Rolling Dice

Greetings from the Edge! 

That's right, been rolling a lot of dice, as in running my homebrew on a fairly regular basis since February of this year. It's drawn me back into feverish prep work and planning. We've already lost one player who moved but added a new player. We're currently on a two-week break while one of my players is out of town. The party consists of four players, each running a sidekick along with their main, so eight characters total. Surprisingly, two mains are Clerics! They actually chose to run 'em! Fairly uncommon in my long history of DM'ing. The original group didn't have a Dwarf but the new dude chose a Dwarf as his main. 

The sidekick option definitely amps up the party's capabilities. Not sure I'd like it if we had five or more players but for four or fewer it's good. I'm using much of the brew I shared all these years ago here on the old Grog 'n Blog. During my long hiatus from the blog I tweaked and toyed with game mechanics as I am wont to do. Now I'm able to playtest them with newbies who don't know they're roleplaying in a heavily tweaked version of the olden rules. The group includes two Gen-Xers, like yours truly, a Millennial and a Zoomer (Gen Z). The two younger players have little desire to read the rules I print and keep available at the table. One of the Gen-Xers pores over them, the other seems confused by much of it. They're just happy running their characters while I referee. It's all good. 

Early on I was maintaining detailed session notes, but that lapsed into simply keeping notes of important details to either be revisited later or fleshed out into plot lines. Right now the game has numerous potential plots, and the players have explored a particular one somewhat in depth. An earlier one petered out because the most interested player is the one who moved away. What I'm getting at is I've lost count of the exact number of sessions we've played. I'd guess 24 or so. In session zero the players created their mains and sidekicks and I introduced them to the Bleak Beyond. To jump start the game I involved an employer who paid them to, you know, go adventuring. The training wheels are off now and they're on their own. 

They've had some good fortune along the way with their characters, who range from level 2 to level 5. I am a big fan of magical decks in the game, akin to the DoMT. I made up a toned down version for low-level play. Of course I had to hide it in the dungeon somewhere. They found it. None of them knew what to expect. After seeing the first player's incredible luck, no black cards at all, the second player opened with Fool, followed by Sun. Using this low-level version he netted 7K experience. That's the level five character. There was a Comet in there as well but other than that and the Fool the rest of the cards were red which yielded two Thrones and a Moon card. No Dungeon, no Void, no Talons. That's some luck there. Suffice to say they don't need to have an employer now. 

Aside from two out of dungeon one-shots and one entire session in town, the group has been braving one of my old dungeons. They've managed to explore roughly 85% of one level. Sounds crazy but they are hunting for two more items to solve a riddle/puzzle, creating some back-tracking and lots of searching. They've discovered one passage to another level, but chose to finish the current level before moving on. There are over 60 rooms on this level so it's taking a long time. Technically the characters are too high for 1st level dungeoneering, however this old dungeon was written up primarily in an "archival" style; only a few specific rooms have monsters in the original text. The intent being that during session prep I can add whatever monsters and treasure I want to keep things interesting. 

Forgot to mention, one of the cool things I used to start the campaign was to reveal to them that their employer had acquired an old partial map of the dungeon. I found a hand-drawn map, drawn by one of my players during a session in the same dungeon that I ran in 2008, made a copy of it, and off they went, tracing the footsteps of the players who explored before them 17 years ago. You can see that map in a post from Tuesday, July 1, 2008 called Session One Report. 

The map's in this post.

Yep, ended up being a single day of gaming as there was never a session two! I didn't expect there would be, it was like herding cats getting my old high school buddies all on the same schedule back in '08. In the current campaign I set the age of this rare map at roughly 100 years. During prep I made lots of changes to the dungeon in order to reflect the passage of time. 

So there you have it. I'm rolling them dice again! 

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Time Flies

In celebration of the first true anniversary for Sham's Grog & Blog a theme inspired new Monster is in order.

Time Flies(N): AC 2 Move 9 HD 1 Swarm of flies numbering in the hundreds. Cover an area up to 10' x 10' when feeding. Must target victim within swarm, their hits cause no damage but devour time, save vs spell or age rapidly at 3d6 years each round until flies dispatched. Most weapons are useless against them.

These deadly pests are best dispatched with fire, strong wind, smoke or other area of effect methods. Running away is a good idea unless the delvers have a solution at hand. Ever try to hit a fly with a mace? Think Three Stooges *bonk*.

So yeah, time really does fly.

Four years ago, or the last time the calendar told me it was February the 29^th, it was Leap Year 2008. Without even realizing it was the day that only rolls around 25 times each century, I started plunking some keys and reminiscing about my early gaming days. The end result was four long rambling posts in a single day and the birth of Sham's Grog & Blog.

Posting activity peaked that year with a resurgence in early 2009. Since that time my contributions have been minimal with the last double digit post month occurring way back in August 2009.

No, this is not a fond farewell. I still lurk behind the scenes and follow numerous OSR related blogs. The blogger dashboard is one of the most common hits on my daily internet list. One of these days I will contribute again to the community. I still have a list of crap I wish to write about, including the still unfinished Cover to Cover series *cry*.

In retrospect, 347 (now 348) posts is a laughably low total over a four year span. With only 34 posts over the past two years, I can probably stop thinking of myself as a blogger. Considering the amount of fluff series posts I foisted on my readers I really haven't had a lot to say.

As usual I continue to do more planning than playing. I just don't plan out loud on my blog as I did for a short period of time. I plan way more than I actually produce, and I produce way more than I actually play. I do get to play D&D occasionally, but it's never often enough to get me back into feverish creation mode. Again, one of these days...

~Sham

Into the Hexes and Discoveries

When designing a campaign in which everything revolves around a single dominant theme, in this case the underworld of the Bleak Beyond, it is important to have motivations for the players and their characters to work outside of the central theme from time to time.

For a dungeon-centric campaign such as mine, this work outside of the theme would of course involve the wilderness around the Bleak Beyond. In OD&D the term “wilderness” refers to everything on the surface, so in this case it includes the starting town of Tenborough Hold as well as the whole of the Unbidden Lands in which the campaign is set.

While making notes for the Unbidden Lands, I wondered “Why would the players decide to explore the Wilderness?” Aside from being sent on a wild goose chase by an NPC, or to seek out a healing herb for their stricken party-mate or some other Ref-induced quest into the wilderness, was there a motivation for the party to set out, “into the hexes”, of their own accord?

For the Unbidden Lands, there is such motivation. The notion is that through exploration the characters have the opportunity to unlock game features by making Discoveries. Visiting the Town of Skinny Creek enables trade with the Hobbits there, and access to Hobbit Cuisine. Finding the Elves of the Worn-Wood enables trade and gives access to enchanted Elf Wine and other unique wares. Locating the Dwarven hold at Pinching Gorge likewise allows access to special works of craftsmanship.

Farther out in the Unbidden Lands, characters can discover more game material. Traveling to the Shrouded Mere will permit Aelfar as player characters. The same for unlocking playable character races with the Dvergar at Scrag Rock, the Doende at Lonely Crag, the Irklings at Itching Wood, and even the Troldekin, although the latter are only unlocked by entering the Supreme Citadel of the Morkevagten in the dungeon itself. Each area of discovery holds more game material, including access to such things as new spells and even more race specific resources for the adventurers.

In the end, the players have a chance to realize greater opportunities and resources by taking the initiative and going into the hexes. Ultimately such travels will pay-off for future plunges into the Bleak Beyond. Refs will likewise have the chance to flesh out the Unbidden Lands further, allowing groups who wish to feel the sun on their faces some time breathing fresh air for a change.

All of these Discoveries will be defined and described in greater detail as the whole project moves forward. For now I must continue to concentrate on the How to Play portion and finish up the various d00 tables which fuel the inner workings of the Bleak Beyond.

~Sham