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Hello, everybody, Welcome back to
Desks and Doors. That's your favorite board

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game design and creation podcast that has
always his shape by you. We're bringing

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the best in indie tabletop gaming of
Kyle Lot. I'm usually the door to

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Riley's desk, but I'm running solo
right now. Riley is once again a

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little bit busy, so he's back
at the IKEA mothership. And fortunately,

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though I don't have a guest,
but I do have a great, great

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podcast idea for you today, our
good friend Graham against You may know him

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as the occasional instigator of some of
the stuff that Dusks and Dorks does.

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Huge fan of Graham and the weird
things that he brings to us, and

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he often calls his podcast ideas que
pod drops, and today we have a

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q pod drop that's been brought because
of a typo. I have fat thumbs.

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They do not do particularly well when
we face them within electronic keyboard.

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I missed with the days of a
physical keyboard on my phone, and I

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said, wow, those are some
big ideas to some of his podcast suggestions.

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And rather than take that in stride, Graham's like, yes, but

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what if bog ideas? Because that's
what my phone auto corrected too, And

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so Graham actually had suggested a ton
of bog themed swamp themed things, and

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that really got me thinking, not
just about like my favorite bogs in the

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world, although I do actually,
weirdly enough, have an opinion on like

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my favorite bog, but it actually
got me thinking about why we use certain

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locations in fantasy RPGs and role playing
in general. And one of the things

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that I wanted to talk about today
was how you can use some of these

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interesting locations, ideas and concepts to
maybe make your role playing games feel a

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little bit more fleshed out and a
little more interesting. And that's really kind

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of what we're going to be trying
to do today. So we are going

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to start off with bogs. But
as a disclaimer, all of this advice,

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all of these creatures are settings agnostic. Ha interesting that we would choose

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to do settings agnostic, but they
are so while you might be tempted to

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use them in a certain RPG that
rhymes with fungen maggins, you don't necessarily

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even have to, and you can
use these ideas, suggestions, monsters,

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characters, hazards, what have you
in any role playing game that you would

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like, and without further ado,
we've got some bog ideas to talk about.

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So, as I mentioned, we're
going to be talking about some different

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things and I'm very excited to talk
about those right now. We're going to

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start off, of course, with
bogs. Why do we as RPG makers

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like to start our games off in
swamps or in swamp like places? And

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I think the first thing that we
need to talk about when we're talking about

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setting your location anywhere is when we
are talking all about hazards. Nobody wants

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their RPG to be boring. Nobody
wants their RPG to feel bland or cookie

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cutter. And so one of the
easiest ways that we can draw out conflict

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from our games is in our setting. Is in the settings themselves. That's

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really the most important thing. So
we're gonna talk a little bit about why

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bogs in particular. One of the
first things that we happen to think about

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is that bogs generally tend to feel
really alien to us. And there's a

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couple of reasons for this. Historically, human civilization has never wanted to set

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up in bogs. There are a
lot of reasons for this, but the

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unfamiliarity of this territory naturally lends itself
to interesting and intriguing role playing games.

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And again, that unfamiliarity is often
caused because of the inherent danger that goes

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along with the territory itself, But
because historically we've spent so little time as

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a species in bogs, that's part
of the reason you might want to do

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that. So if you are setting
yourself up in a role playing game setting

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and you want a good place to
have your story take place, let's talk

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about some interesting ones. We talked
about bogs for example, yes, alien

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to us historically not a place that
humans have spent a lot of time civilizing,

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but there's a couple of reasons for
that too. Right in bogs,

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you have creatures that usually are very
unique to that biome, whether those are

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water dwelling reptiles or whether those are
you know, insects that like to live

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in the tall grass. There's a
lot of creepy, crawley, unfriendly things

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that generally only make their home in
the swampy wetlands that lay on the fringes

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of society. When we also think
about that, two bogs are often a

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safe and natural place where decay happens, and where decay is present, disease

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is present as well. So imagine
this for a moment. Your adventurers,

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whether they be in the modern day
setting or a fantasy setting, are traveling

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through a bog. Here are a
couple things that you can hit them with.

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Number one, a special wasting disease
that is only brought on by the

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bog, and the cure to the
disease can only be found from synthesizing different

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plants that are found within the bog. This does two things for the players.

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One, it sets them on a
clock, and it gives them a

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natural reason to be there and be
racing against that clock. That doesn't feel

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contrived, right. This disease is
an actual threat to their life, their

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well being, and their livelihood,
and it's going to continually sort of take

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its toll on your players. Now, the reason that that's such a good

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thing is it's going to force your
players to actually interact with the setting itself,

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which is why we've set it up
so that the cure to the bog,

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of a cure to the disease is
actually in the bog itself, which

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means your players have a natural reason
to be where they're at, and your

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players have a natural desire to continue
to interact with the setting. So that's

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your conflict, that's your challenge we've
given you. You know, that wasting

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disease. Now, let's talk about
what each other challenges your players are going

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to face when they're trying to beat
that goal. Right, So this is

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how we're going to set this episode
up. I'm going to give you a

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goal, right for each of these
settings. In the player's case this time,

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it's a disease. I'm going to
give you a challenge in each of

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these settings that's something that the players
have to overcome that is not directly related

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to the goal. And then I'm
going to give you some NPCs for your

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players to interact with. And that's
going to be how we do this.

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So we talked about the goal,
finding the cure for the disease. That

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ails them huge problem for the PCs
during this game of whatever, you're what

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other challenge are they going to have
to overcome another's play any of different challenges

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that you could throw in, And
there's a couple ones that I have,

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you know, decided we're not cliche, but have been done enough times before.

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And then I wanted to make this
a little bit more unique. So

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on the one hand, you could
make something like a bog which, right,

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you know, the legend of the
old crone living in this uninhabitable,

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hostile place. You could also throw
in a couple of different groups of lawless

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ne'er dwells, right, And we
love a good bandit camp, And what

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better place to stake out a bandit
camp than in a location where most civilized

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folks are not gonna want to go
around, not gonna want to be present.

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But for my money, if I'm
going to throw a challenging, uh

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you know, character or challenging thing
for your players to over you know,

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overcome almost an over encumbered, but
they're hopefully and not can be carrying this

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around. I want to keep it
on the natural side of things. And

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so we are actually going to be
throwing a giant zombie crocodile your players.

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Now, if you're running a more
realistic setting, you could just as easily

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throw in a giant crocodile that has
been mutated either by natural selection or like

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human chemicals. But I love the
idea that there is just this giant croc

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that the local necromancer or you know
may have died after they had resurrected,

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and it still has returned to the
place where it lived. So it becomes

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this silent, unseen killer roaming around
in a land of decay. And what

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an interesting way for the players to
interact with your biome. Now, in

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terms of the NPC's that your players
are going to interact with, I have

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come up with two one if you're
running a realistic campaign, and one if

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you are running a more fantastical campaign. If you're running a fantastical campaign,

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something that a lot of people don't
realize is that in marshes, wetlands and

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things like that, there are often
otters my family's namesake, and so if

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you're running a fantastical campaign, I
would love the idea of a talking an

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otter that has either been ensourceled,
so it's like an individual that has been

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transformed into an otter, or if
it's just an otter that is magical and

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talks of its own volition, who
has been living and hunting in this region

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for a number of years and as
such knows a great deal about the layout

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and may be willing to either contribute
the location of the cure or to give

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your party some helpful, hopefully useful
tips while they're battling that zombie gator.

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If you are running a more down
to earth campaign, the one thing that

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I would suggest that you do,
why not throw a professor of biology or

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a professor of anthropology, but a
professor professor of zoology into this environment to

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kind of help your players navigate this
unseen and often difficult territory. So we

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started off with bogs. There you
go, Graham, thanks for your bog

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drop. Let's move on to setting
number two. Our next location is going

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to be just a little bit more
exciting and we're gonna get fired up.

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All right, I did my best
as to be like a fake WatchMojo commenter,

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but no, actually we're gonna be
talking about sitting in one of your

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games in an active volcano. Yes, that's right, an active volcano.

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So what is the player's goal.
Well, it's going to be something that

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puts them into direct harm, but
also has to be saiding that they could

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plan for or take steps to address
some of the danger. And so we're

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going to have them, Actually we
have to retrieve a rare mineral found within

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the vacano itself. This means the
players are going to have tons of opportunity

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to creative problem solved, either with
spells if you're playing a fantasy themed RPG,

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or using technology or some other basic
strategy if you're doing a more realistic

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RPG. They're gonna have to venture
into this volcano and gather some of that

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magmatic mineral. Now that we have
our goal on the way, we're gonna

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think, I'm sorry, the next
thing that we're going to be doing.

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I'm actually trying to read off of
the notes that I took for this episode,

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so sorry, folks. One of
the next thing that we're gonna be

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doing is the challenge of that and
the challenges that obviously, you know,

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the volcano is about to erupt at
some points' about to explode at some point,

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so much like our previous iteration,
we want the players on a time

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crunch, this is going to actually
cause the players to you know, not

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have forever to plan, not have
forever to execute on their ideas, and

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they are going to have to move
rather swiftly in order to get to the

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mineral that they need before the volcano
is actually destroyed. And in terms of

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NPCs, I'm actually really excited about
this one. Because my NPC's for this

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game are the same, whether you're
doing a fantastic fantasy sci fi ish RPG

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or whether you are doing a more
realistic one. We're going to be talking

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about a group of tourists that have
come to the volcano and are either blissfully

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unaware or are trying to circumvent some
of the safety regulations and some of the

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dangerous aspects of the volcano in order
to get a closer view to it.

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So players can maybe babysit those tourist, or if they're a particularly sinister or

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fed up with the tourists actions,
they might want to actually throw some of

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the tourists into the volcano. But
I think it will lend for a little

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bit more of a comedic I don't
want to say slapstick necessarily, but definitely

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a little bit more of a comedic
bent to a game that is going to

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be particularly tense and full of danger. And so I love my Volcano Tourists.

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Hopefully you guys will as well.
Which brings us to our final and

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third entry in this list of hazardous
places, interesting places, bog inspired places

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that you can set your RPGs at. Now, one of the things that

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I like about RPGs is the chance
to explore a setting that you wouldn't necessarily

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have and you wouldn't think would be
interesting for role playing. Now here's the

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thing, though, If there's two
things I know, it's that one RPGs

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are great for that, and two
players love weird and funky stuff. And

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what other location could be more hazardous
than an antique road show style event.

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That's right, folks, We're sending
your players to the swap meet, the

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flea market, the giant yard sale, the bargain hunting extravaganza. Now,

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this is not a particularly hazardous place
in terms of the danger that is present

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there, but it does offer some
really interesting opportunities for role playing, and

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it could potentially be interesting for like
social hazards. So let's talk a little

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bit about what this is going to
be. The goal is that the players

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are contracted by a private individual who
has lost an item of great value.

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Whether it's personal sentimental power like actual
magical power, up to you entirely as

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the person running the game. But
one of the things I am really interested

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in is having the players attempt to
go to the swap meet, where they

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are told that the item is and
they are going to attempt to retrieve said

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item. That's what we're looking for, So becomes a little bit of a

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scavenger hunt. I chose this one
for a couple sass. It offers a

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little bit of exploration if that scavenger
hunt nature to it, and it offers

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a lot of those RPG players,
the role playing heavy characters a chance to

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shine. So the goal is to
retrieve that item. Now the particular challenge

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I picked two for this one.
I envisioned this to be massive, like

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a massive outdoor market, a massive
swap meet, something like that. So

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one of the difficulties is the sheer
scale of the event itself. It's going

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to be a lot like the players
are attempting to find a needle in a

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haystack, as it were. And
so that's going to be one of the

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first things that I'm really interested in
is the size, the scope of this

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place and the people inside it.
The other big difficulty is that these people

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have been doing this kind of stuff
for a while. And so if you're

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like me and you've spent a lot
of time, you know, enjoying or

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being around yard sales or the yard
sale, you know, world You'll know

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that a lot of these people who
come to these auctions and events have known

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each other for a while, so
it's a pretty tight knit community. Addition

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to the size that the players have
to contend with, they're also going to

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have to contend with the social difficulties, the social norms as it were.

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That's one of the big challenges now
in terms of NPCs, No swat beat,

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no yard sale, no auction would
be complete without at least a gaggle

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of old ladies. And so of
course I call them the Carla's, but

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they're like three old grandmas that I
have been, you know, working within

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this space and running a booth for
a number of years, and that's going

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to be your big people to interact
with. These could be antagonists for the

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players, particularly if a player manages
to take them off early, or they

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could be useful allies for the players
if a player manages to show them some

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respect and some courtesy, and that
winds up currying favor with the Carla's and

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as a result, winds up giving
them a little bit of a give them

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a little bit of an edge.
With that being said, I hope you

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00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:01.039
guys really like this. Again shout
out to I'm for giving us the event

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00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:05.120
the q pod drop as it were. If you have found this to be

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00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:07.399
interesting and formative, please make sure
you give us a like, share,

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00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:13.080
a subscribe. You can find our
podcast everywhere now that good podcasts can be

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00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:16.120
had. If you haven't yet,
please make sure that you give us a

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00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:18.759
look over indiepress Revolution. You can
get yourself a copy of After the Rain

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00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:22.519
right then and there. And on
top of that as well, keep looking

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00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:26.039
back at Desks and Dorks dot org. We are nearing completion of a fear

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00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:28.080
within and as soon as that game
is ready for our backers, there's going

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00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:31.399
to be some new and exciting ways
for you. If you didn't get a

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00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:33.120
chance to back it, to get
your hands on a copy. But until

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00:15:33.159 --> 00:15:35.240
next time, I'm Kyle out for
Desks and Dorks. You have all been

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amazing and I'll see you all next
time. Piece