I use it literally every day running games for my students in our middle school library. The random tables for character creation are awesome, but the random loot, gear, and spell generator charts are daily go-tos. System-wise, though, I run Deathbringer. 😎🤓❤️
At this point, the "best" TTRPG system is a kit-bash of all the best ideas and mechanics from multiple systems. Rules like Cairn, Maze Rats, EZD6, ICRPG, etc. have great ideas and have moved more towards "boardgame-like" rules which favor faster play, instead of the rules-heavy approach D&D has taken.
Maze Rats and Cairn (as well as Knave) are the games that changed my way of making adventures, especially one shots, for my players. What treasures are those games!
Maze Rats' random tables are good. If you want something more robust, check out those in Worlds Without Number or, for those who want to drown in tables, Matt Finch's Tome of Adventure Design.
Kevin Crawford of WWN and SWN loves this kind of table. But placed along with pages of suberbly written English. Not a tables pamphlet that's for sure. He's a big believer in sandbox, so this is kind of necessary perahps. All I can think of when going through his stuff is that it would be fun for the DM to create a whole sector/world this way. i.e. without knowing what/who are there--not necessarily having any idea for setting until afterward ["glue not provided"] Much of what Baron describes here can be dropped into WWN, SWN, GB, WoG etc from Kevin. I don't have the TomeOfAD. I probably need to address that at some point.
The Prophet moved forward and spoke up: "I read Cairn the forbidden Book, and I saw a huge potential! And with the Baron's advices I saw the doom of the WIzards from the Coast and their Pathfinders! No need to buy expensive Tomes. With cheap but high quality material, I saw years of adventuring for all of us! " 🙂
I like the idea of providing dungeon loot that has no description, it is just what it is and the players need to use their ingenuity to use it. Find a ladder? It might be useful to carry or put in a location you’ll remember if you need to get somewhere, or it might be a clue that there’s a hidden trapdoor somewhere. Check under the rugs! Compasses, mirrors, flasks of alcohol, bags of ball bearings, my players use them in a variety of ways if the dungeon is sufficiently dangerous enough to reward methodical dungeon crawling. That’s the real skill-how to make a dungeon crawl not feel like it slows the game to a crawl!
Very nice system Baron! I've been doing something similar to this but using other books, already mentioned in previous comments, paired with my own custom tables more fitting to my ODDventures I run. I can see some complimentary mechanics I'm excited to try out!
This one is called Cairn though so don't forget to include a ton of burial mounds! 😜 J/k Having a dragon is great advice! Who doesnt want to fight a dragon! A young wyrmling is a great alternative if the parties level isn't high enough for a full dragon! 😀
I can do it in 10 or less. First give me a map, my empty chessex map. The characters take a portal to another world. I start grabbing miniatures, based on the ecology. Once characters achieve the heroic goals, they have to return thru the portal back to the ordinary world. That is authentic hero's journey adventuring in actually less than 5 min. D&D is easy and for everyone!
Hahaha **insert lord flashhart bravado** I just steal my favorite maps, enemies, and plot points from my favorite obscure video games. My players have never caught on. 😁
Hmmmm 7 hexes you say, like 1 a day for part of the Dugeon#23 challenge, yes I think I shall :) - roll it up spend 5 mins thinking about bit more detail, maybe a short paragraph, an encounter of some sort as well, deffo good for my 10-15mins a day limit :)
My personal best is 14 sessions in 14 days. I was getting paid for half of them. My secret was that I read adnd adventures for leisure so I always had new encounters. I make silly npcs with exaggerated caricatures and big combat encounters with story, magic items etc to pad time. My Saturday weekly game was Mongoose Traveller. Definitely much harder to prep for than the dnd games.
@@florentdemeyere4779 the fancier ones can be trained with specific input images. So when you ask for an output it flavors them all the same. Also, it isn't like he put up the first one it spit out, you go through and curate what is good and bad and keep training the model.
Great video! Your excitement is contagious in this one and the one on Shadowdark. If comparing the two, What do you see as the main feature(s) that set the two apart? If you wanted something simple to run for a few people completely new to the hobby, which would you pick, or would it be something else? And as a side note, how long will it be before you are down to a 3-hex bud grid? XD
It depends on how lightweight you want to go. Shadowdark has a bit more meat on its bones, but the sheer depth of world building tools you get with knave is amazing. That said, the random encounters in shadowdark have a lot of built in lore and cognitive load already handled for you. So, they both kind of have their pros and cons. I personally prefer to play with shadowdark but world build with knave, but that's just barely a preference. I'd be happy to play with either. Shadowdark will just feel more familiar to the DND 5e crowd.
Hi I wanna play dnd I've been wanting to for a while now and I saw bobs video on this free dnd like game and it sounds like a lot of fun. I've never played dnd at all but I've played elders scrolls and fable on Xbox and I've played war hammer with my brothers. So I'm familiar with table top and fantasy games
I really love the idea of smaller map. But I am confused on how the players navigate the small map. What happens when they want to go outside the border? Do they end up on the opposite side? I would really like to know, please 🙂
That "ending up on the other side" bit might be a cool idea for a cursed region that you "can't escape from", ala the Lost Woods from _The Legend of Zelda_ series. Hey, thanks for the accidental cool idea! :D
Eeeeee. I still prefer more complicated systems. Idk these don't seem bad, don't get me wrong, they are great but I like to spice it up and combine it. You'll definitely not be able to do something like this in Deathwatch, but this is also very neat.
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While this is nice for homebrew, how about for pre-written campaigns/one shots? And especially for games like Call of Cthulhu who can't rely on easy solutions like "some goblins jump out to attack you" ? while CoC Scenarios are generally well written the sheer amount of information such investigative scenarios have can be a prep nightmare. For now I have ridden the storm by only using the book since the writers aren't as bad as wotc at laying out usefull information but for large campaigns how could you deal with prepping an investigative game ? D&D is dirt easy to prep for compared to some hefty CoC Campaigns. Good thing they are written better than most D&D campaigns
I wouldn't use it as the game engine for a PbtA Cthulhu game (Mythos World for that), but Tremulus has a low/no Mythos adventure prep engine in that can port over to other systems.
I enjoyed the video but I was expecting some interesting techniques for making my GM life easier and not so much a product endorsement. The title of the video should have been more transparent by calling it "Using Maze Rats to prep your session in 15 minutes". I would have watched that anyway.
Thank you for showing how to build a play! I work at a library I been trying to figure out what campaign to run for a group of teenagers who never played a game and I'm not sure how many are going to join and I'm sure it about 10 players for a game. Was going to use the essential kit but I am certain that not all will make it as well as they may be new players down the line I felt I wouldn't be able to integrate new players down the line. I'm planning to make sure that each session is a one shot and play who stick around keep the character and a main story for the whole summer campaign. But want to be able to a new players easily. I think they this game might be it! I might make it a bit less death for the parents sack just (question can you play with out players deaths? I think if character goes that far I would just have them be sent away and the player has to make a new character)but I think this works! Thank you!
'How I prepared and ran 7 sessions in 3 days!' Cut to Baron de Ropp sitting in his usual position with his usual demeanour however his appearance is dishevelled and he looks exhausted. "Crystal meth!" End video. (would have been pretty funny imo)
Awesome idea. I have lab to combine the knave tables with shadowdark mechanics. I now have hope to make and run daughters birthday adventure with 8people Can’t wait for knave 2.0
Glad Cairn is getting some love! Recently ran Tower of the Stargazer using Cairn for a couple of friends. The system is so easy and intuitive. I've seen Worlds without Number, The Tome of Adventure Design, and Maze Rats mentioned for prep books, another I like is The Perilous Wilds.
Seriously, Maze Rats is indispensable, both during prep and during gameplay. During last week's game, I found myself needing to come up with an NPC's dream (one of my players can invade dreams) and rolled up enough details to get me going within like 30 seconds at the table.
Great video, thank you! You really got my adventure gears turning. I am looking to try and trim and overlay images over a hex rosette like you have done. What program or tool are you using for that bit of image manipulation if you don't mind me asking? Cheers
I’ve been watching a lot of other DMs taking in advice wherever I can to improve my own abilities and something I have learned is that they draw a lot from other systems. It may be a D&D 5E game, but it will include some rules and concepts from other games that really enhance the overall experience. Thank’s for the tips.
So I doubt this will be seen but I was wondering. Baron, what is your opinion on using AI image's for your D&D games given the questionable ethics involved in a lot of their training? I know I am of two minds on it personally (I love the freedom to make a referance for locations or characters but detest the skeezy way they gather the information allowing me to do so.) But I would love to hear your opinion! I am only asking because I am assuming that many if not all of the art pieces you showed were made using some AI model. (Though I could be wrong!) Regardless Thanks for the awesome video and pointing me in the direction of another great resource!
If you don't want to use AI imagery then google real art publicly shared art. If you don't make money off it, it's fair use. Or commission real artists if you can afford it 🤷
It's so awesome to me that people are still using Maze Rats. Thanks Baron!
I also use the Maze Rats tables, very useful inspiration driver.
Purchased
I use it literally every day running games for my students in our middle school library. The random tables for character creation are awesome, but the random loot, gear, and spell generator charts are daily go-tos. System-wise, though, I run Deathbringer. 😎🤓❤️
@@hondawilky I feel like Maze Rats just pairs well with whatever game you happen to be running at the time. It's the perfect companion book.
i still use its spell generator
At this point, the "best" TTRPG system is a kit-bash of all the best ideas and mechanics from multiple systems. Rules like Cairn, Maze Rats, EZD6, ICRPG, etc. have great ideas and have moved more towards "boardgame-like" rules which favor faster play, instead of the rules-heavy approach D&D has taken.
Dont forget Into the Odd! 🙌
Grottos & goblins…bet we could turn that into a real game!
Maze Rats and Cairn (as well as Knave) are the games that changed my way of making adventures, especially one shots, for my players. What treasures are those games!
The baron is back to the court!
He back.
He's back to the court
And boy, does he play a mean tennis game
This is freaking GOLD for a GM. Please keep putting up more stuff like this.
Maze Rats' random tables are good. If you want something more robust, check out those in Worlds Without Number or, for those who want to drown in tables, Matt Finch's Tome of Adventure Design.
Kevin Crawford of WWN and SWN loves this kind of table.
But placed along with pages of suberbly written English. Not a tables pamphlet that's for sure. He's a big believer in sandbox, so this is kind of necessary perahps.
All I can think of when going through his stuff is that it would be fun for the DM to create a whole sector/world this way. i.e. without knowing what/who are there--not necessarily having any idea for setting until afterward ["glue not provided"]
Much of what Baron describes here can be dropped into WWN, SWN, GB, WoG etc from Kevin.
I don't have the TomeOfAD. I probably need to address that at some point.
WOW!!!!! this was genius. i've been using random tables for coming up with encounters, but not for entire one shots. thank you so much!
Oh, I'm so glad you're back! Just the other day, I noticed that you hadn't posted anything in ages!
Maze Rats really is just an immensely valuable toolset! Thanks for showing such a clear example of how to put it to work!
Your videos are like my cheat sheet for my games.
In Argentina we would say that you ran that many sessions because you are a manija. And that is amazing. Great content
All hail the Baron and Harold, his legendary Rhinospider!
Seriously he JUST invented it and it's gonna live in my nightmares FOREVER now, haha
The Prophet moved forward and spoke up:
"I read Cairn the forbidden Book, and I saw a huge potential! And with the Baron's advices I saw the doom of the WIzards from the Coast and their Pathfinders! No need to buy expensive Tomes. With cheap but high quality material, I saw years of adventuring for all of us! " 🙂
I'm really loving these AI visuals, especially the one with the elephant spider monster.
Baron de Ropp's "Cult of the Rhinachnid!"
Frankensteining monster stats together is always the best
Yo, he's back!
That's not a hexcrawl, it's a pointcrawl.
your illustrating images are getting more and more amazing. How are you making them?
I too would like to know the artist.
AI
I like the idea of providing dungeon loot that has no description, it is just what it is and the players need to use their ingenuity to use it. Find a ladder? It might be useful to carry or put in a location you’ll remember if you need to get somewhere, or it might be a clue that there’s a hidden trapdoor somewhere. Check under the rugs! Compasses, mirrors, flasks of alcohol, bags of ball bearings, my players use them in a variety of ways if the dungeon is sufficiently dangerous enough to reward methodical dungeon crawling. That’s the real skill-how to make a dungeon crawl not feel like it slows the game to a crawl!
CAIRN!
Great video! Love Maze Rats. Not sure why 6 mile hexes are “gimmicky”, though.
Great video Baron, where did you get the artwork for the hex rosette?
Looks like it's ai generated
AI
Very nice system Baron! I've been doing something similar to this but using other books, already mentioned in previous comments, paired with my own custom tables more fitting to my ODDventures I run. I can see some complimentary mechanics I'm excited to try out!
Nice video! Will we see a game of Cairn?
Great video, however you did not link the dnd-prep cheat sheet in the description 😢
Goblins & Grottoes lol
Love the Bully reference
Awesome!
the cameos were pleasant surprises 😂
I will use this smaller set of prep for my next session! It's so easy!
This one is called Cairn though so don't forget to include a ton of burial mounds! 😜
J/k Having a dragon is great advice! Who doesnt want to fight a dragon! A young wyrmling is a great alternative if the parties level isn't high enough for a full dragon! 😀
What do you use for your art?
I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!! Thank you!
I can do it in 10 or less. First give me a map, my empty chessex map. The characters take a portal to another world. I start grabbing miniatures, based on the ecology. Once characters achieve the heroic goals, they have to return thru the portal back to the ordinary world. That is authentic hero's journey adventuring in actually less than 5 min. D&D is easy and for everyone!
Very wholesome and useful video!
Love your videos Baron!
P.S., how does 41 get Pit at 2:42?
P.S.S., why is the cover of Cairn gesturing with a middle finger? lol!
Hahaha **insert lord flashhart bravado** I just steal my favorite maps, enemies, and plot points from my favorite obscure video games. My players have never caught on. 😁
Hmmmm 7 hexes you say, like 1 a day for part of the Dugeon#23 challenge, yes I think I shall :) - roll it up spend 5 mins thinking about bit more detail, maybe a short paragraph, an encounter of some sort as well, deffo good for my 10-15mins a day limit :)
My personal best is 14 sessions in 14 days. I was getting paid for half of them.
My secret was that I read adnd adventures for leisure so I always had new encounters. I make silly npcs with exaggerated caricatures and big combat encounters with story, magic items etc to pad time.
My Saturday weekly game was Mongoose Traveller. Definitely much harder to prep for than the dnd games.
Oh yeah, Maze Rats. 😄
I would totally play g&g!
Where do you illustration come from? They're super pretty and all seem to come from the same pen.
AI my dude. It's literally everywhere.
@@tagg1080 how does AI know to use the "same" style?
@@florentdemeyere4779 the fancier ones can be trained with specific input images. So when you ask for an output it flavors them all the same. Also, it isn't like he put up the first one it spit out, you go through and curate what is good and bad and keep training the model.
You can specify any style in AI image generators.
Long time no see!
This intro seems... very very very familiar.
I love all of this!
isnt grottos and goblin the dnd game in Bully? lol
Great video! Your excitement is contagious in this one and the one on Shadowdark. If comparing the two, What do you see as the main feature(s) that set the two apart? If you wanted something simple to run for a few people completely new to the hobby, which would you pick, or would it be something else? And as a side note, how long will it be before you are down to a 3-hex bud grid? XD
It depends on how lightweight you want to go. Shadowdark has a bit more meat on its bones, but the sheer depth of world building tools you get with knave is amazing. That said, the random encounters in shadowdark have a lot of built in lore and cognitive load already handled for you. So, they both kind of have their pros and cons. I personally prefer to play with shadowdark but world build with knave, but that's just barely a preference. I'd be happy to play with either. Shadowdark will just feel more familiar to the DND 5e crowd.
Oh, and a hex bud is too small, having only two choices of direction doesn't make for very interesting adventure design.
Can I ask where the art is from? Thanks.
AI
The Cairn link is missing :(
Esteemed Baron, where do you get all that cool art from? (I couldn't find credits or references)
AI
Hi I wanna play dnd I've been wanting to for a while now and I saw bobs video on this free dnd like game and it sounds like a lot of fun. I've never played dnd at all but I've played elders scrolls and
fable on Xbox and I've played war hammer with my brothers. So I'm familiar with table top and fantasy games
Where do you find all the artwork added into your videos? The style is perfect, very inspiring!
AI
I really love the idea of smaller map. But I am confused on how the players navigate the small map. What happens when they want to go outside the border? Do they end up on the opposite side? I would really like to know, please 🙂
That "ending up on the other side" bit might be a cool idea for a cursed region that you "can't escape from", ala the Lost Woods from _The Legend of Zelda_ series. Hey, thanks for the accidental cool idea! :D
How do you create your art? I love the style!
AI
Are there resources of similar quality for other genres, like supers, or cyberpunk?
Where can I get a printout of the hex rosette?
Eeeeee. I still prefer more complicated systems. Idk these don't seem bad, don't get me wrong, they are great but I like to spice it up and combine it. You'll definitely not be able to do something like this in Deathwatch, but this is also very neat.
Please support Dungeon Craft/Professor DM's RPG Independence Month this July! Rebel against corporate bullying with a month free from the tyranny of Hasbro! Stand up for a Gaming Nation free from Intimidation! #pinkertonfreerpg
Caffeine!
While this is nice for homebrew, how about for pre-written campaigns/one shots? And especially for games like Call of Cthulhu who can't rely on easy solutions like "some goblins jump out to attack you" ? while CoC Scenarios are generally well written the sheer amount of information such investigative scenarios have can be a prep nightmare. For now I have ridden the storm by only using the book since the writers aren't as bad as wotc at laying out usefull information but for large campaigns how could you deal with prepping an investigative game ? D&D is dirt easy to prep for compared to some hefty CoC Campaigns. Good thing they are written better than most D&D campaigns
I wouldn't use it as the game engine for a PbtA Cthulhu game (Mythos World for that), but Tremulus has a low/no Mythos adventure prep engine in that can port over to other systems.
Why do people prepare more than one session
I enjoyed the video but I was expecting some interesting techniques for making my GM life easier and not so much a product endorsement. The title of the video should have been more transparent by calling it "Using Maze Rats to prep your session in 15 minutes". I would have watched that anyway.
Maze Rats is free as far as I know. Or use other freely available random generators. Maze Rats is just an example...
hmmm ... I might need to rename my game to Back Alleys and Cut-Throats.
Thanks again for the awesome session, Baron!
SEVEN SESSIONS?! If the 'secret tool' isn't cocaine or slave labor, I really don't know what is
an affordable option would be coffee and or GPT-chat.
Couldn’t afford cocaine or slave labor, but I did find Xanax and my little cousin.
@@chazzitz-wh4ly"YOU'LL GET YOUR CANDYS WHEN YOU'RE DONE MAPPING THE MINE ENCOUNTERS, BILLY!"
The secret formula is espresso + fear of failure. 😉
@@chazzitz-wh4ly I'm worried... Did you take the xanax and let your cousin write or....
Cairn is such an amazing system. Expansions such as Block, Dodge, Parry really scratched any further mechanical itch I had.
Question: Are these videos sped up in post-production? Talking speed is too fast for learning, imo
Thank you for showing how to build a play! I work at a library I been trying to figure out what campaign to run for a group of teenagers who never played a game and I'm not sure how many are going to join and I'm sure it about 10 players for a game. Was going to use the essential kit but I am certain that not all will make it as well as they may be new players down the line I felt I wouldn't be able to integrate new players down the line. I'm planning to make sure that each session is a one shot and play who stick around keep the character and a main story for the whole summer campaign. But want to be able to a new players easily. I think they this game might be it! I might make it a bit less death for the parents sack just (question can you play with out players deaths? I think if character goes that far I would just have them be sent away and the player has to make a new character)but I think this works! Thank you!
Look into West Marches style of campaign. Exactly what you are looking for.
7 sessions in 3 days!? I am hyped!
But Bob said to watch this one after His video!
Question: could this process also work for a full-scale Hex-Crawl? If not, how could it be adapted?
Of course.
consider me influenced, I just hit purchase
Another golden nugget, I soon will have quite the hoard.
Or even a hoard !
Either way, big bunch.
@@AyarARJ You didn't have to do me like that man.
Cha'alt & Crimson Dragon Slayer D20, hoss!
I hesitated to click this video because I thought you were an interview job preparator. Then I noticed the books. Sorry for that.
'How I prepared and ran 7 sessions in 3 days!'
Cut to Baron de Ropp sitting in his usual position with his usual demeanour however his appearance is dishevelled and he looks exhausted.
"Crystal meth!"
End video.
(would have been pretty funny imo)
A stealth review of maze rats 😊
Awesome idea. I have lab to combine the knave tables with shadowdark mechanics. I now have hope to make and run daughters birthday adventure with 8people
Can’t wait for knave 2.0
TEN PLAYERS?! bruh you effed up from step 0
I so very much want to try this method of one-shot creation, like now! Thank you for the clear and detailed explanation of the procedure!
Glad Cairn is getting some love! Recently ran Tower of the Stargazer using Cairn for a couple of friends. The system is so easy and intuitive.
I've seen Worlds without Number, The Tome of Adventure Design, and Maze Rats mentioned for prep books, another I like is The Perilous Wilds.
Seriously, Maze Rats is indispensable, both during prep and during gameplay. During last week's game, I found myself needing to come up with an NPC's dream (one of my players can invade dreams) and rolled up enough details to get me going within like 30 seconds at the table.
Thank you! I look forward to trying this out!
Where did you source your art for this video? They are such great pieces!
I am 99% they are all AI generated :(
AI
HEEE'S ALIVE!!!
Great video, thank you! You really got my adventure gears turning.
I am looking to try and trim and overlay images over a hex rosette like you have done.
What program or tool are you using for that bit of image manipulation if you don't mind me asking?
Cheers
Photoshop.
Do you mind if I ask where you got all those images for the hex rosette? Is it on someone's Patreon page? They are amazing and inspiring.
AI
Can you post links to all of those amazing pictures you used in the video?
AI
Thanks Ben
Excellent art!
I’ve been watching a lot of other DMs taking in advice wherever I can to improve my own abilities and something I have learned is that they draw a lot from other systems. It may be a D&D 5E game, but it will include some rules and concepts from other games that really enhance the overall experience.
Thank’s for the tips.
Man I was just looking for a good Hex crawl random table.
+1 Internet points for "Grottos and Goblins!"
I will need to check this one out
So I doubt this will be seen but I was wondering. Baron, what is your opinion on using AI image's for your D&D games given the questionable ethics involved in a lot of their training? I know I am of two minds on it personally (I love the freedom to make a referance for locations or characters but detest the skeezy way they gather the information allowing me to do so.) But I would love to hear your opinion!
I am only asking because I am assuming that many if not all of the art pieces you showed were made using some AI model. (Though I could be wrong!) Regardless Thanks for the awesome video and pointing me in the direction of another great resource!
If you don't want to use AI imagery then google real art publicly shared art. If you don't make money off it, it's fair use. Or commission real artists if you can afford it 🤷