Queen Of The Demonweb Pits

I've spent...mm..."many" hours, days over the last week or two examining the old TSR module Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits. It's been a bit of an...obsession.

Or a distraction...that's probably the better word. Things have been busy...real busy...'round these parts. I'm keeping my head above water with stuff, but SOME things I should be working on (like getting my crap together for Cauldron) has just been...

*sigh* Shunted aside, I guess. 

The PROBLEM is (and this is my problem, and I realize that) I've got a couple days a week to myself, days that I should be putting together my pre-gens, putting the finishing touches on adventures, figuring out what the hell I'm going to pack, etc., etc. And I keep having to do goshdarn legal BS. Driving to and from Kent. Driving to and from downtown. Spending HOURS, literal hours out of my day in commuting and standing in lines to talk to court clerks and bond companies and legal clinics and whatnot. Just exhausting. And frustrating. And if I'm NOT doing that on my "day off" (as I was today...five hours I spent dealing with this crap, FIVE) then I'm catching up on all the other stuff I should have been doing other days of the week. Just dealing with gross incompetence on the part of other people. Just...a pain in the ass.

SO...I don't get the time I need to do the stuff I want to do. And I'm mentally fatigued and easily distracted. "Highly suggestible"...that's the state my mind is in these days. 

Enter everyone's favorite TSR punching bag, Q1.

I've mentioned the Queen a time or two on this blog, but I've never really delved into it. As a kid, I didn't own it, though my friend Matt did and he loaned it to me for an extended period. Personally, I found it fantastic, probably the most interesting and imaginative adventure (in my opinion) of the TSR era. These days, I own my own copy, and I have my own criticism of it...but I still think it's a pretty good adventure. Certainly it needs less "sprucing up" than the various DL modules. Q1 is a module that I could run...somewhat disappointingly...as is, without much trouble. The main "problem" with it is that it isn't as cool as it could be...a failure of underachievement. But it's not a big pile of crap.

However, it IS odd. Not in that it ignores the Elder Elemental God "plot" as some (notably Greyhawk Gronard) have complained. That is a big red herring as far as I'm concerned, regardless of what Gygax wrote in an ENWorld comment in his later years. No, the odd thing is that Q1 was planned as any type of "capstone" module to the G-D series AT ALL. Reading the text of D3, it seems fairly clear that Q1 occupies the same adventure space as a "side quest" or "bonus level"...except that, in this particular case, it's more of a penalty box than a bonus.

Reading the old, monochrome version of D3: Vault of the Drow (published a couple years before Q1), you see that the main way players can end up in the titular Demonwebs is by poking their noses where they really don't belong (i.e. the lowest levels of the Drow cathedral) and humiliating the avatar of the dark elves' goddess:

If Lolth flees, or is slain in her current form, a silvery (platinum) egg will be revealed. A remove curse will enable it to be opened, and whomever does so is geased to enter the astral gate on Level #1 (14) and confront Lolth if he or she is able or die trying. In the egg are an iron pyramid, a silver sphere, a bronze star of eight points, and a cube of pale blue crystal. (These items have value and use only if the party continues the adventure in the next Module (Q1, QUEEN OF THE DEMONWEB PITS).)

Note that in the description of the astral gate (area 14 of Level 1) it's made clear that this is not a particularly "good" thing:

If any individual is bold enough to walk through the projection of Lolth at 11) and then touch the "mural" he or she will be instantly drawn into the tunnel vortex and brought to the plane of the Abyss where Lolth actually dwells. (If you plan to continue the campaign, this will be handled in MODULE Q1, QUEEN OF THE DEMONWEB PITS; OTHERWISE, SUCH INDIVIDUAL CAN BE CONSIDERED AS SLAIN.)

So, instant kill for anyone who beats Lolth, gets her "prize" (the platinum egg), and figures out how to open it...unless your DM has a copy of Q1 to run. But even then: this is not a reward for beating up Lolth; there's no gold piece value assigned to this treasure. If anything, it is a cursed artifact designed to bring the goddess's tormentors to her own plane, presumably to be destroyed in some fiendish, vengeful manner. 

Probably devoured, ultimately. She is a spider, after all. 

This trip to the Abyss is a punishment for the players' hubris and greed. Why else would they possibly be invading the Great Fane of Lolth? Leave out all criticism of Sutherland and the Blumes and how "Gary's Grand Idea" was suppressed. Just look at D3 and what it contains. Look at the context, in terms of the on-going adventure scenarios: PCs are tasked with stopping the giant threat. Over time, they learn that those responsible for the giants are the Drow. They follow the Drow down into the depths of the earth and track them to their capital where they find that this is simply one rogue band of HERETICS looking to extend their power and influence in the Drow world by conquering lands in the surface world. This has NOTHING to do with the Elder Elemental God...this is just about the political ambitions of the Eilservs clan (Eclavdra and her brood):

The Eilservs have long seen a need for an absolute monarch to rule the Vault, and as the noble house of first precedence, they have reasoned that their mistress should be Queen of All Drow. When this was proposed, the priestesses of Lolth supported the other noble families aligned against the Eilservs, fearing that such a change would abolish their position as the final authority over all disputes and actions of the Dark Elves. Thereafter, the Eilservs and their followers turned away from the demoness and proclaimed their deity to be an Elder Elemental God (see MODULE G1-2-3). Although there is no open warfare, there is much hatred, and both factions seek to destroy each other. An attempt to move worship of their deity into the upper world, establish a puppet kingdom there, and grow so powerful from this success that their demands for absolute rulership no longer be thwarted, was ruined of late, and the family is now retrenching.

There it is, in black-and-white: the whole "Drow plan." Not the machinations of Lolth or the Elder Elemental God...just Eclavdra's bid for power over the people of Erelhei-Cinlu. Eclavdra's clan has turned to worship of the EEG out of sheer spite for the clergy of the fane siding with the other noble houses against Eilservs and its quest for power.  So if the party is actually "following the story" or trying to solve the "mystery" that led to the "Giant War" their trail ends with Eilservs clan (complete with yet another G3-style temple dedicated to the mysterious tentacled eye god).  Why O why wouldn't the players just want to finish up what they'd started and then retreat back to the surface, loot in hand?

Greed, of course.

At the end of the day, we ARE still playing AD&D here, and the players are insatiable treasure hunters. And where are the biggest stashes of treasure to be found in the Vault? Why, in the Drow's grand cathedral, duh. And so...once they're finished knocking over the Eilservs estate, they might as well go loot the temple, right? It's what they (adventurers) do. 

Of course, it's always possible they were pointed that direction earlier. Not only by the Eilservs clan (looking to make common cause or buy their way out of a beat-down) but by the town malcontents...the young males that roam the streets like packs of wolves. See the RAKE encounter on the Erelhei-Cinlu wandering monster table:

...roaming the streets of Erelhei-Cinlu are bands of bitter youths, often outcasts...the bands with elven-Drow members will be hostile to all they perceive as part of the system which prevails in their world, and the Dark Elves with them are of the few who are neither totally degenerate nor wholly evil -- they are haters of the society around them and see no good in it....

If the party manages a friendly meeting with a group of Drow/Drow-elves/half-Drow rakes the youths will tell them about the worship of the Demoness Lolth and the way to her "Egg." The rakes will accompany the party to the area in question if a plan which seems reasonable to them is put forth. They will also leave the Vault-Egg areas in the course of adventuring.

These RAKE encounters show up one time in 20 on the "main thoroughfares" of he city but FOUR times in 20 (20%!) when traversing the "back streets and alleyways," making this the most common encounters in the city. The longer the party spends wandering the Drow capitol, the more likely they are to run into these disaffected toughs who will steer them towards the Fane. Clearly, this was Gygax's intent based on his design.

And the players' greed will be rewarded: the monetary value alone adds up to nearly half a million gold pieces worth, even without counting all the platinum and gemstones that each member of the clergy carries on their person. Add in magical items and the 50 room dungeon can net a pretty rich haul for a half dozen high level adventurers...probably enough to gain an entire level, with combat experience added in (no mean feat for a 14th level character!). Gygax WANTS the players to sack the Fane...and likewise wants the players to confront and (presumably) to BEST Lolth in battle. It's the main ticket to the next module in the series which would otherwise...not attract players' notice?

As with everything, it's all about the Benjamins, NOT the "grand evil scheme" of a goddess (or an Evil Elemental Cthulhu-like 'thing'). The only "scheme" Lolth possesses is her plan to bring the thieving PCs over to where she resides so that she can whup up on 'em (snot-nosed brats). But the adventures in the Demonweb Pits should be considered in the light of pulp S&S fantasy...this is the stuff of Leiber. 

"Hey, Fafhrd...what say we knock over the temple while we're down here anyway?" 

"Sounds good to me Mouser!" 

[later, wandering lost in the Demonweb] "How the hell did we end up here?"

Hilarity ensues. 

This IS "old school" D&D in its purest form: players getting up to hijinx (and into trouble) because it's a darn game, not an epic story of fantasy adventure. Just because you're on module number seven of a seven part series doesn't mean you're completing some grand story arc a la The Lord of the Rings...it just means Gygax and Co. has gifted you with an incredibly extensive scenario for occupying months (or more!) of campaign time. Just as you can spend EXTRA time exploring the side caverns of the UnderDark trek, the enterprising DM can create WORLDS of adventure from the 4th level "portals" of module Q1. This is the potential of I1's Forbidden City on a much larger scale.  Which is great. And which explains (in part) why there's no Q2 or Q3...there's no need. This is not another singular adventure site (like the Hill Giants' Steading) but an open-ended situation for exploration and (probable) exploitation.

So then, what's with the polyhedrals in the platinum egg?

Ah, the sticking point in my ruminations. If Lolth just wants to summon her opponents to her Abyssal lair with the intention of devouring them, why make them jump through extra hoops to end up in her gullet? If the ultimate result will be their deaths, why the grand charade, the multi-level challenge/test? Why not just drop them wholesale into the whatever that serves as her "nest" at the heart of the Demonweb?

Well, it IS a D&D game (duh) so, of course, we can't just make it a one-way ticket to death. And, sure, you can say that Chaotic Evil divinities have minds that function beyond the ken of mere mortals like ourselves (and are insane to boot). But I think there's a fairly easy, in-world/setting answer here. 

Not everyone is worthy of being being food for the goddess.

As a demon queen, an Abyssal goddess, and a giant spider, I keep coming back to the theme of HUNGER. The Abyss is pure chaos and destruction (evil)...the source of all entropy, eroding and disintegrating everything over time. Demons, as beings, are intelligent manifestations of that entropy...to us humans, they appear as ever-hungry, eternal devourers. Eat, eat, eat...bodies and souls, they consume all. This is one of the reasons I like Huso's "demon rules" (from Dream House of the Nether Prince): in addition to his mixing of of AD&D with Christian theology and myth (something I also dig on), he "gets" the hunger inherent in such beings and has cheerfully codified a whole, fat-based economy for the creatures (nice). And SPIDERS...man, they eat, with some consuming 10% of their body weight daily. If I ate 16 pounds of food per day...um...that would be a LOT. It's brings to mind reminisces of Tolkien's Shelob and her un-satiable hunger. 

But, as said, Lolth is a goddess. And while an eternally hungry demon spider by nature, she still has the pride of a queen. And not everything is a fit meal for a queen's consumption...not even the interlopers who murdered her clergy and ransacked her temple before smiting her (material) form. Besides, she has time...plenty of time (if the players succeeded in destroying her material form she is confined to the Abyss for a century, after all). Time enough to "play with" her food...for her own amusement.

Thus the polyhedrals...thus the testing. Make the players jump through her hoops, waste their resources, feel the grinding power of fear and entropic forces as they struggle through her demonweb. Struggle provides seasoning to the meal. And they humiliated her (on their own plane of existence), and now that the shoe's on the other foot, payback is a bitch, baby. To me, it makes perfect sense. Plus, what does she care if the gnolls (envoys from Yeenoghu) or trolls (Vaprak) get destroyed in the process...even her driders (failures of their own "tests")? The demonweb is a demi-plane construct that is but a small part of her Abyssal realm...who knows how many "demonwebs" she has spun over the millennia? How many webs do the spiders around your home spin? 

[September and October in Seattle is "spider season;" I knock down webs all the time...though I usually leave the spiders alive (they eat the flies). And they put them right back up again within hours]

The whole of Q1...at least the first three levels...are, thus, a proving ground of sorts for the player characters, designed to lure them in, deeper and deeper into her web. As flies will struggle, becoming more hopelessly entangled, they are drawn in by dribbles of treasure, slowly losing their resources to attrition, before finding their way to the 4th level with its extra-planar dimensional gates. I will say that I don't have (and never had) much issue with the steam-powered "spider-ship" that acts as Lolth's palace (keep in mind that there was no such thing as "steam-punk" in 1980)...it is assumed to be one of many "palaces" the Queen has stashed around the multiverse (just as the "Dream House" of Orcus is something of a demonic "Summer Villa")...this one just happens to be some sort of mobile war machine, used for conquest on other planets.

Of course, the spider ship is not on a Prime Plane planet at the moment: it is currently anchored in the Abyss (as inferred from the text describing the plane, the text explaining how the ship sometimes makes appearances on the Prime, and the fact that Lolth is herein, confined to the ship after having had her material form destroyed). Which means, of course that ALL the penalties and magical issues (reduced magic item potency, inability of clerics to regain spells, etc.) should apply as parties explore Lolth's palace. This might be quite the rude wake-up call, if PCs just spent an inordinate amount of time celebrating their visits to other worlds on Level 4...they may have been lulled into thinking "oh, good, everything's back to normal"...when, in fact, it isn't. The laissez-faire attitude of Lolth's palace minions might also contribute to this false sense of confidence.

Not that it matters terribly...I'd imagine most groups are going to end up in a TPK. I've run Q1 exactly one time: it did not end well for anyone other than Lolth. Which is probably about right...the BEST players should probably hope to achieve is escaping with their tails between their legs and as much treasure as they could stuff in their bags of holding, portable holes, etc. Actually defeating the Demon Queen of Spiders on her own plane?  Nah. My over-powered, psionic-heavy bard (dual-wielding a hammer of thunderbolts and a vorpal short sword) didn't make it out alive. You think your group could?

Mm.

All right, that's enough for today. I started this post last night (LATE at night) but had to finish it up this morning. I've got two weeks before I'm on a plane to Germany...time to buckle down.

Storming the Forbidden City

SO...

For the Cauldron convention, I decided I would run a number of scenarios based on the classic (TSR) adventure I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City, an AD&D (1E) module I've blogged about on more than one occasion.

There was, of course, a little impishness to my choice: the (main) convention organizer (the much esteemed Settembrini) is an outspoken critic of David "Zeb" Cook, author of Forbidden City. While I agree that there's plenty to criticize about Zeb's work, it's not ALL bad, and I'm trying, Ringo, to be a Good Shepherd these days...even when it's so darn hard not to be the overly negative 'Tyranny of Evil Men.'

[that's a 90s film reference for you young 'uns]

ANYhoo...I1. Great adventure (IMO) and one I hadn't run in a while. Also, fairly massive in scope (if sketchy in the details): a whole city full of potential danger and antagonists. Far too much for a 4-hour convention time slot...and, yet, the adventure as originally conceived was designed for tournament (convention) play.  The thought that struck me: can I rehab this thing and make it a showstopper?

Having decided to give it a shot, I hit upon the following strategy:

1. I would offer three separate, successive scenarios, all set in the Forbidden City.
2. Each scenario would "ramp up" in difficulty (expected level of participating PC).
3. Each scenario would present a different environmental/situational challenge, despite using the same theme.
4. Each scenario would offer enough reward ("treasure") to level up the presumed party, allowing players who wished to continue to play each successive scenario.

For the first scenario ("To Rescue A Prince") I used the original tournament scenario from the module (section "A" of the I1 publication). Section A consists of a linear map with 10 encounter areas, including several challenging set pieces. For this scenario, I changed very little of the original scenario; designed for six characters of levels 4th - 7th level, the original pre-gens actually average 6th level. So, I tightened it up by making sure no pregens under 5th would be allowed, made sure I had eight available, and upped the treasure take to ensure that even the 5th level PCs could expect to rise in level...should they survive and succeed at their objective.

I removed the sleep gas trap (it really doesn't make sense, and the reverse gravity field is enough as far as the "reasons" for its inclusion) and changed the bugbears to skulks, which I felt were a little more thematic given the jungle theme while retaining (more-or-less) the danger level (semi-invisible backstabbers are on-par with wookies that more easily surprise).  I previously wrote about the play-testing of this scenario, and found that four hours was just a tiny bit too short to get through, though I chalked that in part due to the party's wizard getting eaten by crocs in the first encounter and thus having some difficulty with the more populated encounters (tasloi and whatnot).

[unfortunately, even though the Cauldron party retained their MU (and, in fact, carried a second spell-caster...a fighter/magic-user) the convention group would still fail to make it to the final encounter in the four-hour time slot]

My second convention scenario ("The House of Horan") was also taken directly from I1. The wizard Horan is named as the mastermind behind the newly organized and ambitious raiding groups from the City; he resides with his apprentice in a well-kept, walled compound that contains his house, gardens, and more than a few guardsmen (bullywugs, leopards, and...*sigh*...bugbears). For a con, I set the adventure one week following the first, giving adequate time for the party to recover their strength and (as background/intro to the scenario), discover through careful scouting this "suspicious stronghold" in the midst of the ruined city.

Horan's house is quite a different scenario from the linear affair that is the original tournament adventure. It is, in fact, extremely open: a classic housebreaking situation, the PCs are given full autonomy to decide how they approach the thing. It is exceptionally dangerous, even for a party of 6th - 8th level PCs; the first time I play-tested, it resulted in a TPK. The second play-test wasn't much better, despite the PCs knowing (somewhat) what to expect...it's just very difficult to tackle a 12th level wizard in his home, if he's prepared for such a possibility with reasonable defenses. 

[the Cauldron players fared all right: a couple deaths, a couple zero-outs, but they managed to conquer the wizard while playing on the edge of their seats. It was a near thing...which is the way I like to run adventures, just by the way]

For the third scenario ("Shrine of the Demon Goddess"), I crafted an entirely new adventure: a three level, traditional dungeon of 27 encounters for 7th - 9th level characters. As readers might surmise from the title there is, in fact, a demon in the thing: a type V demon, inspired by (and foreshadowed by) the first encounter location of the tournament adventure:

"The walls of the alcove are worked with carvings of snakes and men in a pastoral scene and at its back stands a large statue of a snake-bodied, six-armed woman."

The adventure module, as published, has no real "base of operations" or headquarters of yuan-ti...something that's been pointed out by plenty of folks, along with a general "incompleteness" to the thing. But the very incompleteness provides plenty of potential for DMs/designers to add to the Forbidden City...which is what I did, creating a temple within a temple, complete with catacombs, remnants of the prior (pre-snake) religion/culture, and a Hell-like cavern section full of dretches and assorted badness, including a pool of inky black capable of transforming normal folks into snake-folk.

The City: lots of room for more lairs.

Good stuff, in other words.

Scenario three also has plenty of treasure squirreled away, at least three large pockets of it. When play-tested at home, my players found troves #1 and #3...the Cauldron players found #2 and, yes, it all turned out as decidedly deadly as a DM could ask for (if you're giving away big heaping piles of loot, there better be the potential for a decent body count). 

*ahem*

ANYway...as I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City is available at DriveThru for a grand total of $4.99 (PDF only...sorry), it's easy enough for people to see the bulk of my first two scenarios, including maps. As for the third scenario? Eh...I'll probably just make it available here on Ye Old Blog as a free download in the next few days...just as soon as I can get my maps scanned. And, yes, it will contain my notes/changes (especially treasure counts) for the first two scenarios. Look for that...mm...Friday, probably.

All right...that's enough for now. I'll talk some of the specifics of my Cauldron play experience in a future post.

: )

Writing Adventures

I got back into Seattle on Tuesday. My grandmother passed away yesterday (Wednesday); I got the call at the same time I was placing flowers on my mother's gravestone, one week after her burial.

Life goes on.

***

In addition to all the "real world" stuff I've got on my plate at the moment, I'm currently engaged in a crap-ton of adventure writing. I mean, a LOT.

The re-write/re-purposing of the I3-I5 Desert of Desolation series has been temporarily suspended. Not because it's not a great idea (I mean...I love it), that it's really not suitable (even as an open region of my campaign world) for exploration by characters under 3rd level or so.  And all my players are about to start over (Friday afternoon) with brand-spanking new 1st level characters.

TPKs have a way of resetting things.

SO, I need some low-level stuff to get them up to snuff. Because I've been busy, and because I needed a breath of fresh air, I took the time to comb through the racks and a game shop near my grandmother's house in Missoula. Shout out to Retrofit Games, which had an absolutely beautiful store and friendly/helpful staff, who were able to get me something sufficient for my needs (as well as great recommendation for a cheeseburger in town: Frugal's. Get "the Classic Fix"). 

What I got, was a 20 page DCC Lankhmar adventure module written by Michael Curtis called Grave Matters. I am on record as a "non-fan" of the DCC system (which I've played before, multiple times), but it's close enough to B/X...which is close enough to AD&D...that I can make it function with minimal work.

And I mean minimal. Curtis knows his stuff ("Duh," says all the people who own Stonehell Dungeon, etc. However, this is my first product of his so far as I know). For a measly $10, I got a book with TWO adventures (Grave Matters and Madhouse Meet), neither of which suck, and perfectly suitable for PCs of 1st and 2nd level. The treasure counts are even (well, almost) correct, which is the usual thing you find lacking in OSR games.

SO...yeah, Lankhmar-esque adventure is perfectly fine for my Bandit Kingdom Boise. And with a little x.p. under their belts, it should be a simple matter of slipping the group a treasure map to get them out into the desert...probably a nice way to leave behind past shenanigans.

But campaign stuff isn't the only thing for which I'm writing. Turns out I'm going to a game convention this year...my first since the pandemic...and even though it's not till October, I plan to be well-prepped for the three game slots I'm slated for. The con is called Cauldron, "the OSR EuroCon" and it's supposed to be a celebration of 1st edition AD&D that will play out over three days in Hessen, Germany. Fortunately, it is an international affair and so games will be run in English (the international language of tourists). 

Room and board...and beer...appears to all be included in the ticket price, but you have to bring your own books and dice, and I'm cognizant of my responsibility to represent the USA well (currently, I'm the only Ugly American on the docket). Because I am old and lazy, and because it is one of my most beloved adventure modules, I am re-writing I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City into something suitable for a three-part, con-style adventure series that...um...doesn't suck(?) too much (??). 

Con games are tricky: you have a few hours to get down to business, and (hopefully) provide a fair amount of game play, with a satisfying (or conclusive) end. Cauldron also has the additional challenge of being run with ADDKON rules (Germany's version of the FLAILSNAILS conventions)...which for me means that I'm not running these as one-offs but as adventures that will impact the PCs even after I've left their schönes Land (und bier) behind. No apocalyptic party-nuking scenarios, just good clean AD&D.

ANYway. It should be great, but I want to play-test those, too. And ideally, that will mean getting my current group up to 5th & 6th level by the end of the summer. Doable...but a tall order nevertheless.

Especially considering Prince of Nothing just announced his (third) annual NoArt-Punk contest. And, of course, I want to enter (again). And, of course, I want to put forth a good showing and build on what I learned in the last two NAP events. And THIS year, the theme is "high level" D&D, something that holds a special place in my heart. My last two entries (one of which was a finalist and got a place in the book) were both written for parties of 10th-14th level. I'm thinking this year's will be more in the 9th-12th level range, but I already have an idea for it and it's a little on the ambitious side: something on the scale of 60-some encounters instead of my normal 30ish. Which (to give you some perspective) would be around 50% larger than all three scenarios I'm writing for Cauldron combined. No small feat, especially considering I need to draw the maps and I suck at maps.

But NAP III isn't due till November 30th. Prince suggested I write it on the long flight back from Germany to Seattle. We'll see.

Yeah: a lot of adventure cobbling going on at the moment, some of it fairly ambitious. But working with monsters and traps and treasures and fantasy scenarios is a welcome respite from dealing with all the other "stuff" that's going on in my life at the moment. And these respites help keep me...mm...stable? Not sure the word I'm looking for ("grounded" ain't it). D&D helps let the pressure off; it's the valve that keeps the steam from blowing the kettle. I'm not sure if my life would function better (or differently) without it, but for right now I'm glad to have it.

Later, Gators.

Pride

5:20am on Tuesday morning. I am up (with coffee in hand); the rest of the household sleeps (except for the loyal beagle). Finally, it's time to write.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Solstice/Father's Day/Juneteenth weekend. I know I did. I am going to tell you about it now:

Saturday was a bit of this, that and the other thing, but we did manage to get into Ravenspire (my re-hashed version of Ravenloft) proper. So far, so good, and I'll write about this later. We should be able to play some more of it today, and I look forward to continuing.

Sunday, on the other hand, was dad's day, and while I would have been happy spending the day running D&D, my family had other plans. Specifically, they ran D&D for me. It went down like this: my son was peppering me with his usual slate of questions over dinner last Friday: what was my favorite AD&D adventure, what was my favorite AD&D character I ever played, what was my favorite character class, etc. He does this kind of thing a lot...asking my opinion on stuff, getting my insight, collecting recollections of my youth...unlike my daughter (she prefers to tell the stories, rather than listen to Pops bather on). However, this particular time he had an ulterior motive: 

Look, Pops, said he, I want to run you through an AD&D adventure for Father's Day, and I want you to use one of your old characters. You pick the module and I'll prep it and run it for you.

[it would seem that my family has finally come around to accepting their father is a Big Fat Nerd. Gifts I was given over a breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy, which my lovely wife cooked for me (I am the only person in the household that will eat such fare...their loss...so it was a special occasion)...they included a new wallet emblazoned with the Dungeons & Dragons moniker and a 20-sided die and a flat black stocking cap that said "Dungeon Master" across the front. I was truly touched]

Well, I have to say I was pretty darn surprised by this offering. We had just finished discussing my past AD&D characters and the fact that I'd only really ever had ONE (many AD&D characters were rolled up by Yours Truly back in the day, but the vast majority had never seen table play). So it was that I found myself sitting down to play the Tomb of Horrors on Father's Day with a character that I hadn't used in 34 years, with my son acting as a proper AD&D dungeon master. 

...

...never would I have imagined, as a 14 year old, that such an event would ever occur...

We'll get to the game in a moment. We decided on S1: Tomb of Horrors as the adventure for a number of reasons. For one thing, my character was a high level character...whatever adventure got used would have to be in that high level (10-14) range. For another thing, it was short to prep...at 10 pages and a single map, it is one of the shortest classic adventures ever published...and in all honesty I didn't think there was enough time between Friday evening and Sunday for Diego to prep something like Vault of the Drow or Q1 (I know I'd need more time than that!). Finally, Tomb is one of those adventures I've run many times over the years...most recently in 2020 using the original OD&D version...but one that I've never suffered through as a player. As a one-off event using an insanely over-powered character, it seemed like a fine test: would my knowledge of the adventure module allow me to conquer the thing where so many others had failed before? I dug the adventure out of the closet and handed it over to the boy (with strict instructions to not let me read it/re-familiarize myself with it), while I set about doing my own "prep work."

In a dusty folder at the bottom of a pile of dusty folders containing pages collected across decades of RPG play, I have a sheaf of characters from my earliest AD&D campaigns. One goldenrod sheet may be the the earliest AD&D character I ever penned (a dwarf fighter-thief for my brother). And several of the sheets detail various iterations of my character, Landon, from the last long-term campaign in which I played. 

Some of these (the character at 1st level) are hand-written on loose-leaf notebook paper by my dungeon master. Others (later in his career) were printed up on fan-fold dot-matrix printer paper, pages and pages of magic items and "background material" (loves, hates, enemies, allies, etc.) accumulated over years of gaming. I don't usually go through this stuff...I am already painfully nostalgic, and there's a lot of "lost youth" and regret stuff I associate with my old gaming group...but I needed a version of Landon to play in the adventure.

We had decided to run the adventure strictly "by the book" (using only the PHB, DMG, and MM) so the first thing I had to do was clean up the character. Regular readers have heard me expound at length about how my old AD&D group tried to hew as closely to Rules As Written as possible, but we didn't always succeed. We incorporated Dragon magazine articles that we liked. We adopted various bits from the Unearthed Arcana and extrapolated on it. And quite frankly, we got some things WRONG in our interpretation of the RAW that I, as an older, wiser man, find a little embarrassing.  

I settled on the 16th level version of my character...I am fairly suspicious of the higher level versions of the character (my DM was tracking XP and advancement and I distinctly remember some hand-waving towards the end of the campaign). Landon was a 1E bard, so the experience point total for the character, even including his fighter and thief levels would put him on par with a 13th level fighter or wizard...i.e. right in the 10-14 level wheelhouse of S1.  More editing, however, would be required.

Ability scores got knocked down to their original levels (which were high enough) as I'm not sure how many librams and wishes had been used to raise those stats and questioned their accuracy. His exceptional strength was removed (bards don't get that), and his fighter/thief levels reduced to 7th/8th instead of 8th/9th (there's some discrepancy about this in the DMG and later TSR modules but I'm fairly certain this is correct). UAisms were axed from the sheet (including a huge swath of magic items, weapons specialization, etc.), as were unique magic items ("bad luck swords" and "endless bags of food"). Hit points were re-calculated (should have only had one hit die of thief and CON was now back to 15), and weapon proficiencies corrected. Finally, I removed his incredibly beefy psionics (one of his major advantages in our old campaign) because A) Diego hasn't incorporated them into the game, and B) per the PHB, half-elves shouldn't receive psionics. 

[there IS a later Dragon mag that corrects this...i.e. that allows half-elves to get psionics...but we weren't going to use apocryphal texts]

Even after all this, the character had (in my estimation) too much "stuff," so I went a step further: I advanced his age 34 years (real time, Jeffro!) and calculated the total cost of his living expenses from the passage of time: 652,800 gold pieces. I then sold off enough of his magic items and treasure to cover the deficit. What I was left with was little enough in the way of magic (bracers of defense, a magic sword and dagger, a single bag of holding, one ring of protection and another ring of feather falling) and something around 800 gold pieces in treasure. A bit better equipped than the pre-gens in Tomb...but then, this was all gear that had been found in actual adventures. 

Other than my character, our party was composed of pre-gens from the module itself. Sofia would play the 14th level magic-user, and we took along the 14th level cleric and 12th level paladin as NPCs. Since we were going "by the book," spells were memorized beforehand (including clerical and druidic spells) and I did the bulk of the selection, as well as the outfitting of the party members. Sofia chose her own spells (with some suggestions from me) and purchased her own equipment (Tomb pre-gens receive up to 1,000 coins of any type to spend, and up to 5,000 g.p. worth of gems).  Lastly, I recruited two henchmen (a 1st level elven fighter and a 1st level half-elf thief) and equipped them from my own (swiftly diminishing) funds. Light (leather) armor, ten foot poles and lanterns lit with continual light spells was the order of the day. 

So prepared, we set out to the conquer the Acerak's tomb...or die trying.

...

Hmm. How much to talk about? Well, I'll be brief:

Our extreme competence, our plethora of resources, and my personal knowledge served us well, ESPECIALLY in the beginning phases of the tomb...everything up to and through the "evil/good chapel" area. A piece of cake, really (Diego bemoaned that we were kicking the tomb's butt). But as we got into the middle section, my knowledge started to fail. I knew what was in the Tomb, I knew what we were looking for (and what to avoid), but I was less familiar with the actual logistics and placement. 

Tomb of Horrors is a GRIND. Even for someone like me...who has run it half-a-dozen times over the years and read the thing countless others. Finding and locating secret doors and passages is a pain. Trying to remember the later stanzas of the riddle...or not remembering their proper order can lead to panic. You second-guess yourself. You grow impatient. You fall into a pit or trip some trap that you damn well know you shouldn't have. The thing wears on you, the farther you get into it. Even without wandering monsters, being stuck in the middle of the dungeon with no readily available exit (those one-way teleporters), you end up feeling pressure. Even with the plethora of healing magic at your disposal, there is an attrition of the mind that occurs...the players argue with each other, tempers fray, snap.

It got us. Five and a half hours in (we were keeping time on a stop-watch) it TPK'd the whole party. Didn't even make it to "the columned hall;" opened the wrong door...incautiously...and put the whole expedition to sleep (no saving throw). We were then crushed flat by a stone juggernaut. Thanks for coming.

Totally, terribly unfair. Total asshole move, Gygax.

And it sucked...not because my long-time character had died (for all intents and purposes, he died a long time ago...in the Spring of 1988). No, it sucked because I wanted to beat the damn thing. I wanted to say that I killed Acerack and that he "wasn't so tough." But even knowing the adventure, I still screwed up. And paid the price. But really the only "loss" I took was to my pride...something I probably have too much of anyway.

And pride is easily replenished anyway. At least, it is for me. All I have to do is look at my children. My son, 11 years old, did an excellent job as a DM. My 8 year old daughter did a great job working with her old man (even saving my bacon by remembering a couple lines from the Acerack poem/riddle that I'd forgotten). Yes, I had to pull Sofia's character away from a couple of deathtraps that she wanted to wander into, but in the end it wasn't her play that killed us all.

Yeah, I am very proud of my children. I really can't express it.

Afterwards, we ate pombazos (made, again, by the wife) and watched Big Trouble In Little China, one of my all-time favorite films, and one that the kids had never seen. They liked it a lot...a perfect cap to a (mostly) perfect Father's Day. Maybe the best one I've ever had. They sure set a high bar for next year.

; )

Later.

What Treasure Is

The title of this post is meant to be read literally only as applies to the D&D game. I would hope we all agree that REAL treasure is the time spent with family, friends, and loved ones (as I am often reminded by the holidays).

[and speaking of "treasured time:" we DID manage to finish our Axis & Allies game...after THREE DAYS...with the Allied forces capitulating once the Krauts had taken all of the USSR save Moscow, and after Italy had invaded the central United States through Mexico. Folks may find me silly to crow about beating a kid two weeks shy of his 11th birthday; truth is, I'm proud of how well he plays. He's also pretty sharp (he beats me in chess about one game in three these days) and a fast learner. And I was playing from behind most of the game after Italy got pwned in the Mediterranean theater and after I stupidly chose to neglect Russia till Turn 4 (I'm so used to having Japan invade from the east, and had a difficult time adjusting to the needs of the game's European Only limitations). Still, I managed to take the UK...twice!...and while London was firmly in the hands of the Allies by the end of the war, the Americanos' need to bring overwhelming force to the North Sea ended up losing them all of Africa to a German "end around"...which gave Italy the space they needed to recover their naval forces. I seriously doubt Diego will make the same mistake again]

[of course, now he wants A&A Pacific for his birthday. Oh, boy]

Onto AD&D.

I am running the kids through Hommlet. Yes, T1...not the Temple of Elemental Evil mega-set (which I own and which is a disaster to parse). This is the first time I've run T1 using the original rules for which it was intended; my only other experience with the adventure was running it as a PBEM 3rd edition conversion (you can read the transcripts which I posted to my blog a few years back). 

It's been...mm...a bit of a rough go. Mainly due to their being so few party members. The adventure itself seems fine for a group of six/seven 1st level players. We have two. They ended up hiring four of the NPC adventurers hanging around the Inn of the Wanton Wench, three of whom were of the evil, "ambush-the-party-when-they're-weak" variety...with the inevitable results; i.e. Total Party Kill. HOWEVER...the kids want to make new characters and go back to Ye Old Moat House, and I have a few workarounds that I'm going to try implementing with our next go of it. That will all be detailed in a (later) post.

[for the curious: the players are still playing in the same campaign world, but I haven't taken the time to place Hommlet on the map. I'm thinking probably down around Tri-Cities...or near them...due to the proximity to the Columbia River. Probably Burne and Rufus should be agents of the Tri-City States, though my first thought was to make them vassals of the Red Empire - i.e. Spokane - far to the north]

Treasure in Hommlet...a rather important consideration in AD&D...is quite good. Leaving aside what might be stolen from the village goodfolk, or looted from the bodies of evil henchmen, the moat house contains well over 30,000 g.p. of treasure, not even counting the sale value of magic items (which could push the total over 73K). Parties managing to find every scrap of loot AND retaining magic items (as opposed to selling them) can expect a haul of more than 41,000 experience points...enough for even a party of eight to climb to 3rd level...or higher! This is found in 17 of the 35 numbered areas, so roughly every other encounter will have something valuable for PCs to purloin. 

Certainly whets the appetites of new players. No wonder T1 is held in such high regard.

Of course, not all the treasure found is of the coin and gemstone variety. One locked door protects "30 shields, 12 suits of leather armor, and barrels of salted meat." Another hides "50 spears, 10 glaives, 6 guisarmes, 3 battleaxes" as well as "two crates holding 120 arrows and 200 crossbow bolts respectively." Along with hidden kegs of brandy and four score of "black capes" sewn with a "yellow eye of fire," these two rooms alone yield a rich hall of nearly 1,200 g.p. value (even counting the capes as a 5 s.p. traveling "cloak" from the PHB).

But JB, that stuff isn't treasure! It's just gear and supplies that can be used by ill-equipped parties or given to arm henchmen and mercenaries. Where's the REAL treasure...the coins and jewels and such? Okay, first off coins...like all money...are simply a medium of exchange. One uses coins as a portable way of acquiring goods and services. In the AD&D game they also serve an ADDITIONAL purpose of providing experience points to ambitious players. But all treasure serves that latter purpose...coins are simply going to be exchanged for provisions and supplies anyway.

Let's ask: what's the real objection here? That a sheaf of arrows doesn't glitter the same as a box of silver? Okay, fine. But leaving aside the practicality of an arrow (which can be used to kill a foe), do folks understand the cost-weight ratio is the same for an arrow as a silver coin coin? 

120 arrows = 240cns encumbrance = 12 g.p. value

240 silver = 240cns encumbrance = 12 g.p. value

And more valuable equipment has a greater weight-cost ratio:

30 shields = 150# = 300 g.p. value

1,500 s.p. = 150# = 75 g.p. value

10 glaives = 75# = 60 g.p. value

750 s.p. = 75# = 37.5 g.p. value

50 spears = 250# = 50 g.p. value

2,500 c.p. = 250# = 12.5 g.p. value

Now, sure, spears aren't worth their weight in silver (you'd rather find 250# of silver than 250# of spears), but how many times has a low-level party been perfectly happy with bagging a pile of 2,000 or 3,000 copper pieces after some fierce battle with giant rats? More than a few, I'd imagine, as starting adventurers can't afford (literally) to be picky about the loot being left around. But given the choice between retrieving six spears or a sack of 100 coppers, it's clear which "treasure" is worth more...not just for cash and x.p. but for practical value. 

The original D&D game (the LBBs) only offered only three types of coin to be found in a treasure: copper pieces, silver pieces, and gold pieces (electrum and platinum were offered as additional alternatives but their specific value was left undefined and in the hands of the referee). Rather than look at them as literal coins, I prefer to view them as valuables based on weight when building a treasure:

Copper = bulky items 

Silver = portable items

Gold = precious items

[when using electrum and platinum pieces, as in the AD&D game, this adds the categories of "semi-precious" and "very precious," respectively]

"Bulky" treasures weigh (approximately) 20# per 1 gold piece value. "Portable" treasures weigh about 2# per 1 gold piece value. "Precious" treasures are worth 10 gold pieces for every 1# of weight...again, as a rough approximation. 

Keeping this concept in mind, one can furnish and outfit one's adventure site with all manner of "treasures," rather than stashing coins in crevasses and under loose flagstones. A barracks or guardroom may have solid furniture (bulky treasure) rather than copper. A wizard's closet may have fine clothing (portable) or even expensive clothing (precious). An alchemist's lab may have glassware (portable), rare herbs (semi-precious), and an amazing collection of journals/notes (very precious). Even a torture chamber might have iron implements and strong shackles (bulky and/or portable) of value to someone.

This idea...that the coin values given in the Treasure Tables can be used in the abstract...is something I hit on a few year back when writing Five Ancient Kingdoms (my Arabian Nights version of OD&D) and it's something I've been doing ever since. I've seen others that have since stumbled onto the same concept; however, the underpinnings of this has been present since Gygax published the DMG in '79 in which he gave the following example:

A pair of exceedingly large, powerful and ferocious ogres has taken up abode in a chamber at the base of a shaft...these creatures have accumulated over 2,000 g.p. in wealth, but it is obviously not a pair of 1,000 g.p. gems. Rather, they have gathered an assortment of goods whose combined combined value is well in excess of two thousand gold nobles (the coin of the realm)...there are many copper and silver coins in a locked iron chest. There are pewter vessels worth a fair number of silver pieces. An inlaid wooden coffer, worth 100 gold pieces alone, holds a finely wrought silver necklace worth an incredible 350 gold pieces. Food and other provisions scattered about amount to another hundred or so gold nobles value, and one of the ogres wears a badly tanned fur cape which will fetch 50 gold pieces nonetheless. Finally, there are several good helmets (used as drinking cups), a bardiche, and a two-handed sword (with silver wire wrapped about its hilt and a lapis lazuli pommel to make it three times its normal value) which completes the treasure. If the adventurers overcome the ogres, they must still recognize all of the items of value and transport them to the surface...the bold victors have quite a task before them.

[from page 92]

When the Monster Manual tells you that the individual orc has 2-12 electrum pieces...or that the individual dwarf has 10-40 gold pieces...this should be taken as the value of the creature's goods on its person. "I'm going to loot the dead goblin's morning star...the PHB lists the weapon's price at 5 g.p. so I should be able to get at least a couple gold!" No, the combined value of the corpse's possessions is 3-18 silver pieces. 

[that morning star? It's a twisted piece of wood studded with spikes, teeth, and jagged metal. The goblin's helmet? Too small for a human and has an incredible stench...you'll need to purchase some strong lye just to get rid of the odor, even if you can find a halfling willing to buy it as a "collector's item." The shield? Broken when you killed the guy. His rags? Good luck selling those]

It's not like the orcs use electrum as the basic currency of their culture (though that might be interesting if they did).

D&D can, of course, be played in the abstract, and these treasure hoards facilitate that. "You find 1,000 copper, 3,000 silver, and 1,500 gold in the den of the hydra." But while this is a great expediter of play (it is!) it's also one of the main complaints voiced when detractors talk about how "boring" old edition D&D is. "Man, half our party was killed by giant rats and all we got out of it was 2,000 copper pieces."

No. What you found was 10 (or 20 depending on edition) gold coins worth of valuable food stuffs (unspoiled grain perhaps) in four large (50#) sacks. Deliver that to an inn, baker, or tavern and you can create a valuable contact and perhaps a place for rumors of further adventure. 

See, this is the thing: D&D is more than a game...if you allow it to be. It can be a place where you and your players LIVE, engaging with the imaginary setting/environment. And there's no need to write up any hoity-toity story or Uber-Quest to do so. Just develop the rules of the game that are already in front of your nose...and allow yourself the luxury of basking in the fantasy realm.

Back when we were playing through UK2: The Sentinel, the kids managed to acquire a nicely skinned giant beaver pelt (as a reward for something or other) that was worth a fair chunk of change. They took the x.p. for the piece and then, having been a bit flush with cash at the time, hired a tailor to work the think into a rich/warm lining for their armor, boots, etc.  That was the players' decision, not mine. And not only did it work fine as a bit of ostentatious display (hey! we be 3rd level adventurers now!), it also acted to make their wealth even more portable. After all, had the situation arose, they could have traded a rich, beaver-lined cloak (or whatever) for some sort of deal/negotiation with neutral/hostile NPCs.

Anyway...if you're playing Dungeons & Dragons in (what I deem to be) the correct fashion, the treasure is going to matter. What it is, what it does, what it's worth, and what it costs the players to acquire...not just in terms of hit point/resource expenditure, but in terms of weight/encumbrance. Because if you want to live in your D&D world, you're going to have to deal with the burdens associated with living which are (generally) logistical burdens. Do I have enough food? Can I afford to buy food? Can I carry more food? What must I sacrifice to eat?

It's pretty hard to make the trek to Mordor on an empty stomach.

You can deal with these things in the abstract (the treasure from that hydra den weighs 550# in encumbrance and is worth 1,655 g.p.) or you can hand wave such issues completely, instead choosing to focus on the character backstories, formal plots, and PC-NPC interaction in an attempt to create a grandiose story. However, the former approach reduces the game to something little more than the Dungeon! boardgame, and the latter...well, that's really a different animal. I find neither of these approaches to be satisfying in the long term.

So make your treasure meaningful...both to you the DM (as a substance/thing of your campaign world) and to your players (ditto). Value and encumbrance are the starting points, and then use the systems in place as guidelines to flesh out the details. It's those details that will make your dungeon loot something to be "treasured."

Isn't that why we call it treasure?

; )

Quick and Painful

Welp, the new characters died.

*sigh*  It was unfortunate for them, but they were both smart and stupid (as PCs tend to be). Turns out the giant weasel was little problem at all: despite latching onto the cleric/ranger and sucking her blood, the enormous amount of hit points afforded by that class combo (we rolled HPs and she ended up with 15), allowed her to just survive long enough to deliver a killing blow (along with the assassin's arrows). The PC then decided to skin the thing for its pelt...after healing herself, of course.

[this was un-prompted by me, though I did make note that its fur was soft and luscious under all the blood. Had the two simply made off with the skin, they would have earned more than 10 times what the witch had offered to pay them for the kobold horns as, per the MM, giant weasel pelts fetch 1000-6000 gold pieces at the open market]

[if I had to guess, my daughter's thought to become a furrier was a holdover from UK2: The Sentinel, where they dealt with a fur trader and received giant beaver pelts as a reward. They ended up spending some of their hard-earned coin having a tailor line their armor with the stuff, as well as fashioning warm cloaks]

This image scared my son.

While the ranger was at work, the assassin decided to scout ahead (alone) and, attracted to the sounds of a general hubbub, blundered his way into the large cave that acted as the tribe's common chamber...said tribe preparing the evening meal. Rather than beat a hasty retreat, he decided to draw sword and engage the creatures, while calling for aid. Needless to say, this was just a Bad Idea, made worse by the ranger also deciding to press the attack even after the assassin had been downed. 

I have seen so many TPKs at the hands (claws?) of kobolds over the years. So underestimated. 

SOooo...once again starting over. Over breakfast this morning (and on our ride to school) the kids have decided to go a different way with their next characters: both are choosing humans this time, and they're going to try their hand at spell-casting. Diego says he's decided to make a cleric, and Sofia declared she wants a wizard, so we'll see how that goes. 

The alignment issue turned out to be a non-issue, and once again I think I'll just axe it from the campaign...or, rather, ignore it for the time being. I like the idea of "supernatural evil," whether we're talking demons, vampires, or gibbering hoards of subterranean humanoids with a taste for flesh, but the cosmic distinctions feel a poor fit. At least at this level of character (more on that in a later post). 

Right now, I've got to figure out what I'm going to do for the new re-boot. I'm averse to using the same scenario, even though circumstances could still apply (Larissa the fenwitch still has need of powdered kobold horn, and still is uninterested in obtaining it herself). But if the players really are intent on playing "squishier" types, they're going to need a place where they can obtain some stout fighting men for backup...the village on the fens isn't really the place for it (part of the reason Larissa was happy to give the PCs the job). Hmm...I've got some thinks to do...

Kicking Off the Campaign

Welp, yesterday's session kicked off quite well.  Using Zoom for video conferencing worked just fine, since we only needed to connect to one household: just put the laptop at the end of the table where they could see us and we could see them.

Max (age 13) and Sonia (age 10) were very excited to play. We discussed their prior experiences, explained some of the differences with the OD&D game, explained the premise of play and themes, and they're on-board with all of it. Turns out they don't have all that much experience with Dungeons & Dragons after all. Max has played five or six game sessions with a friend and his friend's Dungeon Master. Sonia has run in two or three sessions DM'd by Max. He has purchased the 5E books and has been trying to digest them, but mainly he just sits down at the table and "rolls what the DM tells me to roll."

He also has a "really old" edition of D&D that his uncle gave him: the Frank Mentzer basic set. He noted there were many similarities between that game and the booklet I'd given him. Smart lad.

Unfortunately, while the kids had read the (edited) copy of Men & Magic we left under their doormat, they hadn't made characters for the game session, which proved a minor source of frustration for my kids, who had each come prepared with multiple PCs. So we took a little time to roll up a new fighter for Max and quickly converted Sonia's existing 3rd level cleric to OD&D ("conversion" in this case simply asking her to re-roll her hit points based on the system and making sure she had the spell list for her level...oh, yeah, and taking away her short bow).

So armed, the four brave adventurers set forth into my new campaign world which I call Red Earth (for multiple reasons). The party included the aforementioned fighter and cleric, plus Diego's dwarven fighter and Sofia's elf, Count Dracula, who had decided to adventure as a magic-user this session.  Hired for a "rescue mission," the PCs were quickly TPK'd without ever setting foot inside the adventure site.

Welcome to Old School kids.

[for the curious: the person they'd been hired to rescue was believed to have been taken into a new religious cult that had recently sprung up. The cultist's stronghold was a small square tower (30' on a side, three stories tall). located in an area of scrub and trees that had been cleared for about 40 yards in all directions. The doors to the temple stood open day and night, with two acolyte "guards" stationed at the doors 24/7 to greet new worshipers...they're trying to build up their cult as fast as possible. The players decided to try to snipe the guards from a distance, but only had one archer (Max) who missed his shot...the acolytes quickly retreated into the tower and closed the door. The party then advanced on the tower and attempted to set fire to the door by pouring oil all over it. The cultists...mostly unarmored and wielding knives and cudgels...pulled open the door and sallied forth, led by the acolytes and an adept. The magic-user was felled by the first blow, Max was killed before he could load an arrow or draw a weapon, the dwarf (who had been trying to set the fire) was wounded and turned to run, and Sonia's cleric was grappled by four or five cultists while still looking for a spell that might save her. As the dwarf was wearing chain mail and armed to the teeth, the cultists quickly caught up to him, so he turned to fight...he inflicted 1 point of damage (the only hit the party got during the session) before being killed). I ruled the helpless cleric would have been taken into the temple to be sacrificed]

Despite the fiasco, the players had a good time (though Diego was annoyed...more on that later) and all wanted to keep playing, but I decided to shut down the session for the day, after about 90-100 minutes of play. Despite having more "time on the clock," as far as what we'd scheduled, I felt the new players had been given a LOT of information to process: they'd just experienced character creation, been introduced to the setting, had a taste of combat and spell-casting, and received a sampling of "old school" sensibilities. It would have taken another 30-40 minutes (probably) to get through another round of character creation, and then we would have been up against things as far as time to play...best to cut the game short allow and give 'em thoughts to chew over.

As I wrote, my son was irritated: partly because he'd really liked his new character, "Hairy" the dwarf, but mainly because he wanted to play more. He did not like shutting down the session early and he was unhappy with the direction the game had gone (Sofia had fun but she said the dying was the part she liked least)...but after discussing what had went wrong for the party, he saw in retrospect that their frontal assault was probably not the best way to go about their mission. Compared to Max and Sonia, my kids are veteran D&D players by this point (seven sessions in Zenopus, a couple in Tomb of Horrors, and at least one in Borderlands...and, of course, they've both been trying their hands at DMing, my daughter especially). They have a lot more knowledge of the game...including its pacing and procedures...and so it's up to them (Diego especially) to step up and lead a bit more.

As for me, I had a few things to chew over myself: back when I first decided to go the OD&D route, I wrote up a number of house rules that I've been implementing ever since (I even added these into my edits of M&M). After running several sessions, I've see these are mostly useless, pointless, or ridiculous. I've found Gygax's own "house rules" for OD&D are mostly sufficient. Here's what I'm currently running:

• All weapons do 1d6 damage except daggers (d4) and two-handed weapons (d8). Fighters add +1 to damage for Strength over 14. Lack of proficiency reduces damage die type.
• No magic-user spells greater than 6th or cleric spells greater than 5th at this point. Added the 1st and 2nd level MU spells from Greyhawk to the spell list...that's it. Added the cleric spells from Greyhawk as well (to take the number up to six in each spell category). Spell-casters still get +1 first level spell for high prime requisites.
• High constitution just adds +1 hit point per hit die. Fighters roll D8s, magic-users roll D4s, clerics roll D6s.
• No weapon versus armor adjustments.
• Only classes allowed are fighters, magic-users, and clerics. Lawful fighters with a 17 charisma can opt for paladin status (as per Greyhawk) with all restrictions. Half-elves have been added to the list of races and function as per Greyhawk (including the ability to progress as a cleric with sufficient wisdom). Thieves (and assassins) exist in the campaign, but are not yet available as player characters.

All right, that's about all I have time to write. Our next game session is scheduled for Monday at 3pm.

Baranof of Horrors

So we played S1:Tomb of Horrors down at the Baranof tonight. With 1st and 2nd level characters.

You see, I've got this theory, see? That the Tomb of Horrors, while ostensibly for characters level 10th to 14th, is actually no more (or less) deadly at 1st level.

And it's not...I mean sure, everyone died (twice...but tonight was special 'cause we were calling "do overs"), but they were making progress. They were on their way, sorting through the riddles. Hell, they made it to the temple and would have probably made it farther if the thief hadn't gotten greedy with the treasure in the benches, leading to a gas attack that chased everyone through an arch that...well, you get the picture.

Point is, even 14th level characters get killed when they act stupid in an adventure that is designed to stomp the hell out of the players.

I've run Tomb of Horrors probably half a dozen times over the years. I've never had anyone (that I can recall) kill Acerack. I've only seen one or two parties actually discover his tomb. I've seen lots of "powerful" adventurers killed in any of the three entrance tunnels. The 1st level guys at least made it past those.

This was my first time playing S1 with B/X, but the only thing that really needs to be converted is the demilich. Ah, well...you've got to make it to his lair first.

Maybe I'm silly. Maybe I'm just super-duper tired. But it wasn't a bad experiment. Next week, we'll return to the Caves of Chaos.

; )

White Plume Mountain – The Final Chapter (Part 3)

[continued from here]

Beyond the mud cavern was another corridor ending in another door, though this one seemed a bit more intricate. Gathering themselves and readying their weapons, Farnsworth once again raised a mighty foot and kicked in the portal. Darkness. Black, impenetrable darkness. The darkness seemed to smother the light from the fighter’s sword…his flame was all that was visible. Alster pushed forward with his shield (he had previously cast continual light on the thing), giving some slight illumination to the darkened chamber. [Alster rolled for surprise…success! Finally] A pale face loomed from the darkness grinning down at the party. “Does it look like a vampire?” asked Luke/Alster. Ridiculous. “Yeah, sure, it does.” “Does it sparkle like Edward?” asked AB/Farnsworth. “No.” The party rolled for initiative, got it. Alster cast Raise Dead on the creature. The vampire made his saving throw with a 17. Kevin, Bryan, and Dampwick started pulling garlic cloves out of their backpack. Baring his fangs, Ctenmiir the vampire, guardian of Whelm, hugged the cleric to his chest drinking deep of his lifeblood and draining him to 5th level. Farnsworth with Blaarthislaarv (“you know, Blackrazor would be handy in this situation,” comments AB for the 2nd or 5th time), Sexy Kevin with Wave, and Brian with a sword +1 (*ahem*) all attacked the vampire. Dampwick and Sly Jr. hung back, wishing they owned magic weapons. Ctenmiir stared deep into Farnsworth’s eyes, “You long to serve me…I am your master.” Farnsworth passed his saving throw and clubbed the monster for minimal damage while Kevin stabbed Wave deep into the creature’s back. Rounding on the cleric, the vampire tried the same tactic…and Sexy Kevin succumbed under the vampire’s control. Meanwhile, the others continued to pound the creature as best they could. Kevin turned his trident on Alster, even as the cleric fended off the vampire’s attack. “Get the trident out of his hands!” A cleric with a 13 strength and a +3 trident is a fierce opponent, but Sly and Dampwick rushed him and somehow managed to restrain their charmed friend… […somehow being “with the B/X Companion rules for grappling”] …meanwhile, Bryan, Farnsworth, and Alster were doing their best to mangle the vampire, stabbing and smashing it repeatedly, even as it (I believe) drained the heroic halfling down to 5th level. The creature was finally struck a telling blow and the creature vaporized…vanishing into mist as if it had never been. Sexy Kevin was hog-tied and left on the floor. “Master! Master!” “How long till that wears off?” “Who knows…” Alster immediately began searching the room, looking for a coffin or sarcophagus, which he found. Pushing back the lid he was somewhat surprised to find the thing completely empty…no Whelm, no treasure, and no vampire. He began searching the interior. Brian was carefully toeing Wave into the bag of holding, re-claimed from Alster (forgot to mention: the cleric confiscated the bag when the Halfling was initially trying his rope-a-batics); meanwhile Sly and Dampwick watched the door, Sly still badly hurt from his earlier fall and bashing despite being healed by the clerics. “Ho-hum…wonder what we’re watching for,” said Sly to the diminutive Dampwick. “Me,” replied the fully healed Ctenmiir, who fell on the thief ripping his throat out. The lifeless form dropped to the floor. [I blame Kevin Siembieda and Rifts: Vampire Kingdoms for the total smack-down on the players…I never realized how VICIOUS vampires were before reading up on vamp tactics. I suppose that, as a kid, I simply didn’t play vampires…when they infrequently appeared…as “all that smart.” Truth be told, I considered the Ctenmiir encounter the weakest “guardian” of the three in White Plume Mountain…however, once the clerics were eliminated, it was pretty much all over for the party. Especially considering that the creature could fully regenerate in less than two minutes…13 ten second rounds…it really was grossly unfair] Dampwick ran around panicked (I actually don’t remember what he was doing), as the Vampire flew at Alster, reducing the cleric to a lifeless husk. Farnsworth gave a roar and laid into the vampire with his flaming sword, while Brian tried to hamstring the creature. Now that I think about it, I believe Dampwick actually had Alster’s mace +2 at this point, the cleric having give it to the halfling upon finding the Lawful Whelm. The huge hammer (along with many bags of treasure) had just been found on a shelf BENEATH the sarcophagus prior to the vampire’s reappearance. Not that he ever had a chance to swing it. The characters were once more in a fight for their lives. Ctenmiir was all over Farnsworth, the vampire draining the fighter, and then draining him again despite his tremendous armor class. I openly cackled (I couldn’t help myself…sorry) as I realized how close to toast the once-badass fighter was…however, a 3rd level fighter with 18 strength and a flaming sword is still nothing to trifle with, and the remaining party members were able to drive Ctenmiir off once again, the vampire voluntarily transforming into mist. They wasted no time: Wave and Whelm were gathered into the bag of holding and everything else…including their friends’ bodies and the still-struggling Kevin…they left behind as they fled the dungeon with all speed. Two halflings and a 3rd level fighter clambered their way across the mud chamber (we “hand-waved” the spouting geysers and Strength/Dex rolls), wondering briefly what had happened to Boner (black pudding fodder), before charging down the hallway at top speed, thankful, at least, that they had removed the one-way turnstile when they had the chance. Through the bone golem room (still no attacks), hand-waving wandering monster rolls, not worried about pursuit from the flying, regenerating vampire, most definitely in full pursuit of the party…until finally, finally arriving at the three-pronged intersection, the place of the sphinx, the tunnel out of White Plume Mountain. And finding it blocked by an invisible force field. Here’s the text of the final encounter of White Plume Mountain:

A voice speaks to them from out of the air: “Not thinking of leaving are you? You’ve been so very entertaining, I just couldn’t think of letting you go, especially with those little collector’s items of mine. And since you’ve eliminated all of their guardians, why, you’ll simply have to stay…to take their places. I’ll have to ask you to leave all of your ridiculous weapons behind and let Nix and Nox escort you to the Indoctrination Center. I’ll be most disappointed if you cause me any trouble, and Nix and Nox will have to eliminate you. Don’t worry – you’ll like it here.” The force wall disappears but coming up the south passage are Nix and Nox, two efreet [stats omitted]. If the party can get past them, they’re home free!

Matt/Bryan says: “Well, I can use Wave’s invulnerability power right?” It only works once per day and Kevin used it. “But now I’m the new owner/wielder, right? So I can use it for today?” Um… Since it was already past Midnight and we all wanted to wrap up, we decided, sure, Wave can use its sphere ability (again) the two Halflings cling to the big (3rd level) fighter, and the party “hamster-balled” past the efreet. [Besides, the module says you can skip the final encounter if you feel the party is “too badly damaged.” Personally, I don’t think there’s such a thing in D&D…but that’s my opinion. Some DMs hold off on even killing folks, and where’s the fun in that?] Half-hearted “yays” and “we wins,” were (briefly) heard around the table…yeah, right. It’s just as well we decided we’d start a new campaign with our next session, as this group was pretty well demolished. Final thoughts will be in a follow-up post.

Back to the Caves of Chaos (Part III)

[continued from here]

In addition to feasting the PCs like heroes (which they were), and giving the party the promised sack of gold, the merchant's wife presented the adventurers with an additional gift...a magical dagger of exquisite manufacture, able to wound even enchanted creatures.

[yes, it was only a +1 dagger, but that didn't mean the players didn't want it...after all, if all weapons do D6 damage, that's going to be a tasty weapon.

By the way, early on in the session, Steve-o asked if he received some sort of bonus due to his equipment being made out of "the finest elvish steel." Besides breaking us all up, it became a bit of a running joke. "Is the goblin knife any good?" "Well, it's not forged from elvish steel..." Despite elvish steel not actually COUNTING for anything, it became a bit of a mark of PRESTIGE for those who owned it. And in a way, I think this made Steve even happy about having the least equipment of any other player...sure he had only chain mail, sword & dagger...but it was all made of ELVISH STEEL]

The party was unanimous in allowing Lando to take possession of the knife, since he was already using knife and buckler as his armament of choice (and, perhaps, because they were afraid Jaochim would simply throw it away if given to him). The merchant was willing to purchase the silver armband for a fair price, and the party split the profit three-ways. After that, the party was ready to go shopping.

At the blacksmith: "I have a really, um, large friend...do you have any armor that would fit someone that's like 7'6"? That chain tunic...can you 'let it out' a bit? My friend is really big..."

At the trader: "What's the biggest shield you've got? 15 gold pieces?! What's smaller? Okay...I'll take the door with the arm strap."

The trader was the real gouger of the bunch. The party was determined to purchase arms and equipment for the new men-at-arms, Gene and Bud. G&B had promised their services for a year, free-of-charge, if only the party would supply them with gear. But the Keep's trader, being "the only game in town," so-to-speak was determined to milk as much of the party's newfound wealth as possible with 50%+ price hikes.

It felt like I was running the playbook according to Hackmaster's advice to Dungeon Masters.

; )

They did get Gene and Bud outfitted, and while they weren't able to find any armor that would fit the gnoll...oh, yeah, I forgot to mention the gnoll's name was Witherdrool...they did pick up a large shield for the creature. Witherdrool was most pleased.

"Thank you, master," the monster hissed when he was presented with the shield.

Back to the Caves of Chaos...and once again back into the goblin caves. This time the party decided to break their own rule: "We're going to go RIGHT this time." The party decided that heading left and going back to the hobgoblin caves was unacceptable...the hobs were "too tough," and had put up too hard a fight. They figured the right-hand passage (where Thundarr and Caindong had met their doom) might prove to have easier critters worth fighting.

Maybe.

Although the party went right, they took the first left-hand passage that presented itself. A turn and a turn brought them to a familiar dead end...old blood stains spattered the walls and knotty piece of wood - a two-handed war club - lay discarded against the wall. The party was undeterred, however, and retraced their path back to the main passage.

The next chamber was a nest of goblins...half-a-dozen guardsmen were caught off guard as the adventurers charged in weapons swinging. Two goblins fell immediately before the adventurers' blades, although Reed went down beneath a thrust spear, and the goblins broke and ran. Two fled through the opposite exit, and Joachim wasted no time in sending Witherdrool after them. "Go get 'em!"

"Yes, master..."

The final two goblins turned to what appeared to be a stone wall ("A secret door!" shouted the players) and started pounding on it, yelling "Invaders! Invaders!" The adventurers stepped forward and cut them down from behind, Joachim and Lando dealing the death blows.

"Well, that was easy..."

A grinding noise announced the opening of the "secret door" (really a boulder that had been pushed across an opening of the cave). The adventurers braced for anything, but otherwise took no action as they waited in anticipation of what was about to push through the newly-opened cave mouth.

An f'ing ogre.

Joachim, bloodied sword in hand was directly in front of the creature. "Can I try to talk to it?" Do you know ogre? "No." Checking Reaction, I rolled a 3...the ogre was in no mood to talk. "F*** it...we attack."

Only the witch-hunter was able to find the ogre with his enchanted dagger. With a roar the ogre lashed out, pulverizing rib and organ and knocking him across the chamber in a heap. I handed over Gene and Bud to AB for control (oh, forgot to mention earlier: Lara the elf abandoned the party after they had failed to give her a share of the treasure from their last expedition. "Well it's not like she did anything anyway...").

The elf cut into the behemoth with his fine elvish steel...and the ogre bought down his club, crushing the life from the elf. AB handed Steve-O the use of "Bud."

I know I haven't mentioned Hensvik in awhile but the dwarf was involved the entire time...he just completely failed to hit anything at all. About the 3rd round of combat, though, he was able to land a telling blow on the ogre...and draw the ire of the monster...WHAM!

Hensvik was not felled by the blow...but the creature's follow-up back-hand in the next round claimed his life.

Meanwhile Gene and Bud were laying into the creature desperately...Gene was the next one to fall, mangled and bloody. Alone, out-gunned, but not un-manned, Bud managed to deliver one more stab to the ogre for 1 point of damage...enough to drop the monster, finally.

Does it count as a TPK, if there's still an NPC man-at-arms left?

***EDIT: Just realized that this IS my post #666. I suppose it's fitting that it details the "Beast" that got the party's "Number!"***

The Mean Streets of Skara Brae

There are some items and events from my past that have effects that carry over even unto the present day…film and fiction from my formative years that STILL impact my imagination and my ideas on both “what’s cool” and what I’d like to see in my gaming. Some of these things are sooo far back in my memory that I can only recall snatches of them…like the black and white serials of The Masked Marvel that I remember watching on TV circa 1975 or ’76 (age 2 or 3 in other words). Just these “remembered flavors” of the past have influence over my psyche…and when I’ve managed to reclaim some of these things (thanks to the magic of eBay or Scarecrow Video, I’ve not been disappointed.

In no particular order, here are some of the items that go into making up MY personality matrix:

Films
- Star Wars
- The Hobbit
- The Last Unicorn
- At the Earth’s Core (with Peter Cushing)
- The Secret of NIMH
- Dragon Slayer
- Xanadu (which, strangely enough, did more to encourage an interest in Greek mythology than Clash of the Titans!)

TV
- Sid & Marty Croft stuff, but especially H.R. Puff & Stuff, Land of the Lost, and Dr. Shrinker
- Tales of the Gold Monkey
- The Day After
- Shogun (to a small degree)
- Logan’s Run (ditto)
- The Masked Marvel

[I should note that I’ve watched a lot of TV over the years, including a lot of the “boy fantasy” crap of the 80’s: The Dukes of Hazard, Knight Rider, Buck Rogers, The A-Team, The Hulk, etc…none of this seems to have had a recognizable impact/influence on me]

Books & Comics
- Mainly Marvel comics of the early ‘80s
- Old DC horror comics, westerns (Jonah Hex), and WW2 (the Unknown Soldier, etc.) that I’d find around my grandma’s house.
- Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series
- Many random Halloween and/or Witch-themed books

Games
- Dungeons & Dragons (of course!)
- Dungeon!
- Risk
- Dark Tower
- The Bard’s Tale

When I say these things have an influence on me, I mean that they exert influence even when I’m not directly referencing them. While the list is by no means exhaustive, I think I’ve really captured most of it…other influences on my imagination and gaming are more directly referenced in my mind…for example, I’ve seen The Road Warrior many times…when developing a post-apocalyptic game I often consider how (or if) that film does or should influence the material.

MOST influences on my writing/gaming/preferences ARE conscious. I say, “right, I want something that feels like Indiana Jones.” But sometimes I do weird things and it’s only later that I say, “huh…I think that came from waaaay in the back of my subconscious.” Like maybe my “borg love” has to do with watching the Six Million Dollar Man duke it out with replicants or something. Or maybe that was J.J. Hands.

ANYway, it’s the last thing on the list that I wanted to talk about: the old Electronic Arts computer game The Bard’s Tale.

Back in 1985, this was the game EA was known for, not console sports games, and whenever I see the name Electronic Arts, this is the first thing that pops into my head. No, EA didn’t design Bard’s Tale, but they distributed it and their logo was featured prominently on the box…a box that was necessary to keep around as it featured a map to the town of Skara Brae.

Skara Brae…oh, the frustration you caused me.

I was reminded of Skara Brae recently when contemplating my recent D&D sessions (yet another trip to the Baranof is scheduled for tonight…looks like there will be four of us for a change!). Skara Brae was a dark and dangerous town. Worse than film portrayals of Detroit...I mean BAD. Even a heavily armed party of half-a-dozen couldn’t walk more than a block or two without getting jumped by a bunch of monsters…and that was in broad daylight! At night, it was even worse, and the vermin would be all over you like stink on shit. Really…two steps and whoa! ANOTHER encounter.

At higher levels of experience it was easy enough to avoid these monsters simply by ducking down an alley (i.e. typing “Run”). And one would have to do this in order to get anywhere in a timely fashion (just running down to the corner store? Careful…there’s a half-dozen orcs down on the corner spoiling for a rumble). At the lower levels however, monsters were much more likely to catch you and force combat.

And this led to a lot of death.

See, players used to playing oh, say, D&D were going to want to make their own party of adventurers for a computer game like Bard’s Tale. Not that “Omar” or “El Cid” aren’t fine names and all, but I always enjoyed making characters after the players in my OWN game. Plus, didn’t you want to have a Halfling Monk? I ALWAYS wanted to make a Halfling monk! And let me tell you THAT little guys was NO ONE to F with once he hit level 12 or so.

But getting to level 12 was a bit of a problem. All your characters started with only the most basic of basic equipment…I think a robe and a staff was all any character received at 1st level. And since the shop was down the street from the guild hall (yes, you belonged to an Adventurer’s Guild…just like Dragon Quest!), and you had to walk down the street to get there, and the intervening streets were teeming with threatening monsters…well, your party suffered an awful lot of TPKs.

Not that you had the money to afford a whole lot of fancy equipment anyway…your 1st level characters just weren’t going to survive very long on the streets. And the handful of times YOU got the drop on a single orc or two? You’d probably end up with three gold coins (and at least one or two dead halflings) for your trouble.

Getting to that 2nd or 3rd level was pretty f’ing tough in other words…unless you wanted to A) use the pre-generated party (“the A-Team”) or B) take all of the pre-gen party’s stuff and equip it to your own characters. The pre-gens were pretty weak, too, but they had a single HUGE advantage…the bard owned a magic item called a “Fire Horn” that could breathe fire on an entire group of critters. Without El Cid and his magic dragon breath, you would die many, many times until you put together a big enough string of lucky victories to level up. I don’t remember ever doing this myself…I ALWAYS took the Cid’s fire horn.

Even with the fire horn, you were likely to get smoked a helluva’ lot…and since you were broke and lowly, your options for raising party members was, well, non-existent. You ended up heading back to the Adventuring Guild…often…to drop off corpses and roll up new characters. Praying that you could level up a few party members before your fire horn ran out of charges (it wasn’t an “endless fire horn” after all).

Does this remind you of anything? It reminds me of my recent gaming sessions with my brother and Steve. All this party death and not a single character going up in level…just more “go back to town and roll up new guys” going on. In four sessions, my brother has created four characters. That’s Skara Brae statistics, folks.

Now granted, he’s had some bad luck as well as some bad planning…but is it possible that he’s in need of his own fire horn?

Maybe not…after all, Shmutzy DID have a wand of fireballs...which he used to injure his own party members nearly as often as his opponents. As I said, poor planning has been part of his woes. We’ll have to see how tonight’s game goes.

Anyway, that’s what I’m thinking about this morning…that and the old encounter tag line from Bard’s Tale:

“Once again you face DEATH ITSELF in the form of [insert monsters here]!”