I Have No Time and I Must Blog!

I have a large number of posts on the back burner. Somewhere around 20. The game that started as Codex, stalled out, restarted, then became its own game. As a responsible creator, when that happened I had to hunt it down and kill it.  Lots of reasearch has been done, lots of lessons have been learned by watching others (in the OSR and in business in general).  With everything I have learned, and figured out, and seen someone else come up with design on a good game continues to progress at a snails pace. As an aside, I swear that B/X Blackrazor has bugged my brain, as that guy comes up with the same ideas as I do at exactly the same times.  Since we don't live too far from one anoher and don't know each other and have no frinds in common, I suspect it is something in the Greenwood water. Luckly for both of us we implement differently.  The thing that really slows me down is that a lot of my ideas require graphics to convey and I just don't have a lot of time to put them together. And those I think are the best ones.  There are many insights I have to share and many ideas that I have developed and I will endeavor to get them all here soon. 

A Sudden and Unexpected Endgame

Recently I have been reading The Hobbit.  The situation of this reading is causing me to look at each sentence, and what is really said.  I am constantly amazed at how much I forget and how much I miss.  It is a dense book.

What occurred to me is how a large hoard like the one Smaug sits on is seriously a game changer.  Most referees would rule that even after you discover one; or kill or remove the guardian of a hoard you have to get it back to home base before you collect the experience.  Now, what happens if you turn the dungeon that you are in into home base? This is pretty much what happens with the lonely mountain.  Thorin and Company don't have to transport the treasure anywhere once the battle of the five armies is over, and given the description of Thorin and the other dwarves as they join that battle, it seems like they have leveled up a bit as their eyes are glowing red!  

The thought here is that it no matter what the circumstance, the endgame can show up quite suddenly as dice are involved and players are clever.  Wise use of a hoard might be what allows a party to truly convert a dungeon into a legitimate home base.  Interestingly a megadungeon that can never be settled helps to prevent this.  And while something is statistically unlikely, it does not mean that it can't happen ever, or that it can't happen many times in a row.  A party could get lucky for example and find a +3 Sword in their possession after a lucky lucky victory.  How you handle that may determine what kind of DM you are.