The Broken Lands Session 2

The greedy adventures saw opportunity in raiding the cellars and crypts below a ruined wizard tower along the Road of Tombs.

The Party:

• Vanuatu the Vegan (Magic-User 1)
• Elu (Elf 1)
• Steefe (Halfling 1)
• Barak (Fighter 1) - I think I may have this name wrong
• Plus a retainer - Father Mug (Cleric 2 - from Black Pudding #1)

The Adventure (aka there will be spoilers below):

The Tower of Zenopus from Holmes Basic. I am: 1) making some cosmetic changes; 2) adding a sublevel accessed by the hallway going north in the top-left corner of the map; and 3) Since this is no longer located on a body of water, the sea caverns will be changed.

What Happened:

• Before adventuring, Van decides that there is no way he would be willing to sell the huge gem, the Blood Egg, that they pillaged on their last adventure. They then hire Father Mug as a retainer.
• Descending the stairs into the cellars below, the party heads south at an intersection - using the always turn left mode. They enter a chamber and quickly overcome 4 skeletons.
• They proceed through an empty room and enter a gloomy room with piles of rocks and rubbish. They defeat 3 giant rats and then find a silver dagger and a bag containing 50 ep.
• Cautiously exploring a hallway going north they are surprised by two ghouls that attack them from the rear (a wandering monster). Father Mug failed his turn attempt, but the ghouls are defeated thanks to the halfling’s low AC and the elf’s immunity to ghoul paralysis.
• Proceeding into the next room, the party finds two more ghouls gnawing on bones from smashed coffins. Again, Father Mug fails his turn attempt but the ghouls are defeated with abundant missile attacks.
• The party next explores a huge room where the northern wall has collapsed scattering stone sarcophagi into the room. Ransacking the sarcophagi, the party first deals with poison gas, an animated skeleton, and then an animated sword. They find a magic sword, a golden coronet, and jewelry.
• Deciding that this was a good haul they decided to head back to Jekarra.
• Taking the magic sword to a sage they learn that it is Bittercut - a sword forged from the tears from a forgotten goddess.

The Tally:

• Killed/overcame 4 skeletons, 3 giant rats, 4 ghouls, and an animated sword.
• Valuable jewelry
• Bittercut the magic sword (yoiked from Black Pudding #1)
• Vanuatu the Vegan advances to 2nd level!

What Worked Well/What Didn’t Work Well:

• The old school practice of map keeping is working well - one of the players is keeping a rough map. During this session it helped them modestly by planning the quickest escape route (thus limiting wandering monster checks) once they decided to head back to the city. However, in session 3 it became quite valuable for decision making.
• Wandering monsters are working well - I just used the tables on page B53. They provided uncertainty and tension. The fact that they resulted in ghouls just before a keyed room with ghouls was just a nice coincidence.
• I replaced the magic +1 sword with something that has a bit more mystery/backstory/interest (but in the hands of PC's not much of a mechanical impact. Go get Black Pudding if you haven't already!)
• I made a mistake on the conversion of types of coin to gp for experience point calculations. For some reason I couldn't find the table on page B47 at the time. We rectified it by the end, but I told the players not to revised their XP reward (I over awarded them).
• I am using reaction rolls to determine who and how many retainers can be hired at any time. However, I think that the players aren't aware of my mental process when we roll so I may have to walk them though it. This really impacts session #3.

My Holmes Expansion

This is an expansion and supplement for the Dungeons & Dragons rules published by TSR in 1978 and edited by Eric Holmes. The goal of this was to expand the “Holmes Rulebook” into its own complete game. Note that the "power level” of this expanded game is different than for other versions of Dungeons & Dragons and no effort was made to approximate other versions. Other sources that were referenced for this were the Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) rules and Meepo's excellent Holmes Supplement.

As you will see I did things a little differently with this. I would never expect anyone to play with this but when my kids are a little older I may subject them to it. It was a fun mental exercise.

A Holmes Alternative to High Level Combat

A while ago I made a post here regarding Geoffery's post at Dragonsfoot regarding the potential of a "Holmes-only" campaign.

While browsing some old posts at Dragonsfoot I came across this one: Holmes: Looking better with each reading

The thing that struck me is that, as pointed out by Thorkhammer, under the Class descriptions, pages 6-7, Holmes clearly states that Fighting Men,

"after they reach the fourth level of experience, they also increase their ability to get hits on an opponent..."

Fighting Men includes Human, Dwarf, Hobbit and Elf. There is no such reference for Cleric, Magic-user and Thief. I know that Holmes says to go the AD&D for higher levels and that the intent is that everyone improves at combat. I, however, like the idea that Fighting Men (and their derivatives) are the only ones to improve at combat. Why should a magic-user get better at attacking with his dagger?

If someone wanted to run just the Holmes book and expand it to higher levels (there are a number of excellent examples on the net) there could be another way to handle improvement at combat.

The thought that came to me is that you could reflect the improvement of Fighting Men to "increase their ability to get hits" by giving them extra attacks per round instead of expanding the attack tables. Allow an extra attack per round. Fighting-Men get 1 attack / round for levels 1-3, 2 attacks / round for levels 4-6, 3 attacks / round for levels 7-9, etc...

Why B/X Is My Favorite #1

I have decided to revisit my post from a while ago about why B/X is my favorite flavour of D&D.

#1 A complete system in 128 pages

I know I have seen on other blogs and internet sites the page counts for all of the various versions of D&D but I am too lazy right now to dig it up.

I began with B/X at the age of 10. There is definitely and unapologetically a nostalgia factor involved. I actually remember when I went into the store to buy it. I actually went to a local game store to buy the AD&D players handbook but my mom convinced me to pick up the basic set instead. I am glad that she did. Moldvay's basic rulebook includes everything you need to start and it is well written and concise. My brother and I had innumerable hours of fun using just these rules (64 pages) and B2.

Later I purchased the Expert rulebook (another 64 pages) and we had the same amount of fun exploring the jungles on the Isle of Dread. I wonder what the hour of fun per page of rules ratio would be?

As for other editions of D&D:
- OD&D - just the first 3 books have a smaller page count. The open ended nature of those rules and the writing style always instills a sense of wonder and mystery. But a 10 year old first picking up these rules would likely have a very difficult time.
- Holmes D&D - a smooth 46 pages. This is my second favorite version of D&D and the second version that I owned. It contains much of the wonder and mystery of the original 3 books but in a slightly better organized format. I have little doubt that if it was the Holmes version on the shelf when my mother convinced me to buy the basic set that it would be my preferred version. The main reason it doesn't hold the top spot is that, even though it could be used exclusive of the other versions and has been expanded using fan created companions, it is not a complete set of the same scope as the other versions.
- AD&D, 2E,... These are just too big to even consider.

More Reading of Holmes

Reading through my recent posts I am obviously on a Reaction Roll subsystem kick so I might as well keep it going. In my rereading of Holmes D&D, I have noticed a few interesting aspects about this particular subsystem.

First, in the attribute descriptions for Charisma on page 5 Holmes says,

“Charisma is a combination of appearance, personality, sex appeal and so forth. Its most important aspect is leadership. A character of charisma below 13 can not hire more than 5 followers, and their loyalty will be luke-warm at best ~ that is, if the fighting gets hot there is a good probability they will run away. On the other hand, someone with a charisma of 18 can win over a large number of followers (men or monsters) who will probably stand by him to the death. Also a female with high charisma will not be eaten by a dragon but kept captive. A charismatic male defeated by a witch will not be turned into a frog but kept enchanted as her lover, and so forth.”

Second, in the TABLE OF BONUS AND PENALTIES DUE TO ABILITIES beginning on page 5 and continuing on page 6, there are no modifiers listed for Charisma. No maximum number of Henchmen, no morale of Hirelings, no reaction modifiers, nothing.

Third, the beginning of page 11 shows the HOSTILE/FRIENDLY REACTION TABLE. The table is very similar to the B/X version. The paragraph following the table says,

“The Dungeon Master should make adjustments if the party spokesman has high charisma or offers special inducements.”

It is up to the DM to determine what adjustments are appropriate.

I find the description of Charisma to be interesting as it gives hints and ideas of what may happen if a character has a high charisma and also hints at some actual mechanics but I have been unable to find where these mechanics are given in the rules. A character with a charisma below 13 can not hire more than 5 followers and a character with a charisma of 18 can hire “a large number of followers” but, these mechanics are not spelled out beyond a couple of very general paragraphs regarding NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS given on page 8.

The Holmes Reaction subsystem including the impact of charisma is very open ended. In fact more detail is given in Men & Magic – Volume I of Dungeons & Dragons. That original rulebook had a table detailing the impact that charisma had on the number and loyalty of followers a character could employ. But I always find the qualitative examples given in the Charsima description regarding the female and male with high charisma to be fun and interesting.

The Holmes Introduction

A Happy Easter to those that celebrate. We have had a bunch of family in town for the weekend. This morning everyone went over to my brother's house and I decided to stay home for some "me" time. While the Masters is on TV, I began to flip through my second favorite version of D&D - the eclectic Holmes Basic.

INTRODUCTION
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantastic, exciting and imaginative game of role playing for adults 12 years and up. Each player creates a character or characters who may be dwarves, elves, halflings or human fighting men, magic-users, pious clerics or wily thieves. The characters are then plunged into an adventure in a series of dungeons, tunnels, secret rooms and caverns run by another player: the referee, often called the Dungeon Master. The dungeons are filled with fearsome monsters, fabulous treasure and frightful perils. As the players engage in game after game their characters grow in power and ability: the magic-users learn more magic spells, the thieves increase in cunning and ability, the fighting men, halflings, elves and dwarves, fight with more deadly accuracy and are harder to kill. Soon the adventurers are daring to go deeper and deeper into the dungeons on each game, battling more terrible monsters, and, of course, recovering bigger and more fabulous treasure! The game is limited only by the inventiveness and imagination of the players, and, if a group is playing together, the characters can move from dungeon to dungeon within the same magical universe if game referees are approximately the same in their handling of play.

- Page 5: Dungeons & Dragons by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, Edited by Eric Holmes

A few things I find interesting while likely reading too much into it:
1. Reading the second sentence I am struck by how much it sounds like Moldvay’s race = class.
2. The strong focus on the dungeon. It doesn’t talk about games of political intrigue or exploring the wilderness.
3. The last sentence is really neat. It talks about taking your character “on the road”. While I have heard stories from the “old days” about people taking there character to different games, I have never actually seen it. It would make playing an Adventure Path difficult.

You must be below this line to go on this ride

In the comments of my last post about a Holmes only campaign there were two things that really got me thinking - to absolutely no conclusion. Is there a significant portion of players that prefer a grittier, low level campaign versus the super-heroics of high level play? Is there a difference in DM preferences to player preferences - do more DMs prefer a low level campaign? I have no way of answering these questions but there are a few one-off, tangental observations.

As pointed out be Herb, towards the end of the official run for 3.5 there was the emergence of E6 where character advancement was effectively halted at 6th level. I know I have seen discussions about 4E Heroic-tier only campaigns. There is a sword & sorcery supplement for BFRPG that effectively halts advancement at 6th level. The discussions on DF about a Holmes only campaign went on for 10 pages and spawned a number of follow-up threads.

And finally, and the one that matters most to me, my C&C campaign has been going for ~6 months and we have met approximately 8 times. Characters have just made it to 2nd level but even with what some might call slow advancement my players seem to love their characters and appear to be really enjoying the game.

Badmike comments, "good luck finding a handful of players willing to game for 30 or so sessions to get their characters to 3rd level!"

I appreciate the fact that the faster advancement of 3.5 and 4E gives players new doodads for their characters every session or two. As we get older, have kids, jobs, and other responsibilities it gets tougher to get in a weekly game. If you can only get together once a month, it is kind of nice to have your character advance in level every couple of months.

I don't know if I can keep my C&C campaign going for 12 to 16 months so the characters can get up to 4th and 5th level. We'll see. However, given the enjoyment of the campaign and the levels that will be covered (low levels) I don't see many issues with running a low level only - ie a Holmes-only - for a long-ish term campaign.

My Conan is a 3rd level fighter

I am mostly a lurker at Dragonsfoot but there have been a series of posts begun by Geoffery of Carcosa fame that examine the potential of a "Holmes-only" campaign and a number of follow-up posts (Gods for a Holmes-only campaign and what the mortality rate might be) that I have been reading with great interest and have made a number of comments on.

What is meant by a "Holmes-Only" campaign? Basically, that the Holmes 46-page rulebook is the only rulebook. You therefore have to ignore all references to AD&D. What impact does this have on the rules? The major impact is that the game would be limited to 3rd level for all classes.

I think that the idea of a "Holmes-only" game has a lot of merit and I would love to try something like this. While I would encourage anyone to read the relevant posts on DF, the reasons I think this would be very interesting are (and some of these are intertwined:

1. The game would more accurately reflect the sword & sorcery literature upon which the earliest editions of D&D are based.

2. Magic-user spells would be limited - there would be very limited access to the spells that have a tendency to "break" encounters or scenarios such as fly, fireball, know alignment. They would only be available through magic items. How many Conan stories have the sorcerer flinging fireballs?

3. Fighters would also be limited in terms of ability to a degree that is gritty and in line with the source literature. No longer could a fighter easily face off against 20 city guardsmen without fear. Geoffrey gives the example of, " the beginning of "Red Nails" where Conan and the warrior-woman Valeria are charged by a "dragon", which is clearly a stegosaurus. Contrary to mistaken stereotype, Conan did not thump his chest and go toe-to-toe with it. Instead, Conan and Valeria ran away. Conan as typically presented in D&D would laugh and be eating the stegosaurus for lunch after a few short melee rounds. A 3rd-level Conan, however, would turn tail and flee, just like in the story."

4. Holmes has an excellent roster of monsters and magic items which, when combined, can make a party of 3rd level adventurers epic but keep both the monsters and adventurers relevant.

5. It focuses advancement on things other than levels but level advancement takes on an even bigger significance as there is only 3 levels. But, there are also other mechanisms for advancement or gaining new abilities - more tangible measures such as questing to find the scroll that has the unique spell you need to fulfill a specific task, finding more treasure so you can hire enough mercenaries to defeat the tribe of Orcs threatening the town, negotiating for the cooperation of a band of brigands to overcome a nearby dragon. Sure these things can be done with unlimited advancement but when the level limit is capped at 3rd level, these are the things that advance your character - their story and the impact they have on the world - instead of XP calculations.

Some problems with running a "Holmes-only" campaign are:
1. Finding players interested - there would be a whole array of existing attitudes and perceptions that would have to be overcome.
2. Demi-humans. Why play a fighter when a dwarf is available and not limited in terms of level caps. Likely have to give them XP penalties or exclude them completely to, once again, get closer to the S&S literature.