Much like the Tome of Adventure Design, Modiphius’s Conan 2d20 line presents a couple ways of creating and adventure.
- Ancient Ruins and Cursed Cities presents a ‘site based’ approach. Define a location and the PCs do what PCs do.
- Mongoose Publishing’s Ruins of Hyborea presents a similar process, using their d20 rules set and a little more generic. This version is consistent with but not the same as the 2d20 version.
- Gamemaster’s Toolkit provides more of an adventure design process. From naming the scenario through setting up the hook and identifying challenges and twists.
Both approaches have merit, and I’ll explore them below.
Ancient Ruins and Cursed Cities
This approach is very site-based. Define a location with interesting things, and adventurers will come.
Summarized, the steps are
- Determine ruin ERA.
- Determine ruin’s ORIGINAL PURPOSE.
- Determine WHAT REMAINS.
- Create ruin HISTORY and determine the cause of its DOWNFALL.
- Determine ruin SIZE, number of AREAS, then determine ZONES for each area.
- Note RUIN POOL.
- Add area TYPES and DESCRIPTORS.
- Add OBSTACLES.
- Determine CLIFFHANGERS.
Most of these include random tables to fill in the details. I won’t include the full tables themselves, but will identify some elements of those tables.
Determine Ruin ERA
The world Conan explored is set very long ago, but even so it was a very old world. There have been many ages, in which the world was very different. Ruins from different eras can be very different.
Eras from this book include
- Time of the Great Old Ones
- The Age of the Serpent Men
- The Great Ice Age
- The First Age of Humanity
- The Thurian Age
- The Cataclysm
- The Hyborian Age
Each era is described, and the table identifies obstacles and foes common to ruins from each era.
Determine Ruin’s ORIGINAL PURPOSE
Everything is built for a reason, and that reason will shape how it is built. Here is a table with twenty purposes for the ruin to have been built in the first place. Each purpose is described after the table, explaining the purpose and some trappings that may remain.
Determine WHAT REMAINS
I admit, this section confounds me a little. The table presented here seems to better suit the ‘Ruin HISTORY’ section. The d20 Ruins of Hyborea version has a ‘State of Ruin’ table ranging from ‘Barely There’ to ‘Well-preserved & Intact’. This looks better suited to purpose, I’ll use that.
Determine Ruin HISTORY and Cause of DOWNFALL
The table presented in ‘Determine WHAT REMAINS’ looks like it would fit better here. The table identifies ten major events or periods whose influence can still be seen in what is left.
There also is a table that identifies why the place was abandoned or ruined.
Determine Ruin SIZE, AREAS, and ZONES
This step is pretty straightforward. Roll to see how many areas (collections of zones, having a consistent nature) remain. Then for each, roll to see how many zones are in the area. The table also includes examples of what can make a ruin of that size.
For example, ‘2 areas’ shows ‘small town or temple’ as an example. I can imagine a small temple with an enclosed shrine and priest home, and outdoor area (graveyard, pulpit, etc.). Or a small town with two ‘neighborhoods’ for trade/docks and stronghold (residences are mostly uninteresting so aren’t shown).
Note RUIN POOL
A ruin’s ‘ruin pool’ is something like the doom pool (provides resources for the GM to use on ruin events). It starts at one point per PC, capped by ruin size, and increases by 1 per zone explored. If it reaches twice its original value the PCs have pushed their luck far enough and the cliffhanger is triggered.
I’m not sure I care for this mechanic, feels pushy. On the other hand, it does encourage PCs to not waste too much time in a trivial ruin. I’m inclined to use it more as an escalation mechanic, if anything.
Add Area TYPES and DESCRIPTORS
For each area found above, determine what kind of area it is, what is/was there. There is a table identifying types of areas, which look like they align with city quarters. Temple, marketplace, merchant’s villa… landmark locations in a settlement. This table also includes ‘descriptors’ that can help flesh out the area descriptions.
Add OBSTACLES
Obstacles can be drawn from the list of cliffhangers. Each era suggests appropriate options, but any can work.
For obstacles I’d use lesser forms. ‘A Foulness in the Air’, as a cliffhanger, can be potentially fatal if the PCs don’t flee. As an obstacle, it might be enough that if they hold their breaths, they can traverse the bad air. Assuming they can hold their breath long enough, of course (but hey, they didn’t have to go that way, right?)
Determine CLIFFHANGERS
Consistent with the stories’ origin in the pulps, each episode (session) is expected to end with a cliffhanger. When the ruin pool gets too big, it gets spent to trigger a cliffhanger. A (possibly overwhelming) event happens that forces the PCs into new activity.
Keith’s Notes
I like most of the ideas, and recognize the bits I’m not fond of are to emulate/encourage pulp story behavior. Still, I feel like I want to polish this a bit.
- I’d love for the historical events to tie into the larger historical tapestry. I can see a location being connected to a Microscope-style Event or Period (or even Scene) via the ‘history’ element.
- The process as a whole can be better written. There are some bits where it seems to jump around; it can be clarified.
- I feel like I want to tie more bits together. The era identifying good obstacles and foes is good. I feel like the purpose and history also can be used like this. Similarly, I’d like to see trappings suggested by the era, purpose, and history. They’re touched on briefly, but I feel more use can be made of these, to make it more cohesive.
All in all, even though I feel it can be improved, I quite like this.
Gamemaster’s Toolkit
The Gamemaster’s Toolkit takes another approach. Ancient Ruins and Cursed Cities presents a location and the players decide how to go about it. Gamemaster’s Toolkit develops a situation and drops the player characters into it.
I’ll say up front this feels a little railroady to me, but I’m okay with it for a couple reasons. First, it does a good job of making a pulp-feeling situation and story. This fits the feel I’m looking for. Second, by nature of this campaign, the players tell me the type of scenario they want to play. That is, they tell me what sort of trouble they’re looking for: they ask for it! I can focus on how to build out the scenario type they want, I don’t push them into it.
With that in mind, the elements I’m interested in include
- Adventure Title
- Opening Scene
- Hooks and Draws
- Plot Concept and Motivation
- Antagonist
- Plot Fulfillment and Location
- Obstacles and Twists
- Goals and Objectives
- Locations
- (Other Supporting Tables)
Working through the steps in order…
Adventure Title
I’ve never really bothered naming adventures in the past, but the idea resonates me. As with many things, putting a name to an adventure can guide me through later steps.
There is a set of tables to make ‘Conanesque’ titles. I’ve already augmented and expanded them for my random table roller.
Opening Scene
Pulp stories lend themselves to the dramatic. Pulp adventures should do the same, starting a place that is grandiose, full of mystique, or sometimes just dangerous. There are tables for this.
There may be other NPCs present, who might or might not be involved, either positively or negatively. Or indifferently, but that’s probably not interesting, and thus is uncommon.
Yes, tables for all of this.
Hooks and Draws
In the Toolkit, each adventure starts with someone drawing the PCs into it. This someone might be known to them, or not, but they do something to engage the PCs.
Another table!
Plot Concept and Motivation
Once we get past ‘getting the PCs involved’, we get to the meat of the matter. We identify the plot concept (goal) and motivation (why).
Twenty examples of each, in yet another table.
Antagonist
Every good story has the protagonist struggling against something. ‘Man against self’ and ‘man against nature’ are a couple of options, but this table shows only ‘man against main’. Another table, with list of twenty primary malefactors and twenty traits that can apply.
Plot Fulfillment and Location
Most pulp stories have a McGuffin of some sort. This table identifies twenty things an antagonist can need for their plot. and where it must originate. How and why they need it is not determined, but denying it to them can lead to the antagonist’s failure. And the antagonist’s enmity, if they know who did it (and survive, of course; killing the antagonist usually works also).
Obstacles and Twists
Pulp stories are all about endorphin release. They are analogous to today’s click-bait web posts, all about getting people hooked on the story. As such, resolving the problem can never be as simple as anyone would hope.
This table provides obstacles and twists. Obstacles make it harder to achieve the goal, twists make it expensive. Both exist to make the simple solution not easy.
Goals and Objectives
After identifying who needs, what is needed, and what makes it difficult, we find out why. This table (and supporting tables) identify the goals and objects the antagonist is trying to achieve.
Locations
At the end of it all (almost), we need places for this to all happen. The tables here identify key locations in the scenario. There can be more, but these are key points where Things Happen.
(Other Supporting Tables)
There are other supporting tables. Some flesh out NPCs, others identify other campaign elements such as cults, deities, or legendary artifacts. All can be useful.
Keith’s Notes
As I said earlier, on first blush this is contrary to how I like to develop these things. The structure as a whole feels like it requires the PCs to act in a certain way. Almost railroady in some ways. I am not a fan of ‘adventure paths’ as rule because if you don’t play them ‘right’, they don’t work.
And yet, for this application, the framework presented does look like it will work for me. Players still have agency because they choose what to involve themselves in. I don’t need things to chain together ‘properly’: while what the PCs do matters, I don’t need a particular outcome. I can work with ‘best outcome’ and ‘worst outcome’ about as easily. If the PCs rescue the prince, the king’s happy and the PCs get rewarded. If they fail the king is disappointed and no rewards. If the PCs sell the prince out and the king learns of it, Bad Stuff.
I can work with any of those.
Beyond that, I want to enrich the tables. I’ve already expanded on the adventure title tables, but I have whole stacks of other resources to build on.
For that matter, I should say I very much like how table-driven this process is. Many choices are subject to interpretation, but as bare bones as the structure created is, I can work with it.
Closing Comments
These two Conan 2d20 offer a lot to work with. I can see expanding on them and polishing them, fitting them together with other tools…
In fact, I risk getting too involved in developing and polishing the tools, and not use them. I know me, I can do that!