Can AI Turn an Arden Vul Room Key Into Table-Ready Notes?

Last week: Use AI for Routine TTRPG Prep, Not for Creative Work

For this experiment, I’m going to use room Arden Vul’s room 4-47 (“Overseer”) as an example. You can find this entry on page 272 of volume 1. The following description includes minor spoilers about an NPC and their faction, but I wanted to use it because it is such a good example of the issues described in the previous post. I don’t think this gives away too much in the grand scheme of Arden Vul; but if you have plans to play in this campaign in the future, and are sensitive to spoilers, you can skip down to the Conclusions heading for the summary.

Here’s the text as it appears in the Arden Vul book:

4-47: Overseer

Belisarius the Overseer, the second most powerful figure in the cult of Set, lives and works in this large room. The overseer is the ranking ‘secular’ figure of the cult, and is in charge of all guardsmen, military expeditions, security, patrols, and so forth. For all that, Belisarius is a devout, even fanatical, follower of Set, and an adept politician. He is also a misogynist and dislikes High Priestess Stephania intensely. As a result he is constantly plotting her demise, and hopes to replace her with the third priest, Lacedaion. Stephania is aware of these machinations and has taken precautions; she has not acted against Belisarius yet solely because he is so good at what he does. Despite his prejudices, Belisarius would never act to undermine the cult as a whole; only if he were convinced of the motives of outsiders would he consider employing them against Stephania.

The chamber is divided into a public and private area; the latter is to the east, and is shielded by some painted wooden screens. The public area has a large tactical table on which lie (incomplete) maps of the northern and southern caves of Level 4 as well as one ancient map detailing portions of the lower levels (GM’s choice). Also in the public area are several writing desks and chairs containing roster lists, personnel reports, logistical reports, and so forth. Two aides-de-camp (from the Alpha Sept) are always present here. At the north wall, next to the door to the caves, stands a large cabinet in which may be found a sizable number of curios looted from the halls as well as 12 bound codices (on theological, military, and motivational subjects). The private area contains a simple bed, an armoire, another writing desk, a weapon and armor rack, a practice dummy, two cots for the aides, a set of four easy chairs around a coffee table, and a cabinet containing 22 bottles of excellent brandy. In addition to his administrative skills, Belisarius is a formidable warrior.

The north door leads to a narrow tunnel that provides Belisarius with private access to the cavern at 4-66 via a one-way door. He doesn’t use this door very often, and the corridor is thus thick with dust.

There is a 50% chance that Belisarius is present in his quarters. The rest of the time he is elsewhere in the complex, typically in 4-2, 4-3, 4-7, 4-43, 4-51, 4-53, or 4-61. He has a 25% chance to be in 4-48 whenever the second mystery is performed [sic]

Secret Door (east): This door is normal to find and locked, and leads to a set of secret  interrogation chambers. Only the overseer and his aides-de-camp know of the existence of the door and the interrogation chambers. The key to the door is hidden in Belisarius’s liquor cabinet.

Inhabitants:

 1. Belisarius the Overseer, 7th-level male Archontean fighter: SZ M; AL LE; AC 2; MV 120’; HD 7; HP 70; #AT 3/2; Dmg 3-8 (javelin +2) or 4-11 (long sword +2). Abilities: STR 17, INT 13, WIS 16, DEX 11, CON 16, CHA 15. Possessions: chain mail +3; returning javelin +2 (see new magic items), long sword +2; potion of extra healing (x2); potion of fly; and a key-ring with keys to SL8-1 and 4-106. 

2. 2 aides-de-camp, 3rd-level female Archontean fighters: SZ M; AL NE; AC 5; MV 120’; HD 3; HP 25, 22; #AT 1; Dmg 1-8 (mace), 1-6 (spear) or 1-4 (light crossbow). Possessions: Set armor (see Arden Vul items); spear; mace, and light crossbow.

Stop and think for a moment about how this information is organized. It’s not random. The most important information is up top (who Belisarius is and what his motivations are). It is followed by the physical contents of the room, then more conditionally relevant information, like how the room connects to other spaces. It ends with the stats for the potential occupants. For purposes of the DM reading the text in advance of running the dungeon, this is basically fine.

But for use at the table? This could be much better.

The first paragraph is all about Belisarius’s motives and (implicitly) how he will act and react if the PCs become involved in the politics of the cult of Set. This is the most important information in a narrative sense, but the least important information in the context of dungeon exploration. This paragraph is actively hampering the product’s usefulness at the table, where speed of adjudication would be the DM’s priority. If the PCs are engaging diplomatically with members of the cult of Set, the DM will probably need this information long before the characters wander into Belisarius’s bedroom.

The second paragraph begins to lay out the practical details of the room. Halfway through this paragraph, we learn that “two aides-de-camp are always present here.” It’s easy to imagine a DM describing this room, with its tables and maps, and then suddenly, in a surprised voice, saying “Oh! Uh, and… there are two fighters here?” At minimum, some kind of bolding should indicate the presence of monsters and NPCs. The paragraph goes on to list more contents of the room, and the final sentence states that “In addition to his administrative skills, Belisarius is a formidable warrior.” This would be more at home in the first paragraph explaining who he is, or omitted entirely (his formidability in combat is clearly telegraphed by his stat block).

The third paragraph addresses the northern exit and is almost entirely redundant with information that can be intuited from looking at the map (another common point of complaint in Ten Foot Pole reviews). The fourth paragraph provides context for the secret door in the east wall. The key that unlocks this secret door is first mentioned here, not earlier, when its actual hiding place is described. So a DM could easily adjudicate the PCs searching the liquor cabinet without realizing they should find the key that is hidden there.

So, how good of a job can AI do unpacking this information? Let’s find out.

Here’s the prompt I gave ChatGPT: “Can you improve the organization and formatting of the following text? This is a room description for a roleplaying game, but the text needs to be reformatted so the person running the game can more quickly find the most important information. Details about people, creatures, or other things adventurers might interact with when exploring this space are most important and should be emphasized. Use bolding, bullets, and any other formatting tools you want to make the text easier to reference on the fly.”

The output was as follows: 

Key NPCs and Creatures

1. Belisarius the Overseer

• Role: Second most powerful figure in the cult of Set; Overseer of guardsmen, military expeditions, and security.
• Personality: Devout, fanatical follower of Set; adept politician; misogynist; intensely dislikes High Priestess Stephania and plots her demise but remains loyal to the cult as a whole.
• Combat Stats:
• Class/Level: 7th-level male Archontean fighter
• Alignment: Lawful Evil (LE)
• Armor Class (AC): 2
• Movement (MV): 120’
• Hit Dice (HD): 7
• Hit Points (HP): 70
• Attacks (#AT): 3/2
• Damage (Dmg): 3-8 (javelin +2) or 4-11 (long sword +2)
• Abilities: STR 17, INT 13, WIS 16, DEX 11, CON 16, CHA 15
• Possessions: Chain mail +3, returning javelin +2, long sword +2, two potions of extra healing, potion of fly, key-ring (keys to SL8-1 and 4-106).

2. Aides-de-Camp (2)

• Role: Assist Belisarius with administrative tasks; always present in the public area.
• Combat Stats:
• Class/Level: 3rd-level female Archontean fighters
• Alignment: Neutral Evil (NE)
• Armor Class (AC): 5
• Movement (MV): 120’
• Hit Dice (HD): 3
• Hit Points (HP): 25, 22
• Attacks (#AT): 1
• Damage (Dmg): 1-8 (mace), 1-6 (spear), or 1-4 (light crossbow)
• Possessions: Set armor (unique to Arden Vul), spear, mace, light crossbow.

 

Room Layout and Features

Public Area

• Tactical Table:
• Contains incomplete maps of the northern and southern caves of Level 4.
• Includes an ancient map detailing portions of the lower levels (GM’s choice).
• Writing Desks:
• Hold roster lists, personnel reports, logistical data, and similar documents.
• Cabinet (North Wall):
• Contains curios looted from the halls and 12 bound codices (topics: theological, military, motivational).

Private Area

• Sleeping Quarters:
• Simple bed, armoire, writing desk, and cots for the aides.
• Recreational Area:
• Four easy chairs, coffee table, and a cabinet with 22 bottles of excellent brandy.
• Training Equipment:
• Weapon and armor rack, practice dummy.

Secret Features:

• Secret Door (East):
• Leads to interrogation chambers.
• Lock Details: Normal to find and locked.
• Key Location: Hidden in Belisarius’s liquor cabinet.
• Knowledge of this door’s existence is limited to Belisarius and his aides.

Exits

• North Door:
• Leads to a dusty, narrow tunnel providing private access to cavern 4-66 (via one-way door).
• Rarely used; thick with dust.

NPC Presence and Movement

Belisarius:

• Chance of Presence: 50% in his quarters.
• Typical Locations: 4-2, 4-3, 4-7, 4-43, 4-51, 4-53, or 4-61.
• Special Event: 25% chance to be in 4-48 during the second mystery.

GM Notes

• Belisarius's Plotting: Actively plots against High Priestess Stephania, intending to replace her with Lacedaion.
• Stephania’s Awareness: Aware of his schemes but tolerates him due to his efficiency.
• Interrogation Chambers: These are secret and only accessible through the locked door in the private area.
• Maps and Codices: Could provide adventurers with valuable intelligence if accessed.

This is already significantly improved. It’s overkill on the bullets, particularly in giving many bullets only a single sub-bullet (from an information design perspective, a single sub-bullet should never  rarely appear alone, as it defeats the whole purpose of bullets, i.e., parsing out a list in a scannable format). But everything is much more clear than the original text, and the machine didn’t even need much coaching to reorganize the information in order of occupants → features → exits → miscellaneous.

I asked it to make a few changes, moving the NPCs presence to the top; merging the secret door info with the exit info; and condensing some of the bullets to shorten the overall vertical “height” of the entry. It produced this:

Key NPCs and Creatures

1. Belisarius the Overseer

• Role: Second most powerful figure in the cult of Set; Overseer of guardsmen, military expeditions, and security.
• Personality: Devout, fanatical follower of Set; adept politician; misogynist; intensely dislikes High Priestess Stephania and plots her demise but remains loyal to the cult as a whole.
• Chance of Presence: 50% in his quarters. Otherwise, typically in 4-2, 4-3, 4-7, 4-43, 4-51, 4-53, or 4-61. Special Event: 25% chance to be in 4-48 during the second mystery.
• Combat Stats:
• Class/Level: 7th-level male Archontean fighter; Alignment: Lawful Evil (LE); Armor Class (AC): 2
• Movement (MV): 120’; Hit Dice (HD): 7; Hit Points (HP): 70
• Attacks (#AT): 3/2; Damage (Dmg): 3-8 (javelin +2) or 4-11 (long sword +2)
• Abilities: STR 17, INT 13, WIS 16, DEX 11, CON 16, CHA 15
• Possessions: Chain mail +3, returning javelin +2, long sword +2, two potions of extra healing, potion of fly, key-ring (keys to SL8-1 and 4-106).

2. Aides-de-Camp (2)

• Role: Assist Belisarius with administrative tasks; always present in the public area.
• Combat Stats:
• Class/Level: 3rd-level female Archontean fighters; Alignment: Neutral Evil (NE)
• Armor Class (AC): 5; Movement (MV): 120’; Hit Dice (HD): 3; Hit Points (HP): 25, 22
• Attacks (#AT): 1; Damage (Dmg): 1-8 (mace), 1-6 (spear), or 1-4 (light crossbow)
• Possessions: Set armor (unique to Arden Vul), spear, mace, light crossbow.

Room Layout and Features

• Public Area:
• Tactical Table: Incomplete maps of the northern/southern caves of Level 4; ancient map detailing portions of lower levels (GM’s choice).
• Writing Desks: Roster lists, personnel reports, logistical data.
• Cabinet (North Wall): Contains curios looted from the halls and 12 bound codices (topics: theological, military, motivational).
• Private Area:
• Sleeping Quarters: Simple bed, armoire, writing desk, and cots for the aides.
• Recreational Area: Four easy chairs, coffee table, and a cabinet with 22 bottles of excellent brandy.
• Training Equipment: Weapon and armor rack, practice dummy.

Exits

• North Door:
• Leads to a dusty, narrow tunnel providing private access to cavern 4-66 (via one-way door). Rarely used; thick with dust.
• Secret Door (East):
• Leads to interrogation chambers. Lock is normal to find and locked.
• Key Location: Hidden in Belisarius’s liquor cabinet.
• Only Belisarius and his aides know of its existence

GM Notes

• Belisarius's Plotting: Actively plots against High Priestess Stephania, intending to replace her with Lacedaion.
• Stephania’s Awareness: Aware of his schemes but tolerates him due to his efficiency.
• Interrogation Chambers: These are secret and only accessible through the locked door in the private area.
• Maps and Codices: Could provide adventurers with valuable intelligence if accessed.

This is pretty close to how I would organize this information if I had converted this room key into table notes by hand.

Finally, I asked it to add a table of contents at the top with a hyperlink to each section, and it provided blue-colored text that looked right… but didn’t appear to form an actual hyperlink, and didn’t work when I copied it into other programs. So there are limits to what it can do, but I think some combination of better prompting and using a more advanced AI could get there.

Conclusions

This is really only scratching the surface. If you gave an AI the entire text of an adventure you were going to run, you could ask it to create cross-references and summaries. It could generate random encounter tables based on dungeon denizens. It could provide a treasure index. 

Yes, all of these tasks are things the GM can do themselves. But they are time-consuming. AI helps in the same way that conventional word processing software saves time, which can be reallocated to the more creative parts of session prep.

There are some issues to navigate before using this more broadly. Some AIs might introduce external information, hallucinate, or garble details (although this is less of an issue when asking it to rearrange or summarize content, versus creating new content). And we should be mindful of any stipulations that creators put on the use of their work vis-a-vis AI, particularly concerns over training data. ChatGPT does not use submitted content to train its model, but other AIs might. If a creator includes stipulations about using their content in this way, err on the side of caution and keep it away from the AI.

But GMs should absolutely continue to explore AI as a prep assistant. The world has a finite number of highlighters, and your wrist is probably going to give out before you get halfway through marking up a beast like Arden Vul. Don't let something as simple as organization and formatting stand between you and running an epic megadungeon like this.

Use AI for Routine TTRPG Prep, Not for Creative Work

The Halls of Arden Vul by Richard Barton is a truly massive megadungeon. It’s a love letter to AD&D and the classic megadungeons of the 1980s.

The good part of the classic feel is obvious. Listening to the 3d6 DTL podcast’s long-running Arden Vul campaign, it’s impressive to see the density of factions, the depth of the dungeon’s history, and the opportunities for interactivity. I would love to run it someday. 

The bad part comes down to formatting and at-the-table ease of use. I wouldn’t say it doesn't do anything to incorporate the advances TTRPG usability over the last 40 years; it includes expansive overviews and aggressive cross-referencing, an improvement from the “figure it out yourself” opacity of a lot of ‘80s D&D products. 

But it doesn’t go nearly far enough. The text is dense, written for casual reading rather than for quick reference. Ancient history is intermingled with recent events. There’s little use of bullets, bolding, or sidebars. Even little things reflect a retrograde formatting mentality; listing damage as “2-7” rather than “1d6+1” is a small detail, but it is a pointlessly archaic Gygaxism that can trip people up; particularly new DMs, or those who don’t easily intuit die increments from numerical ranges. Compare this to a modern product, like Necrotic Gnome’s OSE releases, with their signature house style, carefully calibrated for use at the table. Arden Vul is old school not just in play culture, but also in formatting and presentation.

Don’t take my word for it. Read Bryce’s review on Tenfootpole. He obviously has high praise for the amount of evocative detail and interactivity on display in Arden Vul. But his reviews also place a premium on ease of use at the table, and many of his criticisms of Arden Vul land here. See the “Jhentis the Ghoul” section of the linked review for an apt summary of the problem.

Browsing my own copy of Arden Vul, I have to agree with him. It is frustrating that such a massive, fascinating work should be held back by mere formatting and organization issues. Implicitly, the DM running this is expected to make up the difference. As Bryce puts it in the review: “Highlighters out! Actually, better buy a gross of them, you’ve got 1122 pages to read, absorb, and highlight.”

But it’s 2025. We aren’t limited to highlighters, right? Can’t we use… technology? Can we get the AI to do it for us?

On the Use and Misuse of Generative AI in TTRPGs

Generative AI is a hot topic in many spaces, including indie creative scenes like TTRPGs. While some indie and OSR creators have dabbled in using generative AI, there's a lot of ire directed at these tools as well, particularly from artists who object to Midjourney and similar image-generation software.

I’m sympathetic to concerns about AI content replacing human-made content. In the past, I used AI images on this blog, just to add some color to my posts. But recently, I’ve been losing interest in those image-generation tools. While my use of them did not displace any work that would have been commissioned to a human artist, I’ve nonetheless found that as AI-generated images have gotten “better,” they’ve lost some of the weirdness they had just a few years ago, and are turning into professional-but-bland tools, better suited for workplace PowerPoint presentations than TTRPG content. There’s much more to say on this topic, but that’s a whole post of its own, for another time.

AI image generation in action. Technically, yes, this delivers on the prompt request of "robot rearranging things in a dungeon room." But everything in it is either sharp-but-derivative (the very generic robot); blurred to the point of abstraction (the figures, the chest (?) on the left); or failing on a basic level to model a coherent 3D space (the archway, the candles, the stairs, the robot's lower body). Image generation like this is not a good replacement for human-made creative work. 

But this skepticism of generative AI as a replacement for creative work shouldn’t blind us to the usefulness of AI as an assistant for routine tasks. AI tools in their current form are best at handling the least-interesting and dullest parts of the process, freeing up creators to focus on the really creative stuff. And one of the places AI can help the most is in session prep.

Next Week: Can AI Turn an Arden Vul Room Key Into Table-Ready Notes?

TTRPGs Can Make Even Tic-Tac-Toe Interesting

I’ve written previously about how puzzles should be incorporated in RPGs and why tension and escalation makes them interesting. Let’s approach it from another angle and see how far a dead-simple system can go in powering a TTRPG scenario. 

Take, for example, tic-tac-toe*. Tic-tac-toe is a game many children learn to play. But they do not play it for long. They learn the rules, optimize their play, reach an equilibrium where no one can win, and then stop playing the game. You would not ask anyone (besides a young child who has not yet learned the rules) to play tic-tac-toe with you. It would not be a fun experience for either player. In a way, tic-tac-toe is like a very simple lesson in how to enjoy games, and by extension, how to design them.

Now think about Hollywood Squares**, the game show that has been on and off television for nearly 60 years (revived once again this year, Wikipedia tells me). It's a quiz show where players win by connecting a line on a three-by-three grid of celebrity panelists. 

Nobody is watching Hollywood Squares for that hot tic-tac-toe action. But everyone watching brings their understanding of tic-tac-toe to the experience. It provides a framework for the real entertainment. Tic-tac-toe is not in itself fun, but the show wouldn’t have lasted as long as it has without the structure tic-tac-toe provides.

Apply this idea to TTRPGs. You could play a “game” where both players roll a d20, and whoever gets the highest result wins, and there are no other mechanics. This would obviously be a boring game. But a lot of action in a TTRPG session basically boils down to “two people roll, and the better result prevails.” It’s interesting because we care about the fictional events the roll is resolving.

So a mechanic can be too flimsy to stand on its own, but can still serve as a tool in a larger game.

Imagine the following scenario (set aside for a moment the artificial premise and how or why this puzzle would exist in-fiction; this is an example only). A room is divided into nine sectors. Two opposing sides are in conflict to control it – say the adventuring party and an antagonistic faction. Creating a tic-tac-toe streak “wins,” allowing one side to prevail over the other. What constitutes marking a square is up to the DM; maybe just physically controlling a space, maybe overcoming an opponent in one-on-one battle, maybe something else. 

The players will quickly recognize that they’re playing tic-tac-toe, but the scenario is obviously more interesting than “regular” tic-tac-toe. For one, as described above, tic-tac-toe is facilitating something larger than itself, rather than carrying the entire weight of being fun through its rules and mechanics alone. And two, the open-ended nature of TTRPGs means that tic-tac-toe is only a loose framework, not a rigid structure. 

Can a marked square be returned to its blank state, or flipped by another team? Can PCs mark more than one square at a time, or otherwise break the turn order? Can they stop the opposition from marking a square? How can their characters’ abilities and equipment and knowledge be adapted to this unexpected scenario? 

Remember that many games and game systems can be combined in unexpected ways to create something that is more than the sum of its parts.

*AKA Noughts and Crosses

**AKA Celebrity Squares

Worldbuilding Implications of the Megadungeon as Literal Underworld

Last Week: Death in Depth Within the Mythic Underworld

Last week we explored how to make the mythic underworld a literal one as well. This adds a risk/reward mechanism without defanging death, and rescuing an ally from death provides a reason to delve deeper into the dungeon than the party otherwise would.

Does this concept mean that the dungeon is loaded with ghosts? Well, yes, but not the undead wraiths and banshees the PCs are accustomed to. The typical shade is an invisible, barely perceptible presence. 

But they can subtly influence the dungeon. A door slams shut when no monsters are nearby? A shade, agitated to a brief moment of corporality. A new torch goes out in a dungeon hall without so much as a gentle breeze? Snuffed by a shade.

But otherwise, shades are unseen and undetectable, even by magic that finds the invisible and the undead. The lost soul the PCs search for is the exception. Because of their personal connection to the dead adventurer, the PCs can spot a soul they know, once they are close.

"But my gear! But my loot!"

What if a PC dies, and the die roll indicates a result deeper than the deepest level of the dungeon? That means, at minimum, that the soul cannot be rescued until the DM decides to expand the dungeon. Indeed, in a meta sense, the deaths of powerful adventurers may be the genesis of many deep layers of megadungeons. Perhaps the newly created levels reflect the soulscape of the doomed PC that was banished there. The DM should create new levels at their leisure, and notify the players when a rescue is possible.

This works best in megadungeons where the dungeon becomes strange and inscrutable in its lower levels. Not just “very old tombs” or “entrance to the underdark” strange. Strange like ancient mythological beliefs that deep caves were literally the access point to the afterlife. The idea that the underworld is a physical space connected to the normal world, where one can go, and – at great risk – attempt to rescue someone is, of course, part of Greek myth, as well as various other mythologies. This idea could work best in a setting that folds the planes into the “real” world, rather than treating them as alternate dimensions or foreign planets, the way some of D&D’s settings have in the past.

Death in Depth Within the Mythic Underworld

One of the signature motifs of the OSR genre is that the dungeon is the mythic underworld. What if it is also the literal underworld?

If a PC dies within the dungeon, their soul is banished to the underworld… which is to say, a deeper part of the dungeon. How deep? Take the character’s current level, round down to the closest standard die size used in the game, and roll that die. That’s how many levels down they go from where they died.

For example, say a fifth-level character dies on the third level of the dungeon. The player rounds down from five to four. They roll a d4 and the result is a 3. The current level plus three means their soul is now trapped on the sixth level of the dungeon.

The soul might descend straight down, or they may be sent to some random part of the new level. The character’s soul cannot do anything about their predicament on their own. They are a shade, lacking the physicality and ego to alter their situation. They will drift endlessly down here… unless their companions decide to come rescue them.

"Babe please come back you were only 30 XP away from leveling up"

Complicating Rescue 

Exploring the dungeon is a dangerous idea. Attempting to save a soul trapped in the dungeon is much riskier. The additional danger can take a few forms.

Bargain

The rescue party has to make a deal with someone to take the rescued soul back up to the surface. The doomed soul is literally bound by high magic (ninth-level equivalent or greater) to the dungeon floor they’re on. But there’s someone on this dungeon level who can make an exception. This might be a literal lord of the afterlife, gatekeeper, or psychopomp. Or it may be some ordinary dungeon faction or monster that has been gifted this authority by the dungeon’s gestalt consciousness. Either way, this is no ordinary jailbreak. The PCs should be expected to do something difficult or give up something precious to bargain for the lost soul. 

Fade

The lost soul is fading. Shades only last so long before their consciousness dilutes into the ambient fabric of the underworld. If you want to rescue them, you’re on the clock. It is at the DM’s discretion how much time the PCs have, but it should be known to them (or discoverable), and the more powerful the lost soul, the shorter the clock. 

Exchange

The soul can be returned to the surface, but another soul must take its place. It must be a willing soul, not some innocent or random dungeon denizen kidnapped from an upper level (or at least, it can’t be without serious consequences for this crime, which is not just an ethical and moral issue, but also a violation of the rules of the afterlife). It must be a member of the party, or someone they care deeply about, and the sacrificed soul can’t later be rescued in turn; they’re gone forever.

Geas

The rescued soul can leave, but only because Death has found a greater purpose for them. Perhaps some far greater transgressor is out there in the world – a lich or another immortal whose soul, so long withheld from the reaper’s rightful grasp, has become a rich prize. The rescued soul is bound to pursue whatever quest Death gives them. As with other consequences, this is high magic, and is (almost) impossible to subvert or cheat.

Next Week: Worldbuilding Implications of the Megadungeon as Literal Underworld

Chromatic Dragon Types as Developmental Stages

We are inspired once again by one of my favorite worldbuilding blog posts. What happens if we discover that the classic colors of the chromatic dragons are not different lineages, but different stages  in the development of all such dragons?

White dragons are wyrmlings. The coloration of their scales is not so much truly “white” as it is a lack of pigmentation. Viewed up close, white dragon scales are almost translucent; although viewing a dragon up close is not advised, even at this young age. Humans refer to the white dragon as “the least intelligent” and “most animalistic,” but it is not because they are some inferior strain of dragonkind; they are simply immature dragons.

In its newborn state, the white dragon is a heat sink, literally absorbing heat from the environment around it. Its frosty cold breath weapon is not so much a matter of inducing cold as it is one of removing heat. A white dragon's tolerance for very cold temperatures is also an evolutionary adaptation that keeps it away from other, older dragons, who favor warmer climes, and might punish a white wyrmling for unwittingly trespassing on their territory.

Black dragons are young dragons. Their wyrmling scales have gradually absorbed enough light from the sun (harvesting that heat) to darken to a steel-gray or purple-black color. They are too big to continue to capture energy passively from the environment around them like wyrmlings, so they begin to take more energy from consuming ever-larger prey. Their breath no longer freezes. Instead, internal apoptosis begins to destroy the organs that drove the dragon’s early growth as a wyrmling, which they no longer need. The remains of these organs are liquified, stored in a special sac, and mixed with bile (plus any indigestible prey remains) to produce the acidic slurry breath of the black dragon stage.

Dracologists are still working to understand the symbiotic dragon-princess relationship (painting by Hans Arnold)

Green and blue dragons are adult dragons. The dull black scales of the young black dragon gradually take on particularly greenish luster, influenced by chlorine production from a new organ within the dragon’s body, nestled between the lungs. Chlorine is one of a number of gasses that the dragon can now expel in place of the acidic breath it left behind with its juvenile state. 

When the gas organ is sufficiently mature, one of the most interesting stages of draconic development begins; the gas “turns itself off.” The dragon instinctively throttles its gas-breathing function, leaving it without its breath weapon for a period of weeks or months (dragons will almost always retreat to hidden lairs during this vulnerable time). The scales, deprived of trace chlorine, transition to a deep sapphire blue. While in hiding, the dragon will seek out a rocky surface incorporating diamond or some similarly hard material, using it to scrape away at a layer of keratin on the roof of its mouth, exposing a conductive spur. It emerges as a blue dragon, breathing bolts of lightning at all who oppose it.

The sequencing of the green and blue phases, and the dragon’s instinct to cease breathing gas, long mystified scholars. But it is now believed to be a very practical adaptation. A dragon both able to breath flammable gas and to provide a spark of ignition risks quite literally igniting its insides and blowing itself up (the chlorine itself isn't flammable, but can enhance the combustibility of the other expelled gasses). By separating the developments into different phases – and repressing the preceding phase during the second phase – the dragon learns to master both effects.

Once the dragon can both breathe gas and ignite it without endangering itself, it can begin its final transformation. This typically involves nesting in a large horde for decades, even centuries. During this time, the dragon undergoes a slow molting process, losing its blue scales, and drawing trace metals from the hoard around it to reinforce its underlying “true” scales, which are a brilliant ruby red. 

The dragon is now an ancient dragon, a red dragon, a true dragon. The dragon is ready to rule. The world is ready to burn.

Unfinished Business: Complicating Resources Like a Scene in a Film

Many games give players “resources” as an extension of character creation or advancement. Some of those resources are people. Family members, former colleagues, friends, and so forth.

It can be difficult to introduce these resources into the game in an evocative, dramatic, interactive way, because everyone knows that the resources are character features, and ludologically, not so different from a piece of equipment or a special ability.

How can we make these resources feel more like tangible elements of the fictional world? One way is to steal a trick from films. 

Imagine this scene in a movie; you’ve almost certainly seen it before. A character needs something to achieve their goals. Information, access, tools, whatever. They know someone who can help, but because of something that happened in their shared past, they are reluctant to reach out, and know this person will not be happy to see them.

Trainspotting 2

Why? 

The second-person subject in each result below refers to the PC in question, while the third-person object refers to the resource.

1. Unpaid debts. You owed money or wealth of some kind. They may want compensation with interest; or may have decided that money alone isn’t going to be enough to make things right.
2. You ended on bad terms. You argued, litigated, fought, or worse. Time has not healed any wounds, and they are ready to pick up the struggle where it left off.
3. Your connection was more than professional. Bodies or feelings were in play, and they were either left hanging, or punished after you left. Their reaction to you will be complicated and extreme, and they will be very interested in what personal relationships you’ve made since.
4. Respect has faded. They looked up to you, admired you, or perhaps saw you as the only "real" one. The circumstances of your departure or your long time away have dimmed that esteem. They don’t believe you still have whatever made you stand out back then. They will want you to prove it before they help you.
5. Competing obligations. Since you last met, they’ve started a family, committed themselves to a cause, or otherwise entangled themselves in obligations that rival or overshadow whatever loyalty they once had to you.
6. You’ve changed. They are disturbed by, curious about, or obsessed with how different you are since the last time they saw you. They’re going to have a lot of questions about what has happened to you and what you’ve done, and won’t take kindly to disambiguation. 
7. Old rivals. Whether you were sparring in the dojo or performing on stage, you were their only real competition. They still think they’re better than you, and want to prove it before they offer any help.
8. Left behind. You escaped. They didn’t. Maybe you thought they were as good as dead, or maybe you were just looking out for number one. They’re going to expect you to answer for leaving without them before they lift a finger.

As with any game element, these should not be punitive; if the resource is something the character earned through advancement or by virtue of their class, playbook, whatever – they need to have it. But these kinds of ideas can be useful when a mixed success or an emergent complication suggests the game needs some friction.