🔬 Deconstructing Rotblack Sludge

Exeunt Press at PAX Unplugged, Skeleton Code Machine Gift Guide, Deconstructing Rotblack Sludge, and Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth

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TL;DR Summary

• 💀 Exeunt Press at PAX Unplugged

• 🎁 Skeleton Code Machine Gift Guide

• 🔬 Deconstructing Rotblack Sludge

• 🎲 Recently played: LotR: Duel for Middle-earth

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💀 Exeunt Press at PAX Unplugged

Find EP games at Booth 4142 and Booth 4303.

By the time you read this, PAX Unplugged (PAXU) will be just days or perhaps even hours away. It’s one of the largest tabletop gaming conventions in the United States, and something that I look forward to all year. As of today, all but Sunday is sold out.

While Exeunt Press won’t have a booth at PAXU this year, you will be able to get solo games like Exclusion Zone Botanist, Eleventh Beast, Caveat Emptor, and Tollund at the Plus One Exp Booth 4142. Say hi to Tony while you are there!

There will also be a limited number of copies of BLACKFLOWER (CY_BORG heist) at the M. Allen Hall Booth 4303. You’ll want to get there early while they are available.

I’ll be attending PAXU with Skeleton Code Machine stickers for you! Watch Exeunt Press on Bluesky for updates on how to find me.

ATTEND: PAX Unplugged at the Philadelphia Convention Center

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🎁 Skeleton Code Machine Gift Guide

This is the first year I put together a Skeleton Code Machine Gift Guide, and it has turned out to be extremely popular!

It’s a little different than most gift guides. Rather than thinking of a profile (“The person who has everything” or “The solo gamer”) and then picking gifts that match, this is the reverse. I collected the games featured at Skeleton Code Machine this year, and then tried to think of who might enjoy them:

• For those who play to win

• For those who want to explore

• For those who want to socialize

• For those who love game design

It includes a good mix of both board games and TTRPGs, as well as some accessories.

READ: The 2024 Gift Guide at Skeleton Code Machine

Skeleton Code Machine is an ENNIE-nominated weekly publication that explores tabletop game mechanisms. It’s been called a “Seemingly endless source of gaming ponderings” and a “Goldmine.” Check it out at www.skeletoncodemachine.com.

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🔬 Deconstructing Rotblack Sludge

The MÖRK BORG core rulebook includes an introductory dungeon crawl called Rotblack Sludge or The Shadow King’s Lost Heir. It was my first MÖRK BORG adventure, and the one that people are most likely to recommend to new players — and for good reason. It’s easy to run, limited to a single map, and has a good hook.

The Guard Room description and mini-map from Rotblack Sludge.

There is value in analyzing Rotblack Sludge to see how it is put together.¹ It might even be able to serve as a blueprint or starting point for making your own adventures.

Rotblack Sludge

1. Intro hook and objective: A single, half-page introductory paragraph that drops players right into the action with the opening sentence: “You face execution for heretical theft but a masked Seer, a Courtier of the Shadow King, offered you a chance at life.” The rest of the paragraph makes the objective clear: Retrieve the King’s missing son from a place called The Accursed Den.

2. Rumors and lies (d8): I’ve seen mixed opinions on the inclusion of rumors and lies in adventures. I personally like them, as they can provide some background without large blocks of text. Half are true and half are false. Bolded text makes it easy to skim each one: “A mysterious house of glass, within it lairs the leader of a cult. (true)”²

3. Random encounters (2 x d4): Two sets of random encounters are included (i.e. Table A and Table B), each encounter being just a short title, description, and minimal stats. Table A is used for specific rooms and includes more mundane encounters (e.g. D4 Guards with sharpened teeth), while Table B is to only be used once and has more esoteric events (e.g. Bazaar from a distorted dimension).

4. Map + mini-maps: A rough-drawn, single-page map in black and white. All of the rooms have a name (e.g. Entrance, Dining Hall, Greenhouse, Statue Room) on a numbered legend. Helpfully, key NPCs are listed where applicable (e.g. 4. Guard room, D4 crooked guards). Mini-maps are included on each page, highlighting the rooms being described on that page.

5. Room descriptions (15 rooms): For each room there is a short description, each one using the same format:

   1. Room number and name (e.g. 2. Dining hall)

   2. Short description: What the players immediately see, smell, sense (e.g. “Warm and bright. Rotten smell. Faint, sad violin music from the north.”).

   3. Items and NPCs: Each as a bulleted item with key part bolded (e.g. “Lit oil lantern hangs from the ceiling.”).

   4. Exits: Direction (e.g. North), door description (e.g. creaking door), and what players can hear.

   5. Special triggers: Any unique events or things the players can interact with in the room with the result (e.g. “Eat the butterflies: heal D6 HP”).

6. Monster (NPC) descriptions (~7 total): Minimal descriptions with a simple title and maybe a sentence or two of details. Stats (HP, Morale, armor), weapons, and any loot. Notably the descriptions include helpful motivations and interaction hints (e.g. “They follow Fletcher’s every word.” or “They only know the guards.”).

7. Art (10 total): Rotblack Sludge has seven (7) pieces of spot art showing various monsters and/or NPCs and three (3) full page art pieces.

The whole adventure fits into just 15 pages (3 of which are full art pages), but has everything needed to run a one-shot to introduce players to MÖRK BORG.³ While I don’t recommend limiting yourself to this format, I do think it’s a great starting point for people new to writing adventures.

It would be interesting to create a “Make Your Own TTRPG Adventure” public library class similar to my upcoming “Make Your Own One-Page TTRPG” one. Participants could be guided through each step and end up with a fully playable adventure after just a few sessions. Choosing a system might make this a little tricky — MÖRK BORG makes it easier than some others.

What do you think? Would a class like this work if I used a similar adventure framework? Could it be done in a system-neutral way?

CREATE: Make your own compatible with MÖRK BORG adventure.

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🎲 Recently played: LOTR: Duel for Middle-earth

Played Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth (Bauza & Cathala, 2024) recently and really enjoyed it. After our first game, we immediately reset the game and played again. Then I went out and picked up a copy for myself!

For a 30-minute game it has a good amount of tension and tough decisions. With three sudden death victory conditions, it’s a constant battle to deny the other player progress on the various tracks and boards. Ignore any of them and it’s shocking how fast the other player can win.

I particularly liked the area control board that is central to the game, and wrote about it at Skeleton Code Machine: Hobbits, farmer birds, and area control.

PLAY: Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth

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- E.P. 💀

1. Every time I attempt an analysis like this, I am fully aware of the famous E.B. White quote: “Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.” Cutting open a TTRPG adventure or board game and counting the components inside feels dangerously close to this. We understand it better, but does the game/fun die in the process?

2. Never noticed that “lairs” is used as a verb in the the first rumor. The word lair can be used as a verb to mean “to cause to sink in mire” or “to wallow” but chiefly in Scotland, but I’m not sure that’s what is intended here.

3. When I ran Rotblack Sludge with my group it actually took us more than one session — either two or three; I can’t remember. But we were doing shorter, weeknight sessions and we generally play a bit slower than most other groups.