Tomb of the serpent kings one shot?

I was all set to run the next instalment in the Nightwell Barony 5e game tonight, however one of my players had an awfully hectic day and needed a night off.  The other player did show up! So I decided to go totally old school on him and run a game off the cuff.  I had briefly scanned Tomb Of The Serpent Kings (enough to have a gist of level 1 and 2).   So I decided we would give it a go.  I had my player roll up one PC using Whitebox FMAG  and we were off and running with NO PREP. 

When we talked about rolling up a PC he said "4d6 drop the lowest?" and I said "nope 3d6 in order!"  which was a good laugh, but I think he knew what he was getting himself into.  

I gotta say this adventure is well written and there wasn't a helluva a lot of DM loading (ie me reading while the player waited).  I did do a few dumb things, but managed to retcon stuff afterwards.  The clay statues I stated they were outside of the coffins.  

After his first PC and hireling death, he started to get a bit more cautious.  We rolled up Julien Jr (the first PC was a warrior named julien, JR was basically the same guy) and a backup thief and hireling and kept going.  He managed to get to the second level, being even more cautious.  

This time though, he managed to get completely wacked by a lighting bolt, and after being reduced to 0, he rolled a saving throw and ended up with one hit point.  He woke up an hour later and that's where we called the session. 

I'd say playing this module with whitebox is pretty deadly, so I'd trim down a few damage rolls here and there.  The lighting bolt did 4d6 damage, and on a failed save half.  That's still a fryable 1st level character no matter what the roll.  And honestly no matter what the OSR system.  Mechanically I rolled 16 HPs of damage, and said that all the PCs (3) took the brunt of the damage.  He could choose who lost what.  He wound up have 15 HPs total for all the PCs.  So 2 died and one I decided to give him some grace and roll a death saving throw.  On a fail, death, one a success he got 1 HP.  I know it was a bit cooking the books.... oh well. This allowed for a continuation.  

It was super fun. 

After the game we talked about Old school DND and he said that he liked it well enough, but preferred 5e.  Which is fine.  I figured it was worth a taste.  I still would like to run a "open table" game at some point with a large dungeon.  For me settling into DM with no prep on an adventure that i've only ever skimmed was super easy.  Partially because the adventure is very well written and laid out well.  (kudos to the design on that) and also because the combo of a super rules light game like whitebox and the fact that old school is my home made it easy.

Sorry for the rambling. 

The only other executive decision I made was that the Tomb was located in the Nightwell barony.  I want to continue to run games there, and continue to build upon that small map I created.  Slowly develop it.   Everytime I write a "campaign setting" it gets boring and old super quick.  I've realized that is because I'm not playing in it.  I'm not immersed in it.  

Here's a few examples of things that I didn't preplan, but have come up in play in the barony: 

1.  There are dinosaurs, but they are extremely rare.  So much so that if you spot one and can bring it back alive to a scholar you will be paid handsomely. 

2.  I didn't name any of the demigods.  In a previous session they found a shrine to the demigods (actually a meeting place for the demi gods themselves).  I had one of the players come up with a name and he said "Brundle Fly" which is based on the character in the movie the Fly.  Our A.D.D. lead to discussing the fly during the adventure.  Brudle Fly (demi god) God of Nature, Good Aligned. 

Here's the players guide (living document) for the nightwell barony.  I should probably create a wiki.  However it's a pain in the wazoo to download and edit it if I ever wanted to put it in print.  copying and pasting never works well from website. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aD5Cc4-oFUZTLiD6YoGYnis1fVOotXSs21XOnRqqpD4/edit?usp=sharing

Unfortunately I wasn't able to use the sidetrek dungeon tonight, but hopefully the next game I'll be able to.   

 

Isle of dread session 4

It's amazing how the isle just moves along organically.  What I mean by that is with a few random dice rolls and some player enthusiasm the world becomes it's own thing.

We started off right where we left off, right by the gates to the Isle beyond the village.  Meeka was in the middle of telling the PCs about their ancestors and the large black pearl worth way too much gold.  All of a sudden there was a shout from the wall, one of the soldiers spotted something coming. Loud noises, thumps, wacks and brush being disturbed, out of nowhere came a charging Titanothere. It charged into the gate, slamming it with so much force.

The PCs quickly started to help, they jumped up on the wall and started firing arrows and spears with the villagers.  One PC was thrown over the wall and landed on the back of the charging beast.  He threw a fireball at its back, severely wounding it.  After a few rounds it ran off, carrying the Wizard on its back.  Thankfully he managed to fall off, taking some minor damage.  It tromped off into the bush. 

The PCs asked a few more questions of Meeka and then moved on to getting a few supplies, including rations.  They found out that it had been years since the Villagers had seen a titanothere.  They have heard rumours of pirates raiding the southern villages, and that they have had some trouble with neandrathals and Aranea (smart giant spiders) attempting to attack the village.  

Note:  Most of the players are deathly afraid of spiders.  Cue more spiders. 

The next morning they set off with meeka to the tar pits.  As they walked the jungles and swamp started to feel a bit close, as if the growth was closing in on them.  Creepy sounds, insects buzzing, and the heat bore down on them.  As they walked they noticed off the road a bit was a shiny metal object.  Upon closer inspection, it was a very out of place bronze crowbar.  There was nothing around it, no bones, footprints etc.  Cautiously they checked if it was magical.  It was not.  They decided to keep it. 

Almost a day and half out, they were met by some lizardmen in the road.  "PAY TOLL OR DIE!"  they shouted.  The PCs chose death. 

Well not really, they fought valiantly.  The lizardmen fell one after the other, until only one was standing.  It decided to stand its ground and fight attempting to exact revenge for its fallen comrades.  It met the same fate as the others. 

Close by, was the lizardmen camp.  In a chest the PCs found a huge pile of gold!  2000 GPs! and a few gems worth quite a lot of money. 

Hopefully they realize, that they do owe the Scarlett brotherhood half of whatever they find.  

Maybe someone may come and check on them.  Hmmm

We ended the evening at the Tar Pits.  The PCs will level up next time. 

I've decided rather than worry about XP, I'm just going to level them up every few sessions.  Although it will stretch a bit further every time.  The first few sessions have been mostly role playing and this time it was all combat.  Which was great.  So techincally 4 sessions to level up.  Next time I may push it to 6 or so. I'll see how it goes. 

Great session anyways! 

A quick look at my pregens for upcoming Isle Of Dread Sessions

Here's a quick look at a pre gen for my upcoming session.  I am going to be using Whitebox Medieval Adventure Game.  

Note:  I am going to use the following method for Ability Checks.  Roll a 20 over a static number, plus any ability modifiers.  The static number is the same as the saving throw for that level of class.  I think this should be relatively easy at the table.  In this case (at 5th level) it's a 50% chance.  Good enough for me! 

You can see that I have created a consumables section for this character.  I have done that for spells, arrows, hit points, etc.  Obviously things like rations (and other resources) are going to be very important when wandering around the island. 

These will be relatively easy for my players to read and use.

One picky thing about whitebox is that the monsters are put into categories rather than alphabetical (which is totally cool), but for me, I find it easy to find a Vampire at the end of the book, rather than under "undead". 

Am I crazy?