D20 | The | NOUN | of the | COMPLEMENT | NOUN |
1 | The | wrath | of the | red | queen |
2 | The | revenge | of the | two-headed | king |
3 | The | love | of the | mad | serpent |
4 | The | hatred | of the | unholy | phaoroh |
5 | The | city | of the | pale | prince |
6 | The | fortress | of the | ghost | dragon |
7 | The | tower | of the | dread | mage |
8 | The | lair | of the | dead | sorcerer |
9 | The | crown | of the | lost | knight |
10 | The | sword | of the | weeping | beast |
11 | The | spear | of the | purple | giant |
12 | The | tomb | of the | yellow | werewolf |
13 | The | lust | of the | cloud | wizard |
14 | The | death | of the | mountain | princess |
15 | The | return | of the | cave | assassin |
16 | The | sorrow | of the | invisible | khan |
17 | The | blood | of the | undersea | lord |
18 | The | slaves | of the | whispering | demigod |
19 | The | lover | of the | silent | demiurge |
20 | The | treasure | of the | iron | priest(ess) |
Creator of Yoon-Suin and other materials. Propounding my half-baked ideas on role playing games. Jotting down and elaborating on ideas for campaigns, missions and adventures. Talking about general industry-related matters. Putting a new twist on gaming.
Thursday 19 September 2024
A Simple Iterative Method for Module and Campaign Inspiration
Are you struggling with ideas for a module or campaign setting?
6. Randomly generate a title using the aforementioned table which I will kindly replicate for you here:
Struggle no longer. Here is a simple method:
1. Put a country, any country, into the wikipedia search box (for example, Sudan).
2. Now navigate to the section on geography (many countries have their own 'Geography of' page, as indeed does Sudan).
3. Choose somewhere which sounds interesting (for example, the Marrah Mountains, described as the highest mountains of Sudan: 'a small area of temperate climate with high rainfall and permanent springs of water amidst the dry savanna and scrub of the Sahel below').
4. Click around until you find somewhere beautiful, odd, spooky, dramatic, or otherwise inspirational (for example, the Deriba Caldera, a dormant volcano at the heart of the Marrah Mountains, notable for having two large lakes, one traditionally thought of as female and the other, male, in its crater).
5. Pick some nice images to fix the geographical mood in your mind:
7. Profit. Hence, for the dormant-volcano-with-temperate-climate-which-rises-up-from-the-semidesert-and-has-two-lakes-in-its-caldera, we get:
The Sorrow of the Ghost Pharoah
And from this we derive a module wherein the PCs are confronted with the opporunity to explore the ruins of the titular ghost pharoah, who was exiled to the volcano in ancient times from his lowland kingdom, and there with his court established a hidden fortress complete with treasure chambers, temples, etc., before eventually dying. The fortress consists of tunnels bored into the volcano itself, which can only be entered through caves or hidden entrances which are found in the sides of the caldera lakes and only readily accessble by boat or perhaps abseiling. Each lake is home to a demigod, one male and the other female, and hideous unknown aquatic beasts which moved into the area long after the pharoah's death. The ghost pharoah, naturally, still roams about his tunnels, filled with the traditional hatred of the living which one has come to expect in such entities.
And there you have it. Go forth and multiply.
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Hmmm. So, based on the Solovetsky Monastery from a recent post...
ReplyDeleteThe Revenge of the Silent Khan
A module wherein the PCs are sent to an isolated archipelago to which the foes of the dreadful Silent Khan were dispatched, to a fort ruined by an opponent in a long-ago war. The main island is itself kept in a cone of silence, heightening the misery of the exile. Perhaps the unquiet (hah!) spirit of the Silent Khan has even been condemned to wander the centre of his degrading wrath.
Appropriate it should be a Khan. Clearly somewhere on a lake in the middle of the steppes....
DeleteLocation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Lake_(North_Dakota)
ReplyDeleteThis article is a potential title all on its own: https://ghostsofnorthdakota.com/2014/01/19/the-rise-of-devils-lake/
Title: Crown of the Serpent King
The spirits which inhabit this lake were once respected, but now after a massive flood the locals call them demons. The flood started after the local cleric's death and viking-style funeral. The burial gifts in the boat with her included a wreath made from a hideously evil hydra's teeth. The module would be a sailcrawl of the lake's many islands and harbors.
'Sailcrawl'. Love it.
Delete«treasure of the weeping king»
ReplyDeleteThe random country generator gave me Luxembourg, the first name that caught my eye was the Valley of Seven Castles. Seven castles along the river (in fact, there are fewer, some are ruined), you can walk around them in two or three days, and by boat, probably even faster. Well, since the name of the module is treasure of the weeping king, then the weeping king built them to hide the treasure. If he is a king, then it can be something less vulgar than just gold and gems. A kidnapped beautiful wife, a magical relic, a beastman son in a garden labyrinth, something like that. Maybe weeping in a more unpleasant sense and the king is a leper like Baldwin. Well, accordingly, the atmosphere of a garden baroque falling into disrepair in the castles scattered in the river valley is something between Red & Plesant Land and Ynn Gardens. More pointcrawl than hexcrawl, for the countryside is quiet, and all the strangeness and danger comes from within the crumbling, overgrown gardens of the fortresses, which are more graceful than truly fortified.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/499969284714528782/1296375426523992116/Valley_of_the_Seven_Castles_Map.png?ex=67120f33&is=6710bdb3&hm=b7b7313c02159141b7cca104d998606ac1e35e252904fda14bfcc01365464d5e&
https://img.luxtimes.lu/public/luxembourg/4g73kq-picture-title-binary/alternates/BASE_SIXTEEN_NINE/Picture%20title%20binary
https://www.visitguttland.lu/images/y7trFzyG0aA/g:ce/aHR0cHM6Ly9jZG4ucmVnaW9uZG8ubmV0L21lZGlhL2NhdGFsb2cvcHJvZHVjdC9iL2kvYmlnLXRpY2tldC1pbWFnZS02MmRmZDBhOWE5YmEwNDI0ODA4MzIyLWNyb3BwZWQ2MDAtNDAwLmpwZw