In Chapter 2 of the Dragon Heist campaign, the PCs are rewarded with the deed to an abandoned inn named Trollskull Manor. The expectation is that they will rehabilitate the abandoned building and re-open the tavern, integrating themselves in Waterdhavian sociey and laying down the sort of roots that can really make an urban campaign meaningful.

For Trollskull Manor to truly become the centerpiece of your campaign, however, you’ll need to make the tavern truly come alive. Part of that will be letting your players take the lead in designing and decorating the manor just the way that they want it, so that it truly becomes their place. A place that they can call home. But once the tavern opens, your job is to make the tavern truly come alive; to make it more than just a place where they can take a long rest.

That’s where A Night in Trollskull Manor comes into play. Using the Tavern Time™ system, it provides a selection of flexible tools and the simple structure you can use with those tools to bring the tavern’s common room to life each and every night. Those tools include:

• Patron Tables
• Events
• Topics/Agendas
• Patron Roleplaying Templates

To get maximum use out of A Night in Trollskull Manor, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the Universal NPC Roleplaying Template.

TAVERN TIME

For each night at the tavern:

1. There is a 1 in 1d6 chance that an Event will occur that night.

2. Roll 1d6 to determine the number of significant patrons in the tavern that night, then use the Patron Table to randomly determine which patrons are present. If a result of “Renaer’s Friends” is rolled, roll on the Patrons – Renaer’s Friends table to determine the final result.

3. Look at the Topics/Agendas for the patrons who are present. Generally speaking, you can use one per patron or just select one from among the patrons. When in doubt, default  to the first unused bullet point. Supplement or replace these topics with other major events occurring in your campaign.

Using this material is as much art as it is science. The random tables serve as an improv prompt, thrusting different elements together in unexpected ways in order to prompt the frisson of your own creativity as a GM. Once the players start interacting with the patrons and the emerging situation, things will develop in even more unexpected ways. Roll with the punches and see where it all takes you. Don’t be afraid to make bold, strong choices that can completely disrupt the status quo.

USING PATRONS: Note that the significant patrons present on a particular night may all clump together in a single interaction, or they may be separate interactions happening simultaneously or spread out over the course of the evening. Even if various patron interactions do start out separate from each other, don’t be afraid to have them crossover and collide with each other as the events of the evening continue to play out.

Pay attention to which NPCs resonate with the players: Who do they find interesting? Who do they like? Who do they enjoy interacting with? Find ways to keep bringing those characters back. Reincorporate them into other facets of the campaign (and vice versa).

USING TOPICS/AGENDAS: These are conversational gambits, interpersonal developments, or needs that a particular patron has. Think about what reactions the other patrons present in the tavern that night will have to the topic or agenda as it occurs.

You should be able to very quickly reference this material and then rapidly generate a 5-10 minute roleplaying interaction any time the PCs choose to engage with the common room. (In some cases, of course, these interactions will also expand to the players’ level of interest and take more time to fully resolve.)

DESIGN NOTES

The patrons used for A Night in Trollskull Manor draw heavily from the Dragon Heist campaign itself. This is intentional, deliberately reincorporating NPCs so that the life of Trollskull Manor’s common room is intertwined with the rest of the campaign.

Many other patrons, particularly Renaer’s friends, are drawn from Steven E. Schend’s Blackstaff Tower. This novel — which is a delightful romp of pulp fiction — was the first introduction of characters like Vajra, Renaer, and Meloon who would return in Dragon Heist. Schend’s other creations — like Osco, Lord Toryln Wands, and Elra Harsard — were so much fun that I wanted to find a way to bring them into the campaign, too. (Reading the novel, however, is not required to make use of this material.)

On that note, it should be mentioned that A Night in Trollskull Manor will work particularly well with the Alexandrian Remix of Dragon Heist, but the remix is also not required and you should get great results even if you’re just running the base version of the campaign.

Part 2: Setting Up Trollskull Manor
Part 3: Patron Tables & Events
Part 4: Patron Topics & Agendas
Part 5: Patrons
Part 6: Renaer & Friends

Addendum: Manor Menu

SESSION 19A: ROUTING THE SHUUL

April 13th, 2008
The 8th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

Elestra grabbed a couple of the rifles out of the crate she had pried open and handed one to Ranthir. Ranthir smiled. His magical skills were not yet very advanced, and so he had often felt like something of a sixth wheel whenever they had found themselves in a tight spot. The firepower he held in his hands now might help him to be something more than an observer.

Agnarr, thinking this was all a good idea, wedged his toe under one of the rifles that had fallen from the hands of the Shuul agents lying before him. With a quick jerk he flipped it up into his left hand, keeping his greatsword clenched in his right.

The Foundry was rocked by an explosion, accompanied by a massive gout of flame in the materials storehouse.

The two Shuul agents passing below Tee in the second foundry stopped in their tracks for a moment, frozen in shock. Then they began to turn back towards the front of the building…

Unfortunately, Ranthir’s reactions were faster. His ears recognized the aural hints that told him the explosion was a magical extrusion of primal fire, and he leapt towards the nearest door. Ripping it open he was confronted by the two Shuul agents. The agents arrested their turn and lowered their rifles at Ranthir. “Who are you?! Don’t move!”

Agnarr reacted quickly, shoving Ranthir out of the way and taking his place. “We’re friends! We’re trying to stop Shilukar!”

“Get out here!” (more…)

Gnomes in D&D.

I don’t understand why they exist.

It feels like we’ve spent 30+ years trying to figure out a way to make them meaningfully different from dwarves and pretty much failing except insofar as they are now sometimes halflings with pointy years.

(If you’re first thought was, “Dwarves have beards and gnomes don’t! They’re totally different!” you may want to bail out now. This is probably not the post for you.)

The best gambit was probably Dragonlance’s tinker gnomes, a memetic line of thought which culminates most distinctly with World of Warcraft. But it’s still lacking. Being technologically inclined isn’t exactly outside of the dwarven wheelhouse. Plus: A whole race that tinkers? Like, there are no gnome farmers? Or tax collectors? Or seamstresses?

So, without further ado, here’s a bevy of ideas for making gnomes unique enough to justify their existence.

MAKE THEM TINY. Like 1 to 1.5 feet tall. The size of a garden gnome. Playing them is now a unique experience compared to any other common PC race.

GNOMES DON’T ACTUALLY EXIST. They’re just dwarves who live outside instead of under the mountain. Your choice whether “gnome” is actually a racial slur or a self-embraced cultural identity. Or both.

HALF-SPECIES. The result of dwarves and halflings interbreeding. They really ARE just dwarves without beards and/or halflings with pointy ears.

(“3rd Edition halflings already have pointed ears!” That’s probably where the gnomes get it from, then.)

HALF-SIZED SPECIES. What if halflings are half-sized humans and gnomes are half-sized elves?

This raises questions. Is there an entire echelon of half-sized races? Like, sure, goblins are obviously the half-sized orcs. But where are the half-sized dwarves? Or are the dwarves actually the half-sized ones?

DWARVEN SUB-CULTURE. Sort of the equivalent of emo/goth teens. Gnomes are a youth cultural movement that shave their beards and get obsessed with gadgetry. Older dwarves try not to let their eyes roll out of their heads when talking about them.

GODDESS SHARDS

Long ago the Gods of Magic slew the Goddess of Science & Technology (which is why D&D-land no longer advances technologically and is suck in a perpetual Renaissance). The shattered shards of the Goddess fell to the earth and manifested as the manic, technology-obsessed gnomes.

Gnome farmers? They exist. But none of them just farm the earth in an orderly fashion. Every one of them has a unique scheme — elaborate hydroponic projects, subterranean growing caverns, legions of mechanical scurriers who harvest the fields like plague locusts.

Gnome tax collectors? The creepiest is probably the one who created a panopticon of clockwork tax-spiders who watch every transaction and exact their coin on the spot. What makes it worse is that the government they once served fell a generation ago and no one is entirely sure what the tax-spiders are doing with the taxes they collect any more.

Every gnome has a sliver of a dead goddess manifested in their brain. Every gnome constantly lives with the gibbering madness of her shattered, god-like consciousness whispering like a livewire as a commentary to their inner monologue.

Furthermore, inspired by Wing Kan’s art over there, I’ll also push the idea that gnomes are neon-hued in skin and hair. (Usually matching, but sometimes not for reasons gnomes struggle to explain.)

Not to be confused with hexcrawling, hex-clearing is the process by which monsters and other hostile forces were cleared out of a hex in preparation for a stronghold to be constructed. Clearing a hex was the first step towards bringing civilization to an uncivilized portion of the world. It was also the transitional point between the low-level activities of monster slaying and the high-level activities of realms management. It is one of the oldest game structures in D&D, yet I feel comfortable saying that probably 99% of all current D&D players have never done it.

In pursuit of a tangentially-related project, I decided to do a brief survey of the extant hex-clearing procedures in old school D&D. I offer them here in the thought that they might be of use to a wider audience.

OD&D HEX-CLEARING

Hex Scale: 5 miles

1. Referee rolls a die to determine if there is a monster encountered.
2. If encountered monster is defeated or if no monster is encountered, the hex is cleared.
3. Territory up to 20 miles distant from an inhabited stronghold may be kept clear of monsters once cleared.

AD&D HEX-CLEARING

Hex Scale: 1 mile / 30 miles

CLEARING HEXES

1. Make wandering monster check.
2. If encountered monster is defeated or if no monster is encountered, the hex is cleared.

Once cleared, hexes will remain cleared, except:

1. Once per day, check to see if a monster has wandered into an uncleared border hex.
2. Once per week, check to see if one of these monsters has wandered into the cleared territory.

Patrols: If regular (1/week) patrols from a stronghold are made through a cleared territory, the check to see if a monster has wandered into a border hex is made only once per week.

CONSTRUCTING THE STRONGHOLD

1. Must map and clear the central hex (location of stronghold) and six surrounding hexes.
2. Unless 7 hexes are actively patrolled, there is a 1 in 20 chance per day that a monster will enter the area.

GYGAXIAN VAGUERY – PATROLS

Because Gygax was objectively terrible at writing rulebooks, the rules above are actually incomplete. They overlap with a different set of incomplete rules which directly contradict the first set of rules. If you use this second set of rules, a cleared hex that is being patrolled should be handled in this way:

1. Once per week, check on the Uinhabited/Wilderness encounter table to see if a monster enters the cleared territory.
2. Once per week, also check on the Inhabited table. Or, if there is a road, check three times on the Inhabited encounter table.

Zone of Civilization: If a territory is cleared to a 30 mile radius [should probably be 30 mile diameter, filling the large hex that the stronghold is at the center of], make ONLY the second type of checks, but ignore all unfavorable checks except once per month.

Reversion to Wilderness: If patrols are not kept up, the territory automatically reverts to wilderness status. “Unless the lands around it are all inhabited and patrolled” in which case “all of the unsavory monsters from the surrounding territory will come to make it a haven for themselves.” [So it won’t revert to wilderness, it will just really revert to wilderness.]

RULES CYCLOPEDIA – HEX-CLEARING

Hex Scale: 8 miles / 24 miles

Clearing the Hex: You just… do it. “An area is considered clear when all significant monsters in the area have been killed, driven out, or persuaded (through bribery, threats, persuasion, or mutual-defense agreements) to leave the PC’s subjects alone.” There are no further guidelines.

Constructing the Stronghold: Clear the 8-mile hex in which the stronghold is being built.

Patrols: Cleared areas automatically remain free of monsters as long as they are patrolled.

• Patrols can range 24 miles from a stronghold in clear terrain.
• Jungles, swamps, and mountains require a garrison every 8 miles.

There are more detailed rules for dominion management, but they don’t really pertain to hex clearing.

EXPERT SET VARIATIONS

• Hex scale is not clearly defined. (Isle of Dread, the sample adventure included in the set, uses 24 mile and 6 mile hexes.)
• Patrol ranges are limited to 18 miles and 6 miles (instead of 24 miles and 8 miles).
• The 18 mile limit of patrols matches the 18 miles an encumbered character can travel on foot in a day. The Rules Cyclopedia oddly maintains the same rule for determining overland movement rates (divide by 5 to determine the number of miles a character can travel over clear terrain per day, and therefore 90’ divided by 5 = 18 miles per day), but the Traveling Rates By Terrain table doesn’t follow that rule and instead uses values calculated to divide evenly into hexes (so an encumbered character only travels 12 miles per day in clear terrain).

JUDGES GUILD – HEX-CLEARING

Hex Scale: 5 miles

As I’ve mentioned in the past, Judges Guilds’ hexcrawl procedures and management had a major impact on the game. Virtually all of OD&D’s hexcrawling procedures, for example, were abandoned by AD&D in favor of systems clearly drawing from Judges Guild material. This was somewhat less true when it comes to hex-clearing, but I thought reviewing the material from the Ready Ref sheets might be useful. In this case, it largely was not:

Constructing the Stronghold: Clear 4 hexes radiating from the stronghold’s hex.

Patrols: Automatically keep hexes clear of monsters, except for mountains, swamps, and dense woods.

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