We had a great night of food, friends, and gaming, as usual fueled by the efforts of all, including delicious Thai roast chicken and pork shish kebabs (spell check says I might mean shipboards). The chicken was spiced with an alternative to curry. I didn’t catch the name but it was very good, having much of the same flavor but milder. The pork when finished was as red and hot as a red dwarf star, but painfully delectable. There were also these strange stuffed grape or olive leaves that tasted really, really good, but every person who had one asked at least once what was in them, and despite reading the ingredients, were none the wiser. Marjoram? Shannon has been known to bring odd foods to the table, such as alligator meat, so it is always enlightening to check the ingredients whenever possible. Great dinner.

We had a new player this week, who has some experience with D&D. Despite being a nerd of many years, he only learned 4th edition last year, and taught himself to dm for his group of friends. Playing as the rogue, his character was every bit the rogue. At the end of the night, we were all talking and some one asked him how it was and he obviously had had a great time (just sitting next to whom he was sitting next to I’m sure contributed) but when I asked how he and I compared as dms, he was speechless for at least five minutes, with a sort of glassy look. Finally he said I was much more relaxed. Heh.

I believe he meant that as a compliment, and the evening of play was very consistent with my style of play. We play a very light-hearted game (with occasional short sudden bouts of serious business) and I am a joker by nature, so I can’t help but be as funny as “I can be while dming. Not that I am actually funny, mind, it is just my efforts at humor. The table is also a big mess. Not wanting to draw anything, I decided that with this dungeon crawl, I would use dungeon tiles. This meant that corridors ended up going up and over people’s plates, around a candle, or salt shaker, and often rotated in completely non-euclidian ways. Miniatures were scattered more often by kittens than by stone golems.

I often go into exposition mode and am willing to distort the adventure for the purpose of expanding upon theoretical or philosophical ideas. For instance, I learned this week that the heat density of the universe is lopsided as shown by the cosmic background radiation. The universe is 10 per cent brighter on one side (and there’s a huge cold spot.) This could be linked to patterns in existence before the big bang, since the CMB is supposed to represent the shape of the universe a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the big bang, when the universe was smaller than a single particle. I theorize that this lends credence to the theory of a multiverse, and that the patterns imprinted upon our newborn universe are the latent patterns of the universe from which ours spawned. It seems obvious.

I used this theory of the multiverse to illustrate my point, and even more importantly, to justify why famous characters from across campaigns and editions and levels have all gathered together to go down into a cave. The real reason is that I wanted to playtest the 3/20/13 release of “D&D Next” and one of the included adventures required 10th level characters. Added to this, everyone in the group seemed ready to get back to D&D after four months of modern zombie survival horror. It was a surprise for them to have all their favorite characters converted into 10th level versions for the new playtest. It was an instant success.

Why would all these heroes from different epochs gather together suddenly? Well a small figure in a red robe appeared. He told them he was the master of the dungeon which stood before them, and he explained that all their past lives were nothing more than preparation for this moment. They had only a few hours to break into yonder tomb, and destroy the slumbering corpse of a powerful mud lord and all her minions. Her tomb was in an extra-dimensional space that threatened to break off into a new universe with her mad mud magics, and thereby destroy this reality in the process. Better get a move on!

So that was the set up. They went into a natural cavern, and almost got stumped by the block of granite sealing the entrance to the tomb. For a moment it looked like it might be over before it even started. All the heroes of the ages stood around shrugging, wondering if maybe there might be something better on the other side of the gray mist.

OK, long story short, they went in, ignored the long pools and then the half orc dove into the square pool to retrieve a key the druid had spotted. In the room of tears, they bottled up a vial of acidic tears and found the secret door, then proceeded to get pummeled by stone golems. We had to turn that statue about 150 times as the characters used that room as their hub while exploring all the way to the purple coffin. Poor Cadence the wise stripped off her lucky charm to make room for the new shiny necklace of choke-you-till-your-dead.

It was getting gruesome. she stood there gripping her neck looking hopeless while the party debated what to do. The wizard I mean ranger had the greatest idea. put her in the coffin, cast water breathing on her, which gives gills, and then create water to fill the casket. Or cast polymorph to turn her into a creature with no neck. (I ruled that would not work as the magic item would transfer with all her other items.) Then the rogue remembered the vial of baby-tears acid, which I ruled worked on the necklace because hey magic baby tears. And because it was the best of the three ideas they came up with, but it was a hard call. i would have loved to see the party toting around my wife in a casket full of water all night, heh. In true role playing spirit, she barely said a word during the whole episode. Come to think of it, she might not have talked to me for awhile after that.

(In the module, nothing short of a wish, or a few specific spells could reverse the affect of the necklace. I always like to see the wacky plans my players concoct, things that Abbott and Costello might come up with when they are drunk, and that is how they usually solve things. Crazy antics. It was not the only time that night the ranger used his create water spell. Im just sayin’…)

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition* Playtest bad ‘and drawn character sheet

The Basic ‘And Drawn character sheet. inspired by collegiate lined (I hated wide ruled) notebooks full of characters made in that awkward transition between the basic and advanced versions of D&D. Really there was nothing else like them in the world, so simple and full of ignorant hope. So many HP boxes worn through with erasers. So many big black X’s marked in fits of rage or lamentation. These sheets use that original transitional style but are updated to fit a complete 5th edition playtest character onto a single sided sheet of paper.

Above is an 800X1100 jpeg, and here is a link to the PDF: d5charsheet

Enjoy, and please provide feedback or comment. These sheets are mandatory at my table.

*I have decided to stop referring to the next iteration of the worlds most beloved beheading game as “D&D Next!” because it just sounds foolish. Plus, what if they decide to make a 6th edition and refer to the playtest as “D&D Next” then it could lead to mass confusion and rioting, however 5th edition playtest will stand the test of time. So it is written, so be it done.

A famous work of art by artist Leonard Elmore graces the Basic d&D rulebook. Decades later, another person uses it as inspiration, or even blatant copy, of the art, in a far inferior style. Is it the finest form of flattery, or copyright infringement? You decide:

(I am making a booklet that I will give away or maybe even sell, and want to include art, but lack funds or means to produce actual art, thus these insane scribblings, which I am hoping produces a feeling of a well-meaning, nostalgic nod to past eforts in place of anything actually good.)

This is pretty much the same image just using my inferior skills. Too close to the original?

surprise 2

In an effort to really differentiate, I totally changed it up, losing the monster and just leaving the trap, and also he is a dwarf losing his helmet which cracked me up. Still too close? My judgmental daughter the artist looks at my futile attempts and sighs despairingly…

Surprise!

To check for wandering monsters, roll 1d8. If the result is an 8, roll again on the wandering monster table. This will direct you to the correct subtable for the encounter. Finally check for surprise by rolling 1d6, surprise on 1-2. Distance between sides should be based on the natural fit of the dungeon, with opposing sides being closer depending on the level of surprise; i.e. If both parties are surprised, the enemy should appear around the nearest corner or at the edge of the light source. in other cases, the monsters might tumble out of the very walls upon which the pc’s are leaning.

Wandering Monster Table Level 1
1-2 - Vermin
3-4 - Creature
5-6 - Humanoid
7 - Undead/fiends
8 - Special

Vermin Table (d8)
1 - Giant/dire rats (2-5)
2 - Rat Swarm (6-24)
3 - Giant/vampire Bats (3-18)
4 - Stirges (2-8)
5 - Carrion crawler
6 - Giant Spider
7 - Fire Beetles (2-7)
8 - Giant Centipedes (1-6)

Creature Table (d8)
1 - Giant Badger
2 - Rust monster
3 - Great Cat – Snow Tiger (1-2)
4 - Hell Hounds (1-4)
5 - Cave Bear
6 - Gelatinous Cube
7 - Ankheg
8 - Owlbear

Humanoid Table (d8)
1-2 - Orcs (3-12)
3-4 - Goblins (4-16)
5 - Kobolds (2-12)
6 - Gnolls (2-12)
7 - Human bandits (2-12)
8 - Adventuring party (2-5)

Undead/fiend table (d8)
1-2 - Skeletons (1-20)
3-4 - Zombies (1-12)
5 - Ghouls (1-8)
6 - Ghost
7 - Wight
8 - Devil: Imp

This is an excerpt from the dungeon complex The Ruined Fortress of the Evil Overlord Level 1: The Main Storey

Reaction

Many monsters in the dungeon will automatically attack until destroyed. This includes all undead and most animals and monsters. Smarter, wilier creatures will often hesitate or wait for the characters to make the first move, or even plan an ambush. The dungeons of the evil overlord are a gathering place for the scum and villainy of the surrounding lands. It is not uncommon for traditional foes to tolerate one another in the monstrous mecca. Likewise, erstwhile allies often tear each other apart in this chaotic environ. Roll on the Reaction Table whenever the initial response to an unexpected meeting is in doubt. Roll a d20 and add any modifiers that may apply.

Reaction Table (d20)
1 Enraged charge attack
2-5 Hostile, prepares attack
6-10 Hostile, threatening
11-14 Uncertain, defensive
15-17 Neutral , confused, or uninterested
18-19 Timid or careful, friendly approach
20+ Enthusiastic camaraderie

Morale

It may become necessary to check the morale of a creature or group. Individual or solo creature morale checks are typically made at first blood and when the creature drops below one quarter of its maximum hit points. Group morale checks are made after the first fatality, when half the group is down, and when there is but one remaining. Typically rolls are made on a d20, with 10 or higher passing. On a 1-9 the creature or creatures retreat. Retreat can vary from orderly, to free-for-all route depending on the roll. Cowardly or weak creatures should have a -2 penalty, and strong or brutish creatures should grant a bonus. Other situational modifiers can affect the roll, at the dungeon master’s discretion.

This is an excerpt from the dungeon complex The Ruined Fortress of the Evil Overlord Level 1: The Main Storey.

The Ruined Fortress of the Evil Overlord

This has been my project since the beginning of the new year and it is finally starting to spread its wings and fly. The concept is simple: a huge dungeon complex (of up to 99 levels) that can be plopped anywhere or used as a stand-alone campaign. The booklets contain one or more levels apiece, and can be used in conjunction, with plot hooks and other links between levels, or they can be used alone and placed practically anywhere.

The goal with these adventure modules is to create a lovingly hand-crafted printed product with usefulness at the gaming table being the paramount concern. To that end, the booklets are crafted using the finest paper with a thick detachable cover that contains the main maps (other maps will be included as a middle spread) and designed with a “generic d&d” ruleset intended to easily translate into most fantasy game systems. All dungeoneers should be able to find use for the Ruined Fortress of the Evil Overlord series, regardless of which edition or game system they use.

Just look at that hand drawn map!

I hope to offer these booklets for sale once I perfect the printing and publishing, and get a few more levels done. Pricing is still up in the air but with the time, effort, and high cost of quality paper, it is settling into the 5-8 dollar range, printed and shipped. I do not foresee making these available as pdf, since my main goal is to produce a hand crafted booklet for table use. (I also need to learn how to set up a storefront on worpress which might be the biggest hurdle.)

Snazzy interior design, with custom artwork, text boxes, and all the extras.

The first booklet weighs in at 28 pages, and is designed to be an introductory level for new or inexperienced characters. The booklet features new monsters and new magic items, wandering monster tables, and a complete dungeon with plot and story hooks, bosses both mini and mega, traps, hazards, and tons of opportunity for exploration, discovery, interaction, and epic battles in iconic locations. My philosophy is to remove the boring, and keep the awesome. The dungeons follow what some call Gygaxian naturalism, and are an attempt to make a funhouse gonzo dungeon that makes sense and could exist in a fantasy realm.

I am looking for volunteers who would like to playtest and review the product on their blog, message board, or website. If anyone is interested in doing that, I will be happy to send a complimentary copy for your perusal. Please drop me a line or make a comment. The next couple of weeks will be spent turning the prototype into a final draft, organizing the next three modules: level 0, level 1a, and 1b, and playtesting.

This week’s game was important for a number of new experiences. We were starting a new campaign, we are using the newest D&D 5th edition playtest rules after mostly not playing D&D for many months, we were starting out at zero level for the first time ever with new house rules I created for use with a new Dungeon Crawl campaign, The Ruined Fortress of the Evil Overlord which I am self-publishing.

meatball cupcakes

Zero Level Adventuring

The rules of the game are very simple: roll the ability scores (4d6 drop the lowest) three times, do not bother putting them into the attributes — right now they are just nebulous numbers. The characters are literal blank slates, with no class, nor even race or sex (all virgins). Imagine them as grey cloaked figures of questionable lineage. Each character has 2 hit points and an armor class of 10. That’s it.

The fact that each player rolls up three sets of scores means they were not as worried about losing a character. In fact, if some of the characters might have terrible scores and be purposefully put into perilous positions.

Now, as they go through the adventure, which should be geared to be very deadly, they will want to do things, like break something for example. At that point the dungeon master asks them to put one of their numbers into the strength attribute, and make a strength check. If it was successful they would then make a note of their deeds done. Eventually most of characters end up with their scores filed in as the adventure progresses: strength for brute stuff, dexterity to be sneaky, wisdom to be perceptive, etc.

One interesting factor was that the player had time to choose which score went where, and the dynamic of needing a good roll at the moment, countered by the scorer that they wanted for their future character concept, created a great spread of the numbers, not always optimized towards the future class.

This can also be used for deciding racial factors, by asking if anyone has the ability to detect sloping passages, for example, a dwarf might be revealed. Uncovering themes, backgrounds and other specialties, depending on the length of the zero level period are also possible. Even class abilities can be discovered through play,such as a character making a wisdom check to pray to her deity for divine aid, or a sagacious character making an intelligence check to detect the presence of magic.

Each character should be allowed one mundane non-weapon item worth no more than a single gold piece, such as a rock, nail, ice pick, or a flask of acid (what?), a loin cloth and a drab cloak. Whoever survives the adventure becomes a first level character. They can keep the two extra hit points as a reward.

Playtesting the Zero Level rules

Deadrock

Did I mention the extra tall glass of cherry vodka? Keep it in mind. We playtested an adventure called Under Ghost Town, from my upcoming second installment of the Ruined Fortress of the Evil Overlord –Level 0: Deadrock and the Pillaged Demesne of the Evil Overlord.

Six individuals set out on journeys for riches and reward, each wanting to accumulate (and spend) one million gold pieces. The town of Deadrock, a rough and tumble pioneer town on the edge of civilization was known far and wide as a place where heroes were forged. It seemed a perfect place to begin a life of tomb robbing and adventure. On their way they were captured by orcs.

The orcs herded them through a wasteland of conquered desolate territory. They eventually passed through a deserted town, on the edge of which was a corn field ready to be harvested. The bones of the farmers who planted the crops were piled at the edge of town. For weeks the characters toiled in the fields under the whips of the savage orcs, knowing that when the corn was harvested, so would they be.

Tonight was the last night before the harvest. They must escape. Every night bags were placed over their heads and they were marched down three flights of stairs and through two streams before being locked in cells in a dank dungeon.

I asked the players if anyone was sure their charater wanted to be non-human. Two people raised their hands, our local gnome and our elf ranger knew what they wanted. No one else was sure, so I said ok, the room is dark, only the elf and dwarf can see. Gotcha!

One character spotted a ring of keys on a hook next to the door. Another character wove her cloak into a lovely scarf. Another character had a nail and successfully picked the lock to her cell door, go thief! The ring of keys only opened the cells, they had to also pick the door, then they filed out into the hall.

A tripwire was tripped, causing four orc guards to open a nearby door. The party had already taken off down the hall, turning in random directions, until the met the orc captain coming the other way. They found themselves in a dead end, but a stream crossed the tunnels. It was blocked by iron bars, which were eventually bent apart, and the characters dove into the stream and were went downstream just before the orcs got to them.

Then the party were swept up agains another set of iron bars as it passed through another hallway and they began to drown as the ones in the front scrambled to bend or break the bars. One character drowned in that awful mess, but they managed to escape into a new hallway and wne tup some stairs and detected a fresh breeze which they followed up more stairs. This led to a locked door. They cold feel the fresh air blowing in from the rack under the door and frantically tried to pick the lock as the orcs cuaght up with them.

They broke out int the ruins of an old shrine and ran through town towards the cornfield. They found a pile of scythes, then went into the field to prepare an ambush for the orcs.

The orcs stumbled right into the ambush, being surprised, and these amateurs went to town on them with sickles. Heads were lopped of on both sides. The bottle of acid broke against the orc captains neck and its hidoues flesh melted and bubbled away, yet still the ferocious beastman fought on. One gnome went down, then the thief, then the new thief, and one player was on the last of her three characters.

They won the fight, and any humans were allowed to don the bloody studded leather and one suit of chainmail. They all took battle axes, short bows, and a pair of daggers, and divided the 25 gold, then set off for a line of dark along the southern horizon.

They saw a huge eagle shaped creature circling above them right as they came to a small river. One character proceeded to crawl into the river with a set of chainmail, confident it would keep her under water and afe from the terror flying above. It did though she also began to drown and had to be pulled to safety, right as the Hart Bird attacked!

The Fearsome Hart Bird

The wise dwarf prayed for Moradin to bless their weapons, but he was still miffed that she deigned to use a bladed weapon and answered not her prayer. Eventually a magically inclined high elf ranger wannabe managed to squeeze out the minutest of spells, and caused a weapon to glow as if magical. This caused the hart bird to hesitate, and they made a run for the woods.

They made into the woods and built a fire to keep the monsters away and await the dawn. The next day they made it to Deadrock, wielding bloody orcish arms and armor and with no more than a handful of coins apiece. I would say that adventure was worth gaining a level.

There is a lot going on this week, what with trying to get my store front set up, and trying to finish up the next four installments of the Ruined Fortress of the Evil Overlord, so I am going to have to make this recap brief. Let me start by recounting the meal, which was made up of incredibly delicious grilled burgers and curly fries. I had two burgers, one with grilled onion, and the other california-style with guacamole. Oh yum it was good.

Last week saw the beginning of a new campaign, where the palyers were forced to play zero-level characters enslaved by orcs, forced to escape from a dungeon the night before their harvest. They survived, well some of them did, and made it to the nearest town, Deadrock, though half-starved wearing the bloody armor of their erstwhile captors. Along with this odiferous bunch were a pair of wood elves also on their way to infamous Deadrock, there to see their fortunes made. Greetings were held under the glare of the city guard preparing to open the town gates for another day of business in Deadrock.

A rough and tumble pioneer town, the party did not have much time to explore the sights. They rented rooms, bathed, and went out to by a set of clothes with the meager coin they had scavenged from the slave pens. The next day they were politely asked by representatives of the town concil to exit the town until such time as they could afford their own upkeep. This was mainly done because I wanted to get to the dungeon, and having a bunch of thugs wandering around without a copper to their name was bound to get ugly. Let’s fight monsters.

The party did not resist the nudge toward adventure and before you knew it they were walking the pillaged demesne of the evil overlord. Forgoing the ancient roads, the party struck a path straight across the valley towards the dark speck that was the ruined fortress. With incredible luck they managed to avoid any detection or random encounters along the way, ntil they arrived at the foot of the long stair that leads up the mountainside to the entrance of the ruins. Here they heard a loud buzzing, one might say a GIANT buzzing, and proceeded to build a ring of burning, smoking vegetation, into which they prepared to defend themselves against the rapidly approaching giant bees.

Nearly a dozen bees attacked, and even though the bees were disadvanteaged due to the smoke and fire, one of our new wood elves, a rogue, was struck with a deadly stinger and perished almost instantly from the poison. (I felt bad for the new player, being killed without having a chance, but I let him return the next round with the brother of the slain, who had been running after the party for two days and finally caught up just in time to witnsess his dead brother being carried away by giant bees.)

The party was able to kill or drive off the rest of the bees without further casualties, and made their way up the steps of the ruined fortress, with openings like eye sockets watching their approach. Scouting around the top, they opened a few doors, checked out the flag chamber, an empty office, then made their way to another chamber full of kobolds. Another battle broke out, and this time two characters went down, but were healed by the cleric. The other wood elf turned into a bear and mauled the kobolds savagely, while the human fightress waded through the chamber, and laid waste all around her.

They took one kobold catpive, searchd the room and found a lock box with 55 gold and two 50 gold piece pears, which one of the rogues tried to secretly pocket, but was discovered by the bear, who let out a warning growl. Don’t mess with the bear.

Behold the power of the lava lamps

Even though one person had to cancel for work, even though we didn’t get started until way late and had to scramble for an ultimateley awesome meal of appetizers, even though we are still working our way through understanding the rules this iteration it was still a great night of gaming. The party bulldozed though almost half of the first level of the dungeon.

The night started where we left off. The party had just slain a pack of kobolds and were questioning the lone survivor. Its face and arms were painted with blue lightning bolts, and it spoke of its god who dwelt in the top of the ruined tower. The kobold agreed to tell them where the stairs leading up were in exchange for letting it live. The party agreed and the kobold pointed to a door in the north wall and mumbled something about being through there. He then pushed the door open which revealed a room epty except for a few coins and a chunk of questionable meat in the center of the room. The paladin and barbarian each rushed in of course, eager to grab the booty.

A perternatural sense of danger cause Glory the paladin to stop in place, while the barbarian, sensing victory rushed forward and fell through a trap-door covered pit. It was dark down there, and he took some falling damage, but sprang to his feet just in time to hear two shambling forms moving towards him from the shadows. The fightress was the first to arrive on the scene, shining her torch down into the pit to allow the barbarian to duke it out with the pair of famished zombies. A few arrows were launched from above, but they were ineffectual, and it was the barbarian’s orcish battle ax that quickly slew the monstrosities.

During this time, the kobold prisoner took the opportunity to escape, sticking his tongue out at his captor the wizardess, as he ran off laughing.

Doc piled the bodies to aid his climb to the surface, and while doing so, he noticed the skeleton of an elf, concealed by a grey cloak. The cloak turned out to be a Cloak of Elvenkind, which he lovingly draped over his crush, the wizard Reya’s shoulders.

Old school dungeon crawling at its finest

Moving on, they came to a long hallway with windows at the far eastern end, showing the afternoon sky. The drop was over five hundred feet to the valley floor below, and they could hear vultures screeching above. There were two passages and two sets of double doors out of this room, so they chose the nearest set of double doors and pushed through. The room was empty except for a pair of doors and an old tapestry on the wall. The ranger detected the tracks from many creatures in the chamber and bent down for closer inspection.

While searching the chamber, he oticed a large rack in the wall and heard the scurrying of a multitude of tiny clawed feet. A swarm of rats were about to charge from the hole. Thinking fast, he cast Expeditious retreat on himself, and ran towards the wall hanging, intending to stuff it in the crack. When he pulled down the hanging, it revealed a concealed door. In his hurry he did not notice the small hole drilled through the center of the room before a lightning bolt lanced out from it.

The bolt hit the far wall, and rebounded through the room, injuring the ranger, the fightress, and knocking out the wizardess Reya. Soon after, the party heard the “HAROOOO” of a horn blast from the other side of the door and beat a hasty retreat.

They paused to catch their breath in the long hall, while the cleric healed Reya, and once they were sure no one was coming after them from the recently vacated room, chose to explore in a different direction. The entered a chamber with a large black desk and some overturned cupboards. The ranger sent his ferret familiar into the chamber, which discovered a poisonous centipede just before it was bitten and died from he poison. The ferret, being magical, disappeared, and the centipede reared up, angry at being denied a meal. Its faceted eyes centered on the paladin Glory in the doorway, who glared back and charged. She was unlucky though, trying to charge through the obstacles, and when she brought down her orcish battle axe, it bit into her own foot instead of the vermin. It struck her, but the paladin shook off the affects of the poison and went on to slay the foul beast. The party spent the next ten minutes sacking the chamber but discovered nothing of interest.

A door led through the next chamber, and the paladin led the way, but was lucky for the second time, as she stopped in the middle of the chamber just before stepping onto another covered pit trap. This one opened to reveal a pool of green slime at its bottom.

They soon came to a door that seemed stuck, but the wizard showed a surprising amount of strength. The sleeves of her robe stretched as her muscled bulged, and she pushed open the door, pushing rubble aside to reveal a room whose north end was a collapsed heap of rubble, letting light of the early evening shine through cracks. They heard the rustling of bats in the ceiling, but quietly searched the chamber. The barbarian saw a severed skeletal wrist poking from the rubble, and uncovered an ancient human warrior. Most of his arms and armor were long rusted away except for a gold insignia ring and a ruby encrusted sword sheath which appeared to be magical. The fightress hung the empty sheath from her belt in hopes of soon filling it with something better than the looted orcish battle axes which she and most of the party were forced to wield. They managed to leave the room without waking the bats.

Soon they came to a bend in the hallway, which had a door on one side, and they discovered a secret door on the other. No amount of force they mustered could open the secret door, so they turned their attention to the other one which opened easily enough. It revealed an old cloak room with nothing of interest.

They were just deciding where to go next, and had re-entered the long hall, when a patrol of 7 orcs rounded a corner. Everyone was surprised, but the party recovered first, unleashing a hail of arrows and daggers and charging warriors at the orcs, before the wizardess strode forward with palms held outward. She unleashed a cone of fire that burnt 6 of the 7 orcs to a crisp. The last orc, turned tail and ran, but was unable to push open the door he sought to escape through. He was cut down from behind, and the session ended there.

Whew, we accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. The orc battle began when we were fifteen minutes over our regular end time, and was over less than five minutes later, thanks to the Burning Hands of Reya. Great game.

There were friends, there was pizza, there was cherry vodka with sierra mist free (surprisingly good, perhaps even surpassing strawberry crush – and diet even!) and a good night of gaming. Lets see where did it start…

The party was standing in a hall somewhere, having just slain a procession of orcs. They entered the Flag chamber from the double doors at the end of the long hall. While discovering ancient and expensive flags and banners, they also disturbed a nest of two volts, flying creatures with big mouths at one end and a whip-like electrified tail at the other. Known as ‘electric eels of the air’ the creatures wreaked havoc before being slain. They found a magic banner which radiates a resistance to fear.

Needing to rest, the party camped out in the flag chamber, and spent a tense but quiet night. Moving out the next morning, they chose to return to the chamber with the lightning bolt trap. They miscalculated, believing the trap to be mechanical in nature, and once again the kobolds behind the door unleashed a lightning bolt. This time the entire party was in the room (I presumed) and all but two characters were dropped below zero. The kobolds burst into the room while the elf ranger and cleric tried to save as many fallen comrades as possible. (tpk: total party kill.)

Every tpk is different, and often some of the party survives. The most typical case is when a player is absent, or the character escapes, but in this case, saving for half damage allowed these two members, both of whom had healing spells, to survive. The ensuing battle however, with more lightning bolts, and six kobolds would have been unendurable, so I ruled the party captured. Only one character, the rogue, was permanently killed, and only because at the beginning of the night I vowed that the next character to die must play a monk, and she became interested.

Hours later the characters awoke in a cell room, two per cell. There were bars looking out into the mountain valley hundreds of feet below. Captured again, all their stuff taken, they were back to square one. Estimating the distance to the ground, they at least discovered they finally made it up to the next level. After a lot of work, they managed to escape their cells.

A new campaign kicks off as soon as the latest, greatest, and last public playtest hits the servers. While we have been playing (if you can call it that) a mega-dungeon crawling campaign of my own design, I want to try something new. A dragonlance dalliance.

The Dragonlance saga begins around level 4, so there will need to be an introductory adventure. In this case I have chosen, because it is new and shiny, the newly released adventure Murder in Baldur’s Gate. This adventure is the first new product released by D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast in a long time, and it is playable in any edition of D&D, with specific rules covering editions III, IV, and V. Great concept and I hope they stick with it. The adventure is also the same one being played at Encounters, the weekly public play event semi-sponsored by the publisher. I say semi-sponsored, because dm’s now have to purchase the adventure themselves, rather than receiving it as a reward for their time and effort to provide new and returning players a great fun time week after week.

Furthermore, the adventure is co-written by Ed Greenwood, legendary creator of the Forgotten Realms, and is set in one of the Realms iconic cities. Baldur’s Gate is one of the three major cities in that most popular of Game Worlds, and countless, books, games, and other tie-ins have been based in Baldur’s Gate, including a wildly popular computer game series from the very late 90′s, fittingly titled Baldur’s Gate.

The adventure is a complete mini-campaign setting, and includes a book detailing the city itself. There is a fold-out screen with a beautiful map on one side and pertinent information about the city on the other. This product is truly a sight to behold, and I have high hopes for the adventure, which is a non-linear mystery focusing on exploration, interaction, and problem solving, as well as the usual busting of heads and the emptying of pockets of the recently deceased. The campaign setting also details a Forgotten Realms “re-boot” for the new edition of D&D. I have not completely read up on what exactly the “Sundering” entails, but I hope to find a way to mesh the “Sundering” with the “Cataclysm” of Dragonlance 300 years prior to the start of the campaign which led to the abandonment of the world by the gods. Somehow I will also have to transport the party from the pre-cataclysm normal times of Baldur’s Gate into the post-cataclysm of the Dragonlance saga.

Baldur’s Gate is a big, important fantasy city. So I am going to rip it, whole cloth, out of the Forgotten Realms and plunk it down somewhere in my own campaign world D’Erte. I do this because I have never been a fan of published game worlds, mostly because I do not like worry about breaking ‘canon.’ My games get crazy and I do not like to have to rein them in to keep them within the bounds of a normal published setting.This is also why I generally do not run store-bought adventures. I have no hesitation about building my game out of the components of published works. This campaign will be a testament to that. Really, my own world D’Erte, is purposefully pretty vague so that it is easier to graft build into it whatever I need. There is a fine place for Baldur’s Gate along one of the coasts of D’Erte and it looks like a 300 year cataclysm is about to sweep my game world as well.

After Baldur’s Gate, the real campaign will begin. There are 16 adventures in the original saga, though I think we will somewhere between 9 and 11, the climax of the epic tale. The later adventures contain wargames, campaign guides, alternate time-lines and other weird stuff. Who knows! Dragonlance originally released in the mid 1980′s as a line of adventures with a tie in trilogy of novels. The novels are great reads, I highly recommend them, and they are written by the creators of the Dragonlance game world and adventure saga. Tracy and Laura Hickman and Margaret Weiss have become legends of world and game design themselves, and this is the vehicle which launched their fame.

When I first started playing dungeons and dragons, this is one of the first “campaigns” we played. I was not the DM when I played this series, my good friend Roge was the DM, and he did a bang up job. The memories of those games are faded into the mists of time, but I am excited to replay them, this time from the other side of the screen, not least because it will give me a chance to relive some of those halcyon days of yore.

This campaign will feature characters that the players create. This will cause a bit of trouble during the Saga, due to the intricate, intertwining personalities and backgrounds of the original heroes of the saga. (The game is meant to be played with pre-generated characters, with a very doubtful guideline for creating one’s own,if they feel they must.) In order to combat this I plan on giving the players some background and personality cues that map to specific characters from original storyline. This should help with continuity as well as role playing opportunities.

Considering of role playing opportunities, this campaign is designed to be more “immersive” than past games. Our best gaming experiences have been with campaigns that have lasted for over a year, yet the past couple years have seen nothing but short games. It has been fun, trying out everything from modern zombie apocalypse, to Temple of Elemental Evil with Pathfinder Beginner Box. But at some point I wanted to get back into an epic campaign. Epic stories are one of the reasons I play this game.

So all this epicness and immersion, and role playing will come at a price. My goal is to have as many people in our group as possible commit to renewing our efforts to be here week after week, on time and ready to play. The recent Friday Game Nights have become erratic with wildly varying levels of interest and participation, and this includes me.

Friday Game Nights, however, are too important to see them slide into decline like this. For many of us (me at least) it is the only time to socialize in an otherwise busy, work-filled week. It is a chance to be creative, to flex our imaginations; to interact and try to solve problems in unique ways; to make each other laugh, to entertain and be entertained; and finally we have really great food and drink. Some people go to clubs, some people have dinner parties, some people just crash in front of the monitor. We make up stories and roll dice and have fun in the comfort of my home, and I hope it continues like that forever

That is the course plotted for the next year or so of gaming around my table, starting next Friday night. Starting with character creation using the final playtest packet for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, we will play the newest published adventure as an introduction to the epic saga of Dragonlance, using the original adventure modules published back in the glorious hey-day of dungeons and dragons, when church pastors were foaming at the mouth over the demon worshipping role players, and Tom Hanks was telling us that make-belive leads to madness.

Dragonlance 6 is my favorite of the set, not least because of the incredibly cool artwork and because of my love of white dragons. (Oops, did I give away too much?) It is also the one I remember most as a 7th grader, when my duelist Alec LeFont met his end on the deck of an ice-runner. Damn you Roge! I had a grappling hook!

This is Twinkie Pie. He is a double alpha male cat that wont let ANYONE touch his paws – except a certain Ginger who can do whatever she wants and he is ok with it.

This week we played dnd and it was fun. We are playing the newly released “Murder in Baldurs Gate” as an into into a Heroes of the Lance Dragonlance campaign.

We were walking through town, Baldurs Gate, on a day of celebration when the God of Assassins was finally killed by the Duke who is also the city’s patron and most famous resident. It was a festival day and the heroes (we are calling them that though its accuracy is dubious at best) took pat in games of skill and chance. The bard perfomred an excellent rendition of Arry Pooter.

Much archery was loosed, some excellent jousting was perfromed, with the final round between the dragonborn paladin on her giant sugar-bear mount versus the elf ranger on her Acherai – a four legged flamingo mount. I cant even remember who won, but it was epic. Oh yes, each of them did excellently and won a pair of the duke’s daughter’s scarves. It was due to a wardrobe malfunction that the paladin was thrown by the ranger in the last round.

Finally, the group engaged a group of 7 thugs in a mock battle. This meant attacking to subdue only, which meant some spells and weapons were unavailable, like crossbows and magic missiles for example. The party won, and then the free beer was released to the crowds in giant barrels around the town square. City nobles came up on stage including Fancy Filosi, Jambunathon Boehner, Bitch Baconnel (short for Bitchell), and world famous Duke Bo Robama.

They tried to give some speeches that were topical and cross referenced our own current ongoing struggles with government in a way that inspires dialogue, but the players wanted one of that, they wanted to bust more heads, so I obliged. Crossbowmen opened up on the crowd from second story windows while the thugs from earlier started kill9ing an wounding panicked civilians in a wanton slaughter. Meanwhile Duke Bo Robama was fighting for his life against a crazed old man with a short sword who called himself Darth Yoda.

The battle is crazy and when the old man is killed, the duke explodes and turns into some disgusting monster all tooth and claws. It ends up swallowing the gnome cleric, then the evil wizard who went in after her, before being killed by a combination of attacks from Jillian the highly skilled weapon mistress and the paleolithic tribal duo Male Human Bard and Female Elf Ranger. The kender spent the entirety of all three battles looting corpses as they fell. She also “found” a divan at one point, which aided the heroes in their fight against the thugs.

Laying out my stack of tiles for some serious construction.

For the past two Fridays, we have been using the Dwarven Forge Game Tiles with our miniatures to play d&d. We happened to be going through an urban murder mystery at the time (Murder in Baldur’s Gate) so this took a little modification, but the past two weeks have shown how much awesomeness the Game Tiles can add. I am lucky to have acces to such wonderful paraphernalia for our game, including the Dwarven Forge Game Tiles, Reaper miniatures, and other good stuff picked up over the years. The last two items though, both coming out in the past year, has definitely taken our game to a new level of cool.

It was thanks to the exemplary player, friend, and all around great dude Dave, who made this possible. I was on sabbatical at the time and he stepped up to take part in the Kickstarter for the tiles when I was unable due to a chronically deflated bank account. My players are all great, and constantly work to make up for my own inadequacies. Isn’t that what a good life is all about?

Player built the dungeon, I added appropriate encounters.

It looks like this will be quite a challenging dungeon! Fortunately reason prevailed and we went on to play the adventure at hand: Murder in Baldur’s Gate. In this episode the heroes have just defeated the demon who slew the town’s protector, and are beset upon all sides by those whowant to fill the power vacuum left in the good duke’s wake. They get offers from the Silver Spoons, the Flaming Fists, and an attractive lady known as Rihanna. Each group requested a midnight meeting in a tavern known as the Dragoneye. When they arrived, they realized it was a set-up, and were attacked by the Silver Tea Spoon Thugs on one side, and the Pirates of the Flaming Fists on the other. It was their alliance with the owner of the tavern Rihanna herself which allowed them to prevail.

Throw down at Rihanna’s

That was last week. This week for Halloween I wanted to spookify it up, so I took some inspiration from the classic adventure Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh and rebuilt the mansion’s first floor. Their goal, was to help out Rihanna, who was a champion of the poor outer district. The fisherman’s wharf area was having many of their children kidnaped – 30 in the past 3 weeks. She feared that even more will be at risk during the next day’s children’s festival, and asked the heroes to find out what was happening. All signs pointed to the crumbling house overlooking the sea at the top of Saltmarsh Lane.

Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

We didn’t get to finish the adventure but it was a ton of fun.There were traps on practically everything, and a few good treasures were found. They also had a run in with a Frankensteinian Flesh Golem. After spoiling for a fight all night, they quickly ran away from the monster. They did save 5 kids before we had to call it a night. Maybe next year!

Jambunathon pummeled

Punched up, knocked down, and dragged out of the room by the monk, Jambunathon faced the mighty flesh golem alone. While everyone else wondered what the heck was he thinking?!?! It was fun.

Orc Hillside Encampment

This mini-adventure kicks off a new series called Ancient Encounters, culled from my ancient notebooks of campaigns past. The idea came after writing about re-using an old adventure, and I realized these great encounters deserve a little more attention. Hopefully others can be inspired by this series to make their own adventures, or to use elements of these admittedly “brief” encounters as building blocks for great games.

Orc Hillside Encampment History

Around 2008 I decided to get the band back together after a hiatus of… well, since the late 80′s. Our first adventure was called Zagyg the Fogroggen King, and this little dungeon was one of the encounters possible in the outdoor forest exploration adventure.

The dungeon is the plundered tomb of one of the forgotten king’s lieutenants, the Dwarf lord Konnag. Clues to the adventure are hidden, but the characters must defeat the orcs who have made the tomb their forward raiding camp.

In the stony cliffside of a hill deep in the dark forests surrounding King’s Gate, two rock-arched entrances lead into the tomb of the Dwarf Lord Konnag and his companions. One is high up the steep hillside, and a narrow pathway leads up to it. The other arch is at the base of the cliff. Two Orcs stood at guard outside each cave entracne as the characters approached. They were spotted and charged forward in a desparate head-on clash that almost wiped the party out before they had even begun.

The druid and hisdog charged up the hill and engaged the upper orcs, while the fighter and the rest fought the two orcs at the lower doorway, and then even more as they had to contend with the orcs that came pouring out of their barracks. The battle was desparate to the point where the elven wizard had torush up the hill to try and save the fighter by making a long sword attack. It succeeded and the tide of battle was turned.

At this point the adventurers were low on resources and injured, but the pushed on, checking outthe upper chamber first. It lead to a bone filled room. The gnome illusionis was riding the druid’s war-dog, and nearly tumbled head first into the concealed pit. They picked the lock into the next hamber and searched the sundered tombs of the dwarven paladins. In one skull they find a ring rattling around in the skull of a dward and the cleric puts it on. It is cursed and he has a chance of going berzerk in battle ever after.

They opt out of opening the double doors, and go check out the now emptied barracks inside the lower door. The room is full of shabby mats of fur, straw, and cloth. At one end it a stout wooden chest, and it is trapped. The thief pops the trap and is pricked by a needle. A wave of nausea passes through her, but she shakes it off.

The adventurers realize they cannot go on without any healing or magic left, so they retreat to a nearby monestery (see next ancient encounter entry) and come back refreshed the next morning. The orcs have set up a barricade around the entrance to their lair, and the party must use subterfuge to try an gain surprise. They defeat the orcs a second time, and re-enter the barracks. They pick the lock on the same chest a second time, avoiding the trap, and finding it empty. Six of the orcs carry Short swords +1 plundered from Konnag’s companions.

They move into the hall ,but must first disable a crossbow trap set up to fire at anyone who attempts to open the inner door. Once in the hallway, tiny poisonous lizards drop from the ceiling onto them, and they bust through the next chamber to fight the orc priest and his acolytes. The shaman is cut down before he ever gets an action, and the last acolyte escapes up the ladder, and is chased through the store room and towards the shaman’s chamber. The party sets up a flaming oil trap of their own in the store room, and soon defeat the remaining orcs as they counter-attack.

The final chamber in the adventure is the unplundered tomb of Konnag. The door is trapped with electricity. The orcs have not managed to break in. Once the players get through (using create water, mage hand, and something else I forget) they enter the room with Konnag’s corpse. Above his sarcophagus his phantom rises and says something about gotta fight ya for breakin in and corruptin the tomb. Beside him are two large urns, full of holy water, and they are the only thing that can damage the phantom, so hilarity ensues as they all pass around the one cup they have, to dip and splash it in the phantom until he is ‘purified’

Their prize is one of the artifacts of the forgotten king, Flamering +2 Flaming Bastard Sword.

House Rules

Between battles, parties with magical healing capable classes (i.e. clerics) can heal their party to full HP during a short rest, using their magic healing. Without magical healing, no hit points are regained while adventuring. Only magic or time and rest can heal injuries. During a battle, all normal healing spells and magic applies.

The great thing about this re-setting of hit points during an encounter is that HP no longer become a resource to be spent and saved, but return to their natural place as an indicator of the amount of punishment an individual
(or swarm) can take and/or has taken.

There are plenty of other resources to be managed and honestly, getting people to rest between encounters has never been a problem, just the opposite is usually true. Therefore, with a cleric, druid, paladin, or whatever, hand-wave the fiddly in-between encounter healing and they just do it. Now encounters can be based on a full strength party rather than an estimate of how ‘spent’ they will be when engaging.

Other mechanics could be added to limit the amount of times a cleric can do this in-between magic. Like a low level cleric may only be able to do it one person per level per hour or something similar. Possibly druids or bards even might be limited to curing fewer times, or less than 100 percent. Or maybe every time a healer uses the skill, they lose a point of strength (they take on the pain like an alien chick in an old episode of Start Trek) until they are forced to rest. These types of rules however ruin the basic premise that the party starts every battle at full hp, and when a character is not at full hp they are in fact injured, and a night’s rest will not cause gaping wounds to heal.

This is all just theoretical at this point.

Monastery of St Cuthbert

This mini-adventure continues a series called Ancient Encounters, culled from ancient notebooks of campaigns past. The idea came after writing about re-using an old adventure, and I realized these great encounters deserve a little more attention. Hopefully others can be inspired by this series to make their own adventures, or to use elements of these admittedly “brief,” “vague,” and “improvisational encounters as building blocks for great games.

The Monastery of St Cuthbert History

The monastery is located in the forests surrounding a sparsely populated countryside. The monks are part of an order devoted to protecting the good folk in their domain by patrolling and watching over the inhabitants of the forest. Being monks of St. Cuthbert, the monks are not averse to using shows of strength and bouts of violence to ensure that lawful goodness prevails.

The walls are built of strong logs, the grounds are well tended and well defended at all times by at least half the monks. The daily tasks of the monks focuses on growing crops and keeping farm animals. The monks use the fruits of these labors to support themselves and to help those in need. Acquiring wealth is forbidden to the monks, but they keep a small stash buried in the woods outside the monastery for emergencies.

This edifice made its appearance in an adventure called “The forgotten King” (not to be confused with the published adventure of the same name. I just liked the name.) It was the opening adventure of a campaign I call “The undead wars” that saw a battle for the material realm between Orcus and Demogorgon, with the heroes (and the world) caught in the crossfire. In the adventure, the good people of King’s Gate were invaded by an undead army while the characters were staying at the inn. They have to escape, then find the clues to bring back the legendary “Forgotten King” who saved the people millenia before, and would return to do it again when most needed.

The Monastery of St Cuthbert was in a forest that the characters needed to explore for clues to the wherabouts of the king. Having stormed an orc hideout, they needed to find a place to rest, and came upon the sanctuary. It so happened that due to cancellations, only a couple players were able to make the next session, and so the monks had a special mission for those characters in attendance.

A gypsy woman was hiding with a half-elven child in the undead-occupied village of Kings Gate. The elven mage and human druid agreed to go on a rescue mission with an elf monk as guide. They entered the village and had to fight two ogres before arriving at the tent. They miraculously slew the ogres but in the process the elf wizard was knocked unconscious and fell into a cart of fish (which saved the characters life.) The woman was gone but they found the child, just as a patrol of skeletons began marching along the street. The elf monk escaped with the child while the druid held off the skeletons in a suicidal sacrifice.

He slew many of the skeletons before being cut down and left to bleed to death in the street. Thus began the most intense survival I have ever witnessed in a game. In 3e, the rules for below zero involve rolling dice and seeing if you lose another hitpoint or stabilize,once per hour. The druid was mortally wounded, and all night long he rolled to see if he slipped closer to death, which he did until he was at -9 hp. -10 hp was death. At that point he somehow stabilized, and dawn was breaking, so I ruled his dog came back, licked his face until he was conscious enough to pull himself up, fish the wizard out of the cart, and limp home to the monastery. Their reward for a successful mission was a hand woven head band that allowed +1 spell memorization per day.

There is an error in the map. If you look closely you will notice that there is no way to use the staircase to go between floors.

Minotaur maze

To get past this level of the dungeon, one must confront the mighty minotaur.

This mini-adventure continues a series called Ancient Encounters, culled from ancient notebooks of campaigns past. The idea came after writing about re-using an old adventure, and I realized these great encounters deserve a little more attention. Hopefully others can be inspired by this series to make their own adventures, or to use elements of these admittedly “brief,” “vague,” and “improvisational encounters as building blocks for great games.

This dungeon level originally took place in a multi-dungeon tomb of a long forgotten king. Many of the ancient king’s advisors continued to serve him long after the entombment, and one such is the bailiff, transformed into a mighty minotaur, who guards the coin vaults of the king. The notable features of the dungeon are air fire and water traps. The water trap was a room whose doors locked when a counter-weight was achieve din the middle of the room. The room then filled with water in 3-6 rounds. Also a water weird was released into the room, intent on tripping and drowning anyone caught in the chamber.

The secret doors are difficult to detect can only be passed by waving a hand in front of them at the nine foot level, other wise they are are considered solid rock. They slide open and closed silently by magic when the hand wave is given. The minotaur uses the secret doors strategically in order to catch his prey off guard for and do drive by stampede and gore attacks.

The coin vaults are presided over by a ghostly accountant, unable to interact with the world except to count and stack coins, and who knows where every coin of the hoard is at all times, intent on keeping them together. The bailiff aids him in this endeavor. Treasure value 8,000 gold coins.

The minotaur’s lair is a veritable bachelor pad of evil delight, complete with demoness concubine. Could be a succubus, or maybe Type V…

Ninarrens Cabin in the Woods

An elven serial killer’s secret hide-out in the woods.

This encounter area continues a series called Ancient Encounters, culled from ancient notebooks of campaigns past. The idea came after writing about re-using an old adventure, and I realized these great encounters deserve a little more attention. Hopefully others can be inspired by this series to make their own adventures, or to use elements of these admittedly “brief,” “vague,” and “improvisational encounters as building blocks for great games.

This would be about the point my last major campaign went “off the rails” due to my inability to follow my own self-imposed stricture to play a campaign by the book with store-bought adventures. Apparently my mind doesn’t work that way. The night of adventure inspired by this encounter has remained one of my favorite, and in some ways was instrumental in getting this blog started. For the encounter is described in the third ever post on this site, from Feb 12th, 2010:

…The game commenced with the party awakening in their garret apartment of Dame Gilroy’s Tenement, the morning after solving the Mystery of the Black Skull.

First order of business was breakfast, followed by shopping and information gathering. Valthrun the wise gave a history lesson that revealed three things: the downfall of the Keep was a rift in the Shadowfell caused by Orcus, that Orcus is imprisoned in the Abyss, and that Lord Padraig’s ancestor commanded that doomed garrison.

The dwarf Bronzebottom Brothers revealed that they received the crate with the black skull from men in the woods, and had some items to sell.

The party left town and went to the farmhouse where Jib Booter the woodsman agreed to help them navigate the wood. They followed the trail of Delphina along a secret path that ran parallel to the Kings Road, until it met two other sets of tracks in a clearing and turned north just before reaching Ninaren’s cabin.

The cabin was made of living branches pruned from the tops of four living trees, which were the four cornices of the cabin. It had a door, two shuttered windows, and thick thatched roof.

The cabin held a trap, a “Living Cloud of Daggers” that attacked when the door was touched. Inside was Delphina, tied up ad bleeding from a stab in her bosom. The room contained many hidden items, some of them magic: cat tabi boots, bloodstinger poison, an arrow of firesorm +1 and another of feezing +2.

Delphina was near unconcious, but before she slipped into a Snow White like slumber she told the following tale:

In the beginning, when the first elves awoke, even before the sun rose for the first time, they chose among them a king and queen. Thus the royal line of elves began, and a prophecy said that as the first royal elf brought the rest of the elves into the world with him, so the last royal elf to leave the world, would take the elves with her.

In the Undead war of 100 years ago, the elf lads were invaded and decimated, the royal house slaughtered when the capital fell to ruin. Only one young princess survived, and she was whisked away into hiding. Delphina is that princess,and if she dies, so must every elf alive.

However, the full prophecy was thwarted when Ninaren stoul her soul with a spirit knife and then cast an eternal slumber upon her before she perished forever. Why Ninaren, a fellow elf, would do this is unknown, but her tracks lead to the Keep on the Shadowfell.

Jib weeps as Delphina drifts into slumber, and vows to protect her. The party sets off for the Keep. ..

Critical Hit Table

Cleaning out my garage this weekend I made an amazing find: my house rules binder from my gaming youth. This set of tables was compiled around 1983-1984. I was twelve. It was based off a few magazine articles, as well as a chart (using percentiles) by the big brother of a friend. We were the “second generation” of role players to arrive on the scene after our older siblings paved the way. One of the innovations I learned from those Old Ones was the idea of creating “Campaign Binders” that contained all manner of new rules and details about the ongoing games being played. Critical hit and miss tables were one of the first things I created and inserted into my binder.

Penalty Roll (Critical Miss) Table

These tables were used continuously for the entirety of our AD&D careers, covering hundreds of natural 20’s and 1’s up until 1989, when we stopped playing regularly and my game binder became lost amidst the onset of adulthood. In the years since, I have toyed with many other systems for Critical hits and misses, and in that time I have switched from calling a natural 1 a Penalty Roll to calling it a Critical Miss. (Never liked fumble.) It just sounds better that way. Here is a previous two part article I wrote about using critical hits and misses in Fourth Edition. (Those rules never quite had the “pizzazz” around the table I was hoping for, and led to us eventually moving back to Pathfnder Hit and Miss cards.)

The fact remains that these tables are the best I have ever used, and although they might seem harsh (what with all the limb-lopping) they provide combat with a gritty, dramatic, and visceral component that is hard to match any other way. They have been revised over the course of hundreds of hours (just look at all the exceptions) to create an unparalleled system for capturing the chaotic violence of mortal combat.

A special note should be made to point out that in the 30 years since these tables were originally concocted, role playing games have gone from meat-grinder factories to heroic deeds of legend, and that these tables should be used not with an eye toward permanently handicapping the players — one limb at a time –- but towards making each combat riskier and bloodier. Taking recovery into account is important as well, and magical healing should be considered for the re-attachment of limbs and other permanent injuries that may affect player characters. Possibly with the addition of a nasty scar. These charts are not for the faint of heart. Just don’t make it too easy…

There is an island in the mysterious southern seas called the Isle of Dread. And on this island is a lake, which we will call the Lake of Dread. In this lake is a small islet, and on that islet is the House of the Amber Wizard.

This encounter area continues a series called Ancient Encounters, culled from ancient notebooks of campaigns past. The idea came after writing about re-using an old adventure, and I realized these great encounters deserve a little more attention. Hopefully others can be inspired by this series to make their own adventures, or to use elements of these admittedly “brief,” “vague,” and “improvisational encounters as building blocks for great games.

The arch wizard Obitello Amber built the mansion in the most remote location he could find, and moved there with his daughters Isolda and Ismelda and his son Sfart, the perennial apprentice. For many years the wizard worked hard to create his masterpiece, the Crown of Enlightenment. However, he was rendered feeble-minded when the crown was stolen from him.

To get to the house, one must cross a small by VERY deep lake, which may or may not harbor the fearsome Lake Kraken. Once the waters have been navigated, the islet is a small grassy hillock, with a few copses of trees. The outdoor areas under the trees look like a messy encampment has been set up, but no campers are visible. This is because they are all invisible.

Ripped from the CS Lewis novel the Dawn Treader, these creatures, who are invisible Halflings, have stolen the crown, and given it to their hero Freedom the Halfling, for it has special properties for them. The Halflings were once known as chibi-fanaton, cuddly but savage little creatures who were like furry Halflings with prehensile tails and no culture or even language other than a few grunts and squeals. The wizard loved these creatures and kept them around as pets and servants, until making a startling discovery one day.

His favorite little Halfling put the crown on one day while the wizard was napping and a terrible transformation took place. His hair fell out and his tail blackened and fell off, and thus the first halfling sprang into being. More soon followed until all the chibi fanaton on the islet were transformed. Eventually Freedom stole the crown and ran off with it to “liberate” his people on the mainland. Obitello has been in a semi-conscious state ever since. The Halflings who were loyal to the wizard stayed, but convinced the spell caster to turn them invisible because they were embarrassed about their nakedness.

Amber Mansion

The house itself is surrounded by a Hedge Maze. The inhabitants of the maze are unicorn-rabbits, also known as al-miraj. There are hundreds of them but they will only be a nuisance, running between legs, unless the hedge itself is damaged, whereupon 4 al miraj will direct savage ankle-goring charge attacks against any arboreal aggressor. They can be tamed and kept as a pet under the right circumstances.

The house is typical of an arch wizard – anything and everything that can have a spell cast on it DOES have spells cast upon them. The entry chamber has suits of armor ready to attack, living furniture etc. The dining room is served by ghosts of servants long gone. The downstairs is fully of crazy wizard stuff, and the upstairs holds the bedrooms including the bedroom of the sleeping wizard, who only wakes up for one hour per day. His daughters are missing (in the basement?) and the nly other inhabitant is a world explorer named Shackleton who has spent the past decade searching for his lost love Isolda. The explorer is mad with grief and also possibly possessed by whatever (demons?) is in the basement.

The next Ancient Encounter might be called Devils in the Basement of the Amber Wizard.