Game Called on Account of Puking - and it Wasn't Joe ;)

So, we were in the middle of a severely tough fight in +Joe D 's Blood Island campaign just a few minutes ago and had to call the session mid battle - we lost our only standing fighter to what will be an inevitable hangover ;)

We heard the wine come up earlier in the session. I must say, its a damn good mic that can pick that up from rooms away. Then it was back to the battle - for another round or so before the inevitable "I gonna go to bed" was stated.

We couldn't continue, as all that was left standing was the magic-user with his four mirror images (me) and our shaman.

It's a first for me in my years of gaming, although I have seen (and listened to) another player fall asleep and snore while sitting in front of his computer.

Ah well, next week we will see of we live or die, or puke trying :)

Wherein I Play in My First DCC RPG Funnel

I've run DCC RPG funnels. I've even run DCC funnels using the Swords & Wizardry rules. Heck, I ran a short lived DCC RPG campaign and some side arcs.

Graygor, the Slightly Mad

Saturday night was my first chance to play the DCC RPG, funnel or otherwise, from the player's side of the table, and it was good. Damn good

+Craig Brasco served up a home brewed funnel and my gaggle of newbs were accompanied by the gaggles of +David Przybyla and +Keith J Davies . Thank God for Purple Sorcerer's character generation page too, as it certainly expedited the process. 

I still have all 4 of my gaggle left. Come to think of it, we've only lost one so far among us, impaled by some 3 horned pack beast as the pack descended upon us. Still looking for the mayor's missing daughter. Just buried the farmer's dead daughter. Too many daughters, damn it!

Now, there is always (or almost always) a character you want to survive the funnel. For me, that is Graygor (talks with really bad Russian accent and says stupid stuff like "in Russia, our dead buried themselves" and "perhaps if i cut off this dead man's jaw, and replace with dead demon's jaw, something may happen." Actually, something did happen, but to Graygor. I think he has a patron now. I know he can cast Spider Climb and something spoke to him in his head when he grabbed the demon jaw. I'm not sure if Craig plans to publish this adventure, but if the second part is as strong as the first part, I will do my best to strong arm him to do so ;)

Eh, he'll probably die in the thrilling conclusion next Saturday night. Still, 7 hp and zero level. He may just actually make it. 

Wherein the Party Bungie Jumps Off of a Statue's Head

So, last night the party entered +Jason Paul McCartan 's The Caves of Ortuk. Actually, it took them a most of the session to actually enter the caves, as they were distracted by a statue (humanoid with a tentacled head) on a small rocky island off shore.

Who did they send out to the island to investigate? The monk, followed by the magic-user and the thief. The ranger and the paladin found themselves a location by the caves (at the shore) to cover them with missiles.

Which was kinda good, as the giant crab attacked the two in armor, nearly taking out the paladin. There is something said about "splitting up the party"...

Anyhow, after the giant crab was dispatched by an amazing critical backstab by the halfling thief leaping out of the water (and there was some lamenting about the lack of butter) the two reaming on the island with the stone statue decided they needed to remove it from it's perch.

Being too large and heavy to push over, it was decided to tie a rope to the statue's neck and send the monk leaping from it's head and over the side of the island (10 feet for the statues, about 30 feet for the rocky outcropping off the island.

The first try yanked the head of the statues right off as the monk nimbly grabbed on the rocky of the cliff as he watched the head sail past him by mere feet.

Notice, I did say first try.

This was followed up by tying the rope around the shoulders and making the same attempt yet again. Surprising enough, it succeeded in knocking down the statues (nearly taking out the mage) and the monk again was successful in preventing himself from taking a tumble into the waters below.

The mage was disappointed to find out that the weathered statue was carved from the island's stone. There was no hidden passageway or long lost cache of loot to be found, but there was fun for all.

It was only afterwards that they found the concealed underwater entrance to the caves in question.

See, I knew my group would stretch this out to at least two sessions ;)

"A Copper for a Wish Sire!" or "What My Party Finally Wished For"

Some of you may remember my post from last week, where I mentioned that my party found a genie in a bottle and were granted a single wish in  return for releasing him. The group asked to end the session at that point, because they wanted to phrase their wish properly because they were afraid I (as the DM) might "fuck with them.

Perish the thought ;)

In any case, there was a strong push to send the Dung Monster after the Rat King - which would have been strong for the storyline, but weak for the player characters' actual benefit.

I really started to feel like I should read all of those online "user agreements" that go on for 78 pages of lawyer speak instead of just clicking "I Accept"...

They made their decision. They wanted every member of the party to see twice as well as a Dark Elf in the dark while keeping their "normal" vision. Or was it, they wanted to have the vision of a Dark Elf at the same distance as their normal vision while maintaining their normal vision. Something like that.

They got their dark vison. The genie took his bottle and flew away. I do have an idea for a nice twist down the line that would really push the campaign and the players to some new heights, but it may never come up - and may never need to depending on the course of the players' actions.

And they didn't get screwed. Dozens of blog readers can no sigh in relief ;)

What's a Wish Worth?

My players recovered an Efreeti Bottle last night in Rappan Athuk. Not having any desire for the party to have an Efreeti at their beck and call for a year and a day I had the Efreeti offer the opener of the bottle a wish.

I've never seen a game session come to a screeching halt faster in my life. They wanted to take a week to decide on the proper wish and it's wording. I wasn't going to stop them - I understand the importance, but I've never fucked a player over for a wish that didn't ask for it.

What I mean is this - in my mind, a wish is something that is appropriate for your relative level or a bit higher. So if you're level 7, something appropriate for a level 9 or 10 character, but if you are wishing for something appropriate for a 15th or 20th level character, it probably won't work out as you expect.

Sure, it's all rule of thumb, but my rule is basically "only screw the players if they are being extremely greedy or foolhardy."

That all being said, I'm very interested in seeing what the intervening week brings...

Just Another Night in Rappan Athuk

It Almost Looks Like "Demon Chucky"

Last night my players continued their exploration of Rappan Arthuk, We found ourselves more derailed then recent nights, but we admittedly had a shitload of catching up to do. Once we finally got their feet in motion they did okay.

They went from the 2nd level, back to the 1st (and a section they had skipped initially), down to the 3rd. We use Tabletop Forge, mostly because I feel comfortable with it, but the one feature we've found to be sorely lacking is the ability to save play maps between sessions. I run with just a grid and we map as we go along, so session to session we lose all the mapping. As I'm typing this, I wonder if I could screen shot just the play map at the end of the session, then import it into TTF with the next session. Leave of the grid as it's already on the old map. Only problem is we'd lose tabletop space, as the gridded map section would be limited to the screenshot from the previous session. Scrolling the mapping "tabletop" would scroll us off grid. I need to think about this.

They got to deal with a large talking head (which swallowed one PC) but in the end, they came out "a head" of the game ;)

It was fun watching them encounter the demon buggers pictured above. If I didn't have a knack of rolling "1's" for my damage rolls, it would have been a bit more dangerous. Ah well, can't kill them all. I suspect the 3rd level of the dungeon will finally put them to a true test of skills and luck.

They didn't cover as much ground as either of the last two sessions, but I think we were all feeling a but run down. Besides, the distractions were damn glorious.

Oh, and I found that one of my players has an adventure coming out in the nearish future from one of the 3rd party DCC RPG publishers. My, but I have a talented gaming group :)

DM Fiat Over Skill Rolls For the Win!

My Were-Troll Under the Bridge Was a Bit Taller - and My Party Avoided as Best They Could ;)

Yes, DM Fiat was definitely a big win in last night's AD&D 1e.

Now, let me explain what I mean by DM Fiat in the context of last night's game: I improvised required rolls for actions (or required no rolls for actions) such as:

Required no roll, just effective roleplay, to conduct a fairly successful interrogation of two surviving slavers

Trying to grab a flaming torch held by a magically held bugbear - as the party just had 40 gallons of oil wash down the stairs they were climbing, getting the flaming torch out of the areas was a good thing, especially as two more bugbears had just joined the fray.

Throwing a party member from a bridge into a river by a huge were-troll - not by grabbing the party member sneaking across the bridge all alone, but by grabbing the rope tied to his waist and trailing behind him (which the rest of the party had failed to hold or tie off)

Deciding on the proper saving throw for said "now in the river PC" when the party's cleric cast a Command spell and ordered the were-troll to "Dive" (as it had to take orders from it's master  I assumed it had a basic knowledge of the Common tongue) - said were-troll failed it's save and dove in the only direction it was capable off - the PC in the water. It's a damn good thing he saved.

Required no roll to successfully throw said waterlogged PC a new rope and extradite him from the river with the now floundering were-troll.

Last night had a certain energy to the session which a rules heavy system like 3 / Pathfinder would have held back if run as written IMO. I'm not saying AD&D 1e isn't rules heavy, it certainly is and has a lot of baggage I willfully ignore. It does, however, put more trust the DM to improvise in a fair and even handed manner than later editions of the game which try to have a rule / roll / throw preset for nearly every possible occasion. Are all DM's fair and even handed? Of course not.

I suspect it is easier to run a 3x or 4x game of D&D if the DM has a strong grasp of the rules than it is to run an earlier edition. Or rather, it is easier for an inexperienced DM with a strong grasp of the rules. More experienced DMs tend to allow play that is outside the predefined ruleset, but as the later editions have more defined rules to cover a much larger assortment of possible actions, the ability to go "outside the rules" is greatly decreased. If there is a rule for an action, players expect you to use it. If there isn't a rule for the action, players are usually happy with a well thought out, balanced, improvised ruling.

Last night was a good session of hopefully well thought out, fairly balanced, improvised rulings.

Alright, less DM Fiat than DM Improvisation Ruling ;)

1e Session Recap (Part 1) - Whereupon the Party Finds Many Rats, But No Coppers

So, last night I kicked off my 1e / OSRIC campaign. It's the same players from my old ACKS campaign and Ambition & Avarice play test sessions for the most part. To make up for the reboot, I awarded them half the expo earned (approximately) during the ACKS Campaign, which gave everyone  8k in expo. I'm using a heavily modified DCC #27 to get the ball rolling.

The party includes:

Glabe, an Elven MU2/T3 - CN

Janos, an Elven Cleric4 - CN (I opened the classes up as per 2e)

Byrne, a Human Thief4 -NG (second highest HP total in the party)

Rastan, a Human Fighter3 - NG (the HP tank with exceptional Strength - name may ave changed - it was in flux ;)

Mark, a Dwarven F2/C3 - LN (also exceptional Strength)

So, the party wakes up chained to a cell wall via next collars. They have some vague memories of being in Tenkar's Tavern, in the Town of Tenkar (BareBones RPG Keranak Kingdoms Fantasy Setting). It was "Adventurers' Night" at the Tavern, when adventurers eat and drink for half off as paying patrons attempt to ply deals. A young fop named Lawrence was striking a deal with them when another adventuring party demanded the contract. Within minutes, the Tavern was laid to waste (not for the first time). Glabe remembers seeing the pointy end of a spear protruding from his chest, and suspects he died when it all faded to black. The others remember being on the losing end of the fight and falling unconscious, or worse.

Thus ends the set up ;)

Upon awaking, Rastan tested his chains and was able to pull them loose from the wall. The resulting hole revealed the sound of rushing water behind the wall. With some work, the rest of the part was freed, and it was decided to cast a silence spell so they could complete opening the wall up enough to escape through if necessary. They knew there were was someone on the other side of their cell door, and they wanted to be as quietly as possible. Besides, they were clothed only in prisonwear, without armor, weapons or other quiptment.

With the wall opened enough to view the unground river below, the party awaited their jail keeper, on the assumption someone needed to provide them with food and water. They were correct, and after waiting an undermined amount their jailor, a well times sleep spell took the wererat out after he opened their cell door.

The attempt to charm him failed, and what little info he was able to provide the party failed to make much sense. In the short of it, they disposed of him so he wouldn't be a possible issue later.

The elvin MU/T was the first to lower himself into the river. I wasn't sure if he had a death wish or now, but he saw the hints of a shore and a dry cave and decided to swim for it. The rest of the party decided to us the chains from the jail keeper's / torturer's room to tie themselves off and avoid being washed down river. It's nice to know the whole party isn't suicidal.

The party made their way the cave tunnel to a small lake with a whirlpool at the center - this was obviously fed by the river they had successfully traversed. The dwarf stopped to inspect the racks and stones at the shore before pressing on - he wanted something he could throw. Instead, he found a waterproof scroll case washed up among the rocks. The were some spell scrolls for the magic-user and a coded treasure map (and future adventure seed).

Proceeding to the far side of the sure the party came to a winding tunnel system, roughly 4' high and 4'.  It smelled of death, decay and poop. Rat poop!

(to be continued)