Thinking Out Loud - Running Multiple 5E D&D Campaigns

So I finally started a 5th edition campaign a while back and I went for an old school approach: we rolled up characters with 4d6 drop the lowest, we used old school styled character sheets, I set it in Greyhawk, and we started with The Keep on the Borderlands placed on the frontiers of the Kingdom of Keoland. I've run several sessions and it's all good but ...

When some of the players from that group were not available and really wanted to play through the rest of the adventure, my solution was to start a completely different 5E game set in the Forgotten Realms and using a completely new school approach - point buy, new style sheets, 5E published adventure book, bringing in a new and very young player, and set in the 5E Realms - as opposed to the 4E Spellplague Realms, the 3E Realms, the 2E Time of Troubles Relams, or the original recipe 1E Realms. I've run a couple of good sessions here and we are having a blast.

This coming weekend we're looking at another session of the Old School campaign due to player availability and a few things occurred to me.

First, I wasn't really looking to run two D&D games, yet once again I've somehow found myself in that position. It's a nice problem to have but it's somewhat ironic that with all the games I'd like to run I end up running two of the same game at roughly the same time.

Second, having them in two separate settings means more overhead for me and the players as far as NPC's, nations, gods, assumptions, etc.

Third, if I put them in the same setting it opens up the possibility of crossovers of both players and characters which could be a lot of fun and very helpful as both campaigns proceed.

Given that, it makes some sense to retcon the old school game into the Realms. I really like the region where Storm King's Thunder is set and I am diving in full-on in researching it and gathering material, but I would prefer to set the other game somewhere else so they're not stepping on each other and so we can explore a different part of the Realms. I need a somewhat organized kingdom .. how about Cormyr? Far enough away that it would feel like it's own thing but still on the same continent and connected to the main region I want to use anyway.

So I was all set to do this when I started to have some second thoughts. The whole point of the original campaign was to do some "old school" adventuring using the 5E system. There are a lot of old adventures that I really like and that  my players have never experienced. I want to work those in along with some homebrew stuff. I'm worried that moving the game to the Realms will lose some of that feel. Most of the old 1E adventures have a location in Greyhawk and while it wouldn't be hard to place them in Faerun I myself first encountered them in Greyhawk and that's what feels the most "old school" to me. The thing is I'm not that excited about Greyhawk on it's own at the moment - I mainly chose it because it's the first place I think of when I think of these adventures, not so much because I think the world itself is something I want to explore right now.  My players don't really know enough about the old modules or either world to have a strong opinion so this is a problem mainly in my own head.

Now I could go in a completely different direction and retcon it into my homebrew old-school setting that I put together a few years back for our Basic campaign. I had a lot of the old D&D/AD&D modules in mind for that game anyway. A homebrew setting would be the oldest of old school approaches and it trades "research" for "creation" which may be more satisfying in the long run anyway.

As a plan C or D, well, the Scarred Lands have come up a few times as one some of my players (and I) remember fondly from our 3E campaigns and I've been thinking about how we could work it in to the rotation at some point. It's an interesting mix of old school and some newer concepts and I would really like to take my players into that world again. I mostly ran some Goodman Games and Necromancer Games adventures there and I have some that I never ran that would be fun in 5E as well. There would be a lot of adaptation so it still scratches the creative itch.

After thinking through it here I may reserve Greyhawk for another run down the road, maybe original flavor Temple of Elemental Evil. I think I like the Realms/Homebrew/Scarred Lands options more than GH right now. I have to decide whether the advantages of using one setting for both games is worth giving up separation to protect that old-school feel and that may take a little more thinking. Nailing down which adventures I want to run in the "Classics" campaign would probably help. Even there though I am not driving a metaplot here- a lot of it will be up to the players.

So anyway there's one DM thinking out loud and trying to find a good answer to this. If you have any thoughts, please feel free to share.

The Apprentices vs. Stonehell - Session 1

(Prologue is here)

I told the Apprentices what I was thinking - that it would be nice to have another fast-D&D option - and they agreed. Apprentice Who was sick so he sat out this round but Red and Blaster were ready to go.

The first part of the experience was making characters. I told them 3d6 in order. There were frowny faces but no real griping other than "you know that means we're going to suck, right?". I tried to gently push them forward with the whole "part of the fun is overcoming the odds with a less than perfect character" D&D dad speech but it's clearly not a huge plus in their opinion. I did give them the chance to swap two attributes around, and that made them pretty happy - briefly.

We are playing advanced Labyrinth Lord so we have all the races and classes from AD&D and Blaster was shocked by the stat requirements for a Ranger. Subsequently Red was shocked at the Paladin - "Who has a 17 Charisma?" was the comment I believe.

Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Campaign

Apprentice Blaster was subsequently shocked to find out that Elves cannot be Rangers! His favorite race can't be his favorite class! SMACK! Welcome to the good old days son! Actually I used to think that was stupid too so I eased up here and pretty much let races access to class = race access to subclass as well. We'll figure out the level limits and stuff when it matters.

Anyway we ended up with an Elf Ranger (surprise surprise) and a Human Cleric for Apprentice Blaster, then a Half-Orc Fighter and a Halfling Assassin for Apprentice Red. They have names but we will not concern ourselves with those names until they reach 2nd level.

Couple of interesting things here:

• I like the idea of the halfling assassin so I allowed it. between this and the elf ranger thing I decided to just go with the tentative class = sub-class general guideline for now. Plus the advanced LL assassin doesn't have all that gray area stuff around what the table is for - it specifically says it's a chance to flat-out kill something under a couple of easily-met conditions. 
• Half-Orc fighter ... those were fairly popular back when in some of my circles, a very traditional choice and with no prompting from me
• Clerics - My background for the religions in this world is different than what I usually run and pretty loose so I told Blaster to make up whatever god he wants his guy to follow and tell us about it. He and Red immediately say "Talos" and start singing something from Skyrim and just tickling the heck out of themselves so apparently I need to play more Skyrim to start getting the jokes. 

This was all arranged very much on the fly so as they finished up character creation I handwaved a lot of travel time and said they headed straight for Stonehell when they left the great city of Dragonpoprt, bypassing the local town  in order to get right to the dungeon.

I'm sure it looks something like that

Stonehell is located in a box canyon which is walled off by a 20' stone wall, kind of like Helm's Deep without the fortress part. It's partially collapsed but the central section with the gatehouse is still intact. The canyon has some cave openings ala Caves of Chaos, plus there are some terrain features inside the canyon too - in short there are a lot of places to check out before entering the dungeon proper. They stopped to read the graffiti on the outside of the wall (treasure promises, warnings, etc.) and then went inside.

First stop was the first entrance on the left - empty, empty with big stone thing in the middle of the floor, then NOT EMPTY! Yeah, skeletons! A few minutes later and the skeletons are smashed to bits around the room and no one died!

Small, rubber skeletons, apparently - like these!

Encouraged by this they decided to check out a small wooded area and they manage to surprise a group of brigands waiting in ambush! A very one-sided fight breaks out and the brigands go down faster than the skeletons did, though they manage to get in a few licks in on the party.

Backtracking a bit they decide to enter a cave when the ranger notices some bear tracks and they hear a low growl form within -  a bear growl. Realizing this is likely the lair of the local mascot and good luck charm they decide to back off and check out some other options.

Heading up a nearby trail the neophyte heroes come upon a new cave with non-mascot wildlife - wolf tracks! They charge in and the wolves attack! In a flurry of vicious blows a wolf is wounded but the cleric goes down in the first round. Shocked back into reality a hard fight begins and goes on for 8 whole rounds, taking out all 4 wolves and only claiming the fighter's life along the way as an additional cost. The now somewhat less cocky party gathers up their things and heads to the nearest town, to bury the half-orc, help the cleric recover, and recruit some help.

Oh it wasn't THAT bad

DM Notes: Hey, I tried to get them to check out the hireling rules but they were not interested. All went well and they used appropriate caution until the wolf episode and well, hopefully they remember that. 

• The binding wounds rule worked well so we're definitely keeping that. 
• Assassination is not a hugely useful ability at first level as quite a bit of the time a backstab is enough to kill your target anyway - Red kept asking about rolling for assassination until I finally told him that you don't a special table to kill things with 5 hit points. Then of course with the wolves he really didn't have a chance to use it anyway.
• They got distracted trying to parley with the brigands until I reminded them that they had surprised the goons and that talking to them first would automatically skip past that. They opted to attack instead. They did track them back towards their lair, so that could be an interesting development for next time.

It was a promising run and they were amazed that we got that much exploring and fighting done in the time we were actually playing. That's a good way to start and next time we should accomplish even more as we won't have quite so much character building to do. 

Labyrinth Lord and Stonehell

So ... went a little retro over the weekend. Why?

Sometimes, after months of running 4E, as much as I like it, the pace of 2 or 3 encounters per session wears a bit. I'm in the mood for something faster. In the past this usually prompted another trip to the Caves of Chaos or Quasqeton with the Apprentices, but at this time last week I was seriously looking at playing another round of Next ... with the Caves of Chaos and some hope of moving on to the Isle of Dread which is also a part of the playtest packet now.

But ... the boys still have a bad taste in their mouths from that failed experiment last year and I don't want to have to argue them into a game. I've tried having them read it before but since it's a LOT of text and "it's a test version" reading it loses out to talking smack to their friends on XBOX live. Also, I've spent a lot of time in the Caves and it might be nice to have something totally new to explore for all of us.

Poking around online turned up some possible options but then I ran across Stonehell and after reading some reviews and flipping through the preview I decided to make an impulse purchase. It's big enough to run for a long time but I don;t need to keep up with 30 pages of notes for each level - that almost-one-page-dungeon format it uses hits a sweet spot for me for this kind of game. I went ahead and printed out the upper section but I suspect I could run it from an iPad if I needed to.

Then I got to looking at what OSR system it used - lord knows there are enough of them out there these days. Ah, Labyrinth Lord - OK, I have that, it was pretty much Moldvay Basic, right. Flip flip flip - yep. Ah, but I don't really want to go back to Elf as a class, we already have that in the B2/B1 game. Ah-ha, Advanced Companion. It's an adaptation of the AD&D races and classes to fit into B/X type games - that should do it. My main motivation here is that I don't want to have to do any conversion work to run this - I'm doing enough of that on the 4E campaigns. I want to run it as-is and see where things go without that extra layer of processing/preparation that comes with  a conversion.

So I had an adventure and some rules - what else is out there? Couple of cool things:

• The B/X headgear table - hey, we're going all the way here. I want the Apprentices to understand it's OK to have fun with this and not be too serious.
• Meatshields - the henchman generator! I can't tell you how much I like this thing - it's funny and in the spirit of the game and all that stuff and I hope it stays up forever.
• The Labyrinth Lord combat wheel - I remember the AD&D combat wheel that came out in Dragon and once I put that together I stopped using the charts completely.It's a handy thing to have. I haven't put it together yet but I expect it will be a big hit when I do.

I'm sure there are others but these 3 stood out to me.

I also added some house rules:

• Jeff's Carousing Rules - I finally get to use these!
• Chop When They Drop - because everybody likes Cleave
• Dutch Courage - because it helps
• I use Claw Carver's binding wounds rule because I like it better than my old one: Immediately after combat a wounded character may receive “first aid” to restore 1d4-1 hit points lost during that combat. This healing may be administered by the character him- or herself (if conscious!) or by a companion.
• And Shields Shall be Splintered, of course.

Splintered!

Characters die at -10 hp (it was good enough for AD&D it's good enough here) A failed "save or die" roll does not cause instant death but drops you to 0 hit points and you immediately begin the death spiral of -1 hp per round until aided or you reach -10 and die. This applies to poisons and death ray type effects. Petrification still turns you to stone, Massive damage still does massive damage, etc. Someone hit by poison can be stabilized at 0 hit points but cannot regain consciousness without a potion or spell effect to neutralize the poison. 

Level drain effects allow a saving throw and drained levels return at one per week, assuming you are not turned into a wight during the battle. 

Also, I added a tweak for weapon usage: Using two weapons gives the user a +1 to hit, using a weapon two-handed gives the user a +1 to damage. At one point I tried out letting the two-weapon user roll 2d20's and use the highest but that was too much. I think toning it down to a +1 should make it interesting without overpowering the thing. The two-hander bonus helps bump up those weapons just a bit to make the player feel like he's made a choice that matters without overpowering that option too.

Anyway there is the thinking and the rules tweaking - next up is the action report.

The New Old Campaign - Part 11: The Fungus Among Us

Back at Falcon Keep (the Keep on the Borderlands) our heroes gear up for another expedition. This time they plan to head back to the solitary cave they discovered (The Cave of the Unknown) and explore more of the dungeon within (which is Quasqueton or B1: In Search of the Unknown). Our heroes are:

• Willem the Thief - 3rd lvl
• Apollo the Elf - 2nd lvl
• Orrick the Dwarf - 2nd lvl
• David II the Halfling - 1st lvl
•  Skullduggery II the Magic-User - 2nd lvl
• Horus the Dwarf - 2nd lvl

This time the trip to the cave is uneventful and they quickly scout out the interior. Not wanting any part of the Ochre Jelly in the eastern half of the dungeon, they decided to explore more of the western side. This led to a lot of moving through dusty, empty rooms. They eventually found the fungus garden and while poking around disturbed a crab spider. As it attacked - scaring the bejeezus out of the players when they realized it had a poison bite - the party tramped all over the garden, disturbing another spider and making the battle that much more exciting.

The fight is short but brutal, as both spiders end up dead but Horus and the one remaining hench fighter both end up poisoned. Scrambling around the hall of exotic fungi the rest of the party manages to put together something they think will stop the poison and they feed it to the downed pair. Miraculously it works and after a short rest the group is back on their feet, ready to explore.

 Heading for the northwestern section of the halls they hear noises and proceed cautiously, arranging the party in a hall-fight formation. As it turns out, just in time, as they encounter a band of giant rats exploring the hall and moving in the opposite direction. After a short fight the rats lay dead and the party has suffered only a few scratches. They prepare to move on...


DM notes: This was a nice productive session that didn't take a lot of time. The Ochre Jelly in the pool room really put the fear of dying into them so they want no part of that side of the dungeon even now, months of real-time later. I had not put much into the part of the dungeon they went for first and that was probably good as they  had a chance to explore and get their confidence back up.

The Spider fight was fun but it did remind me of some of the differences between old D&D and newer D&D. There were really no terrain rules back then. I gave them some cover modifiers for moving into the fungus forest and setting off clouds of spores but there was nothing in the module and if it was a 4E game I probably would have worked up all kinds of weirdness in advance. For this I mainly went with a +2/-2 for various conditions. I also was reminded of how much I dislike instant-death poison - hated it then, hate it now. In this case if the PC fails his save vs. poison then they die in 1-4 turns. That's pretty harsh at low levels and with no magical healing. Since they were in a fungus garden I gave them a wisdom check to come up with an "antidote" that would give a poisoned character another chance to save upon consuming it. They managed to make a few doses (each un-poisoned character got one check) and the re-saves were successful, so they felt pretty good.

We then wrapped up with the rat fight in the hallway which was a nice straight-up fight - no traps, no engulfing, no poison.

For the "poison" problem I am thinking about possible house rules. One idea I am toying with is adding the condition track from Star Wars Saga Edition to the game. Something like a Crab Spider would inflict a -1 on the condition track with a failed save. Stronger poisons might inflict a -2 or more. It might even work with petrification and the like, so that if you go all 5 steps from one of these attacks you pick up a persistent condition that doesn't go away until the proper spell is cast or potion is drunk - neutralize poison, stone to flesh, etc. It's just a rough idea but it would eliminate the all-or-nothing element and give the players a chance to strategize or even retreat from a bad situation  rather than losing a character to one bad roll. I don;t want to over-complicate Basic D&D (simplicity is kind of the point) but I don't like losing a character in every other session either and this might be an acceptable compromise for us.

The New Old Campaign - Part 10

Back at the keep Orrick the Dwarf joins the group as a replacement for the fallen fighter (lost to an Ochre Jelly last session) while Skullduggery II digs into his spellbook and does some magical detecting on the treasure discovered so far. He realizes that he has been carrying a wand of paralyzation ever since the encounter with the evil magic-user back in Session 1! He also determined that the Eagle shield found by Horus was a +1 magical shield. He also takes Charm Person as his second spell, having levelled up to 2nd. Fortified, they now decide to head back to the Caves of Chaos instead of facing the horror that lurks inside Quasqueton.

Reaching the caves the party decides to see where their onetime orc companion lives and enter that cave. They pass a wall decorated with the heads of former enemies of these orcs and enter a guardroom. As fighting breaks out a second wave of orcs crashes in from behind, but the heroes are victorious nonetheless. Exploring further, they end up pinned in a large storage room with a large number of orcs and the orc chieftain bottling them up. Sensing his moment, Skullduggery casts Charm Person at the pig-faced leader.

Smiling, the orc chief walks in, arms wide, and greets his new old friend. Weapons are sheathed, backs are slapped, but language is a problem as no one in the party speaks orcish! The party moves to leave but not before Skullduggery is gifted with an ogre head and a solid, almost mournful handshake from the chief.  The group makes camp up the road a ways and discusses what to do next. 

The next morning the band heads for a different cave covered by a small wooded area. They move in but as they come to a T intersection several things happen: 

-The two dwarves at the front of the party disappear from view as they fall into a covered pit trap which promptly closes again, leaving them cut off from the group

-A group of small doglike reptile things pops up in front of the party and begins throwing javelins at them

-Another group of the things drops out of the trees and charges the party from behind

This is a terrible tactical situation as the party is reduced to 4 members -Elf, Halfling, Thief, and Mage. Combat lasts a long time and numerous weapons are dropped, bowstrings snapped, as general unluck seems to have taken over the battlefield. The Elf is badly wounded, as is the mage, but the halfling and the thief fnally finish off the kobolds, even dropping one who attempts to flee. The wounded are patched up while the dwarves are freed from the pit and the whole group heads back towards the keep.

DM Notes:

The apprentices were not at all interested in going back to B1 this time so they decided to check out the orc lair instead. They ended up cut off in the storeroom with about a dozen orcs outside who called for the chief. Fortunately the MU remembered that he had Charm Person and was eager to try it out and this led to the realization after it worked that no one had taken the orc  language. This was pretty funny and worked out nicely in the end. 

They decided to try a different cave and ended up in the nasty kobold ambush in about as bad a situation as they could be in with their two heaviest melee hitters unable to contribute, but they survived with no losses. This did show them that non-fighters could do alright at fighting though, which is probably a good thing for the long run.

I took time at the beginning of the session to remind the M-U player that he had other spells besides magic missile that might be useful at the keep. He had forgotten some of this so it helped to have a refresher as he leveled up to 2nd. Hopefully he will start using his spells more from now on - he certainly did better in this session.

Overall I am happy with the campaign so far - we're starting to see some leveling-up and some good instincts develop through both common sense and hard experience. Everyone is having a good time so we plan to continue for a good long while.

The New Old Campaign - Part 9

Picking back up in the dungeon, our heroes have ventured deep into level 1 of Quasqueton with the game paused near the throne room.

Continuing their explorations, the party discovers several empty rooms including the room of the apparent captain of the guard and discovers stairs down, but decides not to take them just yet. Moving through more hallways they eventually come to a huge irregularly shaped room with numerous pools spaced regularly throughout. 

Splitting up they each move to a different pool and begin examining the contents. Sniffs are taken, arrows are poked into various liquids, and some deductions are made, many correct, some not. There is a pool of cold water, a pool of wine (which almost puts the dwarf to sleep but he is able to fight it off), a pool of acid, a pool of green slime, a pool of dry ice - all are checked and nothing terrible happens. The one more pool is poked with a sword...

The non-carpet-carrying henchman uses his greatsword to prod a pool that has some swirling shapes within. It rears up and slaps him with a pseudopod, slaying him instantly, sword clattering across the floor. The thing in the pool slurps out of the basin it had occupied and engulfs the body, which begins to dissolve. The rest of the party begins to back towards the door while Kiran the fighter jumps in to attack the creature.This was not a wise move as Kiran had been wounded previously. Slicing into it with his greatsword, Kiran sees the creature split in two. One of the blobs stays on the hireling's body while the other strikes at Kiran, blorping on to him and slaying him as well. The party suffers complete morale failure at this point and runs for the door, fleeing out the door, out of the dungeon, and back to the keep. 

DM Notes

I have never managed to have a party get into the Room of Pools in B1 before so I was very happy to see them do it. At some point in the past I had placed the Ochre Jelly(#21) into the dry pool and I decided to keep it there, figuring there should be one terror-inducing monster on the first level and this was definitely the place to do it. Much time was spent checking pools and testing what happened to arrows dipped into them - very refreshing and not something you see a lot of in more modern skill-laden editions - as each character (and the help) went to one pool to check it out. The initial appearance of the Ochre Jelly rattled the apprentices and they were uncertain whether to fight or run, but when it killed the fighter the rout was on.

I was glad the hireling was the one examining that pool - it gave me the chance to demonstrate the jelly's power without insta-killing a PC, always nice when it works out. The warning wasn't heeded though and so another PC paid the price. Some lessons are harder to learn than others.

I did award XP for the last 2 sessions back at the keep and the Thief is now 3rd level and most of the other characters are 2nd, except for the Elf. I allowed the surviving man-at-arms to level up to a 1st level fighter and become a henchman, making him a little more survivable for the future. 

The New Old Campaign - Part 8

The action begins in the Hobgoblin Lair's torture chamber where our heroes are releasing some prisoners. They free a merchant and his wife, who each promise a reward for an escort back to the keep. They then free two men-at-arms who promise to serve for a year if they are freed. Horus the Dwarf and Apollo the Elf each take one of these bondsmen. They also free an Orc as he promises to help fight on the way out of the dungeon. 

The exit is uneventful as the party retraces its steps and heads out. The orc takes his leave once they exit the hobgoblin cave thought the Elf watches him until he can see which cave he enters. Then they depart for the keep.

They remain for 2 days, receive the promised rewards (gold from the merchant, a +1 dagger from his wife) and outfit their new henchmen with decent gear - namely platemail. Then the company sets out again, this time planning to explore the large clearing  they spotted on their initial journey to the caves. Rumor has it that a strange cave lies somewhere in the area, and they intend to explore it.

Our party consists of:

Apollo the Elf, Steven the Thief, Kiran the Fighter, Horus Bloodaxe the Dwarf, Skullduggery II the Magic User, Davyd the Halfling, and 2 Men at Arms

Within an hour of reaching the clearing, they find a rocky hill with a single cave near the top. Inside, a 10' passage leads into darkness. Entering, the push past some old broken doors, pass some niches carved into the walls, (checking for skeletons - see their very first adventure) and are startled when a magic mouth begins speaking in a loud booming voice. It accuses them of being thieves and fools and mentions that Zelligar and Rogahn will deal with them as such. Horus recognizes the names as two of the adventurers that were with Duke Sutherland when he freed Dragonport. They later left the city and were not seen again though there are several legends about them and their possible fate. The rest of the party cares little for stories from 100 years ago and pushes on. 

A short distance later the group comes across a scattering of bodies, apparently an earlier adventuring band that met with ill luck. Examining the bodies the party finds little to learn or loot and continues on through long and winding passages, finding little of interest until they round a corner and see what can only be described as a throne room.

The party finds itself in a large columned room with dual thrones atop a raised dais at the far end. There are also so rough looking men in the room who demand payment for the party's intrusion. Horus tries to negotiate but the humans demand payment, the band refuses, and combat ensues. A few minutes later, the party is looting the bodies of the 4 brigands. Horus finds a shield hanging on the wall emblazoned with an eagle and claims it, thinking it might be worth something.

 Exploring a bit further, the group finds a trophy room full of interesting creatures and creature parts. Among these is a huge dragonskin which fascinates Apollo and he takes it down, rolls it up, and orders one of the retainers to carry it. He plans to make something out of it, possibly armor, or at the very least hang it up in HIS room, not leave it here in some dusty dungeon. 

DM Notes:

This session featured an unexpected turn of events as the apprentices decided that they were taking too many casualties at the caves and wanted to explore the other place they had heard about. I had not specifically placed anything in the "Cave of the Unknown" as I assumed the boys would keep hammering the caves for a while. Since one of the reasons for doing this campaign is to give them a tour of some of the "classics" of D&D, I went to the closet and double-checked the map for B1- yep, it fits perfectly: 1 large cave-like entrance, 2 levels, some cool old-school dungeon type things - so that's the way I went. I had considered using the dungeon from B5 Horror on the Hill but I decided it was more complex than I wanted for this side-trip type dungeon. I plan to use it for an alternate starting area in this same campaign anyway.  SO "In Search of the Unknown" it was.

They liked the entrance area (the mouths, the bodies, etc) but they ignored some of the nearby doors and went off the the East and South on the map, winding down and around to the south east corner and eventually stumbling into the throne room where I had placed the bandits (#20) and a +1 shield (W) - I am using the old lists right from the module as I have never run it in-depth, only having PC's stumble across it then pull out before really digging in and I wanted to see how well it worked. So far I have no complaints.

There wasn't much combat this time, but they spent time exploring and checking torches and oil supplies so it was just fine. The trophy room was a lot of fun and the idea of one of the henchmen walking through this dungeon basically carrying a roll of carpet inspired quite a few laughs. One of the apprentices already has the "who cares he's just a hireling - he'll do what he's told" attitude already and he's never read KODT or Nodwick or anything - it's just a natural development and it's very funny to see in action again after all these years.

The New Old Campaign - House Rules

I thought I ought to post the house rules I am using for our basic red book campaign, so here they are:

1. Max hit points at 1st level 
2. Natural 20 to hit = maximum damage for that attack
3. Natural 1 to hit =  dropped weapon unless shooting into melee, in which case it means an ally is hit
4. 0 hit points= unconscious, not dead.
5. Anyone can "bind wounds" as their action for a round or after combat. Binding wounds adds a d3 hp to a wounded character and wakes up an unconscious character. It does nothing for a dead character.
6. NEW - Monster XP = 100xp per hit die

#1 is there for simple survivability and is an old favorite in every edition
#2 is as close to a "critical hit" rule as D&D needs in my opinion. I have a crit chart I used for a lot of 3rd edition but I like the simplicity of this rule better.
#3 is to counterbalance #2 and add a little humor to the game. It gives a reason to carry a second weapon, and it can also add a little danger to an otherwise routine fight. I've seen some games where Nat 1 = free attack from an enemy and I might experiment with that down the road, but I like this for now. Plus this one discourages firing into melee but doesn't completely rule it out.
#4 is to give one last tiny chance to characters before they die
#5 helps in a world where 1st lvl Clerics get no spells and healing potions are pricy. No skill or stat rolls, just a little bit recovery that can make a big difference.
#6 is new because leveling past 1st has been taking a long time and I just read about this on some other old-school blogs and like it a lot. It makes a big difference at low levels and then doesn't matter so much as they progress. I'm fine with a system where gp's = xp's but I've always thought the monsters should contribute more and with this change, they do.

New Old Campaign: Interlude

After the last few sessions I am having a bit of a crisis of conscience. I like the old-school B/X rules but I am worried that the parade of character deaths might discourage the boys from continuing. It's worse than I even remember as far as the death rate. My "bind wounds" rule helps a little, but 1 hp or even 1d3 does not put a fighter back into fighting shape, it just keeps him from dying and maybe lets him shoot a bow from the back of the party. They have started to see 2nd level as the safety zone - lots more hit points. They have also already asked if there's a way to play an elf that doesn't need 4000 xp's  to get to 2nd level. So I'm tempted to make some changes. 

We're going to finish the Keep as-is - no major changes. I was planning to run them to the Isle of Dread after this, but now I'm not sure. I had also planned to start a 1st edition AD&D campaign this fall using the Temple of Elemental Evil after they had some B/X experience under their belts. I do like my little homebrew "Dragonport" world but the Temple belongs in Greyhawk, and I don't really like world-jumping low-level characters. Plus Lady Blacksteel has not been a player in the B/X games but I would like to expose her to 1st edition. 

So my answer is this: Dragonport (the New Old Campaign) will continue after the Keep as a side campaign for me and the boys and anyone else who wants to play. It probably won't have a regular schedule but I don't want it to disappear and I don't want to convert it to a different edition - Labyrinth Lord, maybe, but not another edition of D&D. I've always wondered how a high-level BECMI game would work and hopefully we'll get the chance to explore it. I will finish out the map and place some more of the classic modules, figure my wandering monster tables, and generally flesh it out. Plus I can use a new version of the same map for my Mutant Future games down the road as a prequel campaign. 

As soon as we finish the Keep I am going to figure out a night to start the TOEE campaign with the Apprentices and the Lady and possibly some of the friends from my other 2 campaigns if they can find the time. I have 2 PHB's and a DM Screen coming via ebay and I need one more. I'll post my house rules here once I've decided what they are - probably PHB + a few items from UA, Max HP's at 1st level and that's it. We will play on a regular night or afternoon every week as much as possible so it will be the standing game and Dragonport will be more of a fill-in.

All in all the old-school future looks promising and I feel pretty good about the solution to my problem. Now if I can find time to squeeze in some Star Wars d6 and another Supers campaign everything will be perfect.

The New Old Campaign - Part 7 (July Sessions)

Having the party back together again at the Keep the team heads back to the Caves. Moving into the same cave they have been exploring for a week now and head stright back to where the goblin guards used to be. There are no gobbos, but they do find a locked door. Smashing it open they see a room full of hobgoblins. A big fight breaks out with 6 heroes on one side and 13 hobgoblins (males and females) on the other. It goes on for 9 rounds and all of the evil humanoids are slain but Thaddeus II falls as well.  The group decides to head back to the Keep as everyone is beat up.

At the Keep everyone is healed up and Orick the Dwarf is recruited to join the party. They head back to the Caves after one day of rest.

Deciding to change things up a bit the group heads into the western part of the goblin lair and encounters no opposition. they spend a few hours searching the chief's room , a common room, and a storage room and much loot is gathered - finally!

Encouraged by their finds they now head back to the hobgoblin room they fought in last time and once again kick down the door. Four males and two females now occupy the room but are quickly dispatched. 

Moving deeper into the caves they come to a torture chamber with two hobgoblin torturers watching over some prisoners chained up to a wall. Some stealth is attempted here, but their shots go wide and melee is soon joined. These two scarred hobgoblins are quite tough but fate is with the heroes and they dispatch them without losses beyond a few minor wounds. Now they begin to debate what to do with the prisoners...

DM Notes - 

This one went much better than the last few sessions with only 1 character casualty and much loot found. The prisoners are an interesting mix and the debate should be interesting as well. The party is mostly lawful with a few neutrals.

I am still debating on some changes as when 1 PC death is a "good" session it seems things are still a little more bloody than i would like them to be. 

The New Old Campaign - Part 6 (July Sessions)

After 3 days of R&R at the keep our heroes return to the Caves of Chaos:

• Apollo the Elf
• Steven the Thief
• Thaddeus II the Fighter
• Horus the Dwarf
• Isidore the Cleric
• Skullduggery II the Magic-User

Deciding they needed to pay back the goblins the group heads into the same cave they exited previously. They quickly encounter goblin watchmen near the same room as before and battle is joined. Apollo the Elf is a beast during this fight as he strikes for max damage no less than 3 times during this epic ten-round fight. It becomes a epic fight when one of the goblins runs for reinforcements and comes back with 5 hobgoblins ready to assist. Horus the Dwarf fought valiantly but was laid out cold near the end of the battle but survived. 

After the battle they discovered (among other things) a potion a discussion started about how to identify them. Informed of the possible dangers, Apollo the Elf offered Horus 150 gp to taste it. This transaction was completed and when Hours' hand faded from view they had a moment of panic then realized it was an invisibility potion. Horus then offered Apollo 300 gp to buy the potion from him and this transaction was also completed. All of this happened on the way back to the Keep to recover from injury.

After another 3 days of recovery, the team arrives back at the Caves and enters the same cave entrance. This time too they encounter a goblin watch party and engage, only to find the goblin chief and his bodyguards coming up behind them. This turns into a brutal fight for survival as these new goblins are quite a bit tougher than what they are used to fighting, and when the chief is finally slain only Apollo and Isidore are left standing among the heroes. They gather up the bodies of their friends, throw them over the back of the horses and head back to the keep. 

Here, they are fortunate enough to meet Lord Swift, castellian of the Keep, and he is full of praise for ridding his lands of that ogre (see Part 4) and saddended to hear that so many have fallen. He commands his chief cleric to raise the fallen heroes in honor of the service they have already given, though they will owe him one more service which he will disclose at a later time. The cleric complies and the group is reunited at the chapel once again. 

DM Notes -

Yeah I wussed out there. I'm trying to keep most of the party intact while playing by the book as much as I can but 4 dead characters in one trip is a lot. Plus I'm thinking about having them fight a black dragon down in the swampy section as the climax of this adventure and that will be the mission they are given. So yeah, I admit it, I didn't like the way this went and decided to stick my hand in pretty blatantly. Basic is pretty unforgiving at low levels with o hp = dead, so I am considering making some changes. That said those were 2 good fights.

The funniest part of this session was the potion-haggling. Coins were being exchanged all through this conversation as this was the first one they had found and once they figured out the dwarf had the best saves then it got serious. There has been some tension over looting dead characters, so I was glad to see them work this out peacefully.

That pretty much finished off the goblins, so next time we will see them go into the Hobgoblin lair...

The New Old Campaign - Part 5 (July Sessions)

Arriving at the caves our neophyte heroes (The thief is 2nd level, all others are 1st) examine the situation, looking at the terrain and the different caves visible from the entrance to the canyon. They decide to head for one of the lower cave mouths nearby. 

As they approach,  they see what looks like a large sleeping bear inside.  Apollo the Elf shoots it with his bow bu it does not awaken. As the group enters the cave to get a closer look, a mighty bellow startles them as an ogre steps into view from the other side of the cave and attacks! Blows are exchanged with the ogre whiffing a lot and the party inflicting some harm until the brute lands a mighty blow on Thaddeus, crushing him to the ground and slaying him instantly. Enraged the remaining heroes redouble their efforts and the mighty ogre crashes to the ground. Being trained adventurers the party loots both bodies before burying the fighter in the woods nearby. Stunned at the loss of one of their toughest comrades, they decide to press on anyway and explore another cave.

This cave shows signs of activity but the group moves down a passage without encountering anything until they walk into a room with 6 goblins ready for battle! A fight ensues and Horus and Apollo are both injured badly before all of the goblins are slain. The team loots what they can then hurries out of the cave, binds up their wounds, and heads back to the Keep to recover and recruit a new fighter.

DM Notes: This session went well for the most part though there was a stunned look on one face when the fighter took a 10-point hit from the Ogre and went from fine to dead in one shot. Low level combat is brutal,and against big creatures it's worse, and that's not unique to this edition of D&D - it was a problem all they way through 3rd, though it's mitigated somewhat in 4th.  Ogres hit hard, period. Naturally that had to be the first cave they entered...

They are somewhat skittish and that's probably a good state for low level characters and inexperienced players to be in. They are quite prepared to head all the way back to the keep after a fight in order to keep from dying though lately there has been more talk of camping somewhere nearby. They are keeping track of torches, arrows, daggers, and oil expended like old pros and it does make me smile. They are quite anxious to get to 2nd level as they see that it will make a big difference to their survivability. 

Characterwise it's looking pretty familiar - the elf uses a sword and shield and sometimes a bow so he can easily have one hand free for spellcasting. The dwarf is usually in front and has converted from battle axe to sword and shield to up his AC. The fighter was a Two-Handed Sword user and was typically the other frontline combatant - we use 5' squares on the battlemat so it's 2 PC's per rank in those 10' wide corridors. The cleric stays in the 2nd rank with the Elf and uses shield and warhammer. The thief stays at the back and shoots a bow - he has no interest in backstabbing just yet - while the magic user has turned into a dagger-throwing machine and is very careful to collect them after a battle, if he can. At this time I believe he is carrying 11 of them, plus a magical one that he does not throw.

Things I learned: Those goblins are very connected. They have deals with the ogre to help fight off intruders and with the hobgoblins too. Unfortunately for them the ogre is already dead, but I can see a terrible cascade if a party does this in a different order and has to fight the goblins, some hobgoblins, and an ogre all at once - nasty.  

The New Old Campaign - Part 4 (July Sessions)

After a long break we discover that our party of novice adventurers has moved north and west to Falcon Keep, located on the borders of human-dominated lands near the Kingdom of the Iron Crown. Our heroes are:

Apollo the Elf

Thaddeus the Fighter

Steven the Thief

Horus Bloodaxe the Dwarf

Isidore the Cleric

Skullduggery II the Magic-User

We begin as they approach the keep and are learning a bit of background on the area from the merchant they are traveling with to the Keep. At the front gate they are asked to state their names and their business, after which they are admitted to the interior of the fort.

Inside they arrange for rooms and supplies and inquire about horses. They pick up a few rumors from traders and in the tavern then settle in for the night. The next morning the heroes head out for the local tourist attraction known as the Caves of Chaos.

Taking a shortcut through the woods (instead of taking the road) they begin to encounter webs, become more and more dense as they move deeper into the forest. Pressing on they encounter 3 giant (large) spiders and quickly dispatch them. They then push forward and soon come upon the Caves of Chaos.

DM Notes:

I know this doesn't seem like a lot but this took two hours of getting back in the groove time - looking for characters, picking out mini's, hearing the background of the region, refreshing a bit on the combat rules and just generally getting back into the game, even for me. Also, the Apprentices have become a bit argumentative during their time together this summer and this will show up more in subsequent session reports. However, this was the restart session and it was good.

Quote of the night: (after being told the party was approaching the Keep) "Shouldn't we get to decide where our characters go?" DM Repsonse: "Later, yes, right now, no." They said they were done with the starter dungeon...

Things I learned:

• Horses are not in the Moldvay Basic Book. They're in the Expert book but not Basic.
• Travel times to and from the Keep and the Caves are not what I remember
• No wandering monster list! I was sure there should be some wandering monsters but there are none. If you camp overnight near one of the numbered encounter areas there is a chance you will encounter  some of those creatures but that's it.
  

The New Old Campaign - Session 3

We begin with the party camped in Room I of the Holmes basic started dungeon

Apprentice Red: Horace the Dwarf, Drazier the Elf, Skullduggery II the Magic User
Apprentice Blaster: Apollo the Elf, Logan the Fighter, and Steven the Thief

The group forms up and moves into Room L, where they find more of the underground river and a lot of glowing mosslike fungus. They tried all kinds of things with the fungus like smearing it on their swords or putting a patch of it on their shoulder, all kinds of crazy stuff - I love having new players - but it didn't really accomplish anything.

Then they step into the river and the giant crab lurking in the water attacks. Combat ensues, and in round 2 the crab scores a crit on Drazier the Elf (I go with max damage on a natural 20 for crits) killing the demihuman instantly. The rest of the party gangs up on the beast and kills it in round 3.

Pausing after the battle the groups strips the dead elf of valuables then tosses his body in the river and watches it go away (?! there's a city right over their heads ?! - new players!) then they skin the crab trying to figure out what they could do with the shell.

After this brief rest they move into Room K, a large room with more river and a pile of junk on one side. Apollo the Elf investigates and finds a skull with a dagger embedded in it, which he removes (Dagger +1, gold hilts, blue gem in pommel (100gp value) shaped more like a Bowie knife more than a regular dagger being a large single-edged weapon - probably Sea Elf work). Clearly fate is favoring him over his fellow elf in the party. The rest of the party starts looking for magical daggers too but finds nothing else of value.

Moving on, the party enters Room M and finds an underground lake, a beach, and 6 pirates digging a hole. They assume a hostile stance once they notice the party, which happens when the dwarf has another "Do you mean us harm?" moment as he calls out to them. The party says they just want to pass through the room As they can see what looks like an exit on the far side of the beach. The pirates are having none of this and refuse to let them through, telling them to "go around" and "this is our beach". Showing the beginnings of true old-school player attitudes, the group decides that no NPC is going to talk to them that way and charge! A 5 round combat follows (one of the longer ones we have had) and daggers are thrown, punches are thrown, magical weapons are used in anger , and no PC's die. New treasure is discovered, along with a hostage and some new house rules! Lemunda the Lovely, daughter of a noble in the city above, is freed and taken into the custody of Horace the Dwarf who intends to seek a reward. There is some argument over how to divide the treasure but it is quickly settled. After this the party decides to head back up to the surface to count their loot and level up.

DM Notes:

• I love having new players in the game. The fascination with the glowing moss was one example where an otherwise mundane detail caught their attention for 5 or 10 minutes trying to find cool things to do with it - no game mechanics, no skills or attributes, just some kids imagining what they would do if they found this cool stuff. The giant crab was the same way - we have this giant crab the size of the kitchen table - what can we do with it? let's try and do something cool - can we make armor out of its shell? Can we eat it? Should we throw it back in the river? Red was determined that his dwarf was going to make some armor out of it. I finally told him that armor was tough since he already had plate mail anyway, but he could have a shield made out of it in the city and that made him happy.
• Red was a little upset about his elf getting crunched but he's getting that 1st level characters are very fragile and that's why he's playing with 3 of them, so we're good.
• I added the magic dagger because with 6 characters we only have the 1 magic weapon so far and I wanted to get one more into the party. With 6 characters there is a lot of room for items and if Lady Blacksteel jumps back in I'm not sure which characters will be in play.
• Lots of house rule situations came up in that pirate fight. I decided a punch does 1d3 (that way it's not nothing but it's still less than any weapon) because one character was using a bow and ended up with a pirate in his face and didn't want to drop the bow or take the time to pull a weapon. He asked about punching and that's where we went with it. There were a lot of discussions of shooting into melee, shooting while meleed, and moving away from a melee attacker and we probably got some of it wrong but it all worked out.

The party may be done with the starter dungeon as there was some talk of moving on. If they do they will be heading for the Keep on the Borderlands, east of Dragonport, near the Great Barrier Peaks. If not, they will probably find their way to the Crypt in the starter dungeon which should be a lot of fun.

Planar Cosmologies

One of the differences between Basic D&D and AD&D (and later versions) is that other planes are a minimal part of Basic-Expert D&D. I only see a few spells and a few monsters that refer to the existence of other planes. Since this is an introductory campaign and is set on a future version of our Earth I am going to eliminate other planes entirely - they can learn about those when we try out 1st ed AD&D.

Spell-wise these are the wrinkles I see:

Dimension Door & Teleport - these use hyperspace as it would be used by starships in the long-ago golden age. So, fine we have one sort-of other dimension used for travel purposes - you still can't go there.

Commune & Contact Higher Plane - these are pretty simple. Commune lets a cleric talk to a higher power, all of which live on this plane. Contact Higher Plane refers to consulting with another being so it should work the same way - call it Contact Higher Being and don't worry about what plane they are on.

Summon Elemental - In this world, elementals live in their element, not off on some other plane full of it. So M-U's summon them from the nearest concentration of earth or fire or air or whatever.

Invisible Stalker - these are specifically mentioned as coming from another plane but they are invisible and do not appear to have any society or culture or equipment of their own. So instead, even if it is believed that they come from another plane, I'm going with a different theory. In this game Stalkers are a localized coalescence of nanites bound together and given a purpose by a magic-user casting this spell. they have no individual personality and when the spell ends they disperse into the air as if they never existed. That makes this spell fairly important as it means that sometime somewhere at least one magic-user figured out how to access and control the nanite cloud in at least one specific way. Alas, the knowledge must have died with him...

If we go to companion level games (and we may) we start bumping into the whole "Immortal" thing that was part of the teal and black sets with spells like Gate and some of the monsters that show up there. I will deal with those when they come up but I will keep the "no other planes" rule in force. Maybe gate opens up a gate to a distant continent, maybe it's a remnant of a communications protocol and opens up to an orbital facility or the moon where all kinds of weird things could live! The more oddball monsters from the various planes could be from the "Plains of Nightmare" rather than the "Plane of Nightmare" and be tied to an actual physical location.

Raise Dead spells and Reincarnation spells are comparatively easy - there is nothing that fantasy nanites cannot do, including respark a dead body.

Dragonsport - Population and Deities

Since it's the center of the campaign right now I thought I would share some details about the city:

-Population about 10,000, 70% of which is human, 10% dwarven, 15% halfling, 3% Elves, and 2% everything else. Halflings are prevalent in some sections of town and consider this "home". Dwarves have a few areas they call their own but are mostly mixed in with the others and the majority are traders or adventurers from the Kingdom of the Iron Crown located in the mountains to the north - very few consider this city "home". The Elves are similarly merchants and travellers from the Greenwood to the east rather than natives of the city, even if they happen to be staying for 10 years or more. The city is fairly cosmopolitan being a center of trade so it is possible to run across a lizardman or a party of sea elves in the streets, especially near the docks.

- Slavery is illegal within the duke's lands, as is slave-trading but there are nearby realms where this is not the case

- The city watch runs about 500 men, divided into five 100-man companies. Standard gear is leather, shortsword, and a spear. On the walls the watch carries crossbows. The duke's personal guard is about 100 men strong, clad in chain & shield with a sword, a dagger, and a crossbow. Note: 500 men is not nearly enough to strongly defend the walls of the city. It is assumed that in the event of a serious threat to the city and a potential siege situation that levies would be raised and that 2000-3000 more bodies could be pressed into service. The city has never been besieged or attacked by a large force so much of this is theory and old plans gathering dust.

Religion - There are two major deities with temples in the city plus the healers of the White Hand

One major deity is Zygag the Lawgiver: Revered as the power that laid down the basic tenets of civilization, codes of behavior, currency, and organization. A Lawful power, he is depicted as a robed and bearded male human of middle age. It is said that he walked the world for a century teaching the ways of order before ascending to godhood in the ruined citadel that once dominated the area and later became the lair of the great red dragon that gave the city its name. His priests wear grey robes and sport facial hair. Often called upon to settle disputes, they carry a staff of office marking them as priests of the lawgiver. In battle, they defend civilization in shining silver armor and wield mace and shield. Their main concern is the orderly functioning of society and respect for laws, though they do consider the expansion of society to be a secondary concern and will adventure to do just that.

The other major deity in town is Nerasoon the Builder, a lawful power also depicted as a middle aged human, clad in black robes. He is said to have been affiliated with The Lawgiver in the early days though they have separate areas of interest. Nerasoon is responsible for teaching man how to build and create everything from buildings to wagons to all manner of crafted goods. He is revered by builders and crafters throughout the city. Priests of Nerasoon are consulted on all major engineering projects within the duke's realm and have a special interest in the city walls and fortifications. His symbol is a black castle (usually depicted as a silhouette). When called upon to defend the city, clerics of The Builder will don heavy black armor and wield warhammers, throwing spells as necessary.

The Order of the White hand maintains 4 outposts in the city - one by the docks and one near each of the north, east, and south gates. They provide their normal services at each of these outposts, have regular contact with each other and often work together to solve larger problems. No one outpost is consider to be superior to the others.

Other religions exist in the city, and many forbidden cults have gathered in dark places beneath the city in years past, but these are the only open, major institutions in the city.

Dragonsport - Finance, Coinage and Treasure

- Coinage is minted by the Duke and formally called "dragons", featuring the image of a dragon on one side and a profile of the duke himself on the other. The dragon images are different, so for fakery it is not enough to just change the color of the coin, say making coppers look like gold - someone looking closely would see that the dragon was the copper type, not the correct type for gold. It's not fool proof but it does make cheap counterfeiting a step more difficult. The duke currently mints copper, silver, and gold coins. Platinum coins are infrequently minted but have been in the past and could be again in the future. The coins are commonly called "dukes" by the populace (out of earshot of the duke's officials anyway) as in "that will be one silver duke".

- Copper dukes are the standard coinage of the common man. Most transactions not handled by barter will be handled using copper coins - individiual plain or low quality meals cost a few coppers, cheap homespun type clothing is priced in coppers, very basic tools and dishes are priced in coppers. 10 coppers = 1 silver

- Silver is the standard coinage of the merchant, trader, and craftsman. The standard wage for a laborer is a silver a day (roughly a copper per hour). Good quality goods tend to be priced in silver dukes - a good meal at a decent inn, a glass of quality wine, respectable clothing. A typical merchant or guild-rated craftsman will make many daily transactions in silver, using coppers as "change". 10 silvers = 1 gold (=100 coppers)

-Electrum is an old out of date type of coinage that is not commonly found in day to day transactions. Wealthy families may have a reserve of it and it was more common in ancient days and so may be looted from old ruins, but it is not minted by modern rulers and may have limited fungibility in rural areas unless taken to the money changers.

-Gold is the standard coinage of the wealthy, nobles, and the adventuring class. They tend to operate on a different level than day to day workers and crafters and often seek specialized equipment and luxury goods. The finest clothes have a price that begins in gold pieces as do the finest of tools and most gems and jewelry. Good quality weapons and armor also are priced in gold. A night at a fine inn will typically cost 1 gold duke (more for a special room).

-Platinum has had ups and downs as a coin of exchange. It has never replaced gold as the standard upper-end currency, but it is useful for traders seeking to compact the bulk of their wealth when traveling great distances. Beyond the occasional run of platinum dukes, the other form of platinum currency that is relatively common is the trade bar - this is a 10 platinum piece weight of the metal in the form of a small bar instead of a coin with a value of 50 gold dukes. These can be stacked quite solidly in small chests and will not shift or clink as easily as loose coinage. Originally a dwarven innovation (who also make gold and silver versions), they are increasingly popular among human traders but are not typically used in day to day transactions.

- Loose gems and jewelry are another form of transportable wealth associated with the wealthy , but are not as popular with merchants and traders, being seen mainly as luxury goods. Some couriers will carry them covertly to settle long distance deals. They are also highly valued by elves and favored over large masses of metal coinage by that people.

DM Note: I do not usually make a huge deal out of what kind of coins the party finds in a treasure horde but I do like to throw in complications occasionally. It gives the players a little more to do in town if they have to go talk to a moneychanger (also a good source of news and rumors) or if a scholar gets excited about the huge ornate gold coins they pulled out of a dungeon - "Those are Imrryrrian Golden Wheels - where did you get them? That empire fell 1000 years ago!" That kind of thing. They can be an adventure hook, give me a chance to add a little color to the world when I'm in the mood and it doesn't involve a bunch of mechanical complications or new rules that need to be noted down.

I do like to throw in item quality on occasion - if a character is talking to a noble, if their outfit and gear is mostly used, copper or silver level stuff, they will probably have a harder time than if they have gold-level gear and clothing. It's not an iron-clad thing but it can lead to an occasional penalty or bonus - hirelings are impressed by the jewel-encrusted sword and gold-inlaid helmet to a degree, moreso than the blood-spattered chainmail with a few obvious patches on it. Again it's not a huge part of the game but it does help rein in the total cheapskate player and reward the player who pays attention to the details.

The New Old Campaign - Session 2

One of my players was befuddled by a Twilight marathon for this session so I let the Apprentices take 3 characters each:

Apprentice Red: Horace the Dwarf, Drazier the Elf, Skullduggery II the Magic User

Apprentice Blaster: Apollo the Elf, Logan the Fighter, and Steven the Thief

We begin with the new party coming down the stairs and deciding to go back to the room where they fought the wizard last time as they want revenge for the death of Skullduggery the First.

Breaking down the escape door, they follow a long passage to a circular room where they face a giant snake - Continuing the tradition Horace rolls a 1 for his first blow and drops his axe but the rest of the party finishes off the snake in only 2 rounds.

The snake was guarding a spiral staircase which the party followed up through 1 trap door to a ground level room up in the city, then up through a 2nd trap door into the evil wizard's workshop where they encountered said wizard and an ape that was locked in a cage. Ignoring the ape the party took on the mage and although half the group was webbed they still brought him down in round 2. Fiddling with the cage, and after a brief debate, Apollo decided to let the ape out and when it attacked the party slew it too. Much time was spent looting the room and Skullduggery II was very happy to find the mage's spellbook.

The party eventually headed back down to the dungeon and ended up in the statue room. There was some talk of using the stone to flesh scroll they had looted on the statue but I quickly described it as non-human and they decided not to. Attempting to open the other doors proved frustrating but they quickly figured out that they had to rotate the thing to face the correct door and moved on - and I was pleased at the speed with which they figured this out.

The party next came to Room H, a large stone room with a river running through the middle and a door visible on the opposite side. Here my players really began to shine - debating whether to swim across, the perils of swimming in metal armor, jumping distances, lack of catches for a grappling hook, etc and finally decided to have the thief climb across one of the sides and then retrieve a rope shot over by one of the elves. He then secured it using his body weight as the others stripped off their armor and dog paddled across clinging to the rope. I had them make strength checks to do this without incident and it went smoothly. The magic-user was saved for last as he had the lowest strength, so he simply tied the rope around him and let the rest of the party drag him across. Having successfully bypassed the river, they paused to don their armor again and moved on.

The last encounter of this session involved Room I, the sundial and mask room (Basically if the sundial is made to show 4:00 then the mask will answer one short question per day). Reading the inscription they quickly figured out how to activate the mask and then did so to test their theory, but held their silence instead of asking a question. After a few minutes of debate

(some of which was quite entertaining) they decided to ask "What dangerous evil creatures remain in this dungeon" which I thought was pretty good wording for two new players with very little guidance from the DM. So I told them: Goblins, Giant Rats, Skeletons, Humans, Ghouls, and the Dagger of Pain. I loved the way they handled it so i was pretty honest with the answer. Plus I wanted to foreshadow the dagger - those of you who have played this one before know what I am referring to - and thought this was a fun way to do it.

We were running out of time at this point so we decided to pause in this room and pick up next weekend.

DM Notes:

- I am seriously going to have to dig up a fumble chart for these guys!

- Does Moldvay Basic allow a save vs web? I couldn't see it anywhere! Most spells say if there is a save allowed so I ruled there was no save but I know 3rd ed allowed one, and I think 1st & 2nd ed did, but there's nothing about it in Basic, so I didn't give them one.

- I decided that all magic-users started with Read Magic, Protection from Evil, and 1 spell of their choice, mainly because it came up with the mage's spellbook and what would be in that kind of thing.

- I was very pleased with the way the Apprentices handled the river challenge - they sounded like old pro's, not 2nd-time gamers as they debated how to cross it! This is exactly the kind of thinking I wanted to encourage and it's exactly why I went old-school instead of new-school - under 3rd or 4th someone would have most likely used a few skill checks and moved on. This way they had to think about it as a real situation, not just a die-roll.

- The sundial and mask was more excellent play by my guys. I couldn't have asked for a better effort and it was actually a smart question. After years of having my 3rd edition crew stumped by anything they couldn't buy, charm, or stick a sword into this was very refreshing.

- Apprentice Blaster was keen on finding some were-creatures to use his new sword on. I told him there were lots of lycanthropes around in lots of different adventures.