Metroidvanai My Dungeon

What a horrible night to have a curse, indeed. 

October has come and gone. Usually, in the weeks leading up to Halloween, I play some Castlevania games on my various emulators (PC, phone, TV box, or handheld). This year, I was too busy to play much. I did play a bit of the PS1 Castlevania Chronicles on my handheld emulator, but not much. And yes, I know the new Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is out on Steam. I did consider buying it on release, but again, I was too busy to play it. I've heard good things about it (like, people saying it's hard -- bring it on!). I'll try to get around to it this winter. 

Along with playing CV games, I'm always considering how to make a Castlevania style megadungeon for D&D in October. This goes back 20 years or so. I've got the old document from my first aborted attempt saved on my computer still. Back in my 3E days (shudder).  That was focused on building the "Transylvania" around the castle, with the goal of making the central Demon Castle Dracula the megadungeon that required multiple expeditions inside, and to smaller dungeons outside, to complete and face Dracula up in his turret throne room. 

These days, obviously, I'd use a much simpler system, like my own Treasures, Serpents, & Ruins rules. Or maybe adapt Missions & Mayhem. A CV style campaign module might be fun. Something a bit more historical than Hellspawn & Horror. Or maybe just H&H, minus the machineguns, smartphones, and sports cars. 

Regardless of the rules system I use, the big problem, as other bloggers, DungeonTubers, and forum posters have pointed out in the past, is that the types of "locks" and "keys" found in exploration platformers like Metroid and certain Castlevania games, and similar modern games like Hollow Knight, are all things that work to limit progress in a side-scrolling video game, but don't work well in a game of the imagination, where players can try to do things that coding just doesn't allow in a computer game.

However, I think the Metroidvania style can work in a megadungeon. One just needs to think of the game system being used, and base the "locks" and "keys" around those game mechanics. Computer games usually do it by giving the player new ways to move. Double-jumps. Super jumps. Turning into a bat and flying. Running really fast that you break through walls. New weapons. Or sometimes, just messing around until you find a wall that will break or the right spot to perform some action that reveals a secret. 

 In a tabletop RPG, we have several options, some more metagame-y, some more diegetic. 

• Character Level: Obviously, this has been the yardstick of D&D since the beginning. You don't need to be locked out of these areas, but once you get into them, it should be obvious if you're over your head, or you've entered an area way too easy, and therefor low reward. But having doors, portals, or whatever that can only be accessed once PCs hit a certain level is one way to lock off areas. 
• Physical Barriers: These are hard to control. A Thief has their climbing ability. Levitation or flying magic isn't that hard to come across. A clever party, with time and resources on their side, could physically move or remove barriers through hard labor (build a bridge, tear down a wall, etc.). Still, this could be useful. Not every group will have the tools or desire to get past a barrier right away. MV games usually "key" these with new movement power-ups, but smart play or movement powers can be used in an RPG.
• Secret Doors: Again, there from the beginning. Also, very much part of the Metroidvania experience. If players find the secret door, they get access. If they don't, they don't. And you can put maps or hints or wands of secret door detection deeper in the dungeon to make them circle back to find any secret doors they missed. Very much in the spirit of the MV style game. 
• Spell Requirements: At low levels, wizard lock can block access to areas, until the party gets a knock spell. Other low level spells, like bless, detect magic, read magic, read languages, or even magic missile (I magic missile...the darkness!) could be keys to unlock access to areas. Mid- to high level spells could do even more. Obviously spells like water breathing, passwall, dimension door, and teleport allow this. But there could be other situations where progress isn't possible without a certain spell at hand. And while this has overlap with level requirements, scrolls, potions, or other items may allow earlier access to some of these.  
• Magic Item Requirements: This one is maybe the most MV. Beat a "boss" and get a magic item. Go back somewhere where you know there's something or somewhere you couldn't get to before, and use that magic item to access it. Of course, this has overlap with physical barriers and spell requirements. 
• NPC Interactions: Many computer games use NPCs to give the player hints, clues, or the special means to access restricted areas. This is easy to do in RPGs as well, although the interactions will be more fluid and dynamic. And you've always got the risk of players killing or abandoning the NPC before they can deliver the information.

The important thing, in my opinion, is to design the megadungeon with gated areas, but don't prescribe any one particular key to enter that gated area. Sure, there may be a "preferred" method, but allowing for player creativity in problem solving is the greatest strength of the TTRPG over any other game. Cutting that out leads to railroading or inverse quantum ogres (no matter what the players do, they CAN'T get past the door). 

In designing a Metroidvania style dungeon for a TTRPG, one needs to: divide the dungeon into sections, which are of different levels. Put secret rooms, passages, and so on in liberally. Have ways to observe, learn about, or otherwise detect the presence of areas within a section that can't be accessed directly. Make some connections between sections easy to navigate, others hard. Deliberately leave information, useful objects, or access to spells that will allow players to get into these secret or blocked of areas deeper in the dungeon. Also, make sure there is ample treasure all through the dungeon, so players can actually level up as they explore.

And most of all, when running the dungeon, allow players to get creative and bypass the "correct" keys to the blocked of areas. If you thought they should use fly to get to a region, but they use a combination of thief climbing and a potion of gaseous form, let them. If they hire a dwarven engineering team to tear down the giant stone slab door that's too heavy to open (even though you'd put a potion of giant strength nearby for them to find and open it with), let them. Also, keep the information flowing. As an individual, I may spend a lot of time trying to figure out a puzzle in a solo computer game. But my group won't want to wait for me forever in a TTRPG. The hints and information need to be available, so that the deeper you go, the more you learn about the areas you've already explored.

However, leave the players with the consequences of their actions. If they manage to find a clever way into a 4th level section of the dungeon while they're still only 1st, they will realize the monsters are too tough pretty quickly and if they're smart, retreat and return later when they're more powerful. Or maybe they'll get lucky, and manage to snag the magic item there that makes another gate trivial. Good! They're playing the game smartly and well if they do. 

Computer game programmers can get away with making a wall that can only be blown up with the super-bomb, or a gate that can only be passed in mist form. TTRPG designers need to pose the challenges, and provide some keys, but be willing to let players find their own keys to get past the gates.  

A Confluence of Ideas

Yesterday, I was watching Mike Mearls' YouTube channel. If you don't know who that is, he was a designer for WotC, working on 4E and 5E before Hasbro/WotC let him go. I think he was the D&D brand manager during the early 5E days. 

He put up a video this week discussing the shortfalls of 4th Edition. I don't disagree, although I think he has some blind spots with regards to WotC's editions of the game. Most importantly, though, he says that one reason 4E failed was that it was built for the system mastery crowd, not for the casual gamer. In his words, the players that "just want to swing their sword" at the monster weren't happy with a game that wanted them to learn and optimize all these options (at will, encounter, daily, utility powers). Some players are just there to have a good time with their friends, pretend to be a warrior or a wizard fighting orcs and dragons, then get on with their lives. 

It's one of the reasons I've been working on Missions & Mayhem for the past year. I like the concept behind d20 Modern -- a toolbox set of rules that is flexible enough to emulate many modern-era genres and character archetypes. But, as Mearls also admits, the 3E engine is not a light and easy to master system. You CAN create a simple character with it, but it's designed for the guys who want to look under the hood, make modifications, and customize their ride. 4E was even more so a game like that. 

Thinking about what Mearls had to say last night, I had a realization about my Flying Swordsmen 2E design. It hasn't been on my mind much lately, but suddenly now it is. Don't worry, I won't let it distract from getting Missions & Mayhem finished. But I came to see the flaw in my FS2E design. 

For those who may not remember, as it's been a year or more since I was working on it, I'm revising Flying Swordsmen to use the WEG d6 game engine. I think it's more fitting for a cinematic style game of wuxia than either old school or new school D&D design. The original Flying Swordsmen, and Dragon Fist before that, failed in that D&D combat really isn't designed for wuxia style combat. And it has next to nothing to offer the player that wants to get into character and play up the drama of being a wandering martial artist, in love with a forbidden partner, pursued by a vengeful rival, on a quest to avenge their slain master, and all of that sort of thing. The d6 engine has more support for cinematic combats AND for the drama (although not as much as a dedicated narrative/story-first game does). 

Watching this new video from Questing Beast this morning, about Pawn/Protagonist/Author stance while gaming, consolidated my thinking on the matter. I need to have a game that supports more than just "punch a monster in the face" but doesn't punish players who just want to punch a monster in the face. It should be fun for everyone. 

So, what's the big change? I'm getting rid of the martial arts techniques. Yes, they're the descendants of the martial arts maneuvers and spells of the original game. And they're not going away completely. But my new idea for how to structure Flying Swordsmen as a d6 game is as follows (subject to revision when I finally get around to implementing this): 

Instead of Powers (magic) similar to the Force Skills of Star Wars d6, and then specialized Techniques that you gain as your Power dice go up (like the dedicated Force Powers of Star Wars d6), the magic and martial arts will just be skills like any other. 

There will be six ability areas, each with related skills under them. I'm not sure if there will be one kung fu/magical skill under each ability, or if there will be a Magic ability, with the magic while the kung fu (qinggong lightness techniques and neigong physical conditioning techniques) will be under other abilities. 

Either way, all the special techniques will just be things you can do with the kung fu/magic skills IF you roll high enough. Anyone can try. Those with training will be able to pull them off consistently. Those without will need some luck (exploding 6s on the Wild Die, and/or character points spent). 

I'm uncertain if I'll add a narrative meta-currency like Force Points in Star Wars. I currently don't have one, but it could be added easily enough. And I could potentially tie them into the templates, to help reinforce the archetypes of wuxia. Or they could be earned by doing all the dramatic stuff mentioned above, similar to the Inspiration mechanic of 5E D&D. That's something to ponder as I finish up Missions & Mayhem, and the various campaign modules. 

Format Issues

 I've got the first draft play test rules for Hellspawn & Horror written. This is the urban fantasy/horror supplement. Unlike d20 Modern's Urban Arcana, I'm going a bit more of a dark route. More along the lines of a Stephen King or Clive Barker novel. There is magic, there are spellcasters (Acolyte = Cleric, Mage = Magic-User in D&D terms), there are fairly typical D&D style monsters...but more in the horror range than general vanilla fantasy range, and of course there are magic items including modern weaponry and devices with magical twists. 

This weekend, we're gonna give these rules a spin. 

I've been writing up the adventure on my computer rather than by hand (which I usually do). It's given me a good idea of the format I should use to make my normally piecemeal and incomplete adventure notes into something that others could use. I've figured out a good information nesting system and where to use bold, underlines, and italics to highlight key information. Also how to note difficulties for general proficiency checks, monster stat blocks, and XP for various tasks. 

Already, I'm regretting dropping the "soft sciences" from the proficiency list. Well, psychology made the cut, but the history/anthropology/linguistics etc. humanities got folded into the science proficiency a while back, when I was streamlining. Possibly because I've been watching Stargate SG1 on Netflix, and Daniel and Sam are both scientists but very different scientists, but mostly because of the way I'm breaking down tasks in this adventure. I'll probably include it as a sample adventure in the book, so I won't spoil it now. But I've had to note things that should be about culture/language as requiring science checks if careful dialogue doesn't provide the answers, and other things that are definitely hard science (physics, chemistry, etc.) as also science checks. And one place I used psychology instead of science for a more "humanities" themed problem, as science didn't seem right at all. 

So I think I need to make one final rules revision, adding back in a "soft" science proficiency. The only problem is what to call it. Humanities is appropriate, but maybe too academic. Linguistics or sociology could work, but each is only part of what the proficiency covers. Maybe culture would work. That could cover language, history, cultural knowledge, art, etc.

If I do add it in, I'll need to modify the classes and starting occupations, but that won't be too hard. I've done it before. And it may distinguish a few of the starting occupations a bit more, as well. 

_____

Side note: My cover artist is working on the cover for Cryptids & Conspiracy. From the sample she sent me the other day, it's also going to look great.  And I need to get back to my interior artist for the Core Rules. He's also really good, and fast, too. Even with the small rules change, and the need to get the examples for all the rules written, and a bunch more interior art, and editing and layout, I think maybe I can get the Core Rules out before the end of the year. If not, then very early next year. 

Visiting Historical Sites

 Two weeks ago, at the beginning of October, my family took a trip to Japan to celebrate my mother-in-law's 80th birthday. We were originally thinking about going to Osaka, but due to the very good exchange rate between the won and the yen, prices for flights to Japan were really expensive over the summer. Luckily, the overnight ferry prices were unchanged. Rather than go to Osaka (there is a ferry), I saw that there is one to Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Shimonoseki is the southwestern-most point of the main Japanese island of Honshu. I'd been through it on the shinkansen, but never explored the city. So we decided to give it a try. 

Shimonoseki, or at least the area around the port and JR station, is fairly typical for a small Japanese city. And according to my research, there's more shopping/entertainment/stuff to do up around the shinkansen (bullet train) station in the north-central part of the city. But it was just as easy (maybe easier) to take the 15 minute train ride to Kitakyushu city, across the water in Fukuoka Prefecture. The d24 I posted about was purchased in Kitakyushu. In addition to all the shopping, we did visit Kokura Castle, which was pretty nice.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go in the castle. But since it's been rebuilt, it's a museum inside and at least to me, not as interesting as when a castle has been (mostly) restored to what it was originally like. There is apparently an Augmented Reality escape room game you can play, trying to get out of the castle as it is burning down. But my mother-in-law was tired from all the shopping, my wife had more shopping she wanted to do, and we were all hungry. So maybe next time. And that was day 1 of the trip, for the most part. 

Day 2, we went around Shimonoseki to see some of the historical sites. And there are some important ones in Japanese history. 

First up, Dan-no-Ura, where 800ish years ago, the Minamoto (Genji) decisively defeated the Taira (Heike) in a large naval battle, allowing the Minamoto to set up the first shogunate at Kamakura. Additionally, in the 1860s, an armada of European and American warships bombarded Shimonoseki from the straits, until local officials were forced to open the port to international trade. There is a memorial to both naval actions in the same park. There's also a walking tunnel beneath the strait from the park to Kyushu, which my younger son and I wanted to take, but my mother-in-law didn't want to do that much walking. Again, maybe next time. 

 

 After that, we took a boat to Ganryujima, the small, uninhabited island where the famed swordsman Miyamoto Musashi fought his third famous duel against Sasaki Kojiro. The boat ride was fun, and the island was peaceful and relaxing. 

After getting back to the city, it was time to pack up and get back to the ferry terminal, but after the check-in, we had several hours before boarding. So I took the boys to the Kaikyo Yume Tower, which was just a couple of blocks from our hotel, which was a couple of blocks the other direction from the ferry terminal. 

One of the pictures from up in the tower. Dan-no-Ura is where the bridge crosses the strait. We got on the boat to Ganryujima at the dock just to the left of the ferris wheel (not that you can really see it in this photo). 

And here's Ganryujima, seen from the tower. 

Here's the tower itself, photographed the night before. 

I know there are a few people reading the blog who are also into Japanese history, so hopefully you found this interesting. 
 

The Eternal Question

 Well, not THE eternal question, but one that always comes up when I design a game meant for public consumption. 

 How much "introduction to RPGs" does a game need? 

I've immersed myself in these games for 80% of my life. I play them. I read them. I modify them. I write them. It's second nature to me. 

And, I'm in a bit of an information silo regarding them. I have some friends who are new to RPGs and some who have never played them at all. But most of my gaming friends know what they're getting into if they pick up an RPG. 

But I'm also practical. I write OSR games. Not quite what the OSR has become in the past 5 years or so (I feel narrative gaming is co-opting the scene but that's just the way things go, this is not a complaint about that, just an observation). But still, most folks who know about me as a blogger or game designer are OSR folks, and they, like me, already know RPGs. 

So my intended audience doesn't really need a lot of hand-holding text to explain just what an RPG is, or the basic concepts involved. 

BUT... 

There were people who complained about Chanbara not having the hand-holding sections to it. My little niche of a niche of a niche hobby game found its way into the hands of some people who were new to RPGs and would have appreciated a bit of intro to this style of game. And it is a big departure from most games people are familiar with, even if they're immersed in CRPGs or MMOs. 

Also, I feel like I've got a solid game in Missions & Mayhem. Something that is simple enough to play easily, but adaptable enough to fit lots of different genres. I have no illusions of it being able to fill every genre well, but it was designed as a tool box and it works as one. It has potential to catch on beyond my little corner of the OSR space. Not Shadowdark/OSE levels, but I expect it to be a lot more popular than Chanbara (Flying Swordsmen got a lot of traction, but it was completely free so I can't really compare it).  

 I'm not worried about space constraints. Right now, the M&M core book is 82 pages in draft form. And that is with me leaving some pages mostly blank to be filled in later. If I add a sample adventure or two, and a bit of hand-holding introductory text at the beginning, I'm probably still going to be under 100 pages. 

So I guess I should probably add some at least rudimentary "what is an RPG" text before the "what is this game" text at the beginning to help folks out. It never hurts to have it. Veterans can skip over it. New folks will appreciate it. 

 

Thanks for reading along as I debated this with myself. I was hoping to get at least two of the campaign modules ready for release along with the core book, but the way things are going, I could have the core ready to go before the end of the year (assuming the guy I found to do interior art can pump it out quick enough, and after the first order I gave him, I think he can). I may just release the core book this year, then put out the first couple campaign modules next year and the rest in 2028. 
 

Hairfoot Jousting

Yesterday, I got together with some friends to try Hairfoot Jousting, a tactical (sort of) miniatures game. It was a lot of fun. My son Flynn and I were a team against Justin  Alan, and James. We lost, but our dog-riding hobbit lasted a heck of a long time after he should have beed out! 

Dice For Cheap!

I'm visiting Japan again, to celebrate my mother-in-law's 80th birthday. At a Seria 100-yen shop yesterday, I found sets of polyhedrals for 100 yen each! And a single d24! 

I restrained myself to only the three sets in the photo, but would have gotten all the d24s if they had had more. 

And considering, i DID buy all the d24s they had in stock.