#Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 007)

Back out into the corridor and another 15' down the corridor a smelly, gooey looking dark mess in the middle of the corridor appears so quickly you almost step into it. It smells like rotten eggs and it bubbles as you look. It lacks a foot or so of extending to the walls, you might be able to get around it. 

What do you do?

If you poke it with a ten foot pole you will now have a nine foot pole. If you hurry past it along either wall, six players can get past it, but by that time it will extend itself all the way to the walls. Any other players will have to jump and do it quickly as it is expanding. Once everyone is past it, it will disappear without a trace, perhaps it lies in wait hidden to return again in an instant. If you probe the floor where it was a moment ago with a ten (or maybe a nine) foot pole, you will detect nothing but hard floor.

Does anyone want to walk back across where it was? Are you sure you want to do that?

#4 Another 15' and you come to another door. This room is 30'x30'. It appears to have a wood floor carefully put together to completely cover the stone beneath. It is carefully polished and is a very dark attractive wood. The walls are covered with a much lighter wood and two walls have shelves that appear to be attached to the walls. The shelves are covered with old books and even older scrolls, most of which are very fragile. The writing is very faint due to age and it cannot be deciphered. The right hand wall has a floor to ceiling mirror. The walls to either side of the door are bare. There are two tables in the room with a single chair at each. The each have a candle burning and a blank scroll, a quill pen and an ink fountain. A single mark has been made on each scroll. 

The large mirror draws you interest. When you look into the mirror you do not see the room reflected, nor do you see yourself. You are looking at a large flat field with the grass eaten short, behind it is a small hill on which sits a pair of knights on horses.  

They see you and start moving towards you.

What do you do?

As they reach the flat area, they couch their lances and knee their horses into a trot, it is at this point that you realize that you and your companions are in the field on a hot, sunny day. As the knights approach they pick up the pace and it turns into a charge.

What do you do?

If you survive the fight you will be stuck on the world of the field and will have to find the way back or if you figured out how to break the spell you will continue in the corridor.

 

#Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 006)

After the last excursion underground the players having survived and avoided some encounters that most surely would have wiped them out, returned above ground to camp and during the night there was a terrible earthquake and in the morning the ruins were even more ruined if that were possible. 

# Remember this campaign runs on the Silver standard see #Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 001)

The stairway they were using is nowhere to be found, not a trace. After they search the area they find a new opening that is a spiral stone staircase and it takes them all day to clear it. The night passes uneventfully and the next morning they cautiously try to explore again.

The staircase descends about 40' into the earth to the center of a room which is about 120' in diameter. The room, floor and walls are all closely fitted cut stone. They are fitted so well that not even the thinnest blade can fit between any two stones. The staircase continues on down into the earth and a cool breeze comes up the staircase from below. You can hear the sound of rushing water coming from below and it may be your imagination, but you think you hear screams and roars and other sounds.

#1 This room is lit up like midday. The room itself has a decorative stone tiled floor that is light in color. There are about 30 benches scattered throughout the room, four fountains and beside each fountain is a metal post that runs floor to ceiling. Each post has hooks from which hang 40 metal cups on each post. The water is sparkling and smells fresh and makes you think of the mountains. Throughout the room are trellises draped with vines which are in bloom with a profusion of colors and scents. The portion of the walls that are not taken up by the doorways, are covered with artwork. 

Equally spaced around this room are 12 doorways leading away from it. These doorways have no doors and open directly into corridors. All of the corridors are dark and the light from the room does not shine into any of the corridors by even an inch. Along each of the corridors are a number of little alcoves with benches and spots in the walls for lamps to be placed. Each corridor runs straight for 60' and are like spokes of a wheel around the room. At the end of these corridors is a circular corridor that that connects the ends of all of these corridor together. On the wall of the circular corridor opposite each of the wheel spoke corridor is another door, twelve in total and each is a massive wooden door with steel reinforcing. Each door is locked and has a pull handle. Each lock will need to be picked or a spell used to open the door.

Each door has a symbol in the center of the door, perhaps they are numbered one through twelve. So for convenience we will use that. 

Behind Door #1

The corridor runs off into the distance, at least for as far as torch light shows. There are doors scattered along both walls. All the doors are wooden and they will all be difficult to very difficult to open, even though they cannot be locked, although if occupied they might be barred from the inside.

#2 20' in this room is 10'x10', it contains a table and four chairs, there are 4 skeletons wearing ornate chainmail armor and accoutrements seated around the table. In the middle of the table is a small chest approximately 18" x 8" x 12" (includes the semi-circle lid). The chest is wood and iron, very ornate, encrusted with gems and gold metal work. Inside there are three trays stacked on top of one another. Each tray is covered by a gold cloth, which would detect magic on the cloth. The first tray has a dagger which is of star metal which contains silver. The dagger will glow, visible only to the bearer, when anyone or anything hostile the bearer is present. It has other magical attributes as well. The second tray has topaz, jade, emerald and diamond gems. All have been carefully prepared for display and all are rare specimens of their kind. The third tray has two rings a matched set one allows for breathing under water and the other allow for breathing in other non-liquid environments. These rings will refuse to be worn except by the same person. 

Just one thing, when you touch the chest, all four skeletons are on their feet in an instant with swords drawn, shields in place and they attack.

#3 30' down the corridor this room is 15'x15', it contains a 6' long table with 6 ornate wooden chairs, beautiful dark wood, polished and glowing in the manner of old wood. On the table - several platters with hot steaming food, meats and various other items, fresh bread, butter and oils, spices and seasonings. The aroma makes your mouth water and your stomach growl. What do you do?

If you start eating, the dishes keep refilling as food is taken. The taste is incredible and you are soon lost in the pleasure of the food. But it is all a powerful illusion, there is nothing there. You will eat until you are stuffed and then will immediately want to leave, once you are outside the room you will feel like you have not eaten for a week and you will be ravenous. The memory of the "meal" you just had will  be but a distant memory.

#Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 005)

 To continue on with the dungeon creation we had this:

Level One

So we have:

Corridor 01 - front right

Corridor 02 - front left

Corridor 03 - left front

Corridor 04 - left rear

Corridor 05 - right front 

Corridor 06 - right rear

Corridor 07 - rear left

Corridor 08 - rear right

So on to Corridor 06 - right rear.

This corridor runs in straight for 20' then takes a 45 degree angle to the right and runs 60' then turns 45 degrees back to the original direction and continues on for 40', then it turns to the right 90 degrees and continues for 80', then it turns 90 degrees and continues on.

Once it turns back to the original direction straight ahead it enters a stretch 200' long that has doors on either side, staggered, every 30'.  These each open into a room that is currently vacant, containing only broken furniture, dust and dirt, rat dung and such. Each room is 25' x 25', there are twelve rooms total in this area.

#37 to #48.

Just past this is a four-way intersection and the floor at the intersection only is bright yellow and is completely clean, unlike the dust and damp in the four corridor that intersect here. At this point one can proceed straight ahead or turn to the right or to the left. 

To the left the corridor walls and ceiling are dark black and a torch barely lights the way at all, but a Perpetual Light Spell lights it quite well and although the floor is damp and dusty the walls and ceiling are abnormally clean and spotless. The walls are freezing, when touched they rapidly suck the heat out of an incautious hand. 

20' feet into the corridor there are doors on either side of the corridor. Large metallic black doors with keyed locks and handles. The locks must be picked or a spell must be used to open them. It would take the strength of a giant to force them. There are six rooms here, three on either side and at 80' total down this corridor another intersection is reached. If someone were to gain access to these rooms they would find storage of everything from food and spices to blankets and other bedding. One room has a chest, the contents can only be guessed. But if you try to lift the chest it is quite heavy. It has no traps, but is locked securely.

#49 to #54 10'x10' rooms

Going back to the previous intersection and taking the leftward corridor things are different, for one thing the floor of the corridor becomes cobblestone in this area and the walls are similar. If you listen at the entrance to this corridor you can hear voices and various odors can be smelled. At this point you may hear footsteps marching towards or away from you.

Once you move 30' into this corridor you pass from darkness to light most abruptly and the light cannot be seen until you pass that 30' point. 

#Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 004)

To continue on with the dungeon creation we had this:

Level One

So we have:

Corridor 01 - front right

Corridor 02 - front left

Corridor 03 - left front

Corridor 04 - left rear

Corridor 05 - right front 

Corridor 06 - right rear

Corridor 07 - rear left

Corridor 08 - rear right

So next up is Corridor 05 right front

#35 (room or area) The corridor runs for 40' and opens into a circular area about 50' in diameter, in the center is a fountain, the pool diameter is 20' and there is a statue of a female centaur in the middle with the water shooting from the top of her head. That 20' diameter area has a 20' ceiling and the water jet just stops about a foot short of the ceiling.  The water in the pool is fairly clear, but visibility in the pool is only to a few feet then there is not enough light to see deeper. The water from the water jet appears completely clear. The pool depth in more than a 10' pole will reach. From time to time large fish (up to two feet long) are seen. Closer examination shows four points that the water wells up about two inches above the general water level. 

If one were to dive, the would find that is runs down 73' to an underground river that runs through the dungeon and has numerous points that it comes out to provide water to hundreds of dungeon areas.

The corridor runs another 40' past the fountain and the corridor widens out to a half circle about 30' in diameter and has two sets of wide double doors at the end. The doors are heavy wood and are not locked but swing both ways and move easily.

#36 On the other side of these doors is an amphitheater (strangely indoors) about 200' in diameter, it has a raised platform about 10' high in the center and 15' in diameter. The floor around the platform is about 80'  below the entry doors noted. There is a 5% chance that it will be occupied and in use. If in use there will be a vampire and a lich on the platform, they will be speaking to several hundred minions.

How Many People Are Doing #Dungeon23 (or variation)? More Than You Might Think

How many people are doing #Dungeon23 (or some variation), how many have pledged to post at least one dungeon room every day for a year, at least 365 dungeon rooms? More than you might think. Here are some of them. This as of 1/3/2023 and likely this is missing quite a few that are tracked other places that I am unaware of. This taken from the public tracking list located at Dungeon Tracker 23, visit their list for the links to where you can look at any or all of these projects, the links are not clickable, I suggest right clicking and copy paste to go to the various websites.

If you would like to join and be added to the list at the link above, you can sign up here Sign up.

#Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 003)

To continue on with the dungeon creation we had this:

Level One

So we have:

Corridor 01 - front right

Corridor 02 - front left

Corridor 03 - left front

Corridor 04 - left rear

Corridor 05 - right front 

Corridor 06 - right rear

Corridor 07 - rear left

Corridor 08 - rear right

So on to Corridor 03 - left front:

This corridor goes 10' and then angles down at a 20 degree slope. It continues on this way for another 50' to a stairway that leads downward. The stairway is circular and is 40' in diameter, it descends rapidly for nearly 100' to its first landing at which point there is a door at each of the four compass points. 

From here it descends to additional similar landings every 50' for a total of 30 landings descending 1600' below the top of the stairway. Each of these 30 landings leads to a sub-level.

Corridor 04 - left rear:

This corridor runs in for the first 60' with no doors on the right wall; however, on the left wall a door occurs 30' in. This door is made of ivory and will detect as magical. It glows and in place of a door knob or handle, it has a large (ogre sized) handprint. (Note: That does not mean that it is an ogre handprint, just saying that is the size). If a party member places their hand in the print, they will feel a wave of heat rush over their body and for just a moment their hand expands (painfully) to fill the print and then their hand is released and the door opens.

#10 This room is 50' x 60'. One half of the room is filled with bunk beds each which hold a sleeping creature. Each bed has two locker boxes under each bad. The other half of the room has tables, chairs, cabinets and racks. Chainmail armor and accoutrements and weapons hang from the racks. Four of the creatures sit halfway back, playing cards and drinking. Depending on when the room is entered all the creatures might be awake and all be sitting playing cards or getting into their armor. Some other time there might be no creatures in the room at all.

80' down the corridor a wider area contains a stairway that leads downward, it is also circular and is 40' in diameter it descends 20'  to a landing and proceeds down from their to additional landings spaced such that none of these landings will intersect any of the sub-levels, but only main levels. This stairway goes down to an unknown depth, in excess of the lowest depth (~2300') used by the current dungeon occupants leaders.

In the area where the stairwell is, the corridor splits and runs both straight ahead and has perpendicular side corridors. The corridor running to the right is spotless, as is the corridor area that continues straight ahead. The corridor running to the left is a mess. At the moment there are 25 bodies (human and dwarven) lying in their own blood. Everything of value has been taken and they have been left to the dungeon cleanup crew. If you traveled down this corridor at this time, you would eventually run into a member of the cleanup crew slowly flowing in this direction.

If you continue straight past the stairwell you will enter an area of the corridor which has on both sides of the corridor a series of 20' wide spaces each of which has an eight foot wide counter instead of a door across the opening into each space. As you walk down the hall their are twelve of these on each side of the corridor. Behind each counter there are floor to ceiling shelves which are currently empty but are clean without dust or debris. In the center of each space is a wide door that is closed. Above each counter on the wall of the corridor are painted character which cannot be read, which may explain what each space was originally used for. Astute players may discern that these were once (and may be again) shops. Behind each door is a 20' x 40' space. These are rooms #11 through #34.

Inside each of these 24 rooms are stacks of boxes and barrels of various goods along with more shelving. Possibly these shops are to be stocked and put back into service.

#Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 002)

 To continue on with the dungeon creation we had this:

Level One

So we have:

Corridor 01 - front right

Corridor 02 - front left

Corridor 03 - left front

Corridor 04 - left rear

Corridor 05 - right front 

Corridor 06 - right rear

Corridor 07 - rear left

Corridor 08 - rear right

And on the 1st we looked at Corridor 01 front right. Today we will begin looking at Corridor 02 - front left.

This corridor runs straight for about 60' at which point it reaches a dead-end. It is not a dead-end, that happens to be an illusion. About 10' from the apparent end of the corridor there is a door on the left wall of the corridor. That door will open easily and quietly as though the hinges were well oiled. This door opens onto a 5' wide corridor that runs 20' to another door . 

#9 When this door is opened (also easily and quietly) the first door will instantly close and will be very difficult, though not impossible, to open. The second door opens into a room that is circular and featureless. In the center of the room is a circular table with a dozen chairs, each is padded and look very comfortable. There is not a trace of dust in the room anywhere. On the table are blank scrolls, quill pen and ink wells at each seat. There is also a plate, an eating knife, a large mug and pitcher at each place. The pitcher is full of a hot liquid that smells very good. There is also bread and cheese present at each place. 

If the entire party enters the room, the door will close behind them and then disappear. If at least one member of the party seats their self, then the room will start to rotate and 15 doors will appear (none of which is the original door).  (If everyone seats themselves, these will all disappear, the room will stop rotating and then perhaps the original door reappears.)

Once the room is rotating, you may choose to open one door at a time. When you open a door the room stops rotating, when it is closed the room rotates until another door is chosen. There are a large number of places behind each of these 15 doors. No door will open to the same space a second time within a very large number of tries. A small sample of places that these doors may open to ranges from any number of any other places in this dungeon on any number of different levels, to any number of other places on this continent, to any number of other places on this planet, to any number of there places on this plane or on other planes. These doors lead to relatively safe places to extremely hazardous places. One door might open to an oasis one time and another time open into the center of a sun. A wary player would stick something through the opening first, such as 10' pole instead of a hand or arm, and observe what happens to it. If it flares and disintegrates into ashes you might not want to step through, or if it becomes so cold that the cold is being propagated along the wooden pole, again you might not want to step through.  Foolish decisions at this point could bring a quick death. You experience nothing good or bad unless you pass through the opening either partially or completely. Wise decisions could bring great wealth or other benefits. 99.99% will be somewhere between the two extremes. 

If they try the food and drink, they find it very tasty, filling and energizing. (This time) If they pick up a quill pen while seated they will see that some scrolls are not blank. There is a 10% chance that at least one scroll is a spell scroll. 50/50 chance that it will be for a magic-user or a cleric (1st level spell only).

A good touch is to have different things happen based on how many members of the party are or are not seated.

Typically the doors leading somewhere else in the dungeon should be the highest frequency. If you need to you may want to construct two or more tables with 20 options each to use for this area. This room will create essentially an infinite number of options.

When the players exit the room by the original (??) door, they may find that they are on a completely different level from that they entered on. This room is 40' in diameter.

Looking forward to 2024 and the 50th Anniversary of the Original Dungeons & Dragons

In this post A Few Planned Posts for 2023, I talked about some of the posting I was planning for 2023. This is the first of those posts. 

As I said, 2024 is the 50th Anniversary of OD&D. Fifty years occurs in January of 2024 and will be celebrated (at least by me) for the whole year. Since no one knows the date the first copy of OD&D was sold, I have been using January 25th (last Friday in January 1974) as the arbitrarily chosen date and that will be a Thursday in 2024. Other people may use another date, which is also arbitrarily chosen.

Also as I said, I will be posting around the first of the month, for the next 12 months in 2023 and along the way I will discuss various things about OD&D and later on I will talk about what I plan to do during 2024. 

In my opinion WotC blew it for both the 40th and 45th Anniversaries of OD&D. And IMO they are going to blow it for the 50th Anniversary. Why do I think that, well lets just say that I will be mightily surprised if within the next 8-10 months, they start teasing plans for a celebration for the 50th Anniversary. 

Here is what I expect them to do. Likely no mention of the 50th Anniversary of OD&D at all until January 2024 when they give it a little bit of lip service. No mention of OD&D at all. No recognition for Dave Arneson or Gary Gygax, let alone their gaming groups which were the playtest environment for OD&D. No mention of people like Rob Kuntz or David Wesely or any of the other people that should be remembered at such a time.

No what I expect them to do is launch "One" D&D aka 6E and then try to pretend that has something to do with the 50th Anniversary of OD&D. No this is the 50th Anniversary of Table Top D&D, and launching a virtual game with the *fleece the customer model of other products is not the way you celebrate a 50th Anniversary. All this talk about D&D being under monetized, is all you need to hear to know quality and a good game experience is not even on their radar, IMO. 

No they have, IMO, no focus at all on honoring their history and the legacy of TTRPGs, specifically OD&D, their focus is trying extract every dime they can from as many people as possible.

So because, again IMO, WotC is not going to do anything reasonable or tasteful to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of OD&D, it is up to the old school fans to do it. I am hoping that a lot of people post at least one post a month talking about this each month of 2023. I also hope with the lead time of talking about this that every blogger will commit to do 10 posts in January of 2024 including one on the 25th of January to make some noise during the anniversary month. It would also be great if during the remainder of 2024 the subject is not allowed to die, but discussion continues, on forums and various social media platforms and on blogs.

Also let's talk about our personal celebrations, our gaming at tables face to face and the good times with our friends that we are going to have in January of 2024. When it comes to virtual games, I have no interest in them, I want to game with real people that I can look in the eyes and here their voices and read how things are going in the game.

*Note: I am not saying it is bad for a corporation to want to make money. I am saying it is IMO unethical to pay for a game and then you don't own the game because it is virtual and they can pull it any time they want and now you don't have what you paid for or they can revise and it automatically updates and now you don't have what you paid for. On top of that if you have to pay between $50 to $100 a week to get full enjoyment out of the game in the virtual space after you already "bought" the game, that is unethical. What they seem to want to do is price some people out of the gaming space and those people don't matter because they don't have enough money to matter. 

Fortunately for me, I have OD&D, so it does not matter in a practical sense to me what they do; however, I know younger people that game the new versions and those people are going to get, IMO, scammed and cheated.

#Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 001)

Sean McCoy at this link laid out the challenge of doing a dungeon room a day for all of 2023. He says: 

Well, I love dungeons and megadungeon play, but writing a megadungeon is difficult! It takes a lot of energy and it’s hard to know when to work on it and for how long. This simplifies things.

A dungeon room a day, every day, for 2023. That’s 365 rooms. I’ll do a level a month, so 12 levels. Every week is a little area of 7 rooms, so I can keep my focus small.

I am going to answer the call and do this myself and post daily for 365 days to create a dungeon.  But I am going to disagree with him a little bit. First of all, I would say that a dungeon of 12 levels and 365 rooms is not a mega-dungeon. IMO it is on the small end of the range of medium sized dungeons.

The second thing that I am going to disagree with him about, is that it takes a lot of energy. I don't believe that. First of all, I do not normally sit down and create a dungeon outside the game. I have always created my dungeons in game in real time on the fly. Bitd we typically played for 8 hours two days in a row for 16 hours, sometimes we played a lot longer than that. Over two days we often played 20 hours or more.  IMO creating dungeons that way is fun and energizing.  He also talks about keeping his focus small, to which I would  reply, "Why?"

Aside from the things of which I disagree with him, I thought it was a very good post, I like the idea and I wish him and everyone who is doing this, great success. I hope everyone of us is able to keep up and post every day for 365 days and I hope that no one has any real world tragedies mess this up for them.

As an aside you may want to read this post about my first dungeon.

One note about the writing of the actual rooms below. I am going to write down what runs through my mind as I think about each room. In game, I don't necessarily provide all of that information to the players. Information given is fairly terse and concise. Questions by the players elicit more information, based on the questions they ask. They often ask questions, that will not be part of what I write here and those questions are to be answered on the fly as they occur.

Important note: This campaign uses a Silver Standard, so Copper has more than enough value to carry out of the dungeon or wilderness. Silver is found in smaller quantities than Copper, Gold in much smaller quantities than Silver, but its value is quite high, Platinum is rare and extremely valuable (a required component of the special magical inks used in the making of scrolls. There are other valuable rare metals. Copper is 120 coins per pound, Silver is 240 coins per pound, Gold is 180 coins per pound and Platinum is not found as coins, but as quarter pound bars that are worth 5 times their weight in Gold. 

So now on to the dungeon beneath The Ruins of Mount Auyán.

The adventuring party arrives  at the Ruins early in the day. They set up camp and their hirelings will take care of the livestock and keep things together while the party are underground. They have been at this a while, so they have a couple of wagons and a goodly amount of supplies and are prepared to stay awhile. 

They start combing the Ruins and by mid-afternoon they have found a couple of old stairways that are filled with debris and after some discussion decide to just clear one and not both. It is near dusk when it has been cleared enough to be passable and they set a guard on it for the night. 

In the morning they start down into the dungeon. The steps are worn as those many thousands of feet have trod them for many years. At the bottom of the steps is a landing area roughly 40 by 40 in area and there are 8 corridors leading out of this area, two to the front, two on either side and two to the rear on either side of the stairs. None of them have doors, nor is there any sign that they ever did.

This concerns them some; however, they do have an experienced group of henchman and hirelings to watch the camp and to ward the stairs and keep watch over it.

After a short discussion, they decide to take the front right corridor first. The initial landing is a bit damp from recent rains that drained down into the dungeon, but there is no standing water and they do find a couple of drains that are only partially clogged. The floor is cobblestone and that continues into the corridors. They did not hear anything at any of the corridors and they all have a slight musty smell. What will they find?

Level One

So we have:

Corridor 01 - front right

Corridor 02 - front left

Corridor 03 - left front

Corridor 04 - left rear

Corridor 05 - right front 

Corridor 06 - right rear

Corridor 07 - rear left

Corridor 08 - rear right

***********************************************************************************

Corridor 01 - front right - standard 10x10 design, cobblestone floor and the walls are mortared stone.

Twenty feet in, there are heavy wooden doors on both sides of the corridor facing each other. Each door has a wooden handle but no lock or latch. 

#1 The door on the right is swelled and will be very difficult to open, but once opened you can tell it is designed to swing shut and it is heavy enough that it takes some effort to hold it open. Inside this room is old broken furniture, chairs and tables, quite a bit of dust, rodent droppings and it looks like at one time there where things hung on the walls. Perhaps mirrors or tapestries and such. There are no traps or secret doors to find and wise players will quickly scan this room and move on. 15'x15'

#2 The door on the left is also swelled shut, is not nearly as tight as the other and it is only moderately difficult to open. This room has much same contents as the first room, but one of the chairs is intact and although the dust on the floor is not disturbed, the chair has the dust brushed off the seat as though someone recently sat in it. There are no traps, but there is a secret door in the floor underneath the chair, if found and opened it is a chute 4'x4' which leads by a slide down to the 3rd level of the dungeon.  20'x15'

Another twenty-five feet down the corridor they come to two more doors across from each other. These are metal doors that appear to be very heavy and they have locks and pull handles, the locks may be locked.

#3 The door on the right can be opened by picking the lock or using a spell to open the door. This room has no dust. In the center of the room is a table and four chairs, all in really good condition. To the right of the door there are two cabinets, the back wall has a tapestry with rolling hills and a stream running through it. In the distance is a giant, oddly enough if you study the image the giant moves towards you. To the left, the wall has a map of the area that you traveled through outside to get here. The map features are not quite like the current area, but very close. If they stand and look at the tapestry for a full turn the giant will move forward close enough to reach out into the room and grab someone, pulling them into the tapestry, if this happens the players can follow their party member into the tapestry. As long as no one stares at the tapestry for a full turn, nothing will happen. There are no traps or secret doors to find. 20'x20'

#4 The door on the left will be found to not be locked, although the door is a bit difficult to open. This room has a long low table with 10 cushions on the floor around it. On the table sit four metal pitchers, one has a clear liquid, one a bright yellow liquid, one a dark purple liquid and one a green liquid. Beaded moisture is on the outside of these pitchers. If tasted the clear liquid seems to be cold spring water. If drunk, it is just water. If tasted the bright yellow liquid will be bitter, if drunk extreme nausea and vomiting will last for an hour and weakness lasting a day will result. If tasted the dark purple liquid will be very sweet, if drunk hallucinations will last for two days. If tasted the green liquid will be invigorating, if drunk a person would not have to rest or sleep for two days. If any of these is poured into a flask, they turn to dust in the pouring. The pitchers cannot be removed from the room. The walls shimmer like heat in the air, but no heat is felt. There are no traps or secret doors to find. 20'x20'

Another 20 feet down the corridor and the slope of the corridor angles steeply down and over the next 100 feet you drop at least 20 feet in elevation. The corridor appears to dead-end into a 35'x35' room that is completely empty, but it does have the following:

On the right side there are rooms

#5, #6 and #7 10'x10' rooms with door opening but no doors in place. In each of these rooms is table with two chairs and a lit lamp in the middle of the table. A smell of incense is in each of these rooms. Anyone who sits in one of the chairs will see in front of them across the table a woman with dark hair and exotic features and clothing looking into a crystal ball. She will be speaking a language that cannot be understood. No one not sitting can see the woman or the crystal ball.  She will stop talking and look at you expectantly, if you give her a gold coin, you will be able to understand her and she will tell you things you don't want to know and you will be in a hurry to leave the dungeon. When you get up, she disappears and it will take your companions a bit of time to calm you down. In a few minutes you will not able to remember anything she said, but her beauty will haunt you a long time.

#8 On the left side of there is a single door, a large heavy wooden door with metal reinforcement. This door is stuck and will be very difficult to open.  Inside the room is are 8 bunk beds. Beside each are two dressers. The bottom drawers on each will contain blankets, the top drawers will be empty. These beds are standard size. There are four tables each with four chairs. There is no dust and the room has an air of recent occupancy. All the walls are bare except at the center of the back wall a floor to ceiling mirror four feet wide is attached to the wall. If you are directly in front of the mirror you see the room behind you. If you look at the mirror from the side you see a completely different room full of orcs staring at you as they draw their weapons. If you continue to stare at the mirror from an angle for a full turn, that view becomes reality and you and your companions will be attacked. Otherwise nothing will happen. *If you break the mirror there is a secret passage behind it, a five foot wide corridor that will lead 20 feet to a door and behind that door is stairway leads down. 30'x30'

Back out in the main area the wall ahead of you is blank and there are no traps or secret doors to find. The wall on either side of the stairs is also blank and there are no traps or secret doors to find.

*I will eventually come back to this.

My First Dungeon (January 1976)

I previously wrote this in a blog post here. I first started playing OD&D in September of 1975 and started refereeing not too long after that. 

The guy that introduced us to D&D never ran a dungeon, it was all city and wilderness, but after I had reffed for a little while I decided to do a dungeon. My prep for the game was selecting nine quotes.. When the game started they set out across a desert for two weeks until they came to an old set of ruins (yeah, I liked Ruins from the beginning) and eventually down into the dungeon below. Somewhere in a box I might still have that list of quotes. My first dungeon ran horizontally and after travelling for a ways through a rock walled cavern they came to a large oak door that looked very old and was covered with cobwebs. Beside it on the rock wall was the first quote carved into the wall. They got the door open and the adventure began. 

They eventually made it through each area, (some of which involved game weeks) and continued to the next door. I do not remember a ton about it without being able to look at the quotes, but I do remember that it was a very psychological adventure, one area being one where they had to figure out that they were being lulled to complacency from which they would never leave, one of them figured it out and then had to convince the rest of the group to continue which he almost failed to do. At the end of it they had obtained no treasure and fought no physical battles, but they talked about it all week and I got a lot of good feedback on the game.

Well I found the nine quotes and I thought that I would post them here for you.  I used each quote as the improv prompt and created each dungeon area and contents on the fly from each quote. 

It was a series of mental puzzles and we played two back to back 14 hours game sessions going through it. There were no deaths; however, they were within moments of TPK on three occasions during this game session, although they did not realize it until they were out of it, then they had a few moments of panic.

I looked up the quotes during December of 1975 during Christmas break and brought them back to college in Athens, Ohio and this was the first game I ran for the new year in January of 1976 and this was the first dungeon I tried. I did not follow the example in the rules at all, but when off on this entirely different tangent.

Each of the nine quotes was carved into rock, and they could have explored the areas in any order. When they finally came out above ground they were miles from the oasis and the ruins. I have used ruins from the very beginning. Also an oasis is something that has reoccurred in my games quite a bit, now that I think of it.

So what were the quotes that I used as a mental prompt to improv my first dungeon on the fly, well I found the sheet and here they are. I got 28 hours of gaming in two long hauls with 20 players that talked about it for weeks. There was no treasure and no combat. Yeah, they were on the verge of a TPK three times with no combat involved and as noted they did not realize they were in so much danger until they were out of it. Physical danger was a small part of the danger. These were each carved into the dungeon walls.

The Quotes:

1. What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared with what lies within us.

2. Those who have not often felt the joy of doing a kind act, have neglected much, and most of all themselves.

3. You may light another's candle at your own without loss.

4. It's not enough that we do our best, sometimes we have to do what's required.

5. The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.

6. Water becomes worthless when it stagnates. So do people.

7. If in the morning a *Gypsy you meet,
the rest of your day will be lucky and sweet,
but if a black-robed priest comes first,
your luck is gone expect the worst.

8. Let your red blood and my red blood,
run together in one stream,
let it drive a mill
and that mill should have three stones;
It's first stone should throw white pearls,
It's second stone should throw small change,
It's third stone should produce love.

9. The river is deep, the river is wide
Milk and honey on the other side.

Also, if I were ever to do this again, it would be completely different as the details are mostly lost to time. But twenty college kids between 18-20 and all of them steeped in a background of fairy tales, Greek, Roman and Norse myths and mythology along with English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish sources and fantasy literature, that group can never be duplicated again. 

*Disclaimer* in 1975-76 no one of college age in rural Ohio ever suspected that Gypsy was a slur, in fact I viewed it as a positive word and was very surprised in the last 5 years to find out that it is viewed as a slur, something I would never have guessed. Note especially that the quote uses meeting a Gypsy as a very good and positive thing. Even to this day when I read the word Gypsy, it has a positive connotation to me. It brings to mind for me a robust culture and community. I guess now the correct term is Romani. They have a rich tradition of music and dance and folklore. I have always viewed them as an admirable people. 

A Few Planned Posts for 2023

I thought I would mention a few of my planned posts for 2023. One of the things I will be posting about at least once a month during 2023 is the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the Original Dungeons & Dragons, yeah, 2024 is the 50th Anniversary of OD&D. Fifty years occurs in January of 2024 and will be celebrated for the whole year. Since no one knows the date the first copy of OD&D was sold, I have been using January 25th (Friday in 1974) as the arbitrarily chosen date and that will be a Thursday in 2024. Other people may use another date, which is also arbitrarily chosen.

Along the way, I will be talking about how WotC/Hasbro blew it for the 45th Anniversary of OD&D and how they are giving every indication that they will blow it for the 50th Anniversary of OD&D as well.

Also along with this I will talk some about 6E "D&D" aka "one D&D" and the planned conversion to the "bleed your fans" for every nickel and dime you can, while avoiding providing any real value model. So far it appears that they will focus entirely on the virtual world and you will be renting the rules instead of owning them. That focus appears to be to the complete detriment of the table top gaming aspect of D&D.

Right now I am planning on trying to do two posts a month on these topics for each month of 2023 and then post daily in January of 2024 and then monthly the rest of 2024.

I am bringing this up now, so that anyone else who wants to join me in doing this can. It would be great if we could collectively generate enough posts to shame WotC into honoring the original game and honoring Arneson, Gygax and the other people that brought D&D to life, instead of their (IMO) obsessive focus of trying to get every possible penny from the fan base.

The Three Base Classes (Part III)

First Draft continued

SBM TSH Bonus/Penalty for SBM and TSH full chart.
     For SBM bonus is to Damage, for DAQ bonus
     is to Hit, for TSH bonus is to Hit Points.
     Unless otherwise noted the below notes apply mainly to SBM.
3-4 3-4  -10 These
5-6 5-6  - 5 Penalties
7-8 7-8  - 3 Are As Observed
  9   9  - 1 Out In The Real World
10-11 10-11    0 Normal/Average
12-13 12-13  + 1
14-15 14-15  + 2 Normal Hobbit Maximum, along with Goblins and                                    
Kobolds
16-17 16-17  + 3 Normal Elf Maximum
 18  18  + 5 Normal Human, Orc, Hobgoblin, Bugbear, and Gnoll
Maximum, Extraordinary Hobbit Maximum along with
Goblins and Kobolds

Extraordinary Ability Below For Humans, Elves, and Dwarves (note exception)
 19  19  + 6 Normal Dwarven Maximum
 20  20  + 7
 21  21  + 8
 22  22  + 9 Extraordinary Maximum for Elves
 23  23  +10
 24  24  +12 *Trolls, *Ogres
 25  25  +13 *Minimum Hill Giants, Extraordinary Maximum for                                
Humans, and Dwarves along with #Orcs, #Hobgoblins,
#Bugbears, and #Gnolls
 26  26  +14 *Minimum Stone Giants, Max *Hill Giants
 27  27  +15 *Minimum Frost Giants, Max *Stone Giants
 28  28  +16 *Minimum Fire Giants, *Cloud Giants, Max *Frost
                                Giants
 29  29  +17 *Minimum Storm Giants, Max *Fire Giants, *Cloud
                                Giants
 30  30  +19 *Minimum Titans, Max *Storm Giants
 31  31  +20
 32  32  +22 *Maximum Titans
Note only the SBM and TSH Columns apply for those creatures with the * or # indicated.
For all other things those creatures with a * or # follow 3-18 with two exceptions:
Titans may have CWI, AWE, CLE and PBA up to 25. All Trolls have a TSH of 32, due to
their aggressive regenerative power.

This table is generally only for humanoid creatures, although you can treat Centaurs
as Hill Giants and Minotaur's as Stone Giants for SBM and TSH only.

The Three Base Classes (Part II)

Warriors                Mages                           Holy Warriors
Level  1    0 Level  1    0 Level  1    0
Level  2 2,000 Level  2        2,500 Level  2        1,500
Level  3 4,000 Level  3        5,000   Level  3        3,500
Level  4 8,000 Level  4       10,000 Level  4        7,000
Level  5       16,000 Level  5       20,000 Level  5       15,000
Level  6       32,000 Level  6       40,000 Level  6       30,000
Level  7       64,000 Level  7       80,000 Level  7       60,000
Level  8      120,000 Level  8      150,000 Level  8      120,000
Level  9      240,000 Level  9      300,000 Level  9      240,000
Level 10      360,000 Level 10      450,000 Level 10      360,000
We can come back and add new Level Titles Later. No Level Limits by Race/Species.

First Draft: This table has notes that will not fit on this screen width; however, this table is setup to cover humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits, all the humanoid monsters and all giants and titans all in one table.
SBM CWI AWE TSH DAQ CLE PBA Bonus/Penalty
3-4 3-4 3-4 3-4 3-4 3-4 3-4   -10
5-6 5-6 5-6 5-6 5-6 5-6 5-6   - 5
7-8 7-8 7-8 7-8 7-8 7-8 7-8   - 3
  9   9   9   9   9       9       9   - 1
10-11 10-11 10-11 10-11 10-11 10-11 10-11     0
12-13 12-13 12-13 12-13 12-13 12-13 12-13   + 1
14-15 14-15 14-15 14-15 14-15 14-15 14-15      + 2
16-17 16-17 16-17 16-17 16-17 16-17 16-17      + 3
 18  18  18  18  18  18  18   + 5  19  19  19  19  19  19  19   + 6
 20  20  20  20  20  20  20   + 7
 21  21  21  21  21  21  21   + 8
 22  22  22  22  22  22  22   + 9
 23  23  23  23  23  23  23   +10
 24  24  24  24  24  24  24   +12
 25  25  25  25  25  25  25   +13
 26  --  --  26  --  --  --   +14
 27  --  --  27  --  --  --   +15
 28  --  --  28  --  --  --   +16
 29  --  --  29  --  --  --   +17
 30  --  --  30  --  --  --   +19
 31  --  --  31  --  --  --   +20
 32  --  --  32  --  --  --   +22



The Three Base Classes (re: my thoughts about abilities)

These are some thoughts about the three base classes riffing off my thoughts about abilities found here.

How about this for the three base classes:

Warriors instead of Fighting-Men
Holy Warriors instead of Clerics and replacing Paladins BTW
Mages instead of Magic-Users

How about a maximum of 10 levels?

Warriors are hands down the best pure fighters?

Holy Warriors are good fighters, but really powerful against undead and unholy things? And keep the Paladin limitations of behavior? If Holy Warriors are not Holy, they become just Warriors.

Holy Warriors have their own spell list and can cast 1st Level Spells at 1st Level, 2nd Level Spells at 2nd Level, ... and 10th Level Spells at 10th Level?  Their Spell list has fewer spells and is specialized.

How about 1st Level Mages can cast 1st Level Spells, 2nd Level Mages can cast 2nd Level Spells, .... and 10th Level Mages can cast 10th Level Spells?

In those cases where there is a Spell overlap between Holy Warriors and Mages, there is a distinct difference between the spells for the two classes, they are similar, but different. Minimize the existence of overlapping spells as much as makes sense.

Only one type of Mage, not split into a lot of different types; however, the player can focus his Mage on a particular type of spell. The limitations come from the chosen focus and the limitations of the time commitment of what one person can do. You can still learn everything (not really) if you can live long enough.

Holy Warriors are the good guys that Clerics were supposed to be, but rarely ever were. 

Warriors gain some features of Rangers and can enhance different variations by choosing a focus. Only one class of Warrior, but you can customize through play and in collaboration with the referee.

Iron Falcon '75: The Lakeside Adventures

Iron Falcon is a game by Chris Gonnerman that quite accurately emulates OD&D plus the Greyhawk Supplement. It has been out since 2015 and you can get it here in pdf for free or you can purchase a hard copy if you wish.

Chris Gonnerman now brings you an adventure called  Iron Falcon '75: The Lakeside Adventures. The premise is this:

What if magic was real? What if, long ago, monsters walked the Earth... ogres, giants, dragons, and vampires, and the smaller, scarier things that haunt the darkness? What if heroes and wizards did battle against them, in defense of humankind? What if the magic went away? What if it all just faded into the shadows? What if all the monsters and magic became nothing more than myths or superstitions, remembered by few and believed by even fewer. What if it all came back? What if monsters once again stalked the night, slipping out of the shadows to slay the unsuspecting and the skeptical? And what if a few people knew, and went out to fight against them? This is Iron Falcon '75.  In this game, players will take on the roles of modern-day people of the year 1975. No one but a crackpot would believe in magic, or giants or dragons or any of that nonsense. Yet your player characters will enter this world of magic and mayhem, willingly or otherwise, and do battle with monsters they once thought were just myths! This book includes background materials, supplementary and optional rules, and three adventures to get your campaign started. You will also need a copy of the Iron Falcon Rules for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing in order to use this book. The time has come to face what lurks in the shadows...

I don't use adventure modules directly, but when something good comes along, I do read them for inspiration. This looks to me to be one of the best, well worth reading and borrowing from and if playing through modules is your thing, this as I said looks to be one of the best of the genre. 

The Abilities (preliminary thoughts)

If you were going to change from the standard OD&D 6 ability stats (of STR, INT, WIS, CON, DEX and CHA), what would you do and how would you define them? I posted this on my forum three years ago and am still thinking about it. I suppose I should do something with it.

The Abilities (preliminary thoughts)

Name Items Normal/Extraordinary Range Notes
SBM Strength, Brawn, Muscle 3-18 / 19 - 25
CWI Cleverness, Wit, Intuition 3-18 / 19 - 25
AWE Awareness, Will, Empathy 3-18 / 19 - 25
TSH Toughness, Stamina, Health 3-18 / 19 - 25
DAQ Deftness, Agility, Quickness 3-18 / 19 - 25
CLE Character, Leadership, Eloquence 3-18 / 19 - 25
PBA Presence, Beauty, Attraction 3-18 / 19 - 25
If you roll an 18 (3d6 in order, then you get to roll d10,000 to see what level of Extraordinary Ability you might have.

Roll on d10,000 Result
00001 - 05000 Normal no change
05001 - 07500 19
07501 - 08500 20
08501 - 09200 21
09201 - 09700 22
09701 - 09900 23
09901 - 09999 24
10000 25

John Arneson - David's Father passed on April 18, 2022 at 98

John Arneson - The Greatest Person Who Ever Lived at Secrets of Blackmoor Blog

John Robert "Bob" Arneson Obituary

Picture linked from the Obituary

What a great life this man had and to have raised the son that he raised.

Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. is back (Part Three)

The new website is mostly operational and is supposed to be fully operational on November 7th, 2021.

Quoting

Website, Storefront, Orders, and Future…

Hello Fans,

Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. (EmpCho) has updates to share:

•The new online store will be located at www.empcho.com

•The new website/store is scheduled to be fully operational on November 7, 2021, for taking pre-orders.

•Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. is an independent company, which produces its own products; we do not have large quantities of stock on hand in between manufacturing runs. Miniatures are often manufactured on demand in house, and printed products need time to be ordered, produced, and delivered to EmpCho. Books and miniatures are then, packed and shipped by EmpCho. Pre-Orders will allow us to determine how much product we need to manufacture and order. We apologize for pre-orders, but we are anticipating a lot of orders. All of Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. products are proudly made in the USA.

•An email will be sent by November 1, 2021, to everyone with past unfilled orders to place their order into the new store. We cannot import the past orders into the new store. Therefore, if you wish to keep your past unfilled order, please place a new order into the store.

•All orders received will be shipped by the end of January 2022. This is due to the large quantity of past orders, time to produce the books, manufacturing of the miniatures, and shipping during the holiday season. If overall production escalates more rapidly, then the timetable will be moved up. Emperors Choice Games and Miniatures Corp. (EmpCho) will work extremely hard to complete all orders as quickly as possible!

•As a Thank You to all our fans, our prices that are 7+ years old will remain in effect for all orders, with only very minor change for very few items. These prices will remain in place until 1/1/2022, at which time an increase will take effect due to increased raw material and/or printing costs. In addition, our 10% discount for all Veterans will remain in effect indefinitely and all customers with a past order will receive an additional 10% off their entire order! This can be combined with the Veteran discount, for a total of 20% off for a Veteran, with a past unfilled order.

•We also wanted to take the opportunity to clarify a bullet from the last post on which was: “There are things in the works besides the new website and storefront. I will be posting news on Arduin as it becomes a reality.” This statement simply means Emperors Choice Games & miniatures Corp. is working on NEW Arduin products for the future, and as things are developed for release, then we will inform everyone.

•Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. looks forward to continuing to bring Arduin to the world. This cannot be done without all your help and support through the years, now and in the future!

In the words of David A. Hargrave:

“To you and yours, I lift a tankard of Rumble Tummy’s ale in respectful salute!”

The awakening continues…

Sincerely,

Dave Bukata
President
Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp.

George De Rosa
Vice-President
Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp.

Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. is back (Part Two)

The new website is mostly operational and is supposed to be fully operational on November 7th, 2021 

Quoting 

It has begun!

Hello Fans,

Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. (EmpCho) has an announcement:

The new online store located at www.empcho.com is up and fully operational now!

Our timetable was moved forward with the website/storefront rebuild and we were able to bring everything up ahead of schedule. I want to give a very large shout out to Dave Bukata, President of Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. for his dedication, steadfastness, and tireless weeks of hard work on the site. Without his efforts, the website/storefront would have never been live in such a short amount of time. We still have much to do including gearing up for miniature production, preparing for order fulfillment, organizing vast amounts of material, and drawing up plans for the future of Arduin. As always, we thank you all for your outstanding support!

It has been too many long, long years of tragedy, trials, and hardship. Now the fresh air of the present and future, along with friends old and new have made things much easier!

Sincerely,
George De Rosa
Vice-President
Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp.

Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. is back (Part One)

 Quoting

An awakening is under way at Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp….

Hello Fans,

Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. is in the process of creating a new website and store front!

Here are the details:

• The online store at www.empcho.bizhosting.com is no longer active, due to the creation of a new store front.

• The web page is still active for the product pictures, downloads and information until the new site is uploaded.

• All past orders are still with EmpCho and will be addressed! I am very truly sorry for the frustration with orders for Arduin products, but things will be set right!

• There are things in the works besides the new website and storefront. I will be posting news on Arduin as it becomes a reality.

Again, we truly appreciate your patience with all the frustration, years of hibernation, and lack of communication. That is all going to change now! The awakening has begun…

Sincerely,
George De Rosa
Vice-President
Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp.