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.   

 

Sidetrek Dungeon

A created a quick side trek dungeon for my 5e game tomorrow night.  For the most part this is to delay the inevitable ending of the adventure.  The PCs left off having beat up some bandits on a sketchy bridge.  The next step is track down the bandit camp.  However they killed all the bandits that knew where the camp was.  In a bit of an osr style, I decided to pop all the information I need to run the dungeon on the map. 

See below.  Map was created using pyromancers.com 

The village of Longtooth starts to take shape

Longtooth has become the homebase for my 5e group.  I think inadvertently I've been working on the Gygax 75 Challenge.  I will likely start that again, with the Nightwell Barony.  I managed to get a bit stumped the last time around, but because I've been running this (Mostly off the cuff) its started to take some shape.  I already have some ideas, its just a matter of getting the pen to the paper.  The nice thing about putting it down will be the fact that I have a better document to work from as the adventures continue.  

I posted the other day about the Friday Five Minute map thing that used to be a lot of fun.  I went ahead scanned it and detailed it a bit. 

After sending out the completed image to the Grognard chat on google hangouts (well its not called that, but a bunch of us who play games together have a long running chat about all kinds of random things), I got a message back from Vance at Leicester's ramble, he went ahead and created a backstory for Longtooth! 

https://leicestersramble.blogspot.com/2020/12/taking-rest-stop-at-longtooth.html

Lots of good stuff there, and some of it isn't too far from what I had in mind.  I'm going to likely borrow a bunch of ideas from it.  Thanks Vance! 

As it stands what i have for longtooh is the following: 

There is a small marketplace at the crossroads of the Town.  Andre’s mill is further up the road to the southwest. 

1. Test

2. Test

3. Crazy Arnie’s Outfitting & General Merch 

4. The Wicked Wench Inn & Tavern 

5. Test

6. The One Horse Stable 

7. Wynthorpe The Mayor’s House.

Obviously Crazie Arnie's is going to be replaced with Vances far superior idea! The village is currently made up of mostly humans and halflings. It doesn't have much in the way of a town guard (and doesn't really need it either, at least not at this point). It is part of the barony and owes taxes to the higher ups in Port Nightwell, however the village doesn't get a helluva a lot of support from the capital. Once a year a tax collector makes his way down to the village for the money that is owed.

The stable is legit a one horse stable, much like the town is a one horse town. Everyone is quite poor and horses are a luxury. As well goods are very limited in the town. Most of the townsfolk are farmers, mill workers. It is a quiet place, where not much happens.

Which is perfect for the PCs to fuck up. hahaha.

Here is the living document link for the Barony: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aD5Cc4-oFUZTLiD6YoGYnis1fVOotXSs21XOnRqqpD4/edit?usp=sharing

The players do have access to it. I am doing my best to try and keep any information I write about the barony in one spot. I tend to have random files saved in a pile of different places!

Which reminds me I should probably start downloading and trimming all the random stuff I have on google drive. Or pay for more storage!

Happy gaming!

Nightwell barony session 3 play report

 Just finished up the session and boy was it fun!  The PCs left off at the edge of the city ruins.  In the morning they got up and ventured in.  The city is all stone buildings, lots of rubble.  Some vegetation creeps up here and there becoming overgrown in spots. 

The follow what's left of the road thru the city and come upon a fork.  They can go southeast or southwest.  To the southeast they can see a bridge in the distance.  To the southwest they can see the inner part of the city where there are far less destroyed buildings. 

They decide to head towards the bridge. 

They are smart enough to sneak around the city (they are halflings) along the edges of buildings, staying in the shadows as much as possible.  They hear a moaning sound coming from a little ways away. 

The wizard hafling roscoe sends his wolf/sheep to investigate the moaning sounds.  They quickly stumbled upon a well and find a trapped human way down at the bottom.  

The realize quickly that they don't have a rope.  She however does and throws it up to them.  A few dex checks later a halfling grabs on to it.  This is where a question of weight ratios comes into play.  A very light halfling is at the top of a well holding onto a rope with a reasonably heavy human at the bottom of a well!  Thankfully with a combined strength check they managed to get the cleric up to the top of the well.  

Her name is Walda, and she has been sent into the ruins to banish a great evil.  She dreams of a giant floating eye with huge teeth and tentacles.  This is what her god wants to destroy.  

They set off with the cleric in tow.  

They stumbled upon a building that is in decent shape and decide to search it.  They find a room full of skeletons.  A fight breaks out and the PCs managed to get the upper hand very quickly.  Mostly due to acid spray on the part of the wizard.   

Searching the room they find a weird metallic object in the form of an L.  It turns out to be a blaster gun.  Wildly futuristic.  

The world is a fantasy world based upon a civilization that had an apocalypse.  That race was the an advanced version of Elves, very technological.  

They also find a hackcard for a computer. 

They head off towards the bridge, see a sign that is crudely painted that says "pay the toll or die".  Sneak around a bit, and notice a gurad on their side of the bridge sleeping.  As they are sneaking they make a bit too much noise and the bandits on the other side of the river start firing a trebuchet at them. 

They manage to kill the guard on their side, who has stumbled awake, drunk and searching for his sword.  

Sprinting across the bridge they nimbly get thru stones that are falling from the actual bridge, and rocks being shot at them from the trebuchet.  The wizard catches the trebuchet on fire and 2 of the bandits run down to the crick (super shallow river) and attempt to put out the fire.  Yeah they are a bunch of morons!  

They kill the bandits save one and interrogate him.  Eventually they get enough information from the stuttering scared for his life bandit to know exactly where the bandit hangout is. 

And that is where we left off. 

*******

I drew this map today, it's longtooth.  It's a five minute map.  I believe Matt Jackson was the guy who started "friday five minute maps" on google plus.  I'm going to keep doing that.  It's something to get over the curbside pandemic boredom. 

Check out Matts Maps here 

http://www.msjx.org/

Play report nightwell Barony session 2

Jumped back in last night.  The plan was to shoot for Friday evenings, however since we all work in retail this Friday will be hard.

The players left off at the town, getting prepped to leave for the old city ruins south of the village. They quickly made it to the small bridge over the river.   The bridge was wide enough for a wagon to travel over it. It also looked well used.

They noticed a skeletal hand protruding from the waters edge, and went down to investigate. 

A giant crab and its kin were close by, and the players attempted to run up the river bank. One of which slide down into the mud. 

They managed to intimidate the crab enough to investigate the hand. There they found a body weighed down by a sack of lead. In a bag was a potion, and some silver pieces. 

They head out from the bridge and keep going towards the city.  As time goes on the wander towards the city thru tall brush, and a well used trail.  Eventually they come across a wagon.  The players attempt to sneak up, and get hit in the head with a rock.  2 goblins are also investigating the wagon, and have claimed it as their own.  The goblins speak very limited common, mostly one word answers.  Things come to a head very quickly and one of the goblins screams BREE YARK!   

The players decimate the goblins in no time and move towards the wagon.  There they find 3 barrels, 1 with black grog ale in it, and the other 2 with hops.  They also notice that the ground is very trampled and not with goblin footprints, but human.  

In the mud they found a note: 

G. 

The scouts have seen a caravan skirting the edge of the city.  Keep you're eyes peel and intercept. 

B.C. 

The pcs decide to take the wagon back to town and sell off the kegs to the bartender Isaiah. On the way back to town they found a strange grove of trees, that wasn't there the last time they passed this way.  There are 5 large boulders covered in runes.  They realize quickly that they can sleep here and be protected.  Its a weird magical grove.  When they wake up in the morning, they find that their weapons have been silvered as they slept, they weigh less somehow and have magical properties (+1).  Written in the side of a tree is a magical spell, which the halfling wizard quickly copies into his spell book. 

(I know I'm giving them too much treasure....what are you gonna do! it's 5e and they don't get XP for treasure anyways).  

Just before they are about to leave for town, a small rock rolls up to them with the following scrawled on it. 

"ned halp!" 

They look up to see 6 very small goblins.  The goblins plead for help, their princess has been kidnapped by a giant spider! The warriors of the group had been killed (the wagon guys) and they can't save her by themselves. 

The PCs opt to head back to town.   

And that is where we left off. 

First adventure for the nightwell barony

 I just completed the first adventure for the nightwell Barony.  I've been posting about the barony a bit here. I have one last encounter I have to write, but I figure I have enough for a few sessions. Friday night I'll be running it on hangouts and roll dice with friends.

It's been a long time since I ran a game and even longer since I ran 5e. The good news is it's actually quite an easy game to run. I'm just using the basic rules (as I've given away my phb and dmg to my nephew). 

I managed to find a downloadable homebrew dm screen.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2j5qlg/final_version_of_my_5e_dm_screenplayer_cheat_sheet/

It's a bit busy but works. 

I sent over my initial draft to a friend. He gave me a bunch of suggestions for it, which I incorporated.  This will likely get released in some kind of a format at some point. 

This morning I'm going to spend some time working on a small town map, with some help from YouTube. 

I'll post up a play report sometime this weekend. And maybe a screen grab of the village. 

20 Questions about the Nighwell Barony

I do find the 20 Questions by Jeff Rients invaluable for world building and helping to cement ideas in my head. I haven`t quite decided if this is something to share with the players. Part of me says yes, and part of me says no. I`ve thought about the idea of letting this world grow as it`s played in. Writing these answers out cements somethings that could change. So letting that out into the wild isn`t the best idea right away.

Whatever the case, here is what I`ve got. Thanks Jeff

http://jrients.blogspot.com/2011/04/twenty-quick-questions-for-your.html

What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

There are 5 Demigods who make up the religious pantheon.  None of them are named at this current time.  The actual Gods died long ago during the apocalypse.  The Demigods do from time to time meddle in the affairs of Non Immortals.  There isn’t any real organized religion in the land, most people believe in fate. 

Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

Most towns and villages have small general stores.  Depending on how far they are away from Port Nightwell the prices can be a bit higher on most items. 

Where can we go to get platemail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

Find a dwarf. 

Who is the mightiest wizard in the land? 

This is a bit of a bone of contention.  There are at least 6 very skilled magic users living throughout the barony.  On rare occasions they duel (usually because one of them wants to try out a new spell).  As is typical, wizards tend to stray away from large centres and live in moldy towers filled with books.  I’d find one of those. 

Who is the greatest warrior in the land? 

Once again, there are many.  The most famous is Commander Grill, the leader of the barons army.  She is famous for her reflexes and her sword “Black Orchid”.  

Who is the richest person in the land? 

Some would think that it is the baron, unfortunately that is not the case.  The black boss as he is known is the richest person in the land.  He runs many criminal organizations.  He has never been seen, and some believe that he is just a figment of the imagination.  

Where can we go to get some magical healing? 

Elves, Gnomes, wayshrines of the Demigods, Cults, Priests of the five.  Most small towns do not have any real magical healers, although sometimes you can get lucky.  

Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?

See above. 

Is there a magic guild my magic user belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?

There is a guild of the ``higher order of magical research, technology and cross stitching`` in Port Nightwell. 

Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?

Generally speaking port nightwell for most of these.  However on occasion you can find these speciality NPCs out in the wild or living in a small town. 

Where can I hire mercenaries?

Real mercenaries?  Port Nightwell.  Alternatively you can bribe a gang of thieves and bridgands, or hire some farmers and give em pitchforks. 

Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?

In the smaller villages like longtooth and stonewall magic isn’t outlawed but looked upon with disbelief and superstition.  As well when a magic user casts a spell in a small town they are inundated with requests to fix warts on toes, broken limbs, tell the future, etc.  It can be rather annoying.  

Walking around port nightwell brandishing any weapon visible is looked upon as bad form, as well wearing armour will usually cause citizens to ridicule the wearer.  “Hey Tinman! Need some oil for yer joints!” 

It is illegal to wear black on the weekend in most parts of the barony.  If caught it is a 5 SP fine.  

Which way to the nearest tavern?

The Wicked Wench in Longtooth 

Drowned Rat in Stonewall 

Balding MInotaur in Port Nightwell

What monsters are terrorizing the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

There's so many.  Gral the berzerker is the first that comes to mind, he's the last of the giants and lives in the Greyridge peaks. 

 

Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?

Not as of yet, but there are always forces considering taking Port Nightwell and the rest of the barony. 

How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

Yes! There`s an arena in Port NIghtwell.  There's also hamster races in the Halfing village of Stonewall. 

Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

Assassins guild in Port Nightwell, The Black Bosses thieves guild...err ``collection of well meaning upstanding bakeries and trinket market stalls``.  There is also a group of elves that feel the humans have grown to far, and they have been trying to upset the power struggles within the barony, regardless of how the upstanding elves feel about it.  

What is there to eat around here?

The salted pork is particularly excellent. 

Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?

The lost book of Narlharner, detailing the accounts of the world pre-apocalypse.  The throne of the great beard (A famous dwarven king), The sword of the lifestealer, fabled demonic sword lost during the apocalypse. 

Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?

Legends say that a black dragon lives within the muck marsh.

So very freeing

 I started working on the first adventure for the "Nightwell Barony" last night.  It is very much an event based adventure (ie a railroad).  I'm writing it for fifth edition, but it will be easily convertible to an old school adventure. Mostly because I'm an old school dude.  I've realized latetly (which I've realized before) that to attempt to sit and write something for mass consumption is a bad idea.  It's like sitting down with a guitar and saying "alright I'm going to write a hit song".  It's not going to happen.  

see this:  http://3toadstools.blogspot.com/2016/12/publish-or-perish-syndrome.html

I've had far too many "bright ideas" over the years, that I've posted about on this blog.  I get going on them, and then get a new idea, and start that.  And the cycle continues.  In some cases this is because of the hit song analogy, or I see a void that could be filled.  That and the fact that I have terrible ADHD.

What I've come to the conclusion is that I'm really in this hobby as a hobby.  Last night I spent about an hour and a half with my old laptop, no distractions and a pile of nerd books covering the couch as I wrote.  It was in a word, glorious.  I've got most of the one shot adventure written (with no maps yet).  I'm hoping to have it completed on Wednesday and run a game in the next week or so.  I'm excited, I'm writing and its a lot of fun.  The words flowed really well! 

Nightwell is my version of fantasy, which is a mashup of all the fantasy I've read (including all of the OSR modules, 2nd edition etc).  It's not tolkien, but there's bits of that in there, same with greyhawk, etc.  It's inspired by the basic rules for 5e, and all of the other basic rules for osr games.  Most specifically the monster section, I threw in some dinosaurs, cuz why not!  Sure there's a lot of the "usual"troupes as far as races are concerned (grumpy dwarves, wise elves, hungry halflings etc)  I mean if it ain't broke? But it's mine and the players to decide on what happens. 

I started working on a players guide to the barony, which will become a living document.  One thing I'm not going to do is write too much.  I'd like the players to help create it.  I've decided for example that there are 5 demigods.  The actual gods have either been destroyed or lost in the void.  I'm not going to name these demigods.  I'll wait for the players to come up with something.  

If you haven't guessed it by reading this, the whole damn post is ADHD! 

Long story short, I felt like I accomplished something last night.  And the reason was that I was doing it for myself and my players.  Not for some fictitious gamer who may or may not run an adventure or world that I create.  And I feel amazing. 

If you would like to read the beginnings of this railroad, it's right here: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hX00-nHfS9IqcOT-Hk-NsafGB3YerBL7dR2TFCOfj9Q/edit?usp=sharing

*It seems that there's been a mass exodus from facebook to Mewe.  And I just decided to take a break from both.  I'll likely jump back on mewe at some point.  That being said I'm here rambling if you miss me.  

I better get my butt in gear and go to work!