Interesting Area - Bath

Bathing in Rome was a communal activity. Romans build their baths with fireproof terracotta bricks. They finished the area with fine mosaic floors and marble-covered walls. Statues decorated the area. A public bath contained many rooms. The rooms were vastly different temperature and humidity. For example, bath often had hot dry and hot wet rooms to sit and sweat. The pools were hot, warm, and cool.

A bath could have an assortment of oils. A bath often had massage tables. A masseuse could rub down a patron of the bath with various oils. Scented oils are common. A pressure plate in an archway could trigger a shower of water mixed with a scented oil showering anyone who enters. Musk has a powerful smell. Anointing the party with the musk of some animal (or monster) could attract that creature with the intent to mate with the source of the scent. Floral and fruit based scents. The table below lists a variety of scents.

1D100	Fruit
01-03	Apple
04-06	Apricot
07	Avocado
08-10	Banana
11-12	Blackberry
13-14	Blackcurrant
15-16	Blueberry
17-18	Boysenberry
19	Breadfruit
20-21	Cantaloupe
22-24	Cherry
25-26	Coconut
27-28	Cranberry
29	Cucumber
30-31	Currant
32	Date
33	Elderberry
34	Fig
35	Gooseberry
36-38	Grape
39-41	Grapefruit
42-43	Guava
44-45	Honeydew
46	Huckleberry
47	Kiwi
48	Kumquat
49-52	Lemon
53-56	Lime
57-58	Mango
59	Mulberry
60-61	Nectarine
62-63	Olive
64-67	Orange
68-69	Papaya
70-71	Passionfruit
72-74	Peach
75-77	Pear
78	Persimmon
79-81	Pineapple
82-84	Plum
85-86	Pomegranate
87	Quince
88-91	Raspberry
92-95	Strawberry
96-97	Tangerine
98-100	Watermelon

Bath toys can be a source of entertainment while bathing. Bath toys include ships. Imaging the party finding large sunken tub filled with water and an entire armada of wooden toy ships. The ships could include small figurine.

But, who could forget about the rubber ducky.

Interesting Areas - Dressing Room

In eighteenth century France, a maid would groom and sponge bathe her lady in private. The mistress would spend hours to having her hair dressed, eating breakfast, entertaining friends, and picking the clothes she would wear for the day in her dressing room. The wealthier the woman, the more elaborate her morning ritual. In a fantasy kingdom, a wealthy lady would have servants and possibly magical assistance in her morning ritual. Daily showering is a recent custom only practiced in parts of the world.

Jonathan Swift wrote a poem titled, "The Lady's Dressing Room". Wikipedia describes what the man finds when he sneaks into his lover's dressing room, "He finds sweaty smocks, dirt-filled combs, oily cloths, grimy towels," and so on. Worst he finds the chamber pot.

Consider this scenario. The party finds a painting of a beautiful woman in an elegant gown. As they advance through the mansion, they find the lady's dressing room. Instead of elegance, they find dirty clothes, grimy towels, used feminine products, and a smelly chamber pot.

Dressing rooms are not exclusive to women. Men can have dressing rooms. Consider the noble knight. Where does he put on his armor? Does he strap on the plate mail himself or does he have his squires help him? Depending on the personal hygiene of the knight, his dressing room could be as bad or worse.

Dressing rooms would have lots of shelves and places to hang clothing. Where does Superman hang his clean Superman suits? Would they be out in the open, or hidden behind some secret panel in his dressing room? A dressing room is an obvious place to have a secret panel to hide your alternate identity or sexual fetish costumes.

Consider this scenario. The party searches the dressing room and finds a secret passage into an adjoining secret dressing room. The room contains a set of skin-tight leather armor. However, the armor has opening in the crotch and provides no protection for the gentiles. Wearing the armor provides +3 to your sexual attractiveness.

What dressing room would be complete without at least one full-length mirror? In the movie Legend, Mia Sara dances with the mannequin in the black dress. Suddenly, the dress appears on Mia Sara's character. If you hold up a piece of clothing and stand in front of the mirror, the mirror could magically show you how you would look wearing the clothing. Alternatively, the mirror magically teleports and transforms your clothing.

Depending on how diabolic the Dungeon Master wants to be, the mirror could change the gender of the character depending on the type of clothing. For example, if an adventurer picks up a dress and the adventurer happens to reflect in the mirror while holding the dress then the mirror could change the gender of the adventurer to female and outfit her with the dress.

All dressing rooms need a place to store shoes and boots. What evil overlord is complete without a collection of highly polished boots? Imelda Marcos was infamous for her huge collection of shoes. No shoe collection is complete without at least one pair of magical elf-skin boots.

Mannequin are the perfect place to show off special outfits. For example, a female mannequin wearing a chainmail bikini, or a male mannequin wearing a chainmail jockstrap. How lifelike are the mannequin? Were they once alive and transformed into a mannequin? Do the mannequins come alive?

Dressing rooms often contain a variety of substances to improve the appearance of the owner. In the movie, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Vincent Price puts on his wax face. Imagine the party finding a drawer full of various types of ears and noses.

Every dressing room should have at least one table for various creams and potions. For example, skin cream made from real skin. The table could have lots of pretty tins and boxes. Bell jars filled with a variety of preserved objects can add interest.

The key is to make each area interesting to the party. The area does not need to be harmful or helpful. The party needs to have a tale to tell when they get back home.

I found the picture of the armor here.

Interesting Areas - Courtyard

Romans grew gardens inside their homes. The Roman name for a courtyard is peristylium. The peristylium was a key area in Roman homes. Courtyards were a central feature of many ancient homes. Homes today often have patios. An enclosed patio is a courtyard. A courtyard provides a pleasant place to relax and entertain guests.

A party of adventurers exploring a ruin of a city or town will likely find the remains of homes with courtyards. Courtyards can exist in underground dwellings. Dwarves can build courtyards and bring in sunlight via mirrors or crystals.

Courtyards tend to be larger areas. Courtyards provide a dungeon master the opportunity to be creative. Everything in the courtyard can be a point of interest for the party.

Courtyards are usually tiled or paved. The party enters the dusty courtyard. They notice a pattern in the paving stones not covered by dust and dirty. Sweeping away the dirty the party finds a mosaic of a large blue monster holding a cookie with the caption "Me eat cookie!"

The floor of the courtyard provides an opportunity to continue the story of the campaign. The floor could give hints at what lie in the catacombs below or show the prowess of the original owner. A classic example is the mosaic in Pompeii of a dog with the caption "Cave Canem!" which means, "Beware of dog!"

To make a courtyard interesting provide the players with the opportunity for discovery and interaction. For example, cover part of the mosaic with dirt or make the mosaic incomplete. Impress on the party how lifelike the creature appears in the mosaic; however, someone pried the pieces with the eyes and mouth out. Does the party put the pieces back? If so, is there any kind of reaction?

Ceramic tiles can act as trigger mechanism. Traps are obvious. What is not as obvious are sounds. For example, when a character steps on a specific ceramic tile it triggers a small hammer to strike a tuned metal bar making a sound. The floor is a form a xylophone or metallophone. Dancing across the floor will play music. The party could dig up the floor, follow the wires or strings, and find the xylophone.

Plants can decorate a patio or courtyard. Plants could provide a variety of alchemic ingredients. In a fantasy world, plants could do more than just look pretty. A courtyard would be a good place for an Audrey II plant from the movie "Little Shop of Horrors". A large tree in the courtyard could be the home of a Dryad. Alternatively, the plants could be a non-player character giving a vegetables view of the party. A plant non-player character may consider vegetarians horrible monsters.

A reflecting pool could function as a magical mirror. Looking into the reflecting pool could allow viewing other places. Magical fountains offer other diversions. For example, positioning a potion to reflect in the reflecting pool causes the fountain to spray out that potion providing a limitless supply of potions (or not).

Statues commonly adorn ancient courtyards. Some statues could be previous adventurers who did something wrong with the pool and ended up drinking a potion that turns the drinking into stone.

The key is to make each area interesting to the party. The area does not need to be harmful or helpful. The party needs to have a tale to tell when they get back home.

Interesting Areas

What makes a room, corridor, passage, chamber, or area interesting, memorable, and fun?

I read a review of Dwimmermount. The reviewer said, "Here's the thing--as a player, I want my character to kick some ass, be awesome, and have a tale to tell back at the tavern so he can get some action with the serving wenches." The key is having a tale to tell.

Role-playing is about having fun sharing and an adventure with others. That means the players must have interesting and memorable experiences. The line I quoted above implies characters need something to kill. I disagree. For me, nothing is more boring than a continual slog through a dungeon where the players kill monster after monster. In the Original Dungeons and Dragon's book "The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures" page 7 suggests only a third of rooms in a dungeon should have a monster. Monsters should have purpose and reason for being in the area.

Traps, like monsters, can be just another boring slog through the dungeon. Too many traps and the players may decide they want to leave that adventure. There should be a reason for the traps. Putting a trap on a major treasure room makes sense. Putting a trap on chest with eighty gold turns into another boring bookkeeping exercise. Your character cannot go back to the tavern and brag to the serving wench, "I survived the poison trap on the chest with a few gold pieces." Everyone remembers the rolling bolder trap in the movie Raider of the Lost Ark.

I am starting a series of blog posts about interesting areas. Areas that are interesting in their own right, not because the area contains monsters or traps.

I found the head shot of Jonathan Goldsmith here.

Has an NPC ever asked your character to do something morally repugnant?

I grew up in a rural area. Before I was born, my parents raised chicks in the hall closet. There was a closet in our hallway. My parents used the closet to raise chicks. When they were old enough, my parents slaughtered as young chickens for food. My father was amazing at jumping rope. All through my childhood, I heard stories about my father cutting the heads off the chickens, gutting them, and then using their intestines as a jump rope.

Today, few people slaughter animals for food. On the other hand, eggs are highly popular. Look at the sales of Egg McMuffin. People are more interested in having eggs without the yokes, e.g. the Egg White McMuffin. They forget eggs are a product of chickens. One of the lines from the movie Coneheads refers to consuming fried chicken embryos. Balut is a developing duck embryo boiled alive and eaten in the shell. Balut is a commonly sold street food in the Philippines.

Food is often associated with both medicine and religion. Celebrations and religious ceremonies often include food. For example, the story of the prodigal son mentions the phrase "roasting the fatted calf". The Jewish feast of Passover includes eating lamb.

Throughout history, man associated eating with religion. Many religions had dietary restrictions and festivals. According to one source, most anthropologists today believe the practice of cannibalism has been part of human behavior since long before recorded history. Humans have killed humans as part of religious rituals and for food. Child sacrifice is just a sub-category of human sacrifice.

I have never played a role-playing game where cannibalism, human sacrifice, and child sacrifice were prominent themes. I decided to spice up my campaign with some interesting situations.

A cleric of an obscure sect wanders into town looking for the party of adventurers. The party developed a reputation of obtaining "things". The cleric arrived in poor shape. Thieves along the way robbed and beat the cleric. The cleric ask the party if they would retrieve some things the sect needs for a religious ritual. The party asked the details. The sect needed three things.

• Berries picked off of particular bushes at particular times
• Water from a sacred brook
• The head of an unborn child

The first two items did not bother the party. They did not worry about taking water from a sacred brook. The party questioned the third item, the head of an unborn child. The party asked the cleric how they would obtain such an item. The cleric replied, "Find a pregnant woman and retrieve the head of the child." In response, the party immediately murdered the cleric.

The party found the cleric's request morally repugnant. Have you ever played a game where a non-player character asked your character to do something morally repugnant? If so, what was your response?

The Unemployed Fighter

One of my favorite poems is The Quest by Rudyard Kipling. The first stanza goes like this.

The knight came home from the quest,

Muddied and sore he came.

Battered of shield and crest,

Bannerless, bruised and lame.

Fighting we take no shame,

Better is man for a fall.

Merrily borne, the bugle-horn

Answered the warder's call:—

"Here is my lance to mend (Haro!),

Here is my horse to be shot!

Ay, they were strong, and the fight was long;

But I paid as good as I got!"

I am old enough to remember how the press and public treated soldiers returning from the War in Vietnam. I went into the service after Vietnam. There were three returning soldiers in my platoon during Advanced Individual Training (AIT). All three were drafted to go to Vietnam. The fought and left the service. They had difficulties adjusting to civilian life. It is not unusual for a sergeant in the Army to sign for equipment worth more than a million dollars. A tank commander is usually a sergeant or higher. They sign for the tank and all its associated equipment. That is worth much more than a million dollars. In civilian life, you need to be an executive in a company to sign for equipment worth that much.

In the military, you learn to respect the rank. You may think your officer is dumb, but you must respect his rank. In civilian life, it is common for workers to be disrespectful to their supervisor. In the military, if you disrespect a sergeant you will end up in jail. When I was in the Army, I remember what happened to an arrogant druggie. The sergeant ordered the druggie to clean up a mess. The druggie said something like, "Hell no!" The sergeant informed the private he was insubordinate and would face charges. The druggie took a swing at the sergeant. The sergeant knew there were witnesses who would back up the fact the druggie took the first swing. The sergeant proceeded to beat the shit out the druggie. Then the sergeant drug the druggie up to the company headquarters to face charges. The military teaches you must respect the rank and position, even if you do not respect the person holding the rank or position. That was the reason three Vietnam draftees reenlisted and were in my platoon. Civilian employers did not trust them with valuable equipment. Workers did not respect their position of authority.

How does this relate to role-playing games? In the Original Dungeons and Dragons book, "Men and Magic", page 16 lists the names for the levels of a fighter. A first level fighter is a veteran. This means OD&D assumes a first level fighter has some military experience. In the medieval period, only soldiers received training in the use of swords and armor.

This explains why characters become adventurers. There is an old song, "How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm?" After you have seen a bit of the world, do you really want to go back to the farm? Some do. Others find the rural life style lacking.

I thing I find missing in many fantasy role-playing games is a plausible history for fighters. Where did they learn to use weapons and armor? Swords and armor were never cheap. Where did the fighters get their initial equipment?

In the poem is The Quest by Rudyard Kipling the knight comes home bannerless, bruised, and lame. His horse is hurt so badly it needs to be put shot to put it out of its misery. Today, we have soldiers returning. I hear some saying, "the quest was in vain." Kipling say it best in the last stanza.

"My shame ye count and know.

Ye say the quest is vain.

Ye have not seen my foe.

Ye have not told his slain.

Surely he fights again, again;

But when ye prove his line,

There shall come to your aid my broken blade

In the last, lost fight of mine!

And here is my lance to mend (Haro!),

And here is my horse to be shot!

Ay, they were strong, and the fight was long;

But I paid as good as I got!"

Dynamic Adventures

Have you ever made significant changes to the adventure while running it by changing the map, player handouts, or non-player characters?

My background is software development. One of the principles I learned was documents are never finished. The requirements and specifications change frequently. I apply that concept to adventures.

I am not sure if my players realize I routinely change maps on the fly. For example, a while back the party was exploring a dungeon. I accidentally revealed a part of the map of the dungeon they had not yet explored. While running the adventure I changed the map. Removed corridors and room and added new ones. That is the advantage of a tool like Campaign Cartographer. It is easy to rearrange things.

Sometimes the players state they are worried they will run into some specific monster or situation. I always note those ideas. I usually add those ideas to the campaign a few adventures later.

If you want to use your own maps with Roll20 and other virtual tabletop programs you have load them. Usually you have to load them beforehand. The virtual tabletop programs work with bitmap files, not Computer Aided Design (CAD) type files created by Campaign Cartographer (Campaign Cartographer is actually FastCAD with its own set of symbols). For me, I find the ability to manipulate the maps while running very important.

I draw up my maps and label them. They players normally do not get to see the labels. One of the changes I am constantly making is changing the visibility of the labels. When I draw the maps, I focus on how I want the maps to appear to me. For example, if there is a piece of graffiti written on a wall put that on the map. The players cannot see what the graffiti says until they get close enough to read it. I modify the visibility of the graffiti label during the game.

Graffiti can spice up any dungeon. In the 1972 film The Mechanic, Charles Bronson's character leaves a note for his apprentice that reads, "Steve, if you're reading this it means I didn't make it back. It also means you've broken a filament controlling a 13-second delay trigger. End of game. Bang! You're dead." Imagine the party seeing something written in very small script on the wall. The graffiti reads, "If you are reading this it means you stepped on a pressure plate releasing a delayed blast fireball. Bang! You are dead."