A High Fantasy

 Wrote this adventure for a very successful RBSDnD d6e game (which changed how combat and a couple of classes worked a tad); what you see is a messy expansion of my personal notes with the fucked-up horror dials set above where they were for my middle schoolers. It’s not my most polished adventure notation, but I think it serviceable enough to communicate the most important parts. Enjoy A High Fantasy!

THE ADVENTURE

One cycle ago, on the last waxing gibbous, Mother Hubbard divorced Queen Mab, forfeiting her position as Queen of the Seelie Court. Now, the Seelie Throne lies vacant, and Mab’s heartbreak manifests as the Blight, a plague that blackens vegetation and twists creatures towards their darkest vices. The Blight has just surrounded the hamlet Happily Ever After, and Mother Hubbard fears that if it consumes the Grandfather Tree, as it is set to do the next moonrise after the coming full moon, it will darken the forest forever. As long as the heartbroken Queen Mab remains in the Unseelie Throne, the Blight will spread…

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

MOTHER HUBBARD, ex-Queen of the Seelie Court. From her boot at the edge of Happily Ever After, she intends to employ a team of adventurers (players) to create an amnesia potion, correctly assuming that Queen Mab can’t spread the Blight if she doesn’t remember the hurt. To make it, she needs a golden egg (found in the henhouse next to Camelot), an eye of newt (found in Hubbard’s Wunderkabinet), and Queen Mab’s heart (found in her chest; the wedding ring Hubbard makes is an acceptable substitute, should it be pointed out to her).

WHISKERSHINS, Hubbard’s clueless, plucky cat familiar.

QUEEN MAB, Queen of the Unseelie Court. Her broken heart is the Blight. She’s locked herself in Bleak Ending, grieving a love that burned for centuries, and now burns her alive.

ISOLDE, Mab’s dour raven familiar, serving as the Queen’s eyes across the forest.

BARON KLOPP, terminally ill ruler of the giants. He intends to make a play at the Seelie throne once Mother Goose heals him, not yet realizing that what he has can’t be cured, even by the best. His cloud palace, Camelot, is parked above the highest branches of the Grandfather Tree.

MOTHER GOOSE, sister of Queen Mab. A remarkable doctress and amateur hedge wizard. Also a bird. She has been trying and failing to find a cure for Baron Klopp since before the Blight started. She never liked Mother Hubbard, and will resist giving up the golden egg if she catches wind of Hubbard’s “latest hare-brained scheme. Honk.”

BIG BAD, the Blighted guardian of Hubbard’s Wunderkabinet. Normally a more erudite psychopath, his irregular patch of ash-grey fur and blood-red eyes betray his unwilling descent into mere bestial violence.

LOCATIONS

HAPPILY EVER AFTER, the only human village in the High Forest. The Blight’s surrounding the city is what incited Mother Hubbard, who lives in the giant shoe at the end of the lane, into action.

THE GRANDFATHER TREE, a mammoth oak nestled behind the mists of the Lost Peaks. Looms higher than any tower man could build, with a trunk that might take an hour to circle. Hidden in its heart sits the empty Seelie throne. At its peak is docked Camelot, the cloud palace of Baron Klopp. He’s doubled up velvet-clad outside of the henhouse, blocking the door to Mother Goose’s makeshift workshop inside. Next to her medical equipment are two golden eggs.

HUBBARD’S WUNDERKABINET, a dry storage for alchemical reagents. Guarded by the Blighted Big Bad. Inside are shelves and shelves of ingredients, among them the Eye of Newt. Other possible additions to the inside of the cabinet are a Blight-touched vignette or one of Phlox’s Adventure Components.

BLEAK ENDING, the epicenter of the Blight. Growing out of a glass ziggurat is a giant black rose dripping with blood-red honey, visible from as far as the Grandfather Tree. Inside the ziggurat, Queen Mab sits mournfully on the Unseelie throne. 

(An aside: you may notice that the High Forest was originally a Forgotten Realms construct. That’s because the camp I worked at has an ongoing skit set in Neverwinter, so I thought it would be cool to have this game also take place there in case any camper were to go on and play in the Realms on down the line. “Woah, Neverwinter, like Kian and Clay versus the Owlbear! And the High Forest! I remember climbing the Grandfather Tree with an arrow tied to the Magician’s Rope…” I didn’t use any FR lore to make this adventure, though; just geography and place names.)

BLIGHT-TOUCHED VIGNETTES (from order of least to most fucked)

1 Two tall trees bully a sapling out of sunlight; the pixie who animated the trio looks on sadistically

2 The dish and the spoon hiding from the vengeful, spurned fork

3 Little Red Riding Hood, clad in namesake bloody pelts, hunting another wolf to skin alive

4 Hansel and Gretel devouring a gingerbread house as, inside, a witch, burning alive, starts an oven fire

5 Pinocchio, interrupted as he’s about to cut off the nose that’s making him so insecure

6 Two of King Wenceslas’s shiniest men trying to convince Humpty Dumpty not to jump

ENCHANTED TOTEMS

1 BAND OF BEAST SPEECH, a ring decorated with dancing creatures that translates animal speech.

2 PATIENT ACORN, which explodes into an adult oak once planted.

3 SPYGLASS OF DESIRE, a kaleidoscope that shows what someone wants most.

4 MAGICIAN’S ROPE, sturdy silk scarves that can be indefinitely procured from one’s wrist.

5 ROSE KNIGHT BLADE, a bastard sword that grows a thicket of roses when stabbed in the ground.

6 POTION OF TRUE LOVE, that tastes of summer honey and just might work, in the right light.

I promise my notebook looks cooler and less smear-y in person. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.

d6-only RBSDnD

 Forgot my d20 at home these past couple of weeks at camp. Wrote up this d6-only variation on RBSDnD instead. Very similar to past iterations, just more accessible for those without d20 handy. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.

RBSDnD 2e, or, OSE for summer campers

    In preparation of running more DnD for summer campers in coming weeks, I've looked back on RBSDnD and updated it with the dividends of last summer's playtesting. Here's what I've changed:

• I've reduced the number of classes from 7 to the core 4. There are many reasons for this, but the two main ones are that the high specificity of the previous classes created a sense of character concept claustrophobia, and that explaining the difference between fewer classes allows for an easier, more informed choice upon character creation. (The downside is that we lose the clarity of the design process, making "make your own class" a more hollow invitation.)
• I removed the attack roll, as the two-step attack process was slow to explain and enact, despite making possible granular effects like weapon FUMBLES. I also changed all HIT DICE to d6, bringing the number of dice required to play RBSDnD R.A.W. down to just the common d6 and the d20, which I couldn't conscionably remove from the game and still call it DnD.
• Beyond those major structural changes, I cleaned up some verbiage and cut some cruft, like the shield, my nebulous dungeon-stacking guidance, and a list of potential rewards in place of rules for leveling up. This new version is more concise and internally consistent to accommodate the expanded classes.

    Here's a link to the new version. The old version will still be available here, under the name 2022e, but I'll update the link on the right to reflect the edition change. As I test it over the coming weeks, I anticipate patching some leaks, so watch this space.

Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.