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Sunday, January 31, 2016

Out Of The Abyss - Session 3 Report

We left the last session after having saw this giant creature come out of a lake in the fish dudes town (Slobadabob i believe).  A few of the PC's were suffering from madness, one of which had to scream at the top of her lungs.  (and had a sore throat for days after the fact!).   My druid turned himself into a rat and was scurrying around while the other PC's were out of their minds.  Basically mass chaos.  Finally they came to their senses, and we made a bum rush to get the hell outta there, as apparently this vile demon was the prince of demons...

and we are running....

ooooh a treasure chest, let's stop.  

Alright we got the treasure, and....

we are running. 

Fast forward a few days, we've made it back to where we took the wrong turn in the first place.  The plan so far is to get to blingdenstone. 

Once again we take a wrong turn, and ended up in a dwarven settlement.  Zagnap (my druid is thinking) WOOT! Gauntlygrm.  Which is apparently another objective.  

Nope... in the dark we see that these dwarves are very grey.  

The monk that is with us, is basically a wrestler with a major alcohol abuse problem, so after a brief discussion we are off to the "Bald Bitch" tavern in Duergar city.  We get to the tavern, all goes well, its fairly crowded with a few different races.  The monk decides that everyone needs a drink, including the fungi NPC that is with us.  He goes and brokers a deal with the bar owner for a large pan with water in it.  25 GP's and a necklace later, he comes back with the pan for the fungi dude.  To which Mr. Fungi says "I just get my nutrients from the world around me, I don't need anything specific".  Ah shit.   

So turning lemons into lemonade, the monk comes up with a genius plan of calling the pan "the pan of glory", complete with a long back story about dwarves and drinking from the pan before battle, etc.  Of course this is used thru out the rest of the adventure, with a lot of laughs along the way.  

That's a good case in point of whatever the players do say yes! it leads to some silliness. 

A bar brawl broke out and we hauled ass out of the city.  Even though Zagnap had considered freeing a few of the slaves. 

Back to the underdark....

SLIME PITS!  So we basically run into this huge slime pit, and all of a sudden there is a voice in our head.  It appears to be a mind flayer.  Zagnap is basically like "ah shiiiit!"  However after a fairly long conversation, it appears that he's not as evil as we figured.  He's a member of the "society of brilliance".  Honestly sounds like a bunch of egotistical types.  Zagnap discusses the possibility of joining the order.  

We come across this HUGE webbed cavern.  Two random surfer dudes named Spiderbait (clue) and yuck yuck (Possibly?), are hanging out in the webs and as they said "Surfin the web".  So they show us how to get across and basically surf around.  Once again we are still trying to get to the deep gnome city.   Seriously these guys were funny, they were basically Bill & Ted.  












So our bard sees this treasure chest in the web, and he walks up and touches it.  

and you totally know what happens after that. 

Yup a Mimic!  A fight ensues.  I should point out at this point we have lost all of our NPC followers somewhere in the webs so its just us 4 PC's trying to take this thing down.  Everyone is pretty much stuck to the damn thing.  Ravana our awesome fighter finally took the Mimic down with her pair of rapiers.  

I should mention that our bard is awesome!  He plays a bunch of instruments and sings in real life.  So every single time he needed to provide bardic inspiration, he would actually sing a few lines of a song about what exactly was happening at the time.  For example "Ravana, we need you to destroy the mimic with your rapiers of death!"  Kind of thing.  He got inspiration all the time hahaha.

It's time to get the hell out of these webs!  We decide to keep moving.  Remember that surfer dude's name?  Oh yah Spiderbait!  Should have known shouldn't we? 

5 or 6 spiders show up in the web.  There's been much discussion about burning the webs at this point.  However the fall, would kill us.  Gravity and terminal velocity. 

A fight ensues.  Thankfully Zagnap gets a decent initiative and is able to cast Moonbeam before the rest of the hero's rush into Melee combat.  Hopefully they have learned their lesson on this tactic!  

Our bard is near dead, Zagnap is near dead.  We are making death saving throws left and right.  Finally a few of our NPC's come to our rescue.  Running down the web towards the spider hoard.  I was lucky! (Zagnap) I managed to roll 3 success in a row.  (As a player I like this mechanic, its a bit different than old school obviously, but it puts you on the edge of your seat, kinda of like watching game 7 of the Stanley cup playoffs).  Thankfully I have a 20 that rolls quite high most of the time, its usually my DM dice, but I ported it over to my PC for this campaign.  

The bard barely wakes up, he's on death's door.  So is Zagnap, he makes his final success, excellent he's stable.  Next round of combat, a spider see's the prone deep gnome prey.... LUNCH!  Before anyone gets a chance to help the spider pop's off Zagnap's head like opening a pillsbury dough.  The monk distraught and pissed off finds new resolve, the spider's get there just deserts.  

The rest of the PC's decide to haul Zagnaps body to Blingdenstone for a proper burial (sans head).  I start playing on of the NPC's a Orc named Runt, who's basically a stupid bully. 

We get to what appears to be the gates of Blingdenstone, however the entrance is on a ledge way the hell up, and some one has left the ladder rolled up.  Cue Monk who decides to spider man his way up there.  (Ravana just pointed out to me, that her PC is technically the female dread pirate roberts so she should have also given this a go, but didn't speak up loudly enough at the time, seriously its in the movie).  

SUCCESS! We believe we have finally made it to the Deep gnome city, which I'm quite excited about.  

We pack up our things and have a fairly entertaining round of "Cards against humanity" and call it a night.  

I'm rolling up a deep gnome cleric for our next session.  

RIP Zagnap Rustleglomph, Druid 3rd level (just barely), parts unknown underdark.  
He made good wine.

Thanks to Ravana (my wife) for helping me with the timeline of the events, my brain didn't have the sequence correct.  






Friday, January 29, 2016

Mini Setting - The Continent Of Crimhuk - The Lost Badlands

Northwest of the gorge river is the Lost badlands, a un-hospitable parcel of land.  The terrain is dotted with old ruins, and low growing vegetation.  The weather for the most part is cold, winds rage across the plain making it difficult to travel.  In years past the "elders" created large mining complexes beneath the tundra.  Some of them still exist today, but are not easily found.  Among the denizens of the tundra are giant polar bears, mammoths, mountain goats.  Tribes of roaming neanderthals dot the horizon.  They war with each other over resources and food.  Tales of an ancient burial mound to a great king are told in whispers throughout the badlands.  It has yet to have been discovered.  Most merchants will circumvent travel across the badlands, and stick to the coastline of Crimhuk.  However in some cases caravans will make the crossing to the south and the small city of Yahleui.  There are a few small settlements of humans along the gorge river & Crek lake.  Most of these settlements last only a few years before they are sacked by raiders from the northern forest of armta & beyond.

Adventure seeds. 

1.  Neanderthal's have raided and burnt a small village close to the Crek Lake.  The fires of the village can be seen for miles.

2.  A traveler has said that he has found an entrance to a lost mine.

3.  Traders are willing to pay gargantuan sums of gold for polar bear furs.

4.  Within a extremely desolate section of the lost badlands is a place of tranquility and peace from the outside world.

5.  Strange glowing greenish lights can be seen in the night sky almost every evening.  Folk say that it signals the coming of the Frost Devils.  It has happened before, and it brought destruction.

6.  A large black circle burnt into the ground has been found within the badlands.  The storyteller goes on to say that she saw a bird land on the circle and disappear!

7.  Large herds of Elk have been seen fleeing south of the badlands for warmer climes.  This is very far from normal.

8.  A vile warlord has been taking villagers hostage as slaves.  People fear for their safety at night.

9.  A small settlement is in need of a guard to secure the borderlands around the village.

10.  Strange floating objects have been seen in the night sky.  Bard's say that these have been seen before, but not for a long time.  Some believe this is the coming of the gods of old.  Monuments have been created in their honour and dot the landscape of the badlands.

Here is a link to the map - http://3toadstools.blogspot.ca/2016/01/mini-setting-conitnent-of-crimhuk.html




Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Mini Setting - The Continent Of Crimhuk


A little while ago I was playing around with http://inkarnate.com/ and came up with the following map.  As a writing exercise I am going to work on descriptions for everything labelled on the map.

So if you are interested I'll just keep tagging posts with "Crimhuk".

Here's the map.


Tuesday, January 26, 2016

HItchikin Adventure Plots



I've often waxed about the idea of running a one shot hitchhiker's guide game.  Here's 20 adventure plots.  It has been suggested that I give Rissus the anything RPG a go for this.

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm

1.  Adjudicate a Vogan poetry competition.

2.  Discover what happened to the universe's smartest computer.

3.  Write a friendly review of the restaurant at the end of the galaxy.

4.  The intergalatic fax machines are down! You will need to get a news report into a publishing company on ursa minor in less than 2 days!

5.  Obtain the rights to create a new version of earth's moon, consult with the magrathean's

6.  Zaphod has went missing once again, a witness states that he may have fallen into a black hole! Find him.

7.  The entire universe is all of a sudden really really thirsty.  Find out why.

8.  In an alternate universe where bulldozers have feelings, console the one that wanted to demolish Arthur's house.

9.  There is a grand shortage of babel fish in the universe.  Travel to megalith 19 to find out the reason behind it.

10.  The cue on Vogan is incredibly long,  it appears that a bunch of random strangers have decided to have their baby's in the line up.  Make your way to Vogon and help deliver children.

11.  Tea has been discovered on Canis Major, since you haven't had a nice cup of tea in years.  (well ever since the Earth was unfortunately exploded on purpose maliciously), its time to go find some!

12.  You've heard rumors that there is in fact a relative of Marvin's living on Scorpius 9.  The only problem is these rumors are written in a very old book, you may have to find a way to time travel.  Which really shouldn't be that hard for a human should it?

13.  It appears that the GREAT SNEEZE may in fact happen again, the second coming of the sneeze some say?

14.  God's final message to mankind has been replaced with a very large sign of a restaurant chain.  No one knows what became of the sign.

15.  The rise of a league of super strippers has become a major problem on the not entirely harmless, well quite in fact very harmless city of Han Dold.

16.  The planet Krikkit hasn't been seen for days, some have suggested that it might in fact be just taking a break.

17.  In a different series of events, baseball (which is not only America's favourite past time, but most of the galaxy as well) has been replaced with Curling as the official sport to watch.  The Scottish and the Argothalgians are quite excited by this prospect.

18.  There has been talk about the new "Restaurant at the beginning of the universe" being quite pitful as far as food selection goes.  Someone must write a review for the guide.

19.  A fleet of Garokflakids has been seen orbiting neon label 23, their ships are giant vacuums.  The populace is quite worried.  Although some of the population suffer from allergies and don't think this is that bad of a plan.

20.  The un-ending limbo competition has been halted because of the loss of the limbo stick.  A patron at the event went to get a gin & tonic at the bar, once he got back into line, he tripped over a rather nice looking alien from the planet SETI who then in turned fell into the limbo holders.  It appears the limbo stick is in fact in limbo.




Monday, January 25, 2016

Barbarians Of Lemuria!

So I just grabbed a copy of Barbarian's of Lemuria from my local FLGS for only $10 used!  I'm friggin stoked.  I'll be plowing thru the 100 page tonight, then I'll be devising some fun stuff for the players.  I've got this idea rolling around my head to incorporate a bunch of different modules & settings and I think that BoL might just be the epicness that need to get this happening.

Here is a list of awesome resources for BoL
http://www.strangestones.com/downloads/




Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Rambling about adventures.

The other night I wasn't able to sleep because I was thinking about Swords & Sorcery (I've been reading a lot of Conan), as well Fighting Fantasy & Thunderrift.  A few things I've come up with.

The next time I run a campaign I'd like to do the following.

*  Use Advanced Fighting Fantasy or Basic Fantasy, which is less mechanics.
*  Focus more on roleplaying & storytelling and less on "roll playing".
*  Very good aligned "heroic" type stories.

I'm caught between wanting to run Thunderrift or Allansia.

Thunderrift 

After reading Thunerrift, its a perfect campaign for a very LOTR type setting.  Elves, Dwarves and Humans and all the tensions that come along with it.  However I think in order to suit my needs I'd like to change the history a bit.  Within Thunderrift there was a great plague & evil that spread accross the lands.  (yadda yadda, Sauron).  Rather than run the module exactly, what I'd rather do is the following.   The council still exists, and the pacts made by all the good aligned races still exist.  However, another plague has swept thru thunderrift decimating the races of Dwarves & Elves.  Few exist, and live in deep pockets (underground or in forests).  The landscape of Thunderrift has changed, the towns that exist are more like bordertowns, were free people live and defend their territory.  Warlords have taken over much of the resources, and city's/towns.  They war against each other.  Whole tribes of barbarian clans have risen up in the aftermath, living off the land, and reverting to more barbaric ways.  Necromancers delve in the deep trying to bring back old gods.  The old dwarven cities are now overrun.  

The world is ripe for hero's.  

Alternatively, Allansia.

I'd like to run Port Blacksand again.  Probably by the book.  I remember fondly running it and having such a good time with the city itself.  As well the adventure within the book, if I remember correctly leaves lots of options for more adventures.

Another intriguing section of the map, very close to Port Blacksand is Fire Island.

Fire Island used to be a prison colony, guarded by a tribe of paid Lizard Men.[1]
On the island there is a volcanoprison colony, a gold minejunglesswamps, a gorge and a river, all surrounded by sandy beaches.[2]
The colony was founded in 192AC as a futile attempt by the good prince, Prince Olaf, to rid his land of undesirables. Fire Island was abandoned, the Lizard Men received no pay and therefore took over. One prison guard proclaimed himself King. This guard was actually a Lizard King anyway and as such well versed in the practice of voodoo and black magic.
Apart from a few escaped prisoners, other inhabitants of the island are Cave WomanHeadhunter (Fire Island)and sometimes a few pirates.[3]
As well Silur Cha - The Lizard men city & the jungles surrounding the southern section of Allansia could make for some interesting adventuring. 
The desert of skulls could be a perfect dark sun type setting, with random barbarian tribes, maybe even the "lost city" adventure module included within it.  Hmmm....

You can get a copy of TITAN here - http://store.arion-games.com/Titan/p2182564_9849040.aspx




Monday, January 18, 2016

OSR GM Resources

Spent a little time on drivethrurpg.com checking out a few GM resources from the OSR section.

Some of these titles are free or pay what you want, others are relatively cheap but good deals nonetheless.


Hexed Places - Fen Fields


Drivethrurpg.com 1.72 pounds

This plains region is divided by a slow river that runs from southeast to northwest . The open plains are covered in tall grasses, while patchy woods and marshy ground flank the river-bottom lowlands. At night a vast croaking chorus fills the air. Rumors claim a giant multi-headed monster stalks the river-side swamps, and a wizard's ghost haunts the nearby tower.

Hexed Places are outdoor locations and encounters based on the classic six-mile hex format and OSR sensibilities. Use these locales as a quick side adventure, to fill out your campaign sandbox, or expand upon them to create a multi-session campaign. Each includes an overview of the region, expanded one-mile per hex maps for players and GMs (PDF and VTT format), encounter and rumor tables, and descriptions of individual locations, encounters, and features within the hex.

*This is kinda a neat idea, its basically a small sandbox with descriptions, monsters, etc.  It leaves enough room for a GM to add their own flavor and background.  

650 Fantasy City Encounter Seeds & Hooks


Drivethrurpg.com - FREE! 

Need inspiration for city encounters? With a whopping 650 entries, this PDF will give you ideas for years of urban adventures and campaigns.
Gathered from entries in the Roleplaying Tips Celebrates 500 contest, this PDF offers you the creative genius and perspectives of dozens of GMs worldwide.
Download this PDF for free today and start using it to flesh out your cities and sessions.





*Seriously 650 seeds! good enough for me, and its free.  get er done. 

The Dragon Horde Zine Issue #1


drivethrurpg - FREE 

Inside this inaugural issue:
• The Monster Roster: the leech-man and the beguine, with Oe/BX/1e stats
• d30 feature: Where Does the Weapon Hit?
• Familiars Found: Guidelines for Spellcaster Familiars
  in New Big Dragon's Universal RPG The System
• A Map of Yal Caramon and an overview of Lerdyn Chrisawn's Chronicle
• New NPC Class: Chroniclist
• The Undertemple of Arkon: An Adventure for Characters Levels 1-3
• Seven New Magical Weapons 
Interestingly looking zine, from the people that brought you the d30 sandbox.   

Treasure Book on Demand


drivethrurpg - pay what you want. 

The Treasure Book on Demand is a supplement of generated treasure covering every Hoard Class in the Labyrinth Lord System.   Additionally, it contains unprotected treasure spanning all five classes defined in the rule system.   One hundred results are given for each treasure type.
The treasure results are divided by section and enumerated providing quick treasure data for ad-hoc encounters or dungeon stocking.  The results are based purely on the random tables.  






PBE Games - One Page Tables 

drivethrurpg - $1.00

These are super cool!  Check em out.  
* Dungeon Junk 





Encounter Table 

drivethrurpg - pay what you want.

Handy little encounter table for plotting out random encounters.


A Wretched Catalogue of Gear



drivethrurpg - FREE

free resource in the style of the Wretched Menagerie series.
Four-cubit pole, 1/2" rope, braziers, concealed vest pockets for a thief, bucket, hourglass, small hatchet . . . bits and bobs of gear useful to dungeoneers (and short wilderness jaunts) of all sorts, and more than you can reasonably carry.
Contains over 100 general types of gear, and lots of sub-types, arranged for ease of discovery and use. Note that most core rule books for OSR games have some portion of this list already (although there are extremely useful items like charcoal, flour, wheelbarrows, stools, umbrellas, and similar that have been foolishly ignored elsewhere). This manuscript is more useful for its brief descriptions and "all in one place" quality than gonzo equipment.


A5 B/X OSR Character Sheet


drivethrurpg - FREE
A compact, simple A5-sized character sheet, featuring Stuart Robertson's superb OSR logo.  Perfect for use with Basic/Expert rules of the World's Most Popular Fantasy Roleplaying Game.  The sheet is also ideal for use with Labyrinth LordTM and other b/x retroclones.









Classes of Fantasy


drivethrurpg - pay what you want

this needs a better description than nothing.   Its a bunch of playable races, like centaurs, treants, dryads, gnolls, and some much more!  Seriously cool! 






Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Why I like playing a PC that has disadvantages

After a brief conversation with my DM yesterday, I decided to write a post about this topic.

My DM was wondering why "With how powerful the monsters are, why do you like giving yourself so many disadvantages as a player?".

Here's the reason why I like to roll up PC's with low stats, because as a player I want to overcome almost impossible odds and succeed and be the hero of the day.  If I start off as a super hero it is less fun to play.  The game then becomes about min/maxing, picking the best options.  For example, "why would I pick a sling and a staff, when I could easily have picked a 2 handed sword".  There is a reason that there are negative numbers in the book associated with stats.

That being said, it was suggested that level one PC's in 5e are far from superheroes, and in all honesty most games level one characters are far from superheroes.

While I understand, from a DM's perspective its much easier to have a bunch of beefy PC's playing, it makes it easier for CR's etc.  The campaign is the DM's, and the players are part of the story.

Eventually whenever my character levels up, I'll probably use the "add to ability stat" rather than pick feats.   As it will show a progression.  Here he is a lowly level one druid, with a shitty dex stat, trying to sling stones at bad guys.  Of course he's going to miss occasionally.  But as time goes on, he's shot off a ton of melee stones, eventually he's going to get better at it right?   It's all about the role playing.

With the disadvantage/advantage mechanic in 5e its makes playing a low stat pc even more hilarious!  For example, I had considered playing a blind PC.  My DM had said that all of my attacks would be at a disadvantage in that case.  I thought the obvious movie thing "Well his other senses are more attuned etc, so maybe he would just have no mechanic issue".  That said, I still may play a PC that is blind, even if I have to roll that adv/dis mechanic, cuz seriously funny.   Obviously he may become a great healer, and be able to help the group that way.

Regardless of what system you use this post is about the idea of getting into the character.  I've written about this before.  I like the idea of playing a PC with low wisdom, who just run's into battle "WATCH THIS GUYS!".  And then maybe he becomes a nice tasty lunch for the dragon.  Ah well, roll 3d6.

For a bit more info on my thoughts on role playing dumb assed characters
http://3toadstools.blogspot.ca/2013/11/minmaxers-be-damned-i-wanna-play.html

as a side note, I think I'll be creating a second blog for 5e related stuff.  As we are currently playing in a 5e campaign, eventually I'll probably be running another one or finishing up the starter set (with major modifications).

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

I fear for the OSR

Just caught this - http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd

Which means WOTC is now going to officially allow third party 5e products.  And not only that, they've created a marketplace for it - http://www.dmsguild.com/

(which also leads me to believe that drivethrurpg, rpgnow, etc may in fact be owned by wotc, take a look at the sites and the dmsguild, pretty similar). EDIT:  They are partnered with them, and do not out right own OBS.  

And technically you will be allowed to write for settings like Forgotten Realms if you are using the DM's Guild.

It appears, though that if you want to be a part of the DM's Guild, and publish product specifically for D&D campaign settings, you are going to have to play by their rules.  Which is fine.  As an example "I want to print and sell my fifth edition product" only OGL, not DM's Guild.  Interesting....  However I want to "design content" is both? What is the difference there? Classes VS Adventures? I suppose.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a game changer.  Do you think it is? What is the future going to hold? Specifically what will happen to the OSR?

I worry that 5e mechanics will inevitably creep into the OSR, actually I believe it already has.  I feel like in the next few months, years, there is going to be a LOAD of 5e material.  Which is both good and bad.

Note:  This is pretty genius on WOTC's end.  Why pay people to create for you, when you can sit back and let them do it. 

Of course this is going to expand the Forgotten Realms to untold heights, and trying to wrap our collective heads around the "canon" is going to be even more difficult with third party writers.

Here's another one - "I want my content considered for inclusion by Wizards marketing".  That opens some doors for the independent publisher doesn't it!

One thing to consider, is that technically we may be able to write for long forgotten settings like Greyhawk?

So here's the question.... What happens to the OSR as it stands now? It's going to change that's for sure.  As I stated certain 5e mechanics are making their way into the OSR.  (good god I've been even talking about 5e more often than not latetly).

Granted last year was a good year for the OSR, Red & Pleasant Land, Yoon-Suin, Whitestar, the list goes on.

Part of the issue I believe, is that because the OSR is basically "Old School", the whole "fear change" thing comes into play.  To be mired in something that is considered old, negates the idea of being "fresh, new, marketable".  The problem becomes how do you make something fresh, new and marketable, yet retain the Old School feel?  It's obviously been done (see above), but to continue to do so.... Well that is another question isn't it?

Obviously the OSR is not going anywhere at this point.  Is it going to change? Probably.  For the better? who knows, time will tell.  I do believe it is more important than ever to "stick to our collective guns" and keep writing and creating for a system that we all fell in love with when we were kids.








Monday, January 11, 2016

Winds Of The Ice Forest - Review

Winds Of The Ice Forest
By Random Order Creations 

Product Description:
The dreaded Ice Forest! Once a safe passage to the north, now the forest's evil magic seeks to trap and confuse travelers with ever-shifting paths full of terrible dangers. New monsters, new magic items, new magics!
This adventure for character levels 1-3 was designed for Labyrinth Lord but can be used with any old school dungeon-crawling RPG. It is a drop-in locale that can be played through in a few hours or in a much longer session...per the needs of your gaming group.  

This module is available as a PDF download for "Pay What You Want" thru rpgnow.com
It clocks in at 24 pages including 1 page OGL, front and back cover.

The adventure is designed for 1st to 3rd level players.

First off I would like to say that this module is incredibly well laid out.  So much so that as far as I'm concerned this module sets a new standard for "Pay What You Want".  The artwork by J.V. West is not only amazing but fits perfectly within the module.  That is to say the subject matter and the art go hand in hand.  It has a bit of a cartooney feel that I absolutely adore, However there are shades of darkness in it as well.

The premise of the adventure is that a very nice forest has become evil, the reason why is unknown.  There is a road thru the forest that is used by the general populace, travelling merchants etc.  Of course it is overrun by bad guys!

"Now the once-safe pathways are peopled with monsters and
perils in an ever-shifting maze of danger. In order to navigate
the Ice Forest a traveler must choose the correct path 13 times.
Choosing correctly is not easy and without magical assistance
a traveler could become lost in the labyrinth!"

Note:  The constantly-changing paths in the Ice Forest make mapping
it impossible.

There are a variety of adventure hooks & rumours to get you started wandering thru the fors

The adventure includes a new class, new monsters, new magic items and new spells! All of which are awesome.  Particularly the "Barbarian" class, which IMHO is done perfect.

The adventure also includes pre generated characters.

This adventure hits everything you need to get up and running quickly.  Not only that but it does things that more modules need to do: Include new things! new monsters, magic, items, and classes.  Just another thing to push myself & other independent publishers to do.

One thing that I've always loved about Basic Fantasy modules, is that all the monsters hit points are pre rolled and there are nice little boxes to check off during combat.  Winds Of The Ice Forest includes this as well.  (THUMBS UP!).

My one and only caveat for this adventure is the following:

This adventure was written to be used with the properly old school retro-clone RPG Labyrinth Lord™ and, with dizzying
selectivity, its advanced companion the Advanced Edition Companion. Both are published by Goblinoid Games
(goblinoidgames.com). However, given the nearly-universal language of all the old school games, you can easily run it with your
game of choice if said game is fluent in old school cant.

While I agree that it is a good thing to promote other OSR systems, and promote OSR in general, I feel that if you are going to put Labyrinth Lord on the cover, that module should be in fact LL only.

I briefly ran into a situation where putting "B/X compatible" and "Lab Lord compatible" on the cover was frowned upon.  That being said, this is only a caveat, and the text above is well written, pointing to the fact that "this module is intended for Labyrinth Lord and can in fact be used with other systems easily enough".

I've decided in my infinite wisdom to create a scoring for reviews.  So from hence forth reviews will be getting "Mugs Of Ale" 

And this one gets 5 Mugs Of Ale! HUZZAH! 



Back to the abyss - Session 2, play report.

SPOILERS - OUT OF THE ABYSS.

On Saturday morning we jumped back into the Abyss.  While it might seem slightly weird to be playing at 10 am, it was actually quite fun!  A little less booze, and a little more awake.  A few of us had a Moose hockey game that evening, so it seemed like the best plan to play earlier.  We had left off deciding on which tunnel to take.  There were 3 tunnels, one of which went to Blindingstone, which I suggested might be the best option since, I am a deep gnome, and most of the party was banged up from our escape.  So without futher ado, we headed off in that direction.  Out of the Abyss, is very much sandboxey, so everything is left to the player's to decide what to do and where to go.  While this is fun as a player, it can be a bit interesting when nobody can decide on which path to take.  Which is what happened the previous session.

We encountered a few goblins (and leveled up).  Beat the snot outta em, and I lit up a pyre afterwards to slightly cover our tracks.  At some point a NPC fish face (Kuo Toa) suggested that we make for his city, and he be returned.  I guess due to the closeness of it.  We encountered a roving band of Kuo-Toa's who promptly beat us up and took us prisoner.  There was no diplomacy really.  So we get hauled into whatever the Kuo Toa's city is named.  There's a brief discussion that we will be used as sacrifices, but its apparently going to be a red herring kind of a thing so we can escape.  There was tensions between the leader, and some of his relatives.

We get hauled out to this large altar, and all the kuo toan's are chanting something that sounds eerily similar to "DEMI GORGON!"  (BTW We are 2nd level, there's 4 of us players and a handful of NPCs).

Next thing we know this gigantic demonic minion of the underworld comes out of a huge pool of water.  Great cheers arise from the crowd of Kuo Toan's, our captors have smiles on their fishy faces, as we are going to be the next great sacrifice.  We are all told to make a saving throw of sorts, I'm the only one that succeeds.  (thank you dice!).  Everyone is basically stuck in fear.  The DM had everyone who failed roll on a sanity chart (I believe), one of which had to scream bloody murder, then cry, then laugh.  The other had to speak incomprehensible, and the third PC, I can't quite remember as I was still recovering from the scream.

My Druid changed into a rat to atleast flee the scene and re group.  I'm still trying to figure out how to save them.  Thankfully I'm not chaotic.

I'm hoping that it will be mass confusion and we can make some kind of a getaway.

Afterwards we went off to watch the Manitoba Moose play the Toronto Marlies, the Moose lost unfortunately, but were playing the hardest team in the league.  The interesting thing was that it was "Jersey Night".  The Moose were raising funds for our "Journey To Churchill" exhibit at the Assiniboine Zoo.  If you are ever in Winnipeg, its a MUST see!  The jeresy's are currently being auctioned off on ebay.


Sunday, January 3, 2016

I've come to the obvious conclusion that I need a gaming room

The last bunch of sessions we've had I've went and borrowed a folding table from my work.  Then added our small dining table together for the DM to sit at.  The issue of course is I have to go grab dumb table from work, bring it home.  Then it sits in my back room for a week or 2, in one instance I think I left it here until we met up for D&D again, which was like a month in between.  So after a reasonable discussion with female wife counterpart, we have decided to clean up the basement (which is very dungeon esq) and create a place where we can play.

Our basement is quite dank, luckily we just went and purchased a dehumidifier so I'll actually be able to leave books down there without fear of them getting all moldy and ish.  I am currently in search of either an old assed ping pong table or a old dining table that I can get down the stairs in one more pieces.  The other good thing about this is that we will actually clean up the basement.  Ever since we moved in, it has basically become the "place where things go to die", ie junk.  Now it will be the "Place where PC's go to die".  hahaha.

As well, I'm already excited about decorating it a bit.  I have a bunch of maps of Forgotten Realms from the 2e setting and Menzoberranzan that I can hang on the walls.  A bit poster of a red dragon & a LOTR (movie 1) fellowship poster.  The other thing I was thinking of was going to the dollar store and  getting a few cheap swords possibly to hang on the walls.  As well as my collection of ceramic dragons.

Should be fun.   So as it stands I'm perusing kijiji (Canadian version of Craigslist.... although we have that too, but its used a bit less), in search of the quest for the gaming table!

(Whenever I find said table I will probably get on of those grid maps to put on it as well, I know my DM grabbed a big roll for super cheap).  Maybe even put some plexiglass over top so we can draw on it with markers.

Oh and I'll need a shelf for my D&D books, so there not all over the damn place.

What things would you include in your gaming room?