Good Bones

In the past, I've watched a lot of "house flipping" and "remodeling" shows on television. My wife digs this kind of programming (she finds it relaxing) and I find it...well, interesting enough. I am rather the opposite of a "handyman" type. But I don't mind spending a lazy weekend afternoon, sitting on the couch and drinking coffee.

[we rarely have the time to "veg" that much these days, considering all the weekend kid events...but I did start this post with the phrase 'In the past...']

Anyhoo, I myself have done very little "remodeling" in my life...I've certainly never "flipped" a property. But as I said, I've watched these shows and there's this phrase that I sometimes here come up about a house...that it has "good bones." Which, I assume, means it has a good foundational structure on which to build or hang new drywall or, well, whatever. I don't know...I said I wasn't "handy" like that.

What I AM somewhat handy with is adventure writing/design (well, I think I am anyway...). The last couple-four days I've been working on my rewrite of I4: Oasis of the White Palm. Oh, man, it's really good. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm kind of in love with what I'm writing...this looks like it's going to be really fun to run. I'm digging it. 

But I want to give some credit to Philip Meyers and Tracy Hickman, the original writers. Because the thing has good bones...there IS a strong foundation here, mainly in the maps and some of the overall 'Big Concepts." Not the story, mind you...the story is terrible and I've discarded it completely. But many of the situations and factions are quite workable. Well, re-workable. Er...I mean, they're stuff that I can work with and pound something good and decent out of. If that makes sense. Which, maybe it doesn't. But I mean it as a compliment...if a back-handed one.

I'm currently working backwards through the thing because dungeons are more fun (and, in many ways, easier) to stock than other areas. Eh, what am I saying. It's all pretty easy to stock. But the dungeons are definitely more fun. Because they have more obvious threats (and bigger treasures...I like treasure). So I did the Crypt of Badr al-Mosak first (even though it's Part III of three) and then, today, I finished up the Temple of Set (Part II). Yes, these have all been renamed. No, there are no "EverFall Pits" with flying mummies, nor any kidnapped princess-brides...you want that, you can buy the original as a $5 PDF and run it. This is going to be clever, okay? Without the silly puns and with a modicum of sense and sensibility.

I mean...*sigh*  So, NOW, I was just about to sit down to start in on Part I (the Oasis itself), and...as is my wont...I started diving into my analysis of just what is here. What IS this town? I already know a lot of what MY town is going to be, but I want to look at the BONES of the place, the underlying structure. Because the structure is functional...I've run I4 before, back in the day, pretty much exactly as written and I don't remember any hiccups or problems. So let's see what we've got...first up, the Oasis random  encounters, lifeblood of a dynamic environment (or, at least, that which provides verisimilitude of a living-breathing town). What have we got?

Women carrying water. Women carrying clothing. A trader "with beads." Traders with palm dates. Traders with camels. Home Guard. A drunk. 1-4 Male Drow. A noble. A slave on an errand. A....

Wait, what? 1-4 male Drow?! In the desert? Who cares if it's at night...how the hell did they get there? What the heck are they doing? They're not even one of the "special" encounters...just a normal evening encounter around the village.

*sigh* This is why O Great & Glorious Hickmans...this is why I rewrite your adventures. Crap like this. There's a lot of whimsical stuff here that doesn't really fly in my view of an AD&D adventure, but I can stomach a certain amount of whimsy (even if...sorry...I'm writing the pegasus squadron OUT of the adventure). But there's "whimsy," and then there's nonsense. A thriving oasis town filled with fantasy-Islamic/Bedouins is not a place where Drow are just "walking around."

Many, many problems here.

Ah, well. The first two bits have turned out great; no reason to think the town part can't be spruced up. I've even added a couple new NPC personalities to the mix, which is also good fun. One nifty thing about my version: the writing's quite a bit tighter (which is to say, I don't pad it out as much as the original). Consequently, I've already trimmed about four pages from the text. That is GREAT; I really want to keep this thing to 32 pages (max), but I want to add more actionable, game-able content, not just:

D. Hills

Craggy, low hills of broken and baked stone jut upwards at weird andles and cast tortured shadows.

Play: Movement rate is half normal in such areas for all persons except dwarves. There is a 60% chance per hor spent searching of finding a cave shelter large enough for the party.

Or this:

E. Bleached Bones

The trail suddenly broadens amid the dunes. The clean, white bones of camels stand in a roughly 100-foot circle.

Play: There is a 30% chance that a party member will discover that the bones have only recently been picked clean. All worthwhile objects have been taken from the area. A set of three sled tracks leads east to location F.

Or this:

L1-L4. Ruins

Jutting jaggedly from the midst of the desert are ancient broken pieces of hand-hewn stone.

[no other info given, just the boxed text description]

This is what I like to call "tourist crap." It's not nonsensical, but it serves little or no purpose. Regardless of whether or not the players figure out that the bones "have only recently been picked clean," so what? It makes no difference to the adventure. Even if there ARE dwarves in the party, they still can't move any faster than the other, non-dwarf members. This is just extraneous detail for a "tour guide DM" to dole out, presumably to "break up the monotony." Hey, try to roll under 30% on percentile dice? Yeah, you made it? You can see these bones were only RECENTLY picked clean...dun-dun-DUN!

Far easier to simply:

• Calculate the distance between point A and B
• Calculate the time needed to travel there.
• Roll for random encounters based on the time traveled

...and just get to the play at the important bit (wherever that final destination is). 

It's not that we need to 'get to a place where we roll dice,' but it IS about getting to a decision point where the players can make a meaningful decision. Looking at the wilderness map of I4 (which I will be redrawing to match my southern Idaho desert), I can see there's no reason the players would ever have to go to area #D ("Hills")...no road leads there, no plot requirements mandate them passing through the area, nothing. It is just USELESS FILLER.

My adventure doesn't have useless filler.

Anyway, I'm enjoying myself and my little project. Ugly as the original house is, I think my "remodel" will look quite swell. Despite my complaints the thing does have "good bones;" that makes a difference.

Later, gators.

[also, just for fun: this came to mind when I wrote "tour guide DM;" it's kind of catchy!]

Let Slip The Dogs Of War (Part III)

In which I  finally discuss...at lengrh...the tournament module written for Cauldron 2025's prestigious (and now annual) Blackrazor Cup....

SATURDAY BLOCK I: Rivers of Blood, Death, and Glory

Getting to Germany from Seattle isn't the easiest thing in the world. Yeah, it's a long haul. Yeah, it's more money than I'd like to spend on a plane ticket. Yeah, it means being away from my family for a weekend and missing things like high school dances and playoff soccer games. 

Is it worth the trouble and effort, just for a gaming convention? For me?

Yes. It is.

But I don't know if it's quite worth it...or if I'm quite willing...to make it an annual pilgrimage. Every other year sounds about right. At least until my kids are old enough to accompany me (always assuming I can afford the airfare). Cauldron I (in 2023) was fantastic...but I couldn't quite justify doing it again in 2024. And yet, I wanted to be part of Cauldron II all the same. Which is why I asked to convention organizers (well, really just Settembrini) if I could write a tournament module for the thing. 

Hence was born Children of the Sea, which I haven't written much about, because I thought it was going to be part of the OSRIC kickstarter stretch goals. Yeah, no...THAT didn't happen. But don't worry; it'll get released in a different fashion....

Feedback from Children was immensely positive: the con-goers in 2024 really seemed to enjoy it...so much so that they wanted to make it an annual contest at the con. Great news! However, some folks felt that the module had been "too easy." What the F...?

[when I ran it for my home group it ended in a TPK...]

My adventures are supposed to be "challenging" not "easy;" certainly not "too easy!" Having my ego slighted, it is only natural that I would want to redeem myself with a stronger adventure for 2025. Not a terribly awful, "killer" dungeon, but something designed to be fiendish even while being appropriately stocked for players of the requisite level.  

Thus was conceived the idea for Rivers of Blood, Death, and Glory. I think the title probably came first, even before the concept: an upriver trek into the frozen wilds of British Columbia. 

Now, when searching for a premise/scenario, my first thought that to re-write/re-purpose yet another DragonLance module...specifically DL6: Dragons of Ice. I have a fascination with this adventure, for a number of reasons. For one thing, I rather love white dragons: they are dragons (duh) that even low-mid level parties can survive encounters with...great for a game with the word "dragons" in the title. Also, frost breath is awesome. Also, in B/X and OD&D they are NEUTRAL in alignment, making them one of three "non-evil" dragons (which opens all sorts of possibilities). Not that this adventure was ever planned to be anything other than AD&D....

My favorite DragonLance cover art...

There are two other reasons that DL6 interests me: the first of these is that it represents the first adventure truly divorced from the novels. I read the original DL novels long before I ever read any of the modules, and the details of the protagonists' excursion to IceWall Castle (another great name) is mostly left out of the text, instead being relegated to (yet another) example of the Hickman poetry fetish. Which...for me...means that the unfolding events of the adventure are quite wide open for interpretation.

The last reason I find DL6 interesting is that the "dungeon" portion of the adventure is actually stocked "by the numbers," with the proper amount of monsters, traps/tricks, special, and empty encounters (for the number of encounter areas) AND (if memory serves) even the proper amount of treasure for the party. This is pretty amazing, and considering the size it would fit just fine within a four-hour tournament time slot (it is a rather small "dungeon").

However, it is BORING AS HELL and, for the most part, far too easy when it comes to the "big bad evil wizard," and while it is well-themed (and includes some great dragon encounters), I didn't particularly want minotaurs and walrus men.  Oh...and the layout is pretty sad, too: a bunch of rooms around a courtyard; possibly the most dull map ever attached to a Hickman project.

[to be fair, it IS credited to Douglas Niles, an author I do not hold in very high esteem as a module cobbler] 

Even so, it gave me a good base to start from. I removed the "evil wizard" guy completely (because evil wizards tend to get pwned when facing a party of eight adventurers, no matter how high their level...spell interruption, you know?) and instead made the guy dead and buried and part of the backstory. Minotaurs and thanoi got replaced with yetis, the polar bear for a brown bear (because it's British Columnia). All the dragons got to stay (yes, Chomi, DL6 uses the exact same number of dragons!), as did the winter wolves. Throw in a few undead here and there, a golem, some magical traps appropriate to a lich's stronghold and some more interesting treasure and voila! Tournament adventure written.

[I keep telling people I'm just a hack when it comes to this stuff, and I'm not lying. I may be a very good hack, but in terms of sheer creativity there are plenty of Very Fine Minds out there to whom I don't hold a candle]

Having run the adventure twice prior to Cauldron, I had a pretty good idea of how the thing played. The "upper works" (where the bulk of the adventure's half a million gold pieces in treasure may be found) is especially dastardly.  UNIVERSALLY, I found players would get flustered/distracted by the firetrap on the lich's crystal ball and then miss searching for secret doors in the scrying room; this is only exacerbated by the multiple yeti encounters (where are we going to run into another pack of those guys) and the pressure of the tournament time limit.

[I am cognizant of the elven party members' ability to automatically check for secret doors just by passing by the space, but if they did not mention anything about exploring the room or even going deep into it, I did not allow the chance. Were I to rewrite the adventure, I would simply note that the secret door can ONLY be found by "active searching," and see which groups keep their wits about them]

Likewise, the cliffside entrance to the dragon caves is supposed to be difficult to spot...if anything, that entrance is meant to be a "reward" of sorts for groups that encounter (and survive!) a random encounter with the dragon while exploring the village. I will relate that ONE particular group at Cauldron (who shall not be named) asked me for a "hint" about the adventure and I said, "Keep your heads up." They deciphered my message and found their way into the caves...only to be all-but-TPK'd by the dragon and her young. Instant karma, perhaps?

With regard to my own Cauldron session, the group did a fine job: certainly the best of any of the three groups I've run. Now, given, they DID have eight heads in the game, but the adventure ran pretty much the same, and they were quite clever with how they approached the various encounters, not taking anything in the way of casualties (by actual DEATH), losing fingers to frostbite, melting their own weapons in the black forge, blowing up spell-casters with the firetrap, or trying on the necklace of strangulation. In fact, they were the FIRST group I've run to not lose a single party member...well, except for one player who left the table (perhaps in disgust, after being energy drained half his levels). 

[sorry, man...]

ACTUALLY, the disgust was more likely due to the way I could not contain my maniacal cackling laughter towards the end of the adventure. I have no excuse for this and I apologize unconditionally for the offense I caused...the pained look on Prince of Nothing's face and the desperation in his voice as time was running out just did something to tickle my funny bone. It was highly reminiscent of playing with my brother (back in the good ol' days before he went crazy off-the-rails with his mental issues and alcoholism...), and Prince (and the others) should take it as a compliment. It is rare that I laugh that hard or so long with anyone, except friends I feel comfortable with (and my own kids). 

[and, to be clear, it was not Prince who abandoned the table]

But...look here: they sussed out that the pit of wights was FULL OF WIGHTS even before they left the throne room. They MAPPED THE DUNGEON METICULOUSLY (up until the mines below) and knew EXACTLY WHERE THE WIGHTS WERE. And then they STILL went there (and got their asses beat). And THEN...with time running out and the desperation to find more treasure positively reeking off them...they WANTED TO GO BACK FOR MORE PUNISHMENT.  

How could I not chuckle?

This I chalk up to metagaming of the WRONG type. I encourage metagaming: if players know that fire kills trolls, they should not pretend otherwise when they encounter a band of regenerators. The players KNEW that the skeleton with the yellow-orange mold on it was a dangerous mold of SOME variety, and wisely avoided it. They should have probably taken the same tack with the wights, especially since they knew there were 16 of them, far more than they could probably turn. 

And, yet, they assumed that I (the DM) had put the wights there for a reason. That there must be some "great frigging treasure" in that pit. As if a lich lord wouldn't just have a pit of wights to throw people into for his own amusement. My adventures are designed to have a certain type of logic to them...they are not "funhouses." Why are the yetis there? Because the place has been abandoned and they've taken up residence (in the places they could reach). Why is there a forge of black flame? To craft the lich's weapons of war. Etc., etc. See, there is metagaming and then there is "over-thinking” (which might be defined as “trying to out-think/guess the DM”). I suppose that works sometimes but…well, I can’t say I recommend the practice.

But, again, the adventure is designed this way. The time pressure functioned great...the methodical, cautious approach started escaping their grasp as time wound down. As happens. A blizzard is a-coming folks...got to get the treasure out and get back to the boats!

Anyway...

Other teams (except the one that blundered into the dragons' den) escaped with far more loot...several in excess of 200K and the winning team with more than 300K. Then again, I wasn't running the adventure for all of them...would they have fared as well with me in the captain's chair? Hard to say. Prince & Co. took home some 88K which exceeded my home group by the value of one potion of heroism and a handful of silver...but they did it without losing a single PC to death and that is something.

Last thing I want to say about the tournament adventure (which most everyone I spoke with at Cauldron seemed to enjoy): every single monster in the adventure came direct from the 1E Monster Manual. Every single treasure in the adventure can be found in the pages of the 1E DMG. Every single spell-type trap (firetrap, glyph, etc.) is in the 1E Players Handbook.  No UA tricks, no Dragon Magazine articles, not even a Fiend Folio critter to be found...I wanted to make sure all the DMs could run the thing using nothing but the core books.

Because the core books have PLENTY of "good stuff" in 'em.

; )

All right. That's all I want to say on the tournament adventure. Thanks to everyone who gave it a go, and thanks especially to all the DMs that ran it...you folks were excellent!

Let Slip The Dogs Of War (Part II)

In which I continue to describe the games I ran at Cauldron 2025, spoiling secrets and providing insights into the mind of a geezer DM...

SATURDAY NIGHT BLOCK: Ship Of Fate

The rousing success of Caul’s Dark Citadel…as well as the final three runnings of the tourney module in Saturday Block II...led to dinner being a boisterous affair, especially at my table. Everyone at Cauldron was in a fine mood and, plied with copious amount of alcohol, a lot of money ended up being shucked out at the auction, with much backslapping, congratulating, and toasting of each other.

A lot of palinka. A lot of whisky.

Thus the set-up for the so-called “night block:” a 9pm to WHENEVER affair (no time limit). At Cauldron 2023 I had skipped this (to my later chagrin), instead unwinding and bantering a bit before calling it an early night. THIS year, I had originally left the slot open hoping to get into one of Prince’s epic night-festivals…and then he decided not to run a game in the block! “Sorry, man, there are games I want to play in,” is he wrote to me last month.

SO determined not to miss out, I decided I would be the one to fire up a big-ass, high level adventure into the wee hours. Enter Ship of Fate, a high level extravaganza I wrote for Prince’s NAP II contest (get it HERE if you like).

Ship of Fate is quite obviously inspired by (and heavily based on) Michael Moorcock’s Elric story Sailor on the Sea of Fate. If you haven’t read it…um, why not? Elric stories are pretty much required reading for high level AD&D play, especially Elric of Melnibone, Sailor, and Stormbringer. But, yeah, I know some people think D&D is supposed to top out around 7th level. *sigh*

Good read.

I digress…Ship of Fate is an adventure designed to be played by from four to 16 players, four of whom take the part of high-level lady and gents (the “Heroes”) and 12 of whom are mid (7th – 10th) level “Companions.” The idea being that each Hero has three Companions. The kicker is that all 16 of these characters were once actual player characters, played either by myself of by my friends…however, I’ll note that – with regard to the high-level guys – they’ve been considerably “toned down” from their original stature and abilities. *AHEM*

I have only had the chance to run Ship of Fate one time…for my home group…and we did not finish more than five or six encounters due to an abbreviated session. Alas, we never returned to it because, being a one-off with pre-gens, it held a lot less “spice” for us than using our regular, organically grown PCs; such is life in a living campaign. Because of this, I wasn’t exactly sure how the adventure would play out. Certainly it was much too big for a standard 4-hour time slot. But we were in NIGHT BLOCK, baby! There aren’t any rules! Go all night like when we were 14 and high on caffeinated drinks!

[it’s possible I was a little drunky when I decided to register this game, pre-Cauldron] 

So, unsure of how I was even going to seat 16 people around the table I’d been assigned, I found myself somewhat relieved when “only” nine people showed up to the game. And then while handing around the pre-gens I immediately lost one of the four “Heroes” (the 12th level fighter)…noooo!

[I might have been a little drunky…again]

Fortunately, Tom still had his 14th level fighter pre-gen from Settembrini’s earlier high-level game. I knocked two levels off, reduced the hit points to a reasonable amount (they were set something like 2 points below max), and axed a magic item or two, but most of the character was allowed to stay.

And we were off!  Just organizing such a group was a bit of an ordeal, but it wasn’t too long before they got it together and decided to send the thief into the first cavern and…

Oh, wait…what’s the point of the adventure?

So, in Ship of Fate the heroes are sailed across the Dunkle Zee…a kind of phantom ocean that connects the various planes of the multiverse…to an island nexus where two sibling wizards (brother and sister) are using a rift in the space-time fabric to drain power from all the planes in existence, gradually snuffing them out. Players are supposed to find the building at the center of the island, kill the wizards, and then fire the building using special magic firebrands designed for the purpose. The ship has a cargo hold full of gold for the players after success in their quest and the wizards themselves are likely to have treasure, too. However, they also have many minions and protectors.

SO…big ass building (like the length of three football fields). Players did spend a flare trying to burn the place down with the wizards in it, but the structure…a monstrous, twisted behemoth that looked something like an amalgamation of alien machine and melted giant humanoids…simply extinguished the flame itself. Which the players had been told it would do which is why they needed kill the wizards FIRST. Amateurs.

A couple entrances suggested themselves to the PCs…a large cave, overhung by vines OR a large stairway leading up. They sent the thief down into the cave where he was soon filled by needles from the needleman forest inhabiting the cavern. Retreating, the party had the wizard nuke the plants with a fireball before proceeding. Into the troglodyte caves.

Those proved nightmarish to try to map, let alone explore in a coherent fashion [it’s possible the players were a little drunky] and the group eventually decided to give it up and go up the grand staircase to the “main gate” (as they called it). At this point, James (the guy playing the 12th level cleric) gets a brilliant idea: “Why don’t I use a find the path spell to locate the wizards?” Can’t…the spell can’t target living beings.

“What about the nexus rift? We know it’s there…and the wizards are likely to be with it!” That seemed reasonable and the spell immediately starts pulling the cleric (who leads the party) the way of the shortest route to the object desired.

Which worked pretty well for a while, as it ignored or helped bypass several encounters, while revealing secret doors and hidden passages. Great stuff; great use of available resources! Plus, it lasted a good long time (12 turns!) meaning they were covering a LOT of ground. No sweat, guys, we got this!

Then it led them through the cavern of the shadow demons.

Mean.

Now, I'd guess there are a lot of us for whom the phrase "shadow demon" conjures to mind the little toadie/spy who follows Venger around the D&D cartoon like a whipped dog. Yeah, no. Shadow demons are highly intelligent, vicious 7+ hit die creatures that are 90% undetectable and can leap and claw and tear at opponents while also having the abilities to dowse lights (darkness 15' radius), cast fear, and magic jar opponents. In this particular instance (not a mandatory encounter, by the way...just the shortest path to the wizards!), it turned into a nightmare scenario for the PCs. Their lights were dowsed, and then the attacks from the shadow demons ended up preventing casters from turning on the lights: every time they lost initiative...or won by too low an initiative amount....they'd get attacked and have their spells interrupted. Fighters were swinging away in darkness and hitting their companions. Two characters blew their saves against fear attacks and fled into the darkness, never to be seen again (one of those blundered into a room full of spectres and was sucked dry in the darkness; I think the other just went to bed). 

They eventually managed to overcome the demons, but it was a brutal toll: only three PCs (all Heroes) had survived. Sonka (now playing Tom's fighter, as he decided to go to bed), Ollie (as Lucky the 12th level magic-user), and James continued on, the find the path spell still functioning. They made it to the nexus chamber, but no wizard was present (50% chance, and missed the roll). However, some minor exploring found her in her workroom, toiling away at constructing flesh golems, with three completed. No surprise, everyone attacked!

Again...pretty brutal encounter. The cleric was felled by a fistful of magic missiles, the wizard badly damaged while the fighter tried to fight his way through flesh golems and mirror images. Tired of having his spells interrupted, the wizard backed off to use his scroll on monster summoning VI, conjuring a pair of weretigers...who did not appear for a couple rounds. Meanwhile, the fighter was stunned with a power word and the flesh golems proceeded to curb stomp him in a fashion unseen in Germany for four score years.

[too soon?]

However, Ollie/Lucky managed to hold on and the were-tigers finally showed up. Something happened to neutralize Giz-Kala (though that part is hazy...perhaps yet another hold person spell?) and the golems bereft of an order-giver allowed the much reduced party to escape, the fighter left with three hit points to his name. 

Deciding "stealth" was now the order of the day, the two utilized a potion of polymorph and a polymorph self spell to change into rodents, with which they finished their exploration of the main chamber, were-tigers in tow. They found the other wizard, laying in a comatose torpor of slumber, and slit his throat. "Now how the hell do we get out of here?!" Neither had been mapping.

It was decided to risk teleporting to the exterior, despite having only observed the island terrain once. Fortunately, Lucky was high enough level to take the beefy fighter with him. The die roll was successful and they fired the dungeon from outside, the flames quickly consuming the structure, and declaring victory, agreeing to split the gold between them. The time was after 2:30am, the players still standing thanked me, and headed off to bed, as I cleaned the table and turned off the lights of the floor (we were the last group still going).

I did not bother to reveal how much treasure they'd left behind.

*****

SUNDAY BLOCK I: Ybarra Florin

Our final session of Cauldron, the "brunch block" took place only after breakfast and the award ceremony had been completed. Some of us (*ahem*) had continued to drink into the wee hours of the morning, by which I mean 5:50am. Given one hour sleep to work with I was...not in great shape.

Thus it was a good thing I chosen an easy adventure to run! The original idea had been to run my I3: Pharaoh re-work, Desert of Kartha, but it's not anywhere close to being finished, let alone prepped and cut to fit a four hour time block (I would have been running the thing with a few sketchy notes). So, realizing my ass would be dragging at the end of a long three days, I decided to go with something I've run several times before: Ybarra Florin.

Again, this NOT really a "Becker original." Kenneth St. Andre penned a short adventure called Tower of Yrkath Florn for the first edition of his Stormbringer RPG. It's a nice little introductory scenario, one I've run two or three times over the decades I've owned the game. About three years ago, I converted it to AD&D; but it's mostly unchanged in terms of layout and premise. Mostly.

A wealthy patron hires the party to go check out the ruins of a dead Melnibonean sorcerer, and bring back any relics you find. Of course, "Melnibonean" in my campaign world means "high elf," all of whom seem to have a Spanish bent to them (hence, the name change. Don't ask me why...).

[I'm not even the first one to do "Spanish elves;" see Aaron Allston's Principalities of Glantri]

The ruined tower is two levels of a once three-story structure that's been wrecked by an earthquake...in my world it's on the Olympic Peninsula, right off Dabob Bay near Quilcene. The St. Andre version of the adventure has a family of clackars...winged gorilla creatures...lairing in the lower portion of the dungeon. But, of course, AD&D doesn't have this monster...

[other than in the 1980 DDG with the Melnibonean Mythos, page 88: they have HD 8, 2x 1d12 damage claws (+rending), immunity to fear and surprise, etc., etc.]

...so I didn't something else for my conversion. Now, when I say "fur, feces, and feathers," does anything D&Dish spring to mind immediately? Of course it does.

I ran this adventure when we were introducing Maceo's younger brother, Winston, to the AD&D game. Of course, he was ripped to shreds. Later, their family took them to see the new Dungeons & Dragons movie and Winnie told his mom, "That's the thing that killed me! An owl bear! See I told you they were scary!"

ANYway, they're scary for adults players, too. Our group (another eight stalwart souls) brought not one but TWO paladins to the adventure. The first paladin was killed by the pair of juveniles in the first room of the main hall. As the rest of the party maneuvered to lure the creatures out into a killing area, the Papa Bear came out of a different door to investigate the sounds of battle (and smell of blood) that had disturbed its slumber. Things got very dicey for the group very fast, despite having a ranger who kept negating the "completely surprised" rolls of the party (without the ranger, it could've got real ugly...)

However, give bulk of the credit to Ludwig the magic-user for saving the party's bacon. Ludwig's pre-gen had a wand of wonder and he wasn't afraid to use it, luckily getting decent results throughout the session! A stinking cloud and failed saves from the 'bears allowed the party to move outside the tear gas and missile the critters to death before they had a chance to clear their nasal passages...a pretty fortunate outcome, all things considered.  After slaying the mother 'bear (combining a slow spell from the wand along with an insect swarm from Paul the druid), the party claim to the family's nest of eggs and young, all worth a pretty penny on the open (elven) market.

Then it was up to the second level and Old Ybarra's workroom, hidden behind a magical door. The door is unlocked but electrically jolts individuals crossing its threshold for some pretty gnarly damage; fortunately, it was Michal the (last) paladin who took the blast, thereby rendering the thing inert. Inside lurks a demon...the same creature that killed Ybarra two centuries before when an earthquake cracked the pentagram that contained it. For AD&D purposes, I used a Type II demon, which is about the right power level, despite being vulnerable to normal (iron) weapons, thanks to an excellent armor class and magic resistance. Using it was nice (it's been a while since I've dropped any demons in an adventure) and I should probably use them more often. In the end, it was defeated without inflicting a single casualty (although it did force both the paladin and druid to flee the tower in terror with its cause fear ability)...and while in retrospect it probably should have caused more casualties through the liberal use of teleport and gate, I will not blame my lack of tactical badassery on "going soft." The fact of the matter is: I forgot about these abilities.

One hour of sleep, remember?

SO...an easy adventure to run and only a light challenge (in my opinion) for the players, thanks to a little good fortune and a heavily hung over DM. And that's okay...the con had been a looong three days (not counting the 5,000 miles of air travel), and I was happy with how the session wrapped up. I even took the time to calc out the experience and treasure take for all surviving party members...per their request. It wasn't a bad haul for the ADDKON characters.

[to be continued...]

Also mean...

Cauldron Prep

What day is it? Thursday? Whatever...it's 5am (or, rather, it was...I scrolled reddit looking for a worthwhile post but it all just made me want to vomit...) and I'm up thanks to some ungodly "beeping" that went off in our house this morning. No idea what it was. Checked all the fire alarms (and it didn't sound like them anyway). Hasn't repeated itself. But now I'm up.

Status update on "stuff:"

• The Family is doing well. Adapting to our "new normal" of having a high school kid. So far, so good. D came down with a bit of a cold (not COVID), probably from the amount of stuff on his plate, but he's gotten over it quick. Sofia's getting pretty good at rocking Take It On The Run (REO Speedwagon) on her guitar. Wife hasn't murdered me yet. All's fine.
• Soccer: I'll have a better idea of all teams after this weekend.
• Seahawks: hey! I went to the game last week which was...terrible! Not just because they lost (always bad to drop a home game), or that they lost to the Niners (which makes it even worse), but because of how they played...oh, man. It is orky football for sure but, in Blood Bowl terms, they're like the ork team that has ONE goblin catcher (that would be Smith-Njigma) and no one else with any speed/catching ability. The offense failed to stretch the field at all. And "Riq" Woolen was awful. Really, really frustrating to watch. Also frustrating to have to pay $8 for a bottle of water at the game. *sigh*
• Legal Disputes: I might have found a way to resolve my civil suit as early as next week, fingers-crossed. The events that led to the irritation I expressed last Friday turned out to be a blessing in disguise (maybe). We'll see.
• My father was in town. Had a nice visit. He's pretty hale and hearty for an old codger (pushing 80), but I worry about his mind a bit. *sigh* That's life, right?

Okay...onto gaming stuff.

Cauldron is barely a month away, and other than my day-to-day affairs (see above), this is my primary concern at the moment. Despite being on opposite sides of the globe, I've been in rather constant contact (through discord, natch) with the Euro-folks (helps that I don't get much sleep...) and things are getting exciting. Man, I'm so glad I'm going back there. Even if it SUCKS somehow, it'll still be fantastic to see everyone again.

This year they've got six gaming blocks going: two Friday (the first is a shorter, three-hour "sidekick" for folks arriving early), three Saturday, and one Sunday (after breakfast and awards). This year I'm signed up to run games in five of the six, including (*shudder*) Saturday's "night block" (9pm - whenever). In Cauldron 2023, I used that time to sleep, but retrospectively that's silly:

1. My sleep cycle is already out-of-whack from the travel.
2. I'm too keyed up by what's going on (hard to get to sleep and tend to wake before dawn).
3. I'm making the journey to play games, not nap!
4. I've got a nice long plane ride home on which to sleep (and I will).

SO: night block, here I come!

I am also the "tournament director" for this year's "Blackrazor Cup" which does not entail a whole lot of work (thankfully)...now that the adventure's been written, anyway. Probably I'l be tallying scores and whatnot in the wee hours of Sunday morning. No paper certificates this year...the con organizers got real life medals and trophies (I've seen pix). Amazing! I'm sure it will be a good time. 

[we'll see if all the players hate me after this year. It's their own fault for complaining last year's adventure was "too easy." This, however, may have been due to the way the adventure was DM'd...when I ran it for my home group  it ended in a TPK]

For my free block, I will be doing my darnedest to get into Settembrini's Chainmail game (yes, this Settembrini) which he is advertising as having space for seven, Even if I don't I might hang out and watch...regardless, I have that particular time block cleared specifically for that particular table.

Originally, I'd also kept the Night Block clear, partly out of a vane hope at sleep, but mostly because I was considering the possibility of one of Prince's epic night games (he usually brings some 10+ player extravaganza). Unfortunately, this year he ain't. Not because he won't be drinking through the night (au contraire!) but because he has games he wants to play in, for a change. However, he IS offering his own "tournament adventure" (with prize!) that he will be running himself in three different time blocks. It's called "Assault On The Beckerdrome;" the description reads:

Over the last years, you have endured and triumphed in the Blackrazor Cup, the most prestigious event in the history of the known world. Its lustre has endowed you with divine fire, but each night you weep, for lack of worlds to conquer. Yet there is hope. The earth shakes and is split asunder. An ancient fortress lies beneath. You have conquered the Blackrazor Cup, but how will you fare against the one who forged such a contest?

The ultimate challenge awaits.

So, yes. It appears I am the BBEG of his adventure. Sly devil.

[he will be paid back! In spades!]

Of the time slots I'm signed up for, four are nailed down. I'll be running a modified version of Anthony Huso's Silver Temple of Transcendent Flame in the Friday afternoon "sidekick," the BRC tourney module for Saturday morning, a new adventure that I haven't even drawn a map for yet (*headslap*) called Caul's Dark Citadel for Saturday afternoon, and MY version of I3, Legacy of the Pharoid, in the Sunday brunch spot. Of course, that one's not complete yet, either. 

[wait...checking. Checking. Yeah...no]

I'm actually probably going to have to scrap Legacy from the docket. I was only going to run the Body Banks section, but it's still 64 encounters (waaaay too many for a four-hour time slot) and less than half have been keyed. Too big, too long, too un-finished for this year's Cauldron...but I've been in contact with Kelvin Green about some collaboration on the project and it might be cool for a later Cauldron con (maybe as a multi-part running...as I did with Forbidden City in 2023). I certainly doubt I'll have time to write AND play-test the thing before con time, not with needing to do the same with Dark Citadel. I just have too many irons in the fire.

SO...I was looking through my inventory of adventures for a replacement, and I actually have a number of low level (3rd - 5th) adventures that might substitute AND be short enough. There's the Tomb of Bendan Fazier, which was a lot of fun for my home group (though, since I posted it to the blog a couple years back, it could be considered "spoiled"). There's Ice Box which, while written for OD&D is easily converted (it even uses Fiend Folio critters)...except the tournament adventure is already "cold themed." There's Lost Vault of Kadish (a stand-alone 'side quest' in Legacy). Heck, I could even run The Sunken City of Doom, my DL1 re-write; yeah, it's close to 100 encounter areas, but it's for the right levels, has pre-gens (twisted DragonLance PCs), and is mostly keyed...

Oh, wait: here's also Vermin Town, the rat-themed adventure I wrote for my own "Year of the Rat" adventure charity contest...now there's a compilation book I never got around to publishing (*sigh*). Why not? Because I drew my maps by hand and I can never get my damn scanner to work (frigging Paraguayan printer tech...). Ugh. This is a good one, but I'd need to FIND the maps for it (no idea where those are). Ooo...also The Tower of Ybarra Florin. That's an oldie but a goodie.  Okay, I have choices...I'll figure something out.

Then there's the Night Block.

I added an event here because A) sleep is for suckers, B) Prince ain't running, and C) I'm going to this thing to be active/contribute. I mean, Grutzi is running his Isle of the Dead, but I don't have a 9th level character to bring to the party (wish that I did), and pre-gens, IME, are always a bit of a crap-shoot. None of the other games in this block are particularly enticing: I'm already familiar with Black Crag and Black Mark (having reviewed them), the idea of playing a 4th level OD&D pre-gen is...nah. And there's just no way you'll find me sitting down to a game of "Ransack" (sorry, Parti...). No. Better to just run something of my own. I like to run games, after all. And running different games for different people keeps me sharp.

But what to run? Well, what I've got registered for the event is titled *something, something* Doom, but that's just a placeholder. My initial thought, actually, was to run one more session of the tournament adventure. We have eight different DMs runnng the thing (including me), but if I ran it twice, it would ensure that ALL the attendees who wanted to play would get the chance to do so.

[some quick math: there'll be about 80 attendees at Cauldron. The tournament adventure is designed for six to eight players so, with a Dungon Master, that's NINE people at a table. 9x9 = 81, right? But you subtract one ('cause I'd be running twice, and there's only one of me) giving a result that equals the con's headcount]

Plus, I'm kind of loving the adventure, and having already run it twice, I'm getting a good handle on it (there are some tricky bits). Yeah, more and more I'm considering one more session of Rivers...unless I get a message from someone else who wants to run it (which I might...there's still time). And if THAT happens, I'm thinking of running something high level. Maybe Hells Own Temple (which, re-reading it, could really stand some revisions) or Queen of the Demonweb Pits. I don't know. Something challenging. Something AD&D.

Okay, the sun's up and so are the kids...time to make breakfast. It is a perfectly beautiful Seattle morning: grey, misty, and drizzly (we desperately need rain). A little more coffee and I'll be able to tackle those maps...once everyone's out of the house.

Later gators!

: )

***EDIT: I found my maps. Oo-boy!***

Play-Testing Complete

Still at Orcas. A fine, fine day with plenty of sunshine, hiking, good fellowship, and the eating of seafood. So much seafood.

(*sips wine*)

We also finished my final play-test of the tournament module that I plan on debuting for this year's Cauldron convention. My own players (kids..they're just kids) did quite a bit better than those (adults) who sat down at my last play-test, suffering only three deaths and coming away with some 60k+ in treasure. But it was a pyrrhic victory due to...well, I'll let your imagination fill in the blanks when it comes to the whys and wherefores.

Diego was miffed (for the most part) because, in the end, they'd left so much treasure on the table. The adventure is downright fiendish...I am VERY pleased with how it functions, as it should bring a lot of grief and suffering to the players if run correctly. I need to polish up the text a bit to make sure there's proper instruction for the DMs as to HOW to run it. But this shouldn't be an easy "cake-walk" in the same way (some) people referred to last year's module.

[and just to be clear: when I ran last year's adventure for my home group, it ended in a TPK]

[which reminds me: best line of the evening tonight: "Yes, we suffered two deaths so far. But one was a suicide and the other was, also, technically a suicide." Oh, my. We laughed so hard the kids were worried I was going to faint...]

For a group of 6-8 Euro 1E aficionados...yeah, maybe they'll find a way to break the thing over their knee. And that's fine; that's part of the game. I've been seeing players wreck my crafty machinations since I was a kid...it is what players do (duh). But my job is to make them work for it; it's no good if they find things too easy. 

Iron sharpens iron. And I want my players to be honed to a hair-splitting razor.

SO...polish the text for clarity and context (in terms of running) and then I'll get it out the door to the Cauldron organizers who (it seems) have appointed me "tournament director" for this year's con. Which just means (I think) that I get to decide the winner of the tourney. Which is, like, cool and everything (so long as they provide the medals)...but I'm less concerned with 'winners' and 'losers' and more concerned that people just have a good time running (and playing) the adventure. THAT is what we're all there for, after all.

Besides, I have three more adventures I have to write/prep/test before I leave town. ALSO, I should probably get on the task of buying my plane tix to Germany. Jeez, I'm a disaster!

Okay. It's after 1:30am and I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow's our last day here and it promises to be filled with pickleball and homemade pizza (among other activities), before I'll be catching a ferry back to Sea-Town (by way of Anacortes). It is time for BED, folks...hiking Mount Constitution, watching the Sounders drub LA Galaxy, and spending a couple hours in the dungeon really takes its toll on a person. 

Besides...my wine glass is just about empty.

(*drink*)

; )

Playtest

Tonight I'll be running D&D for (presumably) random strangers.

I've finished writing the tournament module for the 2025 Cauldron convention and need to test it. Around the Table Game Pub in Edmonds has an open table "D&D" night on Wednesdays from 6pm till close, and they've told me there's space for me to run a game. 

We'll see if anyone shows up.

[I am suddenly reminded of the first time I tried to run a B/X game at my...now defunct...local game shop and having no one appear. When was that? Oh, yeah: August 8th, 2010, almost 15 years ago. Perhaps history will repeat itself...at least this time I was able to leave a couple messages on the shop's discord channel]

My own players (my kids) want me to run the game for them next Friday (when we have their friends over for a sleepover) and I will, but as this is the tournament adventure for the con -- and will be run by more DMs than just myself -- I'd like to get it tested as early and often as possible before I release it 'into the wild.' 

One VERY interesting thing: the "open D&D night" is open to all editions of the game but MOST people that show up are running/playing 5E. Taking a 1E adventure to Cauldron (where the people are expecting 1E) or running the game for my players (who know what to expect) is going to be a different experience from having to "re-train" 5E players on the fly. Yeah...I'm very interested to see how this turns out.

Hopefully, people will show up.

Regardless, I'll post a follow-up telling how things went.

; )

"Dear JB" Mailbag #33

[Dear JB #32 is still sitting on the draft board and might remain there forever...it was dumb, my response (only half penned) is sprawling, meandering, and...probably...dumb as well, the result of writing in the middle of the night after a couple of gin & tonics. In the meantime, I actually received an email from a reader asking for some JB advice...he gets the #33 stamp]

Dear JB,

As a referee, I'm always trying to improve my game, but I feel as though I've hit a plateau and don't see a clear path to improvement at the moment.

Here's my current situation. I run first edition AD&D (very nearly) by-the-book. My setting uses real world geography, some real world mythology / folklore, and a tiny bit of real world history. For the rest, my setting follows what is implied by the core rules, that is, the guidance on "The Campaign" described in the DMG pp. 86 - 93, random encounter tables, cosmology / alignment rules, and so on. I'm pretty satisfied that my players are digging this approach and I know that I am. I have 7 active players ranging in age from mid / late-twenties to early sixties. I've lost one player to the complaint that this style of play is "too mentally taxing," but I've gained two players who had only played in narrative-style 5e games before, and found the challenge of this style rewarding. I run three sessions a month, and have canceled 2 of the last 18 scheduled sessions for a lack of players able to join.

Because we follow the time-keeping rules in the DMG, "it is best to use 1 actual day = 1 game day when no play is happening," in particular, two things about the game are markedly different from games I've played in and run that do not follow those rules. First is that the players make a point of returning to safety before the end of each session. No smart player wants his character to be holed up in a dungeon or camped in a dangerous wilderness for 5 to 12 days before the next session, as his odds of survival would not be high. This facilitates different groups of players and characters playing from one session to the next. It also completely mitigates the negative consequences of a player unexpectedly missing a session that one might suffer with a freeze-time time-keeping approach. The second effect is that there is considerable "downtime" for the characters. Two of my players use this time scrupulously, two of them are spotty in taking advantage of it, and the other three mostly waste it. It has worked out exactly as Gygax suggested, "The latter tends to bring more true-to-life quality to the game, as some characters will use precious time to the utmost advantage, some will treat it lightly, and some will be constantly wasting it to their complete detriment. Time is yet another facet which helps to separate the superior players from the lesser ones."

We also follow performance rating / training rules, and each character not only gets a 1 to 4 rating for each session, but also for each downtime period. If no orders are received for a character in a given time period that garners a 4. On the other hand, a player who issues orders which take care of necessary business like convalescence, equipment purchases, money-changing, &c. or which advance the character's own goals, like information gathering, a cleric building an orphanage, &c., he earns a 1 for that character that period. Ratings of 2 and 3 only apply to partially ineffectual or nonsensical orders. One way in which we deviate from the rules (and there are very few) is that since the rating is about player skill, and players have multiple characters, the average of all of a player's characters' ratings apply as the multiplier to all of his characters' training time (and therefore cost) in order to gain levels. The seven players currently have average ratings ranging from one player at a perfect 1 up to 2.8. These ratings are posted on the campaign web site to help foster competition and attention to skillful play.

All of that set up is maybe more background than necessary to get to my real "dear JB" question. There are a lot of NPCs doing a lot of things in the setting and most of the players have visibility into much of that activity, collectively, though there are many things some players know about and others do not. It's an interesting and dynamic landscape from my referee perspective, but most of the players aren't really paying attention to it. My two strongest players are, but the other five don't seem to know what to do with it and one of those has even demonstrated not paying attention to his own past orders and results in choices he makes in subsequent orders. I'm concluding that I'm more in love with my setting than my players are, and that I'm failing to provide what most of them need to engage deeply with the setting. I have a lot of shortcomings as a referee, perhaps chief among them that I do no acting, funny voices, and almost no first-person NPC dialog. My presentation is as dry an experience as looking at a chessboard. I'm not sure that those are the shortcomings that make the game less interesting for my some of my players, but I have too many shortcomings as a referee to list. Maybe without sitting at my table it's impossible for you to really comment on my situation exactly. I'm hopeful though that you've experienced a table that this description of mine resembles and might serve as a model for suggesting what I'm missing or doing wrong. Or maybe you have ideas for how I can test the table to figure out what I might be doing wrong. Soliciting direct feedback has been only a little bit fruitful.

Doing Something Wrong

Dear DSW:

Since I haven't sat at your table, I will take you at your word (i.e. that what you've written is wholly accurate) and draw my conclusions from there.

The crux of your worry seems to be that:

"...I'm more in love with my setting than my players are, and that I'm failing to provide what most of them need to engage deeply with the setting."

despite also stating that:

"I'm pretty satisfied that my players are digging this approach and I know that I am."

along with evidence that your players are enjoying themselves: 6+ months of regular play, low turnover, good attendance...plus relatively high scores in "performance ratings," especially considering that part of their grades are based on downtime participation (!!). To me, this would all seem to indicate that your players ARE engaging with the setting on a consistent basis (albeit some are more deeply engaged than others). 

Here's the thing, DSW: You (the DM) are always going to me more in love with your setting than the players. And it is a GOOD thing that you are; if the creator does not love their creation, they will lack the energy needed to care for, develop, and grow the setting, without which there can be no game.

[yes, there can be no game without the game either (i.e. without the rules, system, etc.); however, we are already taking as a "given" that the participants wish to play D&D. Once the game is decided upon, the setting is the next thing of greatest importance]

A clear barometer of your satisfaction with your campaign is going to be measured by how much you enjoy the setting, regardless of the players' love of and engagement with the setting. If my players are wildly crazy about GhostBusters, and wish to play in a setting that resembles the film franchise, it really doesn't matter how much I want to please and appease them...I will run out of steam (eventually) because, deep down, I have no interest whatsoever in running such a game.

This is a truth that every vocational DM must eventually come to realize. 

And it makes no never mind if you do acting, funny voices, first person dialogue, etc....if this is the "price" of player engagement, then your players are looking for a different game than what you are running; these things are unnecessary to the play of the D&D game (certainly with regard to the 1st edition AD&D version you are running). My daughter loves it when I or someone else at the table does "funny voices" in an entertaining fashion, all but clapping her hands...however, she's not there for the performance, it is simply icing on the (adventure) cake. Granted, she doesn't know any different (her handful of forays into 5E were with a adolescent DM who was still doing dungeon crawls, not soap opera play), and veterans of narrative-style gaming might have different assumptions...but, then, your players continue to show up even without that jazz, right?

Now, here's the part where you (might) say:

But, JB, I get all that. What you're NOT addressing is that five of my seven players aren't engaging with the setting the way the other two are. I'm afraid that my DMing may be too dry for them, that they might (eventually) check out...like one player already did...for being too "mentally taxed" for the amount of "fun" they're having. What can I do to help them care more for the setting they're exploring?

DSW, it may well be that...so far as engagement is concerned...your players are already at the limit of their capability.

Some people just want to play; some people just want to have adventures. This is, of course, what D&D is at its heart: a game of fantasy adventure. Some players just want to swing a(n imaginary) sword and collect (imaginary) treasure. They are there for the rush, the thrill of adventure. For the challenge. "Can I make it out of the dungeon (alive)...with a fat payday?" Pushing those limits -- hopefully surviving, sometimes dying -- is what gives them their jollies. As much if not more so than the bonds of friendship and camaraderie around the table.

And while there's more to D&D than that...the building of castles, the establishment of kingdoms...for some players, adventure is enough. The 'high' is enough. They're not interested in living in the world; of sowing their own seeds of creation in the fertile soil of the setting you've created.

Adventure happens when players choose to engage with situations that you, the DM, create and provide. You write that there are "a lot of NPCs doing a lot of things in the setting," but that by itself doesn't make situation. Just because Baron BadGuy is oppressing elves in the township doesn't mean the paladin PC is going to jump on his charger and ride to battle. Just because the players hear rumors of an approaching orc horde doesn't mean they're going to organize the villagers into some sort of fighting force...they may simply decide to jet. 

For the campaign to satisfy the players, they must have a high degree of autonomy such that their choices and decisions matter (i.e. are consequential). So you can't force the issue. However, a BTB 1E campaign has an exceptional method of motivating players already built into its system: the need to pay the bills. Upkeep costs will absolutely eat up the PCs' treasury, forcing them to go out in search of adventure. You are then (as DM) given the golden opportunity of extending situation to them like a helping hand to a drowning person; little more is required (save the art of couching the situation in such terms that it doesn't seem the risk is too far out of reach, nor the reward too small for what is being asked).

But downtime activity? Building orphanages, gathering information, etc.? For players to want to engage in that type of play requires one (or both) of two things:

A) a player who is REALLY into the fantasy setting already (not your average D&D player),

B) an obvious benefit to the activity in question.

And obvious to you (the DM) does not automatically equate to "obvious to the player." It's not enough (for most players) to say, hey, the Grand Druid and his entourage are coming to town to celebrate the Solstice. Who cares? What's it to me? says the (majority of) players. What are the benefits? Where's the profit in it (literal and/or figurative). 

Some players are more invested in particular schemes for...well, for reasons that can come from any number or variety of circumstances. The paladin is tired of wondering about the alignment ramifications of leaving all these goblin orphans alive (after killing their parents in battle) and wants a place to stash them and turn them into "polite members of (human) society." Whatever. Some issues (and some situations) will appeal to some players, some won't, but that's NOT REALLY YOUR WORRY. You want the players to have autonomy; you want the players to be able to refuse situations you offer. As a DM your job is to keep offering them situations, and then working out what happens when one finally grabs their attention.

And it IS a "job;" one you do out of love (since there's no way anyone's compensating you sufficiently for the work you put in as a DM). Which is why it's so important that you love your own setting. The more you enjoy 'playing in it' (i.e. world building) the more situations you're going to dream up that you can offer your players. Eventually they'll find something that sparks their interest...regardless of whether or not your delivery of the situational information is "dry." Create exciting situations, and it won't matter how much (or how little) enthusiasm is in your voice. Fact is, if you're excited, it will come through in your communication.

Okay. Two more things:

First off, I want to address incentivizing players, especially with regard to "performance grades." I don't use these myself, though I don't fault anyone who does (I've used them in the past)...still one has to understand their practical purpose. Just as training is NOT about "sucking money out of players," but (as I've written before) about controlling the pace of the game, performance grades are NOT just a way of "evaluating" players. Rather, they serve to condition players' behavior in a way that meets the Dungeon Master's vision of game play.

The performance grades are entirely arbitrary and open to DM interpretation: what you, as a DM, consider to be 'right and proper' behavior for a thief or ranger may be VERY different from what I, as a DM, believe. Performance grades provide a "stick" with which to spank players who aren't meeting the DM's expectations, aiding all players in aligning expectations of play with a singular vision. If I want my fighters to throw themselves into battle with foolhardy abandon, I can penalize the ones who play a more cautious game by cutting their advancement time by a factor of two to four. "Don't want to play right? Watch Bob's character advance three times faster than you!"

However, I'm of the opinion that punitive measures aren't as effective at motivating players as are positive rewards ("carrots"). They can even cause players to rebel outright. 

[I still recall my days playing in a friend's Marvel Superheroes campaign and how we dealt with the "kill someone, lose all Karma points" rule: we simply said, fine, we'll play with zero karma (at which point my friend/GM instituted a "negative Karma" rule which, likewise, did nothing to disincentivize us from killing folks)]

I am not suggesting that your use of performance grades, both in active play and downtime activity, is somehow preventing your players from engaging more readily with the setting...clearly, your whole point of using them as you are is designed to encourage them to engage more deeply. I'm only saying that "negative reinforcement" is (generally) not going to motivate someone as strongly as positive incentives...especially if I (as a player) simply play a different PC while my under-performing character is locked in "training jail." 

Finally, it may be that everything you're doing is JUST FINE. When it comes to skill training of any sort (and Dungeon Mastering is a skill), the dedicated practitioner will, at times, come to a place where their skill "plateaus;" many books have been written on the subject. Most of what I've read indicates that plateaus are a period of integration and consolidation...you may have reached a point where you are simply refining and sharpening the ways and methods of running the game that you've acquired over months (or years) of play. The length of time that a person remains in such a plateau state (despite consistent applied effort) varies not only by skill and individual, but by perception...because of our "diminishing returns" we see a lack of progress, until enough time has passed that we can look back and see just how far we've come. This is the path of mastery for ANY skill (not just Dungeon Mastering)..."breakthroughs" always come faster and are more noticeable at the beginning of our journeys. What you may be seeing as a "rut" may simply be the "journeyman's grind" and, while frustrating, may be really nothing to worry about.

If YOU enjoy running the game, if YOU are in love with your setting, then just keep plugging away. In the end, everyone at the table (including yourself) is responsible for their own investment in the campaign. You can't worry too much about the players' engagement; instead, focus on your world building (developing the setting, creating situations) to ensure they have something with which to engage.

Sincerely,

JB

ASC Review: The Tower in the Lake

The Tower in the Lake (Matthew Lake)

B/X for four to seven PCs of 3rd-5th level

And so we come to the end of our list. The Tower in the Lake was actually the 25th adventure received, but it was updated with a re-scanned map to make the walls clearer...no big deal. Will we go out with a bang or a whimper? That's the real question.

For my review criteria, you may check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (three page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews short.

I'll save you the suspense: this adventure is so good that I have almost no notes.

Only quibble would be with the Magical Library: magic mouth isn't a spell in B/X (although a wizard like Thassalius certainly might have researched one), and spell books don't work like this in B/X (PCs only know the spells they know)...but since they don't impact anything (not even treasure), that doesn't matter at all. 

B/X system mastery is on full display. Wonderful...really shows what can be done with the system. The problem with B/X is the lack of durability at low levels and the lack of long-term play value after reaching Name level. But for a small, mid-level adventure like this? B/X can be really effective. 

This is an adventure site, but it's a large one: 23 encounter areas. It will probably take more than one night to complete, but not necessarily because its many nods to verticality (pits, slides, whirlpools, etc.) can be used to bypass content. However, the adventure is so cool, players will probably want to plumb its (literal) depths.

Danger level is fairly high...but not impossible!...for this level range. Probably should take at least six PCs into this one. For a party of six 4th levels, I'd expect treasure take to be about 34K total. Treasure total? 40K (and up to 8K of that is destroyable). So...perfect?

Theme is tight and well done. Creativity is delightful. I'm not going to tell you anything about this adventure, because you should have your B/X DM run it for you. If you play a different edition, you can try converting it, although for AD&D you'll want to increase the level range...maybe a 5th-6th average with adjusted magic/treasure. Monster use is excellent, making good use of B/X stuff with a couple unique guys (well-described and fully statted) that are perfectly acceptable. Some DMs will complain there are no hit points listed for the monsters, but that doesn't bother me when everything can be found in the rule book.

This adventure is a triumph and gets the full five stars (out of five). Matthew Lake should be very proud of what he's wrought. Exceptionally nice way to finish these reviews.

*****

ASC Review: Tower of the Necromancer

Tower of the Necromancer (Riley)

S&W (OD&D) for three to four PCs of 1st-2nd level

Coming to the end of this review series; this Swords & Wizardry adventure was actually the 11th one submitted, but it was pulled back to have some bits cleaned up. The polish shows.

For my review criteria, you may check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (three page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews short.

Let's talk about the "rope-a-dope:" you show your opponent (in this case the players) one thing, but then you hit them with another. Here we have a nearby tower of a known figure (Santha the Conjurer) that seems to have been taken over by some necromantic forces: reports of undead sightings and the sounds of ghostly moaning leads the villagers to speculate some sort of Evil Force has taken over the place.

Now, if I'm the player of a 1st or 2nd level character, a "necromancer" (10th level magic-user, capable of casting 5th level spells like animate dead) sounds like bad news...like, really bad news. I've written necromancy-heavy adventures before that I had players walk away from...despite the promise of good spoils...simply because they decided "we don't have enough clerical power to handle this." Fear (of death) is a Real Thing in a properly run D&D campaign, and prudent players aren't ones to simply throw their characters into the fire because an adventure site is "there."

However, as suggested, it's all rope-a-dope: there is no necromancer. Santha the 4th level conjurer has been conducting some magical experiments using captured blink dogs; the result: potions of invisible flesh that makes Santha's hired mercenaries appear as skeletons. The moaning is just the howl of captive blink dogs howling in the caves beneath the hillside tower. It's still a low-level adventure site, perfectly suitable for the PCs...assuming they're bold enough to check it out.

Riley's system mastery of S&W is evident in his execution: The adventure is easily run using the S&W book and while I have some quibbles (how does Santha have a charmed ogre? Did he use a scroll of charm monster? Okay, what about the glyph that guards his chamber?) they are minor. Even the fact that a 4th level magic-user is "conducting magical experiments" is OK...S&W doesn't place any stipulation/minimum level on MUs pursuing this kind of activity. All good.

Danger level is fairly high for a party of only three to four PCs: parties could easily blunder into (up to) eight mercenaries in the tower (supported by a decent magic-user: love to see a low-level antagonist packing a sleep spell!), while the lower level features lairs with up to six giant ('smaller') spiders, all packing deadly (if weak) poison. And the humorously named quantum ogre (he blinks!) is a pretty rough fight for a group of only four PCs. But for seven or eight? I'm okay with that.

Treasure is low, even for low level PCs: I would like to see a bit more than 5,000 g.p. worth, and this one comes in at less than half (2,514). However, there are a handful of VERY nice magic items, not to mention blink dog puppies that can be rescued. ALSO: x.p. for monsters is fairly good at low levels (assuming the party can survive and defeat them...see the note about danger!). I think that, in this case, the trade-off is fine. Probably wouldn't use this as a first adventure for low-level characters, but it's a great second excursion...the kind of thing that could get the PCs that level up they're looking for (after already banking some experience). ALSO, it would be easy to throw in an extra 2K in treasure: a couple gems, a gold choker on the ogre, and a box of silver for the mercs can close the gap. It's not like trying to make up 10s (or 100s) of thousands of treasure discrepancy.

This is solid D&D, easily four stars (out of five). Taking it to the next level would be fine-tuning the encounters/treasure, and including some ideas for the long-term repercussions of PCs not interfering. But great job.

****

ASC Review: The Warm Caves of the Ts'Ai Dragons

The Warm Caves of the Ts'Ai Dragons (Sneedler Chuckworth)

"OD&D" for PCs of 5th-7th level

*facepalm*

For my review criteria, you may check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (three page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews short.

We now reach the part of our program where adventures came in after the deadline for submission. This isn't going to have an impact on how I rate these adventures...if they're on the list, they're on the list and Mr. Gibson ("the Big Boss") has deemed them O.K. However, when it comes to tie-breakers and such in my final count, I'm going to give more weight to the adventures received earlier. Just a 'heads up.'

On to the show!

The author, one Sneedler Chuckworth, states this adventure is for OD&D. Except that every monster in it is from AD&D. Magic items list their x.p. and g.p. value as if they were from AD&D. Book magic items are taken from AD&D books like the UA. Spells are referenced that don't appear in any OD&D book...but do appear in AD&D.

This is not an OD&D adventure. Unless Chuckworth has no idea what the hell is in OD&D.

I am sorry to continue harping on this, but dammit, I'm going to continue harping on this: every edition of D&D is different. Yes, they have similarities. But they are different: they play different, they have different expectations of design, they have different levels of depth and complexity and different ramifications of long-term play. They are even designed with different objectives (comparing introductory Basic games with the more robust Advanced game, for instance). 

"Oh, it's all the same! It's all just D&D!"  No, it's not. 5E is different from 4E is different from 3E is different from 2E is different from 1E. Sure, 1E is more compatible with 2E than it is with 3rd or 4th or 5th...but it ain't the same. If you give a group a 2E PHB, DMG, and MM and then ask them to run something like A3: Aerie of the Slave Lords without any 1E books, they are going to haver a damn hard time. If my group plays OD&D and I buy an adventure that says "For OD&D" and then the monsters include quillans, sheet phantoms, fire toads, caryatid columns, earth dragons, and flail snails, then NO, I AM NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO PLAY THIS ADVENTURE.

"Just buy a Fiend Folio! You know those monsters are in the Fiend Folio!" Yes, I do. Because I am an old geezer who's been playing D&D for more than 40 years and who has played nearly every edition of D&D. But you know what? Writing this for ME is a stupid, stupid idea, because I play AD&D and if I see an adventure that's "written for OD&D" I'm going to ignore it...even though it's filled with AD&Disms. Because I Don't Play OD&D.

You want to write for AD&D? Write for AD&D. You want to include an AD&D monster in your OD&D game? Then fill out a stat block for it in the style of OD&D. Other designers have done that for this contest (see the Banshee entry for ShockTohp's ACKS adventure)...that's the RIGHT way to incorporate stuff from other editions. OR you could just write for the appropriate system, i.e the system from which you take the BULK of your material.

I feel for this author. When I used to run OD&D, I liked to use the Fiend Folio on occasion myself. But I was doing that for my home game, NOT for publication. Not for other people. 

Treasure for this adventure should be around 112K. Total treasure count is just under 154K, and that's ignoring the magical items x.p. amounts (because OD&D doesn't award x.p. for magic items...duh). Still, too much...and if it was an AD&D adventure it would be WAY too much.  But, in the end, I don't really care; I'm just annoyed. This should have been a pretty good adventure. Instead it shows me the designer doesn't know what they're doing.

One star (out of five). Do better. Show that you understand there's a difference between one type of D&D and another.

*