Training to level up - Warriors

My plan for leveling up during the old school campaign is that the PC's will have to find trainers within the world.  For every level gained, it will cost 100 GP's, so Level 1 - 100 GP, Level 2 - 200 GPs and so on.

What crossed my mind, was for the fighter trainer, to have a guy like Sgt. Slaughter.  I am unsure as to whether you may have seen the GI JOE movie.  During the movie, the JOES have to go find Slaughter for training and for plot development.  He's obviously a hard ass, part of the quest is just finding the guy.  He lives I believe in the Mountains of Burma, or something like that.

Now just think about D&D and a Medieval world, Slaughter fits right in doesn't he?

Just checked wikipedia - Fictionalized versions of Sgt. Slaughter were part of the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toyline, cartoon and comic books, as a member of the G.I. Joe team and first appeared in the five-part TV episode entitled "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!

Here's the scene from when the JOE's meet Slaughter for the first time. 

From the scene you realize that Slaughter has his own crack team of "Slaughter's Renegades", basically some hard core guys who are currently going thru a training regime with the Good Sergeant. 

As far as D&D is concerned, first off role playing a drill Sergeant is going to epic-ally funny! Secondly he can be a old warrior living in the mountains training recruits who come along.  Still in super good shape, wrestles dragons for fun etc.  Obviously the PC's will have to go and find him first.  Should make for an interesting adventure I figure.  

Now to come up with a name for this heroic trainer? 

Players Newsletter #1

I've done this before and I actually quite like doing it.  It add's a bit of mystique to the game, and also immerses the player's within the story.  The other part of this is that it sets the stage to remind me who the major players are within the campaign, as far as the political leaders are concerned, etc.

Here's a copy of the text only.

SAD NEWS “SHIELDS OF ATREU” FOUND DEAD.

Head Marshall Penac has received news that the beloved shields of atreu have been found dead in a cavern north of Brymassen.  A group of Hero’s who recently came to Brymassen set off to find news of the ill-fated group.  A member of the group “biohazz” says “We found one of their shields!  And a very deceased looking adventurer, it’s quite sad”.  Another member of the group is not entirely pleased about the results, but is happy that the group is taking over the cottage that had until recently belonged to the shields of atreu. 

ARNOF TO SET OFF ON TRADE MISSION TO ELERD’S KEEP.

The Burgomeister of Brymassen has received news that Arnoff Trading is setting off to Elerd’s keep with a load of Salted winter fish, barrels of ale.  The town council is pleased that they will receive some payment for these items from Lord Elerd.  “We need to keep our economy going, in these hard times” says the Burgomeister.  He goes on to say that a few halfing families are moving to the lands surrounding Elerd’s keep.  Arnoff is seeking a few guards for the incredibly difficult trip.

WANTED:

Father’s Dagger – Inquire with Hamona at the Balding Minotaur Inn. 

BARBARIANS SPOTTED IN THE WESTERN HILLS

A recent song sung by the travelling bard “Llywelyn The Out Of Tune” has caused a bit of an uproar.  Apparently the Elf sang of Barbarian’s ravaging the lands to the west!  Halflings flew from the tavern and batten down the hatches for days.  Llywelyn is no longer welcome within the town borders.

NORTHERN SWAMPS ARE A SCARY PLACE!

Podo Brockhouse claims that he saw a 3 headed beast in the swamp.  “I was out hunting near the ocean, I saw the beast and ran as fast as my feet could carry me!”

PIRATES ATTACK A TRAVELLING MERCHANT

Word has come that “our ladies grace” was sunk off the blood coast.  The town councilor’s expected the ship weeks ago.  Rumours have circulated that Pirates are to blame!

THE ELVES OF AUTUMNSHADE WOOD DO NOT APPRECIATE VISITORS. 

It has been long known that the Elves of Autumnshade wood do not appreciate visitors, they have kept to themselves for many a year.  Just lately King Kendel Krisnorin of the Autumnshade Wood Elves has decreed that no halflings from Brymassen are allowed within the borders of Autumnshade.  The council asks that all town’s folk abide by these rules.  A plan to send an emissary in the spring is being discussed.  In the meantime the council has meet with the Dwarves of Ebonshield, and it went quite well!  Grizela Stonefist (leader of the Stonefist clan) has proposed to trade food for steel & gems. 

What a dragon? But we are first level - Old school session 3

We reconvened for a session the other night.  When last we left off the PC's were in the dungeons of Illzathatch, looking for the shields of a atreu.  After having just finished killing off a bunch of lizardmen.  They stumbled upon a large sack that was wriggling.  Inside was "dirk", a very skinny goblin, who pledged to help the PC's provided they gave him some food.  North of the last room they were in was a door that they could not get open, so the PC's made their way back south, past the "murder bucket" room. 

Dirk was created as a bit of a plot device, not so much hand holding, but to help out.  For example last time the PC's found a scroll and the thief kept it.  Dirk noticed it, and mentioned that someone else in the group may be able to read it.  The thief past the scoll to the cleric and she realized very quickly that it was in fact a scoll of cure light wounds. 

The PC's bypassed the "dragon" room and kept wandering around the dungeon looking for a member of the shields of atreu.  They stumbled into a few extremely dangerous trap rooms.  In one case, we were just going to go for a smoke break, and the PC's walked into a room.  I had them all save vs spell, then took the 3 that were successful outside first.  I explained to them what they saw.  The other 2 well they almost fell in the hole.  It works well when the PC"s are very concenerd with their marching order.  And in some cases with some rather funny results.

The thief has an extremely low wisdom score, so he doesn't act quite like a thief, and in pretty much every situtaion he just yells out "WHAT HO!" instead of actually attempting to be sneaky.  It's a entertaining player to have in the group.

The PC's stumble upon a dead adventurer with a shield bearing the mark of "the shields of atreu".  The decision is made that the PC's do not need to spend any more time in this "death trap dungeon" as they found what they were looking for.

On the way out of the dungeon the PC's finally make it to the dragon room.  The door is wizard locked, and they are unable to open it.  Previously the PC"s have found out that the command word for the door was breeyark!  However they totally forgot about it. 

Cue a bunch of lizardmen coming down the hall at them!  "Hey you! get outta here".  PC's draw their weapons, its sword to face time!  The goblin Dirk (who is not unsimilar to dobbie) draws his dagger, and yells BREEYARK!!!!!!

Door opens.

The PC's run into the room and the door closes behind them. 

The whole time I"m laughing because, you goofs just ran from lizardmen into a dragon room.  Seriously it doesn't get any better than that.

The PC's meet the spawn of Illzathatch, Hazathathch, a green young dragon.  I've been waiting most of my life to roleplay a dragon, I've never really had the opportunnity to do so.  They parlay with the dragon and do not make her mad.  She wants to know what has become of her mother, and wants the PC"s to look for her.  She will pay them handsomely.  The PC's are able to get out of the situation without as much as a scratch.  *I had made a reaction roll for the dragon, and it was favourable, so I went with it.

The PC's leave and quickly get into a fight with the lizardmen, in a blaze of glory dirk dies. 

The PC's finallly get the hell out of dodge, and that is where we ended for the night.

As a bad DM I did a few whoop's thru out the end of this adventure.  I spilled the beans on what had became of the rest of the shields of atreu, as well I let the PC"s know that I will level them up next game.  I suppose I can't blame myself to harshly as I had a few drinks.  As you can tell by the pictures.  I have to remember to be a bit more NEUTRAL as far as the game is concerned.  I can't help it though, I root for the PC's. 

Next up, the PC's make there way back to the balding minotaur.  At which point they can go off in search of the tomb of gardag, or something else!

2 things are on my mind currently.  1 having brymassen utterly destroyed by pirates, sending the PC's off to do the aerie of the slave lords series.  or 2.  Having the PC's meet up with Arnof the trader, who requests them to guard his caravan to Elerd's Keep, cue Morgan's fort campaign with a bit of a twist.

Of course they can always check out the deathtrap that is gardag. 

After I level the PC's I probably won't do it again for awhlie, I am going to continue to keep an eye on XP earned, at this point they are basically half way to level 2.  And suprisingly they are quite resiliant! for first level.  I don't mind the idea of 2 adventures and a level up though.  It will however cost them some moolah! 

I have to remember to print off the DM screen for Basicfantasy, at least the first two pages, as there is some helpful stuff there.  Having the saving throw numbers in front of you makes DMing a bit easier. 

One of the players wants to multi class, and I'm not sure on the rules for that in basic fantasy.  My opinion at the time was "alright, you stop being a warrior and start being a thief" provided you meet the requirements.

PS there's the new games table! $58 at Canadian tire, steal of a deal!

The Great Battle

I have been slowly concocting ideas for the "Great Battle" in the campaign I started.  I haven't quite decided if it will be a series of battles, like in Lord of the rings, or one great one at this point.  The plan is to really push the intrigue till the point that everything is ringing.

Mechanically I have a few ideas.  First and foremost, I will hand each player their own group of warriors within the battle on a piece of paper.  Each player will have 4 minis on the board.  The mini's will represent either 12 or 24 units within the battle.

As far as Armour class goes, I think I will set it up so its fairly even across the board, probably everything will be treated as level 1 for ease of combat, with no extra added bonuses.

On the sheet, I'll have the handy boxes used for HP's in basicfantasy adventures.  All damage will be d6 based, which will reduce the units with each troupe the players are handling.  If the player or monsters roll under the armour class, I decided to still allow troop damage, but what will happen is it will be 1d3 rather than 1d6.  Because in a battle people still die.  That being said if the player/monsters roll a 1, they will be over run, take regular damage and won't be able to do anything the next round.  On a roll of 20, it will be double damage, 2d6.

While the battle is taking place, I want to every 4 rounds or so, cut to the player's perspective.  So regular D&D type combat.  Then back to the battle at hand.

I plan to use a board from dragonstrike as the battle mat.  Probably the forest one.  As far as movement I think d4s.  What I haven't quite decided if there's going to be an objective other than complete destruction.  Like a tower or something the PC"s are protecting.  Or vice verse, storming the keep!  hmmm... actually that might just work.

As far as the lead up to the battle, I have a few ideas that I'm kicking around but nothing concrete yet.

This is what I've got so far.

Piranhaspider

Last night I was revising "caverns of ugard".  I was using a pdf of labryinth lord rules, and I find it easy to do a Ctrl F when I'm looking for something.  I had just typed in piranha.  Then I went to look for spider.  But it didn't delete the previous word, so i had it looking for PIRANHASPIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 #rollforinitiave

Now I need to find someone who wants to draw it! 
Here's the stats.

Piranhaspider AC 6, HD 3, MV 180’ (60’), #AT 1, D 1D6, Save F3, ML 9 , AL Chaotic, XP 150

The Piranhaspider will ussually appear in groups of 3.  They will attack anything that has meat on its bones.  The Piranhaspider can inject a poision that will cause the victim to become limp (save vs petrify).  They have extemely high morale and will fight to the death.  Once they have their victim subued they will take them to underground lairs filled with strange water soluable webs, where they will either munch down, or save the victim for a snack.

Hacking it

So I think I'm going to hack Swords & Wizardry whitebox to suit my own needs. 95% of it is perfect. However here's the house rules.

Rolling a 20 on a hit does double damage for both PC's and Monsters.

Instead of a cleric turning table, it will be the same as the saving throw matrix. When a cleric attempts to turn they have to roll over the number (dependent on level) They also roll 1d6, if a 1 comes up the undead is completely destroyed rather than turned.

Same goes for thieving skills, it will be using a saving throw type table to cover all those skills. I know this will make the game a bit more swingy, but it will also be rules lite. To which I'm going to add a thief class to the game.

I'll also trim down the gear table and create a few adventure packs as well for quick character creation.

Ability checks will be based on DC's that become easier as you level up.

That would be about it.

Sometimes I forget things

My old school group has been going well, and we were discussing our next session which should be in a few weeks probably a tuesday.  All of the players are really enjoying themselves, and just the act of playing games.  They have no real idea of the culture of D&D, or any "back story" per se, as far as the game goes.  Whilst discussing when to possibly meet up I got super excited and sent an email talking about a new module I was looking at running, and I got really into "well we may try this version of the game" etc.  My wife gave me a bit of shit for it.  Basically because I don't need to ruin anything for the players, or talk to much about the game.  Just enjoy the game for what it is.  Problem is I can't help myself, because I'm always planning, and always thinking on how to make my game better.  I'm sure this is a problem for a lot of us.  If I was smart I would have just posted on this blog and talked to the rest of my D&D afficicanado's.  But instead I decided to both the players with my excitment.  The other issue of course is my mild to major A.D.D, depending on the day.  A lot of times I tend to get super excited and just blurb like a goof. 

So the things that have been on my mind thus far.

Switching to S&W Whitebox.

Running Sourge of the slave lords

Finishing up my little hex crawl and adding in some adventures from the Basic Fantasy Adventure Anthology.

and last but not least a few old Mystara adaventures including, Isle of Dread & Saga of the shadow mage. 

Oh and I had one brilliant thought of switching to 2nd edition.  Iyeyeyeye Shane! And one minor thought of playing with just the original basic rules red book.

This is the stuff, that I don't need to bother people with.  Esspecially people who just want to play. 

So take my advice, if your players don't want to discuss stuff like this, and just want to have fun.  Just do that.  Keep all your crazy DM ideas to yourself and discuss them openly on your blog.  (hopefully your players don't read it!).