12

11-12

10-12

10-12

10-12

12

12

11-12

+2 cloud















Precipitation

2d6

Thunderstorm

Duration

Effect

None

2

0%

-

-

Sprinkles

3-5

1%

1d6x5 min

-

Showers

6-8

20%

2d6x10 min

+1 winds

Downpour

9

80%

1d6+1 hour

+2 winds

Drizzle

10-12

5%

4d6 hour

-















Winds

2d6

Effect

Calm

2

-4 winds

Faint

3

-3 winds

Gentle

4

-2 winds

Brisk

5

-1 winds, -1 temp

Fresh

6-8

-1 temp

Strong

9

+1 winds, -1 temp

High

10

+2 winds, -1 temp

Gale

11

+3 winds, -2 temp

Storm

12

+4 winds, -2 temp
























Temperature

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Effect

Frigid

2-3

2

2

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

2

2-3

-2 temp

Cold

4-7

3-7

3-6

2-3

2

-

-

-

2

2-3

3-7

4-7

-1 temp

Pleasant

8-11

8-11

7-10

4-9

3-6

2-6

2-5

2-5

3-6

4-9

8-10

8-11

 

Warm

12

12

11-12

10-12

7-11

7-9

6-9

6-9

7-9

10-12

11-12

12

+1 temp

Hot

-

-

-

-

12

10-12

10-12

10-12

10-12

-

-

-

+2 temp