Gawd I love random generators

Merchant Companies

all merchant companies have offices near the docks.

Black Frog Traders

Brahm & Jones Trading Co

Silk Dragon Exports

Town NPC’s

1. Iankul Seaskipper Male Gnome Bard
2. Yenben Falconsflight Male Human
3. Carsaadi Dawntracker Female Half-Elf
4. Stosys the Weaver Female Dwarf
5. Elamros Waveharp Male Dwarf
6. Hollysys Gellantara Female Dwarf
7. Aralove Tallcrippler Female Halfling
8. Irieerris Tumblebelly Female Halfling
9. Sealamin Male Hafling Farmer,
10. Fhanda Hafling Farmer Female
11. , Udoril Hafling Farmer,Male
12. Unakain Hafling Farmer Female
13. Prucaryn Pegason the Tailor (Human female)
14. Zinnakahn Shieldheart the Guard (human male)
15. Yllanda Chorster the Shepherd (human female)
16. Vicven Swordhand the Shipwright (male human)
17. Marthyra Darkeyes the Fence (female human)
18. Nerisatra Darkeyes (female human priest at chapel of ahmora)
19. Stostine Falconsflight (female human)
20. Victahana Giantcrippler the Mason

Because I'm nuts.

Campaign Setting Idea - Creative Commons

Map courtesy of:

http://freefantasymaps.org/sarah-wroot-fantasy-world-map-5/

For years the neighboring civilizations of “Udren” and “Oslal” have fought bitterly over land, great wars have erupted time and again.  In this time, there is an uneasy truce between the two nations, however no trade has been welcome on either side.  Any show of force has been met with small skirmishes.  

The province of Oslal

Covers From the capital of Sandspire to Brance everything to the west of the sandywine river.

Province Of Udren

From Mallaston east into the blue mist mountains, to the east their territory ends a few kilometers to the east of the sandywine river.

Each has tried to recruit heroes on either side to try and sway the balance.  Dragons, and monsters etc have been recruited.  

(First Adventure Plot)  

One such occurrence has been that the local lord of a small port town (Brance) near the border of the two lands has been allowing trade with the “Udren's” and encampments of warriors have been allowed on the land.  This does not sit with the local populace who have strongly been on the side of “Oslal people”.  

factions from both have had skirmishes on the border, but the problem is that the local lord has allowed such things to happen.  word has not got to the capital yet.  The local capn of the “Oslal” riders, wants the PC’s to investigate the town and talk to the townsfolk  to find out any information that they can, and report back to him.  

Meanwhile, the other Urden warriors are holed up in an abandoned castle ruin.

The capn has found about this, and wants the PC’s to go and investigate that as well, he feels that there must be something within the ruin that the riders had missed, something that “Oslal Warrios” could use against them.  Fearing that there is a chance to start a military combat, he would prefer a small group of people to go and investigate.

*Note: I've left out a few minor details as my players may read this!

Obviously I'm still in the process of writing this thing, but that's the start of it thus far....

The Village Of Brance
http://www.paratime.ca/cartography/bw_locations.html

You are free to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
• for any purpose, even commercially.

• The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

• Under the following terms:

  • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, andindicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

  Notices:

  • You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.
  • No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

SHUDUP ABOUT 5e already man!

Honestly, all you OSR types are probably about ready to come with the torches.  I am having a bit of anxiety about running the system.  The more I read it the more I don't like it.  I am starting to wonder, are 5e adventures written more like railroads? or atleast do they have a arching story line/reasonable plot devices, backgrounds etc? Not just dungeon crawling old school epicness.....

I know I can just run the game the way I want to, which would be a bit more old school, but I am starting to wonder what my players expectations are.  Here is the players brief bio.

1 - Newb, but super excited to play 5e
2 - Super experienced DM who's played 2 - 5e.
3 - Two players that I've ran old school stuff for.

The one thing that's bothering me is the Challenge levels, and the whole experience thing.

So from what I gather I need to pre-program the encounters so they are interesting and just deadly enough that someone might die, but not always.

And I have to level these buggers up like very quickly? Once a day?   Obviously going to have to have some kind of training required to move up.

It seems like the adventure arch needs to go from Goblins to Demons.  You start off as these fairly tough low level characters and within about 10 adventures your saving the world?

I suppose this is cool, but it makes me think.... I really need to just write something in this case.

I like the idea of the hero's not dying.... or atleast making it to a reasonable level, however that's not super old school either.  I suppose if it fits the story?

I guess the question is, is it story based,  Has anyone played thru any of the new adventures other than the starter set?

I've read a few reviews from merricb that have been handy.  However I'm trying to figure out how the actual adventures are written.    I guess the style per se.

EDIT:  I just read this blog post from Hack N Slash, it helped a bit  http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.ca/2015/05/on-defining-characteristic-of-5th.html

EDIT2:  I love how I got +5 for SHUT UP! hahahha.  As I said I'm just having a bit of anxiety, but thankfully a few G plusers have come to my rescue and told me I can still run it old school.  :)

Converting the Realms

great article on converting the realms to 5e - http://newbiedm.com/2014/09/29/converting-the-2e-realms-to-5e/

As the writer states (which is exactly my issue as well).  In a previous post I wrote about setting my home game in the Forgotten Realms around the time period of the 2nd edition version of D&D, which would put us in Faerun in 1368DR. For those of you keeping track at home, the original boxed set of the Forgotten Reams placed the timeline at 1357DR, the second edition, which is the one I’m using, advanced the timeline a decade, and the third edition takes place in 1372DR. The fourth edition version of the Realms moves the timeline up to 1479, and the 5th edition of the Realms begins in 1489. The reason I chose to play in the 2nd Edition version is because I own a lot of material for it, there are tons of materials for it online, and for me it is a good on-ramp, since I have a lot of access to what’s been written for it.

That's exactly it, I own a TON of material for 2e Forgotten Realms.  As a starting point I think I am going to run "Sword Of The Dales" and re-write/re draw the maps for the adventure in shadowdale.  I think I will also do as the author did and do away with Elminster for the time being. 

I don't know enough of the rest of the history of the Forgotten Realms, past the 2nd edition, so this makes perfect sense to me.

Take what you got a tweak it. 

Once I get them thru the first 2 adventures, I plan to move onto possibly menzoberranzan or the rest of sword of the dales trilogy.

As far as the PC's go, i am going with the races that are covered in the free basic rules for now.  One player has asked about the draconian s, but technically they won't exist in the realms in 1357DR.  However if he is adamant, then he will fall thru some sort of time loop. 

The other thought I have is re-writing and re-working temple of elemntal evil and secret of bone hill for the 5e game, this is an idea at this point.

Here are some conversion notes for 5e from 2nd edition http://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2bj1hv/5th_edition_monster_conversion_guides_found/

http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/47205/comparing-dd-mechanics-between-2e-and-5e

Doing a little research this morning

I have a copy of L1 The Secret Of Bone Hill, and the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Found two interesting blogs about L1.

http://xhuul.blogspot.ca/2014/11/module-research-l1-secret-of-bone-hill.html

http://grognardia.blogspot.ca/2009/11/retrospective-secret-of-bone-hill.html

I am starting to plan a 5e campaign now, and rather than use the adventure from the starter set, I might try my hand at converting L1, and possible lead to the temple of elemental evil afterwards, seems like a fun idea.

Has anyone ran older modules with new rules?

I've read you need to dial back the treasure, magical items.

Friday Map

Spent the afternoon working with a guitar player, who had to have a nap half way thru the session!  He's part of the Oldtimers, so yah.... also he's 70, so I really should have seen it coming, anyways whatever the case I managed to  draw this map up.  I used a ballpoint pen as that is what I had.  Not a fan of ball point pens.  Cheers its friday.

Oh and here's the Oldtimers, Enjoy!

Tomb Of Gardag The Strange - Version 2.0 is available

Just uploaded the latest version of Gardag, including stated out henchmen, level 3 pre generated adventures (hopefully they don't end up as meat!), a rumor table, random encounter table, and a few extra gold coins.  Let me know what you think!

GET IT HERE

Flintlock Pistols for Old School Gaming.

Got an idea for a Pirate gun.  Double Barrel Flintlock Pistol.  Does 1d12 damage, however when using it you need to roll a d6 at the same time.  As the nature of those guns were finicky,  if a 1 comes up, the gun backfires.  It takes one round of combat to re-load the gun.  At distances greater than short range, a -2 modifier is added to the attack roll due to flintlock's being only good for short range. 

Wrapping my head around 5e - part 2.

Okay, no luck creating a character.  For the simple reason that I was attempting to do so while using the free pdf.  The paging up and and down trying to make sure I have everything right was the biggest problem.  Roll ability scores, okay I'd like to be an elf.  Ah shit, Elves get +2 to initial scores here, page back up.  etc Wish I had done this in pencil.

I think the basic rules are fine for DM's who have ran 3rd and 4th edition, but there are still some things that I haven't quite cleared up in my head.  Advantage/Disadvantage was explained easily by some friends on google + (thank you guys!).

No explanation I could find in the free rules about, "Death Saves", there are 3 success and failures.  What happens after this? Do you die at that point.  What happens when you have 3 success?

And there are saving throws for each ability score? What?

The more I read this, the more I'm like meh, can we just play Lab Lord and be done?

I am reluctantly going to go and pick up the starter set, in hopes that it will have a bit more insight.  I don't plan to pick up the PHB or the DMG (I got the 2nd edition one good enough).  From what I gather however the Mines of Phlandelver is supposed to be pretty awesome as an adventure, so that'll be interesting anyways.

Wrapping my head around 5e.

It's been awhile since I've ran a game.  Latetly been discussing with a friend, who'd like to try out D&D for the first time.  I suggested since its his first time we try a little old school, for the most part because as I've said before "It's a set of rules that fit neatly in my head".  It appears however that he'd like to give 5e a go.  Which is totally cool, however I am going to have to sit and really read those rules.  When it first came out I printed off a few character sheets and attempted to make a PC.  I got bored quite fast with the long process of doing that.  I have still yet to finish actually creating that PC lol!  I'm going to go ahead and print off the basic rules and the DM's guide (both free) and see if I can't wrap my head around it.  Regardless of the rules, I think its still going to feel very old school when  I run it, just because that's what I know!  The other good news is that I have a amazon cart sitting with a few other things in it (giant guitar stand) so I think I'll throw the starter set in there just out of curiosity.

I know Goodman Games came out with a few 5e modules, that have gotten some mixed reviews, and I know that Genuis Loci games has come out with a few as well, so I'll probably run one of those rather than the "Mines Of Phaldelver" or however you spell it.

As a side note, I did send the primer for old school gaming and the basic fantasy rule set to my new player.  He has the gist of what Old school is all about.  So I am thinking this whole thing is going to be a bit more O5R rather than 5e.  

Well I'm off to get my head shaved, and enjoy the next two days off.

Last Review Post - Merricb! - Tomb Of Gardag The Strange

The adventurers are hired to discover the remains of an assassin from the tomb of the warlord he assassinated. It’s a small dungeon of 24 areas, populated by a number of monsters, tricks and traps, in a very old-school manner. Despite its simplicity, the actual contents of the dungeon are interesting and will prove for some entertaining play. The biggest balance issue is likely the inclusion of both a wight and wraith; have the party got weapons that can hurt them? If not, they may be in trouble!

READ THE REST HERE! 

Thank you very much Merric I appreciate it.

Review Of Tomb Of Gardag - From warbeneaththeearth.blogspot.ca

Let me start out by saying that this is an endearing project.  It was clearly written by someone who has a lot of fun playing RPGs and wants others to derive enjoyment from his work.  To the extent that payment is requested, I think it's fair to assume that Ward is only seeking to cover the costs involved in taking his DM notes and converting them into a product that someone else could use.  But that's where the problem begins.
READ MORE HERE

Due to this review, I am working on changes to Gardag, hopefully they will be appreciated by the reviewer.  And I wholeheartedly appreciate the notes.  It is coming along.

Tomorrow I'll post the last review.

Crimson Dragon Slayer RPG Released Today!

Alright so your happily sitting playing atari in front of your tube TV back in 1983 with your jolt cola,  Your foot still hurts from stepping on your brothers lego that was spilled all over the floor.  When all of a sudden SWOOSH! big flash, hit the lights, jump on the stage, cue loud power chords and feedback!   You find yourself in a fantasy world......  a fairly large bald dude appears as a mist in the sky.... shit its Venger he's your DM.  

Venger Satanis' old school renaissance Roleplaying Game!!!

Basically, this is my own contribution to the OSR / fantasy heartbreaker genere of paper & pencil roleplaying games.  It's heavily inspired by the 1980's.  The parts of it that are god-awful are god-awful on purpose (mostly).  Terrible ideas made flesh!  Don't judge me.

So, what's in it?  A self-contained system that's not d20, yet hopes to be semi-compatible with the original fantasy roleplaying game and all the clones published since.  You roll multiple d6s, the higher the better.  There are several classes and many races to choose from.  If all goes well, it will be like pretending you're a wizard or warrior in the backyard waving a stick around as if it was a staff or sword... put a tattered red sweatervest on the dog, maybe he can be the dragon.

There's also an introductory adventure at the end.

GET IT HERE

Swords & Stitchery Review Of "The Tomb Of Gardag The Strange"

There are times when a party of adventurers needs a simple and excellently done crawl, this is one of those crawls for OD&D, Labyrinth Lord and the rest of the swords and sorcery clones. Yes Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea I'm looking straight at you. This is the straight up sixteen pages of awesomeness that can be used to run a pay what you want adventure in every sense of the old school.
READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE
http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.ca/2015/05/review-and-commentary-on-pay-what-youd.html


*Just FYI there are 2 other review that I haven't mentioned specifically in a blog post by themselves, the next few days I will be posting links directly to the respective blogs, as above.

I once again appreciate all of the reviews I have been receiving!  Its very nice to read what people think, good or bad.  It only makes me learn how to better design things!  As time permits I am currently revising "Gardag" with a few extras and fixes, this should hopefully be done by weeks end.

Cheers!
Shane

The Overrun Mines Review - Dieheart

Sophia over at Dieheart did a review of the "Overrun Mines" 
Read it here - http://dieheart.net/overrun-mines/

What do you need to know?

The Overrun Mines is an old school adventure for Labyrinth Lord and thus compatible with a whole lot of OSR rulesets. It’s aimed at low-level characters. It’s released by Shane Ward from 3 Toadstools.
The product is PWYW and available at Onebookshelf.

Actual Play: Whitehack in the Overrun Mines

Ms +Sophia Brandt ran the Overrun Mines using Whitehack, she managed to run it solo as well!  Very cool.  Check out the below blog following all of the action.
http://dieheart.net/ap-whitehack-mines/

*PS I get a kick out of seeing all the pre gen PC's names coming up

Let’s try this experiment. Shane Ward asked me to review one of his modules (all PWYW). I chose The Overrun Mines, a Labyrinth-Lord-adventure for level 1 characters. It’s a simple location-based module.
I recently bought the 2nd edition of Whitehack (review of the 1st edition here), so I wanted to play the adventure with this ruleset.
There are 4 pre-gens included in The Overrun Mines, so I converted them to WH and will now run them through the module in a solo experiment. I’m playing the GM and will emulate the players with theMythic GME. So most of the content comes from the adventure itself (I’m railroading here but nobody will complain, right?) and the PC’s reactions will be determined by Mythic.

Sorry for the inconvenience

I am currently in deep with 4 album projects that have a deadline of July 1.  (I know crazy!).  For the foreseeable future I will be pulling a ridiculous amount of hours (ludicrous speed!)

Colonel Sandurz: Prepare ship for ludicrous speed! Fasten all seatbelts, seal all entrances and exits, close all shops in the mall, cancel the three ring circus, secure all animals in the zoo!

The only saving grace is that I will have monday evenings off, which I inted to basically unplug and write as much as I possibly can.  Yes mega dungeon enormity thingy I am looking at you!  It has been too long, I mean I sent out emails to people that it would be done at the end of January! hahahah......   right back on topic.

So I maybe away for awhile, but still here and attempting to participate in this great thing we call the OSR.  In the mean time please check all of these awesome blogs!

(in no particular order, other than their most recent posting) 

http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.ca/

http://vengersatanis.blogspot.ca/

http://castletriskelion.blogspot.ca/

http://initiativeone.blogspot.ca/

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/

http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.ca/

http://dieheart.net/

http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.ca/

http://osrnews.blogspot.ca/

http://theymightbegazebos.com/

http://geniuslocigames.blogspot.ca/

http://middlekingdoms.blogspot.ca/

http://pitsperilous.blogspot.ca/

http://cryptofrabies.blogspot.ca/

https://nerdomancerofdork.wordpress.com/

http://halflingsluck.blogspot.ca/

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.ca/

http://wishfulgaming.blogspot.ca/

http://swordsandwizardry.blogspot.ca/

http://lizardmandiaries.blogspot.ca/

http://drbargle.blogspot.ca/

http://roll1d12.blogspot.ca/

http://theeverexpandingsandbox.blogspot.ca/

http://strangemagic.robertsongames.com/

Guns in RPG's

Going along with the pirate theme that has been rolling around my head, I did some diggin and found this awesome gem.

Gunnery in 1858 by William Greener

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43799/43799-h/43799-h.htm

Plus some cool images. possibly use-able 

and neat things like Ordnance charts

And another awesome review of "The Tomb Of Gardag The Strange"

Careful guys/gals! my head might get to big to fit thru the door.  I'm going to have to get out a jar of butter, ahhahhaa.

My buddy +Thaumiel Nerub did an awesome little review over on his blog 

http://cryptofrabies.blogspot.ca/2015/05/review-tomb-of-gardag-strange.html

Did you know? That I helped Thaumiel out on his latest project "Temple Of Greed"? Check it out here. 

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/146415/Temple-Of-Greed&affiliate_id=470115

Also I'm wondering if anyone caught the easter egg in the name of the module yet? 

Gardag?

Ugard?

Kind sorta :p

The Overrun Mines - Now Pay What You Want

In my infinite wisdom I decided to make all of my modules "Pay What You Want".  For a long while the only hold out was The Overrun Mines, however I just clicked the button to make it PWYW as well.  Why not right?

So without furter ado, here's the product description and download link.

The Overrun Mines 
GET IT HERE

The local mine has been overrun by foul creatures, stopping all mining operations! The Lord has dispatched a call for brave heroes to clear out the mine, but what lurks below the surface?

*Module includes two hand drawn grey scale maps, optional rules for Underworld travel & ressurection, also 4 pre-generated PC's

Here is an excellent review of the adventure from "Crypt Of Rabies" http://cryptofrabies.blogspot.ca/2014/10/review-overrun-mines.html

Working on a water hex crawl

I've been having some fun with a water based hex crawl map, (see below).  This all comes from previous post about Pirates.  2 things I don't like.   1.) The numbers on the hex map are hard to read.  2.)  Even though I like black and white, this almost screams for some kind of color!

2 Awesome reviews!

Having coffee on Saturday morning and notice that I have a new review of the "Tomb of Gardag The Strange".

http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.ca/2015/05/review-and-commentary-on-pay-what-youd.html

and a few days ago Merric B did one as well.

http://merricb.com/2015/04/30/osr-review-the-tomb-of-gardag-the-strange/

Thank you so much guys! Its super appreciated!

When I get a chance I am going to revise the module, I had stated that the adventure was for levels 3 + , but all the pregens are 1st level characters!  #adventuredesignerfail

I may have had the inclination that this adventure could be used as a funnel.  Maybe that is where the 1st level thing came from.

Now, its all quiet in the house, I have my USB drive plugged in and the broken city of Argan-thar to write.

Cheers!