Castle Redvald, FKR, Politics

CASTLE REDVALD (& DOWNWELL), FKR, POLITICS
PDF Link if you just want the dungeons.

Above the massive double-doors is a large stone skull that asks delvers what their most dearest wish is, and offers both a hook and a warning - in the depths of Redvald, they might very well find what they're looking for. Its eyes are illusory rubies hiding venomous snake nests, above 20' above ground.

Somewhen in 2019, I wrote parts of a dungeon for OD&D - and had a lot of fun doing it, I heartily recommend doing so yourself if you're into problem-solving/exploration-based adventure games.

Back then, I was still in denial about being a non-binary trans woman, and spent a lot of time tolerating a lot of hateful and frankly insane rhetoric from people I called friends, knowing full well we would probably not be so friendly if they actually knew me. I left that place and these people behind me what seems now like a long time ago.

Downwell is down the well of Blightburg, south-east of Redvald

I was also really into the OSR and the history of the hobby, and found myself more and more at odds with what the OSR seemed to be to me. My delves into OD&D and Braunstein got me more and more laser-focused on a minimalist approach, and I really wanted to find other people who saw the joy in that weird niche somewhere at the far end of the OSR design spectrum, yet somehow much closer to narrativist and freeform gaming circles than I first imagined possible.

Dungeon Weather Tables should be kept secret, it's great for atsmophere and spooking players

Then I went on to start the Free Kriegspiel Revival server with Norbert G. Matausch, another then-Internet pen-pal with whom I found a lot of common grounds when it came to tabletop RPGs. We aimed to create a space where people could talk about tRPGs with a focus on at-the-table stuff instead of theory crafting, sharing interesting content, GMing techniques, and occasionally discussing the history of the hobby through a shared background in freeform RPGs and old-school wargaming.

Early on, some members left the server to start the FKR Collective. I outed myself publically online in a surreal attempt to make the place I was operating inside and promoting less problematic by basically turning myself into a token queer representative. That was not a smart move on my end - I was still fairly isolated socially and had just left one of my only homely places, and I was still, quite frankly, in the process of de-radicalizing myself after spending too much time in the company of crypto-fascists.

Still bummed out nobody ever entered the EVIL GNOME HERE room

The FKR Collective turned out to be another excellent space for this niche-yet-simple style of gaming, and its diversity of voices also led to a broader understanding of FKR which in turn meant more creative takes could be shared, which I came to appreciate after my initial stubborness to stick to OD&D stuff. It also turned out to be a place where I felt comfortable being more authentic - an actually homely environment online, something I did not really envision to be possible in the past.

A year and some have passed since then, and I'm still passionate about adventure gaming in the FKR anti-school. I have also grown more uncomfortable with problematic and harmful views of some people that, while we always had friendly exchanges online, I now believe we might not get along so well had we been family IRL or met in contexts where our differences in privileges would have led to very different power dynamics.

I think I followed OD&D stocking tables at first

So in a nutshell, I left the Free Kriegspiel Revival server because of politics. Because I now believe that the issues raised by intersectional feminism are not only very real but must be advocated for vocally and that no middle ground can be found when it amounts to human rights. That means I can no longer in my right mind ignore dogwhistling, and have no energy left for benefit of the doubt.

I started the FKR server because I wanted to find likeminded people with whom to share one of the things I love most in life, and for that same reason I must now bid farewell to leftovers of who I was a year, two years ago, to better start anew.

Bring mirrors!

Some Tips from What I Learned Running Games and Being Online Over the Years
Some of this is may be real obvious to some, and a surprise to others, I hope everyone will find at least a nugget of usefulness in here.

At some point I'll do a best-off of these keys and make a tighter, better version

When drawing a dungeon, simple room shapes are better - a map may look cool with fancier shapes but they're terrible when the table has a mapper that you need to communicate quickly and efficiently with to keep the game moving. Don't worry about how the map looks, worry about accessibility and ease of use in play.

Experimenting with a side-cut view - up and down indicate elevation instead of north/south

When entering a gaming space (or any other socializing place really), look for tell-tale signs of inclusivity and think twice about what their absence might signify. Try to probe the key actors into revealing their cards so to speak to know whether or not minorities and the underprivileged are truly welcome. If you're a white cishet dude or otherwise very privileged where you live, you still want these signs and can more easily ask without risking backlash, not just for others' sake but for your own - you don't want to be friends with crypto-fascists, right? If you feel something is off, it's likely something is off. Someone once said that no gaming is better than gaming with bad folks.

Probably burned out after getting too bold from having an easy time doing level 2

You don't really need to fill out as much as I did there - notice how the third level isn't even finished? That's because the players never explored further than bits and pieces of the second level in nearly a year-long campaign, and most people these days don't run campaigns that last as long. Downwell is a better example of the scale that's actually useful for most games. That's the last two maps - these we cleared in way less time and the pace of play was much more enjoyable - that's when I started to understand why dungeon crawling can be so fun. Not saying the bigger or more complex maps don't work though - with the right crowd, it can still be a blast, but they're more hit-or-miss as a point of entry for more casual players.

If you have people close to you who hold problematic and/or harmful views, you've got a few options. You can try to talk to them diplomatically, you can distance yourself from them or you can ignore it. The first option is somewhat tiresome, especially on the long run, but is usually my go-to when I have the energy for it - cause you want converts, not tolerance. You want people who share values with you to recognize where they're terribly wrong and educate themselves, possibly with your help. Especially if they're family or long-lasting friendships. But sometimes that's not possible, or not preferrable to preserving yourself. Distancing yourself may hurt when it happens, but then it's done. People move on. Ignoring problems though, just lets them pile up at the end of your brain until it starts polluting completely unrelated stuff. Basic advice for a lot of you reading I imagine, but I sort of learned the hard way and figured there might be others in similar situations who'd benefit from reading me. Hopefully.

Hook: kids were stolen away by robots during the night, people heard crying down the well

You don't need to explain shit, but you do need to have some idea of what the denizens of your dungeon know because players will interrogate them or negotiate with them. If they don't have anything useful to say, or at the very least some fun bits of lore to make the world seem more real, then they won't be memorable and will only serve as canon fodder (if the players are good at fighting or if the rules you're using favour the player-characters when using violence, otherwise they'll only serve as new PC generators). Speaking of, NPCs and generally talking to things and people will most often be the most memorable moments of your game sessions, even in dungeoncrawls. That means you want to put a lot of interesting factions (for big places) or interesting individuals (for smaller places or less densely populated areas of your dungeon). For a game more focused on the party, like OD&D, factions work great. For a more "interpersonal" level game like Into the Odd, individuals work best.

Promote and build tRPG communities that celebrate diversity, take an interest in accessibility which is another big plus of minimalist game design and has the massive advantage of being more inclusive, which means more variety in game ideas, which in turns improves the general discourse. Put disclaimers on your games to scare off people we don't want around and attract more kind folks - the invisible barriers in mainstream tRPG circles work the same way against marginalized people, so I'd say that's a preferrable alternative to silence.

A sub-level, lots of really deadly stuff in there as its a "secret"

Keys don't have to be detailed. A line, a few words, is really all you need - it's not only easier but it means you'll naturally grow into knowing your dungeon intimately and won't really need to look at what's in a room anymore. When writing the dungeon, it's also less effort and will slowly start to make sense as your pattern-seeking brain starts to do its thing. Basically, we tend to overthing these things, so just put down whatever comes to mind and you can always add more later. Plus, you'll be improvising additional details prompted by player questions or spur of the moment creativity that you'd miss out on if you tried to make a full, cohesive whole - I think that's one of the surprisingly easy tricks that led to the really gonzo and whismical nature of old timey dungeons. And these are just, well, fun. Try it sometime maybe, especially if you think dungeons need a super tight ecology to be fun.

The Burning Giraffe

Final Words
Digging a dungeon should be fun. If it ain't fun, why bother? Spend as little or as much time as you want on it, don't worry about doing it "right", it'll be entertaining to run if you're playing with cool people. Same for non-dungeony adventures, of course.

Oh boy, that one was wordy and self-indulgent, I better make some quality content soon.

Coming up next: Star Dogs session reports and thinking about Opening my Table again.