O-SeRial level 1 room 8

8  Inside this room is a large brass coffin, ornately decorated.  Written upon the face of the coffin is “Our hero, Brother to the Heretic King”.  The ceiling of the room is lit by a large metallic screen, it gives off a magical presence.  In the four corners of the room are the following wax fruits in brass bowls:  2 Apples, 2 Oranges, 2 Bananas.

There are four equations written on the coffin, one on each side.

4/2

6/3

8/4

9/5

Each equation is a button, and when pressed they will open small compartments in the coffin.  If three of the buttons are pressed the fourth one will not work.  The button labelled “9/5” will open the secret door to room 9.  

Equation	Effect/Compartment Contents
4/2	A silver mace (+2 against undead)
6/3	A brass ring (of invisibility)
8/4	A compartment opens containing 200 feet of strong rope.
9/5	Opens the secret door leading to room 9.

O-SeRial level one room seven

7  There are eight alcoves in this room, each of them held a coffin at one point in time.  All of the coffins have been tipped over, the skeletons of the dead are strewn across the floor.  There is a large brass door to the east.  A pile of rubble is directly in south of the door, where a coffin once sat.  Six green skinned short humanoids are attempting to get the door open with pickaxes.  The floor glitters.  

(There are 6 goblins in this room.  The room contains 300 gps strewn about the room, this treasure was cursed by a priest when the dead were buried.  If the players try to touch it or take it have them save vs spell or take 1d6 damage.  If successful the players can keep the gold but no one in the general vicinity will take it as payment.  The goblins have been paid handsomely to collect the corpse of the heretic king.  Each goblin has 30 GPs on their person).  

O-SeRial Adventure - Level 1

I'm going to take a break from the "Old school awesome", as http://osrnews.blogspot.ca/ is back in the saddle! (I didn't notice that there was a post on Tuesday).  Old school awesome wasn't meant to be a long term posting plan, I thank you for stopping by.  For all the latest information please go to osrnews. 

Alright, onto a new idea!  (I'm full of em).  I'm going to start writing a serial adventure, not unlike the green mile.  The essential plan is to try and do one room a day.  Although knowing me it will probably be 3 rooms a week.  Whatever the case I should get it done in the next month or two.  This is obviously not a new idea, please check out Castle Triskelion when you get some time, super cool.  It does however get my arse in gear and start writing some stuff!  I intend to use Blueholme rules as the basis for the adventure.  Obviously you can use whatever old school rules you like.  This is basically going to be the rough draft, things may eventually change when I finally release it. 

I created a page to detail the rooms as I post them up on the blog. 

Since I'm just starting off, you get 2 rooms today.

Here's the intro. 

The light spills from the edges of the door

Mist creeps thru the cracks

It's been years since it's been opened,

Let alone had any light coming from it

The small room is unattended save for the rats

The kegs remain dry

Only whispers exist of the mysteries behind the door

in the basement

Where no one ever ventures forth

The brave hero's sit at the bar

An old man mentions the door

The barkeep ponders the wonderful ale that used to come from the depths

There might be treasure down there,

There maybe death

There are surely traps

The hero's go off to sleep, and dream of gold

When the morning light shines, they decide to venture forth, into the depths, behind the old door in the basement.

1  In the undercroft of the old temple is a set of stone steps leading to the crypts.  Small braziers line the corridors leading down, they have not been light and show signs of age.  The corridor is filled with dust and spider webs.  You can make out the sound of metal on stone coming from the east.

6  Along the east wall are two large wooden tables, on them are tools for preparing the dead.  In the west wall are wooden coffins in the walls, eight in total.  

(The coffins are for the past servants who held a place of honour in the courts of king's.  Their coffins contain only their most prized earthly possession, trinkets and odds and ends.  No gold or silver).  

Designing a man cave in my head/paper

Not really a RPG post.  Kinda of.

So at home we are currently renovating what feels like our entire house.  While we have been doing it, I've started to think about getting myself a man cave.  Note:  I don't have a garage, and I don't have room for one.  I do have an office, which is kinda of a shared space, that's mostly filled with some of my random crap, and files, and more paper, and semi drawn maps.  You get the gist.

In the basement, under the stairs leading up to the new kitchen there is this odd rectangular room, that seems to be an ideal place to put random Shane stuff. I'm going to say its like 12 feet by 8 feet wide giver take.

What I'm trying to figure out is how to get a gaming table, a sorta bookshelf/place to put a record player and LPs (which I might have to build... oooh another project).  Some guitars, an amp, and if at all possible maybe a bit of a music station.  Unfortunately there's NOT going to be enough room.

Here's a terrible doodle, complete with cross hatching.

Tuesday Update

I'm itching to play some elf games.  I've got about 2 weeks until our first session of "tomb of annihilation".  I may even go and buy some new dice for this campaign! 

It's starting to feel like fall is coming to a close, this morning it was 23 degrees Fahrenheit.  Tomorrow apparently the winds are going to be wicked.  Time to find some gloves and toque.

Couple of things on my radar this morning that are related to the OSR scene.

Today is release day for "Dark Places & Demogorgons" and here's a link to important information for the KS backers.

It looks like osrnews.blogspot.ca is back in the saddle! This is great news.  Which means I'm going to stop posting the friday "old school awesome".  I intend to focus my blog efforts on doing a bit more world building, and reviews of rules/adventures.  And of course general weirdness.

The Contessa mascots are manufactured and on the way!  Good news is you can purchase a few, even if you didn't back it.  Link.

There is a fundly page setup for Stacy, if you can help her out that would be wonderful.  She recently found out she has cancer and is raising money to help her get thru the journey.  Here's the link.

Old School Awesome - Oct 20th Edition

DQ1 - Yoke of the Slavers - Adventures in Filbar.  $3.75 CAD

Wrath of Grapes- A Swords & Wizardry Mini-Dungeon Adventure for S&W $1.88 CAD

Sabres & Sorcery - OSR fantasy RPG $8.76 CAD

Three Class Hack - free rules add on for Black Hack.  FREE

Orange Hack - These rules assume a basic familiarity with traditional RPGs. There is a GM, each player plays a single character, roll dice to attempt actions, etc. A debt of gratitude is owed to the granddaddy of all RPGs, as well as its various rules-light hacks, most especially Black Hack and Microlite20. $2.49 CAD 

Plate Pack:  Free.  For any fantasy role-playing game- a new piece of equipment designed to help carry plate mail while not actually wearing plate mail.  

Questors Log Level 1:  This fan zine is dedicated to Dungeon Questing but is compatible with other OSR games with a bit of work.  PWYW

Noble Wild Bundle  $22.48 CAD, Includes Noble Wild, PHB and Animals players hand book. 

RPGPundit Presents #3 High Tech Weapons:  $2.49 CAD, OSR Zine

1pot:  Rules system & house rules for old school RPGS:  $4.99 CAD

Tatzelwurm:  German old school fantasy game in English.  $4.37 CAD

Swords & Wizardry Countiual Light:  PWYW.  Looks like new cover. 

Wail of the Banshee:  This is an OSRIC style adventure for characters of 4th to 7th level of experience.  $4.38 CAD

Places of power:  forgotten Athenaeum:  $4.32 CAD.  System neutral GM Resource.  $4.32 CAD

It's all Ancient Greek to me.

I'm on the last pages of "The Last Olympian" Percy Jackson books, and they are great.  I forsee writing some stuff in that vein.  I know there's quite a lot modules out there with a greek theme, but this is something that's been in the back of my head for awhile.  I had started writing this adventure called "Goblins Greed Isle" and Percy has sparked me to do a bit more writing. 

The intention of course is to be a bit vague here, but this is something that I wrote on my walk to work this morning.

The Fields 

The expanse of the wasteland drags on for miles in every direction.  Large cracks & fissures make traversing the Fields difficult and dangerous.  Nothing really grows, except small blackened plant life.  Ghostly images of men walking in the distance make you raise your brow.   What is this place? 

Encounter Table For The Fields. 

1.  A old man, shimmering between life and death walks across the fields.  Leaning on his walking stick every few minutes, he looks tired. 

2.  A family of six holding hands travel together heading west.

3.  A pack of hellhounds chasing ghostly warriors.

4.  A giant does battle with a cyclops.

5.  Large pool of black tar stretches about a mile wide and a few miles long.

6.  On the ground is an old text detailing the world beyond this one.  It emits a darkness that makes most afraid of it.

7.  Vultures the size of elephants swarm over head.

8.  An old chariot pulled by ghostly horses tumbles along in the distance.  There is no driver.

9.  Standing in the middle of nothing is a large grey tree.  Blood seeps from its bark, pooling at the base.

10.  A extremely large cow is attempting to burrow itself underground.

11.  An archaic monument made of hard packed sand in the shape of a thirty foot tall woman.

12.  A set of ornamental stairs leading down into the darkness.


Images from https://www.oldbookillustrations.com

d8 Obscure Rituals

1. The blood of a wyvern is boiled with fallen leaves in a large pot.

2. To receive the blessing from a god, one must sacrifice an ear, so as to have the Gods listen. 

3. The left arm is sewed to the torso for a week. 

4. The name of the enemy that needs to be vanquished is tattooed on a piece of dried skin.

5. Giant leaves are smoked from a huge stone pipe. 

6. Dragon egg (s) are smothered and boiled in gold or silver. 

7. The wings of a giant bird are sewn to the back of a parishioner, they are then tossed off a cliff. 

8. The teeth of enemies are collected, and then planted in the ground. 

General picture weirdness: https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/illustrations/funeral-ceremony/

Old school awesome - Oct 13 Edition

I decided to wander over to RPGNOW today to see what was new in the OSR section.  Obviously there's a bit more coverage over there, than drivethru some days. Here's the run down.

Slashers & Victims Light - Based on Swords & Wizardy Light, it's all about the slasher movies.  Perfect for the upcoming ghastly holiday on the 31st.  FREE

Whitebox Black Ops:  Supplment for Military gaming (S&W whitebox) $2.48 CAD

Goldensword Players Handbook:  looks like rules light fantasy gaming. $2.48 CAD

Goldensword Character sheet:  Free

Goldensword GMs Guide:  PWYW

What the smithy has to offer:  A list of random weapons and armour for LOTFP.  PWYW

Blood Dark Thirst:  Venger is back! This time with a horror game.  $4.99 CAD

Umerican Survival Guide:  Post apoc survival guide/source book for DCC.(2 different covers)  $16.19 CAD

The RPG pundit has put out a zine!  There are 2 issues.  Issue 1, Issue 2.  Appears to be a weekly thing. $3.73 CAD

Mythos Adventure Bundle:  2 Castles & Crusades adventures for $9.96 CAD

Village Backdrop: Farrav'n (SNE) system neutral village backdrop.  $4.30 CAD

Shadow Under Devils Reef:  Halloween themed adventure for DCC. $8.71 CAD

Cesspool of Redrook:  Adventures in Filbar adventure (Lab Lord)  $3.74 CAD

Advanced Adventures:  Under Ruined Onm:  Adventure for OSRIC.  $8.73 CAD

Nordic Weasel games has a few new character classes for Lab Lord, they are all priced at a $1.23 CAD.  (also excellent name for a gaming company!)  Investigator, Tinkerer , Yeoman

Dice Roll Zine #1 - Overview

If you haven't heard, there's a cool new old school zine on obs! It's called "Dice Roll Zine".  Steve C sent me a copy of Dice Roll Zine #1 thru drivethru last week (THANK YOU!).   I'm finally sitting at my desk getting a chance to read thru it this morning.  There's lots of great stuff.  Here's the description:

 Get your old-school gaming fix on! Dice Roll Zine is a 36-page, booklet-sized zine for OSR RPGs written by Steven A. Cook and illustrated by some of the best OSR-influenced artists around.

The premiere issue includes a barbarian class for B/X games, a saving throw-based method for turning undead in B/X games, a trippy sci-fantasy adventure location called The Purple Mushroom Inn, a chaos mutation die drop table, a collection of random 'dungeon stuff' tables, and other optional rules for old-school games.

Files Included: Lots of files in the download. Along with the PDF you multiple cover options and all of the map files (.png format) for the issue: The Purple Mushroom Inn (2 maps), Peshar's Bandit Lair (1 map), and the first-level of the (unkeyed) megadungeon Treasure Vaults of Nargu Qa'Dash (4 maps).

The mag is $3.76 CAD and well worth it! 

First off it has a B/X Old school flavour to it.  There's a LOT of great art within.  I am in love with the cover (honestly a toadstool inn! way to hit right close to home on that one boys!). 

Here's what you get: 

How to resolve anything that comes up:  An article on ability scores with a awesome table. 

The Barbarian: An optional B/X Class

Optional Combat rules for heroes

Turning Undead:  A different way of dealing with creepy undead that should have stayed dead (b/x). 

The Purple Mushroom Inn:  A sci fantasy adventures site for low mid level characters.  (Damn this is awesome!).  Complete with rumor & adventure table, menu, NPC staff, detailed personalities, and wonderful tavern map (and underground lair). 

Random Chaos Mutant Die Drop Table:  Great table with a pile of weirdness.

Random Dungeon Stuff:  A bunch of excellent tables for dungeon crawling. 

Mega Dungeon Maps:  The Treasure Vaults of Nargu Qa'Dash.  There are 4 extremely detailed dungeon maps (all hand drawn), combined with the random dungeon stuff tables, and a few wandering monster tables, you basically have a game ready to go.  (of course a bit of inspiration). 

Oh look here's some inspiration 

Reasons for entering the dungeon

1.  To return a ring to a lost love.  (Long ago a dark elf maiden fell in love with a traveler, it was his dying wish to have her ring returned). 

2. Hunting expedition.  The coats of the shaggy beetle are extremely sought after, and worth quite a lot of gold. 

3.  Recently a Gnomish Caravan came to the surface with trade goods.  Turns out that the good they sold are all defective.  They need to be returned and the gold paid retrieved. 

4.  A local scholar will pay for detailed maps of the dungeon.

5.  The source of the death shadow plague points towards the depths.  

6.  In the darkness there are rumblings, causing structures on terra firma to fall down and crumble. 

What am I working on?

Well what I'm currently trying to do is write one room a day for the adventure I started a few weeks ago.  So far I've not been doing too bad, and sticking with it! I've got two maps complete, one that is just penciled and one I need to draw.

We had a bit of re-jiggering with our fifth edition group, so it sounds like we won't be finishing "strahd" right away, but possibly moving on to Tomb of Annihilation.  (i'd really really like to finish an adventure!)

Count of the adventures not finished:
*starter set
*out of the abyss
*curse of strahd.

Anyways I've been working on character ideas.  I took a look at the wotc site, and some of the pregens I don't mind, but there is a bit of tweaking I'd like to do.  So alas I am starting from scratch.  At this point I don't have any inkling as to what the other players like to play (other than one guy who likes being an MU).  I intend to create 4 classic characters. The human fighter, the elf wizard, the halfling thief and the dwarven cleric. 

I have no idea what level we are starting at, and my knowledge of "chult" is limited to the forgotten realms wiki.  I'm partial to being the meat, swinging the biggest weapon i can find.  (my translucent d12 rolls high!).  I am considering buying some new dice for the campaign though.  Depending on if I get some time to hit the FLGS.

We are currently working on scheduling.