Posts about The Broken Lands - Hooks vs Play Reports

Nothing creative or insightful, but I find it interesting that the posts with the hooks for The Broken Lands consistently get about twice as many views as the play reports.

What I've been thinking about

1. Adding tactical combat aspects to Barbarians of Lemuria or B/X by hacking Melee. Sometimes I like to get the minis out. I have been playing 4E to get my tactical mini fix but I have pretty much lost any interest in 4E. Plus you gotta love Melee's use of hexes.

2. Giving the Mythic GM Emulator a try with either Barbarians of Lemuria or B/X. This is after reading a very interesting and well written play report of a solo (I believe) campaign using Mythic and FATE in an alternate Dragonlance campaign over at the Big Purple.

3. The forums over at Red Box Calgary have picked up a bit during the last couple of weeks. I have been very negligent about Red Box Calgary the last few months as I have been getting acclimated to my new job, coaching both of my kids in different sports, and taking some summer vacations. Hopefully, we can get some B/X gaming going down at the Sentry Box again soon.

4. Crap! I missed Scott Driver's call for players for a PBP game. I really enjoyed Mr. Driver's Thool PBP game.

5. Barbarians of the Black. Using the Barbarians of Lemuria engine for a Firefly campaign.

6. Megadungeons. I have been getting the itch to create my own megadungeon. I may post some thoughts later.

My So-Called Life

My self-imposed exile from the real world is about to come to an end.

Over a year ago, I quit my job and have been hanging out with my kids ever since. My staying at home dramatically increased my free time which I spent on playing with my kids and my hobby of gaming.

This is about to all come to an end as I have decided to re-enter the real world of employed adults. Happily, the whole job hunt thing went pretty painlessly and I was able to find a position with a company that has a great reputation with employees and the position fits very well with my background and previous work experience.

Unfortunately, this will impact two things that I am slightly regretting. The first is it will decrease the amount of time I will be able to spend with my kids. I have been very blessed to be able to spend this time with my children. The second is it will decrease the amount of time I will be able to spend gaming, thinking about gaming, talking about gaming, etc.

I am planning to keep my 2E Rise of the Runelords campaign going, I am hoping to continue playing in a 4E game, and I am planning on doing more Red Box Calgary games. The other games that I currently DM or play will continue for now but their ongoing status will be in question.

Seeing as how my posting here at Ode to Black Dougal seems to come in fits and starts anyway, we will have to see how it is impacted.

Saying Yes Is More Fun

I DMed another session of my 2E campaign a couple of nights ago. It was a long session by my now near-elderly standards lasting 7 hours (my wife has been teasing me about my advanced age since I turned 38 a couple of weeks ago). I had a great time but was wiped by the end. As everyone was packing up I did what I always do at the end of a session and asked, "So, what did you think? Is there any feedback?"

The response from one player was what I consider a great compliment. He replied, "you are one of the fairest DM's I have ever played with."

Now, in all honestly, I think that his perspective is because I nearly always say "Yes". It might be, "Yes, but..." or "Yes, and..." but I do always try to say "Yes" if they ask me if their character can do something - it might take a roll to see if they succeed but "yes" they can try. His character was trying to do something a bit different and maybe a little far-fetched earlier in the session and I said, "Sure, roll a d20 and..."

Something dawned on me a while ago. Saying "yes" won't break the game. By "break" I don't mean wreck the mechanics or balance or other more contemporary gaming issues. Instead by "break" I mean break the fun.

"Your fighter wants to try to leap a 50' wide chasm while wearing platemail to flee from the demon? Sure you can give it a try. Roll a percentage for me. If you roll a 99 or 100 you somehow manage to catch an updraft or something and grab a protrusion on the far side of the chasm. I will then roll 1d6 times 100 to see how many feet you fell before you grabbed on. You will take half damage from the fall of that distance. If you roll anything other than a 99 or 100 you fall to the bottom and take damage for falling 1,000 feet. How does that sound?"

That is more fun than being told, "No."

The tragic tale of my son's D&D adventure

My 4-year old son asked this morning if we could play D&D before school (he attends play-school in the afternoon). I am sure my eyes lit up at the question. Actually a couple of days ago I printed rpgKids from NewbieDM's bog.

I quickly got out my figures and my combat mat. I sat down with my son and he picked four figures and named them. We had Steve (a figure with a warhammer), Sir Knight (a knight - go figure), Greenie the elf, and Miranda the Magician.

I the described to my son that the four were brave adventurers and asked him what they were going to do. He replied that they were looking for a bad guy in a forest. I am suddenly thinking that my son is DM-material.

I asked, "Why is the bad guy in the forest?"

He replied, "because he is lonely and looking for friends."

I think, "Minions!"

So the story becomes that there is a fearsome monster in the forest that captured the princess who is a friend of the party (who the monster wanted to be his friend as well). The party sets off to find the princess. They quickly meet some small monsters in the forest and battle ensues using a d6-only version of rpgKids.

That is where tragedy set in. The fight was well in hand for the party but one monster managed to hurt Miranda the Magician. My poor son became quite sad that poor Miranda would get hurt. We ended the session as tears welled in his eyes and his chin quivered.

I guess he isn't quite old enough yet.

Cal-con is about two months away

Last year was my first time at a gaming convention. I both ran and played in some games.

Cal-con is at the end of March and I am starting to try to figure out what games I would like to run. Some initial possibilities include:

- OD&D Castle Zagyg or one of the old tournament modules (maybe A1) - I know that I should likely use AD&D but it has been so long since I have ran 1E AD&D that I don't think I would be comfortable doing it at a con.

- a B/X game - maybe a section of Curse of Xanathon or of Stonehell

- a Tunnels & Trolls game (any good ideas about scenarios?)

- a Thundarr inspired Mutant Future scenario

- the Burning Wheel scenario "The Gift" using RISUS

Any ideas or suggestions?

Today's Trip to the Local Gaming Store

I was having a crappy afternoon so I stopped by the Sentry Box to cheer myself up.

1. I saw the new version of Labyrinth Lord on the shelf. It was nice to see it there. I didn't buy it as I have three copies of LL in hardcover and about eight copies of both the Moldvay Basic and the Cook/Marsh expert rulebooks. I wanted to leave it for someone who might not have it yet. However, if it is still there in about a month I will be hard pressed not to pick it up.

2. They didn't have any d30's! What is up with that?

3. I was also there yesterday (I love having lots of free time) and I put up my Red Box Calgary poster that has tabs with the wiki address. So it has been up for about 24 hours and there have been three tabs already taken. Now that doesn't actually mean all that much since I have had one poster or another up at the Sentry Box for the last year and a half and I have heard from maybe 15 people due to the posting but I still find it encouraging.

4. I bought a couple of Dark Sun accessories. I already had them in pdf but, like I said, I was having a crappy day.

Red Box Calgary?

Belated Happy New Year.

I hope you and yours had a great holiday season. My family had a wonderful break not withstanding the stomach flu bug which swept through our household between Christmas and New Years.

During the break I had lots of opportunity to read gaming related stuff. I went back through my collection of Fight On! and Knockspell magazines. There really is a bunch of great stuff in those.

One thing I have been considering during the break is setting up some form of "Old School" group along the lines of New York Red Box and Red Box Vancouver.

I have been talking to the event coordinator at The Sentry Box here in Calgary and it seems that most Sunday afternoons are pretty open in terms of table space on the mezzanine level and Thursday evenings are open in their after hours room.

Last year I was also talking to the owner of Revolution Games and he was also very open to having games run in the store. It's not quite as convenient as Sentry Box but could provide some flexibility.

I am pretty sure I could drum up some interest from some of the old Northern Marches group. I have also been working on a poster to put up at Sentry Box and other LFGS. I will likely mention it on the forums for the local D&D Meet-up group but I don't expect a lot of interest from that front.

Abstract Adventures

Sham is back and he has been working on a project called w/o Walls.

I love this kind of stuff. I am always looking for/working on new systems for making abstract adventures. A long time ago I made a post asking if maps are absolutely required to play D&D. Sham and I appear to be on the same page about how much gameism can be in D&D.

I am currently working on a post showing how I would use a system similar to Warpquest to make a B/X adventure for PCs searching a forest for a lost temple. Hopefully I will have it up this weekend. The weather in Calgary is frightful so I should have a bunch of time hiding at home to work on it.

My Newest Elevator Pitches

My current 2E AD&D - Rise of the Runelords campaign is going great and I am having a lot of fun. This is the first time I have run an adventure path. We are still in the first adventure module (which is quite good) so we are early enough in it that there have been no troubles with conversions or "railroady-ness" of running a 3.5 adventure path with 2nd edition.

However, as I think about RPGs nearly every day, I have some other campaign ideas rattling around in my head right now. The likelihood of any of these going anywhere may be small but hopefully not nil. I would also consider using skype + gametable for any of these.

In no particular order:

- A B/X game using one of Robert Conley's Points of Light settings. I would like to set it up like my old Northern Marches campaign and make it an open game.

- A game using my recent B/X S&S hacks set in the Evil DM's Erisia.

- A game using my recent B/X hacks set in a not strictly canon Hyborian Age.

- A game using my recent B/X S&S hacks plus the Mutants & Mazes section from Mutant Future with a setting using the Dark Sun map from the original DS box. And it would have Sorcerer Kings - I just love the name Sorcerer Kings.

- A Tunnels & Trolls game using Gamma Trollworld and a slightly modified Carcosa as the setting.

- A B/X game set in the Known World from the Cook Expert rulebook. Starting off with an expanded version of the Haunted Keep from the Moldvay Basic rulebook.

- A B/X - Al Qadim hack.

My Current RPG Landscape

My 2nd edition AD&D campaign has been a lot of fun so far. I have to say that the new group made up of a couple of players from my old group and a few new players appears to be lots of fun. But, of course, I can never seem to get enough RPGs. A few other things I am thinking about right now:

1. Getting the B/X Online game going again. There seems to be enough interest so it is just a matter of getting schedules lined up. Based on my previous experience I am putting bigger limitations on it this time. My plan is to stick closely to the B/X paradigm of dungeon exploration for levels 1-3, wilderness exploration for levels 4-8, and establishing strongholds after that. Also, not withstanding my recent post on magic items, I am planning on sticking to the rulebooks for treasure and magic items except for new magic items in any published adventures I use.

2. The previously mentioned 2nd edition game is set in Paizo's Golarion. It is a pretty standard D&D-esque setting with all of the usual fantasy tropes. While I really like Golarion, using a standard fantasy setting has made me ponder using other settings for other games. The B/X Online game is set in the Wilderlands. I have also been thinking about using either B/X, T&T, or OD&D for two very different campaign settings.

I have had a sweet spot for the weird fantasy of Scott Driver's old blogs about his World of Thool (which I have archived and his wiki is still available) and his OD&D WIlderlands blog (which I wish I had archived). I would love to play a campaign inspired by Thool, Athanor, Carcosa , Under the Dying Sun, and the writings of Brackett, Dunsany, Hodgson, Merritt, Shaver and Wells.

The second is Middle Earth. Not the Middle Earth of the Lord of the Rings but instead the Wilderlands of the Hobbit. Gandalf is actually Bladorthin and is just some magic-user not some godly-spirit. The Necromancer is just that - an evil wizard with a tower in the forest. Who knows - Blackmoor might be to the north of the Grey Mountains and the Great Kingdom to the south of Mirkwood or maybe to the west of the Edge of the Wild line.

3. I have also been toying with starting a play-by-post game. I have had limited exposure to this type of gaming and only as a player. We will see if I do anything about this one.

The Changing Process of Character Creation

In very broad terms the process of character creation can be broken down into three aspects:

1. Generation - rolling stats, rolling lifepaths, etc.

2. Concept - "I want to play an angsty drow elf that is trying to right the wrongs of his past..."

3. Mechanics - builds, min/max-ing, "controller", etc.

Moving from "old school" D&D to the latest edition, character creation has focused on different aspects.

The oldest versions of D&D focused more on the Generation aspect - roll 3d6, six times in order and see what you get. The Concept and Mechanics resulted out of the Generation. I pick a Fighter (mechanics) because my strength is the highest and his charisma is so low because he was caught in a fire when marauding orcs burnt down his village (concept).

The newest versions of D&D focus more on the Mechanics - 4th edition's "roles", the need for a healer in 3.5E, etc. The balance and structure of the rules requires that the Mechanical aspects of a character be at the forefront. The Generation aspect has been minimized by first using point-buy systems to generate attribute scores and then by codifying a fixed number of hit points instead of rolling.

I would suggest that 2E is the version that most focuses on the Concept aspect of character creation. In yet another way, 2E is the red-headed step child. To me, it is the most "story"-focused of the versions of D&D and how your character fits into that story, the Concept, is a central part of the character generation.

So what's going on in here?

Hello everyone.

It has been a while since I have felt the muse. With settling into the new fall routine of kids activities and my general malaise as the weather turns in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, I just haven't had much to say with regards to fantasy roleplaying games.

However, something has happened to prompt me to make a new post. One of the original reasons for this blog was to document my attempts to find a new playing group. To that end, I have had postings up at various local gaming stores advertising my attempt to get a new "old school" group together. These postings have had an impact as a number of people contacted me over the past ~9 months. This has culminated in a group of people sitting around my basement this past wednesday evening generating characters. I have previously played with two of the players but three others were newcomers.

The ruleset we are using is 2nd edition AD&D. We went with this as most of the players had a preference for it because it is the system with which they have the most exposure. While it is not my favourite B/X, I still don't mind 2nd Edition.

Open vs Closed Gaming

The last few D&D games I have been part of have all been "open" games. By open I mean that they are played with varying participants. The Northern Marches campaign was specifically designed to be open. It was created to accommodate busy adult lives and was designed so that it did not matter who showed up to play from week to week. The 4E games I am running at the local meetup are by necessity open and the skype B/X game is open in that I just made an open invitation for people and accepted a couple more than I expect to be able to make each scheduled session.

An open game contrasts with a closed game which I think of as how I have previously mostly played D&D in that I was part of a set group. Closed groups may or may not play the same game from week to week but they a fairly consistent in who shows up to play.

Whether a game is open or closed has an impact on social aspects of the game, the campaign design and the game mechanics themselves.

1. Social - a closed game has a slightly different social element than an open game. This is pretty evident since in an open game you never really know who might wind up sitting down at the table. I have found two interesting social dynamics in the open games I have run. The first is that I had the first fight between players during a Northern Marches game. The players did not know each other and it stemmed from a roleplaying incident where a character reacted to having another character accidently gunned down by friendly fire. I don't think that the reaction would have been the same if the players knew each other and had been party of a closed game. The second, an honestly one I tried to cultivate for the Northern Marches, is a bit of competitiveness between players. I wanted to try to get people to want to play frequently by giving them FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). If they new that another player's character found a magic sword during a session they were not able to atend maybe they would be more inclined to show up the next session.

2. Campaign Design - If a DM doesn't know who is going to be at his game, it makes it tough to carry on a plot. I think this leads to one of two reactions from the DM. Either they railroad the adventure to make sure that their "story" gets told or they adopt a sandbox. A sandbox doesn't have an overall plot so continuous attendance isn't required. An open game also encourages more episodic play with each session being more self contained.

3. Game mechanics - I find that closed games lead to more house rules. If you have a long standing group, everyone gets to know preferences and can take the time to learn house rules. Open games make communicating a long list of house rules more difficult.

What do you think? Are there other aspects that are impacted by open or closed games? Are there advantaged to open or closed games? Which do you prefer?

Just a few quick things

1. I really like the 2d6 thief as posted A Character for Every Game.

2. Jeff Rient's does it again - he always has such great ideas.

3. Geoffrey does something my wife wishes I would do.

4. In case you didn't see it on JB's or Mike D's blogs here is the blog I set up for our Skype B/X game.

5. It has been out for a while now but you should really check out the The Mythical Tunnels & Trolls Sixth Edition.

The Summer Slowdown

- Summer time... gaming and posting has seemed to slow down. Maybe things will pick up again as we get nearer to Gencon. Not that I am going but blog traffic seems to pick up and more things happen.

- I have an advanced case of gamer ADD. It only seems to go into remission when I play which has been rare the last while. I have spent far more time buying and reading stuff. The problem (besides the impact to my wallet) is that I come up with all sorts of campaign and one-shot ideas. It is difficult enough to schedule sessions for the Northern Marches and the Dark Sun / Castles & Crusades micro-campaign much less to add anything new.

- I was reading through the comments to James Maliszewski's recent post regarding Save or Die. James does a wonderful job of posting his thoughts and ideas in a well thought out and easily understood manner but I am always amazed how the comments to his posts can very quickly veer off into us versus them. I don't know if it is because his posting is so well thought out that his blog attracts such diverse readers. I do sometimes wish people would stay a bit more on subject though. I was going to make a comment there but I decided that it would not benefit anyone but myself so decided against it. I have no problem with others enjoying their games. Hell, I like all sorts of games myself. But don't talk down to me or others because of the style of games we like. Table top roleplaying is a wonderful hobby that has done a lot of good things for me and many, many others. How can any game where people get to sit down with friends and spend hours talking together be a bad thing no matter what style you prefer?

- I have been reading the Gazetteer for Paizo's Golarion setting and the regional source book for their Darkmoon Vale. I think that the Darkmoon Vale would be a great little sandbox. Of course I would have to convert it to something far more rules-lite than 3.5E like B/X or Castles & Crusades but that wouldn't tough.

- I am pretty much done writing the next session of the Dark Sun micro-campaign. The only things I have to do now are come up with some of the props and find a hole in everyone's schedules. I figure that the campaign will cover about 5 sessions. This micro campaign is nothing like my Northern Marches campaign. The Northern Marches is a exploration based sandbox while the Dark Sun game is a more story-focused game. I do not know the entire story but I do have a general sense of the direction of the game. I make up my notes for each session based on what has happened in previous sessions. It is interesting running two very different games.

- This week is Stampede in Calgary. This is the first time I have really missed working since I left my job in January. Downtown Calgary is a lot of fun this week.

First Level Sword & Sorcery Heroes

A passing thought...

So most old-school D&D players recognize that the roots of the game are in pulp-style sword & sorcery literature,

and

Heroes in pulp-style sword & sorcery literature are usually (always?) quite capable,

then why

Are first level characters, whether it be OD&D, B/X, AD&D, so fragile?

Because
The real roots of D&D are in wargames and players start as regular wargame Joes.

True? False? Thoughts?

Some More Thoughts on One-Shot Adventures

Since my post a few weeks ago about Episodic vs Campaign games, I have continued to think about one-shot games or micro-campaigns in general and a Dark Sun one-shot specifically. While the Northern Marches continues to be my main focus, I am enjoying having something else to think about. I like the idea of running some short games as it gives me the chance to pursue other gaming ideas but allowing the Northern Marches to remain the campaign focus.

I have been thinking about how to make a one-shot adventure effective. By "effective", I mean making the session as fun as possible while sticking to a finite time period. Some considerations are:

1. Structure - an appropriately sized location based adventure vs. a plot based adventure with a beginning and end.
2. Giving the players a goal to get the ball rolling - recover the artifact, find the traitor, save the princess, etc.
3. Combining the Goal and the Structure in a way so that the adventure in not a railroad - getting them started but allow them the freedom to do their own thing.
4. Character Mortality - The players won't be as attached to their character so hopefully they will try some wacky stuff but this is balanced against the time constraints and having to roll up new characters.
5. Pushing the players - having a mechanism to keep the pressure on the players to act - recover the artifact before the pillar of fire falls from the sky, find the traitor before he does X, save the princess before she is sacrificed to the dark gods.

I have been considering two possible scenarios for a Dark Sun one-shot. Either the typical "you are a slave in one of the city-states" knowing that the characters will try to escape or a find the mcguffin adventure with a twist.

The Escape Slavery scenario would be a location based adventure focused on the slave pits and escaping the city into the desert.

The find the mcguffin scenario would be more of a plot-based game but to keep it from being a railroad, it would be more about giving the players' the goal and having an idea of how the mcguffin could be recovered. The middle part would be a few vague ideas but more reacting to the players actions while keeping the pressure on them to recover the mcguffin before X happens.

Does anyone have any other thoughts/tips about structuring and/or running a one-shot adventure?

My Current Lulu Cart

I currently have the following items waiting in my shopping cart at lulu.com:

1. Cartoon Action Hour: Season 2
- This is what happens when I watch as much Thundarr the Barbarian as I have over the last couple of weeks.

2. Legends of Steel - Savage Worlds Edition
- A S&S book to go along with all of the other Savage Worlds stuff I bought a while ago? Yes, please!

3. Barbarians of Lemuria (Revised Edition)
- I have heard great things about this one.

4. Knockspell Magazine #2 (perfect bound)

Now I am just waiting on the Fight On! #5 to add to the list.

Lots of time with my thoughts

I have been down with a flu the last few days. This has allowed me to:
- read lots of the first volume of my new Savage Sword of Conan books.
- watch more Thundarr on youtube.
- think about the Northern Marches campaign.
- think about getting my act together to submit something to the One-Page Dungeon Contest
- think about a short Dark Sun / Savage Worlds game based loosely on the old computer game Dark Sun: Shattered Lands focusing on how to keep a short (5 or 6 sessions) micro-campaign from becoming a railroad.

I have no idea if I know anyone who would want to play it but, oh well...