I've been running our Swords & Wizardry campaign for a while now. It's been going on 5 1/2 years over a course of 70 sessions. Our group has taken plenty of time off to play other games, some role-playing and some card and some board but we've always come back to the fun simplicity of this classic style fantasy RPG. I thought that it would be good to reflect a bit upon what's gone on and what I've learned during these seventy sessions.
Like many of you players, I started with the hobby back in the late 70's with Holmes' basic rules. I've written a bit about how we interrupted the rules to this very abstract game - which was pretty off base but still fun. By the early 80's I moved away from RPGs and soon gaming as well. Every once in a while throughout the years, I would try to run the game again but nothing ever really stuck. Whether it was life, or 'growing up' or many other distractions (like having to make a living!), the games just didn't click.
Fast forward to the late 2000's....
Over the years I found myself always heading back to this fantasy RPG world where I could immerse myself in some other world or character. I found some enjoyment in playing MMORPGs such as Neverwinter Nights and was inspired by the abundance of fan created adventures based on some of the original TSR modules. But I found those online games lacking the fun and intimacy of face to face table top gaming.
So like a Geas spell cast upon me, I began, once again, seeking out a way to get back into fantasy RPGing.
But the game had changed so much over the years....
I played with a group that ran a 3.5 game. Man, this was not the game I remember. Two hour long combats and railroaded story lines just didn't capture me. I'm not trying to start an edition war here, I'm just saying that that version of the game didn't work for me.
Then I discovered what would later become the OSR - Old School Renaissance.
When I first started thinking about getting back into running a fantasy RPG again, I wanted something simple to run and rules-lite, much like the games that I grew up with. I contemplated running Holmes basic or Moldvey basic but worried about getting copies of those rules to anyone interested not to mention many people seemed to be into playing more modern versions of D&D (3.5, Pathfinder) - see Why A Retro-Clone. I wasn't into those at all and wanted something that I was already familiar with. I looked into the new retro-clone rules of Labyrinth Lord and Basic FantasyRPG but eventually settled on Swords & Wizardry, which, for me, was the closest thing to what I remember running and playing. These seemed simple enough to run with the modern life of making a living.
Next was to find players. I thought I might get two maybe three players interested in playing an "old-school" classic style game. I didn't think the interest was really there. So I asked two of my comic book illustrator friends here in town and one guy I met through a RPG meet-up. These guys turned out to be very enthusiastic about playing and even brought in more players.
Surprising to me, our first session ended up with 5 players which increased to 6 two sessions later and then 7 and then 8. In fact, it was hard to fit all of us around the table at times. I thought we'd be lucky to play through three sessions but the sessions just kept going and going. We all really enjoyed ourselves and had lots of laughs face to face around the table.
I have to say that all the players, whom all work and have families and other obligations have always made time to attend out bi-weekly sessions. All of us have had to cancel or miss sessions for those obligations, after all we're all adults with complicated lives, but if there is one thing that this game is about it's flexibility!
Some of the players were more use to the modern rules, others, like me, missed the lite game of imagination, others never played any RPGs before, but everyone embraced the fast-paced fun and loose style of Swords & Wizardry.
We began with the first printed edition of the S&W rules and our first session was October of 2009. We moved to S&W Core and are now playing S&W Complete.
I had house-ruled the heck out of the the first edition rules, with many things I was picking up in the community online - new classes, rules for spells, combat. Since then, the house rules have been trimmed back until now there's just a few very minor tweaks to what is in the Complete rule book.
My goal was to sandbox the campaign, to let the players create the world just as much as I did. But I felt that to be comfortable in the role of GM I had to flesh the world out quite a bit. I used a ton of material created by OSR folks on the internet along with original TSR published material. I cut all that up and pieced it together into my campaign as needed - sometimes only using descriptions or just the maps or even just an idea. The sandbox has worked out very well and it has kept me on my toes at the table.
One of the biggest things that I learned was to not plan too far or to much in advance. In the sandbox setting, the players took things off the rails so often and so far that I found that those "unplanned" sessions were the best sessions. Where I, as the GM, began to participate with the players more than just being a reactionary force behind a screen. In fact, the screen was put away very early on and now I just use a small folded page of notes used mostly for critical hits and failures.
My other goal was to never ever fudge the dice. I wanted to game to be pure and as random and undetermined as I could make it. I've stuck to that with one exception which I rolled back into the campaign in quite a thrilling way. You can read a bit about that here.
But I've learned to let the campaign be what it needed to be. Sure, there was some gentle guiding along on my part, sometimes to keep things moving but the players determine the events in this world just as much as I do. They've killed some NPCs that were, what I thought, important to the setting, but there is no character more important than the player's character and that is what this world is about. These dead NPCs have made the game much more exciting for me as a GM. These players have an effect on the events of the game world, sometimes small sometimes a bit bigger than small. I think that's what I learned the game should be. It's not my game, it's our game and it's been a great experience to have delved into this game once again. I think even more rewarding than when I first discovered the excitement of the first fantasy RPG.
Next: Some Campaign Stats
Showing posts with label session report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label session report. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Friday, December 14, 2012
Session XLIX: The River Of Despair
Still lost and trapped in the caves beneath the palace of the hobgoblin king, our party of fearless mercenaries were face to face with a swarm of Steam Weavels and a Lava Lizard! The insects swarmed the half-orc Arg but Gnarly the druid called forth a ball of flame which attracted the swarm to the heat and he tossed them down into the steam vent. With Arg free he lead the charge against the Lava Lizard and soon hacked him to pieces with the only loss being a melted sword.As they decided what path to take to find a way out of these caves, they cut the lava lizard up to make armor out of him if and when they ever escaped.
Exploring more tunnels they ran across another lava lizard then some Piranha Birds and eventually found a large cavern with a running river through it an out into a larger cave opening.
Thinking it best to backtrack and cover all their ground in hopes that they have maybe missed an escape route, they found a secret room guarded by some hungry striges guarding three chests of valuable treasure!
Not finding anyway out of their situation short of trying to build a scaffolding to gain entrance to the pit that sent them down here they headed back to the underground river.
To their right was the roar of underground rapids while to the left the river meandered deeper into the underworld.
Thinking that the traversing the rapids would lead them up towards the surface they began walking against the current but the further they traveled the stronger and more treacherous it became until one by one, they were being knocked down and sent tumbling back to the main cavern.
Hopeless and wet, they decided to travel downstream in the warm shallow river occasionally finding a dry shelf to rest upon.
Alas, being wet, wounded and lost was too much for the mighty Arg and he succumbed to fatigue and broke down and wouldn't leave the shelf.
At a loss of how to keep moving forward with an unwilling half-orc, Gnarly sent Tuk the owl on ahead. Further down the river, the owl spied another shelf, larger with a cave opening and with an armored lizard-man standing guard!
It was here that the party decided to rest; on a tiny shelf, inches above an underground river hundreds of feet below the surface, wounded and wet...
This was our last RPG session of the year as the holidays become too hectic to gather together. I was hoping to finish with more of a bang, and those of you who know the adventure know what I'm talking about, but, as usual, the players didn't go along with my unspoken plan. So we ended on a bit of a grim note. Not a bad thing by any means, actually. It kind of felt like the ending of the middle of a trilogy.
So, a break for now and when we return there will be plenty of action and perils ahead!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
A Return To Swords & Wizardry
Our last session was December 9th to be exact. In between we've played some board games, ran quite a successful Golden Age Icons campaign and even dipped our toes into D&D Next. But there's nothing like coming back home to the city of Caladan and the Ruined Tower of Zenopus with everyone's favorite PCs.
It was a session to remember with nothing going according to my carefully laid plans thanks to the usual suspects taking it off the rails. Always a better session when that happens.
Revenge! Wizard battles! Vampires! Major NPC deaths! PC death!
This three hour session had quite a lot going on. I'll get to a full recap in the next couple of days but it looks like Swords & Wizardry is back with a vengeance!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Icons: Split Dice
We had an Icons session on Monday (I'll post a recap shortly) and we quickly decided to "split the dice".
I have to say that it made combat move much quicker. I don't think anyone had an issue with rolling only one die as opposed to two - more dice equals more power. Anyway, the original ICONS method of the positive and negative die + ability/power + modifiers then compare for outcome always seemed to slow combat down while the numbers were worked out. With the Split Die roll, add and compare moved things along much quicker. I think we'll be using this from now on.
One other point is that when players have to make a general ability test we were still rolling the positive and negative. Though that worked fine, I thought it was a bit jarring to have the Players roll one die for combat and two dice for general tests. I'm thinking of moving general tests to split dice as well. The GM will then be rolling the 'negative' die in combat and in general tests ('negative' die meaning GM rolls the opposing die and adds the result to the difficulty).
The split dice bring up an interesting element. Since the GM is now rolling all oppositions to the PCs, maybe, just maybe when the GM rolls, his roll will be the 'attack' roll against which the players defense is compared. In other words, outcome switches depending on who is the 'attacker'; the zero no longer
always goes with the hero. The tables turn from giving the heroes the constant advantage to splitting the advantage between the hero and the villain. Not sure how this will play out. Maybe the heroes will become less 'heroic' as they loose that zero goes with the hero advantage. It's a minor thought but it could change the dynamic of the game quite a bit.
Beyond that, we're still a bit stuck on keeping stuns and slams within the flow of the combat. I'm going to re-read the optional rules in the Villainomicon to get some more clarification.
Anyway, the split dice definitely moved the combat forward more quickly.
One other point is that when players have to make a general ability test we were still rolling the positive and negative. Though that worked fine, I thought it was a bit jarring to have the Players roll one die for combat and two dice for general tests. I'm thinking of moving general tests to split dice as well. The GM will then be rolling the 'negative' die in combat and in general tests ('negative' die meaning GM rolls the opposing die and adds the result to the difficulty).
The split dice bring up an interesting element. Since the GM is now rolling all oppositions to the PCs, maybe, just maybe when the GM rolls, his roll will be the 'attack' roll against which the players defense is compared. In other words, outcome switches depending on who is the 'attacker'; the zero no longer
always goes with the hero. The tables turn from giving the heroes the constant advantage to splitting the advantage between the hero and the villain. Not sure how this will play out. Maybe the heroes will become less 'heroic' as they loose that zero goes with the hero advantage. It's a minor thought but it could change the dynamic of the game quite a bit.
Beyond that, we're still a bit stuck on keeping stuns and slams within the flow of the combat. I'm going to re-read the optional rules in the Villainomicon to get some more clarification.
Anyway, the split dice definitely moved the combat forward more quickly.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Last Night's ICONS Session
So we finally got back to our Icons game last night since our last session in late January.
Since part of the concept of the campaign is to go through rotating GMs (like different writers on a comic book) Corey ran the show. He did a great job expanding upon the previous sessions events and then taking the team off into his own nefarious plot featuring the notorious Mr. Roboto! I'll have a full session report in the next day or two.
The 1942 era team, Vanguard 13, expanded into a full roster of heroes:
Again, it's a pretty fast and loose system. In fact, it was commented on that OD&D was loose, Icons is even more sparse than that. And that's true to some extent especially when it comes to the powers. I am even more convinced that with campaign play many of the powers need to be tweaked and house ruled to flesh them out. I think I'll touch on this area in a future post.
Character creation is pretty fast and fun. It's best to not have any concept of a hero and just let the dice create the basic character. There's plenty of room after that to then flesh the rest in.
I'm convinced that this game really brings out a loose, on the fly GMing style. Though the GM can have his plot and villainous situation fleshed out he's best to keep things loose and ready to adapt and improvise the situations. In that sense it's a great learning tool to help GMs break out of a rigid framework. I think that will show itself more as well play out.
For the players, it's pretty open to doing whatever you feel like your character can do. There's not rules for covering every situation but those are the games that I like. Just state it, go with it, and move on.
Corey also gave the session a nice balance of having to use various abilities throughout the adventure and investigation which was nice in having to use more than just your character's powers.
We still had trouble getting into the use of Determination. I did use a point of determination to retcon a flashlight but beyond that, I think we're still all a little vague on how best to incorporate it into game sessions. More sessions should hopefully help with getting that ironed out.
As with last session we were a little rough on the combat results but by the end of the session that became much smoother. Having a month between sessions didn't help with that. With our next session in two weeks that should flow much better.
Overall, I still think it's a great little Supers game - incredibly rules lite but with enough to really give it some teeth. I had a blast playing as a character and not running a session and we all had lots of laughs at the table.
Corey is going to run part two of his adventure next session then we'll move on to the next 'writer'.
Looking forward to it already!
Since part of the concept of the campaign is to go through rotating GMs (like different writers on a comic book) Corey ran the show. He did a great job expanding upon the previous sessions events and then taking the team off into his own nefarious plot featuring the notorious Mr. Roboto! I'll have a full session report in the next day or two.
The 1942 era team, Vanguard 13, expanded into a full roster of heroes:
Lord Genovasis - The father of Meta-humansOn to Icons itself....
Automaton - The Mechanical Marvel
Nate Brown - Lowly janitor (AKA The Sponge)
The Scarlet Hood - The bane of organized crime and political corruption
Prophylatica - The woman wonder of rubber!
The Cobra - Superhero (don't quite remember what he was)
Again, it's a pretty fast and loose system. In fact, it was commented on that OD&D was loose, Icons is even more sparse than that. And that's true to some extent especially when it comes to the powers. I am even more convinced that with campaign play many of the powers need to be tweaked and house ruled to flesh them out. I think I'll touch on this area in a future post.
Character creation is pretty fast and fun. It's best to not have any concept of a hero and just let the dice create the basic character. There's plenty of room after that to then flesh the rest in.
I'm convinced that this game really brings out a loose, on the fly GMing style. Though the GM can have his plot and villainous situation fleshed out he's best to keep things loose and ready to adapt and improvise the situations. In that sense it's a great learning tool to help GMs break out of a rigid framework. I think that will show itself more as well play out.
For the players, it's pretty open to doing whatever you feel like your character can do. There's not rules for covering every situation but those are the games that I like. Just state it, go with it, and move on.
Corey also gave the session a nice balance of having to use various abilities throughout the adventure and investigation which was nice in having to use more than just your character's powers.
We still had trouble getting into the use of Determination. I did use a point of determination to retcon a flashlight but beyond that, I think we're still all a little vague on how best to incorporate it into game sessions. More sessions should hopefully help with getting that ironed out.As with last session we were a little rough on the combat results but by the end of the session that became much smoother. Having a month between sessions didn't help with that. With our next session in two weeks that should flow much better.
Overall, I still think it's a great little Supers game - incredibly rules lite but with enough to really give it some teeth. I had a blast playing as a character and not running a session and we all had lots of laughs at the table.
Corey is going to run part two of his adventure next session then we'll move on to the next 'writer'.
Looking forward to it already!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Session XLI: PornOGREphy
So Monday was our last RPG session of the year. The holidays just go too damn busy to even try to schedule 10 people to get together to roll dice. So we usually take this time off and regroup after the new year.
We were planning on a full table, even Tim, who hasn't played in I don't know how long, showed up. We lost one player at the last minute and one ended up Skyping in due to new Baby watching duties. Eight faces around the table along with three cats and two dogs; full house no matter which way you slice it.
It was the usual raucous session and much hilarity ensued most of which, unfortunately, doesn't make it into the posts.
After passing through the gore and entrails of the 12 apostles of the Black Sun and catching up to their companions in the Temple of the Black Sun, Gnarly and Wolfheir come upon the scene we left our heroes in last session; Arg the half-orc unconscious by the hand of Skwanky the halfling, Slick Vinny invisible and bleeding after being mauled by a Hydra, the turn-coat Father Halford entangled in a web cast by Vinny, Flora-Fawn the fairy hovering around the remaining snapping jaws of said hydra, and Televon with the Crown of the Black Sun upon his head.
As Gnarly was healing Vinny and Wolf was debating slaying the entangled Halford, in walked their long lost companion, Adessa. Apparently, Adessa had split the group after she had lost a battle with her evil side and had recently taken up with Halford. She was working with Ankral the Dwarf assassin in a distant chamber was was told by her dwarven boss to go see what the commotion was.
Spying his new hire, Halford tries to get Adessa to free him but Wolf leaps onto the amazon and pinned her to the ground. Even with her Gauntlets of Ogre Strength she was unable to free herself from the Viking warrior. Soon afterwards, Wolf and Gnarly had her bound but that didn't last long as she snapped the rope strands and began to attack the Viking. But it was Gnarly that put her down once again by heating her armor and making her pass out. This time they removed her Gauntlets and bound her once again.
The hydra, who was unable to climb out of the hole, fled back into it's lair with one of it's head dragging behind, a causality of Arg and FloraFawn.
Arg and Skwanky wanted to follow the Hydra down it's Hydra-hole but first they prodded Halford a bit. Gnarly stabbed him in the back with his spear and then Arg tossed him into the pit. (Wolf then urinated on him from above but I'll leave that part out).
Then Arg and Skwanky tied a rope to the alter and lowered themselves down into the pit. They saw Halford limping away, mumbling. The two warriors pursued the fallen priest and began to hack away at him. Halford had one last ace up his sleeve as he reached out and grabbed the Half-orc and burned him with the remaining power of the black sun. Then calling the Hydra back upon his enemies Father Halford, former priest of Mithra and now follower of the Black Sun fell dead. But Arg and Skwanky had more to contend with as they were face to face with the now four headed hydra. As one head began chomping on the halfling, Arg began smashing through the other heads until the beast lay dead. Finding nothing in the lair and wounded and bloodied, they ascended back up to the temple.
Adessa, learning of Halford's death felt no obligation to him what-so-ever and told his former companions that there were hidden treasures somewhere within these chambers. The Dwarf assassin had some and Halford had some hidden as well. It was decided to head over to the dwarf and steal her treasures.
Still unsure of Adessa's motives, Gnarly kept her bound as she lead them to the Dwarf's chambers. Now with the Gautlets of Ogre Strength upon his tiny hands, Skwanky the halfling and Arg knocked on the door. A gruff female voice on the other side answered. When Arg, trying to impersonate Adessa responded, a furious Ankral opened the door to discipline Adessa She was surprised to find Arg standing there. A brief fight in the doorway later Ankral was dead but then her lover Charles the Ogre battled Arg and Skwanky but soon he too fell to the onslaught of the Half-orc and mighty halfling barrage!
Lifting some keys off of their fallen foes, the party explored the temple dungeon and the chambers of Ankral and Charles. Within the Dungeons they discovered a handful of citizens of Caladan awaiting their fate to be turned into Ghouls for Halford's undead army. Gnarly and Televon aided the unnerved prisoners.
Meanwhile, Arg broke into Charles' the Ogre's room. Besides a pile of straw and dirty rags the walls were etched with crude drawings of naked ogre females as well as nude drawings of Ankral the dwarf (this is what happens when you let the players help describe the contents of the room).
Finding nothing of value within the chamber the party proceed to explore Ankral's room and found a sensual pleasure chamber; incense, and tapestries, cushions and divans and even a heart shaped bed! It seemed that in the recent weeks of Adessa's employment, Ankral the Dwarf and Charles the Ogre had tried to get Adessa to join them in a dwarf / ogre / amazon three-way but she didn't want any of that.
After finding a trapped chest which hit Gnarly with an arrow, the room was looted and the party, leading the prisoners, moved on. Gnarly lead the prisoners back up to the cabin (the entrance to the temple tunnels) to await their return as they continued to explore the rest of the temple.
Heading down the southern and final passage they descend deeper into the temple. Opening a final door, Arg and Skwanky step into a large cavern guarded by three ogres and overseen by an aid to Halford. In front of this shady character were two tables with two townsfolk on them, other prisoners are in a cell at the back of the cave. Arg tried to bluff his way in and past the Ogres but eventually the shady character called the ogres to attack as the rest of the party rushed into the room.
Skwanky put on his ring of invisibility to try to get behind the shady guy and kill him but it wasn't before the minion pulled a lever that opened up two grates and in rushed twenty ghouls! Televon, acting quickly, lifted his holy symbol of Morpheus and half the the ghouls retreated back into the safety of their cave. Gnarly entangled another portion of them with some vines and thorny bushes. Along with the Ogres the remainder of the ghouls attacked the party. A large chaotic battle ensued with Skwanky and Arg taking out the ogres while the ghouls began to paralyze and the rest of the party. Eventually, one by one, the remaining ghouls were destroyed but not before a number of close calls!
After freeing the other prisoners and plundering the ghoul lab, the party headed back up to the cabin. Dusk was falling so it was decided that they all, party, mushrooms and rescued prisoners, hole up in the cabin until dawn. The session ended with the party discussing where they might have missed some treasure for they never found Halford's quarters.
So after almost two and a half years of gaming, forty-one sessions with S&W and a year passing in game time it was a pretty fun session for the last one of the year. A lot of laughs and some surprises with Brian gifting games to everyone. A great group indeed!
We were planning on a full table, even Tim, who hasn't played in I don't know how long, showed up. We lost one player at the last minute and one ended up Skyping in due to new Baby watching duties. Eight faces around the table along with three cats and two dogs; full house no matter which way you slice it.
It was the usual raucous session and much hilarity ensued most of which, unfortunately, doesn't make it into the posts.
After passing through the gore and entrails of the 12 apostles of the Black Sun and catching up to their companions in the Temple of the Black Sun, Gnarly and Wolfheir come upon the scene we left our heroes in last session; Arg the half-orc unconscious by the hand of Skwanky the halfling, Slick Vinny invisible and bleeding after being mauled by a Hydra, the turn-coat Father Halford entangled in a web cast by Vinny, Flora-Fawn the fairy hovering around the remaining snapping jaws of said hydra, and Televon with the Crown of the Black Sun upon his head.
As Gnarly was healing Vinny and Wolf was debating slaying the entangled Halford, in walked their long lost companion, Adessa. Apparently, Adessa had split the group after she had lost a battle with her evil side and had recently taken up with Halford. She was working with Ankral the Dwarf assassin in a distant chamber was was told by her dwarven boss to go see what the commotion was.
Spying his new hire, Halford tries to get Adessa to free him but Wolf leaps onto the amazon and pinned her to the ground. Even with her Gauntlets of Ogre Strength she was unable to free herself from the Viking warrior. Soon afterwards, Wolf and Gnarly had her bound but that didn't last long as she snapped the rope strands and began to attack the Viking. But it was Gnarly that put her down once again by heating her armor and making her pass out. This time they removed her Gauntlets and bound her once again.
The hydra, who was unable to climb out of the hole, fled back into it's lair with one of it's head dragging behind, a causality of Arg and FloraFawn.
Arg and Skwanky wanted to follow the Hydra down it's Hydra-hole but first they prodded Halford a bit. Gnarly stabbed him in the back with his spear and then Arg tossed him into the pit. (Wolf then urinated on him from above but I'll leave that part out).
Then Arg and Skwanky tied a rope to the alter and lowered themselves down into the pit. They saw Halford limping away, mumbling. The two warriors pursued the fallen priest and began to hack away at him. Halford had one last ace up his sleeve as he reached out and grabbed the Half-orc and burned him with the remaining power of the black sun. Then calling the Hydra back upon his enemies Father Halford, former priest of Mithra and now follower of the Black Sun fell dead. But Arg and Skwanky had more to contend with as they were face to face with the now four headed hydra. As one head began chomping on the halfling, Arg began smashing through the other heads until the beast lay dead. Finding nothing in the lair and wounded and bloodied, they ascended back up to the temple.
Adessa, learning of Halford's death felt no obligation to him what-so-ever and told his former companions that there were hidden treasures somewhere within these chambers. The Dwarf assassin had some and Halford had some hidden as well. It was decided to head over to the dwarf and steal her treasures.
Still unsure of Adessa's motives, Gnarly kept her bound as she lead them to the Dwarf's chambers. Now with the Gautlets of Ogre Strength upon his tiny hands, Skwanky the halfling and Arg knocked on the door. A gruff female voice on the other side answered. When Arg, trying to impersonate Adessa responded, a furious Ankral opened the door to discipline Adessa She was surprised to find Arg standing there. A brief fight in the doorway later Ankral was dead but then her lover Charles the Ogre battled Arg and Skwanky but soon he too fell to the onslaught of the Half-orc and mighty halfling barrage!
Lifting some keys off of their fallen foes, the party explored the temple dungeon and the chambers of Ankral and Charles. Within the Dungeons they discovered a handful of citizens of Caladan awaiting their fate to be turned into Ghouls for Halford's undead army. Gnarly and Televon aided the unnerved prisoners.
Meanwhile, Arg broke into Charles' the Ogre's room. Besides a pile of straw and dirty rags the walls were etched with crude drawings of naked ogre females as well as nude drawings of Ankral the dwarf (this is what happens when you let the players help describe the contents of the room).
Finding nothing of value within the chamber the party proceed to explore Ankral's room and found a sensual pleasure chamber; incense, and tapestries, cushions and divans and even a heart shaped bed! It seemed that in the recent weeks of Adessa's employment, Ankral the Dwarf and Charles the Ogre had tried to get Adessa to join them in a dwarf / ogre / amazon three-way but she didn't want any of that.
After finding a trapped chest which hit Gnarly with an arrow, the room was looted and the party, leading the prisoners, moved on. Gnarly lead the prisoners back up to the cabin (the entrance to the temple tunnels) to await their return as they continued to explore the rest of the temple.
Heading down the southern and final passage they descend deeper into the temple. Opening a final door, Arg and Skwanky step into a large cavern guarded by three ogres and overseen by an aid to Halford. In front of this shady character were two tables with two townsfolk on them, other prisoners are in a cell at the back of the cave. Arg tried to bluff his way in and past the Ogres but eventually the shady character called the ogres to attack as the rest of the party rushed into the room.
Skwanky put on his ring of invisibility to try to get behind the shady guy and kill him but it wasn't before the minion pulled a lever that opened up two grates and in rushed twenty ghouls! Televon, acting quickly, lifted his holy symbol of Morpheus and half the the ghouls retreated back into the safety of their cave. Gnarly entangled another portion of them with some vines and thorny bushes. Along with the Ogres the remainder of the ghouls attacked the party. A large chaotic battle ensued with Skwanky and Arg taking out the ogres while the ghouls began to paralyze and the rest of the party. Eventually, one by one, the remaining ghouls were destroyed but not before a number of close calls!
After freeing the other prisoners and plundering the ghoul lab, the party headed back up to the cabin. Dusk was falling so it was decided that they all, party, mushrooms and rescued prisoners, hole up in the cabin until dawn. The session ended with the party discussing where they might have missed some treasure for they never found Halford's quarters.
So after almost two and a half years of gaming, forty-one sessions with S&W and a year passing in game time it was a pretty fun session for the last one of the year. A lot of laughs and some surprises with Brian gifting games to everyone. A great group indeed!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Session: XXXV From Bad To Worse
So after a looooong hiatus, we returned to our Swords & Wizardry campaign. We have a side-quest of sorts going as a handful of party members took a delve beneath the ruined tower of Zenopus on their own, stepped through a portal and have become lost in the Underworld.
Three hour tour, indeed!
Thanks to Skwanky the halfling, who willy-nilly jumped through the magical portal, a beloved PC had died a horrible death while lost underground, Tibag Backstabber!
This party has had their ups and downs seeking a way out, but last night's session was a bit grim. In fact, I even killed my wife's character, Maudlin the dwarf. Well, I didn't kill her, a Gelatinous Cube did, but it brought up the moral question: Should a DM allow his wife's character to get killed?
That question and others answered in Session XXXV: From Bad To Worse!
After slaying a pack of sleeping Bugbears and looting their corpses, our party, Gnarly the Druid, Maudlin the hermaphrodite dwarf, Slick Vinny the Wizard and Skwanky the troublesome halfling and along with a handful of pirates and joined by Radius Longshadow (the racist warrior) explored the enormous chamber.
They decided to pursue the lone Bugbear that escaped when he was set alight by farie-fire. Traveling down the twenty foot wide hallway they eventually came across the frightened creature who drew it's sword to defend itself. But his bravery was short-lived as Vinny paralyzed the hapless beast with a wave of his wand.
It is then that they noticed the large cavern they were in with the facing wall a featureless gray mass unlike the rest of the cavern walls. And in that gray mass they can see things moving around - swimming. It appeared to be some kind of membrane with a view to an underground sea.
Skwanky the halfling, examining the membrane discovered it had some give. So, pulling out his sword, he attempted to pierce it to the horror of his party. Gnarly, being quick on his toes tried to hold the halfling back but Skwanky was a bit too quick and punctured the membrane. Immediately, sea-water began to pour through the ever widening hole.
Realizing the danger they were in, Gnarly, along with his Mushroom-men, and Maudlin started to hightail it back down the hall while the rest of the party chastised the curious halfling.
Back in the large chamber, Gnarly sent out Tuk the owl to explore a couple of the chamber's openings. Down one passage was what appeared to be a thick jungle. The party, together once again, headed down to the Jungle room to seek an exit. While Gnarly and Maudlin explored the jungle room, the druid was attacked by a crocodile who soon fell with a couple of hits of Maudlin's hammer.
Meanwhile, standing outside the jungle entrance, Vinny, hoping to poison the troublesome halfling tricked him into eating a mysterious vine. Indeed, the vine was poison but it failed to kill Skwanky. Instead it gave him a terrible case of the uncontrolled vomiting which eventually lead him into unconsciousness!
Vinny called out to Gnarly and said he would take a couple of the pirates and try to open the large portcullis in the back chamber in hopes of finding a way out of the ever deepening water.
Finding the portcullis locked and unable to open, Vinny cast a spell of strength on a couple of the pirates who, with the help of Maudlin, busted the lock and raised the gate. The party trudged through the flooding waste deep water and entered another wide hallway. Eventually finding that the floor began to angle out of the water the party was high and dry for the moment and in the beginnings of another large chamber.
Again sending Tuk the owl out to explore, Gnarly found that deep inside the chamber there were a number of odd, floating objects; swords, coins, shields, armor, hovering no more than ten feet off the ground. Wary of what his might mean for the party, Radius moved ahead to see what could be. Gelatinous Cubes! Three of them! However, he also discovered a large set of double doors in the distance.
Thinking it better to avoid the cubes, they retreated behind another door they had found only to discover that the passage beyond had collapsed. They were now trapped!
Impatient about their predicament, Radius burst out of the hallway and made a run for the double doors followed by Maudlin. Unfortunately they got cornered by a fourth Cube with two more on the way. With the three heading for the doorway where the rest of the party was holed up that made six Gelatinous Cubes! A dire situation indeed!
Gnarly and Vinny tried to fend off the Cube attacking the doorway flinging magic missiles and torches with some success, but Radius and Maudlin did not fare so well. Radius is quickly paralyzed and engulfed by his cube which disappeared into the darkness dissolving the flesh of the new companion. Maudlin defended herself a bit more, actually slaying one cube before succumbing to it's poisons. Soon she too was engulfed and consumed (and thus, a DM has slain his wife's character!).
Seeing their companions fall to the Cubes, Gnarly and Vinny along with the pirates burst out of the doorway to engage the Cubes. With three of the cubes lined up perfectly, Vinny decided to let loose a powerful lightening bolt he had discovered in a magic ring many months ago (see session 19) and was saving for a dire circumstance. The lightening bursts forth engulfing each of the three cubes but as the smoke clears the Gelatinous Cubes were unharmed being immune to electricity! Lesson learned!
It's a battle to the death now, as the pirates engaged along with Gnarly. Vinny, slinging spells, was joined by Skwanky who didn't know what the heck was going on.
Eventually the cubes lay dead along with many of the pirates.
Scooping up the loot, the battered party made their way to the pair of doors and discover that there was light coming from beneath. Opening the door, they discovered an odd site. Before them was a large stone chamber raised by six pillars. Standing guard by each pillar were two centaur skeletons dressed in full armor. There were a number of chairs in the room filled with an odd assortment of beings; an orc, a giant bat, a bugbear, an orchre jelly sitting on a chair, even a large gelatinous cube. One of the Skeletaurs waved his hand and offered the party to take a seat. As they waited, a door on the far wall opened and out walks a giant spider who proceeded to leave through the double doors. A voice from beyond the door shouts out "Next!" and the orc stands up and goes through....
Session notes:
So that's where we ended.
Quite a night. Two PC deaths including my wife's character. She was a bit shocked but took it in stride and began to roll up another character. Now that's the spirit, eh?
The other character death, Longshadow what Brian's new character he rolled up at the beginning of the session to replace his infamous Tibag Backstabber. Alas, he ended the night rolling up a new character.
Skwanky (the character) has become (actually he always was) quite the troublesome little bugger having put the party at risk in more than a few occasions. Now, he is indirectly the cause of 3 PC deaths. But it's great! Some players are beginning to stretch their concepts of what role-playing means in the game and that's a good thing.
I also got to break in my new table along with using the Jenga blocks as walls which all worked out nicely, though the snacks and beer bottles still took up most of it. I've just started breaking in the new Swords & Wizardry Core rules so I have to make a number of adjustments to some of my house rules and charts. But after that, I should be pretty set on my rules. I do not foresee having to 'upgrade' the rule-set as I'm quite happy where we're at right now.
Looking forward to our next S&W session in a couple of weeks.
Quote of the game:
"You just vomited yourself into unconsciousness!"
I love this one, especially the Halfling. Typical!
Three hour tour, indeed!
Thanks to Skwanky the halfling, who willy-nilly jumped through the magical portal, a beloved PC had died a horrible death while lost underground, Tibag Backstabber!
This party has had their ups and downs seeking a way out, but last night's session was a bit grim. In fact, I even killed my wife's character, Maudlin the dwarf. Well, I didn't kill her, a Gelatinous Cube did, but it brought up the moral question: Should a DM allow his wife's character to get killed?
That question and others answered in Session XXXV: From Bad To Worse!
After slaying a pack of sleeping Bugbears and looting their corpses, our party, Gnarly the Druid, Maudlin the hermaphrodite dwarf, Slick Vinny the Wizard and Skwanky the troublesome halfling and along with a handful of pirates and joined by Radius Longshadow (the racist warrior) explored the enormous chamber.
They decided to pursue the lone Bugbear that escaped when he was set alight by farie-fire. Traveling down the twenty foot wide hallway they eventually came across the frightened creature who drew it's sword to defend itself. But his bravery was short-lived as Vinny paralyzed the hapless beast with a wave of his wand.
It is then that they noticed the large cavern they were in with the facing wall a featureless gray mass unlike the rest of the cavern walls. And in that gray mass they can see things moving around - swimming. It appeared to be some kind of membrane with a view to an underground sea.
Skwanky the halfling, examining the membrane discovered it had some give. So, pulling out his sword, he attempted to pierce it to the horror of his party. Gnarly, being quick on his toes tried to hold the halfling back but Skwanky was a bit too quick and punctured the membrane. Immediately, sea-water began to pour through the ever widening hole.
Realizing the danger they were in, Gnarly, along with his Mushroom-men, and Maudlin started to hightail it back down the hall while the rest of the party chastised the curious halfling.
Back in the large chamber, Gnarly sent out Tuk the owl to explore a couple of the chamber's openings. Down one passage was what appeared to be a thick jungle. The party, together once again, headed down to the Jungle room to seek an exit. While Gnarly and Maudlin explored the jungle room, the druid was attacked by a crocodile who soon fell with a couple of hits of Maudlin's hammer.
Meanwhile, standing outside the jungle entrance, Vinny, hoping to poison the troublesome halfling tricked him into eating a mysterious vine. Indeed, the vine was poison but it failed to kill Skwanky. Instead it gave him a terrible case of the uncontrolled vomiting which eventually lead him into unconsciousness!
Vinny called out to Gnarly and said he would take a couple of the pirates and try to open the large portcullis in the back chamber in hopes of finding a way out of the ever deepening water.
Finding the portcullis locked and unable to open, Vinny cast a spell of strength on a couple of the pirates who, with the help of Maudlin, busted the lock and raised the gate. The party trudged through the flooding waste deep water and entered another wide hallway. Eventually finding that the floor began to angle out of the water the party was high and dry for the moment and in the beginnings of another large chamber.
Again sending Tuk the owl out to explore, Gnarly found that deep inside the chamber there were a number of odd, floating objects; swords, coins, shields, armor, hovering no more than ten feet off the ground. Wary of what his might mean for the party, Radius moved ahead to see what could be. Gelatinous Cubes! Three of them! However, he also discovered a large set of double doors in the distance.
Thinking it better to avoid the cubes, they retreated behind another door they had found only to discover that the passage beyond had collapsed. They were now trapped!
Impatient about their predicament, Radius burst out of the hallway and made a run for the double doors followed by Maudlin. Unfortunately they got cornered by a fourth Cube with two more on the way. With the three heading for the doorway where the rest of the party was holed up that made six Gelatinous Cubes! A dire situation indeed!
Gnarly and Vinny tried to fend off the Cube attacking the doorway flinging magic missiles and torches with some success, but Radius and Maudlin did not fare so well. Radius is quickly paralyzed and engulfed by his cube which disappeared into the darkness dissolving the flesh of the new companion. Maudlin defended herself a bit more, actually slaying one cube before succumbing to it's poisons. Soon she too was engulfed and consumed (and thus, a DM has slain his wife's character!).
Seeing their companions fall to the Cubes, Gnarly and Vinny along with the pirates burst out of the doorway to engage the Cubes. With three of the cubes lined up perfectly, Vinny decided to let loose a powerful lightening bolt he had discovered in a magic ring many months ago (see session 19) and was saving for a dire circumstance. The lightening bursts forth engulfing each of the three cubes but as the smoke clears the Gelatinous Cubes were unharmed being immune to electricity! Lesson learned!
It's a battle to the death now, as the pirates engaged along with Gnarly. Vinny, slinging spells, was joined by Skwanky who didn't know what the heck was going on.
Eventually the cubes lay dead along with many of the pirates.
Scooping up the loot, the battered party made their way to the pair of doors and discover that there was light coming from beneath. Opening the door, they discovered an odd site. Before them was a large stone chamber raised by six pillars. Standing guard by each pillar were two centaur skeletons dressed in full armor. There were a number of chairs in the room filled with an odd assortment of beings; an orc, a giant bat, a bugbear, an orchre jelly sitting on a chair, even a large gelatinous cube. One of the Skeletaurs waved his hand and offered the party to take a seat. As they waited, a door on the far wall opened and out walks a giant spider who proceeded to leave through the double doors. A voice from beyond the door shouts out "Next!" and the orc stands up and goes through....
Session notes:
So that's where we ended.
Quite a night. Two PC deaths including my wife's character. She was a bit shocked but took it in stride and began to roll up another character. Now that's the spirit, eh?
The other character death, Longshadow what Brian's new character he rolled up at the beginning of the session to replace his infamous Tibag Backstabber. Alas, he ended the night rolling up a new character.
Skwanky (the character) has become (actually he always was) quite the troublesome little bugger having put the party at risk in more than a few occasions. Now, he is indirectly the cause of 3 PC deaths. But it's great! Some players are beginning to stretch their concepts of what role-playing means in the game and that's a good thing.
I also got to break in my new table along with using the Jenga blocks as walls which all worked out nicely, though the snacks and beer bottles still took up most of it. I've just started breaking in the new Swords & Wizardry Core rules so I have to make a number of adjustments to some of my house rules and charts. But after that, I should be pretty set on my rules. I do not foresee having to 'upgrade' the rule-set as I'm quite happy where we're at right now.
Looking forward to our next S&W session in a couple of weeks.
Quote of the game:
"You just vomited yourself into unconsciousness!"
And now for some awesome cube action!
I love this one, especially the Halfling. Typical!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The Anything Can Happen Sandbox
So, all I can say is what a session we had on Monday.
My players and I have been talking about taking a hiatus from our Swords & Wizardry campaign to get our feet wet with some other rpgs (Savage Worlds, DC Superheroes, Paranoia and perhaps Traveller). Mostly one-shots / small campaigns. I've been getting a bit burnt-out behind the screen and it would be fun to be a player for a while.
So we all agreed.
The campaign plot threads were building up to a type of episode 1 climax and I thought it would be a great time to leave everyone hanging with some shocking developments until we get back to the campaign in a couple of months.
Well, the best laid plans…..
In a sandbox campaign, especially this one, I pretty much let the players head in whatever direction they want to. Whenever I made plans for what should happen it pretty much never went that way. So I've given up on planning the sessions at all. I did plan out Monday's session to begin bringing various plot threads, hooks, npcs, etc. to a head.
The players, true to their nature, chose a totally different path, unexpected and unplanned for and are now in quite a predicament well outside the events going on in the outside world. It really emphasizes the aspect of really not needing any large plot happenings or world changing events as the players tend to get themselves into enough trouble to last sessions!
So what may be our last S&W session for a while while we branch off into some other adventures turned out to be quite the cliffhanging conclusion. That session left our player's characters in two groups with one dead original member of the party having been swallowed in a flow of blue ice lava (only 3 original PCs remain), the dungeon map destroyed(?) with the dead character, the party trapped and lost beneath the tower having traveled through a one way portal, two characters, having lost to their evil-selves, are partying in Caladan and a Cleric getting high off of Moon-milk in the Moon Tower. All this while the vampyre Zenopus is still on the loose and other world events coming to a head.
This seems as good a place as any to be continued….!
Full session recap coming shortly!
My players and I have been talking about taking a hiatus from our Swords & Wizardry campaign to get our feet wet with some other rpgs (Savage Worlds, DC Superheroes, Paranoia and perhaps Traveller). Mostly one-shots / small campaigns. I've been getting a bit burnt-out behind the screen and it would be fun to be a player for a while.
So we all agreed.
The campaign plot threads were building up to a type of episode 1 climax and I thought it would be a great time to leave everyone hanging with some shocking developments until we get back to the campaign in a couple of months.
Well, the best laid plans…..
In a sandbox campaign, especially this one, I pretty much let the players head in whatever direction they want to. Whenever I made plans for what should happen it pretty much never went that way. So I've given up on planning the sessions at all. I did plan out Monday's session to begin bringing various plot threads, hooks, npcs, etc. to a head.
The players, true to their nature, chose a totally different path, unexpected and unplanned for and are now in quite a predicament well outside the events going on in the outside world. It really emphasizes the aspect of really not needing any large plot happenings or world changing events as the players tend to get themselves into enough trouble to last sessions!
So what may be our last S&W session for a while while we branch off into some other adventures turned out to be quite the cliffhanging conclusion. That session left our player's characters in two groups with one dead original member of the party having been swallowed in a flow of blue ice lava (only 3 original PCs remain), the dungeon map destroyed(?) with the dead character, the party trapped and lost beneath the tower having traveled through a one way portal, two characters, having lost to their evil-selves, are partying in Caladan and a Cleric getting high off of Moon-milk in the Moon Tower. All this while the vampyre Zenopus is still on the loose and other world events coming to a head.
This seems as good a place as any to be continued….!
Full session recap coming shortly!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Session XXXII: Chaos!
The theme of this past session was chaos and I mean that in more ways than one. First, we had a full table which was rather rambunctious (to the extreme even for us). Second, there was a trapped room that altered some PC's alignments. So it was an unruly game in more ways than one. I, as DM, probably could have controlled the table a bit better as well as some game elements but when the table is loud and chaotic, it's hard to maintain some of the flow of the game as well as making on the fly judgments. Oh, and actual role-playing is like climbing a mountain on your hands and knees. But alas, on with the recap.
As the party explore the 'mirrored' room they are joined by Televon and Gnarly along with his mushrooms. Exploring the room, some of the party began to fall asleep upon the divans and couches. Maudlin, Adesa, Skwanky and Wolfheir, who were still awake saw the others disappear until each is alone in the room with a mirrored version of themselves. The mirrored version is an evil version and attacks. Maudlin fought off the evil Maudlin by catching the tossed dwarve's hammer and then hammering evil Maudlin into oblivion.
Adessa, Skwanky and Wolf, however were not as lucky. They were defeated by their evil selves.
After their individual battles, they reappeared with the rest of the party and their sleeping comrades awakened. Wolfheir began to smash things in a rage.
The party finished exploring the chamber and Gnarly found a stone in the ceiling hanging from a chain. Having one of his mushrooms pull on the stone revealed a secret door. Beyond the opening was a small furnished living chamber with a door.
Going through the door they found a furnished bedroom unused for quite some time. Examining the room they discovered Zenopus' spell book!
While Wolfheir began to smash his way through this room's furniture, Skwanky explored down a passage that was filled with heavy webs. A torch was tossed in to burn the webs but immediately, two large spiders leaped out and bite the halfling who goes down poisoned and drooling. Adesa and the others leaped in to slay the arachnids. Before they fall, however, Adesa too sucumbs to the poison of the spiders.
As their two comrades lie there dying, it is decided to head back to the surface and try to heal them before it is too late.
They make it back to Caladan and Skwanky and Adesa are brought to the temple of Mithra and cured of their poison. Slick Vinny, meanwhile heads to the Cloven Hoof to talk with Onyx the old wizard that use to live in the tower before he was blinded by Zenopus. Onyx confirms that this is Zenopus' spellbook and they if Arvin's Avengers can find the Eye of Zenopus, he will be able to read the book, regain his spells and aid them in their fight against Zenopus.
Vinny decides to hide out in the Cloven Hoof in case Zenopus comes looking for the book.
So the session sort of ended at that point. With a rowdy table and three characters that switched alignments things were a little more up in the air than usual. I don't feel that I handled the battles amongst the good and evil selves to best keep the table involved and I think that's where things began to break down. I also didn't expect three of four characters loosing to their evil counter-part. That always throws a player for a loop in terms of his character concept. They have to suddenly shift gears and I think some of that was handled pretty well with the players. With some time to think about it I think they'll have a better handle next session.
I'll be clarifying a few things with the players this week over email to smooth things out and fill in some of the blanks from last session.
As the party explore the 'mirrored' room they are joined by Televon and Gnarly along with his mushrooms. Exploring the room, some of the party began to fall asleep upon the divans and couches. Maudlin, Adesa, Skwanky and Wolfheir, who were still awake saw the others disappear until each is alone in the room with a mirrored version of themselves. The mirrored version is an evil version and attacks. Maudlin fought off the evil Maudlin by catching the tossed dwarve's hammer and then hammering evil Maudlin into oblivion.
Adessa, Skwanky and Wolf, however were not as lucky. They were defeated by their evil selves.
After their individual battles, they reappeared with the rest of the party and their sleeping comrades awakened. Wolfheir began to smash things in a rage.
The party finished exploring the chamber and Gnarly found a stone in the ceiling hanging from a chain. Having one of his mushrooms pull on the stone revealed a secret door. Beyond the opening was a small furnished living chamber with a door.
Going through the door they found a furnished bedroom unused for quite some time. Examining the room they discovered Zenopus' spell book!
While Wolfheir began to smash his way through this room's furniture, Skwanky explored down a passage that was filled with heavy webs. A torch was tossed in to burn the webs but immediately, two large spiders leaped out and bite the halfling who goes down poisoned and drooling. Adesa and the others leaped in to slay the arachnids. Before they fall, however, Adesa too sucumbs to the poison of the spiders.
As their two comrades lie there dying, it is decided to head back to the surface and try to heal them before it is too late.
They make it back to Caladan and Skwanky and Adesa are brought to the temple of Mithra and cured of their poison. Slick Vinny, meanwhile heads to the Cloven Hoof to talk with Onyx the old wizard that use to live in the tower before he was blinded by Zenopus. Onyx confirms that this is Zenopus' spellbook and they if Arvin's Avengers can find the Eye of Zenopus, he will be able to read the book, regain his spells and aid them in their fight against Zenopus.
Vinny decides to hide out in the Cloven Hoof in case Zenopus comes looking for the book.
So the session sort of ended at that point. With a rowdy table and three characters that switched alignments things were a little more up in the air than usual. I don't feel that I handled the battles amongst the good and evil selves to best keep the table involved and I think that's where things began to break down. I also didn't expect three of four characters loosing to their evil counter-part. That always throws a player for a loop in terms of his character concept. They have to suddenly shift gears and I think some of that was handled pretty well with the players. With some time to think about it I think they'll have a better handle next session.
I'll be clarifying a few things with the players this week over email to smooth things out and fill in some of the blanks from last session.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Hack And Slash
Continuing our look back over our past year's worth of sessions we decided to collect a list of all the monsters hacked and slashed. And so, in no particular order....1 Zombie Cat
9 Ghouls
5 large spiders
54 Giant Rats
1 Zombie
1 Evil Wizard
1 White Ape
6 Pirate
130 Crypt Crawlers (Crotch Goblins (yes, that's right, 130!))
2 Giant Centipedes
5 Skeletons
31Goblins
1 Iron Statue
1 Eater of the Dead
1 Giant Tic
1 Were-rat
5 skeleton
1 Monster Rat
1 Giant Spider
3 Cave Eels
1 Giant Crab
4 Mushroom-men
7 Giant Frogs
14 Members of the Black Hand
9 Beast-men
6 Orcs
1 Wooden Golem
6 Evil Clerics
2 Gargoyles
1 Hell Hound
2 Shadows
1 Evil Priest
1 Living Statue
6 Giant Ants
2 Jackals of Darkness
1 Giant Skeleton
1 Walking Slime
2 Gricks
4 Mummies
4 Wights
Updated:
PC Deaths:
Arven - Priest of Mithra
Gedleesmote - Dwarven Axe-bearer
Adara - Stygian Strider
Slick Vinny died but was resurrected.
...and with that we hit 200 posts!
Friday, December 10, 2010
The Road Goes Ever Ever On...
This coming Monday will be out last session of the year. With the hectic holiday season upon us, it's just to difficult to commit time to Role-Playing. We'll be picking back up our Swords & Wizardry campaign in early January. That's not to say we won't be squeezing in some gaming between now and then. There's a whole list of games that we all want to try!
With our bi-weekly games we will be hitting our 27th session. I thought I'd look back over the types of sessions that we've had. It's amazing how the characters, stories and events just sort of evolve on their own. Since we gather every two weeks, it's amazing how many weeks a dungeon crawl or quest might take. But with a rules light game, it's also amazing what can be accomplished and the types of sessions that one can have.
Session 1: City adventure (Caladan) and begin dungeon crawl (Zenopus Tower).
Session 2: Dungeon Crawl - City adventure - Dungeon Crawl
Session 3: Dungeon Crawl
Session 4: City Adventure - Dungeon Crawl
Session 5: Dungeon Crawl - 1st PC Death
Session 6: City Adventure - Wilderness
Session 7: Dungeon Crawl - Tomb of the Iron God
Session 8: Dungeon Crawl
Session 9: Dungeon Crawl
Session 10: City Adventure (Braken) - Dungeon Crawl
Session 11: Wilderness - City (Braken and Caladan)
Session 12: Dungeon Crawl (Zenopus Tower)
Session 13: City Adventure - Dungeon Crawl - 2nd PC death (resurrected)
Session 14: Dungeon Crawl (Zenopus Tower)
Session 15: Dungeon Crawl
Session 16: City Adventure (Caladan)
Session 17: Wilderness
Session 18: Wilderness - Dungeon Crawl (Quest for the Skull of Yam-Gregak)
Session 19: Dungeon Crawl
Session 20: Dungeon Crawl - 3rd PC Death) - Wilderness
Session 21: Wilderness
Session 22: City Adventure - Dungeon Crawl (Zenopus Tower)
Session 23: Dungeon Crawl
Session 24: Dungeon Crawl
Session 25: City Adventure
Session 26: Dungeon Crawl (Zenopus Tower)
As you can see we've had much more dungeon crawls than City or Wilderness adventures but still a good balance, I feel because; one, Dungeon Crawls are the staple of my favorite type of adventure and a core of classic gaming, and two, game time moves much slower in the Underworld than on the surface. The surface world adventures usually have a lot more going on and more ground being covered, so to speak.
Also notice via the map that the campaign has really only taken up a very, very small portion of a tiny slice of the entire campaign world map that I drew up. Which goes to show, depending on your campaign plans, that you really only need to focus on detailing a tiny portion of your world.
It's been a great 26 sessions. Well see what number 27 brings before our break and with the way our sessions go, anything can happen!
With our bi-weekly games we will be hitting our 27th session. I thought I'd look back over the types of sessions that we've had. It's amazing how the characters, stories and events just sort of evolve on their own. Since we gather every two weeks, it's amazing how many weeks a dungeon crawl or quest might take. But with a rules light game, it's also amazing what can be accomplished and the types of sessions that one can have.
Session 1: City adventure (Caladan) and begin dungeon crawl (Zenopus Tower).
Session 2: Dungeon Crawl - City adventure - Dungeon Crawl
Session 3: Dungeon Crawl
Session 4: City Adventure - Dungeon Crawl
Session 5: Dungeon Crawl - 1st PC Death
Session 6: City Adventure - Wilderness
Session 7: Dungeon Crawl - Tomb of the Iron God
Session 8: Dungeon Crawl
Session 9: Dungeon Crawl
Session 10: City Adventure (Braken) - Dungeon Crawl
Session 11: Wilderness - City (Braken and Caladan)
Session 12: Dungeon Crawl (Zenopus Tower)
Session 13: City Adventure - Dungeon Crawl - 2nd PC death (resurrected)
Session 14: Dungeon Crawl (Zenopus Tower)
Session 15: Dungeon Crawl
Session 16: City Adventure (Caladan)
Session 17: Wilderness
Session 18: Wilderness - Dungeon Crawl (Quest for the Skull of Yam-Gregak)
Session 19: Dungeon Crawl
Session 20: Dungeon Crawl - 3rd PC Death) - Wilderness
Session 21: Wilderness
Session 22: City Adventure - Dungeon Crawl (Zenopus Tower)
Session 23: Dungeon Crawl
Session 24: Dungeon Crawl
Session 25: City Adventure
Session 26: Dungeon Crawl (Zenopus Tower)
As you can see we've had much more dungeon crawls than City or Wilderness adventures but still a good balance, I feel because; one, Dungeon Crawls are the staple of my favorite type of adventure and a core of classic gaming, and two, game time moves much slower in the Underworld than on the surface. The surface world adventures usually have a lot more going on and more ground being covered, so to speak.
Also notice via the map that the campaign has really only taken up a very, very small portion of a tiny slice of the entire campaign world map that I drew up. Which goes to show, depending on your campaign plans, that you really only need to focus on detailing a tiny portion of your world.
It's been a great 26 sessions. Well see what number 27 brings before our break and with the way our sessions go, anything can happen!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monday's Session Report: Getting Into The Groove
The last good handful of sessions have been really enjoyable. I mean, for the most part they all have been entertaining sessions, but these have become much more so. They've been laid-back and off-the-cuff and in a way I feel it is in part because I have hit a stride in running the games.
My prep time has diminished to almost zero. For the past year, the players have adventured in and around the city of Caladan so the area has been established pretty well (with the help of those players!). The small piece of the campaign world and the events have fleshed themselves out nicely
I've gotten comfortable playing on the fly. I have gathered enough charts and tables and dungeons and encounters that any play outside of the 'comfort zone' can be handled quite easily. Many times those sessions have proven to be our most memorable. I think it's also a part of the DM being more a part of the game as I posted a while ago. Even when I feel a bit worn out or tired, I think enough gets started at the table that before you know it, three hours have gone by.
I'm more interested in letting the players decide the course of action and just going with it then dump on them anything that I create or want them to do. That has always been the goal but it has now become my modus operandi. There's enough hooks and dangling plot threads that the world and events and player interactions are just running themselves. I also feel comfortable letting the game be what it is, everyone's contribution, both players and DM breathing life into this campaign world. We've run a sandbox campaign with options wide open but over the past year, a nice 'story' has developed.
The game is starting to feel more focused too. A good portion of that has to do with the players themselves. Early in our campaign, the PC's carousing opened up a ton of side-plots that, in most instances, eventually needed to be followed; interactions with the Black Hand, various debts to the Temple of Mithra, Adara's dreams (which are still open but are slowly affecting that character). This lead to everyone joking that their party has AADD (Adventurers Attention Deficit Disorder) as they were unable to complete tasks or quests. With a lot of these circumstances 'out of the way', events around the Tower of Zenopus have been slowly building and that is where the play has been focusing. There seems to be a certain tension and excitement as the players delve deeper below the tower knowing that they will be facing every more dangerous foes and perhaps Zenopus herself!
Finally, the camaraderie around the table has just been fantastic and great to be a part of. I think everyone has hit a comfort zone and that helps open the game up creatively.
Oh, and if you really want to freak a party of dungeon delvers out (and believe me, it doesn't take much), place shiny apple in the center of a room with piles of busted furniture. Good Times!
My prep time has diminished to almost zero. For the past year, the players have adventured in and around the city of Caladan so the area has been established pretty well (with the help of those players!). The small piece of the campaign world and the events have fleshed themselves out nicely
I've gotten comfortable playing on the fly. I have gathered enough charts and tables and dungeons and encounters that any play outside of the 'comfort zone' can be handled quite easily. Many times those sessions have proven to be our most memorable. I think it's also a part of the DM being more a part of the game as I posted a while ago. Even when I feel a bit worn out or tired, I think enough gets started at the table that before you know it, three hours have gone by.
I'm more interested in letting the players decide the course of action and just going with it then dump on them anything that I create or want them to do. That has always been the goal but it has now become my modus operandi. There's enough hooks and dangling plot threads that the world and events and player interactions are just running themselves. I also feel comfortable letting the game be what it is, everyone's contribution, both players and DM breathing life into this campaign world. We've run a sandbox campaign with options wide open but over the past year, a nice 'story' has developed.
The game is starting to feel more focused too. A good portion of that has to do with the players themselves. Early in our campaign, the PC's carousing opened up a ton of side-plots that, in most instances, eventually needed to be followed; interactions with the Black Hand, various debts to the Temple of Mithra, Adara's dreams (which are still open but are slowly affecting that character). This lead to everyone joking that their party has AADD (Adventurers Attention Deficit Disorder) as they were unable to complete tasks or quests. With a lot of these circumstances 'out of the way', events around the Tower of Zenopus have been slowly building and that is where the play has been focusing. There seems to be a certain tension and excitement as the players delve deeper below the tower knowing that they will be facing every more dangerous foes and perhaps Zenopus herself!
Finally, the camaraderie around the table has just been fantastic and great to be a part of. I think everyone has hit a comfort zone and that helps open the game up creatively.Oh, and if you really want to freak a party of dungeon delvers out (and believe me, it doesn't take much), place shiny apple in the center of a room with piles of busted furniture. Good Times!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Last Night's Session Report
After a bit of a break from our usually scheduled Swords & Wizardry campaign (our group had an open game session last week) we got back into it last night.
It was an interesting session as it was laid-back and much more driven by reaction to outside events than dungeons, hacking and treasures, though all the players were involved. We also saw the return of Max who plays the character of Slick Vinny after a hiatus of a number of sessions (three if I recall).
I know I felt a bit tired, probably from a busy weekend and Christy did as well. Mike (Wolfheir), too, seemed a bit in lower gear after returning from a week long business trip. So I'm sure that contributed to the slower pace of the session, though Max, Corey and Clay seemed pretty ready to go.
Since it was 3 weeks since our last game and the players had left the dungeon at the end of that session, three weeks of game time has gone past as well. Usually when our sessions end in dungeons or traveling in the wilderness, we pick up right where we left off. However, if the PC's begin or end the session in town then however much time passes between sessions pass during game time as well. I believe I got that concept from 1st ed DMG and it's stuck with me ever since. I think it's a great little rule for campaigns. It forces the characters to spend their gold and gives them motivation for refilling their coffers. I like the passage of game time and try to incorporate that into play as much as possible. In this instance, much happened within the three weeks to 'move the story along' so to speak.
The events that have come to pass revolve around Zenopus' tower and the town of Caladan which indirectly have an affect on the events that the players have been involved with throughout the campaign. Also, Slick Vinny's disappearance for those three weeks added to the mysteries as well.
As the players meandered throughout town picking up rumors and interacting with some of the NPC's involved and purchasing equipment for their next foray into the town there was a lot of role-playing. Sometimes in a more mellow session, especially when the PCs are in town, actual role-playing comes to the forefront. As tired as I was, it made for an very fun and interesting session.
When the players finally returned to the tower at the end of the session, they discovered that they now are not the only ones delving the basement levels.
This was a nice break from the usual dungeon crawling and hacking and slashing. I found the session to be very enjoyable and satisfying and I think the players appreciated it as well.
We'll be posting an actual session recap shortly.
It was an interesting session as it was laid-back and much more driven by reaction to outside events than dungeons, hacking and treasures, though all the players were involved. We also saw the return of Max who plays the character of Slick Vinny after a hiatus of a number of sessions (three if I recall).
I know I felt a bit tired, probably from a busy weekend and Christy did as well. Mike (Wolfheir), too, seemed a bit in lower gear after returning from a week long business trip. So I'm sure that contributed to the slower pace of the session, though Max, Corey and Clay seemed pretty ready to go.
Since it was 3 weeks since our last game and the players had left the dungeon at the end of that session, three weeks of game time has gone past as well. Usually when our sessions end in dungeons or traveling in the wilderness, we pick up right where we left off. However, if the PC's begin or end the session in town then however much time passes between sessions pass during game time as well. I believe I got that concept from 1st ed DMG and it's stuck with me ever since. I think it's a great little rule for campaigns. It forces the characters to spend their gold and gives them motivation for refilling their coffers. I like the passage of game time and try to incorporate that into play as much as possible. In this instance, much happened within the three weeks to 'move the story along' so to speak.
The events that have come to pass revolve around Zenopus' tower and the town of Caladan which indirectly have an affect on the events that the players have been involved with throughout the campaign. Also, Slick Vinny's disappearance for those three weeks added to the mysteries as well.
As the players meandered throughout town picking up rumors and interacting with some of the NPC's involved and purchasing equipment for their next foray into the town there was a lot of role-playing. Sometimes in a more mellow session, especially when the PCs are in town, actual role-playing comes to the forefront. As tired as I was, it made for an very fun and interesting session.
When the players finally returned to the tower at the end of the session, they discovered that they now are not the only ones delving the basement levels.
This was a nice break from the usual dungeon crawling and hacking and slashing. I found the session to be very enjoyable and satisfying and I think the players appreciated it as well.
We'll be posting an actual session recap shortly.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Session Report
So I'm splitting up the session recap and the session report. The session recap will either be player's recollections of the events that transpired or my rambling recount.
The Session Report, however, will be more of the mechanics of the game and discussion of any odd rule situations that came up during play and just general game table stuff.
It seems most likely that I'll post the session report prior to posting the session recap as these will be my initial impressions of the previous night.
So without further ado….
So our session last night was just after the RinCon 2010 weekend. Corey (Level 1 Gamer), Clay and I attend the Con so needless to say that some of us were a bit on the verge of being gamed out (Clay having gamed from 10am to 1am on Saturday!). Also, my Swords & Wizardry session that I planned on running at the Con was a bit of a bust seeing as only one person ended up signing up for the game.I did end up running a solo session and the player was quite the experienced old school roller, adding a lot of color to the solo session. As fun as that was it was still a bit of a disappointment not exposing the game to some new players.
Oh, well.
So last night we gathered for our usual bi-monthly dice rolling fun. We had two birthdays in our group this weekend so my wife, Christy (who seems to be getting more and more into the game) and I rolled out a little birthday celebration for Clay and Tim. Since the general sessions are usually more like a party anyway, we went with party hats and favors along with tasty cupcakes. Mike just happened to bring by some brownies as well. We were short a couple of players but that didn't stop a festive evening of gaming.
The session began with continued exploration of the natural tunnels beneath Zenopus' Tower. A lot of mapping and connecting of overlapping passages and tunnels (which slowed the pace of the game but made room for the usual table talk debauchery). Things picked up with a room of mysterious green mist and ended with a huge battle within the crotch-goblin's enclave. I mean, there were tons of these little buggers.
At first the players thought they had a pretty good strategy in dealing with the hoard but they soon found themselves over-run as the goblins climbed along the walls and ceilings and then dropping on the players.
These goblins dropped on my wife's character, Maudlin the dwarf, almost killing her and actually ripping her arm off (a couple of rolls on the new death chart)! Now this is my wife, mind you, who has just joined us for her third session, who is just beginning to get the concept of Role-playing, and who enthusiastically created the festive party atmosphere and here she is near death.
Not a good predicament for a DM gently getting his wife into playing a fantasy RPG!
So some quick thinking on the player's part to make a fighting retreat to a larger area (they were single file in a 3 foot wide passage) and a quick heal and reattachment of Maudlin's arm set things right.
Now some of you might think that a cure light wounds spell would really not help in this situation of a quite obvious serious wound. Well, I tend to agree with that. But in this situation, I think I made the right call considering the circumstances. I mean, ya gotta keep the wife in the game, right?
Besides, I won't let them off so easy. There are always…..complications, no?
Anyway, another good fun session and quite exciting at the end.
Tim, we tried to save you a cup-cake but, alas, they've all been gobbled up!
The Session Report, however, will be more of the mechanics of the game and discussion of any odd rule situations that came up during play and just general game table stuff.
It seems most likely that I'll post the session report prior to posting the session recap as these will be my initial impressions of the previous night.
So without further ado….
So our session last night was just after the RinCon 2010 weekend. Corey (Level 1 Gamer), Clay and I attend the Con so needless to say that some of us were a bit on the verge of being gamed out (Clay having gamed from 10am to 1am on Saturday!). Also, my Swords & Wizardry session that I planned on running at the Con was a bit of a bust seeing as only one person ended up signing up for the game.I did end up running a solo session and the player was quite the experienced old school roller, adding a lot of color to the solo session. As fun as that was it was still a bit of a disappointment not exposing the game to some new players.
Oh, well.
So last night we gathered for our usual bi-monthly dice rolling fun. We had two birthdays in our group this weekend so my wife, Christy (who seems to be getting more and more into the game) and I rolled out a little birthday celebration for Clay and Tim. Since the general sessions are usually more like a party anyway, we went with party hats and favors along with tasty cupcakes. Mike just happened to bring by some brownies as well. We were short a couple of players but that didn't stop a festive evening of gaming.The session began with continued exploration of the natural tunnels beneath Zenopus' Tower. A lot of mapping and connecting of overlapping passages and tunnels (which slowed the pace of the game but made room for the usual table talk debauchery). Things picked up with a room of mysterious green mist and ended with a huge battle within the crotch-goblin's enclave. I mean, there were tons of these little buggers.
At first the players thought they had a pretty good strategy in dealing with the hoard but they soon found themselves over-run as the goblins climbed along the walls and ceilings and then dropping on the players.
These goblins dropped on my wife's character, Maudlin the dwarf, almost killing her and actually ripping her arm off (a couple of rolls on the new death chart)! Now this is my wife, mind you, who has just joined us for her third session, who is just beginning to get the concept of Role-playing, and who enthusiastically created the festive party atmosphere and here she is near death.
Not a good predicament for a DM gently getting his wife into playing a fantasy RPG!
So some quick thinking on the player's part to make a fighting retreat to a larger area (they were single file in a 3 foot wide passage) and a quick heal and reattachment of Maudlin's arm set things right.
Now some of you might think that a cure light wounds spell would really not help in this situation of a quite obvious serious wound. Well, I tend to agree with that. But in this situation, I think I made the right call considering the circumstances. I mean, ya gotta keep the wife in the game, right?
Besides, I won't let them off so easy. There are always…..complications, no?
Anyway, another good fun session and quite exciting at the end.
Tim, we tried to save you a cup-cake but, alas, they've all been gobbled up!
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