Wilderlands Optional House Rules

Putting together B/X Sandbox using Judges Guild Wilderlands setting, I of course have to create a setting & house rule booklet. Here are a couple rules I moved to "optional" and may drop all together. I have used versions of them before in OD&D based Planet Eris campaign. The sources include Judges Guild Read Ref Sheets (repartee and locution), Jeff Rients and quite possibly many others.

Divine Intervention

Characters may plead for Divine Intervention and may even do so when dead or unconscious. Characters of like belief should pray together and combine their levels in one roll. Different characters repeating a similar, recently ignored plea is a sure way to annoy deities. Beseeching higher powers more than once per Lunar cycle also risks incurring divine wrath.

The chance to be heard is the supplicant's level expressed as a percentage. Sacrifices relevant to the deity will improve this chance:

• +1 for any amount of animal(s), foods, or other items sacred to diety. 
• +1 per Hit Die of sentient creatures. 
• +1 per 100 gp of treasure.

Deity's action upon hearing request is dependent on request and nature of deity. But, most will be something (even it's only to berate supplicant for being weak). Deities will refuse to aid non-believers. And will not directly harm any creature.

Example interventions:

• Allow supplicant's spell to affect all faithful within sight.
• Miracle! Effects as any spell.
• Return life to a faithful servant.

Dueling Sermons

Clerics may verbally assault one another. Clerics who do not respond to an opposing polemic are immediately rebuked for their lack of conviction. Losing half their current Hit Points.

Each faith rolls two differently colored d6 (one "condemning" and one "extolling"). After rolling, each participant may replace a die roll with their level.

If both rolls are greater than the corresponding rolls of all other faiths, a devastating sermon has been served. All participants of other faiths must spend the next d6-1 rounds stunned as they rationalize away winner's arguments and reestablish their faith. Believers of the winning faith are inspired and get +1 on Saving Throws, To-Hit, and Damage rolls for duration of the encounter.

Otherwise, participants may "drop out" after first round having minimally defending their faith. If two or more opposing faiths remain, the theological throw down continues into the next round.

While sermonizing, participants are protected as Sanctuary spel. In addition if they take damage, the source of that damage is divinely rebuked, taking damage equal to amount dealt + d6.

Barrowmaze Complete

Booyah! 

Dean of the Dead, King of Chaos, Megadungeon Maestro, Greg Gillespie has created an Indiegogo for Barrowmaze Complete. Includes Barrowmaze I (awesome), Barrowmaze II (more awesome), new content (village of Helix, mo barrow mounds, and more), new art (including Erol Otus color cover), professional layout (I've had no complaints with BMI or BMII, but I always dig sidebars "commentary by me in the outside margins to help facilitate play for referees").


So, totally rad right? But wait, there's more! Custom Barrowmaze Other World Miniatures! Box set

Boxset Baby!

 2 Tomb Robbers
 2 Sapphire Skeletons
 2 Fossil Skeletons
 2 Juju Zombies
 2 Sons of Gaxx
 1 Ravenous Zombie
 1 Crypt Thing
 1 Crypt Knight
 1 Mummy Lord
 1 Barrow Harpy
 1 Barrow Guardian

With more added as stretch goals.

Barrowmaze Complete & Otherworld Miniatures

I've personally run Barrowmaze I&II as part of my Gold and Glory campaign. It is extremely cool. Full of flavor and interesting mechanics. The whole layout of mounds and "horizontal" megadungeon is refreshing and well executed. The dungeon's "story", big-bad(s) and factions are all compelling and get me excited for players to discover them. It's written for Labyrinth Lord (Basic D&D) but I had no trouble running it under Swords & Wizardry (OD&D).

If you only buy one megadungeon this spring, get Barrowmaze Complete!

I survived BM and all my Referee gave me was this +0 shield

Dwimmermount Drama

Man, why does the Dwimmermount Kickstarter generate so much drama?

Long ago it was empty rooms and rounded treasure values, wtf?

Now days, it's getting bent out of shape cause Autarch / Tavis is doing a fucking fabulous job at dealing with an extremely difficult situation.

Meh.  Maybe because I suffer depression (have lost girlfriends, one job, and jacked up many lessor things due to it) I just can't muster any ill will towards anyone involved.  I'm also probably much more patient than most.  

Dwimmermount project is going well considering what it has dealt with.  Projects without any of the same impediments have burned to the ground less graciously than Dwimmermount's "failure" has been handled.

Too many people expect Kickstarter projects to be something they are not.  They are not purchases.  They have the risks of an investment without the upside potential.  They are closest to a donation with defined perks.  You should not contribute money to a Kickstarter you can't afford to loose.

Yes, there's been lots of changes, reverses, etc.  It doesn't matter, chill already.  It's plainly obvious that people running things are absolutely not trying to screw anyone.  That they are bending over backwards attempting to appease a diverse group of participants.  Too many of which are whiny bitches. 

Yes, it's long time in coming (except that we got all the maps and good enough draft). I guess if you're a collector, wetting yourself over chance at rare hardback, I don't have sympathy.  I have friends that are collectors, nothing personal, but this is a hobby of players. Collecting gets the same treatment as half-brother mutant, we keep locked up under the stairs.

Dwimmermount is one of several mega-dungeons in my 1.5/weekly Gold & Glory campaign.  Two groups adventure in it regularly.  People enjoying themselves around a table.  There is no higher level of success than that.

B1 (free download) and D&D Classics Available Again

B1 In Search of the Unknown

Every edition available again! D&D Classics.  Seems a little slow at the moment.  Original editions must be popular or something ;)


Update: Site is down.

Anomalous Subsurface Environment 2-3, sighted, acquired!

Henchman Abuse, Patrick Wetmore, just released levels 2-3 of his Anomalous Subsurface Environment dungeon. The mutagenically delicious megadungeon I first became fascinated with from reading play reports on Dungeon of Signs (which has excellent ASE material).  I picked up the ASE1 hardcopy at NTRPGcon and the PDF just now.

Now that there's more than just the first level, I believe ASE will be the "Molybdenum Mines" that the Brothers Radicals will soon mention to the characters in my home campaign.

LULU Coupon Code: NOVBOOKS12

Publishers & Products

This is an Epic post of Publishers & Products, also where to get them online.  Epic amount of work, epic amount of usefulness, and shows breadth and depth of hobby's commercial side.

One snippet of post (System Equivalence)

Game Master Philosophy

Another from Roleplaying Tips Weekly Blog/Newsletter http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issues/txt/530.txt


What's your philosophy of running a tabletop game?

It varies by type of campaign.  Although after writing this out I seem to be converging ToEE towards style I preper.


OSRIC ToEE 

1. What sort of environment does your story take place in? Is everything random? Semi-random? Carefully planned?

World of Greyhawk before 2nd edition stupidness.  Magic is common but not a technology replacement.
Mostly player triggered semi-random consequences. There are some events that I roll randomly to see if one happens.  But mostly world reacts to players.  For instance they wiped most of Lareth's minons but went back to town before dealing with him.  Instead of sticking around for obviously powerful party to return, Lareth being 18INT/18WIS decided it was time for strategic retreat and moved into the Temple Proper.  Player inaction also triggers events.

2. Does your environment support the characters, challenge the characters, or both?
Challenge players.  There are many, many factions.  Some strictly for or against characters.  The rest will ignore, help, hinder party based on what that faction learns about what PC's are doing.  There is opportunity for much support, mostly ignored by players even when waving it infront of them.

3. Do character actions have a meaningful impact on the environment?
They could.

4. Does the environment have any laws that differ from the laws of our universe?
Of course, this is fantasy!  There is magic, gods & demons that exist, etc.  Things that may trip up players but their characters would know or rules issues (many new players), I warn them about.  For instance Paladin's detect evil ability requires vocal/somatic and thus is clearly visible and considered rude to do on people.

5. Are your characters regular joes or heroic types?
Above avg joes & semi heroic abilities (cause AD&D expects some level of munchkinism).  ToEE campaign is LG so "heros" in that sense.  But, death and failure are very possible.  There is no guaranteed happy or heroic ending.

6. Are the dice weighted in the characters' favor or is the universe unforgiving?
Worse than unforgiving.  If players rely on dice/mechanics over wit and strategy they will fail.

7. Should the characters trust the GM? If not, why not?
Not as NPC / Monster, obviously.
Yes for rules (although I make tons of mistakes etc.  Overall I strive to be fair.  Also, never penalize players for my mistake)
For rest,  in a way no and yes.  I challenge *players* (which is the yes part.  DM role is to challenge, otherwise might as well do collaborative storytelling or play computer RPG)  One way to challenge is subtly using psychology against them.   For instance if they know they are in a race to get through area.  I will give them every opportunity, temptation even, to dawdle.  Just by providing a word or two extra description on something will often lead players mistakingly believing that something to be vastly important and waste inordinate amount of effort on nothing.



Labyrinth Lord / OD&D mashup Gold & Glory

1. What sort of environment does your story take place in? Is everything random? Semi-random? Carefully planned?
Exploration based sandbox.  Crazy mashup of Science Fantasy, Steam, Post-Apocalypse, and anything else that catches my fancy.  The world is unknown (to characters) everything must be discovered.  There's tons of stuff placed on map ala JG Wilderlands or Carcosa (btw some of that in there also).  Many, many random tables for fleshing out, filling in blanks.

Despite that I consider it carefully planned, lots of (learnable) internal logic.

2. Does your environment support the characters, challenge the characters, or both?
Indifferent and Uncaring.  There are few if any self-less "good" NPCs/Monsters.  Everyone has their own goals and agenda, just like in real life.

3. Do character actions have a meaningful impact on the environment?
They could.  But, only if characters do something meaningful.

4. Does the environment have any laws that differ from the laws of our universe?
More so than most campaigns.  The Wilderness and Dungeons are "Mythic", they don't follow any rules.  Goblins don't have ecology, they are in this room to eat you!

5. Are your characters regular joes or heroic types?
Outcasts and "failures" of society.  If they had skills (say blacksmithing) or even ability to settle down make a farm & family.  They sure as hell would be doing that rather than risking death and worse poking around in dungeons.

6. Are the dice weighted in the characters' favor or is the universe unforgiving?
Random.  You lose control over your fate if you leave it up to dice.  It's almost always better to anything other than dice rolling. (better to trick dragon out of treasure than fight for it) No skills, descriptive adjudication.

7. Should the characters trust the GM? If not, why not?
They should (but probably don't) trust that I'm not out to kill them.  They shouldn't (but probably do) trust that I'm gonna only provide challenges they can handle, that I'll lead them along a path of success, that campaign world exists to provide them regular, safely acquired, parcels of treasure and experience.

Labyrinth Lord GnG at Dragon's Lair Austin

The 4th session of Gold and Glory my Labyrinth Lord D&D campaign will be held at Dragon's Lair Austin FLGS this coming Sunday Feb. 27 from 1pm - 6pm.

New and existing players welcome.  Gold and Glory is specifically designed for episodic play.  Players can attend whenever they have time and go on an "adventure" with who ever else is able to make that day.  Instead of being locked into the same party/characters.  Or risk missing out on key plot element.  Every session is "come as you are" and hopefully leave alive and wealthier.

But, players should be sure and reap the spoils of their efforts or others will.  As witnessed in the 2nd and 3rd GnG sessions.  Where the 2nd session witnessed slaughter of many NPC's at the paws of "Winter", infamous giant wolverine, and mostly ran away.  Then in 3rd session a totally different group of players had easy time cleaning up the few survivors.  Gathered up the loot, all the equipment thus receiving a huge haul in XP and GP for very little effort.

If you're planning on going, please RSVP on the Austin D&D Meetup website. Since it's Dragon's Lair, we only have a table for 8, and I wouldn't want people to come, only to find out there isn't enough room.


Austin D&D Meetup Announcement fro this Sunday's foray.

The Kingdom is prosperous, peaceful, and BORING. When King Osric "The Reasonably Just" decreed the wild and dangerous Eastern Frontier open to exploration, none abandoned their fat and easy lives to risk almost certain doom. But when King Osric aka "The Relatively Generous" further decreed that there would be no taxes, tariffs, excises, or royal shares levied on treasure recovered from the Eastern Frontier a few desperate adventurers took notice and headed East. Those few that didn't come to their senses and turn back found themselves in the newly established Barony of Brink, last outpost of civilization and gateway to the Eastern Frontier.

Tomb robbers, out of work mercenaries, professional scoundrels, holy men looking to save or be saved, seekers of forbidden knowledge, naive farm boys with dreams of glory, assorted ne'er-do-wells, and foreigners from near and far all congregate at the Goat & Wizard Inn. Drinking the last of their coin, eyeing the competition, chasing up rumors and bar wenches. Eventually, a motley party of assorted characters gathers round a large table to plan their first foray in search of Gold and Glory. 

Are you brave or foolish enough to explore the Eastern Frontier in search of gold and glory? More to the point are you strong enough to survive its perils and return body, mind, and soul intact? 

Adventure beckons, will you answer the call?

Gold & Glory 2nd session

Ran the second session of Labyrinth Lord (heavily house-ruled (more on that later)) Gold and Glory Campaign.  Went fairly well.  Two players from 1st session came back so it can't be all bads.  I'm not as prepared as I would like (need DM screen, more things in my DM book, etc)  But, at some point you gotta say fsck it and just start playing the darn thing or else your campaign will never get started.  

3rd session set for Sunday 23rd Jan, Feb is still chrono incognita.

One of the campaigns "themes" is clawing your way up from nothing.  Which means characters start out practically destitute.  Besides basic camping gear, backpack, some rope most characters have a dagger.  Martial types get leather armor and a spear.  That's it, no bows, oil, lanterns, no shields, not even money enough to stay more than 1 night at the inn.  This has been a struggle for the players as well as the characters.  They have done fairly well at surviving.  Mostly by running away.  Which means they aren't able to pick up better gear (like a freakin shield) from their foes.  They got a spiked club only because it was impaled on the soon to be dead character.

The point of this post was to say how nice it is to have artists amongst your players.  Pro-tip: Always have a place for character portrait on your charsheets.

Front side of my custom LL Char Sheet

Player map, looks totally bad ass 

Really dig background details for this Blue (hence water I think) Magi, sadly MIA. 

Wizard wearing "Mother's Wig", the only character to survive 2 sessions and thus proud owner of 179xp.

A Scout/Archer type, KIA?

Another Scout Marksmen, KIA? or just down for some R&R?

Hobbit is rockin the bolo tie. Sadly MIA.

Not at all what I had in mind for the sign of the Goat & Wizard Pub.  It's much better.

Central Texas Mini-Con

[Yeah this happened months ago, sue me for being slow ;) ]

Great little event, hope it happens again.  Thanks to the organizers, DM's and all the players that showed up.  I ran my mutated B2 Caves of Chaos using Labyrinth Lord.  One of the players, Hill Cantons has words and pics.  [asmall correction "ape-like orcs", ape-like Hobgoblins! Well organized, militant, 2-3HD hobgoblins that the party did great just to survive an encounter with.]  Thanks for the write up!

Some pics I found still in my camera, waiting patiently for the day I get around to uploading them.

Gamers, Grub, and Goblins.  Perfect Trifecta!

Fun for all, young, old, and in between.

I should create a website for hand drawn character portraits.

What's Up With Attack Table Progression

What's up with attack table progression in original, classic, and retro D&D?

Whatever, I'm sure this issue has been talked to death. I just want to say I much prefer this table to the standard Labyrinth Lord one. Which among other things annoys me to no end that M-Us have same hit chance as fighter until 3rd lvl. In this table fighters (Edit: after 1st lvl) are always better to hit than other classes of same level.  Btw, I'm uninterested in AC lower than 0 (the best AC possible) or levels above 9-12.


Awesome Table
Warrior Whacker Wuss tohit 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
   0             1    +0  20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
   1     1-2    2-4   +1  19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
   2     3-4    5-7   +2  18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10  9
  3-4    5-6    8-10  +3  17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10  9  8
   5     7-8   11-12  +4  16 15 14 13 12 11 10  9  8  7
   6     9-10  13-14  +5  15 14 13 12 11 10  9  8  7  6
  7-8   11-12  15-16  +6  14 13 12 11 10  9  8  7  6  5
   9    13-14  17-18  +7  13 12 11 10  9  8  7  6  5  4
  10    15-16  19-20  +8  12 11 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3
  11    17-18  21-22  +9  11 10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2
  12+   19+     23+  +10  10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  2


Instead of tables I much prefer the formula tohit + AC + d20 >= 20 scores a hit.

B2 Caves of Chaos Maps

B2 Caves of Chaos Twelve Hour Marathon Recap Part 1, other B2 Caves of Chaos Posts.

I get free rolls of newsprint from my employer which come in handy for drawing large player maps such as this one depicting the ravine that contains The Caves of Chaos.  I only drew the cave mouths that are immediately visible.  Also depicted is are wooden areas (and tree stumps that the nature destroying orcs left behind, bad orcs!), contour lines, and a stream.  I had hopped that the players would draw (their maps and notes) directly on this map.  Didn't happen much.

I have no scanner. And I'm done futzing with my camera and ready to move onto something that's not B2 so below small, blurry pics are the best you're gettin, sorry.

[Also, check out this B2 Map]

 

The above is a color copy I made of base map (not pictured) to which I added colored pencil shading.  The shading does accentuate the isometric and multilevelness.  It also looks perty.  Oh, I used three colors of shading, dark brown for top level, reddish brown for mid level and green for low level.  Also the higher up, the darker dungeon walls are (using different pen thickness/colors(grey vs black) and going over walls twice to make them darker).  Another trick to visually separate the various mini-dungeons is to use different "wall styles". The temple used big square blocks.  Warangutang lair used very straight lines.  Molemen and kobolds used wavy lines.  This also served as a reminder as to the composition and quality of construction of each lair.  E.g. wavy meaning dirt, tree roots hanging from ceiling, and the like.

The map is a mixture of D&D B2 and Hackmaster B2 maps. I liked some of the Hackmaster flavor and it was larger, but too large and not easily made isometric.  When combining the two I added many loops, alternate paths, more connections between lairs and levels, and more multilevel lairs.  The original B2's lairs are all fairly small and linear.  Characters have a choice of what what cave to enter but once there it was pretty much hack through a couple dozen minions until you get to the "end boss".  These loops provided tactical options to players and defending critters alike.

B2 also was lacking in traps.  I added a few.  Many from Hackmaster, the Kobolds lair in particular is trap central.  Btw pit traps are fun to draw isometrically, esp if at their bottoms are secret doors leading to the Otyough's cave complex!

I'm somewhat sad neither group got to the Warangutang lair (aka Hackmaster's Hobgoblins).  Warangutang's come from (ack forget which) blogger's mutant future campaign, uplifted by the ancients.  I decided their leader had a laser pistol, handed down through the generations.  They also, from Hackmaster, have funny motivational posters such as:

A tapestry depicts a group of four smiling Hobgoblins hangs on the west wall.  Which has some hobgoblin writing that reads "Sometimes the best solution to morale problems is just to kill all of the unhappy people."

... depicting a Hobgoblin military leader shaking his finger. The text reads "Don't make your death serve as a warning to others."

The hardest things to draw isometrically are caves and octagonal rooms.  I drew 2 drafts prior to getting to the final map.  I still made a couple mistakes, placing a sinkhole in the floor lower catacombs leading to the Minotaur lair some 2-3 levels above. And forgot to draw dashed lines a couple places where a passage was underneath another.  Overall neither a big deal. But makes me wonder how many iterations professional published module maps go through?

B/W copy of base map(not pictured) used for key and notes.  During a session I might scribble notes on this, deaths, changes to terrain, etc.  Esp if I were running a campaign.  Then create a new one for each session.  One reason I like to keep an original and make copies of it for in game use.

If this dungeon was my own creation it I'd probably not have a key.  Being my own creation much of it would only be in my head and vaguely defined rather than written out.  (A reason I publish very little.)  Rather than separate keys, I prefer to write notes / reminders directly on the map.  You might have noticed a theme of encoding as much information into the map as possible (isometricness, wall styles, trap symbols, drawing room features on map (see temple for example)).

Although, this particular map is a bit dense and too "zoomed out" for that to be very effective.   When more detail is needed I like to use 3x5 cards.  Each "lair" would have one card with encounter table for that lair, any other specific rules / reminders for that lair (5' ceilings, dirt and rough stone construction), and a few "five senses" evocative words / phrases for use in description.  Such as "Bree-yark!", stank of animal, dark, rat squeaking, crickets, moist dirt, tree roots from ceiling.  Then, if necessary, a separate 3x5 for each room/encounter with stats, names, tactics, treasure, boxed text, etc.  Really helps me give each area it's own flavor and feeling and cards with short notes are easier for me to access in game then flipping though book and reading paragraphs.

B2 Caves of Chaos Twelve Hour Marathon Part 2

B2 Caves of Chaos Twelve Hour Marathon Recap Part 1, other B2 Caves of Chaos Posts.

[I'm forgetting order of things and some details. I'm sure I'll get things wrong.  This player report is probably more accurate.  These recaps are more after-action analysis of my DMing, rules, scenario, props used than campaign dairy.]

In Attendance:

• Piss Pants the fighter, cousin of shit pants
• Mundy Meatshield, a fighter.
• Alex, token dwarve.
• Starhawk! an elf, what else?
• Blod thief of good spirit and bad luck, Soon replaced with Magnus a priestess of Marcuniess(sp?) Goddess of Metal and Healing.
• Onedias the most marvelous magic-user, aka NPC caster.
• Two wardogs "Gwar II" and "Sir Bitesalot", which were deadly but short lived.  Basically 100gp bazookas.
• Various men-at-arms who's names and exploits will not be remembered

Good Plan Lets Do It Again

Again party heads to Caves of Chaos.  Again DM rolls a 1 on d6 indicating wilderness encounter.  This time I roll [one roll looked up on two encounter tables] vampire (inhabited) and orcs (mtns).  I go with orcs, cause fuck this marathon is called B2 The Caves of Chaos I don't want to spend 12 hours slaying the party with a vampire.  Looking up orcs on my very freaking handy LL monster cards (Thanks Jonathan Chappell!) which I put into my DM binder instead of cutting up into cards (crappy photo at right). I see that #Encountered is 2d4, I roll 6.  Then I roll Reaction (2d6) got neutral response.  Figuring these orcs came from the "Blue Line", one of two tribes in the Caves of Chaos, and were out here on the road looking for a caravan to raid not a 8-12 member strong band of good guys.  Knowing they'll likely be spotted they send out the red heart on white flag universal "Let us parley" sign.

The party sends up two orc speakers. Pisspants and Starhawk an elf.  Who the orc "negociator" points at and says "Is that suppose to be an insult." Quickly thinking Pisspants looks angrily at elf and says "Stand back 10 feet." "Ah," orc says, "It is your slave, very nice.  We eat ours."  Short negotiations later, both parties agree to let the pass peaceably along with suggestion by Warich, the orc raiders leader, to seek out the "Blue Lines" chieftain, Muback if the party was sincere in their offer to aid the orcs in destroying their enemies. [Not even at the Caves and party is already trying to get the monsters fighting themselves.  BTW if they do this I award XP for monsters killed. Even if characters did not do the actual killing.  To my mind, getting "them" and "them" to fight each other doing your work for you is at least as deserving of reward/XP as risking your own neck.]

The party wanders around Kobolds "Hedge Maze" for awhile mostly remembering to use 10' pole and avoiding the many pit traps.  They find the entrance and a small fight erupts.  But the group shows zero interest in screwing with Kobolds.  Choosing higher risk and more rewards and less flippin pit traps.  And also bringing a tear of joy to the DM's eye for picking up on that "old school" characteristic so quickly.  More wandering and the emerge into the caves proper. I read them Gygax's "boxed" text;

The thick, twisted tree trunks, unnaturally misshapen limbs, writhing roots, clutching and grasping thorns and briars all seem to warn and ward you off, but you have hacked your way through regardless.  Now you have stepped out into a ravine like area.  The dark, streaked rock walls rise rather steeply to either side to a height of about 100' or so.  Clumps of trees grow here and there.  At varying heights on all sides of the ravine, you can see the black mouths of cave like openings.  The sunlight is dim, the air dank, there is an oppressive feeling here.  A flock of ravens rise croaking from the ground, the beat of their wings and their cries magnified by the terrain to sound loud and horrible.

You know that you have certainly discovered the Caves of Chaos.

Party makes straight for what they've been told is the "Blue Lines" cave.  Some failed negotiation, crossbow bolt to the chest of Hylas Amazonian men-at-arms, and a wandering monster roll (again!) later group decides, after much deliberation, to "take out" the Owlbear.  [Since negotiations were taking some time and party was hanging out of caves I rolled d6 a '1' indicating some activity related to one of the denizens of the CoC's. I rolled another die and counted cave entrances clockwise landing on the Great Horned Owlbear's cave.  And that is how we got to what happened next.]

Party makes a fairly reasonable plan to kill the Owlbear with dogs and ranged weapons.  Being the single most feared creature I figured it was "smart" enough to have not fallen for standard tactics like that. Rather than become a pin-cushion it used forest and other covering terrain to approach as close as possible to it's dinner.  Emerging from the tree-line 1 round worth of charging away.  Onedias yells, "Wait! Hold fire for one round." and casts charm.  I felt bad having NPC take the "lead" pull out the ace.  But, that is what he'd do and I added him specifically to the party so they would have that ace.  Well one failed save and DM misinterpertation(lack of bothering to look up spell actually) later party has a third "dog".  Just this one has 5hd and 3 attacks.  Onedias yells his second line of the evening, "Now, now my friends we visit our friends the orcs!"

Best marching order for entering orc cave;
charmed Owlbear in front.
Everyone else anywhere that is out of it's way.

Orcs amazingly succeded the several moral checks I subjected them to as the party and Bear Owl slaughtered them.  Owlbear was killing about 1.5 per round but orcs using corridors to their advantage were able to get 4 attacks per round on it.  It got down to 1 orc (who yet again made is moral check, a 3 I think) and owlbear with 3 hitpoints.  That guy was gonna be a famous orc hero. It's porcine bust carved in marble or cast in bronze, sitting on the mantles of upper caste orcs from the Grimlok Sea to the Mushy Marshes.  Instead bear owl rolled it's to hit first and started munching on tasty orc.  That is when Magnus Priest of healing and metal (not good kind of metal) decided she had better finish owlbear off rather than risk charm breaking.  Since target was unawares and distracted I let her roll damage (automatic hit). She luckily rolled more than 3.  Would have been great time to roll on Death and Dismemberment table for owlbear.  But, alas, I had already decided that was not for monsters.

Some playing hide and seek with a Otyugh (which I couldn't find in LL, not there? called something else?) and several forays to city to sell orc loot and owlbear eggs/loot and leveling. They decide to take on the baddest, scariest cave there is.

"You find a hidden set of steps carved into the steep ravine.  Starting about 100 yards from the large cave entrance to either side of the path are skulls resting on tall polls.  As you get closer you can tell this is no cave but an entrance lined and faced with large granite blocks. Into which skulls and necromantic features have been carved. On the whole it appears very tomb or crypt like.  Standing before the entrance you smell the stench of death's decay.  Emanating from the black hole is an oppressive malevolence, weighing you down and testing your resolve."

After that description and near universal men-at-arms moral check failures party decides to try the next cave over.  Minotaur yeah! Onedias (under player control this time) charms the Minotauress and if you read the Hackmaster B2 version of the minotaur lair you you know what a mistake that was.  Much handwaving of details later party rescues Onedias and slays the Minotaur.  After some DM prodding they even locate the secret stash of major loot; Staff of Curing, +2 platemail, potions, and lots of gold.


Some Observations
That I didn't work in elsewhere or need repeating.

• Labyrinth Lord is fun!  I can see some peeps wanting more detailed, nailed down system for a long campaign (not me). But, for a pickup D&D game.  Nothing beats it.
• Example of ruling not rule. Alex dives into pool in attempt to remove Grey Oooze, but ooze acid eats him to 0 hitpoints.  Alex rolls "knocked out" on Death and Dismemberment table.  So, I rule that getting into water did dislodge ooze, but unfortunately Alex is now face down in the water. Mundy wades through pool and hoists Alex onto his shoulders. Sadly (or comically depending on your sense of humor) another ooze had been moving that way and decides to drop.  So, I rule that 1-5 it drops on Alex (who is on Mundy's shoulders) and on a 6 it will drop on Mundy.  It falls on Alex and for pure comedic value (the players didn't see the funny in it though) I further rule that Mundy is unawares and wades back across the pool to safety. Cheering that he has saved Alex, setting him down only to see a Grey ooze where Alex's torso use to be.
• Example of winging it. Magnus finds secret tunnel, leading to secret door, leading to bottom of 30' pit trap.  No one but he wants to open it. Rest of party go way back down the tunnel. I knew it wasn't trapped. But I didn't know what was down there beyond the traditional "skeleton of past adventurer".  Since player had shown initiative and taken risk I thought they deserved chance at reward.  Ask them to roll d4-1 and that was how many magic items they found.  Magnus rolled 4.  More really lucky random rolls later; A mace +1 +3 vs undead, scroll of protection from undead, boots of springing and leaping.
• Example of winging it/rulings not rule: Frandor's keep has got to have black market.  For one shot I didn't figure out NPCs, what was available, etc. Instead when player looks for something I ask them for a d6-X roll, where X larger number for rarer items and that is how many they find. Most common item is potions, d6-2. Then roll randomly on potion table. If they ask for something specific, there's a 1 in 6 or 1 in 12 or 1 in (you get idea) chance that it is available.  Reaction isn't a factor in market, they want to sell, you want to buy, it's business. But buying from the church requires a Reaction roll and if it turns out poorly they will not sell to you (nor the rest of the party if they know you are associates)
• I made the players booze and wench it up when ever they returned to Keep loaded with treasure. Every character rolls d6x10 (or larger die if they choose).  The sum of all dice rolls / number of characters is how much gold each must spend. One side benefit is this provides a +1 when rolling for hirelings.
• A men-at-arms pulled her unconscious master from certain death by Grey Ooze.  I gave a 1 in 6 chance that such bravery elevated her to 1st level and henchman status.  She failed that roll and both her and master got dissolved by ooze shortly there after.
• Here is a picture of a 3x5 card of things I always forget and want to be reminded of.  I never remember to look at card and still always forget these things.

• I'm ok with the hands body (means use my hands and whole body when doing NPCs, monsters, etc) and enthusiasm. But can never have enough of that.
• Mid-encounter description means part way through battle, take a pause and redescribe the scene.  Updated with blood and drama and tension.  "Blood glistens from Mubak's axe as he raises it to deal Mundy a final death blow."
• 30 sec visualization pause, means before describing scene. Take 30sec to build up scene in my mind using all 5 senses before opening my mouth.  I'm way to frantic during play to ever do this, but I do it before play and sometimes remember it. Such as describing entrance to Temple of Chaos.
• Slow, slow pacing description. Means I need to quit being such a frantic spaz, allow some slow parts, allow players to digest and plan. Remember to describe fully instead of rushing to next thing.

Next B2 post will be on the maps I made.

B2 Caves of Chaos Twelve Hour Marathon Part 1

On Sat, April 3rd, at Dragon's Lair Austin (FLGS), I ran a twelve hour marathon of B2 Caves of Chaos, a mixture of Basic D&D's B2 Keep on the Borderlands and Hackmaster's B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands, using Labyrinth Lord (a BD&D retro-clone) from Goblinoid Games.  I originally planned to run this for TARGA's International Traditional Game Week.  But that was not meant to be. Instead for ITGW I ran a shorter B2 Caves of Chaos for the Austin's D&D Meetup Group. Which turned out to be good marathon prep. As it was my first time using LL and my first non-solo run of B2.

Now that I got every possible plug out of the way...


The short

Both times running this I had a blast. Players seemed to have a blast. B2 is just plain damn fun.  And with LL's fast combats you get to experience more of it in same amount of time.  Combined, approx 18hours of game time, the players wiped out (or allied with) every major group except the Warrangutans (aka Hobgobs), The Black Temple (aka Chaos, aka undead central), and the tiny Bugbear lair.  Our results might be skewed as both groups rocked.  Good tactics, avoidance of high risk, low rewards (kobolds and their "Hey what's that? Bet we could trap it!" attitude), and the like.

Charm, esp when misinterpreted by DM to work on Owlbears and Minotaurs is really an effective spell.

In both sessions I've used various things (rules, char sheets, monster cards, etc) created by the OSR and others.  First, thanks! You Rock! Second, I've now used OSR creations in actual game play that made those games better.  For me, from this point forward, anyone who says OSR hasn't produced anything worthwhile or the like can shove it. "It" being a 10' pole.

Oh and even despite my almost total lack of advertisement and us playing in the back room (and thus bereft of most foot traffic) a half dozen people showed interest and we were able to hook them up with info on D&D meetup and other D&D groups in Austin. If you have any inclination to spread our hobby and an opportunity to play in public I encourage you to do so.  Playing in public really, truly attracts new (and returning) players and grows the hobby.


House Rules in Effect

XP is not divided by number of players.  Find a 1200gp goblet, everyone gets 1200xp.  Compressing many sessions of raiding B2 into one marathon.  It worked well. For example, elves slow progression was an actual penalty, something not normally seen in a one-shot. 

MU starts at 3rd, CL starts at 2nd.

Damage by class with more damage if you forgo shield and use a 2h and +1 to hit if you dual wield.  No one ever picked dual wield +1 to hit.  Is it not worth it? Or did I just speed past the description that no one picked up on it.

Death and dismemberment with d12 "hit location" die. For PC's only, wardogs, cooks and men-at-arms bite it at zero hitpoints.  I ruled that magic healing fixed broken bones and reconnected severed limbs.  In retrospect mending broken bones seems ok, it's magic! But, the severed limb thing was a bad ruling on my part.  After using this table in two sessions, I'm still a fan.  But it's not deadly enough, every roll but 2,3,4 on 2d6 is no big deal (if group wins battle).  When using again I will do one or more of the following:

1) reduce access to magical healing.

2) modify table, make every roll 7 and under be almost certain death described variously, 8-10 bad, keep 11 as no effect, and 12 as "now I'm angry" adrenaline surge.

Sleep with campfire, hot food, and good rest each character regains their hitdice in hit points e.g. 3rd lvl fg regains 3d8.  If your hiding out from patrolling orcs, with iron rations, no fire or light, sleeping in armor etc. you get only one hitdie.

Group dice rolls for searching, listing, etc.  I'll write a post about this later.

Attribute checks didn't come up often but they are d20+attribute >= 20 (or 25, 30 for very hard checks)

No critical hits, but when a player rolled a natural 20 I generally described something hopefully awesome sounding e.g. slicing through two kobolds, climbing up the back of the ogre and jamming sword downwards through its neck/shoulder.


In Attendance:
 

• Piss Pants the fighter, cousin of shit pants
• Mundy Meatshield, a fighter.
• Alex, token dwarve.
• Starhawk! an elf, what else?
• Blod, a thief of good spirit and bad luck, Soon replaced with Magnus a priestess of Marcuniess(sp?) Goddess of Metal (sadly not this kind) and Healing.
• Onedias the most marvelous magic-user, aka NPC caster.
• Two wardogs "Gwar II" and "Sir Bitesalot", which were deadly but short lived.  Basically 100gp bazookas.
• Various men-at-arms who's names and exploits will not be remembered.

The Plan

Starting in Frandor's Keep players had opportunity to search for hirelings. 5gp got them a roll on Dungeons n Digressions' LL Hirelings Recruitment Table and Record Sheet.  I also kicked in a magic-user NPC, Onedias. Onedias proffered the following plan "Let's go up river to the Caves of Chaos and loot the place." Having no better idea the party agrees.

I didn't want to do any of the wilderness, side, or in town, encounters from B2.  This one shot was about the caves. Even so, I couldn't just let the players wander willy nilly through the wilds!  1 on d6 means wilderness encounter.  Rolled once on way to caves, once on return trip, and also once anytime players waste time mulling about outside caves or for things such as to see if anything came by and ate their donkeys. [Towards end of evening I quit rolling cause the random encounters had done their job, providing a bit of danger and variety. The players were now really "into" the caves and it was more fun focusing our time there. An example of how I "fudge" things as DM.]

Having forgotten there is a wilderness encounter table in B2 I rolled on the LL one.  Which is pretty freaking dangerous!  I use one roll and look it up on two or more tables (this time mtns, and inhabited).  This gives me flexibility in choosing encounters.  The roll turned up Chimera or Gargoyle.  Both TPK's and not even fun TPK's. Now an encounter doesn't necessarily mean creature has appeared 100 yards in front of party and combat starts.  It can mean hearing creature (players now have option to flee or investigate, thus any TPK is now their choice rather than random FU roll), encountering tracks or other signs (piles of dragon poop are my favorite).  LL has the best mechanic for determining nature of an encounter, The Reaction Roll.  2d6 with results from "hostile, attacks immediately" to "friendly", but weighted towards "neutral, wait and see".  Despite it's utter awesomeness, I didn't use it this time.  I had another "no-good fudging DM" trick I occasionally use.  Here is what happened.


The Result

"You hear the bleating of a goat, up the mtn side to your left.  Followed by a lion's roar and a gout of flame shooting out over a ledge." I was impressed that every player at the table instantly knew what creature this was, and more impressed that when I gave them a moment to react most of them fled for cover :) "You hear the lion cry out in pain and see a three-headed beast take flight, trailing blood from a vicious claw on it's flank." More player hiding and waiting.  "Quickly chased by a grey, stoneskinned, batwinged demon."  Waiting until the pair are out of site, most of the party wants to beat it but of course the thief, Blod, needs to see what's what and climbs up to the ledge.  One failed search later Blod decides to  tear apart the nest.  That is when the hidden, terrified, 3HD baby Chimera burns his ass.  One challenging battle later party finds the Chimera's treasure.  I have them roll for it on the spot.  Blod's character rolling for the magic items in a last ditch hope of getting a potion of healing.  He rolled naught.  Thief dead, party returns to town to sell ring with largest diamond they ever saw (Mundy rolled up 1300gp jewelry as treasure).  [btw every minute or so I rolled d6, on a 1 the survivor of Gargoyle / Chimera battle would return.]

For gems and jewels players got full XP but only 80% of value when selling to jeweler.  Arms and equipment are sold for 50% or less if they are of shitty humanoid make, players get XP for sale value.  Art and weird stuff like Owlbear eggs they must find buyer (an adventure in itself and not possible in one-shot) or sell at auction, players get XP for sale value. [Was making this stuff up on the fly, proly shouldn't give full XP value for the gems and jewels. I did cause I awarded XP for those at time of acquisition and I hadn't thought about the 80% sale price yet.  In future I'd not award XP for anything until it was sold for gold.]

Norm's Simple Auction Rule: DM determines potential value of auctioned objects dX+X (although it should not be bellcurved, i.e. a single die).  Each player rolls that.  Highest roll is the highest bid and what the player's receive (minus taxes, tariffs, auction fees etc).  E.g. 3 owlbear eggs were auctioned as a lot.  I decided value was  d12x100gp, players rolled 2, 5 and 11.  Eggs sold for 1100gp!


Friendly Local Game Store

I try to follow the rule "If I play a game at a FLGS, I buy something from that store."  This time I picked up BRP Rome. Cause Rome is always cool, I've been hearing bits about BRP and want to check it out, and I've read a few favorable reviews of Rome supplements lately (although, darn bad memory can't remember if BRP was one of them.  Bunch of peoples seem to have released a Rome recently.)

Ugh, too much for one post, Part 2 to appear later. Also, more posts on B2 Caves of Chaos & maps.