2025-09-28 Situations
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I sometimes look at Halberts and wonder what it would take to turn it
into a pick-up game like B/X D&D. What do I mean by that? A game
without preparation by referee that still involves the exploration of
an imaginary space and dangers. This involves a number of things:

An imaginary space means that there's a map and it has a map-like
effect. Directions and distances don't contract to fit a story.
Buildings don't shift around, inhabitants don't shift around. It's
possible for players to place labels on the map.

The map the referee uses can be explored. In other words, it already
exists. It is not drawn on the fly, it doesn't take input by the
players who do the exploring. Exploration means that there is a power
imbalance: The referee knows the map and the players do not. Or the
map the players have at their disposal is an incomplete map that still
needs exploring to find the things placed on it.

The spatial nature means it's possible to draw a map of a settlement
or region and make reasonable decisions based on it. How to get from
one place to another. How to avoid particular dangers. If the players
don't want to cross the pass in winter, the map shows what the
alternatives are. This also means that drawing a map of a building
allows the referee to place markers on the map for rewards, guards and
traps, and it allows the placers to navigate the map, finding some and
avoiding others.

In D&D, it is possible to run such adventures without having to do all
the preparation yourself because there is a rich tradition of modules.
These contain maps, descriptions, monsters, treasures, non-player
characters, situations, riddles, conundrums, ready to go. A referee
has to read them, or at least the introduction, and soon the game can
start.

This is a culture supported by a very popular game. Many other games
don't have this. These other game consist of the core rules and maybe
optional rules; maybe some suggestions for creating the situations you
need. But it's rare to find games with many adventures ready to go.

Even the submissions to the One Page Dungeon Contest aren't ready to
go. The monsters have no stats and the treasures have no value. That
means that some sort of preparation is required.

The alternative seems to be improvisation at the table and that
doesn't work for me. I can't meaningfully "explore" what somebody else
at the table has improvised just moments ago. It can work for an
encounter or two, but not for a map and factions and monsters and
everything. There's something about the experience that turns me off.

I remembered the German game Dungeonslayers had a bunch of little
adventures to go. The official site has 20 small one and two page
dungeons to go as free downloads. There are 7 big adventures for sale
. And I checked the Slayer's Pit and collects all sorts of downloads
including fan made adventures. 😍

Perhaps I should just play Dungeonslayers instead of trying to play
Halberts.

Or perhaps I should lean into the stand-alone HTML generators! Lake
Land and Myrkheim are great. Whenever I look at their output I am
fascinated. I could just add to those tables. A retinue for the
important people in Lake Land, for example. Or expand the map. Or draw
a map that goes with the sitution. Or I could start another generator
entirely.

#RPG #Halberts #2d6