The Nether - A Depthcrawl for OSR/POSR games

 

Welcome to the Underground
(Minecraft Dungeons via Minecraft.net)

 

Howdy, Farmhands

    Yes, The Nether. Yes, like in Minecraft. No, I don't ever tire of making half-baked adaptations of media I enjoy separately from the TTRPG hobby. Here's what a Depthcrawl is. Here's what the Nether is. You're basically all caught up now.

    The purpose of introducing such a thing into an OSR game is twofold. Firstly - the option to take a quick kip to HELL is just fun. There's resources and adventures to be had without needing to invest in a whole campaign centered around the setting. Second of all - the Minecraft Nether is famous for its ability to act as a shortcut for travel. In-game, every 1 block is equal to 8, allowing you to blaze (heh) past difficult terrain, so long as you're willing to risk a fiery death in exchange for time saved. In an OSR game where an area may be straight up impassable, a dip into the Nether might get you onto the other side of that mountain range, supposing you survive it.

    This post is acting as a sort of proof of concept for now; some things like specific Adventure Sites will need their own pages with internal details, and I'm not about to sit here and write out an entire Minecraft Bestiary. What is going to follow is a series of posts where I take a Nether Biome, either from Vanilla or Modded (and won't that be a fun email to some poor coder, wondering what on earth I'm talking about when I ask permission to use their IP), and produce some simple tables with their unique content. Feel free to use as many or as few of these as you like for your own personal experience. I, for one, will be overloading myself until I burn out from the effort. Heh. Burn.

    Until Next Time,

        Farmer Gadda

 

"Travel Memoirs of the New Nether: Nether Portal?"
by zombie2mi-nu

NETHER TRAVEL DEPTHCRAWL PROCEDURE

• Entering the Nether requires an Active Portal, which can be constructed with 10 Obsidian 
• Once a Portal is constructed, either from the Overworld or generated by Surfacing from within the Nether, it will always deposit the players in the same Biome. 
• Any table's first venture will begin in the Nether Wastes.  
  
• Players enter the Nether with a Depth value of 0.

1. Roll Locations, Details, and Events to generate an Adventure Site
   
2. The players may choose to Stay (Roll Events again), Go Deeper (Increase Depth and Roll all again), Go Back (Decrease Depth and return to the most recent Location), Move Sideways (Retain Depth but Roll all again), or Surface (Leave the Nether)
3. The Volatile nature of the Nether means it's almost impossible to accurately find specific locations again once you've gone too far from it.
   

    The DM should retain both the Total Depth, and the relative Biome Depth when moving between Biomes. Total Depth is required for calculating the exit point in the overworld, while Biome Depth is required for calculating relevant Locations.

Nether Wastes, via Minecraft.fandom.com/wiki

 NETHER WASTES

Description:
    Hot, Dry. Red Stone Caverns, Bubbling Lava flows, Darkness as far as the eye can see.
Resources:
    Always-
        Nether Rack
        Lava
    Sometimes-
        Gold Nugget Ore
        Glowstone
    Rarely-
        Ancient Debris
        Nether Quartz

Location (1d6 + Biome Depth)

1. Open Field, ripe with golden ore
   
2. Open Field, pockmarked with tunnel openings
   
3. Open Field, Barren and quiet
4. High Cliff, you arrive at it's edge
   
5. High Cliff, you stand at it's feet
   
6. Deep Gorge, you arrive at it's edge
   
7. Deep Gorge, you stand at it's feet
   
8. Remnants of a Bastion
9. Entrance to a Nether Fortress
10. + Border to another Biome.
    

Details (1d10)

1. Glowstone Blobs grow from the Netherrack
   
2. The Bones of a large, unidentifiable creature
3. A slow stream of Lava with (roll Location) on the other side
   
4. Large Pillars of Blackstone hold up the ceiling
   
5. Volatile Geysers spew steam if disturbed
6. A minefield of heated Magma blocks
7. Low flames slowly devour everything
   
8. Mushrooms feast on the heated rot
9. Gravel piles about, disguising deep pits
   
10. Roll Twice on this table

Events (1d6)

1. Normal Encounter
   
2. Hint/Clue/Foreshadowing Normal Encounter
   
3. Weather Change
   
4. 2 Factions encounter (Roll Normal Encounter Twice, Roll Demeanor to determine vibe)
5. Nothing
6. Nothing
   

Encounters (1d6)

1. Piglins (1d6) (Roll Demeanor)
2. Magma Cube (1d4)
   
3. Zombie Piglins (1d4)
   
4. Strider (1d2)
   
5. Enderman (1d2)
   
6. Ghast (1)