Taking Old School to the Calgary D&D Meetup Group

I have been to the Calgary D&D Meetup Group maybe ten times. I always had a good time even though most of the participants are interested in 3rd edition. I played and ran some 4th edition games and always found everyone to be very polite.

I have tried a couple of times to start an old school game at the meetups but to to start a game you must:
1. Consult with the Organizer who retains the right to approve or deny any requests;
2. Post the game on the message board to try to drum up interest; and
3. Receive feedback of interest from enough people to fill the table.

My experience has been that the Organizer is more than happy to have someone propose an old school game. However, I have never received the required interest to get a game started. Which led me to try Red Box Calgary. However, I still have a desire to try to get an old school game at the meetup. I would love to try to expose that group to the benefits of old school play.

So I have decided to try some undercover recruiting. If you are in the Calgary area and would be interested in playing in an old school game (B/X, OD&D, 1E - likely by way of LL and the AEC, etc) at the Calgary D&D Meetups, please get in touch with me - either in the comments below or through my email address on the side.

If I can get enough interest outside the meetup group, we will then have everyone join the group. I will then propose a new old school game to the organizer when I know I have enough interest "in the bag" so to speak.

9-Minute Campaign: The Northern Marches

I have had my old Northern Marches campaign on my mind recently. Earlier today I saw the 9-minute Campaign Design on the Mule Abides and I decided that for fun I would take a fresh look at the Northern Marches through this framework.

1. What is the Look & Feel of your campaign?
The idea of the Northern Marches was based on the similarly titled West Marches campaign. It would focus on exploring the unknown, ancient dangers, vast treasures, mythic underworld, forbidding wilderness, and harsh environments. It is an open campaign which features drawing from a loose group of players.

2. What’s the high concept of your campaign?
The elevator pitch. Exploring the dangerous frontier that was abandoned many generations ago - haunted ruins, valleys containing Lost Worlds, and mythic underworlds containing cosmic horrors and amphibious frog demons.

3. What’s the core story? (or: “Loveable misfits who…”)
The game is an exploration-focused sandbox game set in a dangerous frontier region away from civilization. There’s a convenient fortified town, New Hareth, that is an outpost of civilization and law, but beyond that is the haunted ruins of Old Hareth and dangerous wilderness. All the PCs are all loveable misfit adventurers based in this town seeking fame and fortune beyond the safety of the town's walls. Between sorties into the wilds PCs rest up, trade info and plan their next foray in the rowdy taproom of the Dancing Dragon Tavern.

4. What rules will you be using in your campaign?
B/X baby! As if there was any doubt. However, this is not just because I love B/X but also because I feel it is a great ruleset to give the appropriate feel for the campaign. The fragile nature of the characters, the roster of monsters, the clear rules regarding exploring the wilderness... it fits like a glove.

5. What are the big-scale social institutions or groups in the campaign?
New Hareth is a relatively self-sufficent centre of civilization. It would contain all of the major institutions required.
- Churches/Shrines for the Lawful and Neutral religions. In the Northern Marches these include the Church of the Great Dragon (Lawful, faux fantasy stand in for the catholic church) and the Dodekatheon or "The Twelve" (the old pantheon religion - mainly the 12 olympians).
- A small wizards guild.
- Town guard and courts that efficiently keep the law inside the town walls.
- Baron Hareth - authorized by the kingdom to award other baronies to those able to establish a stronghold in the wilderness.
- Blind seers, learned sages, mystic oracles, covens of witches, etc.
- Armourers, blacksmiths, merchants.
- The Dancing Dragon Tavern which serves as the meeting place for the informal group of adventurers.
- The Bounty Post for posting wanted posters.
- A small thieves guild.

6. Who are the major supporting cast?
Baron Hareth
The Striped Mage
The Lama of the Great Dragon
The Bishop of the Twelve
The Sage
Captain of the Guard
The Hood (head of the thieves guild)
A small number of NPC adventurers that have already established strongholds in the wilderness

7. What are the major threats in the campaign?
The Wilderness - getting lost, rugged snow covered mountains, hoarfrost crusted swamps, cold weather, hunger, monsters, rolling on the Triple Secret Random Horrific Fate Table of Very Probable Doom if you don't get back to civilization before the end of the session.
Castle Hareth - the ruined castle (megadungeon) of the abandoned settlement rumoured to be haunted and built on the ruins of a very ancient fortress.
Dungeons & Lairs - out in the wilderness
Barbarians, bandits, ancient ruins, cosmic horrors, huge dinosaurs, marauding orcs, blood-thirsty amazons, etc.

8. Draw a map of the campaign setting.
Got one.

9. Draft up your first adventure.
While it is a sandbox and the players can do anything they want, if they are new players I usually say one of the party members inherited, stole or otherwise procured a treasure map leading the party to somewhere out in the wilderness.

Setting Riffs

Idea one is taken straight from Dwarfstar Games' Demonlord,

On Narth, once called the “continent of man”, the origins of the Demons are obscure. Some say a wizard’s summoning went out of control. Others suggest that the Demons themselves opened a magical gateway, still extent at the gate of Tor’zem, the Demonlord Capital. A few philosophers even believe that the Demons are a natural race, like humans or dwarves, except the Demons became stronger than others.

In any event, the Demons are now the power on Narth, and each Demonlord rules his own province under the Emperor. Although Demons are a tiny minority, through their great power, magic, and capacity for evil they act as captains, administrators, and governors of many lesser races such as half-men, demi-men, goblins, orcs, and other manish races of darkness.

Nisshar is a typical province in the west of the Demon domains, ruled from a capital city of the same name. But here, humans and semi-human allies resist them, banding together under the influence of Hosar, a sun-god cult. At times, they were so successful that even Nisshar came under siege. Now, the armies of the Demonlord and the Alliance of Hosar are mustering once more, for another bloody campaign.

After centuries of sleep, the Demon Empire once more sends forth its hideous armies to conquer the lands of men. Desperate fighters stand with bow and shield against the goblin hordes which blacken the fertile valleys. The wizards and priests are called together in a desperate attempt to counter the Demonlord's dark magicks. But the balance of power lies with the neutral kingdoms. Will the Dwarven King, the Cloud Prince of Lyung, and the mysterious Ancients join with the forces of light, or will they cast their lots with the dark host commanded by the shadowy presence of the DEMONLORD...

The second idea is a riff off the first, a post by Philotomy on Original D&D Discussion and the really neat idea for Project Long Stair from RPGnet. It would be set after the first idea,

Many of the Mages of Hosar retreated to their tower in the great city of Timur. It is now said that they went knowing full well their upcoming fate. These great mages wielded arcane power beyond any seen in any age since and with this vast power they were able to hurl the Demons back into the primordial chaos from which they came.

However, a devastating backlash of arcane power and the forces of chaos destroyed Timur and everything for leagues around. The Mages of Hosar were devastated. All of those that participated in the Great Sealing were lost. Only the few that were purposely kept away from the ritual survived. While the price was high, the Great Sealing forced the Demons back into the chaos and sealed the gateway to Narth. That was centuries ago. Now the seal is failing...

The idea is that the seal and gateway are part of a megadungeon that is a mythic underworld. This mythic underworld is spreading tendrils, magical portals, into other places of darkness and chaos (smaller dungeons and lairs).

A Day in the Life or When We Next See Our Heroes?

Over at Tankards & Broadswords the subject was raised of Episodic vs Campaign focused games. This came at a interesting time for me as I am finding myself increasingly focused on episodic style games. I know that this is a result to all of the heavy lifting I have done for my Northern Marches campaign and prior to that the work I did for my Castles & Crusades campaign.

I am enjoying the Northern Marches game immensely! It has been great to see so many things come together into a very enjoyable campaign and I am hoping it goes on for quite some time. But I have been discussing getting my old C&C group back together for some gaming and the thought of putting together another long-term campaign does not interest me. If they were interested in the Northern Marches game that would be great but they are not.

Ideally, I would like to run a series of short "arcs" each one taking approximately 6 sessions - micro-campaigns if you will. Each micro-campaign could be kicked off with a collaborative brainstorming session. What does everyone want from the game? What flavour? Epic or gritty? Sword & sorcery or high fantasy? Political or dungeon crawling?

This would also allow for players to say, "Hey, remember Oscar the fighter I played a couple of months ago? He was fun. I want to play him again and try to kill that rat bastard wizard that fireballed his horse...". Or they could say, "I have always wanted to try a political game set during a war. How about we roll up various advisors to the king and try to win a war?".

Favorites could be revisited or new things could be tried.

Now admittedly these small mini-campaigns would be slightly railroady but I don't have a huge problem with that as everyone would have agreed during the brainstorming session as to the goal of the game.

The ideal of having a finish line is attractive to me right now. The Northern Marches game scratches my ongoing campaign itch. To mix my metaphors, the horizon of the Northern Marches is vast and unexplored. I can't wait to see what is over the next hill. But for starting a new game, I want a light at the end of the tunnel.

What type of games do you prefer? what type do you usually play? Are there any pitfalls to watch out for in an episodic game?