Yet, Another Rekindling...

 As you can see from the previous posts, my D&D gaming experience has been quite.... sparse.

During the pandemic, I ran a Swords & Wizardry sandbox campaign on Roll20 for my wife and friends, most of whom never really played D&D. It was an actually pretty fun campaign and I had every intention of recording their exploits here as I had done with my previous S&W campaign. These adventures existed in the same campaign world that I've been running in my previous years long sandbox setting.

This "COVID Campaign" was also my longest Roll20 campaign as well. Roll20 served nicely for all of us to get together and play for a few hours each week during the world's apocalyptic pandemic.

Swords & Wizardry was a great ruleset for getting noobs into a fantasy RPG. Simple rules and mechanics got everyone up and running pretty quick. Everyone enjoyed the game, we all had lots of laughs and it was a great way to kill long hours at home. With characters like Karona Viress the cleric, George Michael the wizard and BuFoo the assassin, you can imagine the good times that we had as I ran them through everything from the Keep on the Borderland's Caves of Chaos to Rahasia and the Endless Tunnels of Enladin to all manner of one-shots and home made dungeon crawl adventures. 

Running the sessions on Roll20 evolved into me having to prepare a lot more assets for game play. We ended up relying quite a bit on the maps, tokens and interfaces to 'enhance' gameplay. This meant I spent more and more time preparing maps and tokens. This took a bit of a toll on me especially when my job was becoming more and more demanding.

We wrapped up the campaign with everyone's characters hitting about 5th level or so. I really do wish I recored the campaign because it was quite wild and fun.

So, let us flash forward to 2022.

Friends from my old group were looking to get together for at least a one-shot and maybe more if things went well.  Well, we're all a bit older and have more responsibilities and, after weeks of scheduling conflicts, we finally go together to play some D&D. This time it would be D&D 5e.

Yes, the cool-aid has been sipped.

I stepped back as a DM and slipped in as a player.  

Brian (Teabag and Arg form our old S&W campaign), our 5e DM ran the classic Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh.  It was a fun romp through the infamous 'haunted house' scenario and beyond. And 5e wasn't so bad either.  Brian played very loose with it so it pretty much ran like a classic D&D game.  

Annnd, of course, this piqued my interest in running a 5e game myself.  There are some mechanics I really liked, and, I will soon fine, some I will need to tweak.

So, yes, here we are again. I'm diving into 5e and seeing where that takes me....

Roll 20 And Playing In A Virtual Environment Part 2

Part 2 of my experiences with running a session, from an old school perspective, in a Virtual TableTop (VTT), specifically Roll 20.

You can go through your own research, walk-throughs and toying around with Roll20 if you haven't already. I think you'll find it pretty robust.

You can also catch up on Part 1 here.

Preparing the Session Part 2

With the VTT maps completed I began to populate the dungeons with our familiar denizens.

Now the standard VTT maps, when created, tend to have a video game quality to them;  an overhead view of a semi-realistic portrayal of the dungeon environment displayed upon the virtual table.  My main concern was that this display would pull players out of their imagination and stick them within the computer screen.  Don't know if that was good or bad but, instinctively I felt that was something I would try to avoid.  So when it came to adding the monster tokens I was faced with another decision.

Since the maps are top-down views, the tokens for monsters and players tend to also be from a top down view.  This also pushed the visual experience of a VTT into a realm of a video game.

Overhead, I don't know what monsters are going to kill the party!

It also made it hard to tell what monster you were actually facing.

I decided to go with using token rounds that I customized and created from old-school art.

More representative monster tokens.  Ah, goblins are going to kill the party!

I think these had a better feel to them, at least for me.  But what I also felt was that the more realism I pulled out of the graphic represented on the screen, the more my imagination fill that space in.  This lead me to the conclusion that I can probably pull out all 'realism' from the map as well and that would let player's imagination participate more.

Since I had already created the maps, I left them as is as I wanted to experiment with using the VTT in this visual extreme.  So I ended with detailed maps and hand-drawn tokens.

Gathering Players

I posted my campaign session out there on the Roll20 Boards to gather players.  I was running Swords & Wizardry Complete with my updated house-rules.  I was hoping an old school set of rules would bring in some curious players. I decided I would take the first 5 players that responded.  I was open to playing with veterans or players new to RPGs alike.  Basically I just wanted to see who would show up.

It only took a day or two to get six interested parties, one over what I had planned.  I thought, why not challenge my first time running a VTT session.  Six players at my real table, though rowdy is quite fun.  I also figured that by game time I would loose one or two players for whatever reasons would come up - and that was indeed the case.  One player took himself out of the mix while the other just never responded or replied after their initial poke of interest.

So I ended up with four virtual players, all of whom were pretty decent role-players.

Since Roll20 VTT's game sessions, once activated, can be used by the invited players whether the GM is present or not.  So we worked out character creation where they would make their attribute rolls in game, which records all the dice rolls and used the message board for CharGen and rule questions.

With everything in place, I was finally ready to begin playing...

Part 3

Roll 20 And Playing In A Virtual Environment Part 1

I love the concept of a Virtual Tabletop (VTT) for playing RPGs.

Playing with folks from all over the interwebs or old friends in different states, with all the tools, from dice rolling and minis and maps, make the VTT a great 21 century tool for Role Playing across the void of time and space (okay, that was a bit more dramatic that what I was actually going for but you get the idea).

Over the years I've browsed through Fantasy Grounds, Open RPG and a couple of others (you can see a full list here).  But what I found with these is a large learning-curve, cost for the application (usually for the GM), or platform specific (yeah, I'm on a Mac).  I had no intention of making my job as GM more complicated than it already was.

Then I came across Roll 20  a while back.  Roll 20 is a browser-based VTT, that is both non-browser and non-platform specific, has a much smaller learning-curve, and a responsive development team.  And one other thing is that it's free to use.

You can go through your own research, walk-throughs and toying around with Roll20 if you haven't already. I think you'll find it pretty robust.  What I really want to talk about is my experiences in preparing and running a Roll 20 game with an old school perspective.

Preparing the Session Part 1

As most of you know, as a GM, there is plenty to gather and organize for any gaming session.  A session in a VTT where you want to take full advantage of the application's tools is a whole additional process. 

There are many different ways to play a session on the VTT.  One is to just use the app for the group dice rolling, the other is to just import a scan of the map and reveal it as the players explore.  Another way is to build the scaled detailed map using the mapping tiles and populate the map with all manner of dungeon dressings available.  I choose to go with the later and experiment with the full process of the Virtual Environment created by the VTT.

Modern gaming usually has a smallish 'battle-map' that leads to the big-boss fight.  The scale of these 'adventures' is pretty small compared to mega-dungeon or free-form sandbox of old style of play.  And, of course, I was going for the later with a multi-level smallish megadungeon.

One of 2 Upper Level maps created.

In Roll20 you have all the tools in game to create a map or maps ahead of time and so I set out building my dungeon.  I decided to run my Outpost on the Edge of the Far Reaches adventure module and began translating that into the Roll20 table-top environment.  I began building the map directly in the application, which is fine for smaller encounter based adventure but for megadungeons can pose a bit of a problem with the number of images that has to be generated by the online application.  All the individual floor tiles, props and monsters all take time to render and can potentially slow the game down.  I later found that it is better to create your maps in an outside application such as Photoshop or GIMP.

Now, it does take a while to create one of these maps and I'm looking at created four or more of them in the VTT style.  But I chugged away at it and I eventually finished and imported the maps into the campaign.

My main concern was that in traditional table-top play - old school style, battle maps and minis rarely came into play.  The game mostly rides on the imagination of each player.  I began to wonder if these overly detailed maps might take away from the game being played in the mind to the game being played on screen.  I couldn't predict how that would go but I was surprised at how the players interacted with the detailed map.

One of 4 lower level maps created.

Roll 20 supports a fog of war feature that lets you reveal map areas to the players as you see fit.  They also support a Dynamic Lighting feature (for paying users) that let you 'program' how a torch light would interact with the environment.  Again, that would add another level of prep time for the GM and all within the VTT itself.  Since I'm playing with the free version, the fog of war is all I have to play with and that's plenty.

With the maps created, I moved on to populating my virtual dungeon and I'll cover that tomorrow in part two.

Part 3 can be found here.

Gambling In RPGs: Wild West

Card playing and gambling were a mainstay in any western milieu so I wanted to make that a quick and simple option in my upcoming campaign.  However, after looking around the interwebs I was unable to find a satisfactory solution.  I wanted to keep the gambling in-game, quick and not side-track from the reason we all gathered in the first place, to role-play some wild west action and not sit around playing cards.  This is based on using Go Fer Yer Guns! but should be adaptable to any other RPG.

So here is what I came up with...

I'm basing the gambling 'mini-game' on Poker Dice but since this is being planned for a western style game I've switched the dice to playing cards; 9, 10, J, Q, K, A of all four suites as well as added a few additional elements. Since one of the hands in Poker Dice is 5 of a kind, I've added the two Jokers as wild cards. Thus 26 cards, 4 short of the 30 options in Poker Dice but I think that will work fine.

This 'mini-game' scene represents the entire 'poker' or gambling session for the player. The player 'antes' up the amount of money he wishes to gamble away. This would be a one time 'in' and wins and losses are based on this amount.

The GM deals 5 cards to the PC(s) and 5 cards to himself. The first two cards are face down and the last three are face up. This gives the outcome a bit of suspense and an option for players looking to cheat. The players are allowed to look at their face down cards.

These 5 cards are the only cards the players get with the following exceptions. The player can decide to use his Pick Pocket (cheat) ability to attempt to cheat to win the hand OR to use his Card Sharp ability to either cut his losses or enhance his winnings. He has to choose one or the other. The choice is made after the cards are dealt.

If the character (PC or NPC) have a Pick Pocket (cheat) ability they can try to cheat by rolling a Dex check + bonus + level directly against the victim's Intelligence check + bonus + Level.

A failure means that the slight of hand failed and the cheater was caught. Role-play accordingly - accusations shouted, guns drawn, bullets fly!

If they win then the player gets to trade in either or both of his face down cards to be dealt new ones. That will be his final hand.

All cards are displayed and winning hands are based on standard Poker Dice results. The winners and losers then roll on the charts below for final outcome.

WIN
Roll D12 +/- INT Modifiers

0 or less - Broke Even
1 - +20%
2 - +40%
3 - +60%
4 - +80%
5- Double your money
6- Double +10%
7- Double +30%
8- Double + 50%
9- Double +70%
10- Triple
11- Triple +Victim's weapon
12- Triple +victim's treasured item
13- Triple + weapon + Treasured item
14+  -  Triple + weapon + Treasured item + debt

LOSE
Roll D12 +/- INT Modifiers

0 or less - Loose all money, weapon, boots, treasured item + debt
1 - loose all money, weapon, boots, treasured item
2 - loose all money, weapon, boots
3 - loose all money, weapon
4 - loose all money
5- 90% of money
6- 80% of money
7- 70% of money
8- 60% of money
9- 50% of money
10- 40% of money
11- 30% of money
12- 20% of money
13- 10% of money
14+  -  Break Even


Now, if the player(s) had chosen NOT to cheat during the hand, they can influence the roll by adding their INT bonus. By the same token, the dealer can, if he had chosen NOT to cheat, apply his INT bonus as a subtraction to the player's roll.

I did a quick test of the above and it worked pretty well and was quick. I'll give it another couple of run-throughs just to be sure. If anyone sees any issues or has any other ideas let me know. This should be able to be adapted to most other RPGs as well.

Wild West Campaign: The Town of Rebel

Thinking I'd start things off small, I decided to begin play in the small town of Rebel.  It's found on the eastern portion of the Rosewood Territory campaign map.  Even a small town like this there was quite a bit going on.

Rebel is a small tough mining town on the main road west just south of Beggars Canyon  It was founded by Harlow Cox after the Civil War before he moved further west and sunk roots in the more prosperous Harlow Junction.  Cox, however, still runs the Rebel though Sheriff Slade.  Slade keeps tabs on the town for Cox.  The sheriff and his deputies help protect the tin-pans working in Beggars Canyon from Angus Young. The Mormon from Bronson has sent his band of ruffians lead by Barton Clay and are trying to run the miners out so that they can stake the claim.

The Canyon Creek Saloon is the towns main gathering place run by Boon Johnson, close friend with the Sheriff and Harlow Cox.  He's always got his ear open to the goings on in Rebel and feeds that back to Cox directly.  His 'Scarlet Ladies' help keep the clientele drunk and satisfied.  At the Canyon Creek Saloon you'll usually see a number of tin-pans celebrating their strikes or drowning their sorrows, ranchers, a few buffalo hunters and weary travelers heading west whetting their whistles.  You'll also find the hard drinking Doc Anderson always willing to deal someone's inebriated, gold heavy, pockets into his infamous poker games.

Now during this process I created a 'map' of the connections of the general folks in this town.  As you can see the connections get a little crazy but it should be enough to get started.

I'm using the concept posted on the Boot Hill OD&D boards about using the people as rooms and connections as corridors for the players to 'explore'.  There's a few love-triangles, illicit affairs, a couple of rival gangs and indebted tin-pans to keep things flowing.  And there's a few connections to the larger campaign area and the bigger power-players in the territory.  I'm hoping that the players stories should evolve fairly organically within the environment without too much instigating on my part, but we'll see.  I'll have a few nuggets to toss  in there if necessary.

Go Fer Yer Gun! New Character Class: The Whore

My wild west game of choice is Go Fer Yer Gun! by Simon Washbourn and put out by Beyond Belief Games.  As written, the rules define ten character classes; the Brave, Doctor, Drifter, Gunslinger, Maverick, Mountain Man, Muckraker, Preacher, Scout, Wrangler and the Wandering Monk optional class.

Though the west was quite the rough and tough setting and "no place for a woman", women played a big role in establishing the foundations of America's Manifest Destiny.  Though the classes mentioned above can be played by a women as equally as a man, there were two roles common in the western milieu that come up time and time again and were strictly the realm of the tough western woman;  that would be the whore and the widow.  I've added these two classes to my upcoming Go Fer Yer Gun game.

Josephine Marcus "dancer" who
became Wile Earp's third wife.

Whore

It's hard not to think of the wild west and it's sparse towns and rowdy saloons without the comfort to those rough riders; the Prostitute.  By circumstance, choice or need, these women were among the first to populate the rough towns of the burgeoning west.  Many of these women were expelled from their family life,  deserted by their parents or husband, some choose this profession while others lead this life until something or someone better came along.  But others were tricked and coerced into being soiled-doves, ladies of easy virtue,  scarlet ladies and calico queens.  Working in the saloons, bawdy houses or mobile cat wagons, these women of ill-repute were anything but naive in the ways of the world.  Though most were illiterate, they knew their power over the wild men of the west and used that power to influence and coerce their place in society.  Of course, it was a long hard road for these women who not only fought off disease, injury and death but also the stigma from the more pious sect of society.  These women carved out their place in the American west with their blood and sweat just as their male counter-parts did.

Abilities

Heal (Int):  The power of a women in the west to be a care-taker was not overlooked.  A women can  prevent further blood loss.  With a successful check d3 hit points are restored.  A failed check staunches a wound and returns victim to 1 hp from zero or below.  (See GFYG! pg. 11)

Care & Attention:  If this women spends at least an hour a day tending the wounds the victim she will add an addition hit point recovery to what the patient already gains from bed rest.  (See GFYG! pg. 11)

6th Sense (sense motive):  These ladies of ill-fame have a knack for sizing up a person's true sense of character.  They can see through the bluster and bravado of a wet behind the ears gun-toting hombre or the sinister manipulations of a hustler.  Once per day for every 3 levels, a whore can use her 6th sense to get a feel for a persons motives.

Pick Pocket (Dex):  This ability allows the whore to palm small items such as coins, money, jewelry,  and so on.  (See GFYG! pg. 16)

Feminine Wiles (Cha):  Using her feminine charms, the whore can calm an otherwise escalating situation or gain the trust of a lonesome rider. She can even manipulate someone to fight her battles for her or stand up for her "honor".  She can manipulate a single person at 1st level and one extra person for each additional 4 levels.

Town Sharp (Wis):  A soiled-dove knows a lot of the goings-ons in the town and surrounding area that she gleans from the pillow talks of her satisfied clients.  With a successful check she is able to recall relevant information about affairs or dealings with the local folk.

Whore Stats:
Prime Attribute: Charisma
Hit Die: d6
Weapons: Dagger, improvised weapons, stingy pistol, pocket pistol, medium pistol
Abilities: Heal, Care & Attention, 6th Sense, Pick Pocket, Feminine Wiles, Town Sharp
Starting Cash: 2d4x10
Experience point table: A

Level progression table (see Doctor)

Next I'll post the other woman of the west, the Widow.

Western Sandbox Map

Still deciding the best way to handle running a western rpg (see my previous post).

Not sure if a total open ended sandbox style setting would work or refine that to more of a linear 'story' but either way I always find it useful to put together a map with the various elements that I may use in either situation.

Below you'll find the map I created for the imaginary territory of Rosewood, located somewhere in the American southwest.  Anyway, I populated the map with all manner of classic western elements that would be useful for whatever game I end up running.

Click to embiggen and guess the inspiration.

You'll see the three counties, Kane, Rosewood and Chester along with the Nahone Indian Reservation.  All great for jurisdiction disputes and Indian raids.

We have a federal presence with Fort Travis.

The tough mining town of Bronson run by  Jedidiah Young, the Mormon silver mining magnet.  Good luck trying to make a claim there.

The rough town of Rebel, founded by Harlow Cox, along the western stage road, north of which is Beggar's Canyon.

Further down the road we have the new prosperous town of Harlow Junction - best whores and whiskey in the territory.  The land-baron Harlow Cox along with his political capital vies for making the Junction the new county seat.

South of Harlow Junction you'll find  the county seat itself in quaint Rosewood.  The town is kept in order by a no bull-shit sheriff Isaiah Courtright and his deputies and their no firearms ordinance.

We've got two feudin' families living in Eastwood and Garret always shootin' each other up 'cross county lines.  I'm sure somewhere around there lives an old hermit as well.

The tiny Mexican village of Pico on the edge of the Mar Caliente desert.

Finally the town of San Juan, with it's Spanish style mission located on the ol' San Juan Trail.

There are plenty of mountains, trails, deserts and hills, bluffs and canyons for hideouts, outlaws and posses to carouse and homesteads to be carved out.

There should be plenty here to get started with, I think, no matter what ends up being run.

*A fella, a smart fella may notice that I based the map on one of the great old school campaign settings The Keep On The Borderlands.

Planning The Western Sandbox

I've been putting some thought into a Western session(s)/campaign using the Go Fer Yer Guns RPG rules.  The more I think about it the more I agree with the general conclusion that a western RPG is quite a bit different than a FRPG such as Swords & Wizardy (or the million other FRPGs out there).  They're so different, in fact, that there needs to be a whole different process of planning the game.

In a FRPG, it's natural that a group of PCs come together to form a party to go explore a ruin to fill their pockets with gold and trinkets.  The more you have in the party and the more diverse the group the better chance you have to survive.  You can pull any number of pre-made dungeons, take a half and hour to roll up some characters and in you go, you're playing a game.

A western, on the other hand, is quite a bit different.  Most characters would essentially be loners and quite separate.  Their goals and desires would be quite different and rarely would they cross paths except, perhaps, in conflict as their goals crossed.  Keep in mind, I'm looking at this as an open ended sandbox setting, my preferred method of play - but can a sandbox work in a wild west game or, by necessity, are we looking at a more linear style of game play?

My initial feeling is that it would need to be a combination of both.  That can be accomplished with a couple additions to the western game, both of which I found over at he OD&D boards under their Boot Hill section.

The first is character motivation and this comes from Avalon Hill's Gunslinger game (mentioned in the OD&D thread).  I don't own the Gunslinger game so I'm just going by the information in the post.  Basically a character chooses three out of six motivation for their character (Settle Down, Money, Comfort, Respect, Fear, Outlaw).  I would disagree with the post by calling it an alignment system in that both good and evil, lawful and chaotic characters can achieve those goals by different means with the exception of Outlaw.  Perhaps I would add another one called Honor to balance out Outlaw.  These 'motivations' would give general direction and drive for the character and help the GM (Game Marshal) corral and challenge the players in a sandbox environment.  Rewards can be given for characters staying within their desired motivations.  Remember, and this is important, these goals can be achieved by being lawful or unlawful - that is up to the character's actions and the GM's interactions.

Second, a western game is driven more by characters and their interaction and less by exploration and killing things and taking their stuff.  A great idea in the OD&D post was Mapping out the Adventure based on the NPC's much like how you would map out a dungeon.  With the rooms being the NPC's and their connections (relationships) being the corridors players can be 'guided' from one interaction to the next depending upon their goals.  To flesh out the NPC's each one would have attributes such as fears (what he will do everything to avoid), desires (what he will do everything to get), and duties (what he feels he must do).  These attributes would regulate the NPC and give the PC and GM and idea of what to expect from these characters.

Both of these ideas would aid in getting the western game moving but there's still the issue of what would bring your players together.

When running any RPG it's always a challenge when just a single character splits from the party to go interacting with NPC's by themselves.  In a western game it seems that you would have quite a bit more of that.  We have about 9 players in our gaming  group.  I feel that that would be quite a challenge to keep everyone engaged once everyone goes off on their own.  Would face to face tabletop play be the best avenue for a western game?  Or would something like a play-by-post work a bit better where the players can separate and the GM can interact with all of them individually?

Finally, one solution to that would be to discuss with your players what type of game they would want to play and plan the game play around that.  For example, perhaps they all want to be part of a single gang?  Well, now they're all together and a session can be planned accordingly.  Or perhaps they all want to be part of a posse?  Good start, they're all together.  Perhaps they are a group of magnificent gunslingers coming together to save a town from bandits?  But breaking away from these archetypes in group play may be difficult especially since there would tend to be less 'action' and more 'role-playing' involved.

Apparently there was one more point I wanted to make but had forgotten what it was by the time I got down to the bottom of this post.  Oh well, it's Friday.  Just enjoy this....

A Few Changes To Our Campaign

I've decided to change couple of things at our Swords & Wizardry table.

The first is that every session now begins with an email explaining the set up to the night's session - the traditional background, so to speak. I use to do this face to face and it was less focused and more of a session recap then a prelude to a new session.

With the email (just a couple of brief paragraphs) it gets everyone prepared for what will happen at the start of the session. It gets people thinking and anticipating the game (hopefully more than they already do!).  It also has gotten everyone at the table talking and planning right away as opposed to me recapping the previous session while table chat goes on.

It also helps me as GM prepare for the sandbox session.

In fact, this actually allows me to plan less pre-session making my job as GM easier as it lets me participate during the session more, reacting to the players actions on the spot.  I think that's because I've narrowed the direction of an open ended sandbox and given the players a bit a direction to spark their action right off the bat instead of spending time and energy getting them to 'hook' onto something I hope they bite on.  I know it sounds weird but that's how it's working for me.  Believe me, the sessions are still open to anything goes once the dice start rolling but it gives me and the players the same starting point.

Here are the backgrounds I used for our last two sessions:

Session 52 background
Session 53 background

The second thing I've changed are experience points.

In my campaign, experience points are gained from treasure, monsters and the occasional completed 'quest' or plot point.  Fairly traditional and by the book.

So instead of splitting monster xp gained in a session between all players, all players gain all experience from monsters killed.  For example, last night the players as a group killed 5 ghouls at 60 xp each.  In the past that would be 300 xp divided among five to seven players.  That would give the PC's between 43 and 60 xp each.  I have no problem with that method. However, considering that we've been playing for almost three years and the character's only range from level 3-5 the slow pace of advancement is becoming a campaign flaw.  This hasn't stopped our players from expanding upon their 'characters' in the slightest, and it does make achieving a level quite an accomplishment. However, since our play is scattered from twice a month at best to even longer play-gaps, I thought advancing the pace of advancement an enhancement to our campaign and should help to keep things moving nicely.

Coin & gem treasure will still be divided between players based on gold piece value.

Players still have to be present to gain that experience though.

Zenopus Tower Cut-away

Even though our Swords & Wizardry campaign has been on hold for quite a while while we delve into some other games (plus giving the trusty GM, me, a break) I thought I'd share this with the Warlock's loyal readers.

Note to players....Stop reading NOW! The wrathful campaign gods will not take kindly to mortals prying into their dark mysteries!

Since I love side-view maps of dungeons I created this map of the Tower of Zenopus levels a while ago and just ran across it today. I've altered the dungeon to make it a mega-dungeon campaign. With a few side-quests the campaign had gone on for over two years now.

Click to enlarge

I started with Holmes' original dungeon as a starting point and added deeper levels to it, some being borrowed and some being created by yours truly. I've highlighted the explored areas in purple so you can see that they players have fought their way quite deep into the Underworld but there's still much more to explore.

Zenopus' mega-dungeon was created using the following:

1. Graveyard & Crypt (created 1 page dungeon)
2. Main dungeon level Holmes blue book
3. Rat tunnels (made up on the fly)
4. Tomb Level (forgotten tomb of the warrior King 1 page dungeon)
5. Crotch-goblin and Mushroom-men level (created 1 page dungeon)
6. Purple worm level (1st level of R. C. Pinnell's Holmes' dungeon sequel In Search of the Forgotten City)
7. Weird giant eye-ball sub-level (Forgotten Chambers by Ramsey Dow which exited into the level 1 of The Darkness Beneath mega-dungeon from Fight On! magazine)
8. Lowest Levels (R. C. Pinnell's Holmes' dungeon sequel)

As you can see, this mishmash of dungeon adventures has served quite well. The players still haven't gotten to Zenopus' lair though they have rebuilt and claimed the tower for themselves. We'll get back to this campaign probably sometime this summer and see what happens.

Updated with In Search of the Forgotten City module links.

Game Prep: ICONS

A few days closer to the start of our ICONS campaign and I'm really looking forward to it. I've brushed up on rules once again and I think we're ready to go on Monday.

Two of the players have rolled up some ICONS heroes, Automaton, the Mechanical Marvel! A wonder of wires, vacuum tubes, and pneumatics! and Lord Genovasis the father of Meta-humans! The character creation process is great in ICONS and these first two PCs really show that off. We should have a pretty full house on Monday with at least three more PCs and we'll start with chargen for the rest of the players.

The general setting for the beginning of this campaign takes place in Shore City in 1942. Shore City is the campaign city created by John Stater found within his Mystery Men! rules. He did a great job setting up that sandbox, fleshing it out with all manner of locations, plot hooks and characters.
To go along with the campaign I created The Shore City Chronicle, a newspaper formatted blog for the rotating GMs to add plot hooks, red herrings, and general campaign color. You can check it out here.

There's an audio file I made to add atmosphere and kick off the campaign as well. You'll find it in one of the columns of the newspaper or at the bottom of this post.

I'll have more next week about our session, characters, villains and thoughts about the play of the game.

ICONS Campaign Preparations

Next week we will have our first ICONS session. Since I will be running the first session, I will be spending this week in final preparation, polishing up my knowledge of the rules, settings, creating some 'props' etc. in the hopes of having everything run smoothly.

The quick summary of what this campaign is about:

• The goal is to create an entire campaign universe through game-play with everyone's input.
• The campaign will start in 1941, the Golden Age of comics, pass through the Silver Age (60's) and then into the bronze age (70's and 80's) and finally end in the modern era.
• This campaign will rotate GMs every session with each GM running one session from each era of comics. When all GMs have run their session within the first era, called a sessions round, we then move to the next era.
• For the most part, sessions will be one-offs but if a session is one that needs to be continued the next GM will take the reigns of the story for the next session. This should be a good exercise in keeping GMs loose with a play-it-by-ear approach.
• The GM order is determined randomly at the end of every session.
• Players are not obligated to GM if they do not desire.
• All GMs will be able to use NPCs and situations that have occurred in all previous sessions.
• GMs have free reign over what their session is about though it must begin by being rooted in the era of the session round.

ICONS seems to be a fairly easy game to run and is pretty rule's lite system. The story progress and game events relies just as much on the players as the GM so there should be a good community aspect at the game table. I'm thinking that this would make GMing the sessions easy for those out of practice or looking to get their feet wet.

I'm hoping that the rules carry themselves well among our seasoned players. I'm thinking it will. After all, any RPG is more than just rules, it's what you as players make it.

I'll be off and on this week posting my game prep.

ICONS Campaign Creation: Exquisite Corpse Style

Update: This post squeaked out before it was done in the oven. I hope it's not too badly written.

I mentioned that I'd start discussing my ICONS campaign idea so here we go.

I've been running my Swords & Wizardry campaign for just over two years now. We took one break last summer so that I can be a player in a Savage Worlds campaign (which still needs to be completed). Needless to say, I'm getting a bit dry on running a fantasy campaign and a nice change is needed. That is where ICONS will be coming in.

Here's the pitch....

I've learned to let the players create the campaign world while I just fill in what is needed. I love campaign histories too so instead of coming up with this on my own for ICONS (which I really don't want to do), I thought I'd let the group as a whole create this campaign. I also want to be a player more and not be stuck 'behind the screen' so much.

Now ICONS, if you haven't checked it out, is a very rules lite Heroes game. I think it would be easy for anyone to run a session. The mechanics are quite simple leaving all the rolling to the players, that leaves the GM as more of a guide for the session, introducing plots and characters and situations without having to keep all the rules and rolls in his/her head.

I like that. I like that a lot.

So the ICONS campaign will rotate GMs every session. The GM can use whatever the previous GM used such as plot, characters, events etc or just go off on his own tangent. Since most of the sessions will be self-contained there shouldn't be much of a problem. Even if a session is 'to be continued', the next GM can take that story anywhere he wants. Any GM can tap into previous events to spark a session of their own. Think of it as an Exquisite Corpse style of gaming. Everyone GMs and everyone plays. Think of every GM as a comic writer coming in to take over a title.

There will four or five rounds of this. The first round will take place in the Golden Age of comics around the early 1940's, the second round will take place in the Silver Age (the 1960's) while the third will take place in the Bronze Age of comics (70's/80's) and finally modern times. So each GM would run just a single session within one of those ages.

This whole process will create a history rich campaign that any GM can tap into for additional story material. Perhaps a villain from the Golden Age puts himself in suspended animation and returns in the bronze age more powerful than ever? Maybe the outcome of WW II is different than real history which would create a totally different world and scenarios than now? Whatever the case may be, everyone would be involved and invested in the creation of this campaign world.

So I would run the first game session starting in 1942. At the end of that night's session, the remaining players that are interested in running a session all roll a die, we'll say a d12 since it's kind of a lonely die. The highest roll will run the next session which continues the Golden Age era, all the way around until everyone had a turn to run a session then we move on to the Silver Age, etc.

Now I like the idea of not knowing when your GMing turn comes up as it keeps you on your toes, letting your ideas form based on previous sessions. Of course, you can come up with a complete adventure without tapping into anything that happened previously. But my experience with this group is that they're very creative and there's gonna be plenty of things happening that no one else would have thought of but could be a great inspiration.

So that's the general concept. The rest of the group liked the idea too. I'll be fleshing things out a bit more and, of course, posting it here for your reading pleasure!

Preparing To Play A New Game Takes Me A Loooong Time

Time is limited for everyone these days so picking the 'right' game is everything.

For me, preparing to play a new RPG takes me a long time. Once we start playing, however, prep-time shrinks to almost nothing but prior to that first session, I spend months looking over the rules, understanding the rules, contemplating campaign scenarios, debating rule-sets for genre, etc. The main reason is that I want everything during that first session to go smoothly, I want the players to have a great time and I, as GM, want to have a great time as well and not be hung-up on rule mechanics.

When I began our Swords & Wizardry campaign back in October of 2009 I went through quite a long process before that first session. Not in game session prep but in research. At that time I've been out of gaming since the early 80's so I was starting fresh.

After a big reminiscence session with a friend of mine about D&D (he pulled out the LBBs) and soon after Gary's passing, I began being drawn back into the excitement of that FRPG. It was then that I discovered DragonsFoot and from there I found the beginnings of the soon to be called OSR. I found out that many folks kept playing the original rules, that there were plenty Holmes fans out there and that people were publishing 'new' rule books based on the old games.

Those new rules are what really opened things up for me and began the journey to find what rule system to use. I thought about just going back to Holmes (my starter) but I worried about getting other folks interested. I thought that these new rules, however similar to the origins, would be a great way to get folks interested into something new yet old.

I picked up Basic Fantasy RPG and loved what I saw there. I thought this was great! A 'modern' take on the FRPG that I loved so much back in the day. However, though it was so close to what I wanted to run it wasn't quite there. I then found Labyrinth Lord. Ah, now this was much closer to what I was looking for. At first I felt it was closer to my Holmes edition but upon deeper exploration I saw it was closer to Moldvay's. A slight difference to some but a big difference to me.

When I discovered Swords & Wizardry I had found my rule-set (January 2009). Perfect. Loose, open-ended and 'new'. Perfect for getting folks involved and rules-lite for my limited time commitments.

Now that I had my rule-set I began to re-learn the game; combat, monsters, armor class, saving throws, all of that once second nature to me back in junior high and high school but lost to my modern brain.

I took months to understand the rules and the rule potentials which is not surprising as many of you still debate rules from the early versions of the game.

Then came deciding what type of campaign it would be. But with much research with the blogs popping up with the same questions and curiosities that I had, much was answered. With interesting charts found and additional classes I finally put together my first session nine months later. Yes, nine months.

So if you've been following this blog recently, you may have noticed that I've had some interest in running a Heroes game. I've picked up a copy of the 1st edition of Champions, V&V and began playing in an online Mystery Men! game, comparing everything I want in a heroes games. I've had my eyes on ICONS and have been studying the rules for a couple of months now. I think this is the game rules that I plan on going with. They're very lite, and after a few mechanics tests it proved to have some staying power.

Believe me, it took me a loooong time to make that final decision. I've worked up a pretty decent campaign idea which I'll share shortly but it looks like we'll be hitting some ICONS actions shortly after the holidays.

Campaign Hex Map

So I've had to work up a full 11 x 17 campaign hex map with a 2 mile scale.

I've worked up pieces of the map before in a 10 x 10 hex format on the One Page Wilderness pages and populated most of the hexes randomly.

You'll notice that the hex numbers repeat as those are pieces of the 10x10 hex maps which fit on the one page wilderness layouts. I've had to piece these together and add the currently 'unexplored' areas into this larger map so the players can get a better view as they travel around Caladan which we will be using the chits form Death Maze!

Keeping Busy With Hex Maps

Last night we played our fourth session of our Savage Worlds campaign (I'm actually a player in this one). Good times with a good, lite system. For recaps you can go over to our site and check out our shenanigans: The Tesla League

As a quick note about last night, it turned out that the monkey we saved from the clutches of Thomas Edison turned out to be a talking Monkey Assassin from the future (1965) who basically gave us the finger and then flew off in a stolen plane with the mysterious green crystal we've been investigating. Gotta love the anything goes RPG!

It's been nice taking a break from DMing our Swords & Wizardry campaign and just being an active player. But that doesn't mean I haven't been using my time 'off' wisely.

When I started the campaign I only had a broad-stroke of the areas involved. I actually had to narrow it down to just a small wilderness area. As play progressed, travels outside of the main town and it's dungeon were few and far between so I ended up again narrowing down to an even smaller area of play - a roughly 200 square mile area.

Since I've kept things open and let my players do what they may, thus having them help create the world in which we play, I've taken this time to flesh things out a bit more in the surrounding area to make the game available for more of a hex crawl if desired. I'm using the trilogy of aid in the form of the One Page Dungeon template, One Page Wilderness template and the One Page City Template.

So below is the areas where our players have explored, traveled or seen in the distance using a 2 mile hex scale. This is the official player's view hex map. This is the hex map I would show my players if they needed it (with unexplored areas 'blacked' out. The DM map, of course, if fully keyed in a 10X10 One Page Wilderness format (the above map is a combination of two such maps) and a lot of random charts. Don't ever under-estimate your random chart!

The players have loosely drawn map of the area(s). The benefit of the loose player map is that it doesn't have to be accurate; scale, points of interest, I can throw anything I want in there as play progresses; forests can be larger, Hamlets can towns can pop up as needed. It leaves room for growth and flexibility.

This little bit of exploration has now lasted 33 sessions and over a year and a half of real time. Let this be a note to all DMs out there - world building doesn't have to be a long arduous process. Even in a sandbox campaign your players may not end up traveling very far giving you plenty of time to flesh things out what you begin your campaign. A city/town, a dungeon or two and about 100 square miles is really all you need to get yourself and your players going. And those don't even need to be completely fleshed out. Let your players give you a hand with that.

Of course it's always good to have an idea, in the back of your mind, what the larger world may be like, but don't let the stop you from just jumping in and rolling some dice with some friends.

I'll be running a portion of the campaign in the next couple of weeks for the PCs that are lost and trapped beneath Zenopus' tower to see if they live or die or whatever else fate has in store for them. Whatever the outcome of that, the original campaign will continue in the near future. But I'll be using this time to come up with some more Home-brew wickedness to be throwing at my players!

The Future Was Yesterday

Almost by default, post-apocalyptic futures are just that, grim futures after the fall of man. We can all imagine a time in the far future where our once mighty though foolish civilization, at the peek of it's power, is now in ruin.

But what if that future was yesteryear? What if the apocalypse happened in the past?

In films and stories where, at the time, the end of the world was within arms reach. That always sent more of a chill up ones spine. What if that future was not centuries away but maybe decades or just years?

Remember John Carpenter's Escape From New York (1981)? The Future - 1997 where New York was turned into a giant prison didn't seem that far off or that implausible.

The Last Man On Earth (1964) film was based on the book I am Legend and took place between 1966 and 1968.

What if, at the end of Dr. Strangelove (1964) we continued the story? 2011? Almost 50 years after the great war?

What if the post-apocalypse was now? What if the Mutant Future was now? Where was technology in 1964? Sure, we had The Bomb but computers still filled a room with memory on tape. The Beatles just invading the American shores. Fifty or one hundred years in that future sure would be different.

I've been thinking a lot about running a Mutant Future / Gamma World 1st ed. game. I think it actually might take place now, in 2011 with the destruction of the world happening in our recent past, 1964, and using Stanley Kubrik's Dr. Strangelove as the back-story. What is the ratio of males to females? Would a mine-shaft gap come into play? The Purity of Essence cults?

I think that would be very interesting and maybe even a bit more messed up as one may face 1st generation mutations in the very year we live in now.

Much to ponder, much to ponder.....

World Building With Vaughn Bode

World building for games can take on many forms; rough sketches, detailed notes, maps, NPCs, graph paper, hex paper, dice rolling, etc. Many times, the players may never explore more than a few hexes out from their home base, never seeing the full color worlds created my many GMs but the process the creator goes through adds an unseen depth to the campaign.

The early days of the hobby were influenced by the pulp stories of the 30's and 40's as well as the fantasy revival of the 60's and 70's. You can see it in the gritty and at times whimsical recollections, modules and articles of the time. It was an anything goes playing field.

1960's / 1970's fantasy cartoonist, Vaughn Bode created his erotic whimsical fantasy worlds with an unbridled creativity seldom seen these days. Creator of Cheech Wizard and the apocolyptic Cobolt 60 in a unique voluptuous cartoon style was seen by those who may have picked up the underground independent comics of the time.

One world he created in 1968 was called Deadbone:

"Back a billion years, before man, before the dinosaur, before the plankton, before life was thought to exist in even the most rudimentary state...life existed!...Life which belonged to a world as alien as those of a black star....life that cycled and orbited in an evil and insane universe that looked for, but never found, 'our' brand of sanity."

What is interesting is the way he created his world; in a very visual style of world building (click image to embiggen):


What a fantastic way to create a world! A couple of the maps even look like city/underworld adventure maps. Some scribbled notes around the images with details to be filled in later.

Of course, with the psychedelic mind of Vaughn Bode, this peculiar and weird world was populated as well with all manner of Lizard, Broads, and bizarre unique characters.

A whimsical twisted fantasy world. A great campaign world. A great world-building exercise.

Check out Vaughn Bode in action
(Very interesting video clips especially the Toronto ComiCon '74 clips)

Behind the Screen Part 3: Random Charts

It's always great to read how other DMs run their sessions and the tools that they use. In my previous posts I've touched on the rules and supplements that I use in our campaign and then I talked about the custom DM screen that I created.

Today I'm going to touch on one of the biggest aids in our sessions and those would be the random charts.

Randomness is almost the heart and soul of any good RPG and in a sandbox campaign I let the dice fall where they may. If I roll too tough of a monster for an encounter, the PCs better be smart enough to high-tail it out of there. Roll a hefty hoard of treasure guarded by a not so hefty monster, so be it - stranger things can happen.

In a sandbox campaign random charts can be a godsend as they can help flesh out, on the fly if needed, encounters, personalities, situations, reactions, cities, dungeons, treasures, names, magic items - almost anything that one might need.

If you've been reading this blog then you may know that I have given the campaign world just a broad-stroke and tend to fill things in little by little as needed in our adventures - NPC, situations, events, shops etc. Also, my prep time for sessions has diminished to almost nothing (though I do spend some time during the week fleshing things out in the back of my mind if need be but it's pretty minimal). So I've come to rely on the randomness of charts. It makes the game fun and surprising for the DM and the players. It can change the course of a dull session or open up new vistas of plot points that can be quite troublesome to the PC involved. A splendid time indeed!

With the interwebs and the fantastic community of bloggers, finding useful random charts are as easy as rolling for wandering monsters. There are soooo many great and creative charts out there that it's almost impossible to keep track of them all. Whenever I find a great random chart on someone's blog, I'll copy that material and paste it into a document (reformatting if necessary) so I can print it out and add it to my collection.

So here are a number of charts that I've found to be most useful in our table-top campaign. I've bound these all into a binder and pull certain charts out as needed.

Old School Encounters Reference - a must download!!

City Encounters for Swords & Wizardry (Matt Finch)

Tome of Minor Items (dragonsfoot)

Quick NPC Traits Checklist (DnDBorderlands Blog)

Adventurer's Ordinance: 110 Magical Items Part One by Jesse Muir

Adventurer's Ordinance: 110 Magical Items Part Two by Jesse Muir

How to make a fantasy Sandbox (bat in the attic)

Entering the City Taxes (Dungeons and Digressions)

Wilderness Encounters

100 Book titles Dungeoneering.net

Caster prices (OD&D boards)

Resurrection (Dragonsfoot - though I think I got this from somewhere else)

Guards at the Gate (Gothridge Manor)

Carousing Mishaps (Jeff Rients - a must have)

NPC Personalities (Black Gate)

Weird Room Stuff (Black Gate)

Quick Hex Contents Generator (Black Gate)

Slum Encounters (Black Gate)

Beyond the Black Gate Compendium 2009 (Black Gate)

And the new "What In The Hole" (Black Gate)

Unique Treasure Generation (Hack & Slash)

If you haven't noticed yet, Al over at Beyond the Black Gate has some fantastic resources and creates some of the best charts. A huge thank you to Al! In fact, I nominate him for a Master of Dungeons Award for 2010! (we really should create that)

Great Online random generators

Fantasy Name Generator
Meatshield: Henchmen & Hireling Generator
Dungeon Generator
Check out donjon; RPG Tools

I also use the treasure charts in the Labryinth Lord rule book, some charts from Basic Fantasy RPG and, of course, the trusty AD&D 1st ed. DMG.

This is by no means an exhausted list but these are some of the charts that I've found to be useful. If anyone else has some useful charts that they've created or run across, let me know and I'll add them to this list.

When next we chat I'll talk about the use of miniatures on our table-top.

A Vist With The Campaign Gods

As we get ready to restart our campaign after our holiday hiatus, I thought I'd take this time to visit with some of the grim gods of our little world. The worship of the gods have been part of the background wash within the campaign - never taking the forefront but always leaving their guiding impression for the PC's to find. Most factions are broken along religious lines with the gods and their followers and cultists manipulating from a distance.

So I bring to you the Realm of the Gods....Behold and tremble

I feel that besides spells, these gods should give their devout follower a special minor ability  that a PC can use once per day or per session depending on the type of game.

Anu!
(Lawful)
Worshiped by The Holy Order of Light they await his return from beyond the sun!
Once per day/session, a cleric of Anu, with the proper prayer, is able to cast a light spell that lasts 1 turn / level of caster as per the spell

Saint Mellon
A follower made saint of Anu.
Once per day/session, a  cleric of St. Mellon, with the proper prayer, is able to cast a light spell that lasts 1 turn / level of caster as per the spell but with a radius of 5 feet.

 
The Northern Host
The Viking and barbaric gods; Lawful Odin, Neutral Thor and Crom!
Once per day/session, a  cleric of the Northern Host, with the proper prayer, is granted a +1 bonus to hit AND damage for one round/level during combat against Chaotic foes

 
The Black Church
Azathoth, Hastur, Cthulhu and of course, Dagon.
Once per day/session, a  cleric of the Black Church, with the proper prayer, is granted a +1 bonus to hit AND damage for one round/level during combat against Lawful foes

 
Mithra
(Lawful)
Perhaps the most widely worshipped is the god of law and truth.
Once per day/session, a  cleric of Mithra, with the proper prayer, is granted a +1 bonus to hit AND damage for one round/level during combat against Chaotic foes

 
The Goddess
(Lawful)
The beautiful, iron-willed and physically powerful goddess of Amazonia
Once per day/session, a  cleric of The Goddess, with the proper prayer, is granted a +1 bonus to hit AND damage for one round/level during combat against Chaotic foes

 
Ozymandius
He who conquered death
Upon death, a cleric of Ozymandius may roll a save.  If successful, the character conquers death and  is only unconscious with 0 hit points.

 
Artaban
(Neutral)
The God of Magic
There are no clerics of Artaban, only Magic Users who aspire to be knowledgeable of all things.

 
Asmodeus
(Chaotic)
The Lord of Hell and the ruler of the Underworld
Once per day/session, a  cleric of Asmodeus, with the proper prayer, is granted a +1 bonus to hit AND damage for one round/level during combat against Lawful foes.

 
Gor
(Neutral)
The God of slavery
Gains slave/lacky/toady 3 levels below PC (minimum 0 level).  The slave/lacky/toady has no  additional skills but is just subserviant to it's "master's" needs including self-sacrifice if asked.  The PC only gains 1 slave/lacky/toady and if killed, does not receive another until next level is achieved.

 
Hypnos
(Neutral)
God of sleep
Once per day/session, a  cleric of Hypnos, with the proper prayer, is able to cast a sleep spell that affects 1 npc one HD lower than the PC.  The spell lasts for one turn.

 
Istar
(Neutral)
The Alluring Goddess of Pleasure and Luck
Once per day/session, a  cleric of Istar, with the proper prayer, is able to reroll one die roll.

 
Khalk'ru
(Chaotic)
The Destroyer
Once per day/session, a  cleric of the Black Church, with the proper prayer, is granted a +1 bonus to hit AND damage for one round/level during combat against Lawful foes

 
Morpheus
(Neutral)
Lord of the Dream Realm and the brother to Hypnos.
Once per day/session, a  cleric of Morpheus, with the proper prayer and meditation, has the ability to gain a very brief dreamlike vision of what may or may not come to pass as determined by the GM.