Crow’s Corner

I made a thing! Writing "These Blooming Delights"

A friend of mine (link to her blog) recently invited me to contribute to the zine HELLO//GOODBYE, where each entry is inspired by one of her collages.

Flowers 3

The art I used: Flowers 3 by Fionnuala Fisk

I’ve been running games for six years now — mostly prewritten modules and one-shots. But as they say, if you want to write, you need to read. I've been reading about game design for a while now and I've read dozens of rpg books and adventures. I felt ready to make the leap from reading to writing.

Some daydreaming later, I had the idea formed in my head. A dungeon crawl, in a cave full of wildflowers. Forbidden lovers, corrupted by eldritch horrors. Some (adapted) Shakespeare quotes sprinkled in. NPCs, monsters, traps, secret corridors, a map. (You might not want to look too closely at the following map, if you plan on playing in this!)

map

Draft of the map I designed

The following sections delve a little deeper how the game was created and playtested. At the end there are also tips and some extra information on running "These Blooming Delights".

Picking a system

I had planned to create versions for both Mörk Borg and Pathfinder Second Edition, but I didn’t have time to sort out the Pathfinder licensing before print. So for now, it’s Mörk Borg only — though I’ve already finished the Pathfinder stat blocks and traps.

Playtesting and differences between Mörk Borg and Pathfinder games

When I did my own (Mörk Borg) playtest, we were finished in only an hour and a half (around 7 rooms explored), but feedback was very positive. I rearranged some monsters and made some changes to facilitate better pacing. The second playtest was done by a dear friend of mine - played in Pathfinder - and wasn't able to finish in 3 hours (around 3 rooms explored). It really highlighted the contrast between Mörk Borg’s fast and lethal combat and Pathfinder’s more tactical, mechanics-heavy approach. What the different playtests also showed, was how changing the ruleset dramatically changed player expectations. Character deaths were expected in Mörk Borg and it helped embrace the horror vibe I was aiming for; while the Pathfinder players almost balked at the idea of a combat stacked against them (although not unwinnable), especially should they not have found the items that could have helped them immensely.

Getting feedback from readers

I also gave the one-shot to other GMs to read, with a questionnaire in two parts afterwards. The first part of the questionnaire was general feedback with questions like...

The second part was questions about the content, like

It was not my intention to test the reader's reading comprehension, but to see if there are details that are often overlooked. These answers were especially helpful, since it gave me a lot of insight how much is really clear to the reader and I was able to highlight the details that were especially important to me.

Designing the layout

I designed the layout with the free and open-source software called "Scribus". It's a bit of a learning curve, but using open-source software usually makes your life a lot easier regarding licenses. For the fonts I used Google Fonts. I took a look at lots of different Mörk Borg resources to get a feel for the layout used in those (and listed my main influences below).

Final thoughts

All in all, this took me about a month from start to finish and I had a blast doing it. This will (hopefully) not be the last you see of me.

Creative Influences

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder

Tips to run "These Blooming Delights"

This section is intended for GMs of "These Blooming Delights", players, avert your eyes!

You need the adventure to run this, which can be purchased within the zine it was originally published in here or my itch page here.

These are the details that I wove into my game, that did not make it into the pdf due to space restrictions; as well as some explanations behind some of the design decisions.

A note on the NPCs. Apart from the son, the NPCs are written largely gender neutral on purpose. Insert any kind of NPC you like. Please don't make any of the lost lovers the stereotypical damsel in distress.

A note on the lore. The Druid and the Mage were lovers and secretly met in this cave, even made it their home. What they didn't know, was that ancient eldritch magic seeped into the cave from below, slowly corrupting them. Paranoia grew, imagined slights drove them apart, their love withered. Their hatred now fuels the eldritch magic below. The Druid sends their birds to defend the sunlight and kill anything that seems threatening (which is everything, in their eyes), while the Mage controls the roots inside the cave to kill anything that lives. They plan to sacrifice anyone they find to the Eldritch well or add their misery to the Grasping Grief.

A note on the riddle. The riddle can be found in the Library and (potentially) reveals two facts about this adventure.

1 Nesting Site. Make the birds caw secrets from the beginning. Let them not only reveal the PC's secrets, but some random other ones too. Let them caw the quotes sprinkled in the text. Tell them they hear noises from the way to the left and have a feeling of serenity on the right.

These blooming delights

Have blooming ends

And in their triumph die

With thorn and thunder

2 Library. You kinda want the players to find this riddle, so softly steer them there by mentioning the way there. If they don't go there, it's on them, though.

3 Storage. Some of the combat here is optional, depending how long you want the adventure to run. The birds are fighting the roots already, so the PCs can theoretically just watch them fight it out. The giant stinking flower is the mawthorn - the PCs need to navigate that and the fighting creatures to rescue one of the lost lovers (Dirge); but if you allow it, this could be an evasion challenge. After being rescued, Dirge could accompany them or wait outside the cave, depending on party preference.

4 Hallways. The combat with the Grasping Grief is also largely optional. It's pretty cool, though. You might want to give the party incentive to visit the Druid's Grove before pressing on to the Mage's Sanctum. But again, if they don't go there, it's on them.

5 Druid's Grove. If the PCs have read the riddle in the Library, they might deduce, that they need the bottled sunlight. The druid is lost in paranoia but might be convinced with some good persuasion. Make it as easy or hard to convince the druid as you like. Of course they can always kill the druid for the sunlight.

6 Lost Room. This room is intended as a place where resting is possible if they can find it and make it there unnoticed.

7 Eldritch Well. This is a potential lore drop or a signpost that they are in way over their head. This is corruption incarnate. You could let them hear whispered love professions, fights, distrust building, accusations being made; an evil presence underneath, stirring them on.

8 Vault. This was once the Druid's and the Mage's room. It's a neat piece of loot.

9 Prison. This is the second lost lover, Lyric. They might or might know something about what happened here, so you could give the players some of the information they missed. Don't overexplain, though.

10 Mage's Sanctum. This is intended as the final fight. The Sunflower is and avatar of the ancient eldritch magic controlling the mage, so you could rule that killing the flower frees the Mage (and the Druid) from the eldritch magic's grasp) temporarily. Let them have a reunion, or whatever you think is fitting.