Musings of High-Level Options

I’ve been thinking a lot about what adventure to run as the “High Level” adventure for the campaign. High level, as a tier, has fluctuated from edition to edition. In Basic D&D, characters could go as high as level 36 (and beyond if you take Immortals into account). AD&D had no theoretical upper limit, but game play didn’t seem to change much once you go into the teens. 3.X/Pathfinder, of course, got into high level play in the mid-teens and Epic level play was always spotty (and not officially supported in Pathfinder). 4E separates things out explicitly, making the divisions between low (Heroic), mid (Paragon), and high (Epic) obvious.

Couple that with my new approach which has me running only certain parts of a series per edition (i.e. U1: Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh started for Basic Low Level and got switched to X1: Isle of Dread due to PC derailment, U1 will be repeated for AD&D low level, U2 will come in Pathfinder low level, and U3 for 4E low level; I3: Pharaoh is Basic D&D mid-level, I4 AD&D mid-level, and so forth).

Of course, there will be some repetition since most series are 3 adventures and I have 4 editions to run (so far), or I might throw a 4th or 5th adventure into the mix.

High level is the real problem. There just aren’t that many adventures that I own for high-level play. Most cap out right at the low teens. The C & M series adventure written for basic D&D for characters in their 20s and 30s are reasonably inexpensive, but there isn’t really a series, per se. Plus, the domain-running/building aspects of high-level Basic D&D play are something I don’t think a majority of my players would enjoy (based on the amount of bitching I heard regarding the wilderness exploration portion of X1, i.e. the parts where they weren’t killing things and taking their stuff or even interacting with NPCs).a

The only way I could run the same adventure 4 times with little-to-no repetition would be to run S1: The Tomb of Horrors as the high-level adventure. In Basic D&D and AD&D, they would probably die very quickly. I could run it until there is a TPK, then make the switch to a new edition. By the time Pathfinder rolls around, most of the insta-kill traps aren’t insta-kill anymore due to the way the system works, but they still might die somewhere before the end. If they, at any point, solve the puzzles and make it to the end, I would have to run a different high-level adventure. Perhaps Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits?

Gen Con 2012

Another Gen Con is behind us. Conventions like Gen Con are a paradox: when you’re working the convention, 5 days (4 days of convention + set up) is too long, but at the same time, it’s too short to do everything you want to do and see everyone you want to see. Since I have duties as Submissions Coordinator of the ENnie Awards, I have too little time to game at Gen Con. I played exactly three games while I was there (four if you count a demo): Pathfinder, Bulldogs!, and Project Ninja Panda Taco.

Pathfinder: I ran a Ptolus/Pathfinder game for some friends Wednesday evening. The PCs were reformed monsters from the Brotherhood of Redemption. There was a budding romance between the minotaur gunslinger/rogue and the troll fighter; my wife was a good sport to go along with the silly banter. It was interesting that they chose to bypass the Bluesteel door by chopping THROUGH the adjacent wall with an adamantine greatsword.

Bulldogs! Sci-Fi That Kicks-Ass: My wife and my first FATE game. I already loved what I read about the game and really enjoyed the system. My wife thought it was awesome and wants to play FATE (particularly Bulldogs!) again. Yeah, I’m down with that.

Project Ninja Panda Taco: You may remember this from the Kickstarter. We played with the creator of the game, Jennifer Steen (of Jennisodes). It’s sort of a hybrid improv/RPG. It was a lot of fun; another game my wife judges as “Awesome.” Actually, I think she may have said “Totally Awesome.” My Mastermind, Otto von Schnitzelpusskrankengescheitmeir was horribly ineffective and by the end of the game, he completed 0 projects. His minion, Larry the Loitering Lisper, however advanced to Mastermind status by the end of the game. I look forward to playing it more when I get my copy from the Kickstarter.

I also demoed a game of Edition Wars with the good folks from Gamer Nation Studios. It’s a card game that reminds me a bit of the good parts of Chez Geek, but with simpler mechanics. It was a lot of fun. I bought a copy at the con, but now I wish I’d supported their Kickstarter when I had the chance.

I bought way too much stuff. The games I’m most excited to play are Deadlands: Reloaded and Call of Cthulhu (I’m a late bloomer). I also picked up the Beta of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, the new Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight Games. Despite my misgivings about the custom dice, (at least the Beta has stickers you can apply to create the dice yourself) I’m finding myself liking what I’m reading about the mechanics. I hate required fiddly bits and custom dice in RPGs, probably because I have SO many dice already, not being able to use them for a game is a barrier to entry for me. Of course, there is a conversion chart for regular polyhedrals, but that’s a pain in the butt.

The production values are really good. I was thrilled to see actual ARTWORK in this book, rather than having it crammed full of movie stills. It’s already my favorite visual presentation of a Star Wars RPG since WEGs 2nd edition (not the Expanded & Revised; I think they overdid the “Look! We can print in color now!”). For some reason, having original art in a Star Wars RPG book inspires me more than movie stills. Probably because it gets me thinking about how I can use the world instead of how it was presented to me (there’s a lesson there for people making licensed games).

The class & talent tree system reminds me a bit of The Old Republic MMO, but only so far as they have classes & talent trees. They’re not really implemented the same way. It uses a dice pool mechanic. I have no idea how it compares to WFRP, but I’ve heard it similar. It actually looks pretty easy once you get used to the symbols on the dice (and a small cheat sheet will help with that).

Edge of the Empire offers a smattering of species: bothan, droid, gand, human, rodian, trandoshan, twi’lek, and wookiee. I would have preferred mon calamari to gand, though, but it’s still a nice mix. I guess I’ll have to run a few sessions of it and see how things work.

The ENnie Awards ceremony went very well. The venue was the Grand Hall at Union Station and featured cathedral ceilings and stained glass. As Monte Cook said, we “leveled up” (the first ENnie Awards ceremony was held in an internet chatroom). You can see the complete list of winners here. Carlos, the official ENnie Awards photographer put pictures of the ceremony up on his Flikr account.

I’m still working on the Doctor Who post. I thought I would finish it up after I set up the booth Wednesday night or before I got started on Thursday. We all see how that worked out. The next Doctor StrangeRoll game will take place on Friday, August 31st, wherein the PCs will begin exploring the tomb of Pharaoh Amun-Re.

Basic D&D Thoughts & Future Plans

When we wrapped up low-level Basic D&D play, I asked my players for their opinions on how the game played.

Finias Jinx’s player had this to say:
Pros:

1.  I like the uniqueness of having to pick a race…in 2nd edition, everyone picked demi-humans because if you didn’t you were weaker, and in 3rd they changed it up so at least if you pick human you get something for it…an extra feat and such. In 1st edition you either picked the demi-human and all it’s limitations or human with no limits…I like that.
2. I like the fact that you get the magic you get and you don’t pitch a fit. I just would rather have had more…see item 1 of cons.
3. I like the fact that you progress faster or slower by class, especially for rogues…but see cons item 4.
4. Very freeform, but perhaps a bit too free.

Cons:

1. The magic items and stuff were few and far between…it was not as bad as that [specific name omitted] though…where there was only one magic item for the whole campaign or something outrageous.  I like more magic, but not so much that you end up having characters selling junk to get exactly what they want. 
2. The combat mechanics are too simple. It’s more fun to see what’s going on in the room and maneuver around it. We sort of played a hybrid kind of combat, but it didn’t hold a candle to 3rd edition miniature battle rules.
3. I don’t really like wilderness campaigns, so that was a drawback of X1 to me. I’d rather have done B2 in that case.
4. The rogue skills are lame even at mid-level. The skills checks again way are better (and more fun) in 3rd edition.
5. Few ways to customize your character beyond class/race.

Wikki Swiftwind’s player had this to say:
“In terms of fun factor, I thought the best parts (other than role-playing) had little to do with mechanics (e.g. figuring out how to bypass obstacles). I think the mechanics of character progression kind of suck.  One needs to gain a lot of XP to gain very little in power.  Doesn’t feel very heroic compared to other editions.  However, gains in spell casting DO feel like the characters are becoming more heroic. Since finding secret doors is often critical, I think that mechanic should be different.  Not really a fan of this mechanic in any edition, but at least in later editions, you could “take a 20″ if you search long enough. Growing up, I think I only played basic D&D a few times (less than 10) and mostly played AD&D.  My recollection is that all my friends thought AD&D really made the game a lot better.  In fact, since AD&D came out when I was 6 years old, I started playing AD&D.  I think we only played the basic system for the sake of trying it out.”

For background, one of these players is heavily involved with the Pathfinder Society and the other belongs to a board games group and prefers (I believe) 4th edition.

For my part, I like the ease of prep Basic D&D offers. I like that I can use AD&D adventures with no conversion and there aren’t a lot of fiddly rules and conditions I have to track. Basic D&D relies on a good deal of GM fiat, making it easy to rule on the fly without worrying if some book I haven’t seen or haven’t read thoroughly (but one of my players might have) is going to contradict me. I think sometime overly complex game mechanics can overshadow the story and turn a role-playing game into a roll-playing game. There’s nothing wrong with that particular play style, but it’s annoying to have one when you want the other.

After talking with the group, we’re definitely going to skip AD&D first edition in favor of AD&D 2nd edition when playing the AD&D Phase of the campaign. We feel there just aren’t enough differences in the game play to make it worth the tedium of playing the same adventures with those two editions. Speaking of playing the same adventures, something else I’m considering is NOT running the group through an entire series of modules, but, instead, if they go through the first part of an adventure in one system, play the NEXT adventure in the series with the next system (e.g. They’re playing I3: Pharaoh now with Basic D&D. They’ll play I4: Oasis of the White Palm with AD&D 2nd edition, and I5: The Lost Tomb of Martek with Pathfinder). That way, it won’t be quite so tedious.

One thing on the horizon that concerns me is D&D 4E. Wizards of the Coast has been pretty tight-lipped (as far as I know) about future plans for DDI as D&D Next develops. I’m concerned that the character creation & encounter creation tools for 4E will no longer be accessible by the time I get to the D&D 4E phase. My players, generally, are not the most ‘Net savvy players I know, so finding 3rd party replacements for these resources will be challenging. If WotC does, in fact, remove access to the 4E electronic tool, I will most likely NOT include a D&D 4E phase in this campaign. I don’t know anyone who does character creation for 4E without those tools, and at this point, I think creating characters without them (not to mention converting all the encounters) will be too much hassle for me to worry about. This campaign is supposed to be a fun hobby for me, not a challenging job.

Seventh Session Report – Pharaoh

“Lucky” Copperpot’s caravan made it way across the world to an exotic land of palm trees, oases, and fabled treasures. Wikki Swiftwind and Finias Jinx recruited additional people from the caravan into their little band of trouble makers. Pat the Dwarf was replaced by Bunny, Lorelei the Fighter was replaced by her sister Annastasia, and Herrick the Cleric was replaced by Nallon. The caravan seemed successful for a while and they stay out of trouble, accumulating much wealth. No one is quite sure how, but our heroes found themselves surrounded by armed horse men in the desert. One of them was reading a list of accusations: short-sheeting the wizards bed, placing him in a compromising position with a woman of ill-repute WHILE he was engaged with another woman, etc. etc. They don’t know for certain if the PCs were responsible, but the PCs WERE foreigners, and thus, a convenient scapegoat. They were given a choice: go into the Desert of Desolation and track the raiders who have been making their Lord’s life miserable or death by [insert unpleasant death here: there are many from which to choose!].

The PCs wisely decided to cooperation and go into the desert. It was not a hard choice since they were told they could keep any treasure they found. They were given provisions and supplies to last a few weeks (except water, they would have to find more on their own) as well as a choice of a draft horse or a camel each. In the end, they all chose camels and named them appropriately. Bunny named hers Thumper. Nalton named his Billy Bob Thornton. Wikki Swiftwind named his Flower. Finias Jinx named his Dumbass. Annastasia named hers Buttercup. They were also given a map inscribed with symbols that neither thief could decipher, nor could Wikki’s casting of Read Languages. (Mostly because no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find any translations in the adventure … even I had no idea what it was supposed to say.) 

Our heroes set off through the desert, following a path left by the raiders. A few hours in, they found what appeared to be some sort of pool of water. When Finias moved in to investigate, he was caught in the trap of a dustdigger! The creature (it’s similar to a pre-Special Edition sarlacc, except smaller) tried to make a meal of the thief, but was quickly killed when the rest of the party came to his aid. Pressing onward, after a few more hours, they found two pillars rising out of the sand. The path continued between them. Finias was able to read an inscription on the pillars: “The gates of Sule cure ye who enter unbidden.” Finding this warning silly, Finias urinated on the pillars.

By the time the day gave way to night, our heroes found themselves at a fork in the trail, marked by a fallen obelisk. The obelisk seemed to be a directional marker with two inscriptions: “Here lies the road of the kings,” and “There lies the road to the pyramid.” The directional arrows were eroded away, so they couldn’t tell which path led where. They choose to make camp for the night. During the 3rd watch, an orange glow appeared on the horizon. As the sky brightened toward dawn, they could see it was accompanied by a column of smoke. In the morning, it was still there. While it did not appear to be at the terminus of either trail they could follow, they decided to follow the trail that led generally in the same direction. A few hours later, the desert gave way to craggy hills. By the end of the second day, the trail came to an end. The smoke was still on the horizon, but was the only landmark in the otherwise featureless terrain.

That night, an apparition appeared. The apparition was not aggressive and spoke to them. It was the Amun Re, son of Tokash-Ru and gave a long-winded explanation of his life, death, and curse. Essentially, he was cursed to remain between worlds, unable to cross into the afterlife until his un-robbable tomb is defiled (the tomb was built on the backs of the people he swore to protect and nuture). He answered no questions, only pointing in the direction of his tomb. The tomb was basically in the same direction as the column of smoke, still rising on the horizon, so our heroes headed in the direction to which the apparition pointed.

After more hours of traveling through inhospitable terrain, our heroes arrived at a large pyramid surrounded by a wall. The entrance appeared to be through a temple  built on the southern side of the wall. Two men guarded the main entrance, demanding the new intruders state their purpose or leave. They were not amused by Annastasia’s insistence that they were here for the tour. The guards attacked, but were quickly defeated. Our heroes proceeded to explore the temple, killing any other dervishes they came across. Shortly after finding a statue with jeweled eyes, from which Finias and Annastasia promptly took one each, they prepared to explore the other side of the temple, despite having found the exit that led to the pyramid.

How many other dervishes can they defeat while making cruel suggestions as to what to do with the remains?

With names like Bunny, Thumper, Billy, Flower, Dumbass, and Buttercup, my players’ days of taking the Doctor StrangeRoll Campaign seriously have come to an end. Alas, my attempt to spin an epic tale in the land of pharaohs and mummies will probably devolve into a bunch of Stargate/Go’uld jokes and humor about the Middle East that will toe the line.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I bumped everyone up to 35,000 XP and we started the mid-level adventure portion of the Basic D&D phase of Doctor StrangeRoll. This put everyone except Wikki Swiftwind at 6th level. Now they’re getting access to some of the iconic D&D magic: fireballs and lightning bolts, as well as being leveled high enough to encounter more challenging opponents like mummies.

Stay tuned for some player reports on the game play of Basic D&D as seen through the eyes of players who prefer Pathfinder & D&D 4E, as well as a report on a Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space game we played last week when there weren’t enough players for the D&D game. The next Doctor StrangeRoll game will take place on August 31st. August 17th is Gen Con and we’ll all be there. 

Sixth Session Report – The Isle of Dread

We return to our heroes contemplating their next move in the temple on Taboo Island. The first thing they noticed was that Kilos Battlebrand was gone, but Pat was there in his place. One might speculate that they are one in the same, since it is rare for them both to appear in the same place at the same time. Finias Jinx was also gone, having flown away after consuming a potion they found in one of the upper rooms on a whim (thinking it might heal him). They could only wonder where he went. They decided to press on and passed through the mouth of the large carved face; they could see a corridor beyond. Before they headed down the corridor, however, Wikki pulled out one of his scrolls (acquired in the Haunted Mansion in Saltmarsh) and animated nine skeletons from the remains of the BBQed tribesmen.

After fifty feet or so, the corridor turned and led to a set of stairs. The stairs, however, led only to a rough stone wall. The wall did not appear to be part of the original construction of the temple. They searched and searched, but were unable to find a secret door and concluded they couldn’t get past the wall. They headed back to the secret room from which they inadvertantly incinerated everyone and everything in the great chamber and passed through the floor opening Wikki found earlier.

Wikki used his skeletons to attack the four snakes coiled around the statues, sighing with relief when the snakes starting spitting venom into the eyes of the skeletons. The bony undead made short work of the reptilian menaces, but as he ordered them to move down the corridor out of the way, they triggered a pressure plate in the floor, causing a portcullis to crash down, trapping them in the room. Our intrepid heroes searched the room thoroughly, but were unable to find any secret exits or retraction mechanisms (though they did find a small gem at the base of one of the statues). Fortunately, brute strength was sufficient to lift the portcullis and they could hear the clanking of a ratcheting mechanism that kept it raised once they got it up.

As they explored the corridor beyond the statue room, they were concerned by a series of holes on the wall near the floor. They were unable to ascertain their purpose, but were convinced it wasn’t good. Herrick suggested that perhaps they could use skulls from the burned children upstairs to plug the holes, but that suggestion was quickly dismissed and they pressed on. The corridor stretched on longer than any other they’d explored so far, ending in a right turn that led to a door. In front of the door, was a ten foot-wide circular shaft of stone. They could hear bubbling at the bottom, but could see nothing. Wikki’s infravision revealed the presence of something quite hot, though it was definitely not lava. They decided to circumvent the hole and open the door.

Beyond the door, lay another corridor. To their left, stairs went down. To their right, another portcullis, beyond which was a door. Our heroes elected to raise the portcullis. Brute strength once again prevailed, and two of them held the portcullis up while Herrick removed the door near the shaft from its hinges. He initially wanted to lay it across the shaft, in case they needed to quickly retreat that way, but it was easy to see the door wasn’t long enough. Instead, he used it to brace the portcullis in the up position, since there seemed to be no mechanical means with which to do so.

The door beyond the portcullis was damp and swollen. They decided to let the portcullis down before forcing the door open. When they opened the door, a deluge of water gushed force. Were it not for the portcullis, they would have been washed down the stair, or worse, down the circular shaft in the other room. When the rush of water subsided, the room (and corridor) was still knee-deep to a human. Wikki sent two skeletons ahead into the room to scout. Herrick and Pat followed behind. Halfway across the room, the skeletons tripped, sending a spray of an oily liquid across the room from the walls. The liquid ignited upon contact with the water. Pat dove under the water in time, but Herrick was coated in the flammable substance and went up in flames. He submerged in an attempt drown the flames, but the substance continued to burn under water. Lorelei smothered his flames with her cloak, minimizing the damage he sustained. The two skeletons were incinerated.

Using the door as a flotation device, Herrick paddled across the room to the other door. It, too, was swollen with water. When he got it open, he was greeted with another gush of water, though not nearly as strong or long-lasting as before. A corridor lay behind, so the party pressed forward. More holes were along the walls of this corridor, near the water line. As they approached, a horde of giant rats swarmed out and began to attack them. While they made short work of the unusually large rodents, Wikki was bitten severely and the wound began to fester almost immediately*.

They continued down the flooded corridor to a dead end. This time, they found a secret door. The room beyond was vast, and filled with murky water. A large passageway was at the opposite side of the room and appeared to be choked with rubble. Along the same wall, about three-quarters across the room was another door. They explored a bit and found stairs that descended, discovering that at the bottom, the water would be well over the head of the tallest member. They retreated back to the secret door and formulated a plan to use the three doors they’d found so far as rafts. So, they backtracked and removed the other two doors from their hinges and began to float across the room toward the large passageway. Wikki stayed in the shallow water to cover them with his bow.

Three large sharks attacked as Herrick, Pat, and Lorelei reached the center of the room. The vicious fish swam around the rafts at great speeds, leaping out to attack what was probably the first fresh meat they’d had in a long while**. Herrick’s was the first raft upended by the sharks. Since he was wearing plate mail, he sank like a stone while a shark continued to attack him. Between the shark biting him and the water filling his lungs (there were rolls for that), he didn’t last long. Lorelei’s raft was upended next, and she met a horrible fate in the jaws of a shark, as it leapt out of the water at her mere feet from the safety of the shallow water Pat made it back to the shallow water, seriously wounded, but between her and Wikki’s arrows, they managed to kill the shark attacking her.

Battered and beaten, the surviving members of the party regrouped with the skeletons they left behind in the statue room. Pat the Dwarf elected to stay with the tribesmen, living an idyllic life of fishing and eating fish and drinking.

Sadly, I short-changed my players and screwed up the final room for this session. The point at which they entered through the secret door contained a giant oyster containing the very black pearl they’d been seeking. Somehow, in my excitement surrounding the sharks, I missed that part of the description. Still, I shall grant it to them as though they’d found it, along with the other treasure in the rooms they missed.

This session was nearly a TPK because of the rather illogically place sharks (see the second note below). During the session’s epilogue, Wikki managed to get a Cure Disease cast upon him by the village witch doctor (it was his only third level spell; had the witch doctor not had it, Wikki would’ve joined the ranks of the dead (see first note below). As a group, we decided to move forward to the mid-level Basic D&D Phase of Doctor StrangeRoll. Everyone will advance to 35,000 XP (or create new characters at that level) and “Lucky” Copperpot’s caravan will depart Saltmarsh for his next destination with Wikki Swiftwind, Finias Jinx, Kilos Battlebrand and three new companions. I gave them the list of mid-level adventures I had and as a group, we decided where to head next: The Desert of Desolation.

The missed treasure from the temple on Taboo Island will be added to the list of items they can choose from when we begin the next adventure, part 1 of the Desert of Desoloation series, I3: Pharaoh.

Basic D&D is pretty deadly. We briefly discussed how there were more options and more ways to mitigate death in future editions. I think it’s still more forgiving than AD&D, but time will tell when we start Phase Two.

;

*FIRST NOTE: This was a disease he caught. There was 1-in-20 chance to catch the disease. I chose “High” and rolled a 20. There was an incubation period of 1-6 days, I rolled a 6. There was a 1-in-4 chance of dying from it (otherwise you’d be sick & incapacitated for 30 days), I chose “Low” and rolled a 1. I did inform the player that he would be increasingly ill over the next six days with no real detriment to his abilities, but after that, he would be dead unless he could find a cure before that time…yeah, I could’ve just described it over the next six days worth of sessions and then had him drop dead on the sixth day if he didn’t find a cure disease, but the Doctor StrangeRoll campaign is about having fun with all the editions, not seeing how much of a hard-ass I can be.

**SECOND NOTE: Honestly, I’m not sure where three 12′ mako sharks were getting enough food to sustain them in a room that was essentially locked off from the rest of the temple complex. The tribesmen from above weren’t coming down here (they’re the ones that bricked up the corridor upstairs, and all signs indicated that it happened a LONG time ago. The rats couldn’t get through the secret door and there was no indication that their tunnels entered this room. But, that’s the way these old modules were…monster ecology didn’t really enter into it. I suppose we could assume the sharks made their way into this room via underground rivers…but Taboo Island is one of the highest points on the Isle of Dread, so really, they’d have no way to even get to the lake in the caldera and enter the temple anyway. *sings MST3K theme* Just repeat to yourself it’s just a game, I should really just relax.

Fifth Session Report – The Isle of Dread

After another Real-Life inspired haitus (“inspired” isn’t really the word — real life interfered, darn it!), we return to our intrepid adventurers marooned on the Isle of Dread.

As our heroes approached the lake-side village, primitively-dressed men came out and began shouting at them. As the adventurers approached, the villagers made a half-hearted attempt to deter them by chucking spears at them. The spears landed far short; it was obviously not meant as a serious attack. Upon seeing the adventurers were not driven away by their aggressive posturing, one of the men separated from the other and approached them. He introduced himself and offered them greetings.

They explained to him why they were there and hoped the villagers could help them find this black pearl they were looking for. The villagers knew nothing about a black pearl, nor did they care for the rumors of treasures in the ruins. They explained the island in the middle of the lake was taboo–it was forbidden for them. They explained the only thing they knew about the island was that some former tribesman now lived in the ruins, going against the laws of their ancestors, and occasionally raided them, stealing men, woman, and children for gods’ know what purpose. Our heroes offered to travel to the ruins and search for the missing tribe members in exchange for the use of a couple of canoes. The villagers agreed, loaning them two canoes to cross the lake and threw them a feast that evening.

The next morning, they set off for Taboo Island. The dwarf, Pat, overindulged the night before (food, drink, etc.) and they were forced to leave him/her behind*. They crossed the lake uneventfully, though they lamented the fact that they only had two canoes for the 5 of them, believe it would hamper their ability to loot the ruins. They docked their canoes at the entrance to a temple. A few other canoes were already there, no doubt, belonging to the renegade tribesmen.

Inside the ruined temple were the remains of a once-mighty statue, and lit braziers. They proceeded deeper into the complex, passing into a narrow hallway choked with rubble. As they reached the end a section through which they were forced to pass single-file, they were attacked by a small group of tribesmen. Though Lorelei and Finias were stabbed a few times, they made short work of their enemies. They entered a great chamber…filled with the other men, women, and children of the tribe. A large bonfire blazed in the center of the room, the smoke escaping through a hole in the ceiling. Behind the fire was an enormous, grotesque face, with what appeared to be a doorway in its mouth. A balcony level surrounded the room and they could make out doors on that level.

Undeterred by the tribesmens’ superior numbers Finias began making demands, demands which were met with laughter of derision from the tribals. The battle began! A sleep and a hold person spell later, and the superior numbers were gone, replaced by odds that were more than even. It didn’t take them long to dispatch the remain four tribals, after which our heroes immediately dispatched all the sleeping/held tribals while the children cried and watched. Finias attempted to interrogate the children, but was answered only with howls of fear and crying.

Our heroes search the room and found a secret door that lead to a chamber overlooking the grand chamber in which the melee occurred. While the rest of the group searched the dark, dusty room, Wikki and Lorelei investigated a set of stairs within the room that lead to a platform with two peepholes through which they could view the chamber. A level protruded from the wall between the peepholes. Naturally, they pulled the lever. This caused a fine powder to be expelled from the groteque face/door in the grand chamber which then ignited, incinerating the captive children and other tribals that were hiding in nearby, unexplored rooms.

After shrugging off the loss of many innocents, they continued to explore the room, finding a trap door to a lower level when Wikki fell through the floor. The room into which he fell was filled with statues, and appeared to be partially flooded. Wikki heard the unmistakable hissing of snakes and noticed four snakes coiled around the statues in the corner of the room. He called for someone to throw a rope down to him and climbed back up.

Instead of continuing to explore the lower level, the group decided to check out the rooms off the balcony level of the great chamber, the rooms in which they heard screaming during the conflagration. They found more men and women, along with what appeared to be the tribe’s valuables.  After identifying which newly acquired weapons seemed to be of the highest quality (or most likely magical, considering how they weathered the fire), they prepared to enter the lower level….

*Yes, at this point, the group still doesn’t know the gender of Pat the Dwarf, and his/her player isn’t talking.

This session really seemed to highlight a huge difference in the power levels between Basic D&D and other editions. The confrontation in the great chamber had the PCs outnumbered at least 4-to-1, yet the combat lasted all of 2-3 rounds. There is no saving throw for Sleep in Basic D&D. Hold Person has a saving throw, but I didn’t roll very well for the NPCs, so by the end of the first round, more than 75% of the opponents were rendered helpless. 

It also marks the first session in which we accomplished more play than B.S. That’s not to say we haven’t been enjoying ourselves, but honestly, we’ve been spending more time talking about everything OTHER than playing D&D during most of these sessions. Maybe we’re finally getting into the groove as a group.

The next Doctor StrangeRoll game is scheduled for July 13th. I’m not sure if it’ll be D&D or Star Wars at this point; it will depend on attendance.

Fourth Session Report – The Isle of Dread

After a month hiatus due to attendance, we return to the Isle of Dread…only I didn’t feel like playing or socialized due to work-related stress, so it took me a while to get my brain in the right mindset, even after the players arrived. Application of homemade Devil’s Food birthday cake helped. Yes, it was my birthday. 30 years ago (not to the day), I started playing D&D with the Tom Moldvay-revised Basic Set (that’s the magenta box w/Erol Otus cover art). My first D&D-related purchase was the Expert Set which included X1: The Isle of Dread. Fitting, then, that we should be playing that adventure on my 38th birthday.

We rejoin our would-be, treasure-seeking heroes as they prepared to cross the rope bridge from the high terrain of the island near the river gorge to the central mesa. The group chose to send the lightest member over the bridge first, so the elf, Wikki Swiftwind (finally feeling better) across. He did not fall to a horrible death three thousand feet below, so the rest of the group made their way across the bridge. It was then they noticed that Finias Jinx was no where to be found. Since he had a habit of wandering off, then showing up at opportune times, they pressed onward.

The top of the mesa was flat and mostly featureless. A few stands of trees lay off, miles in the distance. Directly ahead of them was a high ridge. Seeing no settlements, they set off for the nearest forested area. Several miles of banter later, they arrived at the edge of the forest. The sun was setting, so they decided to make camp while Wikki hunted for meat. While Wikki was only marginally successful, bringing back a brace of coneys, they were able to supplement the meat with foraged nuts, berries, and mushrooms. They set up a watch rotation, hoping for an uneventful night.

With the exception of a pair of large, hairy elephant-like creatures stomping around at night (mastodons), the evening did indeed pass uneventfully. Soon after breaking camp, they found the far edge of the forest; apparently, it was smaller than it appeared when they first arrive on the mesa. At Kilos’s suggestion, the group headed toward the ridge that appeared to be in the center of the mesa. After another few hours, they found their way barred by a small river. Fortunately, it was fairly easy to ford. Lorelei took some time to attempt to spear some fish to supplement their rapidly-dwindling supplies. Her first try wasn’t entirely successful, but the giant bass she was attempt to spear turned and attacked her! She and Kilos made short work of the huge fish and the fresh fish was enjoyed by all.

The ridge loomed over them now, a jagged mountain range which was far larger than it appeared from the rope bridge at the edge of the mesa. There was some debate whether they should attempt to circumnavigate it or just climb over it. At the prodding of the dwarves, the intrepid explorers chose to climb over it. The going was slow and the terrain treacherous. Several times, falls were averted only by the strength of the other party members. The cold and darkness crept in on them as they climbed. Twelve hours later, they reached the summit. In the pitch blackness, they saw only twinkling firelight far, far away. They made camp, hoping nothing would choose to eat them this far up. Wikki found a spell in the spell book they recovered from the haunted mansion that allowed them to make the fire from their torches shed much less light (and use less fuel) and cast it directly from the book, destroying the pages in the process*.

When dawn broke, our heroes could see they stood on the edge of what appeared to be a caldera. They could make out a small village at the edge of a lake. The lake covered about half of the bottom of the caldera and contained an island. Once again, they began climbing. The descent, while not easier than the ascent, proved shorter. The air grew warmer the further away from the peaks they descended and lush jungle vegetation again began to cover all surfaces. By the time they reached the bottom, dusk was once again falling. They approached the walled village, wondering what awaited within…

* An oft-used house rule for Basic D&D and AD&D wherein magic-users can cast directly from spell books, but it burns the spell like using a scroll. The spell in question was “Affect Normal Fires” which is actually an AD&D spell, not a Basic D&D spell.

There won’t be a Doctor StrangeRoll update for June 1st, as I will be out of town on “vacation.” It’s in quotes because I’ll have to spend a portion of each day working remotely. Hopefully, I won’t have to spend ALL day every day working. That would suck.

My Geek Chic Spartan Gaming Table

It is here. It is assembled. I have pictures!

You can see here, the gaming area awaiting delivery. It’s so empty. So lonely.

It starts unassuming. Boxes being carried up by two men suffering in the unseasonably warm & humid spring Indiana weather.

More boxes. It actually looks like parts of a table now.

The top is unboxed and awaits assembly.

Assembly commences. They’re nice enough to provide me with an instruction booklet. If I ever move, it’ll have to be disassembled to get it out of the room in which it resides. (No, I didn’t have to assemble it myself, they were just out in their truck when I took this picture.)

It…is…ALIVE

Here is the interior storage space.

Next, here’s the table with the top fully removed.

My ginormicus Ptolus map has a new home!

Here I have two leaves in with the Leaf Guards installed so they can be used as playing surfaces.

And finally, a detailed shot of the table top/interior with the leaves & Leaf Guards in.

And I was up way too late getting these pictures uploaded. Apparently, my 12MP camera makes pictures too large and WordPress chokes on them. :p

My Spartan Gaming Table

As you may have surmised, I’m fairly excited about the impending delivery of my Geek Chic Spartan gaming table. Lemme share something with you all:

 

This was my first look. I’ll post further updates as it actually arrives, is brought into my house and installed.

Upcoming Game Dates

If you think my updating is sporadic, it’s not really. We do play every two weeks, but sometimes it takes me a few days to write the update.

May 4th – Star Wars: The Old Republic – Galaxy at Peace (’cause it’s May 4th – Star Wars Day – May the Fourth Be With You!)

May 18th – Doctor StrangeRoll D&D Basic featuring a brand new Geek Chic table and birthday cake (the cake is NOT a lie; it’s my birthday)

June 1st – No game; I’ll be on vacation and won’t actually be at my gaming table. My beautiful gaming table. It is…precious to me… [gollum gollum]

June 15th – There will be a game, what it is will be determined by attendance.

June 29th – The game will likely be the one we didn’t play on June 15th.

The Star Wars game is going to be a mini-campaign, probably no more than 5 or 6 sessions, I think, depending on how much we avoid conversational tangents, Monty Python references, and talking about Doctor Who instead of gaming. Once the Star Wars game is wrapped up, one of my players has volunteered to run some Doctor Who for us (the new one by Cubicle 7, not the old FASA game), so I’ll play that (though still provide updates on the game) while I prep a post-apocalyptic game for our alternate sessions, probably Gamma World or Atomic Highway (Fallout flavor), depending on what the group prefers. By then, it might be time for me to play test some of the adventures I’ll be running at Gen Con. I won’t post any spoilers about those here, though, just in case anyone who plays in them at the convention reads this blog.