I added a new widget:
This Week I Be Pimpin
Just so there's no confusion, no one has
asked me to pimp anything well not this thing anyhow. These will always be
products which I own a copy of, believe deserve exposure, and believe maybe worth your time/money. The pimping idea totally stolen from The Underdark Gazzette. Hopefully I'll remember to change it every week.
This week it's XRP's A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe 2nd Edtion. One of the best, thorough, and RPG useful source books for medieval Europe I've read. Lots of reviews for the 1st edition.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Necrotic Technology
In Grognarida's Dwimmermount Session 36 the party encountered --
I like having "spirits" be the real "dead" and the "walking dead" being necromantic abominations. I'm fine with having ghouls just be cursed cannibals. Vampires being somethings altogether unique. What others are there?
Being associated with necromancy, gives reason for technology to be (wrongly) shunned. It all just fits much better with my world/underworld view and with the science-fantasy setting I'm migrating towards. Half the reason I'm using LL is cause I think it's a only short hop away from MF.
Hmmmmm, there's amazingly few images of zombies or skeletons with gears and such findable with 5min of google searches. Everything is about the terminator or Gears of War video game. :(
obviously dead apes whose bodies were animated through some sort of necromantic technology -- tubes, gears, and silvery-black replacement parts.Which gave me the science-fantasy idea that all corporeal undead are "cyborg" constructions. Mostly skeletons and zombies in all their countless variations. I've never been sold on undead as a "class" of beings. There just sort of boring and the ones you could poke always seemed to diminish the incorporeals' impact.
I like having "spirits" be the real "dead" and the "walking dead" being necromantic abominations. I'm fine with having ghouls just be cursed cannibals. Vampires being somethings altogether unique. What others are there?
Being associated with necromancy, gives reason for technology to be (wrongly) shunned. It all just fits much better with my world/underworld view and with the science-fantasy setting I'm migrating towards. Half the reason I'm using LL is cause I think it's a only short hop away from MF.
Hmmmmm, there's amazingly few images of zombies or skeletons with gears and such findable with 5min of google searches. Everything is about the terminator or Gears of War video game. :(
All I could find was this break-dancing samurai pirate.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
New Redbox Group Forming in College Station Texas
Sunday April 18th is their first meeting. Hopefully I'll make it out that way.
http://www.meetup.com/RedboxBCS/calendar/13087765/
Other Red Box Groups
- Red Box New York Where it's 1980 for another 2d6 turns…the original Redbox group
- Red Box Vancouver We're gonna party like it's 1983
- Red Box Calgary Fun in '81
- Red Box Niagara !
Party Dice Rolls
[Timeshadows' comment on this post gave me this idea which I put to the test during my recent B2 Caves of Chaos Twelve Hour Marathon.]
I'm annoyed by players lining up, conga style, each rolling an attempt to find secret door, open stuck door, and the like. In the past I've done things like say "The best at searching, elf, has already failed. Those of lesser skill have no chance." Not very satisfying. Or, let everyone try and just roll more random encounters as players waste time. Not very satisfying either and many people I play with are not hip to that risk/reward trade off. Years of dissimilar play style are hard to overcome in the one-shots I find myself mostly running. Or, d20's assist mechanic. A poor mechanic IMO and fails cause no one pays attention and they all want to jump in only after the main roller fails.
So, prompted by Timeshadows' comment, I came up with idea of making these rolls "party" based. Which is basically the same as everyone rolls in a conga line, with more of a blob than a line. But in actual play it is physiologically different and felt "slick", like the party was working as a team / everyone was participating rather than twiddling their thumbs while thief and elf searched every 10'.
Search, Hear Noise & the Like
Search rolls and the like are made by the party together all at once. Each participating character contributing zero or more d6 to a "pool". Each player rolls their character's dice and the number of sixes rolled determine if task is successful. The number of dice each character contributes equals their x in 6 chance for that task. E.g searching for secret doors; 1 die for most, 2 die for elves and dwarves.
Simple Auction
When party has some art or other rare unique treasure. They either have to hunt down a buyer, an adventure in itself. Or, sell item(s) at auction. DM in role of auctioneer groups items into lots and decides on a "value range" for each. Value Range being some linear (i.e. involving only 1 die) equation. Such as 1d12x100gp or 10+d20gp.
If the lots and value ranges are acceptable to the characters the auction can proceed. Each character who will share in the proceeds rolls the "value range". The highest roll is the highest bid and is how much the lot is sold for. Taxes, tariffs, auction fees are at the DM's discretion. Characters divide profit as they see fit (it is unrelated to their "range value" roll).
If the characters are especially clever at attracting buyers, or they aren't in a backwater borderland keep, the DM should up the "value range" and/or roll as if there were additional characters. Note: a certain amount of character effort in attracting buyers, self bidding, and other shenanigans is assumed and built into the mechanic. I.e. more characters rolling "value range" == greater chance of higher roll.
[BTW this came about cause I didn't have a clue how much owlbear eggs were worth. My DM's default response to "I don't know" is "roll a die." Also, I've been moving towards "players roll all dice" esp for treasure. So, while trying to decide which player should roll dice for the eggs it dawned on me "all of them, of course!". Thus was born simple auction rules. For me this is exactly what "winging it" and "rulings not rules" means and is why those styles are so much fun.]
Revelry
When party wants to booze and wench it up (which I require whenever they return to home base laden with treasure) each character rolls a d6x10 (or larger die if player wants). The sum of all rolls is how much gold the party spends. This is evenly divided amongst all characters. Example: three characters roll 2,4,6. Each of them must spent 40gp on "entertainments". The party's obvious success and wealth provides a +1 the following day to each characters attempt to recruit hirelings or henchmen. Once the hangover subsides that is.
A bit like Jeff Rients Party for XP table without the XP and without the risks. A house rule I was thinking about but didn't want to get into for a one-shot. Thus I came up with the above "simulation".
I'm annoyed by players lining up, conga style, each rolling an attempt to find secret door, open stuck door, and the like. In the past I've done things like say "The best at searching, elf, has already failed. Those of lesser skill have no chance." Not very satisfying. Or, let everyone try and just roll more random encounters as players waste time. Not very satisfying either and many people I play with are not hip to that risk/reward trade off. Years of dissimilar play style are hard to overcome in the one-shots I find myself mostly running. Or, d20's assist mechanic. A poor mechanic IMO and fails cause no one pays attention and they all want to jump in only after the main roller fails.
So, prompted by Timeshadows' comment, I came up with idea of making these rolls "party" based. Which is basically the same as everyone rolls in a conga line, with more of a blob than a line. But in actual play it is physiologically different and felt "slick", like the party was working as a team / everyone was participating rather than twiddling their thumbs while thief and elf searched every 10'.
Search, Hear Noise & the Like
Simple Auction
If the lots and value ranges are acceptable to the characters the auction can proceed. Each character who will share in the proceeds rolls the "value range". The highest roll is the highest bid and is how much the lot is sold for. Taxes, tariffs, auction fees are at the DM's discretion. Characters divide profit as they see fit (it is unrelated to their "range value" roll).
If the characters are especially clever at attracting buyers, or they aren't in a backwater borderland keep, the DM should up the "value range" and/or roll as if there were additional characters. Note: a certain amount of character effort in attracting buyers, self bidding, and other shenanigans is assumed and built into the mechanic. I.e. more characters rolling "value range" == greater chance of higher roll.
[BTW this came about cause I didn't have a clue how much owlbear eggs were worth. My DM's default response to "I don't know" is "roll a die." Also, I've been moving towards "players roll all dice" esp for treasure. So, while trying to decide which player should roll dice for the eggs it dawned on me "all of them, of course!". Thus was born simple auction rules. For me this is exactly what "winging it" and "rulings not rules" means and is why those styles are so much fun.]
Revelry
When party wants to booze and wench it up (which I require whenever they return to home base laden with treasure) each character rolls a d6x10 (or larger die if player wants). The sum of all rolls is how much gold the party spends. This is evenly divided amongst all characters. Example: three characters roll 2,4,6. Each of them must spent 40gp on "entertainments". The party's obvious success and wealth provides a +1 the following day to each characters attempt to recruit hirelings or henchmen. Once the hangover subsides that is.
A bit like Jeff Rients Party for XP table without the XP and without the risks. A house rule I was thinking about but didn't want to get into for a one-shot. Thus I came up with the above "simulation".
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
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:
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.
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.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #483 Instilling Common Sense Into Players, Part 2
Instilling Common Sense Into Players, Part 2
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #483 is out! This issue continues the topic of getting players to realize their characters aren't invincible superhero's, who can't be killed cause they are integral to the plot. John Four put some of my advice in this issue so like even more reason to read it. Part 1 of Instilling Common Sense Into Players.
Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #483 is out! This issue continues the topic of getting players to realize their characters aren't invincible superhero's, who can't be killed cause they are integral to the plot. John Four put some of my advice in this issue so like even more reason to read it. Part 1 of Instilling Common Sense Into Players.
Contents:
Can Newbs Start With a Sandbox
Z's comment on Grognardia's Dungeonworld post asked about Sandbox D&D post by Gabe over at Penny Arcade.
Like I replied in Grognardia's comments I believe Gabe has discovered the key to sandboxes --
It's an interesting point for those of us actively trying to grow and popularize sandbox style gaming. Maybe we need to do a little more hand holding in the beginning, or even run hybrid style. The Western Marches, in retrospect, seems if not a hybrid at least a sandbox with some structure and direction. Instead of 100% open. Western Marches have big ol' signs "the stuff, it's over there". And there are aides to direct and motivate players; table map, competition with other groups, the increasing danger "bands".
Maybe we should suggest that new DM's get a year of one-shots, running modules, etc. under their belts before they dive into the sandbox? I'm more or less doing that with Labyrinth Lord.
What say you all?
Like I replied in Grognardia's comments I believe Gabe has discovered the key to sandboxes --
I sit down at the table with no idea what they will do or where they will go that night. The adventure ends up being just as much a surprise to me as it is to them.I wanted to discuss and see what my readers had to say about this quote --
I honestly think that I could not have started out running this type of game. I think having a year of running more structured adventures under my belt gave me the skills I needed to open the world up like this. I think the same could be said for my players as well.I'm guessing that is true of most people. Whether it's inherent in our psychology or we've been accustomed by books, movies, other playstyles to storypaths is moot. I certainly see it with new players. Ignoring play style just being comfortable with the rules and your role (DM, player) can take time. I see inklings of in myself, when running new systems/settings I don't wing it or run the game nearly as well as when I'm intimately familiar (that might be just cause I'm a suckass DM).
It's an interesting point for those of us actively trying to grow and popularize sandbox style gaming. Maybe we need to do a little more hand holding in the beginning, or even run hybrid style. The Western Marches, in retrospect, seems if not a hybrid at least a sandbox with some structure and direction. Instead of 100% open. Western Marches have big ol' signs "the stuff, it's over there". And there are aides to direct and motivate players; table map, competition with other groups, the increasing danger "bands".
Maybe we should suggest that new DM's get a year of one-shots, running modules, etc. under their belts before they dive into the sandbox? I'm more or less doing that with Labyrinth Lord.
What say you all?
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday Links
[Every week I pre-schedule a "Sunday Links" post. Throughout the week when I find something that piques my particular interests but I don't have time to say much, or don't have much to say I'll add link to it here. Little bit in the spirit of robotwisdom.com and a little bit cause I'm always forgetting were I saw cool idea 'X' and little bit cause most weeks I read so much that deserves a wider audience. So, there may be a lot of content or may not be much each week.]
I Hit It With My Axe is picking up nicely, episode 4 made me laugh out loud -- http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/i-hit-it-with-my-axe/1602-Episode-4-A-Lot-Of-Spiders
ITGW Success -- http://traditionalgaming.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/spring-itgw-success/
Greyhawk was the 1st campaign world I ever encountered. It held the "this is how it should be done" title for quite awhile. But, I eventually grew to abhor the shiny, nice, pseudo-[medieval|late Roman] trappings I had associated with it. Reading various "pulp" interpretations, Greyhawk seems new and awesome again. Considering returning to it.
This is how paladins roll, 'God Haunted' is great description -- http://oldguardgamingaccoutrements.blogspot.com/2010/04/god-haunted-paladins-of-wyrd-greyhawk.html
And this is how Dryads -- http://dungeonmum.blogspot.com/2010/02/teremedas-grove.html
And War Chimps -- http://greenskeletongamingguild.blogspot.com/2010/04/simian-saturday-war-chimps.html
And Dolls -- http://dungeonmum.blogspot.com/2010/04/living-dolls.html
And Bad-Asses -- http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hervor.html
End Game Material via -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince
OMFG, yes! There is a Planet Algol Master Index -- http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/2010/04/master-index-of-freely-available-planet.html
The realism and detail of CG is beginning to freak me out, and I so love that "RPG bloggers" have there very own 3d artist rocking out new characters and scenes every week -- http://greywulf.net/2010/04/danger-falling-barbarian/
"Knightmare", British Dungeon Game Show kicks all sorts of serious ass (in the it's cool looking back at it as a 40yr old but I would have dismissed as lame kids crap when I was a kid) -- http://rpglabyrinth.blogspot.com/2010/04/knightmare.html
The latest goings on of interest to classic style gamers are reported by Jame's in his weekly OSR News from The Underdark Gazette.
I Hit It With My Axe is picking up nicely, episode 4 made me laugh out loud -- http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/i-hit-it-with-my-axe/1602-Episode-4-A-Lot-Of-Spiders
ITGW Success -- http://traditionalgaming.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/spring-itgw-success/
Greyhawk was the 1st campaign world I ever encountered. It held the "this is how it should be done" title for quite awhile. But, I eventually grew to abhor the shiny, nice, pseudo-[medieval|late Roman] trappings I had associated with it. Reading various "pulp" interpretations, Greyhawk seems new and awesome again. Considering returning to it.
This is how paladins roll, 'God Haunted' is great description -- http://oldguardgamingaccoutrements.blogspot.com/2010/04/god-haunted-paladins-of-wyrd-greyhawk.html
And this is how Dryads -- http://dungeonmum.blogspot.com/2010/02/teremedas-grove.html
And War Chimps -- http://greenskeletongamingguild.blogspot.com/2010/04/simian-saturday-war-chimps.html
And Dolls -- http://dungeonmum.blogspot.com/2010/04/living-dolls.html
And Bad-Asses -- http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hervor.html
End Game Material via -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince
OMFG, yes! There is a Planet Algol Master Index -- http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/2010/04/master-index-of-freely-available-planet.html
The realism and detail of CG is beginning to freak me out, and I so love that "RPG bloggers" have there very own 3d artist rocking out new characters and scenes every week -- http://greywulf.net/2010/04/danger-falling-barbarian/
"Knightmare", British Dungeon Game Show kicks all sorts of serious ass (in the it's cool looking back at it as a 40yr old but I would have dismissed as lame kids crap when I was a kid) -- http://rpglabyrinth.blogspot.com/2010/04/knightmare.html
The latest goings on of interest to classic style gamers are reported by Jame's in his weekly OSR News from The Underdark Gazette.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
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:
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;
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!"
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.
Some Observations
That I didn't work in elsewhere or need repeating.
Next B2 post will be on the maps I made.
[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
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.
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.
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