Caves of Chaos Update: They Survived

If you've been reading the blog of late, you know that my wife and 10 year old daughter have been navigating the kobold lair in the Caves of Chaos, and as I pointed out in my previous entry, got themselves into a particularly bad spot losing 3 of the hirelings and forced to hole up in the food storage room.  I posted an entry here on how some of you might handle the escape from  the room (and the lair.)  As it turned out, they managed to live and escape.

 

A few moments after they barricaded themselves in the room, they heard a knock.  It was the cleric.  Feeling around blindly in the dark, he managed to make his way to the food storage room.  They moved the barrel they had propped against the door and let him in.  Then they proceeded to devise a plan of escape.  The elf, having infravision, was essentially the only one able to see down the long, dark cooridor, so they cracked the door open so she could get a peek.  Sure enough, two of the kobolds were positioned behind some cover at the end of the hall, bows at the ready.  They quickly closed the door, arranged some of the crates in the center of the room for their own cover, emptied one of the barrels of water, and proceeded with their plan.  Much of it was flying by the seat of their pants.

 

After taking some time to prep some spells, the cleric opened the door.  The thief, hiding in one of the barrels positioned behind the door, popped up and fired some arrows blindly down the hall.  Some arrows were fired in response, striking the barrel, and nearly knocking her over in the process.  They closed the door promptly realizing this was going to be more of a challenge than they might have forseen.  After a few moments they heard a low gutteral voice speaking out in common echo down the hall, challenging them to open the door and reveal themselves.

 

They responded by bluffing.  Attempting to convince the kobolds they had a few kobold children as prisoners in the room with them, the elf squealed out in her best kobold immitation, feigning death.  At this point, I rolled an intelligence check for the chief (who was speaking to them, although they didn't know it at the time.)  The chief failed his check, and falling for the bluff, he charged down the hallway.  Once he came into view, the elf hit him with the sleep spell.  The thief popped some arrows into him, while the cleric moved out into the hall (with a sanctuary spell castt), grabbed the chief to use as cover and dragged him into the room.  They quickly tied him up, and when he awoke, essentially used him as a shield to ensure safe passage out of the caves.

 

Overall I was impressed with how they handled the situation being newbies to the game.  While it may seem like old hat to most of the gamers who read this blog, watching new players figure out a clever means to escape a situation always impresses me as a DM.  So, they have arrived back at the keep and live to fight another day.

How Might You Handle This Scenario?

Little red X's indicate the PCs in this room

Ok, since the recent discussion of "combat as sport vs combat as war" came up on Zak's blog and on Enworld, I was curious as to how some of you old school players might handle a particular situation my wife and kid have found themselves in our Caves of Chaos game here at home.

First some background.  My wife is playing a thief, my daughter a magic-user.  The above map is that of the kobold lair in B2, Keep on the Borderlands.  The party originally consisted of the PCs, 2 fighters, and a cleric as well as a 0 level hunter who was their guide to the caves.

The PCs have been to every room except 5, where the kobold chieftain and his kobold bitches are.  They've managed to wipe out all the kobolds in the caves except for 4 regular warriors, the women and children, and the chief and his harem.  But basically most of the fighting kobolds are dead.

In our last session, things didn't go well for the party at all.  They entered area 6, which is the common room with a shit ton of kobolds.  The women and children were already huddled in the back of the room, while two kobolds stood at the entrance on either side, knowing the party was in the cave.  They were set to pop some arrows at the party as they came down the hall.

The short of it is, the magic-user is out of spells.  The cleric is out of spells.  The two fighters and the guide died in this combat.  The thief and magic-user fled and ran into room 3, the food storage room, which contains a couple of barrels of water, and some various food supplies, bones scattered on the ground, etc.  4 of the kobolds chased them, but they managed to get into the room and push the barrel up against the door.  The kobolds tried, but couldn't get the door open.  The party then heard the kobolds footsteps as they moved away from the door, and then...silence.

So, now the cleric is somewhere in the caves, but they don't know where...they don't know if he's alive or dead (he's still alive.)  The rest of the NPCs are dead, and they are holed up in this room.  They have no idea what awaits them on the other side.

My daughter's character has already determined to spend the 10 minutes required to memorize her sleep spell again.  They both have standard adventuring gear:  50' rope, grappling hook, torches, rations, etc.  At this point, they are ready to flee the caves fearing for their lives.  But they don't know what awaits them when they open the door.  They also have taken some wounds.  They are both at 3 hit points.  As a side note, they did not trigger the pit trap on the way into the cave, but they don't know it's there either.

So, I'm not sure I even have the readership to ask this question, but I'm throwing it out there anyway.  If you were in their position, what would you do?  Would you attempt to engage the kobolds in combat?  Try to run out?  What sort of plan might you come up with for escape?

My Journey Into B2: Keep on the Borderlands

I'm almost ashamed to admit that up until recently I had never run or played in Gary's B2 module.  I've never been a fan of modules in general other than for idea mining, and growing up, me and the guys never really played in any of them.  We just created our own adventures for the most part unless we were crawling through Undermountain or Night Below. 

I have read B2 over many times, particularly for Gary's advice on how to run an open-ended style game.  To me B2 is perfect for that because it gives you an introductory method on how to run a mini-sandbox.  After some years of playing, however, the generic ho-hum of the content never resulted in me actually playing or running the material within. 

Now, with all that said, my daughter, who is now 10, sees me pouring over my D&D books, and reading things about the game.  She's asked me several times if she could play, and I thought, what better way to introduce her to the game than B2?  After all it has all the classic tropes (goblins, kobolds, ogres, orcs, etc.) and it's pretty much open-ended enough as a site that I could toy with it enough to make it my own.  Plus, it would save me in having to prep for yet another game.

So, with that said, the wife decided she wanted to join in as a player too, and as she is fairly inexperienced with the game herself, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for us all to experience this module.  I don't know, I kind of feel like just as inking your own dice, playing or running through B2 is sort of like a rite of passage into the game that we all should go through at least once, especially those of us with the mindset of an "old school" mentality. 

So, the wife made a human thief named Lornella and the daughter made an elf mage named Aran.  I threw in a NPC fighter (to give them a little muscle) named Crokus, and away we went.  Eventually they met up with a cleric who is trying to retrieve an amulet from the kobold cave, a 0 level guide whom they paid to take them to the caves, and a hireling level 1 Fighter.  We are now about 3 mini-sessions in, and they've been having a blast.  Heading into the first delve into the cave was dangerous for them.  As they went to enter into the kobold lair, they were ambushed.  I decided that the kobolds would use a weighted net strung up in a tree to drop down on them then have a couple of archers in the trees to shoot any that might escape the net when it came down.  Well, Lornella and Aran managed to dodge the net, but couldn't dodge those two arrows, and both got shot, and reduced to negative hit points in their first encounter.

Naturally I start to panic a little, as I really didn't want their very first taste of the game to be a TPK (although had it happened, oh well.)  The cleric was stuck in the net and couldn't seem to get out round after round of trying.  The kobolds jumped down from the trees and attacked Crokus and the other hireling, but eventually the cleric escaped and healed Lornella and Aran. 

Now, they've managed to enter into the kobold lair, but haven't managed to get past the first entry area.  A group of 6 kobolds, then the wandering kobold troops have kept them at bay and they've really had to focus on managing their resources.  They've spent a lot of time in that one area provoking random encounters as they try to heal up and memorize spells.

I was a little concerned about my daughter playing a magic-user at 1st level.  We all know that low level mages are often a liability in a game rather than an asset.  She's gone down a couple of times, but she has never complained.  She's even asked me a time or two "Did I die?" but not in a truly disappointed way, but more of a "I'll roll a new character up" kind of way. 

All in all, it's been a great time.  They've both been enjoying it, and it's a way for us all to experience B2 together.  I'm not sure it will matter to my daughter in a few years, as she will likely grow up into her teens and forget D&D, but maybe one day she'll look back and be able to say, "oh yeah, I played in the original Keep on the Borderlands."

As a side note, I'd like to thank Zak.  I asked if anyone had any legible maps of the caves of chaos on G+ the other night, and he responded linking me to his totally awesome one-page dungeon map he did of the caves.  Really, really handy and has saved me tons of time at the table flipping through the module pages.

Anyway, as they continue to progress through the caves, I'll continue posting updates of their exploits.

So You Need an Idea for an Adventure

Yesterday one of my friends suggested we play some D&D over skype later in the evening.  So, naturally I agree before thinking and then the "oh shit I need an adventure" hits me.  I created this table a while back, mostly for writing purposes, but thought, what the hell, I'll give it a go.  After a few random rolls I was able to come up with a pretty good adventure for the group.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to play after all, because one of my friends got ill later on that night.

Here is a link to the table (hosted on Google Docs).  Now, the original chart only had the first two tables, which I used last night to make my adventure.  I added a third table on the chart this evening.  Basically all you do is pick up a d100 roll it and consult the first table.  Roll it again, consult the middle, then roll it a 3rd time and consult the 3rd table.  Keep doing this several times.  Write down your results.  If you get something that sounds cool, write it down.  Then go through, pick out the best ones, and you should have some good starting inspiration for an adventure.

I'll give you an example off the first couple of tables, of what I got.  I rolled several times, but eventually came up with these usable combinations:

Sad Prince
Whorehouse of Decadence
Cathedral of the Fatal
Mute Bride
Charming Demon
Verses of Failure
Servant of Fear

Now, the tables as they are leave out the "of"s and "the"s.  Just mix and match the words and let the imagination take over.  When I began I knew this adventure would be city based, so I took what I thought could be most useful of what I rolled for that.  So, out of those useful combinations I came up with the following notes which I scribbled down in a notebook:

"Sad Prince in disguise approaches PCs about rescuing his bride who is mute (now.)  Tracked her down to Whorehouse of Decadence which is being run by a succubus (charming demon) named Absuroma.  But first the PCs must infiltrate the Cathedral of the Fatal and steal the Verses of Failure which contain banishment ritual to banish her back to her plane."

So, a few rolls on the chart, some inspiration, and I have a couple of adventures to last at least 2 sessions.  I added some more stuff as well once the ball got rolling.  Like the fact that the Cathedral of the Fatal is being overrun by ghouls.  Why?  Because their is a priestess in the halls below the cathedral being held in a sleep like stasis because some BBEG harnessed her soul into a garnet stone and put it in a circlet which the priestess is wearing.  So the ghouls are entering the cathedral through her dreams.  Of course, this leads to even more plot hooks.  Who did this to her and why, etc.

Anyway, the chart and tables are useful for brainstorming when the old adventure writing block demon strikes.

The Blighted World of Zaoth

One of the projects I'm working on presently is a weird science-fantasy homebrew setting I'm calling the Blighted World of Zaoth.  As such, I've decided to create a separate blog to devote to the development of the world, and use my blog here to focus on my thoughts on DM theory, DnD in general, and what have you.  If you're interested, feel free to hop on over and take a peek.  It's a bit bare at the moment, but content will begin showing up quickly.


The Blighted World of Zaoth - Blog

Hexcrawling and Its Fundamental Use in Old School DnD Part 3

Previous entries: Part 1, Part 2.

In the last entry, I discussed creating the first 7 hexes including the starting location (usually a village or city, but could be any civilized area/feature) which is in the center, and at least 3 interesting locations outside of the starting location to explore.

Our starting map with 3 locations to explore

So, this next step requires a little bit of prep time, but don't spend too much time on any of the 3 locations (unless you have the time to do so, that is).  We know we have some sort of tower in hex 04.05, a ruin in 05.03, and a monster lair of some sort in 04.03.  This is the time for some brainstorming.  If you've already taken the time to think of some places/NPCs your PCs are likely to encounter in the starting village (inns, taverns, local lords, sages, etc.) now is the time to start tying them into the surrounding locations.

Why do the NPCs know about the monster lair?  Perhaps it is the home of an ogre who has been pillaging the farms of Windholm at night?  Maybe the spot of a local group of bandits who have been hijacking merchants passing through, effecting the commerce in the village.  Obviously these are quick and simple ideas, but they are presented to give you an example.  Find some way to tie these locations into your starting location.

Jot down some starting notes on each location based on their hex:

04.03 - Lair of Hedgemog the Ogre (stats here in parenthesis)  Has a group of hobgoblins working for him (stats for hobgoblins in parenthesis).  At night Hedgemog wanders countryside (50% chance the PCs might catch him in his lair at night).  During the day he sleeps in his lair and the hobgoblins protect him.

Now, if you have the time, you might want to draw out a quick map of the lair, key it with monsters, traps, etc.  And you'll need to do this for at least the first level of each of the 3 locations, but no more than the first level of each location (if it has multiple levels).  If you're pressed for time, try any number of free dungeon generator tools out there to get a layout for each location quickly, then key it up yourself.

The idea in the sandbox and/or hexcrawl is that the players have freedom of choice to go where they want and basically do what they want (and suffer the consequences therein), so you're going to want to ensure there is incentive for your PCs to want to explore at least one of the areas you've prepared.  There are any number of ways to get your PCs going.  Often most campaigns kick off in the common room of a tavern.  How will the PCs know of these locations or learn of them?  Why should they want to go there?  Perhaps they are approached by an NPC offering payment to retrieve a MacGuffin from one of these locations.  Or perhaps they just hear about one or more of them as prime unexplored locations ripe for plundering via rumors in the town.

Rumors are a great way to get the ball rolling in a sandbox, and in my opinion, offers the PCs the most flexible freedom of choice in what they choose to do.  I would start off with 10-12 rumors with half of them being either completely false or only half-true, while the other half are completely true.  Place them on a chart, and roll for one while they are in the tavern in the first night.  If they actively seek out rumors, roll a die (d4 or d6, subtract reaction adjustment but no less than 0) to determine how many rumors they hear from various occupants of the town.  Roleplaying these out can be great fun as well, and really bring the world alive for the PCs.

The key here is making them WANT to explore places you've prepared.  If you don't make them appealing, chances are your PCs can wander off into areas you haven't really prepped yet, and then you're completely flying by the seat of your pants.  Sometimes this can prove to be just as fun, and to be sure, there will always be a certain level of improvisation that goes into a sandbox or hexcrawl game anyway.

In the next post, I'll discuss topics relating to getting the PCs there (i.e. the actual crawl) from constructing random encounter tables, determining movement, weather, etc.

Hexcrawling and its Fundamental Use in Old School D&D Part 1

The first in a series of posts whereby I discuss the merits of the old school hexcrawl.

In new school era games (3e, 3.5, 4e, etc.) when PCs are expected to travel long distances to get to their next destination, it might be typical for a DM to say "after a week long travel you all arrive at 'destination x,' subtract a week's rations," for the sake of "moving the story along."  That's fine and dandy and all, and maybe the players want that at times, but let's face it, in a world of medieval/weird/apocalyptic fantasy, "getting there" is half the battle.  That's the difference between the old school game and the new school era, video game centric scaled "encounters" in modern RPGs.  In the old school, it's not always about the destination, but more about the journey.  After all, in a fantastic setting peopled with monsters and magic, all kind of things can happen when the PCs are moving through the wilderness, even if they take a populated and well traveled road.

In my present game, it won't be long before the party gets a clue to what will likely be their next destination, should they follow that path of course.  They could certainly choose to ignore it, but most likely they won't.  As such, the journey will take them almost a month, on horseback, even if they take the main road.  In a world of fantasy, a lot can happen in a month's time.  So, in essence, they'll be doing some hexcrawling for a while.  Maybe even a few entire game sessions.  A lot can happen on the way to town.

Hexcrawling has been covered in great detail all over the OSR blogging world.  There is already a wealth of information on the subject.  While some may argue semantics, at its heart hexcrawling is similar to dungeon crawling, except the "crawl" takes place above ground, often in wild, and relative uncivilized lands where lots of interesting things might happen.  It becomes even more dangerous at times than the dungeon crawl, with the probability of getting lost, running out of food, or encountering creatures and people well above the level of the party.

If handled properly, a wilderness hexcrawl can be an exciting and engaging part of your campaign that will be just as enjoyable (maybe even moreso) than the "story" you have presented them with.  So, here is my take on the hexcrawl, some pointers on how to make it engaging, and keep your players' interest in the game.

First, the basic elements of what you need for a hexcrawl are pretty much considered universal.

- A numbered hexmap of the area (preferably with hexes representing 5 or 6 miles...I like to use 6 miles) with various land and terrain features like hills, plains, scrublands, marshes, forests, mountains, radioactive volcanoes, or whatever suits your flavor.

- Populate the hexmap with some interesting locations/events the PCs will discover if they enter the hex.  Basically you're creating a key corresponding to the number of the hex you want the feature to be located in.  Obviously, at first you want to focus on the immediate areas around the hex your party will start from.  There is no need to fully flesh out some ancient ruin 20 hexes away which your PCs might never encounter.  Keep focused on what's immediately ahead of you for the time being, as it will save you hours of unnecessary prep time.  When you're initially doing this, just make small notes about the features, and worry about fleshing out major details, drawing dungeon maps, etc. until later on.  In some cases, you're just going to have to wing it.

- Create random encounter tables.  Depending on the terrain or area, you might roll for an encounter 3 times a day or 6 times.  This is usually up to the DM to determine, although there are guides for such.  The 2e DMG has a table which gives the encounter chance, number of encounters to roll per day and what not based on the terrain type the PCs are passing through.  Random encounter tables can be simple with say only 6 options if triggered, or as complex as 100.  This is up to you.  Obviously the less time you spend on the encounter tables, the less diverse the random encounters will be.

Traveling over long distances for PCs can be tedious.  It's up to the DM to keep things entertaining and engaging for the players.  Random encounters or hex features designed for your party to find should be engaging for some reason.  Perhaps the PCs will discover a village in the next hex they travel to.  But let's say that village is cursed, and its citizens can't leave the village.  The PCs can investigate and maybe find the source of the curse lies in a barrow just outside of town.  Perhaps they'll be led to free the village from the curse at the rumor of some hidden treasure in the barrow.

These types of encounters can lead to little mini-adventures on their own, and can make the hexcrawl something the players will remember and actually WANT to be engaged in.  What you want to avoid is dragging out a pointless journey with uninteresting events i.e. "you travel for half a day, you're attacked by goblins (roll out stupid pointless combat), you take up watch for the night, you encounter some wolves (roll out stupid combat), you wake up and head out again," wash, rinse and repeat...boring.  Make the journey count, and make it interesting.

Blackspire: The Sisters of Despair

More info on my little homebrew project I'm working up in the city of Blackspire, which I detailed in a previous entry.

The Sisters of Despair

These bitches will eat your heart out...literally

Deep within the vaulted crypts below the city, in a small hidden alcove, the Sisters of Despair work their heinous magics and sorceries seeking to cause turmoil and strife to the city and its citizens.

This covey of Annis hags, known as Helsha, Gryhmgas, and Myrva, have repeatedly been at the heart of several assassination plots of many of the members of the ruling Selectorate. Presently they have at least three dopplegangers in positions of power within the aristocracy, each equipped with a hag eye enabling the witches to keep an eye on their foes, and plot and scheme for their next victims.

Although their presence is known, few have dared to enter into the crypts to seek them out, and those who have, never returned. Within the confines of their lair, the witches have created a multitude of undead servants for protection including many ghouls, wraiths and spectres.

Occasionally the hags will sneak out of their lair, one posing as a beautiful prostitute to lure victims into shadowy alleys under the proposition of ecstasy. Once they have lured the unsuspecting victim, the other two will attack, dragging their prey into the sewers where he will be devoured and eaten, or worse, brought back to the lair for unspeakable and horrific experiments.

The hags have yet to break through the magical Obsidian Citadel to infiltrate the Black Cloaks, although they are constantly seeking to gain influence into the archwizard circle.

Grognardia or How I Discovered I Wasn't Alone in the Universe

This is a story which I really haven't shared yet here on BHD, but in honor of the fact that James over at Grognardia just surpassed 1,000 followers, and others are paying homage to him, I felt it was time I told this story. 

 

Back in the late 1990's, life began to change drastically for me.  After spending most of my young adolescent days in that decade playing D&D, starting with 1e then moving on to 2e, towards the end of the decade, I began college, started working to pay my way through, and gaming fell on the back-burner.  Eventually I got married and joined the Air Force in 1999, and by that time, gaming for me had completely fallen off the map.  It was, I believe, the following year when Wizards of the Coast took over TSR and revealed 3rd edition.  I recall being in a book store somewhere, picking it up and having a read through, and putting it down on the shelf.  It was strange really.  I had moved on away from the game of D&D, and after seeing the new version I felt the game had moved away from me as well.  The glory days of 2e were behind me, and the whole d20 thing just wasn't my cup of tea at all.

 

Here and there throughout the 2000's I played on occasion, when I got out of the military and returned home, but always we played 2e.  Eventually even that began to subside.  There just wasn't much material out there, and there didn't seem to be much of a niche for older editions online.  I suppose most of the old 2e players either moved on to 3e, or simply gave up on the game completely.  I discovered the Knights and Knaves forum some years ago, back when it was a ProBoards message board, but their utter hatred for 2e turned me away.  So, in many ways I felt alone in my love for the older incarnations of the game.  While most of my playing experience came from 2e, I got my introduction to the game through playing 1e, and always held a fondness for that version.

 

It was late last year, I believe, I was surfing through my feeds and noticed that one of the large sci-fi blogs, io9.com, linked an article James had written on Grognardia about Robert E. Howard.  Being a big Conan fan, I followed the link over, and from there it opened a whole new world up for me.  There was this thing they were calling an "old school renaissance?"  1e had been restored through OSRIC to allow for new material, and best of all, there was not only James, but hundreds of others who were just like me; fans of the older versions and styles of play.  This discovery ignited a fire within me again, and soon I started blogging myself about the games we all love.

 

So, congratulations on reaching 1,000 followers, James, although we know your reach in the community goes far beyond that.  Had it not been for your blog, I never would have discovered the OSR, and all the great people I've had the pleasure to meet over the past few months.

Monster: Lurghor

Lurghor

Frequency: Very Rare
No. Encountered: 1
Size: M
Move: 12 (3 in Gaseous Form)
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 8+3
Attacks: 1
Damage: 2-12
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: See below
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Magic Resistance: Sleep, Charm, Hold spells
Lair Probability: 50%
Intelligence: Very
Level/XP Value: 8/2,200 +12 per hit point

Lurghors are creatures who dwell in both the prime and negative material planes. They are often mentioned in stories and legends told by low firelight by nurse-maids and nannies as a means to scare little children into proper behavior. The Lurghor in its natural form, is a creature of solid black with green glowing slits for eyes. Its body is generally twisted into a form of horrific display (its head will be twisted around while it walks on its hands and feet, for example.)

The arrival of a Lurghor to a village is seen as the sign of a curse, and they may be attracted for a variety of reasons, however the most common is the betrayal of a lover which has resulted in a death. Lurghors are drawn to the negative energy surrounding such an event, and will quickly take hold in an area wreaking havoc in the night.

They generally dwell in small caves in a wooded or forest area near the village they are menacing. The home of a Lurghor is easily identified, as the ground itself within a 500 yard radius of a Lurghor lair will turn to a dark grayish color, and the grass and trees will be brittle, twisted and dead no matter the season.

Lurghors are able to take a Gaseous Form once per day, making them invulnerable to all attacks save magical fire or electricity. They usually take this form turning into a greenish/black mist to sneak into the homes of villagers, where they feed off the dreams of small children. Such a victim of a Lurghor is easy to identify. Although they remain alive physically, their eyes will turn to a milky white color, and they will not respond, talk, or acknowledge the presence of anyone. The only way such a victim can be restored to its prior conscious state is through the death of the Lurghor.

In combat, the Lurghor will attempt to take a gaseous form if possible to evade enemies it determines may be a challenge. In physical form, the sight of the Lurghor requires each of its opponent to make a saving throw vs. petrification, or be affected per the Fear spell. In combat, it will attack with its claw like hands which will drain one experience level each time a hit is scored in addition to its normal damage.

The Lurghor is immune to Sleep, Hold, or Charm related spells. It can only be harmed by silver, magical attacks, or +1 magical weapons. Although it partially exists in the negative plane, it is not undead, and thus cannot be turned.

Dread Rock Playtest Session 2 Recap

Cast of Characters

 

Sharaka - Fighter, 1st level, half-orc

Garik Bloodshield - Cleric, 1st level, Dwarf

Dolan the Red - Fighter, 1st level, human

Denthor - Mage, 1st level, human

 

We picked up right where we left off in session 1, using Skype and Gametable as our online virtual table top app.  Gametable really helps expedite gameplay as you can save maps and easily go back in, load the map, and you're ready to play in a few moments.  The group got a great deal of exploration out of the way in this session.  Garik's player really took the lead and did a great job.  I have mentioned him before in my Cormyr Campaign session recaps.  He is the player who tends to wander off on his own at times, however this is usually whenever we play anywhere other than a dungeon.  In the dungeon environment, he thrives as a player. 

 

Sharaka took the lead with his telescopic 10 foot pole, plugging along slowly pushing at flagstones on the floor and testing for traps.  If you've looked on the map for Dreadrock level 1-1, you may recall there is a scythe blade trap leading into the makeshift orc tavern.  Sharaka discovered this loose flagstone on the ground with his pole, and Garik investigated.  Being a dwarf, in 1e rules, he has a 50% check to detect traps in stonework.  I made the roll for him, which he passed.  He could tell by the narrow slits in either wall, coupled with the loose stone, that this was some sort of trap.  He inquired about how high the slits were from the floor, to which I replied, about waist level to a normal human.  He layed down flat on top of the stone, engaging the trap while the others stood back.  The scythes sweeped in from either side of the wall, flying back and forth as a pendulum over Garik's body as he lay on the stone, eventually coming to a stop and hanging in the middle of the hall.  I thought this was a fairly clever way to disarm the trap.

 

They pressed on, taking out the orcs in the makeshift tavern thanks to the aid of a few Molotov cocktail/oil flasks.  They continued along through the area, taking out a few more rooms with orcs, until they found a place to hold up for a few hours so Denthor could rest and re-memorize a spell.  They secured the room and prepared a watch for about 4 hours.  After rolling on the random encounter charts, the first I rolled was a human slave.  As the PCs were in a room, secured and locked, I simply had the slave come to the door and pull on its handle.  Garik replied back in orc, changing his voice.  He heard the pitter-pat of feet run away, and that was that.  The main mission the party was hired to take on in Dread Rock was the rescue of a human female who had taken up to adventuring and ran away from her wealthy father.  The wealthy father hired the group to track her down and bring evidence of her death, or either return her to Dread Rock Bluff alive.  They did not realize it, of course, but had they opened the door, they would have discovered this was indeed the girl, in rags, now a slave to the orcs.  Since Garik replied in orcish, she never spoke and simply ran from the door.  They didn't investigate any further on the matter.

 

One more roll on the random encounter table brought another pull on a door handle from outside the room.  This time, they decided to listen, to which they heard the sound of creatures speaking in kobold.  Garik and Sharaka carefully opened the door, and to their surprise, stood a group of 7 kobolds, in rags and chains, and unarmed.  The leader quickly appealed to the party to let them in, promising they were merely slaves trying to escape, and meant no ill-will to the group.  Garik decided to let them in so he could secure the door quickly.  The kobolds explained they were slaves to the orcs, who had them digging a tunnel to the surface in order to raid Dread Rock Bluff, and the road coming in.  They offered to aid the party in clearing out the orcs, if they would arm them, and set their remaining kin free.  Garik inquired about the slaves, to which the kobolds informed him there were also humans.  The party agreed to arm the kobolds with some spears from the orcs they had previously dispatched in this same room.  Garik mimicked a chant, and told the kobolds he had cast a spell which would result in their instant deaths were they to betray the party.  The kobolds, not knowing any better, believed him (or at least appeared to anyway.)

 

Once the party was ready to proceed, they decided to investigate this tunnel the kobold slaves were digging.  They had the kobolds go ahead to lead the way, and departed the room after resting.  After a few moments, the party, walking in the rear behind the kobolds, heard a click and saw the first 2 kobolds drop.  Sharaka moved ahead to look, and noticed a snapped fish line on the floor, and 2 darts coated with a liquid lying on the ground.  The two kobolds had been pierced by two more darts and died as a result.  Sharaka instructed the kobolds to be more careful and to use their spears to poke ahead on the floor.

 

The party moved on and discovered another door in the corridor.  The kobolds warned the party that the room was an orc barracks chamber, and the party decided to take the orcs out.  They opened the door, which wasn't locked, and managed to surprise the orcs.  Denthor stood in the doorway and cast a sleep spell on 3 of the orcs, then quickly ducked out of the way.  The party stood at the doorway as the remaining orcs pushed forward.  The party managed to funnel orcs out one at a time, using the threshold as a point of advantage.  After taking out 5 of them, the bodies were piled to high for any orcs to proceed.  The remaining orcs in the room turned to flee.  The party then had to spend a round moving bodies out of the way to pursue.  By the time they entered the chamber, the remaining orcs had fled, in an unknown direction.  The party decided to secure the barracks room, and rest for a full 8 hours. 

 

We called the session at this point.  This was the first time any of the orcs had managed to escape the party.  Now knowing of their presence, the orcs have called for reinforcements and are staged with shortbows and nets outside either entrance into the room.  The party will have a rude awakening when we pick back up on Sunday.

 

Post-Session Thoughts:

 

I thought the session went rather well.  So far, the party has only managed to find rooms containing orcs, and have yet to discover a few of the more interesting rooms on the level.  Now, the orcs know of their presence, and things are going to get more difficult for them to proceed.  They really liked the kobold slave twist, and I get the sense they are starting to feel the dungeon environment coming alive.  Looking at the method I used to stock it, I can see I really didn't put in nearly enough orcs.  These are veteran players, and know how to use tactics to their advantage for combat, but with only 4 party members, thus far they have had little problem getting through the combats and traps.  Of course, now that the orcs know they are there in the dungeon, the party has lost the element of surprise.  No more hopping from room to room and surprising orcs.  In fact, it's highly possible the orcs bring out the heavy on this one (that being the ogre prisoner they have for just such an occasion.)  All said, they had fun and I had fun running the session.  We're planning on playing again Sunday night with hopefully another session report soon thereafter here on the blog.

Dreadrock Level 1-2 is Coming...Soon

I've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, but I have not forgotten about Dreadrock. I have sections 1-2 and 1-3 mapped out already. I am currently working on keying 1-2, which is taking a bit because of the density of the rooms. There must be 50 rooms in this one, many of which are simply empty, but the map is big, so it's taking me a little longer to get it done.

This quadrant will be a bit more gonzo than 1-1, and will feature a scavenger hunt of sorts including finding a dead dwarven adventurer, a demonic looking stone golem, and a hobgoblin king. Oh yeah, there are Carrion Crawlers too...or whatever the OSRIC term for them is...carcass creepers I believe. But it is coming, and very soon. Probably within the next week. I'm currently prepping for my monthly table top Cormyr AD&D 2e campaign, which I'm running tomorrow night. But for those curious, no I haven't forgotten Dreadrock, it's just taking a little longer than I'd hoped. Soon though...very soon.

Fight On! #2 Available for Free for a Limited Time

Thanks to There's Dungeons Down Under for the head's up. Fight On! issue 2 is available for free for a limited time so head on over to Lulu and get it while you can.

Table of Contents:
Dedication to Dave Arneson…………………………….1
The Tower of Birds (Gabor Lux)………………………..3
The Devil’s in the Details (Kesher)……………………....6
The Penguin as Player Character (Patrick Farley)………...8
The Dragon-Blooded (Calithena)……………………….12
Knights & Knaves (Karen Collins)……………………...13
The Monster Machine (Vincent Baker)…………………14
The Darkness Beneath (Hackman)…………………..….19
Tables for Fables (Age of Fable)……………………..…26
The Seven Swords (Jacob “Badelaire” Boucher)……...…27
Shields Shall Be Splintered (J. Brian Murphy)………...…28
Panicked Mounts and Falls (Geoffrey O. Dale)…………30
The Entourage Approach (David Bowman)………….…31
Ye Olde Magic Shoppe (Jeff Rients)……………………32
Unusual & Magical Spirits (Max Davenport)……………35
Random Inn Generator (James Edward Raggi IV)…...…36
Adventure Flowchart (Dan Eldredge)………….……….44
Education of a Magic User (Douglas Cox)…………...…45
The Outdoor Map (James Maliszewski)……………...…46
The Wilderness Architect (Victor Raymond)………...…52
Barbarian Magic Items (Baz Blatt)…………………...…58
Handgonnes & Cannons (L. William Schneider)……..…59
The First Dungeon Adventure (Greg Svenson)……...…60
Dave Arneson, Blackmoor, & Me! (Robert Lionheart)…62
Interview with Dave Arneson………………………..…63
The Red Gem of High Cartography (Edsan)………...…64
The Magic of Mistworld (Steve Marsh)…………………82
Oceanian Legends (Del L. Beaudry)………………….…84
Finish the City! (Andrew Reyes)…………………...……86
Creepies & Crawlies (Jeff Rients)…………………….…87
Artifacts, Adjuncts, and Oddments (Gabor Lux)……..…88

Skype Gametable Dread Rock Game Recap

About a week ago I asked a few of the players in my group if they'd be interested in running a skype game using some type of virtual table top system, to which they expressed a lot of interest.  After testing out a few different free virtual table top programs, I eventually settled on Gametable.  I simply found it had the lowest learning curve, and was the easiest to use to me.  Last night was our first session.  I told the players I would like to use OSRIC for the game, to which most of them reacted positively.  One of my players, who had stated he would play earlier, decided to drop out once the notion of 1e AD&D came up.  He's an old school gamer, but is more interested in running newer stuff like Pathfinder.  He barely tolerates 2e in our regular table top game, and only does so because it gives us all a means to socialize, so when it came to going further back for a skype game, he simply wasn't interested.

 

My group is only mostly vaguely familiar with 1e.  We only played it for a brief time nearly 20 years ago before switching over to 2e.  I sent them the PDF of OSRIC, and we spent some time working on character creation, and then installed gametable with some added tiles and pogs, and we were off and running.  The party consisted of a human fighter, a half-orc fighter, a dwarf cleric, and a human magic user (which I was running as a NPC) all 1st level.  I was a bit concerned going into Dread Rock with only 4 characters, coupled with the fact that they didn't want to spend the time or money to get hirelings.  They are veteran players, however, and so they are mostly capable of making the right decisions in the dungeon environment in order to stay alive. 

 

It took a bit of time doing pre-game stuff combined with the fact that for some odd reason, gametable did not save the map I drew up of the part of the dungeon they were starting in, which was about 3 hours of pre-game work out the window.  Luckily the practice of laying out the environments and playing with the pogs wasn't a complete waste, as it allowed me to recreate the dungeon as they explored without too much delay.

 

As to the game itself, it didn't last long, as we got a late start before actually delving into the dungeon.  For those who may be familiar from downloading the first quadrant, the starting area in the dungeon is relatively empty and quiet.  This sort of fits to set the mood as further exploration results in more encounters and more danger.  They managed to get through a few empty rooms, before squaring off with a group of orcs in areas 3 and 4.  They also discovered a dead kobold on a torture rack in one of the rooms, so they know there are kobolds in the dungeon, but they don't know what their role in the ecology is just yet.  After slaying the 6 orcs, and looting them, they went into the hall where we stopped the session.  The next one will open up with a roll for a random encounter.

 

I liked a lot of what gametable had to offer.  I told them up front they'd need to map the dungeon out because as they moved from room to room, I was going to "fog" out the areas they'd been in previously and make them unviewable.  After a bit of exploring, it's easy to get lost in Dread Rock if you don't map it out well enough.  Laying out the area was quick and simple for the most part, and the players soon saw after moving around a few cooridors, how easy it could be to lose your frame of reference with the other areas being "fogged" back out. 

 

The program has some built in dice macros, but you have to make some of them up, which is easy enough.  I trust this group well enough to allow them to simply roll real dice at their computers and tell me their rolls.  Besides, we all like to roll real dice anyway right?  Gametable has some nice looking pogs built in for characters and monsters, but I made some custom pogs to add.  Installation is simple.  You just copy the image file into the pogs folder on Gametable in program files and you're good to go.

 

Overall we had a good time, and the group was really getting into exploring the dungeon and trying to discover its secrets.  I had a lot of fun running it as well.  I'm anxious to see how the group reacts to some of the more challenging sections of the dungeon specifically if they decide to free the kobolds who will aid them in overthrowing the orc tribe.  The plan right now is to play every two weeks on Sunday nights for a couple of hours, as that is when our schedules fit together best.  They are excited about playing again, and I'm even more excited about running the game.

OD&D and AD&D Fonts

I'm not sure how many of you will find this useful, but I did a search on the old D&D fonts, which led me to a thread on enworld with a link to a now defunct geocities page. Thankfully with the help of the way back machine, I was able to view an archived version of the page from 2009, which lists most of the fonts TSR used for OD&D and AD&D and most of their products associated with the brand. I used screengrab to snap up a pic of it, which you can find below. Some of this may be common knowledge, but there's a lot of other useful info there as well, and many variations of these fonts can be found on the web for free (i.e. Quentin Caps on http://dafont.com)

**edit** Thanks to Ohio Metal Militia, this page now has a new home. http://www.hahnlibrary.net/rpgs/tsrfonts.html

Here's the snapshot.

AD&D 2e Clone: For Gold & Glory - First Impressions

The OSR has certainly seen its fair share of retro-clones since Wizards released the OGL, but while OD&D players were enjoying retro hits like Swords & Wizardry, and 1e players were knee deep in OSRIC, we 2nd edition players were sort of lost in the wilderness.

Within the OSR "community" the 2nd edition fans have always been somewhat of the the red-haired step children. Our presence is not wanted on such popular hangouts as Knights & Knaves or the OD&D Forum, at least when it comes to talking 2nd edition anyway. Dragonsfoot has one small board dedicated to us, but considering the rest of that forum, it almost seems like a nanny ushering children away so everyone else can be in peace; "here, you all go play in the corner, you're disturbing the rest of us."

True enough, I'm not sure there is even a demand for a 2nd edition retro-clone considering many of the books are still readily available second-hand for dirt cheap prices. I believe recently I spent no more than $30 on a set of used core rulebooks (all 3), and that was with shipping. In fairness, mechanically speaking, there is little difference in the core rules of 2nd edition and those of 1st. The major differences, aside from dropping classes and races from 1st edition, were the introduction of the proficiency system, which would become the bane of most 1e players looking to move over.

Nonetheless, while there might not be a strong demand for a 2nd edition clone, it would seem that one is coming anyway. Justen Brown of Fey Square is personally working on compiling a 2nd edition clone called For Gold & Glory. His work is almost complete, and a preview edition is up for view on his blog. Presently he is completing the spell index, and working on the monsters for the book, which will be available for free to the community as a PDF download.

Having thumbed through the virtual preview, I must say, I'm impressed so far, both with the presentation and layout, and the succinct simplicity by which Justen conveys the essence of the game. Justen is focusing on just those rules which are "core" to the system, so you won't find options such as the much reviled proficiency system. And we will not see a new skill system to take its place, as I understand it. Justen has said:

"I’m not a game designer and my intention isn’t to change what has been created by professionals with twice as much experience as I."

I admire Justen's patience for taking on a project such as this, and I hope the project turns out to be a success. So far it looks like he's going in the right direction.

Updated More User Friendly Dreadrock Dungon Level 1-1 PDF

It came to my attention, that the version of level 1-1 of Dreadrock wasn't exactly user friendly. I went in and adjusted the image, along with the room numbers on the map (as my hand writing scanned in is difficult to read). I also added some notes about the dungeon as well. I think you'll find this version MUCH easier to read, print, and work with in your game. Lesson learned.

Updated download for Dreadrock Dungeon Level 1-1 PDF

Got my d30; Also a Random d30 Dungeon Oddity Table

A while back I ordered a first edition MERP boxed set, as I always wanted to play/run it, but never had the opportunity back in the day. After thumbing through the rules again for the first time in many years, I noticed that the game itself calls for a set of twenty-sided d10's. Most of you old schoolers out there are likely familiar with these dice, but I have not seen one anywhere in a number of years. The boxed set I bought second-hand came with 2 standard d20s. I presume the previous owner did not understand the games' use of the proper twenty-sided d10's and just threw in some old d20's he had laying around. An easy mistake to make. And yes, I know that MERP could easily be played by substituting other dice in lieu of the twenty-sided d10's, but call me anal. I wanted the dice the game was supposed to use.

In searching for some twenty-sided d10's I stumbled upon a site familiar to most I'm sure; http://www.gmdice.com/. They had the twenty-sided d10's available for a very low price (something like 25 cents, or maybe 50 cents each). Well, I thought this would be just as good a time as any to throw in some d30's into the order as well, since they had them available for only $1.50 each. I couldn't tell whether I was more excited to finally get myself a d30 or to get the twenty-siders I wanted!

My dice finally arrived in the mail yesterday, and I thought it would only be appropriate to make up a d30 table to celebrate the occasion.

Some folks say that the measure of "evilness" of a DM is how many save vs deaths his player has to make in a campaign, but I disagree. To me, there is nothing more thrilling than throwing out red herrings into a campaign and watching the PC's go crazy over nothing. That's where my table comes in. These are 29 random oddities that may appear in a dungeon, but have little to no impact on the PC's. Of course, you could easily use some of these to spark an adventure hook and make them actually mean something in the dungeon crawl, but if not, just roll occasionally on the table, and watch the players go nuts.

Another thought I had in making the table is the fact that often we know as DM's that dungeons are looted, restocked, looted again, and the process repeats itself, not only by the party in the campaign, but likely by many other adventurers over the years. In many entries in the table, you'll find the results of previous adventuring experiences by other adventuring parties along the way. Some examples include the soot covered hallway, which is the result of a fireball spell from a mage, or the hand hanging out of the wall as a result of a bad teleport attempt. I think these sort of oddities bring a dungeon crawl to life. So, enough rambling by me. Check out the table and enjoy.

d30 Random Dungeon Oddities Table

01. A sudden gust of wind whisks through the hall/room with a noticeablely foul odor
02. A ghostly image of a beautiful maiden passes through the walls and disappears
03. A loud, mad cackling echoes through the hall/room.
04. All torches the party are carrying flicker in and out like a strobe light for 10 seconds
05. Faint whispers echo through the hall/room
06. Shadows of 4 large humanoids appear on the walls approaching the party, but there is nothing there
07. Screams of a young woman can be heard echoing through the dungeon
08. A blue glowing orb appears in front of the party illuminating the hall/room then disappears
09. Small obsidian statue of creature with tentacled head and wings perched on a globe lies on the floor
10. The skeletal remains of an adventurer clinging to a necklace and a note which reads "For Aveyah"
11. Cultish symbol drawn in blood on the wall
12. Ritual dagger on the ground with fresh blood which never seems to dry. Even after the blood is wiped off it will reappear in minutes still wet
13. Uncovered pit trap with the remains of two adventurers imapled on its spikes
14. A group of giant rats scurries in front of the party with one carrying a gold bracelet around its neck
15. A strange fungus growing on the wall. When a PC walks near it one of its spores explodes creating a yellow gas cloud 3x3 feet. Save vs Poison or laugh hysterically for 1d6 rounds
16. A broken torture rack covered in cobwebs with the remains of a humanoid attached
17. A loose flagstone in the floor of which underneath is a small hole containing a music box
18. A messaged carved into the wall which says "Beware he who cannot be seen"
19. The remains of several giant rats scattered about all with their heads removed
20. A decayed human arm sticking out of a wall, the result of a botched teleport spell
21. A goblet with a clear liquid within resting on a table. If the liquid is consumed it makes the PC queasy, but nothing more
22. The skeletal remains of an adventurer impaled against the wall by a spear
23. The sound of a group chanting in an ancient indiscernible language echoes through the halls
24. A basilisk that has been turned to stone, probably from a reflection of his own gaze
25. Soot covers the walls, ceiling, and floor, along with the ashen remains of some humanoids
26. An open wooden chest with a leather-bound tome. If the tome is taken it will vanish and reappear in the chest
27. A broken, blood-stained altar now covered with the holy symbol of a good aligned god
28. A green slime consuming several giant rats. The slime can be easily maneuvered around by the PC's
29. One of the PC's hears a click sound as he steps on a loose flagstone, but nothing happens
30. Reroll twice and combine results

Dreadrock Dungeon - A Preview of Level 1-1

Click map to enlarge to high-res image

Here's a quick sneak peek into the first quadrant of Level 1 of Dreadrock. I am in the process of finishing up the key and putting it into a nice little PDF for download here, which I hope to have complete by the middle of the week.

This area is where adventurers will start out in the dungeon. This quadrant is the current home of the orc tribe I described in my previous entry, the Rakshir Orcs. As such, the density of monsters vs empty rooms will be a bit higher for this section. Of course, feel free to use this current map and key it however you like.

Area 1 is the entry point, via a dimension door from the tavern in Dreadrock Bluff. Naturally, you could replace the dimension door with a stairwell from a ruined keep, or a cave, whatever your preference.

**edit**

Note: This is only the first of 4 planned sections that make up the entirety of level 1 of the dungeon.  There will be multiple entrances into the dungeon in the other sections as well as multiple entrances to level 2 in those subsequent quadrants when I map them out.

Dagger Keep Dungeon Map

This is kind of random, but I was sitting around with my sketchbook tonight and just whipped this up while I was bored. Thought I'd share with you all. Feel free to use as you like, if you like. I call it Dagger Keep Dungeon. As you can see, it starts with a ruined keep with a secret trap door which leads to the dungeons underneath the keep itself. If you're looking for an easy way to key it up for a quick adventure, I'd suggest using the AD&D/OSRIC Dungeon Creator tool over at Djeryv's Graveyard. The dungeon itself has 14 rooms.