I want to let everyone know that blogging will be light 'round these parts this week. I've a few items that are demanding my attention right now. Not the least of which is Session One for the new Of Fortunes and Fools campaign, scheduled but a mere 10 days from now. A bit of good news of late in that regard; yet another one of our members (Mike) of "That Ol' Gaming Crew" has pledged his desire to grab a chair at the gaming table and join us!
Believe it or not, this brings my 'D&D Email Contact Group' up to eight members. I have commitments for Day One from all but two. Throw in my 13 year old (who has sworn he will be able to hang out with a bunch of 40somethings for 8+ hours) and we're at NINE players!
Now, keep in mind I've implemented the Entourage Approach for this campaign. At the VERY least each player will want to bring his Loyal Follower along; to gain EXP and to be present in case tragedy ensues and he (or she) needs to step to the front lines as a new Primary Character.
Yep, that means, in a (im)perfect world, I'm looking at a MINIMUM of an 18 man-party. For Level One. Wooo! This should be fun. And NO, I'm not widening the halls of the Dim Expanse...10' wide means 2 man marching orders, dammit!
You think I'll be channeling some old school 'them's the breaks' moments? Yessir. I'll be doing that regardless, but trust me...as referee one often has that little voice in the back of your head, asking if a TPK (Total Party Kill) should really be issued to your handful of pals and their finely honed PC's. It's a much easier call when there are one and a half dozen delvers poking around in the deep, dark halls of the underworld. The dice are King, I just roll them.
I LOVE the fact that OD&D, played with over a dozen characters, truly feels almost 'wargamish' rather than 'RPGish'. We have dice; we have monsters; we have traps. People ARE going to die. Otherwise, every Tom, Dick and Harry would be taking on the Goblins and Cultists, and retiring comfortably to a Villa on the coast after plundering the gold and gems hidden away in those locked and trapped chests. Dungeon delving is dangerous business, normally reserved for those who haven't got a future ensured for them already (in other words, the poor and desperate souls of Solstice).
I am virtually clapping myself on the back for issuing each player a stat block of 10 potential characters.
One small spoiler for Krawl's Pace, the upper most region of Ulin Uthor, the Dim Expanse; there is an area specifically designed for 'replacement' characters. Rather than travel all the way back to town, the players may 'hire' a potential PC from one of the Stewards of that level. There's only one drawback. Only Kobolds are available. Yep, those little buggers that roll their six abilities using 2d8 rather than 3d6.
Hey, abilities are overrated anyway.
~Sham, Quixotic Referee
4 comments:
Man, that sounds like it will be a rockin' good time. You plan on enforcing encumbrance? With 18 dudes on the playing field who is carrying what and how much of it becomes a whole different issue.
Yeah, I do 'plan' on it, much in the same way that I always plan on keeping track of torch burning times. These things get lost sometimes in my own DMing.
That said, I'll be enforcing Encumbrance. I used to always love those old Grenadier Henchmen figures toting the chest around.
Delta had a neat Encumbrance system using Stones rather than pounds or GP weights. I might dig that up and give it a try.
I hope you let us know how this turns out. I'd love to play in this type of game.
I do plan to provide updates, and share memorable gaming moments here. It's been so long since I ran a game for more than a couple players, I hope I can keep it together for 6+ hours.
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