Enter into the dungeon where you can see the perspective on the OSR from someone who lived and learned with 3.5 in High School and their on going transformations to the origin of the hobby.
This system might be the perfect system to introduce to new roleplayers. A few reasons for this:
1: It is one of the simplest game systems there is. You have a few stats and skills, everything is just a few d6. You don't have to learn weird polyhedrals, just how many dice you throw!
2: It is a setting nearly everyone knows. While Tolkien fantasy is up there as well, I'm sure most people have a better familiarity with Star Wars. Plus, what if they don't understand your fantasy goblins? you can just easily make up whatever description of weird alien and it'll come across.
3: It is (or can be) fast paced and cinematic once you get it down. You want to slide across the hood of your land speeder while taking a shot at the storm trooper across the way? no problem. 2 actions, make each at -1 dice and boom your done.
4: Templates let you get into the game super quick. No need to walk through character creation except putting some dice down for skills. What skills do you think your character will use? the templates already have the common ones marked for that archetype.
Even for GMs, it is easy to come up with a creature on the fly. You don't need all the stats, put extra dice into whatever you think is relevant, describe it and go. There are things about 1e I love, and there are different things about the fan-made 2e REUP (revised, expanded, and updated, found here: http://d6holocron.com/downloads/gbooks.html) that I love. 1e is so simple there isn't even initiative. Whoever rolls highest on their first action or opposed action goes first. As a GM you don't even need to tell your player your roll. Say you rolled your opposed blaster shot first, but it missed, you could say it missed and was first and it won't affect anything. Just keep the narrative going and have actions happen where they make sense. REUP on the other hand, has the same core mechanics, but has so many extra ships, aliens, droids, etc... You can find nearly anything you want in REUP. I also really enjoy the Wild Die. At times it can slow down the game, but it is nice that it can really help you gain success with something you have a low stat in.
Another great thing, you don't need to use it just for Star Wars. It is easily converted to a generic Science Fantasy (heck you can get the free d6 space if you wanted), or even to normal fantasy. The cinematic rules can work well in any setting, just strip the Star Wars skin.
In honor of today, I had lulu make a set of the 1e rules in 4 saddle stitch booklets for my next face-to-face group. I can just hand the players a few copies of the players section that cost <$5 to have lulu make. I also ordered a new copy of REUP as well (with a different cover than my current copy). Honestly I'm jonesing to run some Star Wars d6. We were playing a campaign online, but my GM quit for some reason.
If you haven't given WEG Star Wars a shot, you really should! It is one of the best systems I've ever played. Sometimes it gets to be an insane amount of dice, but REUP has a nice chart to simplify any roll over 5d.
Here is my current WEG collection (yes that REUP is full color!):
So our 10th session was essentially a TPK if not for some DM Fiat.
Our thief was out this session, but the rest of the guys were eager to continue on, so we pressed forward! The group wanted to go back and check on Ergo and help him clear the cave. Their hope was to get the travelling priests help (aka the evil priest in b2). They went by, and the priest said he wasn't interested in going to Ergo's cave, but said he would meet them near the Caves of Chaos later after a lot of persistence from the PCs.
So the party went to check on Ergo, only to check the first den where they immediately met him. They found some scattered bones and rotting meats, but didn't find him, didn't look around anymore, and left thinking they'd check back again soon. On they went to the caves of chaos.
The PCs were pleasantly surprised that the travelling priest Chromula was there with his 2 acolytes. After greeting each other, they agreed to enter one of the caves (the goblin cave). They formed their marching order with the priest and his 2 acolytes in the back, lit up a torch and pressed on. After some careful searching, they ran across a band of Goblins on patrol in the caves. Suddenly the call "BREEYARK!" was made and the goblins got into position to attack the party. Soon another band came and attacked from the rear. The party was pinned in and desperately trying to fight the Goblins on their end while the Priest and the acolytes tried to sell the fight between them and the other Goblins. It wasn't long however before Chromula cast a Hold Person on one of the PCs and him and the acolytes broke through the Goblins and left. The PCs, brilliantly fighting, managed to over come the hoard of Goblins. They decided they should leave the caves, learning the true nature of Chromula and his silent lackeys.
On their way out they found Chromula laughing hysterically as his 2 acolytes raised their weapons. He warned the party to surrender or face his wrath. This is what you get for investigating the caves. The PCs swiftly took to action and charged the acolytes. Chromula decided he'd cast a silence 15' radius over the PCs and acolytes as he stepped back to prepare some more spells. Suddenly Sylwen and Eldor had succumbed to a hold person. Markas and Dongan shoved them aside and made quick work of the Acolytes. Try as they may, they could not overcome Chromula himself though. He continued to ask for their surrender as he slowly wore them down. Finally Dongan fell to his might and he started shouting to Markas, give up now and I'll spare you! Markas couldn't accept surrender being unsure of what would happen to his friends and fought until finally he had fallen to Chromula as well.
At this point, it was looking like a TPK, except that Plimble Mae had missed out and was in time. I came up with an idea though. Markas and Dongan were lost, but the Goblins kidnapped Eldor and Sylwen. They stole all of their gear and kept them for a month, trying to question and torture them. Eventually the kicked them out of the cave with nothing but some rags.
They finally made it back to the keep, unsure of what to do. They were out of money, so they both had to ask Corporal Oliver for some work. He offered to let them patrol with the guards, in return he'd give them a place to stay, feed them with the guards, and them them some short swords.
I've been busy with work, so we've been on hiatus, so we're all waiting to see what happens now. I'm just glad I was able to keep it from being a true TPK, but keep some hard consequences. My players know that I'm not holding back, but they also know I'm not out to kill them. They had a feeling the Chromula would do this, but didn't expect it to be as bad, or that their dice would fail them so.
What can I say about D&D 5e? My group loves it, and I have to admit I'm quite fond of it too. I haven't purposefully houseruled anything yet, but I'm sure some exist from our mutual lack of understanding of all the rules. I am absolutely positive that I will be running a 5e campaign after we're done with this adventure. This session had some hard moments, but still nothing quite as deadly as what I'm used to in the OSR. We'll see what happens!
We're still running the Lost Mines of Phandelver.
This session saw my players make it out to the Cragmaw Caves to try and find more information on Gundren Rockseeker. They went back to where the ambush took place last time. The dead horses were still on the roads. The party split up trying to search through where they thought the goblins were hiding before and after some time found a trail. The character who found the trail quickly called the others. They decided that everyone but one would walk on the side of the road while one walked on the road. Luckily they managed to discover the 2 traps hidden on the way and disabled them.
Eventually they found a cave mouth with a stream coming out of it. Upon approaching the cave mouth, they were set upon by arrows through the brier patch. Quickly the Wizard turned and aimed his burning hands at the bushes as the others let loose some arrows in that direction. Soon afterward they watched the brier patch burn and they checked to find some dead goblins laying in them. The party decided to take a short rest and wait to see if anyone approached.
Eventually the group decided they would head in to see what else was there. They soon found the 2 dogs tied up, and killed them from range with the dogs trying to break their chains but failing. The group checked out the cavern, but then continued their way up. It wasn't very long before they caught a goblin running across a bridge. The group took their chance to fire some shots, but failed. Soon afterwards they were caught off guard by the sudden rush of water. Most of the party managed to dive into an alcove and keep their grip, while the cleric was washed back out of the cave. Dazed and confused he slowly crept back to the others. From here the group saw they climb up this passage and went on to do so. Once up they saw a chamber with Goblins. The Wizard cast sleep and 3 of them managed to fall asleep while the other 2 engaged. Shortly after killing 1 of the 2 left, the leader of this group of goblins appeared with Sildar in his possession with a knife at his throat. He managed to convince the party that if they took out the leader Klarg, that he would give them the human, and information about Gundren. The party requested that one of the goblins go with them, so he picked Slurry (totally not stolen from the WotC videos) and he helped them get through the rest of the caves.
With Slurry's help they easily dispatched the goblins near the pools, and Klarg and his minions and wolf. The fight with Klarg was pretty rough and they nearly lost some characters, but Slurry managed to help them defeat them, and got some revenge. Yeemik was so thrilled he gave the players their information, and even promoted Slurry to his 2nd in command. The players over-exaggerated to Yeemik about Slurry's exploits, so that when they left with Sildar in hand, he came out and hugged the halfling and waved them off. The group made their way back to Phandalin so everyone could rest up.
Overall, we are really enjoying 5e. My players like the action. I like that it still seems tough, but because they can heal more often, and easier, we get more action going. So far it has been so action packed, my players have pushed to keep the game going past our 2 hour sessions (both in the 2nd and 3rd session, haven't had our 4th yet). I prefer playing longer, but find online games that ADD starts to kick in past 2 hours. We've been having a ball, and I know the players really had a good time with the goblins at cragmaw cave.
It's been awhile since I posted. My group has been on hiatus due to some scheduling conflicts. Mainly I was out of town for the last 2 possible sessions, and my players were the week before that. Luckily my blogs are 2 sessions behind, so it'll give me some time to catch up.
This session was far more calm than our last. The group started by meeting a new Elve, Sylwen who had been watching the group. Soon afterwards they decided to head out and check out the Orc castle where Sam had fallen. Once there they discovered 3 Ogres eating what may have been some Orc carcasses. Luckily for the group, they had some great strategy, caught them by surprise, and were quick to dispatch the Ogres.
After looting what was left from the Ogres and Orcs, they decided they would proceed to the caves east of the Keep. They have only heard a little bit about this cave, so proceeded with caution. The paladin Markas took the lead, using his detect evil and lantern to guide the party through the cave. They detected one figure farther down the cave and found the cave split. They took the split for a few minutes before being worried that something might come behind them. Once turned around, they ran into yet another Ogre named 'Ergo' (totally not just Ogre backwards). They managed to befriend Ergo who asked for their help in defeating some monsters in his home. He told them about some stirges and the party agreed to help. After travelling through the cave, they found a hive of 12 stirges flying about. Immediately Ergo rushed in with the others and a tough battle started. The stirges started attaching themselves and sucking blood immediately. Luckily Ergo was a good meatshield and the party survived the fight along with Ergo. They explained to him that they would be back to help him defeat some more monsters in the cave later, but that they would need to return to town to rest up for awhile. Ergo gave them a big wave goodbye as the party crawled back towards town.
I recently managed to convince some of my Basic Fantasy RPG players to try 5e for me. I keep hearing from people in the OSR that is really is quite good, and I haven't played it yet, even though I've owned the starter set and the PHB for quite some time now. After reading through the Starter Set, I got some nostalgia from the basic box that I learned on for 3.5 back in high school. I used to run my friends through the basic box every time a new person would come around and say they were interested in playing. I'm not sure why I felt it was easier to teach through it, over and over and over, rather than just introduce them into our 3.5 campaign, but that is what we did at the time. The 5e Starter Set, seems to be much better than that basic box was however.
I was pleasantly surprised by how it seemed to be a very stripped down 3.5, didn't require a grid. I feel like Wizards did a great job with the Starter Set, but the basic rules .pdf would have been a nice handout.
After I read through the starter set, I was pretty hooked and read through the PHB the very next day. Don't get me wrong, some things really worried me at first look. Free cantrip casting that does damage was something that irked me a lot. On some level, it still does, because it doesn't seem to match the literature of the Appendix N (especially as I'm in the process of reading the Dying Earth series now), but I get it now.
I decided that I wouldn't house rule anything off the bat and that we'd run the Lost Mines of Phandelver with the pre-gens to see how we liked the system. We're a couple of sessions in and my players are really starting to like it. I think at first it was because I built their characters into roll20, and I think they liked how automated everything was. Now that they're reading into it and feel more comfortable with their powers, they're growing to enjoy it even more. My only fear is that they might get trapped in the box of staring at their sheets instead of thinking outside of the box like they currently do in our BFRPG game. I'm hoping this doesn't happen.
I'm surprised by how well balanced 5e seems so far. I get why spell casting classes have these powers. It isn't 'Vancian', but for the balance of 5e it makes sense. I quickly ended up picking up the DMG and was VERY surprised at how this seems to be the best DMG written for the game since the 1e one (though it would be very difficult to one-up Gygax' DMG). This does offer plenty of interesting things that you don't normally get in the DMG though.
We're currently 2 session into LMoP, and I reckon it'll take at least 4 more to finish, unless like our 2nd session, we continue to go for double our normal session length.
In our first session, the players got the basic setup, the goblin ambush, finished the passage to Phandelver, got paid, learned some information about the Rockseeker's, met Sister Garaele, learned a bit about the Red Brands, and were given some tips about how they might go about finding Gundren. Lots of RP, a taste of combat (which was beautifully deadly for WotC D&D). The players had a great time, but I don't think they really dug in until our second session which I'll write more about later.
I've recently ordered the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide and am waiting for it to arrive. I need to pick up a MM as well. I know my players will be interested in a campaign, but I still want to finish LMoP, because I feel like it is going to become the B2: Keep on the Borderlands of this era. I'm curious what of the hardback adventures people enjoy for 5e? I thought about picking up the Tyranny of Dragons set, but people seem 'meh' about it. I'm trying to decide between all of them, or just planning out my own adventure in a more traditional OSR style campaign format. I'm not sure if my players would really want my traditional sandbox style more, or an AP layout, but I think I should at least let them try the AP style setup.
Anyway, if you're interested, you can watch our first session online here:
This session, I became a killer DM. Sadly the next session didn't stop that. It was a mix of I wasn't expecting things to be quite so brutal, and bad luck/planning on the players.
So this session started with the group deciding to head towards the raiders on the other side of the river. On their way there, they heard the sound of joyful cheering, as they suddenly saw a faerie riding ontop of a giant bee crashed into the party. Immediately this faerie creature just disappears. The players are confronted with a mass of pissed off giant bees. The party acts quickly to take down the giant bees, but not before one of the stingers pierces through Braignirs chest, and he dies due to the poison.
The party, upset, decides to try and coat their weapons with the toxins (apitoxin) from the dead bees, and drags Braignir back to the keep for a funeral. Plimble Mae is completely distraught, as is Braignir's wife Sam, who vows for vengeance against the faerie creature that caused this tragedy to happen. Dongan decided he would ask the travelling priest if he knew anything about faeries, and was quickly able to learn that this must have been a Pixie.
Sam convinces the group to head back to where they found the Pixie as she is out for blood. They cross back over to where the fight happens and starts screaming for information. It isn't long before the Pixie starts throwing items from hidden locations in the trees. The characters jokingly get hit by platinum pieces, acorns, and pinecones as it laughs in glee, but soon Eldor speaks up in frustration and the Pixie gives him a quick stab to the gut before disappearing again. He then threatens to burn down the forest, and they suddenly hear the massive crack as a tree comes falling down in their direction. The whole group tries to dive out of the way, and most are successful, but none are beaten up too bad as the tree falls. Feeling defeated by the situation, the party decides to move onto something different.
The group remembers hearing about an old ruined castle nearby to the keep that has been overriden with Orcs, so they decided to check it out. Once inside, they find a group of orcs training and eating, and it isn't long before a fight breaks out. Sam is quick and casts here sleep spell and knocks out most of the group on the left, but it isn't long until the Orc left awake shoots an arrow straight through her spine. The rest of the group manages to trade some quick shots back with the other Orcs as Plimble slits the throats of those asleep. They manage to take out the group, but once they attend to Sam they're once again distraught. Sam has become completely paralyzed as the shot went through her Spine, and they must drag her back to the keep. Plimble decides that she will be Sams caretaker since she has bonded with her the most since her arrival just a few short weeks earlier. The group heads back to rest up and to deal with their tragic loss of Braignir, and of their new friend Sam, who, is still living, but horribly paralyzed.
So the killer DM part, is that the same player controlled Braignir and Sam. We had a massive backstory going on. I tried to fudge rolls in their favor, but I didn't pull many punches either. It was just one of those unlucky days.
Oh my, I've been behind on posting these. Currently this is 1 of 3 sessions to go up, plus I have a 5e session that needs to be uploaded as well.
I'll try to keep this synopsis short because of it. Essentially this week the party decided the cave they went to previously was too powerful, and they were a little unsure of going back, so they thought they'd take on the lizardmen. Well on their way out to the swamps, they encountered a snake in the swamp. Afterwards they ran into a shadow, but avoided the fight and finally crossed the river. Once there they didn't feel comfortable reentering the swamps so continued between the swamps and the forest when they finally came across the woods on their left. They decided this would be a better entry point until they ran across 2 giant spiders. After taking some damage, they decided they had enough of spiders and went to return home where they ran into more snakes. After resting a bit back at the keep, they decided they would try the caves again, where they ran into the kobold cave. They had a chance here, but decided they'd try to scare them off and push in. They ended up getting nearly surrounded and had to run for their lives.
No one died at least, but there was some close calls, with a few people falling into the kobold's trap. Big things happened in the next session though!
We had our second session of our new campaign a couple of weeks ago. The game is starting to speed up I feel, but we're still getting used to it. We had some newish players that still need a better understanding of the rules, as it took us nearly 30 minutes to get started after going over their character sheets. At some point, someone besides Norrible and I will have some understanding I hope. Norrible is growing as a DM, but still needs to streamline his game a little bit. Still waiting for session that doesn't go on quite as long, as we start late and you can start to feel the fatigue near the ends. His new 'minion' ruling we worked on together helps alleviate some of the burden of combat, but I feel we may still be too combat oriented.
We had a great time though! We started we me learning my nav computer is what was wrong on my ship. I learned that I can fix it myself if I have the parts, but I still put in our favor to try and get the ship repaired while we were out.
We decided to check out the bounty office for more work. We had a very... vague job opened up to us, that had nearly no info, but pretty good pay so we took them up on it. We bought a speeder and headed out. On our way there we found an abandoned moisture farm with smoke coming out (ala Episode IV), so we stopped in to see what was up. Once there we found some members of the First Order assaulting some Resistance fighters. We were quick on the draw and easily took out the storm troopers and some of the officers, saving 2 of the 3 resistance soldiers. We talked with them about what was going on. They were there to discuss open transport with the Hutts, but apparently the First Order found out and staged an ambush. We gave them my name, with the offer of a favor from them.
We heard about some kidnapped Resistance officers in a hideout somewhere nearby, and figured that was our mission so we headed out. We found a small compound, heavily guarded by the First Order. Finally Lord Rorikon came in handy, and he persuaded some of the soldiers into letting us in. We managed to make it all the into the cell where the guys were being held up before we had any confrontation. Lord Rorikon was a master of playing himself off as their superior using the knowledge he learned back when he was a consulate for them. d'Artagnian and I were playing along as his body guards. The jailors were just torturing the captive Resistance fighters. Rorikon was up in the jailors face about how they were due to a transfer and that we would be taking them. They didn't buy it this time and eventually a fight broke up. The kid and I were quick to draw and kill the officer torturing the guys and took both doors in a defensive manner. I went north and the kid went south. They had some robotic man come in through their blast door, while I just had a slew of storm troopers and officers. We gave one of the healthier Resistance captives a gun to help out, but get got a little to hasty, charged, and got himself killed. I had Rorikon use his comm link to get in touch with the Resistance, give them my name, and ask for back up as we had their captives and were trying to escape. Once we secured our current location, we headed back the way we came in. We didn't meet much resistance as we broke the guys out and got them back to safety.
This session was pretty interesting. Although it was long, and took some time, we did manage to sneak by most of the danger thanks to Lord Rorikon. d'Artagnan and I were able to roll through most of the combat afterwards, and this put us in position to join the Resistance if we want to. We're still just trying to get the hell off of this planet, as I need the money off of Rorikon to help pay off my debt. We're well on our way to doing that though! I'm certainly interested to see where our game goes once we're off planet!
The party met back up after they spent a week resting so Braignir could recover. The party spent much time writing in their journals (which you can read at: http://epicwords.com/wilderlands/). Once they were done resting up they found their old friend from Oakheart visiting the keep. The young magic-user who cast sleep on himself as soon as the goblins attacked somehow managed to make his way here without dying! Slightly impressed the group brought him on.
After spending a great amount of time making fun of Braignir for his busted arm, and offended Plimble Mae so she punched Markas Fletcher right in the wedding vegetables, they decided to head back to the forest to check the Hermit's home. Once there they scoured both floors of his home in the tree, and finally, hidden in the dirt and leaves of his bed found a very small chest. Plimble was quick to check it for traps, and seeing it safe decided she'd try her hand at picking it. At last she has successfully picked a lock! Careful not to open the latch they set it at the top of the stairs. Dongan decided the best course of action would be to kick it down the stairs. He lightly tapped it and watched as it bounced down like a slinky. Sadly he watched on as a potion fell out, rolled off the stairs and shattered on the ground. Their old magic-user friend, Isaac Poe scraped some of it up in a jar (mud and all) and decided maybe he was some sort of healing potion and started applying it to Braignirs arm. Braignir was quite annoyed, but let him do it in hopes that it may help afterall.
Not feeling any affects, and having spent time picking up all the gold and silver pieces that flew everywhere out of the chest, they decided they would head in the direction they heard the caves were. It wasn't long before they ran across a patrol of goblins. Both parties caught flat footed, they thought it would be a good time to try to parley. They goblins not wanted to risk their lives spoke with them. The party told them about their exploits against the hermit and the harpy. The goblins were impressed, but expressed no interest in going to the caves with them. They explained their home used to be in the caves, but they were run out. They spoke of the other goblin clans, and the attack on Oakheart was discussed, but noone pressed it farther. The party got some directions towards the caves and went on their way.
Continuing their travels they were at the top of the hill looking down upon all the caves. They decided they'd go into the closest cave and see what would happen. They were quite surprised by the black walls with red veins. How could this be in a cave such as this? It wasn't long before they approached the groans and shambling of zombies. Unsure of what they came across they decided to spread out wide to keep the zombies from getting to the thief and magic-user. The zombies shambled in, attacking with all their strength, injuring Eldor and Markas quite badly. Isaac went to the cave entrance to watch for any other attackers. In the end the party won against the zombies and escaped alive. Before leaving they took the amulets off the zombies and Isaac tried one on. Markas immediately shouted for him to remove it telling him it was evil.
They decided to head back towards the road near Oakheart where they had originally seen this area. They sneaked off, trying to avoid any of the other cave mouths and continued down towards the keep. They ran across some merchants who waved, but they were mostly worried getting back to town. Once back Isaac took the amulets to the temple of Thor. The priests there were rather upset that he would bring something like that into their temple, but explained it was a symbol of Orcus.
It has finally happened. After playing our one-shot of Star Wars d6 REUP, we started a campaign. We had our first session last week, and our second will be tonight! We were originally going to make our own templates from scratch, but most of the players still don't quite know the rules enough to do so, instead mostly relying on Norrible and I to guide them through it, so we started with templates again.
We started out in Tatooine, in the city of Mos Shuuta. I made a smuggler named Rijl Solarblast. I was lucky enough to start out with a ship, but am in debt 25000 credits to the Black Sun. I started in a cantina where I was approached by a distraught woman looking to have her mother rescued. Apparently sand people have strangely started kidnapping villagers. She didn't have much money to pay, but she agreed if I helped that she would help find some people to help repair my ship so I could get off this planet. I calmed her down and agreed to help. When leaving the cantina some ruffians from the Black Sun found me and shoved me up against the wall asking for payment. I tried to explain that my last run was to a planet that when I came out of hyperdrive was nowhere there. Nothing its sector was even there. I assumed it was from what we had all heard of the rumored "Star Killer Base." They told me my next payment was in a week for 1200 credits, smashed me against the wall and walked off as another man came up asking if anything was wrong. As they shrugged them off they made a rude comment to me. I looked at the other man who looked like he wasn't going to take any nonsense from them either, we both drew our blasters and blasted the two men. My shot hit one of their jetpacks, he flew into the ceiling and was knocked out. Next I knew some young kid was coming out from the bar with his droid in joining in taking shots on the men. I managed to get another lucky shot and blew the other guys helmet. The kid came up to us, and I thanked him for his help. After getting to know everyone and seeing they were good in a fight, I told them of the mission I was just asked to do and asked if they'd join. I'd gladly help take them off Tatooine once my ship was gone if they helped. Soon we saw some storm troopers approaching so we quickly shuffled off to the bounty office.
Once there we were met with a man who looked like some sort of diplomat. He had apparently crossed some bad people and was looking off the planet. Again I told him of my circumstances. He didn't look like he'd be much good in a fight, but he might have the connections to help grease some palms on the way. He offered 5000 credits to get him out of here. We talked to one of the bounty officers, and he just shook his head. Apparently there have been lots of reports of kidnappings, but no one has been successful yet. We told him we were up for anything, and he told us he'd give us 100 credits for every Gaffi Stick we brought back. Lord Rorikon (the diplomat) tried to haggle the price up, but the bounty officer wouldn't budge. I started to question his skills, but needed the 5000 credits. The bounty officer told us they would shuttle out to the sand people camp, but we'd have to find our way back somehow. We agreed and went out there.
Once there, the speeder sped off, wanting no part in what would go down here. I was impressed as the kid (d'Aragnan Fletcher) and the guy who helped me (Ted Bundy) crept towards 2 of the guards we saw. Ted eventually tripped over something and alerted the guards. They ran out to see what was happening, but the kid and I were quick in disposing of the 2 guards. Once everything seemed clear we all made our way to the entrance. At this point Lord Rorikon was quite amazed by the Banthas and decided to mess with them. They nearly murdered him before we got him out of there. We knew we'd have a hard fight going into their base to save the villagers. We had no time for this.
Upon entering, Ted and I took point and crept down the hallways. We came to a T-intersection, where 2 hallways were separated by a thin wall. Ted crept down the first one, and I went around the 2nd, where I was met with quite a few sand people. They knew we were there and immediately began their attack. Luckily Ted and I had cover, Lord Rorikon hid, and d'Artagnan was trying his hardest to get into battle. The Sand People had quite poor tactics, and just ran into the blaster shots. I managed to shoot through one and kill another in 1 shot! It wasn't long though before we were clear of any immediate threat and could push on. We made the foolish decision to split up, as we thought the hallways would reconnect. Ted pushed on alone, and the kid and diplomat backed me up. It wasn't long before Ted ran across some more storm troopers. We heard him on the communicator, and pushed for our closest door in hopes of flanking the enemy. We were saddened to just find ourselves in some kind of labyrinth. We ended back tracking back to Ted, who was getting pinned down pretty hard, and helped him clear out the sand people.
From there we pushed on through where we found ourselves in trouble. Ted was wounded from that fight where we were separated, but he was still mostly useful. We eventually came across the chapel the Sand People were worshiping in and had a massive battle. The diplomat and kid both got quite injured, but managed to crawl away enough to survive. It was up to the ruffian Ted and I to tactically outsmart the Sand People. We both flanked around when the diplomat was pinned down and wounded, and manged to take out a couple of sand people in from the back. Issue was, we ran across more in the process. Luckily Ted and I had the firepower to take them out. After quite a long fight, we made it through. Somehow I was still mostly unscratched, only having one shot graze my hear, but the rest of the group was quite injured. I was impressed by the kid and the ruffians diligence and strength under pressure. The diplomat did about as well as I had expected. If he is able to come through on some other matters, we may be a crack team yet!
Once we had rested up, we heard the screaming of people. Not the warcry of sand people but of humans! Immediately I rushed up and found their cage. I took one of the Gaffi Sticks and bashed the locks. I shared some of the wamp rat meat I had taken from the Sand People with the villagers. I took Shari's mom into my arms and told her that her daughter had sent us for her and explained that she was ok. When we arrived back, I made sure to personally return Shari's mother to her while the others got treatment and rested up. I sure hope there is no delay in getting my ship fixed!
So in the end, we really had a great time! Norrible still has to work on his pacing a little, but he is picking up GMing really quick. He's always asking questions throughout the week on what I think and for feedback. He is doing a great job and I'm looking forward to more! I can tell the group get's a little tired as we've been doing longer sessions for these. Once Norrible gets used to the pacing all should be well!
So we finally had our 2nd session of my DCC campaign. Tonight we finished our funnel of Sailors On the Starless Sea. We had 5 players this time. 3 characters survived the last session, but I had everyone make enough that all 5 players had 4 character each.
We ended last time in the tower, so the remaining PCs decided to go up the stairs and see what was up there. Inside they found 17 other captured villagers you were all chained to the wall. They rescued them, caught up with what they knew, then cautiously continue don there way. They went downstairs from the keep and one of the PCs was picking up the fallen gold pieces. They rushed into the next room to find the giant pool. They decided to take 4 of the cloaks, and were creeped out by the pool and the pictures on the wall. After seeing the skulls float to the top they investigated heavily. 3 of the PCs dove down to find the floor of the pool was littered with them, while one pulled the drain and was sucked to his death. After the pool was done draining the others decided to climb down and find what was inside. They were surprised by the natural cavern, but did decide to take the time to search it out. They found a ring on one of the finger bones, and were quite happy to try it out later.
After they grew tired of the cave they climbed back out, and headed out of the pool room to continue down the stairs. The party just did not understand why the skulls continued to glow brighter as they continued on their way. Eventually they made it to the stone wall and climbed ontop. They saw the ship out at sea and weren't sure what to do. One PC decided he'd swim out to it, but it wasn't very long before 7 tentacles came out of the water and dragged him under. They managed to find the candle and lit it and the ship came to shore. A few of the party members climbed on board, but the rest were too scared to do so. Next thing one of the PCs bit off the top of the candle and the ship headed out to sea. They were caught off guard when the boat stopped and the tentacles started to attack again. They fought hard, and a couple even managed to escape it's grasp, but after it took a couple of sacrifices on its own, the ship headed on its way again.
The PCs heard the sound of drums beating. They watched as the glow of the tower came ever closer, and as the shadowy figured became bigger and bigger. Eventually the ship docked itself. The PCs noticed the beatmen had some similar robes, so they hid the halfling underneath one with one of the other PCs and tried to sneak their way up. When they got to the top the Shaman and his acolytes were not fooled and the acolytes began their attack. The PCs got lucky and knocked and acolyte into the lava, but he drug one of the PCs with him. Afterwards the shadowy demon came to live and began his assault on the PCs who dare to keep him there. The Shaman joined soon after he had finished summoning him. After a long and deadly battle, the PCs managed to slay all those who remained on top of the tower. One got some tied up villagers and brought him to the boat, while another jumped into the sea as the tower began to shake and fall apart. Those who made it onto the boat were stunned as a tidal wave came and carried their boat out into the abyss. Who knows where they will end up, but 2 PCs survived to level 2.
So I felt like I had a better understanding of DCC this session. It didn't take nearly as long for me to look up some things like crit & fumble charts. We all had a great time, and it opened with some brilliant roleplaying. I had to fudge and modify some of the end because 75% of the party refused to get onto the boat. I'm not sure where I'm going next, but I think I'm going to have the boat sail out to a foggy island and to start with Judges Guild "Caverns of Thracia."
Last weekend we continued our Basic Fantasy RPG campaign with a new player once again :) It started slow trying to introduce him to the party (something I need to work on), but became a memorable session! Once they finally got started they decided to head into the woods once again to try and find the hermit. It took an hour or so of travel, but they made it to a large hollow tree eventually. They scoped out the trunk before finding an opening behind a bush. Erdrick walked up and hollered inside to see if anyone was there. They head the sound of footsteps before a disheveled old man appeared greeting them. The man was quite surprised to have visitors and welcomed their slew of questions for a time. After they continued to ask to enter his home he had enough and snapped.
The party was surprised as the hermits mountain lion leaped down upon them and started his strike. The hermit snickered and attacked as well. The party was quick to react, but it was like watching the three stooges. The party was getting ripped to shreds by the mountain lion, Erdrick had both of his arms crushed, Braignir had one arm crushed, and Plimble Mae received a permanent scar on her face from the claws. Dongan was quick to attend to the injured with medical aid while the rest of the party tried to fend off the Hermit and his pet. Eventually, the party was able to fell the mountain lion as they teamed up on it and the hermit ran off into his home. The party, looking awful at this point, decided they should head back to recover. Errdrick and Braignir had a difficult time carrying themselves, so they had to be helped. Eldor was dead set on dragging the Mountain Lion corpse back with them, and as he did, he suddenly felt the cold steel dagger of the Hermit slide into his back. He whipped around to see the Hermit phasing back into his presence. The people helping the wounded along dropped them and were quick to defend Eldor. The hermit was felled while in a fit of maniacal laughter. The party took a moment to recollect themselves and headed off to town again. The Corporal, Oliver, was surprised to seem them in such a shape. He rewarded them with 50 GP each for taking care of this nuisance.
The group went to the Temple of Thor to see if they could receive any healing, only to be made aware that none of the local clerics are powerful enough to mend their broken limbs. They made the offer to send a message to the City State of the Invincible Overlord if they donated enough money, but the party couldn't afford it. They may decide to make the trip themselves later. Erdrick was in a sad state, so Eldor took him out of the keep and took him out of his misery, knowing he'd never be able to hold a weapon, or perform any manual labor again. Braignir decided he could continue with one arm though.
The group will not soon forget the mortal wounds that befell them. After our 2 character deaths in session 2, I quit using death at 0 HP, and we started using the Mortal Wounds table from Adventurer Conqueror King system. So far the party had been pretty lucky with their rolls on it, but this session they couldn't roll anything to save their lives. I have to say this table made for a very memorable session at least. They players were quick to learn, even though half their party hit level 2 and we made it harder to die, they're still not out of dodge yet. The world is a brutal place, and they will continue to tread carefully!
So last weekend, one of my regular players (Norrible if you've listened) ran a one-shot using D6 Star Wars REUP (Revised, Expanded, and Updated) to see if we'd like to do a campaign of it. What can I say but that we had a blast!
We used templates from http://d6holocron.com/wiki/index.php?title=Templates and got started pretty quickly. We started in a rebel town meeting with an admiral. Imperials had been attacking some of the nearby structures and we were given all the different situations. Norrible did a great job giving us a choice in what to do here! We decided to get the communications tower back up so we could contact the other areas and find out if they also needed us. We grabbed a speeder with just enough energy to get us there where we found an imperial landing ship. We sneaked on and my character hacked the computer system so they couldn't leave. We then crawled towards the command tower and searched around for different entrances. One entrance we found we heard crazy scratching from some creature so we backed off. We went to the main door, prepared our positions, and had one of our guys pop the door open. Immediately a blaster fight went down. Peaking around my tree I took some shots and managed to take out one of the storm troopers. The other guys in the party got in closer and finished off the other 3. We crept in, checked out the computer terminal, and I stole one of the storm troopers blasters as it was more powerful than mine. I also managed to take a comm link which proved to be useful later.
After resting up we burst through the next door prepared to face some more opposition. Immediately we found ourselves against 4 more storm troopers and an imperial officer. We dispatched 2 of them quickly with a thermal detonator and some well placed blaster shot. We quickly moved in and took out the other 2 storm troopers. One member got blasted and was seriously wounded. I dropped back to help him up while Api pushed in on the Imperial Officer. They traded blows, both skillfully dodges blaster shots before Api finally bested him. I pulled in Mega to a safer corner while we waited for him to rest up. Api and I stood guard and scouted about before we heard the sound of marching storm troopers. We quickly prepared ourselves only for nothing to happen. Finally once Mega was back on his feet, we prepared at the next door. We threw it open and opened fire on 2 storm troopers and an imperial officer. We quickly killed one storm trooper, while another ran away. Mega crept around to find another door while I charged it and took out the other trooper and the officer. Api followed in behind me just as two riot troopers stormed through. Api and I quickly dispatched the two of them and looted their riot shields and pulse hammers. We quickly looted the other guys and tried to get the comm tower back online. As we did we contacted the admiral and let him know we found no rebels left here. On the officer we found a map that had the area we saw their landing craft marked, plus markings near the other places we were brief. Also written on the map was "4:00 Star Killer." We had an eerie feeling about 'Star Killer' and decided to get out of there. We started hearing the command for evacuation over the comm link as well. Mega and I argued about evacuating or trying to find the other rebels, but I won out forcing us to flee. We found the Imperial landing craft, I undid my own hack and we jet out of there. We found a few planets in the system and went to one, realizing there was no civilization before going to another. Once we landed there, we saw the Star Killer blast destroy the planet we were one, before realizing the blast was also going to destroy the planet we were on and we all died.
We had a hell of a time. The system was great. The only issue I had was, and it was because none of us had ever played, we had a bit too much combat for the time we had. I think we're going to not do the wound system for simple storm troopers because that bogged it down, and they're essentially cannon fodder in the movies. I think we can work more to make it feel more cinematic with the combat system too once we have our own made characters and we're all a little more sure of what we're doing. I look forward to taking multiple actions instead of just thinking I'm going to fire my blaster again. We had a great time! Looking forward to playing again.
So last week we managed to have our 4th Basic Fantasy RPG session. The was met by a forest Elf named Erdrick. He overheard the party talking about their recent exploits and had to suffer through the stench of the guys who had been pooped on by the Harpy. After a night of drinking away their pain, they decided they would head into the woods and try to find the hermit. In the morning Plimble Mae found Braignir hung-over and put a bunch of ribbons in his hair. They left the keep without him, assuming he would catch up later. Once Braignir felt sober enough to leave the tavern, he decided he'd follow after the group, where while he was leaving he kept hearing people whisper about the "Rainbow Warrior."
On the way to where they believed the hermit lived they ran across an overgrown farm. They were surprised to see how overgrown it was and decided to explore the buildings they could see through it. First the explored the home. They started searching some of the small empty bedrooms as they heard some scuttling noises. They drew their weapons waiting to see what would happen before a giant worm with 6 tentacles coming out his face attacked. Dongan was leading the group and took the brunt of the attack from the Tentacled Worm, but was lucky that his dwarven stoutness kept him from being paralyzed. With that the party managed to slay it easily and tried to collect some of its ooze. After the worm died, they continued to search the home, finding some nice jewelry and money. Once the left through the front door they noticed another window in a building to the north. As they went to check it out a few firebeetles flew down from the trees above to attack. Reacting quickly, only Braignir suffered much in the way of damage, but they managed to slay the firebeetles, carve out their shells and continue on to the other building. They found this building to be a barn. Once opening the double doors they were overcome with the stench of feces and death. They saw a bunch of stirges flying in and out of the far door who once noticed them decided to swoop in and attack. A stirge latched onto Dongan's face and Braignir's neck. Luckily each of them were able to fight off the stirge on them while the rest of the party slew the rest. Careful not to cover themselves anymore they check out the barn, and thought it was safe to carry on their way. They continued on the path to the Hermit's when they were met with a single Troglodyte. The archers took aim while the rest of the group rushed into Melee. The Troglodyte was able to bring down Dongan while the rest of the party took him out. Kessler used a lay on hands to bring Dongan back up, but he wasn't feeling great. He could tell he still needed a night of rest to feel up to adventuring. The group helped him up and helped drag him back to the keep for the night, and to spend some time planning their next course of action.
It seems like my players are really starting to understand the mechanics better now. We get some more roleplay in, more combats in, and far less technical questions getting asked. Things are really starting to progress. 3 Characters, Dongan, Plimble, and Eldor leveled up at the end of the session, so I'm sure they're excited to try and see how Level 2 goes for them. Looking forward to next Saturday when we get to play again :)
We finally had our first DCC Session! I had the players roll up 4 characters each using Purple Sorcerer here: http://purplesorcerer.com/create_party.php They used the default, 3d6 in order, roll for occupation & equipment and health. The session started slow, and I made the foolish mistake in the beginning of essentially reading the boxed text. I quit eventually, and don't know why I even tried as I rarely do in any other game, I just thought it was well written here. We started DCC #67 "Sailors on the Starless Sea". None of us had ever played DCC (including me) so I wanted to start us off with the classic funnel. The players very careful crossed the planks where the old drawbridge had fallen down. They threw their grappling hook and tied it around their waste one by one as they crossed. Once they all crossed, the very carefully check the Portcullis and crouched under. Sadly for officer Ed, the beast men dropped the Portcullis ontop of him. The characters then decided to go throughout the field where they found the well. After looking in, a few players nearly passed out and falled in, but they were lucky to be saved from falling. Afterwards they decided to pull up the chain, revealing a black ichor on the chain. They dropped it back down and Elizabeth decided to climb down. As she went down her skin began to melt from her feat, and spirits began to haunt her until she fell. They decided to check the temple instead. They looked in, saw the dead bodies, one guy entered and checked out the dais, where the smell of death and black ichor crawled towards him. They all ran out and rebarred the door. One guy decided to go check the well again alone, and he fell to his doom. Next the characters went to check out the tower. Once in the found all the dirt and some captured villagers. They freed one and tried to find out what happened to him, but as they did the beastmen burst from the top and charged down. Battle ensued for quite a long time, before 7 (I believe) more PCs died, and the beastmen fell. The PCs then decided to rest up after the fight before we called it for the night. All in all, we had a wonderful time. I'm looking forward to playing again next week!
^Warning: Not Safe For Work^
My Basic Fantasy session from last Saturday should be up in the next few days too :)
My friends and I were bored around Christmas time, so I took 30-minutes to prepare The Wererat's Well from the S&W: Omnibus by Barrel Rider Games: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/146506/White-Box-Omnibus-Swords--Wizardry?term=omnibus+
The adventure went pretty well, we made it about halfway through before we had to go. My only issue is there are quite a few typos in the adventure (I haven't noticed them in the rules parts of the Omnibus) and it was quick and easy to throw together.
I had the players use the DCC character generator from Purple Sorcerer, they made 2 each, and we just made Luck = Wisdom. They rolled HP and starting gold, bought weapons and armor, then as they needed equipment in the adventure I had them roll for a wisdom or intelligence check to see if they remembered to bring it. If they did they marked off the price from the book and added the equipment to their sheet. It worked pretty well for a thrown together one-shot!
I started the players in the town where they heard something was plaguing the village. They believed it was coming from the water supply. The players descended down the well to explore. It took them quite awhile to find anything but some fire beetles and Giant Rats. They made good use of a charm person on the first wererat they met and befriended him to try and get to their leader. We haven't finished yet, but hopefully will soon. Sorry for the small synopsis, this was a few weeks back and I haven't listened back to jog my memory.
