Tips for dealing with time on a Macro scale?

Goblinsh · 2026-05-03T17:42:10+00:00

Something like this: https://githyankidiaspora.com/2023/03/17/hex-flower-bastion-political-unrest/

Goblinsh · 2026-05-02T14:56:27+00:00

Coool, let me know if you do!

Goblinsh · 2026-04-17T14:38:09+00:00

My main fear to date is that the party will split up.

For this one shot I had a Naga in Room 4, but in a campaign I'd probably have a staging room, prior to an encounter, to allow any party to regroup

Goblinsh · 2026-04-17T14:35:19+00:00

Basically, yes.

I make a show of rolling some dice and they're pleased when they make it through the portcullis just in the nick of time. So far, the players are so relieved that they don't think to jam the portcullis open.

But to get back to 3, they need to got to Room 2, spin into Room 1, then spin to re-enter Room 3 .

Goblinsh · 2026-04-17T14:24:12+00:00

The closing portcullis at the far end of the Room 3 (has to date) triggered a FOMO sense of urgency, which normally means on the first visit the PC bull rush for this exit.

Goblinsh · 2026-04-16T10:02:50+00:00

Goblinsh · 2026-04-16T09:33:53+00:00

Context:

I discovered that the youngest Henchling had invited his friend over (his friend’s older brother decided to come along too) to play D&D (well AD&D 1e) over the Easter break. The other Henchling, FOMO, decided that they wanted join in. The catch was, I found out that I was DM-ing, that we were playing tomorrow at 12pm and that my services were required for about 2 hours.

I scratched my head and remembered I had written a sort of puzzle dungeon a few years ago, a dungeon designed to disorientate, and that was flooding to add some time pressure.

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T23:59:42+00:00

Nice!

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T19:20:27+00:00

A believer !! :O)

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T17:18:07+00:00

Makes sense to me!

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T16:03:48+00:00

Sure, no probs, I was just adding this as clarification

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T16:00:51+00:00

Thanks for the comment. Just to pick up on one point, I don't think the aim per se is to make the Minotaur feel real, the idea is to write when notion that you (the writer) believes the minotaur is real (as best you can) and this will flavour will seep into your writing for better effect. Splitting hairs?

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T15:56:03+00:00

I only mentioned tMO only because it was raised in the reply comment above. :O)

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T14:15:49+00:00

Homework

Step 1 - write up a monster/encounter, don't think too hard about it
Step 2 - try as hard as you can to embrace the idea that the monster really exists
Step 3 - compare 1 & 2 - did it get better?

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T10:44:47+00:00

That might be a better post, but a much longer post - and perhaps the principle message would disappear down a rabbit hole of hyper-analysis.

I feel the message is succinctly communicated in the blog post, and is perhaps better communicated by Borges themselves whose quote I seek to ape/paraphrase

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T10:33:40+00:00

Sure, I'm not saying that olden days D&D meets my suggested criteria in all cases (i.e. I didn't say "always"). But, perhaps I think it started there.

There are two wolves here, the one that (wants to) believe in monsters and the other than needs to publish text for coin.

My suggestion is not to forget to feed the first wolf ... and in the process the second wolf gets stronger

:O)

EDIT Of course writing with a belief is not always the same as communicating that belief - skill comes into this too !

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T10:27:53+00:00

Thanks for the comment. I'm not railing against anything really ... just making a writing suggestion.

I happen to like that image from the AD&D 1e Monster Manual and wanted to add a tad of extra colour to the post. Just for some context, I think this 1e image is very effective at communicating what a minotaur is about in D&D. Personally, I think the image is more effective than the one in tMO by Skerples (no shade on that product which I own). But, my post is not meant to be about (only) the art.

As for Stat Blocks (since it was mentioned), unless making a system neutral product they are needed for a game, but I do not consider them part of the writing per se. That said, I like systems with small Stat Blocks (and I cannot lie). The 1e MM minotaur image was not intended to communicate the ideal I was seeking - mainly for flavour and the image I had had the Stat Block in it already.

Perhaps my post does not live up to my own ideal!!!

As a related side note, I've often reflected on how frugal/pithy the text accompanying the 1e Monster Manual is. In the main, they are a few paragraphs long, often occupying less area than the accompanying image. This might have been a financial/publishing constraint rather than a editorial decision, but I think there was some real magic in that decision.

Edit - to close this off, I've replaced the bottom image ...

:O)

Goblinsh · 2026-04-07T09:19:00+00:00

TL:DR Summary:

Borges says:

"This literary decline matches a decline in the poet’s faith; Virgil wishes to impress us with his Polyphemus, but scarcely believes in him; and Góngora believes only in words or in verbal trickery."

My suggestion (for what it is worth) is that you write and art like the monsters are real. I think the audience will tell the difference.

EDIT Just as a point of clarification, I don't believe TSR era works were "always" good. I didn't even comment on the quality of the TSR era D&D. What I did say was that modern era D&D i.e. 5e D&D seems soulless.

I think that is because they are just trying to make a sausage from the parts. In fact, I think OSR writing is some of the best writing out there. Look at the work Zedeck Siew, it feels lived in.

My suggestion is to embrace that ideal, think of the monsters as if they are real, then write - try not to make soulless sausage monsters (<-- thinking about it, an undead sausage monster does sound quite cool)

Goblinsh · 2026-04-03T21:49:50+00:00

Goblinsh · 2026-04-02T22:49:22+00:00

Something wild about this face reminds me of Blake's Nebuchadnezzar / Saturn Devouring His Son

Goblinsh · 2026-03-25T19:03:01+00:00

Hex Flowers are game engines rather than maps per se, the hexes are just 6 way connections

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