Wednesday, August 19, 2009
What Rules are being used in the new OD&D campaign?
Just briefly, I thought I would mention the Rules that we are using in the new OD&D Campaign. We are using the original three booklets Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure and the Underworld & Wilderness Adventures. That's it, nothing else except the house rules that I add as we go. So all weapons do 1d6 and the ref rolls up the characters for the players.
Friday, August 14, 2009
1st Level Player Characters and Dungeons
Brave, foolhardy, gutsy or greedy, which pair of these words describe the three players (five player characters in The First Game of Our New Campaign - Part 1 as they explored the dungeons. Perhaps a case can be made for all four words describing them. First of all I don't ever remember seeing 1st level player character penetrate so deeply into a dungeon on their first outing. Part of that may be due to my not playing the dungeon and the encounter tough enough. In my defense, I submit that I haven't reffed in a very long time and they did have a 10 year old player in the game which may have affected my judgement. I promise to do better in the next game. On the other hand, every0ne had fun so I don't want to make it too tough. Yes, folks the ref does walk a tightrope from time to time.
On the other hand, I have also never seen a group of players so single-minded in pursuing treasure with no apparent consideration of the hazards involved. I don't mean to insult any of my players, I am just amazed, that is all. Again maybe it is the long time since I reffed and the generation gap. I grew up on all kinds of fantasy fiction, fairy tales and folklore so perhaps I am by nature more cautious.
What these players did was to start on the 1st level of the dungeon, and then end up on the 3rd level, 6th level and 5th level of the dungeon. In the process they got involved with an odd artifact of the dungeon which is manifested in different ways in different parts of the dungeon and it moves around from time to time. In addition, I now have to create a fair amount of dungeon to keep from creating any obvious dimensional contradictions.
The players should bear in mind that they have not found all of the secret or hidden doors in all of the areas that they have been in, not everything is exactly as it may seem. In addition, they might want to reconsider getting too far into the dungeon without knowing more about the first level of the dungeon. Hopefully in the second game coming up we will have more players and that will give them more options and viewpoints.
I was encouraged when I found out that the 10 year old player was describing the fight with the giant snake to his mother and she kept asking "where did they take you that you saw a snake that big?" and he kept saying, "No mom, it was imaginary and going on with the story." I was also encouraged when I found out she is going to let him play again. :)
And in case it needs saying, I was very pleased -even though I was surprised with some of their decisions-with these players and with the game. I hope they all had as much fun as I did. More thoughts on this at a later time. Yes, I will keep editing these posts as I think of/remember things and as I get time.
OD&D and Alignment - My House Rules
Unlike some, I both like and use Alignment in my game and it plays an important part. I try not to make it too complicated though. Lawful does not mean Good, but Lawful tends more toward good than not. Neutral is someone that is consistently in the middle and always avoids the extremes. Chaotic does not mean Evil, but Chaotic tends toward evil more than not. I also start players as Neutral unless they have declared themselves to be one thing or another.
As the players play, I keep mental tabs on their alignment and over time if they are consistenly one thing more than another, then I will let them know that their alignment has changed based on their in game actions. Why is this important? Well there are several reasons.
All major weapons in the game, such as swords, battle axes, bows etc. that are magic have an alignment. As such they can only be used by someone of like alignment. These weapons are Intelligent, but that may or may not be evident to the player character. Not all magic weapons have bonuses to hit or to damage, but they may have almost any thing as a power attached to the weapon. If someone of the wrong alignment or in some cases wrong alignment and wrong race (human, elf, dwarf, or hobbit) touches it they will get a mild shock. If they persist and try to use it they will receive 1d6 damage the first melee round, 2d6 the second melee round, 3d6 the third melee round ... you get the picture. Not only will they receive damage but they will in no case be able to use it against anyone or anything else. This also explains why monsters may or may not be using the magic weapons that they have in their possessions. If they are able to use it they usually will be using it. Players may lose magic weapons or other magic items, if their alignment changes.
Other magic items in the game may also in some cases have an alignment. More on that and magic weapons at a later time.
In addition, alignment may affect how certain spells effect a player character. The effect may be reduced or enhanced. Again more on that at a later time. I don't want to give too much away to my players, just hints.
Alignment will affect how different groups react to a player characters charisma when the player character is trying to achieve a certain goal in an interaction.
At a future date this post will be expanded and that will continue to be done from time to time. Original date of this post is 08/14/2009.
As an example in: The First Game of Our New Campaign - Part 1 the killing of the sleeping orcs is an evil act and is Chaotic in nature. Continued behavior of this time will move out little party from the default of Neutral to Chaotic and definitely rule out any of them being considered Lawful. It will affect many things, such as the usuability of the magic that they find. In addition, as they explore the dungeon, the intelligent monsters will learn to not expect quarter and as a consequence will not offer or grant quarter either. In my campaign, there are a lot of reasons not to kill if it is not immediately necessary. On the other hand, there are consequences pro and con, to not killing. The players will have to decide which set of pros and cons they prefer.
In a like manner, whether or not the player characters rescue (or try to) the farmer and/or recover his body for burial (or try to) and/or share some of the booty with either the rescued farmer and wife or with the widow, whichever the case may be, (assuming they survive) will also effect their alignment. Again, it is up to the players to make the decision and face the consequences. All decisions have consequences some good and some bad.
However, let us be clear, I will not do bad things to the player characters just because they do something other than what I might have done.
However, let us be clear, I will not do bad things to the player characters just because they do something other than what I might have done.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The First Game of Our New Campaign - Part 1
We finally got together on July 11th to play the first game of a new campaign. Originally we had planned for five or six players and ended up with three. I was very happy to have three, believe you me. So here I was, a middle 50's experienced OD&D ref, two 30-something players - one of which had played the Basic D&D 1980 boxed set, and the other had played some 3rd edition D&D (I think that is right) and the 3rd ed players' 10 year old son who had never played before. To further set the stage, this game was being played with only the original 3 little books in the white box (5th printing), no supplements or other materials, just the house rules and extra monsters and magic I am creating just for this campaign.
I gave them a stack of pre-rolled characters which they were happy that I had as it got us into playing quickly. They just had to outfit themselves and then we started. The 10 year old had one character and the two adults had two each to make five characters in the game. The party thus consisted of an elven Fighting-Man/Magic User who chose to be a Fighting-Man for this adventure, a dwarven Fighting-Man, an elven Magic-User, a human Fighting-Man and a human Cleric. What follows now is an attempt at a summary of the events. If the players remember anything different, please bring it to my attention and I will edit where needed.
I told them, you have all met and have decided to throw in together and make a go of it. You have heard a couple of rumors over the last couple of days and are deciding if you want to pursue one of them or do something else. I try to always give the option tell me where you are heading.
Rumor #1 to the northwest off toward the frontier there are isolated homesteads and small farming communities where they are being hit by bandit raids and occasional incursions of monsters. Help is needed in the area and employment is available at 5 gold pieces each to track down and put an end to the bandits.
Rumor #2 to the northeast, further away from the frontier it is reported that a farmer is missing, having fallen down a hole that just opened up in the ground. After a minor investigation by the local Shire Reeve (sheriff) a Hero of some renown, the farmer was declared dead after the Shire Reeve discovered an previously unknown dungeon. He did not investigate further and the farmer was not recovered. The presumed widow is not willing to admit that her husband might be dead and is determined that someone should go into the dungeon after him.
After a brief discussion the party decided to pursue Rumor #2. As no encounters were rolled, a quick three day trip was made to the site. After some discussion with the farmers wife during which they were a bit vague but implied that they would seek the rescue of her husband and after being freshly provisioned by the lady, they descended by rope into the hole, a depth of some 50 feet or so below ground level. At their request the lady untied and dropped the ropes down after them. The lady indicated that the farmer had rope that could be dropped for them to climb out and promised that she would be checking to see if they had returned.
Upon reaching the bottom of the hole, they discovered that the dungeon corridor they had descended into was blocked to the west by the collapse of soil from the hole, but to the east it was unblocked and appeared to be abnormally clean. They lighted their torches and started exploring. After going a short distance they came to a corridor to the south while the main corridor continued to the east where it came to a T. After some discussion they decided to investigate the corridor to the south, it dead-ended with a door on both the east and west walls at the end of the corridor. It required some effort, but they opened both doors and took a quick look into both rooms and then decided to investigate the west room first.
While this room had various old furniture and other items in the room. They did not locate any secret doors or anything else of significance except along the south wall there were 3 large boxes or chests with lids and they were not locked. When they tried to open them, out of each came a roughly man-size floating blob that exhorted them to leave in no uncertain terms, speaking very strongly about being disturbed. The players exited the room hurriedly and shut the door behind them without learning anymore about the creatures/entities or the contents of the boxes/chests. As an exercize for the reader - make a list of what the players do and do not know about these creatures/entities.
**As a brief aside, I should note that in my game alignment plays an important part. Some brief comments follow and a more detailed treastise will be posted at a much later date. Lawful does not mean Good, but Lawful tends more toward good than not. Neutral is someone that is consistently in the middle and always avoids the extremes. Chaotic does not mean Evil, but Chaotic tends toward evil more than not. I also start players as Neutral unless they have declared themselves to be one thing or another. You can decide for yourselves what direction these characters appear to be heading. :)**
They then started searching the east room and found a few things including a bit of coin. The main development in this room was that they discovered a hidden door in the south wall. Opening the door they found a long narrow corridor and after a bit of discussion they all decided to explore it further. Once they had all entered the corridor the hidden door slammed shut behind them of itself. Without investigating this development they proceeded down the corridor.
At the other end of the corridor they found a door, passing through it put them at the top of a circular stair when is tight and steep. Going down the stairs about 40 feet or so of elevation brought them to a landing where there were three doors. They listened at the doors and could just barely hear excited voices through the one to the east, the one to the north turned out to be a storage room and the one to the south was an enormous room with a sandy floor. Entering and closing the a very thick door behind them they soon encountered an enormous snake. Its body was about a foot thick at the largest point and its head reared up to the 10 foot ceiling. It threw its coils around one fighter and bit another. They were very lucky that the ref rolled even worse than they did and they survived the encounter. The cleric healed the most injured person (and that spell was gone) (yes, I allow 1st level cleric one spell).
They then found two chests half embedded in the sand. One character was poisoned and barely survived trying to disarm a trapped lock. The cleric sliced open the poisoned finger and sucked out the poison using a liberal amount of wine on the finger and to "rinse" his mouth. In the chests they picked up a little more coin, three clerical scrolls, two flasks with unknown liquids in them, a very light chainmail suit of armor, but they could not identify the metal - it does not appear to be magical and a sword hilt. While looking at the sword hilt they discovered that neither elves nor dwarves could handle it, it punished their hand to try to hold it. The human fighter discovered that when he brought the sword hilt near some things a blade appeared. Beyond that he does not yet know what properties it has.
They continued walking away from the door and came to the far wall and then went west looking for a way out but did not find any other doors. Then as they went east the door opened and they could see the torch light on the far side. Whoever it was came toward them and quickly found the dead snake and the open chests. (No one had wondered what else might be buried in this room.) Not having any place to go they waited for the advancing party which turned out to be twelve orcs. The magic-user cast the sleep spell (the other spell gone) and rolled a twelve. Unexpectedly their are now twelve sleeping orcs. The party quickly killed the sleeping orcs and looted them. Hurrying on to the east wall they still found no doors. So they decided to get out of the room and headed back to the door.
Back out on the landing they decided to go down the stairway deeper into the dungeon. Yes, that's right deeper into the dungeon. After them had went down the stairway about 20 feet of elevation they heard many feet coming up the stairway and so they went back to the landing and - THEY WENT BACK INTO THE ROOM WHERE THEY KILLED THE SNAKE AND THE ORCS!!!
They went back down their tracks to the far wall and then along to wall to the east wall and waited. The door opened angry loud voices, they found the snake and the open chests and the dead orcs then split into two groups following the tracks both directions along the south wall. At this point the party under cover of darkness started easing directly towards the door they got about halfway there and then were discovered. At this point they run to the door, and closing it behind them hurry -DOWN THE STAIRS OUT OF SIGHT OF THE LANDING- and then remain silent, just as the door above bursts open and the other party races up the stairs. When they are heard to go through the door at the top of the stairs the party hurries down to the next landing to yet another level of the dungeon.
The only door they can open leads to the west for quite a ways then turns north and slopes upward for a long way and then levels out and turns east. This dead-ends on three doors. One to the north they can not open. One to the south opens into a circular room with 12 doors and the east door open into a small alcove. As they check this alcove out a section of wall spins and separates one member of the party from the group. As they check this out four switch places with the one. And then back again. The one then finds a door on the south wall of the hidden space and it opens in the circular room. He goes in, eventually the others follow. Once they have all entered, the door slams behind them. They start checking doors and they all open to the outside with a thousand foot drop below each door like it opens right out into mid-air. As they are pondering what to do next. (At this point we check the time and the game comes to halt for the night.)
This all for now except to note the following: Since this was the first game I had reffed in a very long time, I took note of a few things over the next few days. One I was quite easy on them, probably a bit too easy and I missed some things that I should not have. Two I decided that between now and the next game I am going to make a few posts that may give them a few hints. Three, it looks like a few more people may be able to play the next game, so I will need to work around having them separated for a bit. Four, Five and Six I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Feel free to post comments here and to go to my forum and join to post there.
I gave them a stack of pre-rolled characters which they were happy that I had as it got us into playing quickly. They just had to outfit themselves and then we started. The 10 year old had one character and the two adults had two each to make five characters in the game. The party thus consisted of an elven Fighting-Man/Magic User who chose to be a Fighting-Man for this adventure, a dwarven Fighting-Man, an elven Magic-User, a human Fighting-Man and a human Cleric. What follows now is an attempt at a summary of the events. If the players remember anything different, please bring it to my attention and I will edit where needed.
I told them, you have all met and have decided to throw in together and make a go of it. You have heard a couple of rumors over the last couple of days and are deciding if you want to pursue one of them or do something else. I try to always give the option tell me where you are heading.
Rumor #1 to the northwest off toward the frontier there are isolated homesteads and small farming communities where they are being hit by bandit raids and occasional incursions of monsters. Help is needed in the area and employment is available at 5 gold pieces each to track down and put an end to the bandits.
Rumor #2 to the northeast, further away from the frontier it is reported that a farmer is missing, having fallen down a hole that just opened up in the ground. After a minor investigation by the local Shire Reeve (sheriff) a Hero of some renown, the farmer was declared dead after the Shire Reeve discovered an previously unknown dungeon. He did not investigate further and the farmer was not recovered. The presumed widow is not willing to admit that her husband might be dead and is determined that someone should go into the dungeon after him.
After a brief discussion the party decided to pursue Rumor #2. As no encounters were rolled, a quick three day trip was made to the site. After some discussion with the farmers wife during which they were a bit vague but implied that they would seek the rescue of her husband and after being freshly provisioned by the lady, they descended by rope into the hole, a depth of some 50 feet or so below ground level. At their request the lady untied and dropped the ropes down after them. The lady indicated that the farmer had rope that could be dropped for them to climb out and promised that she would be checking to see if they had returned.
Upon reaching the bottom of the hole, they discovered that the dungeon corridor they had descended into was blocked to the west by the collapse of soil from the hole, but to the east it was unblocked and appeared to be abnormally clean. They lighted their torches and started exploring. After going a short distance they came to a corridor to the south while the main corridor continued to the east where it came to a T. After some discussion they decided to investigate the corridor to the south, it dead-ended with a door on both the east and west walls at the end of the corridor. It required some effort, but they opened both doors and took a quick look into both rooms and then decided to investigate the west room first.
While this room had various old furniture and other items in the room. They did not locate any secret doors or anything else of significance except along the south wall there were 3 large boxes or chests with lids and they were not locked. When they tried to open them, out of each came a roughly man-size floating blob that exhorted them to leave in no uncertain terms, speaking very strongly about being disturbed. The players exited the room hurriedly and shut the door behind them without learning anymore about the creatures/entities or the contents of the boxes/chests. As an exercize for the reader - make a list of what the players do and do not know about these creatures/entities.
**As a brief aside, I should note that in my game alignment plays an important part. Some brief comments follow and a more detailed treastise will be posted at a much later date. Lawful does not mean Good, but Lawful tends more toward good than not. Neutral is someone that is consistently in the middle and always avoids the extremes. Chaotic does not mean Evil, but Chaotic tends toward evil more than not. I also start players as Neutral unless they have declared themselves to be one thing or another. You can decide for yourselves what direction these characters appear to be heading. :)**
They then started searching the east room and found a few things including a bit of coin. The main development in this room was that they discovered a hidden door in the south wall. Opening the door they found a long narrow corridor and after a bit of discussion they all decided to explore it further. Once they had all entered the corridor the hidden door slammed shut behind them of itself. Without investigating this development they proceeded down the corridor.
At the other end of the corridor they found a door, passing through it put them at the top of a circular stair when is tight and steep. Going down the stairs about 40 feet or so of elevation brought them to a landing where there were three doors. They listened at the doors and could just barely hear excited voices through the one to the east, the one to the north turned out to be a storage room and the one to the south was an enormous room with a sandy floor. Entering and closing the a very thick door behind them they soon encountered an enormous snake. Its body was about a foot thick at the largest point and its head reared up to the 10 foot ceiling. It threw its coils around one fighter and bit another. They were very lucky that the ref rolled even worse than they did and they survived the encounter. The cleric healed the most injured person (and that spell was gone) (yes, I allow 1st level cleric one spell).
They then found two chests half embedded in the sand. One character was poisoned and barely survived trying to disarm a trapped lock. The cleric sliced open the poisoned finger and sucked out the poison using a liberal amount of wine on the finger and to "rinse" his mouth. In the chests they picked up a little more coin, three clerical scrolls, two flasks with unknown liquids in them, a very light chainmail suit of armor, but they could not identify the metal - it does not appear to be magical and a sword hilt. While looking at the sword hilt they discovered that neither elves nor dwarves could handle it, it punished their hand to try to hold it. The human fighter discovered that when he brought the sword hilt near some things a blade appeared. Beyond that he does not yet know what properties it has.
They continued walking away from the door and came to the far wall and then went west looking for a way out but did not find any other doors. Then as they went east the door opened and they could see the torch light on the far side. Whoever it was came toward them and quickly found the dead snake and the open chests. (No one had wondered what else might be buried in this room.) Not having any place to go they waited for the advancing party which turned out to be twelve orcs. The magic-user cast the sleep spell (the other spell gone) and rolled a twelve. Unexpectedly their are now twelve sleeping orcs. The party quickly killed the sleeping orcs and looted them. Hurrying on to the east wall they still found no doors. So they decided to get out of the room and headed back to the door.
Back out on the landing they decided to go down the stairway deeper into the dungeon. Yes, that's right deeper into the dungeon. After them had went down the stairway about 20 feet of elevation they heard many feet coming up the stairway and so they went back to the landing and - THEY WENT BACK INTO THE ROOM WHERE THEY KILLED THE SNAKE AND THE ORCS!!!
They went back down their tracks to the far wall and then along to wall to the east wall and waited. The door opened angry loud voices, they found the snake and the open chests and the dead orcs then split into two groups following the tracks both directions along the south wall. At this point the party under cover of darkness started easing directly towards the door they got about halfway there and then were discovered. At this point they run to the door, and closing it behind them hurry -DOWN THE STAIRS OUT OF SIGHT OF THE LANDING- and then remain silent, just as the door above bursts open and the other party races up the stairs. When they are heard to go through the door at the top of the stairs the party hurries down to the next landing to yet another level of the dungeon.
The only door they can open leads to the west for quite a ways then turns north and slopes upward for a long way and then levels out and turns east. This dead-ends on three doors. One to the north they can not open. One to the south opens into a circular room with 12 doors and the east door open into a small alcove. As they check this alcove out a section of wall spins and separates one member of the party from the group. As they check this out four switch places with the one. And then back again. The one then finds a door on the south wall of the hidden space and it opens in the circular room. He goes in, eventually the others follow. Once they have all entered, the door slams behind them. They start checking doors and they all open to the outside with a thousand foot drop below each door like it opens right out into mid-air. As they are pondering what to do next. (At this point we check the time and the game comes to halt for the night.)
This all for now except to note the following: Since this was the first game I had reffed in a very long time, I took note of a few things over the next few days. One I was quite easy on them, probably a bit too easy and I missed some things that I should not have. Two I decided that between now and the next game I am going to make a few posts that may give them a few hints. Three, it looks like a few more people may be able to play the next game, so I will need to work around having them separated for a bit. Four, Five and Six I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Feel free to post comments here and to go to my forum and join to post there.
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