Games of dungeons and dragons are fairly common at our place. If it’s not one system it’s through another. Every Saturday we host an Iron Kingdoms game that’s fairly serious. If players can’t make it it means the entire group doesn’t get to play that week. To get around this issue I have started running a drop in and pick up Pathfinder game called the Clockwork Castle.
Deep in the rural breadbasket of the nation where nothing ever changes and no one ever thinks about it, lies the sleepy town of Podunk. A month ago Podunk was jolted awake by the shaking of the earth and a metallic screeching as 2 miles outside of the town a clockwork castle clawed its way up to the surface. Sitting at a jaunty angle the spider legs of the castle dug a small moat around it before retracting back inside the castle. When the doors first opened treasure spilled out into the moat, paintings, statues in gold and silver, coins and jewels fill the moat. Then came the man with the top hat and mask. He waits ever patiently to usher in treasure hunters, glory hounds, and the dangerously curious into the clockwork maw of the castle.
Building a Clockwork Castle
Most of the clockwork castle is made up on the fly using random generation for different room types. I also have a chart I roll for the type of activity in the room: traps, combat, event, boss, and a few other options. Every door has a chance to come with a warning, graffiti, lies or nothing in every easily attainable language in the game. We go with verbal combat rather than tactical in this campaign to lessen the load on me and remove the need for detailed maps.
Ever since the concussion that rapidly changed my life about 6 years ago I haven’t been able to play much less run a campaign for tabletop games. They just take too much energy over too long a time period. However with some marked improvements in my health and campaign management software like combat manager I’ve been able to gently dip my toe back in.
In the future I’ll be able to share unique items and monsters created for the campaign once the players have faced them. I’ll also throw in any of the wacky hijinks the players get up because if there is one thing Player Characters are good at it’s sowing interesting chaos.