Year end

I can't quite believe the year is over.  It was very difficult year to be honest. I'm thankful.

I didn't have much of a chance to play games this year.  It started out with a bang playing with Steve and the rest of the Canadian crew.  

My schedule changed and my Dad moved in with us which basically stopped most gaming.

I spent most of the rest of the year helping my dad and dealing with all the things.  I basically put off working on anything, playing games and guitar.

I'm currently prepping to play 5e again with my cousins.  We are going to have a session 0 and get going soon.  I intend to just use the essential rules.  The phb is just too much for new players.

As I mentioned in the previous post I wrote a supplement for basic fantasy.  

I am hoping to spend more time working on the basic fantasy project.  

Happy new year everyone.

Woodland races playtest

 https://basicfantasy.org/showcase.cgi

I created some playable races for bfrpg.  You can check them out on the showcase page.

These are all races like skunks, bears, voles etc.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Also download the new fourth edition of bfrpg while you are there!

I'm currently enjoying the black apple brugh module.  Likely going to incorporate it soon.  Got a cool vibe.

The Troubled Well - Blueholme Adventure

This adventure is for 1st - 3rd level characters for Blueholme.  It may end up being part of an expanded set of adventures.  Your comments are welcome.

INTRODUCTION

Strange noises have been coming from the old well.  The local townsfolk have been worried about the water supply.  A rash of farm animals have gone missing, which may be connected.  Hugo the local magistrate wants someone to explore the well and report back with their findings. 

All the underground area below the well is natural caverns, with rocky outcroppings and stlagtites.  A slow moving river runs through most of the dungeon.  Some of the rooms have been carved out by a seasoned miners hand, squaring up walls and flooring.  The map is 10 foot squares.  The ceilings are jagged and the heights vary.  

A.)  WELL ENTRANCE

The well is 60 feet deep.  A rickety basket holds an old corded rope for bringing up the water bucket.  The air from the well smells distinctly noxious, breathing it in makes you cough. 

    • Using the provided rope:  There is a 3-6 chance that the rope will break per PC using it.  Roll 1d6 to see how many feet they fall.  1d6 dmg per 10 feet. 

    • Using torches:  Any torch light in the well or at the bottom will cause a minor explosion of gas.  Anyone in the area of the well shaft, or bottom will receive 1d6 damage on a failed save vs breath.

    • Bottom of well:  The bottom of the well is about 4 feet deep with water, which flows to the east.  

B.)  MAGICAL MINE

The room is being excavated by large whirring machines that run by themselves.  There are belts, pulleys, levers all over the place.  The north wall has a large hole in it.  In the centre of the room is a pile of rubble that shines in any torchlight.  There are exits to the east and south.  The water flows thru this room, and is six feet deep in the middle.  

    • The excavating machines are magical, they can be stopped by dispel magic or by manually dismantling them.

    • There are a series of 6 tripwires spread out the room, above the water line.  While searching the room there is a 3-6 chance per round of setting one off, unless the PCs are being extremely careful.  Adjust to 1-6.  If any of the tripwires are set off a group of goblins will come to investigate.  

    • 4 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  The goblins carry 10 SPs between them.  They won’t spill who is in charge of the machines, even if they face certain death.  

C.)  CARCASS CAVE

This natural cave is filled with rotting carcasses of woodland animals.  A web hangs from the ceiling.  The floor is bone dry.  You can hear nature sounds coming from the west passage.  

    • The west passage leads to the outside, on the outskirts of town. 

    • Giant Spider:  There is a giant spider resting down the west passage.  The passage is filled with webs.  If the PCs spend more than 2 rounds investigating the room, the spider will enter to check on its prized food. 

    • Giant Spider:   AC 6, HD 2+2, Att: Bite*, DMG 1d6, DEX 13, MV 25.  *On a successful bite the spider will secret a vast acting paralyzing venom.  Save vs paralysis.

    • Treasure:  Amongst the remains is the carcass of a human wizard, he carries 3 first level scrolls, 30 GPs in a pouch and a magical staff. 

D.)  BARRACKS & CELL

A ramshackle room containing a cell made of rusting iron bars, a few small cots and an oaken barrel being used as a table.  A few suits of leather armour hang from hooks in the ceiling.  

    • The room contains 6 Goblins, a tied up Gnome prisoner. 

    • The gnome is named “Xveev” claims to have been press ganged into helping the Goblins and a surly dwarf into opening an underground tomb.  He was the one who invented the machines, and keeps them running.  He says that his family is being held hostage deepr in the caves.  (He is lying, he is the mastermind of this operation. The reason he stays in the cell is because he prefers to have a guard near him at all times.) 

    • The goblins will be cautious, but attack if they feel threatened.  They have been told not to give anything away about the Gnome.  

    • 6 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  

    • Xveev The Gnome, AC 9, HD 1d6, Att:  Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 14, MV 25.  The gnome has the following scrolls stashed in his pants.  Magic Missile, Charm person.  He has a key for room G.  It is brass and has a small rune etched into the side of it.  

E.)  UNEARTHED TOMB

Rubble and dust fill this room.  The sounds of pick axes striking stone emanate from within.  

    • There are two Gnomes tied up on a poll in the middle of the room.  They appear to be malnourished.  (Save VS Spell.  This is an illusion). 

    • There are two goblins and a dwarf working on clearing an area to the south.  This maybe the door to a long forgotten tomb.   

    • The dwarf wears a metallic collar.  This is a magical device that acts as a permanent charm person spell.  He is exhausted and moving slowly.  It looks as if he’s been working without sleep for days on end.  The collar can be pulled off with a feat of strength, this will cause the dwarf to take 1d3 of damage automatically.  Dispel magic will render the collar inert.  The dwarf has no recollection of how he got here and what he was doing.  

    • 2 Goblins, AC 6, HD 1d6, Att: Dagger, DMG 1d6, DEX 11, MV 15.  

    • 1 Dwarf  AC 9, HD 1d6-1, Att:  Pickaxe,  DMG 1d6, DEX 4, MV 10.

G.)  LOCKED ROOM

The door to this room is locked, and the door is quite sturdy.  

    • The gnome has the key to this room.  It can be broken down by at least 3 characters.  On a roll of 1 – 8 on a d10 they will be successful.  This will make enough noise to arouse a few more goblins to investigate. 

    • If the door is broken down rather than being unlocked, the pressure plate trap on the other side of the door will be operational.  Anyone stepping 10 feet into the room will cause the trap to go off.  Save vs paralysis for half damage.  A large wooden beam will come flying down from the ceiling doing 1d6+2 damage.  

    • Inside the room are 3 dwarves that are related to the dwarf in room E.  They are emaciated. 

    • The dwarves will happily hand over a treasure map that they found in return for safe passage to the surface.  

AFTERWARD

Xveev the gnome was trying to find a buried stone that could command elementals.  He was intending on bringing this back to his underground village.  His chieftan had commanded that it would help with their war against the dwarves.  In a previous skirmish the dwarves had killed the gnomish high priestess and this was to be used for revenge. 

Whimsical guild

 I got a bit of flack for my capn of the guard post.  Basically that there is an inherent setting in the tables.  Of course there is.  A guard could be wearing armour from a bandit, maybe the village is poor.  Or he could be wearing mithril he acquired when he was previously a hero.

Anyway this got me thinking about my inherent setting.  It tends to be swords and sorcery with elements of whimsy and humour.

Which also got me thinking, the judge's guild ready reference sheets are awesome.  What would be cool is to have this sorta crazy world, province, continent, state that's half baked with some general ideas and then a whole bunch of weird whimsical tables to go along with it.  I dunno might be cool.

Those ready refs are hard to beat when you are running a game.  That and the 1e DMG and your flavour of rules and you are basically good to go.

I noticed the other day someone had posted on Reddit this great pdf.https://initiativeone.blogspot.com/2013/05/od-setting-posts-in-pdf.html?m=1

Totally forgot about that.  It's fantastic.  

I started reading beyond the witchlight again and I found a bunch of cool freebies on dtrpg which I'll post in the next few days.

What's up with this village

Seriously though, what is up with this place.

1.  Some citizens pray to a dark unforgiving god in the middle of the night.  No one talks about it.

2.  It's very quaint and they grow nice strawberries in the summer.

3.  There are only children here.

4.  They are at war with another nearby village over a territory dispute.  

5.  There is a fountain in the centre of town filled with what appears to be blood.

6.  They have an elegant museum of antiquities.

7.  There is a similarity named village that gets confused with this one.  This is the one with the warthog races.

8.  There is only one horse in town, his name is Charles and he's well mannered but quite tired.

9.  No booze, no loud noises, no going out after dark, no dancing, no walking in groups of three and no singing!

10.  A nice old lady makes pies for newcomers.  Curiously there are no pets in town.

11.  There's a large burnt area where the town hall/jail used to be.

12.  Every weekend there is a new festival.

13.  The bones of a great monster are now used as the entrance to the town.  A really weird archway.

14.  Some of the town sunk into the river.  Well the graveyard did.

15.  There is not one but three stone towers nearby.

16.  The town centre is filled with stone people and creatures.  They are dusty and moss grows on them.

17.  The houses are built vertically.  There are a lot of ladders.

18.  Nightly there are games of chance in the alley behind the tavern.  These are usually low stakes but lots of fun.

19.  The mayor changes on a semi bi weekly basis, except if it falls on a holiday in which case it's pushed back 3 days.

20.  Most people you meet claim to be a knight.

Capn of the guard

Here's a Captain of the guard generator.

1d8 Appearance

1.  Slovenly, and slow moving.

2.  Distinguished, well groomed and trim. 

3.  Scarred from battles, middle aged, slightly overweight.

4.  Very tall and thin, long flowing hair. 

5.  Short, stout and unkempt. 

6.  Muscle bound.

7.  Average build, permanent helmet hair. 

8.  Sallow, malnourished, greying hair. 

1d8 Favourite Weapon Of Choice

1.  Polearm.

2.  Large two handed axe.

3.  A pair of sharp daggers.

4.  Walking stick. 

5.  Bastard Sword.

6.  Mace. 

7.  Crossbow. 

8.  Club.

Armour

1.  Pastiche of leather and chain.

2.  Full plate.

3.  Only robes and a tunic

4.  Full chainmail with local towns flag sewn into coverall tunic.

5.  Rusted chainmail.

6.  Elven chain.

7.  Leather armour stolen from a bandit.

8.  Mithril.

1d4 Intelligence 

1.  Dimwitted. 

2.  Insanely smart. 

3.  Dropped on their head as a child. 

4.  Concussed. 

D20 Personality

1.  Conspiracy theorist. 

2.  Exhibitionist. 

3.  Lawful and just. 

4.  Cruel & twisted. 

5.  Easily swayed. 

6.  Let's other's do their dirty work. 

7.  Suspicious. 

8.  Deeply religious. 

9.  Brave, run's into battle. 

10.  Deep thinker & planner. 

11.  Taciturn and polite. 

12.  Enigma. 

13.  Saddened. 

14.  Frivolous spender. 

15.  Energized and excitable. 

16.  Drug addled. 

17.  Generous. 

18.  Fishing is always on their mind. 

19.  Gambler. 

20.  Frightened. 

D10 Quirks & Bonds 

1.  Deeply afraid of the undead. 

2.  Takes pleasure in beheadings. 

3.  Enjoys bossing people around. 

4.  Wonders if there is a God. 

5.  Has a quest they don't want to undertake. 

6.  Shell shocked from war. 

7.  Has two spouses in two different towns. 

8.  Wants to open a museum. 

9.  Thinks everyone is out to get them and take their job. 

10.  Is always hungry. 

D20 Missions 

1.  Rebuild the town wall.

2.  Hunt the local dragon.

3.  Build a decent tavern. 

4.  Trying to enlist new town guards. 

5.  Looking for the missing tax collector. 

6.  Enlisting new clerics for local church. 

7.  Trying to take down a drug smuggling ring. 

8.  Is in need of new mounts for the guard.  

9.  Owes money to local lord, is considering doing something illegal. 

10.  Feels that everything is okay around here, and is considering going for a drink and relaxing. 

11.  Find out the cause of the terrible crops. 

12.  Spends most of their time fishing in local river away from their duties. 

13.  Local blacksmith requires a new source of Iron.  Looking for suitable mining spot. 

14.  On the trail of a murderer. 

15.   Wants to mount a wyverns head on their wall.

16.  Needs to clear the area to the north of monsters and unsavory types.

17.  Sent a regiment out and they haven't reported back in weeks. 

18.  Was biten by a vampire or werewolf or both.

19.  Trying to organize a jousting tournament.

20.  Searching for a leprechaun that stole his silver pieces.

  

Venger strikes again, this time with X-Cards!

 It's been awhile since I've caught up with Venger.  You can check out his going's on here: http://vengersatanis.blogspot.com/
He just released some Cha'alt X-Cards
Here is the blurb: 

If you love Cha'alt, then here's a mechanic that brings those Cha'altian vibes to the fore!

This describes an entirely new and strange technique for improving your roleplaying game sessions... and making them weird, gross, horrific, hilarious, and exciting.

Use Cha'alt X-Cards with Cha'alt or any other RPG that's about or promotes eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalypse, humor, sleaze, pop-culture, and grindhouse exploitation.

Want custom-made cards or the Cha'alt hardcovers?  Let me know, hoss!

The best part, they are FREE! 

And speaking of free, if you haven't had a chance to try out Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer yet, wait exactly are you waiting for? 

Here's the link.  

This is my own heavily house-ruled hack of B/X and 5e, suitable for one-shots, convention games, virtual play, and even face-to-face campaigns.  I'm currently 16-sessions into my Crystals of Chaos campaign set in the eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic world of Cha'alt.  Check out my session reports on Venger's old school gaming blog for details.

Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer is the updated version of Crimson Dragon Slayer D20, and going forward, this will see incremental adjustments (hopefully, improvements) here and there over the years.

In fact, there's room for a couple new races, and I've decided to run a contest to see who will come up with the most Cha'altian suggestion... that will be included in the next update, sometime in early November.  So, get your suggestions in by Halloween (not that it has to be horror-themed or anything, but it can be... whatever, yeah - totally up to you).

4 classes, tons of races, ascending AC, spell casting drains hit-points, lots of standard OSR type stuff, and plenty of weird things I threw in to mesh better with Cha'alt.  Plus, a character sheet (3 slightly different versions)!!!

Okay, that's almost all the things.... actually there's one more! 

Alpha Blue d20 (another super fun RPG) 

This is a different kind of Alpha Blue... for starters it's D20; it's also not quite as silly.  Yeah, this version is darker and grittier than the original.  Just as sleazy, though!  Maybe you've played Alpha Blue before, maybe you haven't.  Either way, I'd love to know what you think of this version.
I'm hoping to playtest and get feedback on Alpha Blue D20 before it goes into Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise.  
Okie dokie, that's what I got this morning.  Which isn't too bad considering I've only had a few cups of coffee this morning. 
I'm going to try and do a few more blogs once in awhile.  Highlight some fun stuff, like Venger.  
Maybe the next blog will be about my buddy Tim and what's happening over at Gothridge Manor.  
While you patiently wait, you can check it out here:  
http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/

Speaking of Tim, I should probably shoot him a message and see what's up, as well see if he's running a game currently.  My guess is likely! 
Alright folks have a good one. 

Low bandwidth

 At band practice last night I was talking with our new bassist.  Who coincidentally also plays dnd.  He knows what osr is as well.  He's been running pf2e at the local hobby shop.

I was telling him about how I'm taking care of my Dad with dementia and how I don't think I can run a game right now.  I can play but I don't have the bandwidth to do the background work for a 5e game.

That said I can probably run a osr game off the cuff no problem.

This was his first time out in awhile.  His wife passed away from brain cancer earlier this year.

Very nice guy, that I'm hoping to spend more time with.  I'm glad he came out.

Appreciation post

 I just wanted to say that I have met and gamed with so many wonderful people over the years.  I've made life long friends because of gaming.  Friends I've never met in real life.  If I ever get a chance I'd love to hang out.

After many games we would sit and bullshit and drink beer and talk about life.  To this day I chat online all the time about everything.  We share our lives.  

They are all awesome and I appreciate them.

Gamma World 1st Edition Tech Roll Hack

While I quite like the game within a game of figuring out technology in Gamma World 1e.  It does leave something to be desired when playing online.  

Here is an interesting read about using the tables in game 

https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/roleplaying-artifact-use-in-gamma-world/

And here is what one of the charts looked like. 

Here's my hack.  It's a percentile roll to see if you can figure it out.  (roll under).

All characters start off with a base chance of 15% at Level 1 to figure things out.

At 1st level if you have the following intelligence you can gain extra bonus to your base chance.

3 - 5:  -5%

6 - 11:  +0%

12: +5%

13 - 16:  +10%

17 - 18:  +15% 

For every 3 levels gained you receive an extra 5% (Levels 3, 6, 9, 12 etc). 

Best case scenario a level 12 mutant will have 50% chance of figuring out tech.  Which is obviously half.  For the most part this should make it a bit swingy in terms of being able to figure things out. 

Sidenote (Because there always is one). 

Here's a Gamma World Character sheet 

https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2019/09/14/gamma-world-1st-edition-fillable-character-sheets-artifact-sheet/

  

Fighting fantasy and gaming ramble.

It's time for a change of pace.  I'm going to start working on a small campaign using the original fighting fantasy rules as detailed in Fighting Fantasy the introductory roleplaying game. 

The rules are a bit broken, and aren't really meant for long term play.  At the very least not longterm play as per D&D anyway.  Somewhere I have a copy of the basic version of these rules in doc format.  It is a very easy to grasp game, and not really far from the original choose your own adventure style books.  I do own AFF 2.0 as well.  I haven't quite decided if I'll use that or the original at this point.  I managed to save a bunch of pdfs from Arion Games site that had pre made characters etc.  

Either which way, I'm going to see if I can get a game going on roll20 or with my buddies online.  I think the original rules would be good for a few one shot style games, longterm the second edition allows for more advancement.  

A few months ago it was decided in the google chat that we would try one one off game a month.  Unfortunately summer got in the way for me and I wasn't able to participate.  The idea however is pretty great in all honesty.  Try all those games we've collected and haven't had a chance to play.  

I was playing in a holmes game with Jeff that was a lot of fun, but has slightly fizzled.  I'm hoping we can get back to it as playing with Jeff and the other guys is a blast!  

The one thing I've found with online games and scheduling is it's almost better to suggest we do a weekly game, rather than a bi-weekly game.  Due to the fact that it inevitably ends up as a bi weekly game haha.

I have to say that I'm not D&D'd out, but It's time to run something different.  At least a different system, not D&D in post apocalyptic land (gamma world).  

Fighting fantasy was my start in role playing, and AD&D2e.  Both of which had a bit of a railroad feel in some of the writing.  FF was more a "director" of a movie kind of thing.  Almost akin to what 5e DMs do nowadays.  I remember reading a good blog about AFF in the gplus days.  The gent took the OSR aesthetic of open sandbox and used FF and it worked wonderfully.   

The last little while at home has been rather difficult.  My dad moved in with us, and I have no time for myself.  (read more here: https://mlife2023.blogspot.com/ )

I've found that the band I'm currently in isn't really doing it for me as far as feeling like I'm "getting a break".   Gaming wise, I haven't been doing anything the last little while.  No world building, or playing or anything.  Most of my time is frustratingly spent worrying about my Dad. 

Since my schedule is slowly opening up, I am really thinking I'll try and get something going on friday evenings.  Wednesday's used to be my day but it's now filled with all the caregiver things. 

I need that 2 hour gaming break where I just forget about the world I'm dealing with. 

Cool zine alert

 My buddy Matt Jackson just released sector nine zine episode 0.

Here's the blurb.

White Box...in spaaaace! This is an older document that I created for a project that never really took off (life changes and whatnot) but I just love the campy sci-fi pulpiness of this and I thought others might enjoy reading it. 

The project was a fun, energetic pulpy space zine that would present a setting similar to the '50s radio dramas like Space Patrol or Flash Gordon. Brave heroes, beautiful damsels in distress, clunky robots, vile villains, and strange (sometimes goofy) aliens.

Here's the link

https://mattjackson.itch.io/sector-nine-zine-issue-0

It's pretty awesome.  I'm happy to see a white star and whitebox resurgence.  They are both great games that seem to have been overshadowed with newer clones.

Check it out.

Revised Bard for Labyrinth Lord

A long time ago I wrote up a terrible over powered bard class for ll.  This is the revision.

Bard:  

A person who composed & recited epic or heroic poems, often while playing the harp, lyre or the like. 

Requirements: INT 9, DEX 9, CHA 11

Prime Requisite: DEX

Hit Dice: 1D4

Use dwarf attack matrix.

Bard Level Progression

Experience	Level	Hit Dice (1d4)
0	1	1
1500	2	2
3000	3	3
4500	4	4
9000	5	5
18,000	6	6
36,000	7	7
72,000	8	8
144,000	9	9
288,000	10	+2 hp only
576,000	10+	+4 hp only

Bards will be able to cast spells & perform thieving abilities upon reaching 5th level.  After 10^th level they do not receive any more bonus spells, or upgrades to their thieving skills.

When casting spells Bards must be unarmoured.  Bards tend to stick to charm & illusion type spells, normally not offensive destructive spells, they leave those up to the crazy wizards in the pointy hats! 

Spell Progression

Class Level	1	2	3	4	5
4	-	-	-	-	-
5	1	-	-	-	-
6	2	1	-	-	-
7	2	2	-	-	-
8	2	2	1	-	-
9	2	2	2	-	-
10	3	2	2	1	-

Thieving Skills Progression

Class Level	Climb Walls	Pick Pockets	Hear Noise
5	87	23	1-2
6	88	27	1-2
7	89	30	1-3
8	90	37	1-3
9	91	40	1-3
10	92	43	1-4

Once per day a bard can sing a song that acts as a charm person spell.  

Bards have a 15% chance of knowing the best tavern in a town to find solid rumours.

Bards can only wear leather armour.  They typically have a pair of daggers, and on occasion a small crossbow or sling.

They always add +1 to morale, and encounter checks because of their wonderful smile.

Turnbuckle

Turnbuckle is a bustling village in the shade of luminescent mushrooms.  The citizenry is made up of dark humanoids who moved to the surface years ago.  These include (dark) elves, gnomes, dwarves, darklings, and a few nastier creatures from the underworld.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part the citizens are pleasant and sort of get along.

As previously discussed this is the underworld above ground after an apocalypse, ruled by the iron hand of a death knight.  

Please throw out whatever you believe about the above creatures, they've come along way from their cruel ness.  Some more than others.

Turnbuckle is ruled by a council of 5, most of them being dwarves.  They are generally concerned for the welfare of the community and others.  Great planners, and politico's.

Darklings have a knack for commerce and own quite a bit of property and business. 

Gnomes as they've always been are inventor's, architects, and engineers.

The few dark elves make up the bulk of the workforce.  

Rope bridges and ladders jump from mushroom to mushroom, some homes are built among them.

The three eyed newt is the place for gossip, a glass of wine and a bards song.

Resting your weary head, look no further than the nestled hen, a nice inn on the edge of town.  A small stable sits outside for riding lizards and the like.

The village has a very small crew of volunteer guards, made up mostly of dwarves.  Most are not seasoned.  Thankfully the raids from undead and others are infrequent.

There are a few market stalls were common goods can be found.  Most goods worth more than 25 gp in your equipment list are 15% more and there is a 45% chance there is only one.

The Mulvey brothers (darklings ) own a small trading company and store.  They tend to only be in town for a few weeks at a time.  There is a 25% chance they are available.

The village does not have a blacksmith proper, however a smart person could speak with a gnome for design, and find a dark elf to do the work perhaps.  

Work wise, there's plenty of farming, a small quarry, fishing and the big job of finishing the wall around the village.

Religion is quite varied among the races.  This however a cult of the moon, that worships when the sun goes down (reminder it's only sunlight four hours a day)

They believe that thru sacrifice they can bring on eternal darkness.  

*Please note: darklings are halfings with dark vision.  They have grey hair on their head and feet.  

Of course this is a starting point.  I obviously need to add some politics, NPC names, all the balancing act goodies.

I'm addicted to pirate games

 I only just realized this after purchasing "Neverland" that I'm addicted to pirates.  My favourite adventure of all time is isle of dread which I've ran a few times.  I grabbed a copy of saltmarsh as well and enjoyed reading it.   I've had multiple 5e characters with the pirate background including a female dread pirate Roberts I created for my wife to play.

I'm thinking there is probably a way to stitch all of the above adventures together!  I also have the basic fantasy Monkey isle which is awesome.

In other random news.  The grognard google chat has decided to run one game a month online.   Basically a one shot.  I had mentioned it had been awhile since I GMd a game, and I wanted to try out Holmes dnd.

I've got a small dungeon ready to go for it.  Just need to add some bits and bobs to the player drive (including the link to zenopus archives reference sheets).

After my game we are all going to take turns running a game.  I'm sure there will be 5e, shadowdark, and other interesting stuff.

I've spent a lot of time writing adventures, factions and other world building stuff while I've been on vacation.  Doing it old school in a notebook.  Which includes drawing maps on lined paper hahha. 

Unfortunately I have to really keep an eye on my schedule lately as we have some family things we are dealing with and it only leaves so much time.  I'm making the most of what I have available.  

I'm excited

 I haven't ran a game in a good while.  I had a monthly 5e game going for a bit.  However that was derailed when my Dad moved in with us unexpectedly.

I was chatting with the guys on our Google hangouts thread and I suggested that I really want to run a game for them at some point.

This lead to the idea of each of us taking a turn once a month and running a game.  Rotating GMs!

I've decided to run a Holmes game, as I received a copy from my friend Jeff and have been itching to play it.

I read thru the sample dungeon and I may run that.  Alternatively I'm on vacation and may be able to create something.

Either way it should be fun!

I think this will be a hangouts game, no roll20 or maps.

Random places on dark world

 1.  An ancient magical portal that transports you to an elegant throne room.

2.  The outskirts of a ruined city, infested with bandits and slimey monsters.

3.  A lookout tower that allows a 360 view of the surrounding countryside.

4.  A marble chess board that is lifesize missing it's pieces.

5.  A small fen filled with greenish glowing water.

6.  A wasteland of rusted metal mounds piled high.

7.  A repository of information.  A small cubicle that will spit out a prophecy on parchment.

8.  A vacant marauders camp, their bones are piled on a former pyre.

9.  A field of low growing mushrooms, guarded by mutant dogs.

10.  Cracked earth, a cliff overlooks a deep hole leading underground.

11.  A small village being rebuilt.

12.   A purple Haze choked grassland.

More to come.  

Don't suggest it

Too often I here people say they are

Starting a campaign as a player

Or 

Creating a campaign as a DM.

This wording puts a lot of pressure on people.  Especially when you are first starting.  I myself have had this is issue numerous times.  Some anxiety seeps in and I spend way to much time over thinking it.

Your are playing an adventure or running one.  Maybe it will continue... maybe it won't, maybe it will restart.

I think the best thing you can do is play games with friends and see what happens.  Stop worrying about an end goal.

 I'm going to be running "horror on the hill" soon using whitebox fmag with some friends.

Why I love rules light games when playing online

I tried Shadowdark RPG for the first time this evening and throughly enjoyed it.  I should likely preface this statement by stating the following: 

• I had to take a brief break from the ongoing OSE campaign (which ended up at 30+ sessions)
• It's in the exact same world at the same time as the OSE campaign. 
• The OSE campaign was wildly fun but also fairly serious at times.  
• Trying a new game is a great restart for everyone.
• Hanging out with all my friends is making my heart so happy.  I honestly needed a laugh with everything that has been going on latetly. 

The nice thing about playing easy to run D&D like games online is you get to the meat and potatoes of gaming.  We start laughing and roleplaying and not worrying about any tactical, min maxing silliness.  

When you only have a couple of hours to play (Which BTW I absolutely adore...more on that later) its nice to just be able to jump into a game.  I rolled up my character in all of 5 minutes.

Honestly that's all I got.  Much like whitebox or holmes, I really enjoy just jumping and going and not getting dragged down with any extra sheets on my character sheet.  

I have to say Shadowdark is the best of a lot of the great OSR ideas that have come along over the years.  There's a bit of everything in there.  Definitely try it out. 

Dark world

While I'm still working on my greyhawk saltmarsh campaign, I did have an idea the other night for a different campaign.

I recently got the fifth edition monster manual and as I was flipping through it I found the death knight entry.  That's a monster I've always wanted to use.  More so than a lich, dragon or tarasque.

I really need to create my own setting this time around.  Saltmarsh is cool and all.

During a time of troubles the world started to spin slower.  It came about because of a magical apocalyptic event.  Because of this the world gets 18 hours of darkness.

Flora and Fauna are different than they used to be.  Things grow in the dark and the muck.

The dark races came upon the land from underground as the daylight races subsided into decay and death.  The dark races did not keep to themselves but formed communities.  They are not as evil as they once were.  Unfortunately some of the vile monsters from the underworld followed them.

A long time ago there was a great war.  A Paladin was on one side, but made a deal to save his friends.  When he did he switched sides.  A castle was under siege by the Knights former battalion, which included his sister.  In the chaos he killed her and became a death knight at that instant.

The death knight has been killed and rose many times.

I'm modeling him after cobra commander and skeletor.

Because the world of men fell, there are lots of ruins to explore and magic residing in the world.

An alien race has started to inhabit the planet, they are warlike and hungry for a new world to conquer.

This is what I have so far.