Yesterday I started discussing the idea of magic items that automatically scale with wielder level. I’d like to explore the idea a bit further and how it might be implemented. To start, I’ll look at some existing approaches to this idea. Prior Art This is not a new idea. I can think of …
Many players of Dungeons & Dragons expect the power of magic items to be roughly commensurate with character level. On the one hand, this can be pretty important to party balance. If one PC in a first-level party has a +5 weapon he will be much more powerful than the other PCs. …
(click to embiggen) B1: Junction Room A short corridor leads from the stairs into this dead-end circular room, whose walls are painted with distraught weeping faces. In the centre of the room is a very thick pillar, actually the continuation of the central pillar from the floor below. Around it …
On Christmas, GreyKnight sent me a blog post generator that does a decent job capturing this blog. Keith Davies Blog Post Generator Subject matter (d8): d8 Subject 1 Revisit old post and completely change everything. 2 Geomorphs. 3 Random tables (see Appendix A for the Random Random Table Table). 4 Echelon. 5 …
Currently-available Echelon Game Design products. Polyhedral Pantheons Echelon Explorations: Polyhedral Pantheons The gods create the world… and you create the gods. Whether you need only a small pantheon with a few deities, or a larger pantheon with dozens of deities, Polyhedral Pantheons gives you tools to make pantheon creation easy. This …
(click to embiggen) Entrance The approach to the pyramid of Dolmar is flanked by two rows of inscribed obelisks, which I already described previously. The entrance itself is up a flight of steps, and is barred by enormous double stone doors. Pushing them open is easy thanks to a delicate …
On the sands near the great river Daiphrit stands the imposing pyramid-tomb of the ancient king Dolmar, a beloved ruler of the kingdom who was killed by a villainous minister. The tomb’s construction took many years, and necessitated the existence of a temporary town to support all the labourers and …
Previously, I mentioned the hook for this series of adventures: the sage Ladan hires the player characters to search the ruins of lost Acadus for ancient texts. What I didn’t mention was that the characters are the second group Ladan hired for this purpose. You see, he had previously enlisted …
The capital is clean and beautiful. Money flows in the markets, and comfortable housing lines the streets. It is a good place for a respectable person to be seen! Official palace statistics report that the poor are well-provided for, and numbers of homeless people living on the streets are lower …
The coastal town of Cacheto-on-sea is a generally peaceful place with a long history of solid industry. The town’s salt mines have brought prosperity to the area, and many of the townspeople are quite well-off. Lately there have been strange happenings, however. A series of unusually aggressive diseases has struck …