Dungeon Art

Here's another illustration depicting a scene from the same online play-by-post game I mentioned earlier. This was also used as the back cover illustration for the Swords & Wizardry Quick Start Guide put out by Chgowiz

Dungeon Crawl Massacre - Well, Not Really.

I ran my first ever event game this past Saturday at the Tucson RPG Guild monthly gathering. The group that runs these monthly events also run the RinCon here in Tucson. Their monthly events are a great way to meet other gamers and an opportunity to keep rolling those dice.

Now, I've never run a game for strangers before and I was looking forward to that challenge though it did cause some butterflies. I got some good advice from the OD&D74 boards which really helped put me at ease.

I ran Swords & Wizardry Core Rules with only some minor adjustments. I titled the game "The Dungeon Crawl Massacre" and ran Jeff Rient's Xlyathan's Tower. Feeling that this has a great mixture of mystery, danger and puzzles it was a good choice to run for this event.

I wanted to let randomness rule the game. I created 20 pre-gens of the standard classic classes (Fighter, Magic User, Cleric, Thief, Elf, Dwarf and Halfling) which were randomly equipped. I added to that Jeff Rient's 100 random starting items to give each player something unique (never underestimate the fun of that list!). Each player then randomly chose one of these characters. Good, bad, weak, strong, they all loved that anything is possible feeling.

There were 7 enthusiastic players at the table. 4 of them had played early versions of the game in the far past but have been playing modern versions in recent years. For them it brought back many memories of the fast-paced, loose rules games of their youth. I had the honor of introducing two new players to D&D. With the simplified character sheets of Swords & Wizardry they were able to jump right in, participate and have a great time. The final player has only played 3rd and 4th ed. He ended up enjoying the game quite a bit and after the session stated that he enjoyed this much, much better. He said now he understood what his brother, a former classic player, was talking about!

I read them my custom intro to Xylarthan's Tower and then handed out random motivation cards. Each card had a different motivation for why their characters were entering the dungeon and it wasn't just all for gold either. This is something that I like to do and it got everyone involved right away.

It was great to see all the excitement at the table. Not one bored face waiting for their turn, just a lot of participation, enthusiastic problem solving and at times horror for what they encountered. But all the payers worked together and laughed a lot. And it made for a fantastic experience for all.

Some game highlights include:

The party's apprehension to approach what turned out to be a large snake scale on the floor within the first few minutes of descending the stairs.

Unleashing an Ogre Wight in the second room explored. The fighter discovered he had a potion of Undead Command in his position (a result of a random roll).

Discovering the secret Hobgoblin password and shouting "Blueberry" in every language but the required Hobgoblinish at the Ogre.

Unleashing some very vicious Giant Killer Frogs on the party.

Igniting a 5 gallon keg of fine brandy that the fighter was carrying around (another result of that random roll) to kill a room full of giant rats.

The party found the flight of stairs to descend to the second level but chose to just explore the first level. They ended up walking away with some nice coin and a large 'statute' of an Efreeti with a missing hand.

I was lucky to get a great group of players for this session. I really do think it's the light rules and the anything can happen aspect of a classic style of gaming that really has the opportunity to bring fun and excitement to the table. It's like I've always stated, if gamers have a chance to play either for the first time or return to a more classic style of play, they always see the fun and excitement that has originally always been present in this game we all love.

Dungeon Art

I'm going to start posting some of Dungeon illustrations starting with this one, an illustration of the characters that were involved in a Holmes play-by-post game over on DragonsFoot, titled, what else, Dungeon Crawlers!

Fantasy Friday

As I'm (madly) preparing for my Swords & Wizardry game at the Tucson RPG Guild (my first public performance as DM) I've just got a real short Fantasy Friday image today. It's from my calendar collection and is a cover for Thrilling Wonder Stories.

Thoughts on Game Time and Character Advancement

I've always wondered the real life equivalent of time involved with a character's leveling of experience.

In our campaign, we have had six gaming sessions that have spanned over four months of real time and has lasted three game days. After the fifth session, we have had one PC death and two characters were able to advance up to second level (barely, I might add).

When one thinks about it in terms of game time, three days of harrowing life threatening adventure was enough to slightly 'advance' two player characters' knowledge and experience. To me that seems to be a fairly accurate process. There was plenty of near-death experiences for those involved, not to mention overcoming some dungeon dangers. It really wasn't easy for any one (1st level) character to survive but most did and the rewards are just starting to show.

We'll see what the future holds for our party of brave, though at times foolish, adventurers.

session recap

When You Need To Roll That 12 Sided Die

Level Titles

One thing that I've always enjoyed quite a bit in everyone's favorite classic fantasy game but is sadly missing in the many iterations of the Retro-Clone Rules are Level Titles. I've always felt that Level Titles added just a bit of color to characters and the game. I mean, what sounds better:

"Greetings, I am Kal'Thak a, 3rd level fighter."

or

"Greetings, I am Kal'Thak the Swordsman!"

It's a very minor element but I think it fleshes out the game. It's one of the things that pulls the game away from just numbers and stats. Whether the players use it or not, I enjoy having it present in my games.

So, to keep Level Titles alive for the character classes in my campaign, we have some of the more familiar titles and a couple of others:

Fighter
1: Veteran
2: Warrior
3: Swordsman
4: Hero
5: Swashbuckler
6: Myrmidon
7: Champion
8: Superhero
9: Lord
10: Lord (10th Level)
11: Lord (11th Level)

Dwarven Warrior
1: Dwarven Veteran
2: Dwarven Warrior
3: Axebearer
4: Vanquisher
5: Guardian
6: Dwarven Hero
7: Dwarven Champion
8: Commander
9: Dwarven Lord
10: Mountain Lord (10th Level)
11: Mountain Lord (11th Level)

Magic-User
1: Medium
2: Evoker
3: Conjurer
4: Theurgist
5: Thaumaturgist
6: Magicician
7: Enchanter
8: Warlock
9: Sorcerer
10: Necromancer
11: Wizard
12: Wizard (12th level)

Viking
1: Nomad
2: Savage
3: Barbarian
4: Berserker
5: Buccaneer
6: Corsair
7: Vindicator
8: Dane
9: Thane
10: Thane Warlord

Cleric
1: Acolyte
2: Adept
3: Priest
4: Curate
5: Perfect
6: Canon
7: Lama
8: Patriarch
9: High Priest
10: High Priest (10th level)
11: High Priest (11th level)

Thieves
1: Rogue (Apprentice)
2: Footpad
3: Cutpurse
4: Robber
5: Burglar
6: Filcher
7: Sharper
8: Magsman
9: Thief
10: Master Thief
11: Master Thief (11th level)

Druid
1: Aspirant
2: Ovate
3: Initiate of the 1st Circle
4: Initiate of the 2nd Circle
5: Initiate of the 3rd Circle
6: Initiate of the 4th Circle
7: Initiate of the 5th Circle
8: Initiate of the 6th Circle
9: Initiate of the 7th Circle
10: Initiate of the 8th Circle
11: Initiate of the 9th Circle
12: Druid
13: Archdruid
14: The Great Druid

Ranger
1: Runner
2: Strider
3: Scout
4: Courser
5: Tracker
6: Guide
7: Pathfinder
8: Ranger
9: Ranger Knight
10: Ranger Lord
11: Ranger Lord (11th level)
12: Ranger Lord (12th level)