We Went Down in a Blaze of Glory in the First Session (self inflicted), and it Was Awesome!

First time as a player in over a year and a half, and we had a TPK 90 minutes into it.

Let me back up for a sec. James Spahn is out DM for a Swords and Wizardry Complete campaign that kicked off in Bard's Gate. The other players are Skeeter Green, Jim Wampler and Rocky & Ian from Silver Bulette Publishing. The presence of the Frog God was strong.

In any case, we were exploring Matt Finch's Tomb of the Iron God and we came across a black ooze. Closed the door and decided to come back later. Found embalming fluid and decided to return.

We had a good plan. We had devastating results.

We doused the ooze in elbalming fluid. It retreated. Woot. We lit the embalming fluid. Actually, embalming fluid isn't flammable, the gases it gives off IS, however.

Boom!

And you thought first level characters couldn't cast a fireball.

Black ooze - dead.

Party - Dead.

We have two weeks before the next session. Time to reroll.

This was the best TPK ever! I love the OSR :)

That is an affiliate link above - affiliate links keep the lights on and the taps flowing at The Tavern.

Three Out of Four Ain't Bad - Missed a TPK by > < "That Much"

So, my players launched a frontal assault on a dragon tonight in the caves above The Lost City of Baracus. I expected either a successful attack by the players with minimal casualties (not likely in the least) or a TPK. We nearly had the TPK but not quite.

What happened?

After last week's dark elf slaughter the characters knew there was a dragon nearby. While discussing plans amongst themselves, they heard the squeaking of rats and then a whoosh and a splash and no more squeaking, leading them to believe the dragon breathed acid - they were right.

Figuring now was the time to attack, the party's cleric took the lead and charged with the magical (continual light) torch. He surprised a goblin that was gathering the dead giant rats and skewering them on a stick. Then there was the matter of the black dragon head sticking out of the corridor to the north.

The party has initiative. The thief and the bard fire their dark elf hand crossbows (with sleep poison bolts) - a hit and a miss and a successful save. Cleric and fighter swing. More hits, both from the part and the dragon. Dragon's bite for a lot of damage as the cleric found out.

Next round and the dragon has initiative. Acid breath takes out the cleric and damages the other three. It would have been worse but I applied the damage inflicted to the dragon against his acid breath - he only inflicted current HP in damage, not his full HP amount. I am a kind and benevolent DM ;)

Another hit is scored on the dragon, this time from a poisoned bolt that did not hit the fighter in the way. The save is failed and we applied a -4 to the dragon's attacks, with a second failed save indicating sleep.

A new round and the Fighter falls to a claw and a bite. The bard charges in with his sword that is + 2 vs reptiles. He misses, as does the thief's bolt that goes far and wide.

Two down and two to go.

The remaining party members and the dragon tie their initiative roll. The sword strikes true as does the dragon's bite. The thief's bolt is far and wide again. The bard is chomped in two and the dragon retreats into the cave behind, licking his wounds, having lost approximately 85% of its HP. As the thief fires bolts blindly into the darkness the dragon flees the caves completely.

Paging the Lone Survivor. Paging the Lone Survivor. ;)

Not either of the possibilities I had expected but still awesome. Even omitting the successful charge through the gore, entrails and acid to retrieve the reptile slaying sword.

New PCs are ready to go for next session :)

No One Expects... The Building Inspectors (a Session Write Up & Play Review of Polyhedral Dungeon

Last night, while enjoying the calming sounds of rain falling on a tin roof, I hopped into a Roll 20 session of Polyhedral Dungeon run by none other than my good friend and writer of said game, +Jason Paul McCartan . Joining me in acts of virtual depravity were +James Spahn , +Keith J Davies and +David B .

Not so long set up shortened, we were recruited to recover three identical statues from a bunch of evil cultists. Of course, evil cultists means carte blanc for acts that aren't normally approved by the average adventurer's guild.

I'm going to borrow the following from a comment Keith posted on G+ earlier today with additional info provided by me:

We walked up to the big oak doors of this place, they weren't locked. So we pulled them open and, since they were on pin hinges, popped the pins and the door fell down.

Explanation: The halfling (James) wanted to remove a door so we couldn't get locked in. He wanted to borrow the dwarf's hammer (me) to do so. Instead, I took down the door

Cultist/priest came running out.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"Building inspector. You know what the penalty is for having doors that can fall on and injure someone?"

Yep, my line. Because of 20 years of civil service, I know the hoops you can make people jum through.

"They didn't do that until you go here!"
"Yeah, clearly they weren't to code. Have you got a signed inspection report?"
"GAH!" walks off
*twang* (crossbow)

That was all James. Halflings are violent, yo!

"What, he was coming right at us." removes crossbow bolt, rolls body over, jams it into the front
...
after following cultists who fled down some stairs 

"Inadequately lit stairway, no hand rail. Total health and safety hazard here. See? We've got a couple people injured at the bottom of the stairs right now." thoroughly apply hammer to the one still twitching "Head injuries are a serious problem in unsafe conditions like this. I want to see a handrail and proper lighting when I come back."

This was a bit of everyone throwing out lines ate this point. Polyhedral Dungeon expects you to come up with a Schtick or gimmick for your character to make them moire memorable, as well as a quote. For me, these came up in play during the first session.  "No one expects... the Building Inspectors!"

Beyond some excellent roleplay we got to give the PD rules a shake too. Keith remarked that they reminded him a bit of Far Away Land, and he's right, they did in a way. Just like in FAL, once your grok the rules they kinda fade to the back of your mind. Advantage, attacks (and defense), damage (and armor) and the painful disadvantage that taking damage does to both PCs and the adversaries.

Unlike D&D type games, a damaged opponent is less of a threat than an undamaged opponent. Whittling down multiple adversaries instead of concentrating on taking out a single one appears to be more effective.

I used brownie points to negate the small amounts damage I was taking in combat with a half dozen skeletons, because I immediately saw how a little damage can easily be a rolling stone towards death.

One thing that needs to be spelled out a bit more, at least for those of use coming from the OSR end of the spectrum, is how to effectively put oneself in position to gain advantage. Sometimes we just need some examples spelled out for us.

In the end, it felt like D&D without being D&D. I'm still partly amazed at how easily the rules faded into the background, just like they do for me when I play most OSR games that are built on the rules I've played since I was a teenager. That says a lot.

I'm looking forward to the next game session of "Calishun BrightAxe, Independent Building Inspector."

Tim Shorts / Chicago Jones Shot First (White Star / StarSlinger)

Thanks to +Tim Shorts we now have our third of three recaps of Friday Night's "B Team" session of White Star / Star Slinger. A virtual trifecta.

It was strange to watch Tim rolling well for a whole session of play ;)

Here's a piece of Tim's write up:

When we left the ship there were three men waiting for us.  A little guy who did the talking and two meatheads.  I used my Scoundrel skill of attacking before anyone else.  Chicago allowed the little talking man to finish his ultimatum before shooting him in the heart.  While the little gurgling man lay on the ground, the two meatheads raised their hands and walked off.

With a set up like that you know it was good ;)

Here's the rest of it at Gotheridge Manor.

White Star Session Recap - Kyn Vittman, Scoundrel and Sole Survivor

I was really excited when +James Spahn offered to run a White Star session with +Joe D and +David B and myself last night. I nearly pissed my pants when James allowed my request to play the Scoundrel class I wrote up last week. This was gonna be mega fun :)

Needless to say my character's name was Kyn Vittman and our ship was called The Kickstarter.

So, we had to recover some data from a mining camp. When we landed the doors leading from the landing pad wouldn't open and the electronic lock mechanism had been ripped from the wall. David, our Star Knight tried to rewire it. He failed and took a small shock, at which point he decided to carve a hole in the doors with his Star Sword. I like this lock bypassing system.

We enter the room adjacent to the hanger and get attacked by reprogramed cleaning bots. David and I took down the bots with a single blow each - he with his Star Sword and me with my mono axe. Kyn let out a blood curdling roar in celebration and then inquired as to the possibility of repurposing the bot he destroyed to look serviceable. Alas, it was damaged beyond his ability to cover up the damage. at best, it would sell for scrap.

Next room was occupied by Space Savages. Kyn tried to get the drop on them (First Strike) but he failed. Still, we managed to take them out with minimal damage to the others and we finally got to see Joe's laser rifle in action. We were also finding loot, including a laser pistol which went to the Star Knight. That was fine, because I intended to avoid combat where possible.

In the kitchen we found some dead miners and a living coward. The savages had missed the survivor who had played dead. After throwing water on him and getting little info of value, we tied him up like a hog for slaughter and left him to gather up for later. We couldn't risk him taking our ship.

So, now we headed to the south side of the initial room. There was a door just beckoning us, so I let the others open it. Hey, I spent my money on fine clothes and a cool axe. No need for me to get dirty when others can do so instead.

The open the door and I hear a "whirl" sound. I dive to the side of the doorway as I have no ranged weaponry (see? always thinking) The others confront to ceiling based laser turrets. Zap! Zap! I drag the bodies away from the doorway and remove their weapons and armor. Star Sword, laser rifles, 2 laser pistols, 2 med kits, a couple of hundred credits and some odds and ends. Oh, and a ship to cal my own, at least until I can find some suckers, er, I mean "loyal companions"  to join me on the next job. I figure I should be able to get at least 80% retail for the extra weapons if I sell to my future companions instead of the 50% or less I could expect at a pawn shop. We're all winners :)

I forgot to ask James if I leveled...

DCC Does NOT Stand for "Disney Crawl Classics"

We had WAY too much fun playing DCC RPG last night. Who was we? +Jason Paul McCartan in the driver's seat and +Craig Brasco (that's his art above), +Keith J Davies , +David B and myself (with +David Przybyla as an observer of sorts for the first bit.)

Some highlights of the funnel?

Craig's Jester taking a trap of nails to the face. Down for the count but survive the "rolling over the body" bit. Decided to leave the three nails right where they were, which didn't help much in the bar but boy was it entertaining.

David B's Solicitor and her "elven falcon" pet, which just had to be a vulture. My God but her non stop mouth was a running joke.

My Test Pilot, who didn't accomplish much but kill a charging dog with his pistol (generated using the Purple Planet PC Generator at Purple Sorcerer's website). When the Solicitor complained that the Test Pilot killed the dog for doing nothing, he turned to her with his gun pointed at her head and remarked "Yep, I killed the dog for doing nothing. Think about that."

There's a crapload more but the laughing was so contagious the details are hazy. Probably the most fun I've had in a single game session in years.

Last Night the "B" Team Was Exposed to Far Away Land - No One Died - Damn Shame ;)

I'm disappointed I never got to run Far Away Land at NTRPG Con, but even though I didn't pack my schedule to the brim like last year, I still found my time filled. Damn but there were good folks to socialize with. I did give away Quickstarts to semi random folks. Hopefully over the coming months I'll get some feedback.

I did get to run Far Away Land last night with the "B" Team: +Douglas Cole , +Peter V. Dell'Orto , +Tim Shorts and +Joe D . Joe had played the first half of the adventure the Saturday before the con. He's also the one with the quote "This is a great game to play drunk and still understand the rules." Yes, Joe's character made a great guide for the others: "We gotta do something here - or specifically NOT do something here - I don't remember which." It worked so well ;)

Tim has a recap of sorts up at his blog Gothridge Manor of the party's mission to the Temple of Zoko. It's written better than I ever could do for y'all, so go there, read the recap and come back. Make Tim earn those extra 2 XP :)

Edit: Doug has an update at his blog Gaming Ballistic and Pete has his at Dungeon Fantastic

I changed things up from the original module to account for the previous group's actions and I think it worked well. Far Away Land does well as a sandbox because the resolution system is dead simple, but deeper than it initially looks. I was able to run things without referring to the Tome of Awesome more than once or twice, which is on par with me running Swords & Wizardry. As I've been playing S&W for years and running FAL for a few weeks, that speaks volumes.

Second Session of Far Away Land in the Bag - Scything & Dicing

Last night was the second session of the Temple of Zoko, my Saturday Night group's introduction to Far Away Land and a testing of the system / gameplay prior to me running a session or two at NTRPG Con later this week.

My four player group survived without a casualty. That was due to smart play on the part of my players.

As far as I know (as I didn't see them in the FAL Quickstart and I didn't have time to refer back to The Tome of Awesome) there are no disarm / weapon grabbing rules for FAL. Well, one of my players, whose character was skilled in unarmed combat, decided he want to take away the BBEG's apparently magic scythe. The two wrestled over the scythe for two rounds, and the player's character gained control on the second round, which changed the dynamics of that final encounter. I'll post my house rule later.

Far Away Land is a big hit in my group, a grumpy set of grognards one and all. It's nothing like D&D and yet plays out very much like D&D. It also seems to encourage me to "ham it up" just a bit, which has gotten my wife laughing from the next room and entertained my players to no end.

We've pretty much agreed FAL is going to be the game we play to take breaks from ongoing campaigns, as the change of pace should keep everything fresh.

All I need to do is print up a dozen or so Far Away Land Quickstarts for NTRPG Con.

Now I'm going to sneak in yet another giveaway, also open until June 8th. On June 9th I'll pick a winner and mail them the self printed copy of the Far Away Land Quickstart that I used for the last 2 sessions (the very one pictured above). And yes, I'll mail it anywhere in the world on the following weekend.

All you need to do to enter is comment on this post :)

First Session of Far Away Land Completed - And it was DAMN Good!

You know how sometimes an RPG reads really well and then falls down in actual play? Far Away Land reads really well, almost intuitively, but I hadn't had a chance to run it until tonight (we've been having a blast playing in +Joe D 's Blood Island game.)

With the recent release of the Far Away Land Quick Start rules, I figured now was a good time to get back behind the virtual GM screen and get a session or two of Far Away Land in before I run it at NTRPG Con in two weeks.

It went smoother than I could have ever hoped for.

Most of my group hadn't even read the Quick Start before we started the session, which was disappointing on one level but excellent on another - I got to experience how long it will take to go from "here's the rules" to "create a character" to "lets roll." The answer to that is about 20 minutes. Hot damn. So, as I had originally planed, my players at NTRPG Con will be creating characters at the beginning of the session using copies of the FAL Quick Start rules.

Combat went very smoothly. A bit swingy at times, but it wasn't so swingy that they were turned off by it. If anything, it kept the combat exciting. While none of the PCs were knocked out or killed, there were moments of "oh shit, one more hit and you could be dead." Leveling won't change that much, as +1 HP per level is going to keep the damage receiving potential of the PCs in check.

Magic use was pretty intuitive and the players grocked it right away, which was nice to see. I didn't see a rule in the quick start for shooting into melee, so I'll need to search the Tome of Awesomeness. If not, as a group we've pretty much come up with a decent houserule.

I ran Temple of Zoko and the players managed to reach the island with the temple about 3 hrs after we started our session. They created characters, spoke to a witch and answered some riddles (and got some answers to their questions), surprised their own ambushers in the forest, beat up some goats, killed a cyclops and recovered a neat sword, killed some elven pirates and avoided getting possessed by Lake Phantoms while still making it to the island.

My group was enthusiastic about the FAL system. Some random (paraphrased) quotes:

"D&D for drunks that can't do math!"

"Plays fast and lose and the rules get out of the way."

"Take it to the pub with your non-gaming friends. They can raid their kids' board games for the D6s."

"This is a good place to stop. Pick up from here next week?"

"You ran this before, right? No? Could'a fooled me."

"This system plays really well."

So, it looks like my "Tales of the Ratcatcher" campaign for White Star will be pushed back just a wee bit ;)

P.S. As an aside, I ran this will just the Far Away Land Quick Start Rules and the Temple of Zoko, both offered as PWYW. I referred to the Tome of Awesome once, for a rule that WAS in the quickstart but somehow I had missed. There is a lot of gameplay available with little or no "out of pocket" risk.

Wherein We Come to the End of a Funnel and it Becomes All About Class

We wrapped up +Craig Brasco 's DCC RPG funnel last night, and the whole experience was a blast. I fully expected Graygor not to survive (total adds + 7 and 7HP) but survive he did - barely. He did have to cast his one shot use of Spider Climb.

My Cooper used a flaming barrel as an effective distraction in the final encounter - I knew there was a reason he was carrying it around ;)

In the end, for 3 players and 12 initial 0-level PCs we had 4 survivors - 3 were mine. That was literally, pure luck. +Keith J Davies , who lost his last PC in the final encounter, inherited the Cooper.

So, now it becomes, what class does Graygor take? The other survivors are leaning towards cleric and wizard. Do I become a thief with a Luck of 16 and no Agility modifier. Take a fighter? Use one of the classes from Crawl #6 perhaps? Both the bard and the paladin look like fun. Heck, so does the ranger, but I got a kick ass two-handed sword as a reward at the end of the adventure, and it wouldn't fit the ranger as written all that well. Whatever class I chose, he gets + 4 to HP each level, so even a d6 becomes 5-10 HP per level ;)

I have two week to decide...

Lamentations of the Glory Hole - or "The Lost City"

Well, actually, adventuring in The Dwarven Glory Hole was back in March, it just wasn't until last night that the phrase "Lamentations of the Glory Hole" came to us, as we are using a heavily houseruled LotFP Weird Fantasy Blood Island setting when +Joe D runs the sessions.

Last night we hit B4, The Lost City. "Lamentations of the Lost City" just wouldn't be the same.

Highlights of last night's session:

My Viking Berserker killed a beetle with a glowing ass. He cut off said glowing ass and stuck it on his helmet (Int 5, Wis 5, Cha 8). Which kinda made him head negotiator when the worshipers of glowing shit and he crossed paths.

Eating glowing beetle ass will not kill you, but will make for a really awkward blog post - you have been warned. I did bond with the other glowing beetle ass eaters, which was followed by...

Leading people to the light above so they can be killed by fellow vikings is awesome.

I hate bees. Especially the 1' long ones.

Killing small winged creatures that can curse you and wearing their wings from your helm like a Valkyrie while still having a glowing beetle ass on said helm.

Anyone have a visual on a Viking Berserker wearing a glowing beetle ass and fairy winds on his help, let me know. My google foo is failing...

Second Session of Castle of the Mad Archmage Went Well (even when the party zigged instead of zagging)

The infamous "B Team" has their once a month session last night, which was also their second session delving into the depths of the Castle of the Mad Archmage. Whereas the party virtually trounced through a sizable amount of territory on the first level of the dungeon last session, this session they decided to explore the 2nd level, and dipped their toes, intentionally and unintentionally, into the 3rd level.

Some observations:

- while the lack of a thief in the party is less than ideal, the party has done well with crowbars and hammers
- given the choice between a thief and a cleric, I suspect they'll always pick a cleric going forward
- giving incrementally increasing "exploration XP" as they explore the dungeon works as an amazing carrot. I'm still giving XP for gold and monsters defeated but no longer adding the discretionary XP I would add to a session. As the session went on, it was much like watching a game of craps at Vegas ;)
- a 1/1 cleric / magic user on the 3rd level of a megadungeon is extremely squishy. +Tim Shorts did an excellent job in not being completely squished.
- the Sleep spell really is magical at lower levels

Now, I rarely run anything "as written" these days. It's just the nature of the beast - no commercial product will ever be a perfect fit for the type of game I want to run for my groups. Sometimes I make a pencil change or note as I do my read through, but other times I just make a mental note and make the change at the table.

Also, prep usually covers where I expect the party will explore and skim the next "layer" or areas and locations. I did not expect the players to venture down to the 3rd level, and was therefore not prepared for it (although it is a snap to grab maps and drop them into Roll20). A well done megadungeon doesn't drown you in room descriptions. A good DM should be able to keep a few rooms ahead of his players by reading the sentence or two for each room in a given area and filling in the gaps for the rest. Castle of the Mad Archmage allows for this, and that is fucking awesome. We hardly missed a beat when the group dipped their toes into the 3rd level, not once but twice. Stonehell is the only other megadungeon I can think of that comes close.

+Douglas Cole has a play report of the session over at the Gaming Ballistic Blog as does +Peter V. Dell'Orto over at Dungeon Fantastic

A TPK Avoided, But Not Without Sacrifice (2nd session of The Caves of Ortok)

Last week the Saturday Night Swords & Wizardry group had their first session delving into the Caves of Ortok, an adventure soon to be forthcoming from +Jason Paul McCartan . They nearly killed two PC's bungie jumping off of a statue on a small island, killed a giant crab, found the caves, got ambushed and finally held position inside the small cave complex as they and the sahuigan deeper inside decided on tactics. Not bad for a night of gaming.

Last night, the party made their move.

They sent the thief in invisibly to take out the shaman as the magic user slept the front lines followed by the monk (also invisible) and ranger charging in. It was brutal.

The thief rolled a nat 20 on his backstab and opted to take maximum damage for the crit, which was then multiplied by three. Not quite down but severely wounded. Sleep took out 2/3's of the sahuigan front line, but they held. There was no where to run to and they were fighting for their prince's life.

The party won initiative, and the magic user finished off the shaman with a pair of magic missiles. The only problem for the thief is he was now facing the prince and his captain BEHIND what was left of the lines. There would be no help coming anytime soon.

Invisible monk couldn't hit the broadside of a barn those first few rounds, so he remained invisible and his opponent couldnt hit either. Damn near comical.

The thief fell and damn near bled out before the party was able to stabilize him (rubbing ointment and shoving potions down his throat). Actually, the magic user, who wadded into combat like a pro and the monk (finally visible) where each a single hit away from falling. Even the hit point tank of a ranger was brought down by half. It's one of the few times the players truly feared a TPK. Heck, even I started thinking about "the next campaign" ;)

The thief lived, but using the ACKS rules for going below zero HP, he was found to have taken severe damage to his head, mouth and vocal cords. Never again would he speak a spoken work, and thus he retired from adventuring, to be replaced by a cleric.

Yes, holy shit! Both the "A Team" and the "B Team" added clerics for the first time to their ranks. Go figure. It must be serendipity.

Afterwards, the players figured out how to open a secret door they found in the caves, and proceeded into Ortok's chambers.

I'm going to gloss over much of this part, so it should remain a challenge to others who may adventure within, but I literally laughed so hard when the monk traversed a hallway that was presumed to be trapped by literally climbing the walls. Upon reaching the other side and being instructed to use a spike or two to secure a rope high on the far wall so party members could follow suit and avoid the floor, he informed them he had neither spikes nor hammer. Come to think of it, he lacked rope too. Which kind of defeated the party's plan which they had discussed before he made his way across. Simply priceless ;)

Yes, a damn fun time was had by all.

Wherein the "B Team" Delves into the Castle of the Mad Archmage

Last night we had three players for the monthly (more or less) Swords & Wizardry "B Team" session. By popular of the regulars, it was decided that the PCs would venture into the Castle of the Mad Archamage. Megadungeon delving works well for a once a month game where the player roster has the potential to change a bit.

A few quick comments and notes:

- I change shit up, often spur of the moment. Your players may or may not have a pair of guardsmen with a tent set up outside the dungeon entrance, asking for "valid adventuring licenses", but if your players are asked, they probably should ensure they get their paperwork in order. Mine did ;)

- I like to play with accents in the sessions I run, often with "notable results", even if these results aren't the ones I was seeking

- I really wish all PDF modules / adventures included an unkeyed, sans secret doors and traps, made to be viewed by the players sort of map. With the amount of gaming that is going on online these days, this would be the icing on the cake for many otherwise excellent adventures. That being said, I've gotten skilled at using "fog of war" and keeping the secret doors"secret". If I have a single complaint about Castle of the Mad Archamge, it would be this. Not sure if it it so much a complaint as "I wish it included..."

- my party zigged when I thought they would zag. Isn't that always the case?

- poop is poop. some poop is more than others. some poop has treasure, most holds horrors. can I help it if the poop I scoop is deeper than written? ;) (couldn't help myself +Joseph Bloch )

All three of my players wrote up play summaries from their perspectives:

+Tim Shorts wrote his over at the Gothridge Manor blog.

+Douglas Cole wrote his over at the Gaming Ballistic blog.

+Peter V. Dell'Orto wrote his over at the Dungeon Fantastic blog.

Do I have great players or what?

Wherein the Party Nearly Suffers a Self Inflicted TPK

Last night was the 3rd and final session of the playtest of +David Przybyla upcoming Swords & Wizardry adventure, and the group had a blast with the playtest. An action and thinking styled adventure for the win.

The funny thing is, we almost killed ourselves right at the end.

We were engaged with adversaries to out north. The ranger and monk were doing a decent job taking them down, and my cleric was doing the "accent" work. The magic-user had previously quaffed a flying potion and was hovering near the ceiling.

Suddenly, we had adversaries coming from the south. Creatures that had previously set our monk's clothing on fire (he was thankful that he was under the protection of fire resistance midway through.

Not wanting the party to be trapped between two forces, the magic-user cast a Web spell. Regretfully, it was slightly misplaced - it caught the incoming from the south, but it also caught the party on the ground. Only the cleric saved. Our bruisers were webbed and the two (soon to be one) adversary to the north were not.

I spent much of the remaining combat bleeding out my Cure Light Wounds wand to keep from dropping as the ranger fought to free himself from the webs. I think if I had dropped, the magic-user would have been forced to flee, and the remainder of the party would have been lost.

Actually, in truth, my first instinct was to run when the web was down and I was the last man standing on the ground. Thankfully, we pulled our collective asses out of the fire and achieved our mission's goal.

Fun times. I really enjoyed getting some time in as a player in some S&W session :)

Session Recap for the Swords & Wizardry "B" Team as They Romped Thru "The Manor Issue #3")

Last night was another more or less monthly session for the Swords & Wizardry "B" Team. I had planned to do a session recap myself, but one of my players did a much better job than I could ever hope to do.

The session really was a blast :)

You can catch the session recap over at the Gaming Ballistic Blog.

(note, I did make some modifications to +Tim Shorts excellent adventure)

On Saturday Night, My Players Encountered "The Church of the Elect" (d30 Sandbox Companion Generated)

So, I mentioned last week that I planned to put some of the D30 Sandbox Companion in motion for our Saturday Night game session. We only had 3 players, so much of that went out the window, but I had a backup plan of sorts. I put The Church of the Elect into play as the party's protagonists antagonists (edited for sleepy writing) (previously generated using the D30 Sandbox Companion).

There is a race on for the recovery of a book of power hidden in the dungeons under the remains of a mad wizard's tower (The Maze of Nuromen). The players have taken a beating, but in their encounter with the cultists they managed to get the advantage of surprise. The three cultists never stood a chance. Shame the players were only able to deal with the first level of the dungeon before retreating. Still, they have befriended the local wood elves, which may allow them to return without much of the level repopulating.

As you can see at the left, i now have both the D30 DM Companion and the D30 Sandbox Companion in print (as well as PDF and "scratch" copies printed at home). These will be getting a ton of use.

It should be noted that my players noticed the difference in tone and presentation between the DCC adventures (both 3x and DCC RPG modules) that I have converted on the fly for use with Swords & Wizardry Complete (heavily house ruled) and The Maze of Nuromen which is written for BLUEHOLME. DCC stuff is more "gonzo" while the map in Nuromen has more options for exploring and probably more doors on one level than they had encounter in the campaign thus far ;)

Fun times were had by all :)

Into The Glory Hole Dwarven Mine - It's Not What You Think - Maybe ;)

+Joe D and I alternate campaigns on Saturday nights. Joe will take the reigns with his heavily houseruled LotFP Weird Fantasy Blood Island setting for a few sessions, and then I'll come in with my houseruled Swords & Wizardry Complete in the Wilderlands for a few sessions. It's been working well.

Last night Joe introduced us to the classic Judges Guild module - Glory Hole Dwarven Mine. I think I actually own this and have it packed away. I know this and Srcapfaggot Green were popular choices on the worst named RPG products post I did a while back.

How did we do? Barely a scratch on the party, thanks to a well timed charm spell by one of the casters. It was either that or a potential TPK, as the party is all 1st levels and even a small fire elemental would have turned us to toast.

All hail the hobgoblin that held the controlling stone - charmed, then slept and finally beheaded by my glass-steel axe. Huzzah!

Introducing the "B" Team - A New Well, New Worms and a New Party

I ran the once a month "B" Team of my Wilderlands campaign through Well of the Worm for their first session, just like I ran the main group through it about a month ago. Well, maybe not "just alike", as I did change some things around, based upon my earlier experience running it and adjusting for the party size (we almost had a 4 player group, but a poor connection speed for one of the players dropped us to 3 - and no cleric - which seems to be par for the course these days). Besides, with all the trouble the "A" group caused, killing off the mid and higher level heroes and the rise of evil, two towns having similar problems fits the current situation.

Joining in the fun were +Jason Hobbs , +Peter V. Dell'Orto , +Ray Case and +Chris Maler

Google Hangouts was NOT cooperating. Peter was not getting invites, and when he finally did, it was to empty hangouts. We lost Chris early on to connection issues. Hangouts has been buggy as hell since the latest update, but you get what you pay for.

Anyhow, our party of a Ranger, a Fighter and a M-U/Thief did well in clearing out the tunnels of the worms and their beast mother.

The highlights (at least for me were) -

- The amazing M-U/Thief was a killing machine, up until he was brought below zero and nearly killed himself. Sometimes the blade is mightier than the pen ;)

- When a beast is chained up, kill it from a distance (something the first group failed to do, as they "unchained the beast")

- The elven massacre went pretty quickly - it was the dismembering of the bodies that took time

Actually, the main difference between the two groups is that "A" burns everything and "B" dismembers everything - to prevent the dead from rising and becoming further problems. Burning may have been the preferred method if they had had any oil ;)

The players rolled well and I rolled fairly poorly. One of the great things about Roll20 is it keeps the dice rolls in the open, which discourages any friendly DM fudging (which I've been guilty of in years gone by).

All in all, a really fun session and I'm looking forward to the next monthly session. Just need to add another player or three, to increase the pool of potential victims ;)

Last Night My Players Went Down "The Well of the Worm"

Last night we ran our session with 3 out of our 6 regular players. No fighters, no healers - instead, we had a 2nd level Halfling Thief, a 1st level Human Monk and a 1st level elven Magic-User. My intention had been to give the party a choice of adventure leads, which I had dropped on them at the end of our 1st session, but I went with the adventure I had the best handle on - The Well of the Worms.

I basically ran the 3x version from DCC #29, The Adventure Begins, which holds an amazing number of low level adventures. I also have the DCC RPG version of The Well of the Worms - the map makes more more sense in the DCC RPG version, just so you know.

I tend to convert 3x adventures on the fly for OSR use, although the read through usually lets me know what I have to convert the most. The nice thing about using ascending AC in Swords & Wizardry is that in makes the on the fly conversion so much easier.

The PCs picked up a local farm boy for extra muscle / cannon fodder and proceeded down the well.

Now, I could fill you with spoilers, but +Harley Stroh did a really nice job on this adventure, so I'd rather not. Still, there are some observations to be made:

- 3x had one hell of a HP bloat effect, at least on the monsters. So yeah, had to tone this down a bit, especially four a party of three where the main tanks were a monk and a thief ;)

- My players forgot about the "luck" houserule that I added to this campaign until about midway through - once they remembered it and started to use it, things got a lot more exciting.

- one PC went down to exactly 0 - i go with -10 for death (adjusted by con bonus / penalty) as did the farm boy they hired. It was a tough little adventure, even with me toning it down due to party composition and numbers

All in all, it went very well. This is the second adventure I've run from DCC #29 for the group in this campaign (the other being The Tower of the Black Pearl) and my players remarked on how much fun they were to play. "Weird yet grounded". As one player put it (and I paraphrase): "I didn't like all of the randomness in the spell casting in the DCC RPG sessions we played, but the adventures were some of the best I've ever played". Thankfully, those DCC RPG adventures should convert fairly easily to Swords & Wizardry ;)