The 'no spoilers rule' is really just an inside joke, to keep things light-hearted. We don't need to take it to extremes, like if Noh is about to fall into a pit trap, his friends obviously aren't going to let him suicide; they can and should warn him of the danger! When I conceived these "Adventure Club Rules," first and foremost, I wanted to foster the kind of 'gee whiz!' sense of wonder we all experienced in our first D&D games. Secondly, it is an easy way to side-step meta-gamey paradoxes, like, "If Frederick is such a nice guy then why doesn't he give our heroes detailed warnings about all the monsters and pitfalls, so they can avoid needless pain and suffering?"
In all seriousness, the Cliff's Notes version is this: I wanted to run a campaign that is less "gonzo open world sandbox" and more "old school dungeon delve" than some of my past campaigns. Additionally I wanted to keep a less dark, more good natured tone. Naturally, first thing that came to mind was Hobbets! I've included some mild Lovecraftian teasers, but these cosmic-horror elements are in the background of our heroes' journey for the moment. There's no real "grand plan" other than: crawl through the tunnels, kill monsters, collect loot, and hope your light doesn't go out!
I've been experimenting with a new-to-me mapping technique where I copy a chunk of the "void space" patern from the background dungeon map, and fill it into a new foreground layer, that overlays the map like a shroud or "fog of war." As the party explores new terrain, I use the airbrush tool to erase the top layer, exposing the map underneath. It's not perfect but I think it creates a nice atmospheric effect. Here's a link to the slightly outdated, needs to be updated, master map I created using that technique. The blurry/shadowy gray areas are unexplored terrain.
http://forum.immersiveink.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=835
[f=59]
Stern (
Strong Hero, MV 9′′, AC 3, HD 4, hp 20, FC 4 men/hero, SV F4, L)[/f]