Attronarch's Athenaeum

Campaign journals, reviews of TTRPG stuff, and musings on D&D.

Adventurers

Character Class Description
Hagar the Hewer Dwarf level 4 Imagine Conan as dwarf.
Ambros Cleric level 5 Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Tarkus the Promising Cleric level 3 Follower of Bachontoi, God of Red Wisdom.
Beorg the Gravedigger Fighter level 3 Inspired to adventure after burying several adventurers.
Riker Magic-User level 1 A magic-user seeking glory or death.
Leticia Cleric level 1 Extremely righteous, borderline zealot, devout follower of Rasthri, Goddess of Strength in Revenge.
Almaric the Legendary Elf level 1 Very smart and quite good looking; adventuring just for the money.

Sunstrong 6th, Airday

“Where are some beastmen to slay?! Show them and I'll kill 'em all!”

Akasi Namelin boasted to Hagar and his crew. The eldest son followed the party shortly after they left Hara. He was accompanied by Leticia and Almaric, just to make sure no ill fortune befalls him, despite marching with three dozen light footmen.

“Remember to keep the kid alive.” Riker reminded everyone.

“I'll go first, you right behind me!” Hagar commanded to Namelin's eldest heir.

“Yes! I'll be right behind you! Let's go!”

“Let me remind you that monsters here are intelligent. Don't rush forward blindly–” Riker attempted to educate young man, but was interrupted with brash “I have hunted before!”

“You might become the hunted here...” commentary went unanswered.

Heran Marod left the dungeon and waited for the party above, overseeing a Akasi's thuggish band.

“Where to next?”

The party had three possible venues: go down the stairs and deeper into the dungeon, go east and explore the beyond the ransacked library, or go north down the corridor with exploding barrels.

Afraid to go down or to face the fiery doom, they opted for the second option and went for the library. Nothing much beyond a large kitchen with adjoining pantry, and two dead ends with smashed statues.

Having adventured for nearly sixteen hours, the party withdrew from the dungeon and camped by the tree. Surely nothing would dare disrupt their sleep with their numbers.

Sunstrong 7th, Waterday

Well rested, the adventures continued their delve. They explored kitchen surrounding in the time it takes a lantern to burn through on filling of oil. Little did they find beyond more looted rooms. In an act of desperation they caressed and tapped many walls, hoping to find any secret shortcuts.

“We will have to go through that corridor. There is no way around it.”

“There was a large dinning table in one of the rooms. Let's break it and turn it into a mantlet!”

“What a great idea! Let's do that!”

More hours went by as they put their plan in motion.

Once in the bell shaped chamber, Beorg shot a lit arrow and hit the doors out of which, supposedly, barrels were rolling out of.

Nothing.

Next Leticia stripped her metal armour, lit a torch, and sprinted down the barrel corridor. Reaching the junction she jumped left and peeked around the corner.

Nothing.

So she ran up to the doors, knocked, and ran back.

Nothing.

Remaining party formed ranks and advanced up the corridor, with Riker and Ambros ready to unleash magical and divine wrath alike.

Nothing.

Almaric brought Leticia's armour on his Floating Disc, so the lady was armoured once more.

Reunited, the party marched to the doors.

Nothing.

A dwarf and an elf decided to listen at the doors.

Nothing.

Finally they pulled the doors open!

Empty barrel rack was all there was to be found. Besides three rusty levers, that is.

“Unbelievable!”

“Let's check the corridor we passed...”

Indeed there was one unexplored corridor leading east, then turning north. Faint smell of death and rot could be felt. Marching on soon revealed the nature of the challenge: a labyrinth. Multiple dead ends, sometime empty, sometime with insulting traps. Skeletons of long dead monsters and humans alike. One of the skeletons was a large human with a bull’s head. A rusty massive battle-axe rested next to it.

Hours and hours went on as adventurers trudged through endless corridors. At one moment the stench of death became almost overbearing. By now the adventurers had learned this must mean trouble. They carefully proceeded, ready for whatever might await them.

Hagar at the front turned the corner and came face to face with a horrible creature. A human female-looking face floated some eight feet in the air. Its eyes were almond-shaped; long, lanky black hair was stuck to its pale face; fangs and long split tongue protruded out of its slack jawline.

“Purge the Evil!!!”

Tarkus yelled and charged past Hagar; the dwarf charged too. Almaric and Beorg went right behind them, while others backed them.

True extent of the creature's unholy existence was revealed with approach of light. The face was not floating mid-air. No. It was attached to a tubular body made of most horrible make—mangled, broken, and headless bodies of women.

Hacking into the monster made it ooze slimy, dark purple ichor. The creature gazed into Hagar's eyes. Stout dwarf resisted voices in his head and struck the creature. Next the monster flew up in the air and swirled in circular motion. Almaric, Leticia, and Akasi dropped to the ground, sleeping soundly.

Riker's spell had failed to produce any effect. On the other hand Riker's Awakening Palm worked quite well on the sleeping members of the party.

In a moment of shock, the ghastly creature towered over Hagar and then bit him in the neck. Dwarf's eyes turned upside down and he went limp in seconds. The monster wrapped its long body around Hagar and flew off with him into the darkness.

Ambros pursued the monster without missing a beat, with Tarkus, Beorg and Almaric right behind him. Follow purple snail trail was easy. Moments later they caught up with the abomination and hacked it to pieces.

Tarkus the Promising delivered the killing blow straight to the face of this horrible creature. Its body fell apart, leaving a pile of mangled corpses on top of Hagar.

“What a blessed dwarf he is...”

“Oh no...” Akasi muttered, distraught.

The bite marks were already necrotic-black; the flesh rotted away. Hagar's veins were dark purple, bloated and firm. His eyes were completely white, with yellow pus on the lower lid. Spittle and foam caked his angled mouth.

The future castellan of Hara had died.

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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A zine chronicling the Conquering the Barbarian Altanis D&D campaign.

This issue details session 60. Adventurers get a lucky break—or do they?

You can download the issue here.

Overlord's Annals zine is available in print as part of the legendary Alarums & Excursions APA, issue 587:

#Zine

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Fight On! bundle (issues 1 to 14) available for limited time!

Get fourteen issues for 50% off! Legendary OSR zine jam-packed with essays, adventures, house rules, art, comics, magic items—you name it!

The sale will run for just a week or so after Calithena or Ignatius (Fight On! editors), announce it publicly so don't wait for too long. This is a great deal.

Update: the sale will run until October 11th.

#Sale #FightOn #OSR

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Adventurers

Character Class Description
Riker Magic-User level 1 A magic-user seeking glory or death.
Tarkus the Promising Cleric level 3 Follower of Bachontoi, God of Red Wisdom.
Beorg the Gravedigger Fighter level 3 Inspired to adventure after burying several adventurers.
Hagar the Hewer Dwarf level 4 Imagine Conan as dwarf.
Ambros Cleric level 5 Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Heran Marod Cleric level 2 Bearded, aging man with shaved head. Follower of Umannah, the Sun God, The Radiant Death.

Sunstrong 4th, Fireday

Hagar led a new party to the Den. Half of the men were clerics, armed with Cure Light Wounds and Hold Person, as well as one magic-user with two prepared Sleep spells. Once again the party had borrowed six horses from the Namelin stable, allowing them to reach their destination in six hours.

Two shabby towers as well as wooden palisades still surrounded the tree. No new sentries were to be spotted anywhere. Scouting the environs revealed no traces of ambush or anything suspicious. The party descended into the dungeon, and opted to march straight ahead through the open archway.

Long corridor gently slopped upwards, something Hagar spotted after fifty or so feet of marching.

SLAM!

A loud thud of wood hitting against stone wall could be heard up ahead. A large, six feet wide barrel rolled out of the darkness and towards the party. A lit fuse could be spotted on its right side.

Luckily the party was just at the junction so there was plenty of space to evade the rolling danger. Unfortunately two members failed to jump to the side. Stalwart Heran decided to hold his ground, shield raised up while agile Riker opted to jump upwards. The former was hit by the barrel, forcing him against the wall. The latter was hit by the barrel mid-jump, landing with his belly on the top.

Due to Heran's interference the barrel changed course, turning right and getting stalled in the corridor. Lying on top of the barrel, the burning fuse was just in Riker's face. Heran sprinted around the corner, some twenty feet away, and stopped, for whatever reason.

Magic-User tried to extinguish the fuse with his palm, but only suffered burns and blisters. This was one inch thick rope, soaked in flammable oil. Unwilling to risk any further, Riker slumped off the barrel and sprinted to the junction and then left.

Heroic Beorg charged from around the corner, leading with his polearm.

“I will cut the fuse before it burns up!”

Beorg the Legend reached the barrel just in time for it to explode, suffering maximum impact and fire damage. Those that lurked around the corner were singed as well as forced to the ground from shock.

Smell of burnt flesh permeated the corridor.

Clerics rushed to heal each other. Surprisingly, charred Beorg was carbonised but alive.

SLAM!

The same sound was heard once more. This time everyone ran left and around the corner, and then burst through the doors, slamming them shut just in time. Little flames surged from underneath. Dramatic, but harmless.

Catching a moment to breath, the party realised they fled into a familiar chamber. A small altar with the symbol of three crossed swords was in the middle. Bunk beds line all the walls.

“There should be a one-way secret passageway just there...”

Indeed, the adventurers had easily found the secret doors they perused in the past. From there they easily found their way to the bell shaped entrance chamber. But their way was barred!

First, they caught an orc by surprise. Pig-faced monster was waiting with a club, facing the doors leading into the entrance chamber. It certainly did not expect a bunch of adventurers to exit from the doors behind it. Monster was hacked to pieces in seconds.

Second, the doors were nailed shut. Without equipment, Hagar spent significant time to tear down plank by plank. Eventually the party broke through and fled back to Hara to lick their singed assess.

Sunstrong 6th, Airday

Healed but hairless, the adventurers returned to the den once more. One their way out of the town, Akasi Namelin derided Hagar for putting their plans into jeopardy. The dwarf had little patience for Namelin's eldest son.

Riker the Wise remembered to bring a magical construct which had been collecting dust in the companies vault. It was a palm-sized bee which can follow simple instructions and offer one to three word description of what it sees. Scouting the dark corridor from whence barrels rode revealed little but closed doors.

Checking remaining three doors in the bell shaped chamber revealed they were all barred from the other side. Hence the party decided to go through the broken doors. From there they rethreaded some of the chambers they've been through before.

Passing the stairs down, the party decided to explore southern portion of the dungeon. Alas, they were mostly empty and junk rooms. Peak excitement were a gelatinous cube guarding a completely empty room, and a finger ring-sized snake eating its own tail resting on a pillow under a glass dome. Beorg broke the later, and then one of the adventurers grabbed the ring. Nothing ill happened to anyone, despite the warning uttered to them.

“One last doors to check” led the party into a thirty by thirty foot trap chamber. The doors slam shut behind them, and green gas begun filling the chamber as magic mouth spoke:

“Unbidden, I come at night Unasked, I am gone by morn.”

A set of glyphs appeared on the door in vertical line: a star on top, crescent moon in the middle, and a sleeping man on the bottom.

Half of the party immediately succumbed to the gas, dropping to the ground as if dead. Tarkus yelled the correct answer but nothing happened until he touched the correct glyph as well.

Gas stopped hissing and doors opened by themselves.

Tarkus dragged everyone outside and administered awakening slaps.

Once everyone got back to their senses, the party stopped to think about their further course of action. They were at the literal and proverbial junction.

Where next to conquer?

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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Through September I hosted the RPG Blog Carnival with the theme of Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers.

Here is the chronological round-up of all contributions:

A lot of cool and gameable material (I especially like the d100 table by Elemental Reductions) that can be easily used.

Just comment if I missed your contribution and I'll add it to the list.

Since this was fun, I think I'll host the Carnival again next year.

Let me know if there is a topic you are yearning for! ;)

#RPGBlogCarnival #OSR #Resource

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Spread the word!

Fight On! presents: a

David A. Trampier and David C. Sutherland III Memorial Art Contest!

Honoring the dedicatees of Issues #16 and #17 of the legendary fanzine!

Rules: Artists retain ownership of and all rights to their work, except that winning artists grant Fight On! Publications the right to first publish that work in an issue of Fight On! and subsequent collections including that issue/article in perpetuity. No AI.

All Submissions Due by November 30 to iggyumlaut@gmail.com.

Prizes! Color Division: $80 First Prize; $40 Second Prize; $25 Third Prize. B&W Division: $75 First Prize; $35 Second Prize; $15 Third Prize. Trampier Memorial Prize: $50. Sutherland Memorial Prize: $50. (Multiple third prizes possible. Last two are for work inspired by or in the style of; can stack or award separately.)

Judges include:

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Adventurers

Character Class Description
Hagar the Hewer Dwarf level 4 Imagine Conan as dwarf.
Ambros Cleric level 5 Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Darius Cleric level 4 Follower of Dacron, God of Craftsmen.
Hector Fighter level 3 Balding warrior in the dwarf corpse retrieval business.
Tamren Cleric level 3 Stoic paladin of Coriptis, the Goddess of Battle and Inamorata of Berserkers. Aventail hides all but his two piercing blue eyes.
Lucie Fighter level 1 RPhysically competent, but mentally and socially inept.

Sunstrong 2nd, Waterday

Large chestnut tree towered above the poorly concealed entrance into the drug den. As always before, the hole had been covered with a wooden plank, which in turn was covered with bushes and brambles and soil.

Unlike before, the tree was now flanked by two shoddily made wooden towers and several rows of poorly made wooden palisades. The latter were in fact just sharpened tree trunks driven into the ground at an angle.

None of that was enough to stop Hagar and his crack team. They jumped two sleeping pig faced orcs and killed them in cold blood before either could squeal. Then they dispatched orcs on the towers.

Stupid pigs were blind as bats during the day. And even if the weren't, they could possibly not match the bloodthirsty Tamren, bent on earning absolution for his cowardice at the same place months prior. He would never stand a chance of being consumed by Coriptis eternal flame—-unless he bathes in blood of those that had broken his resolve once.

But they weren't here for Tamren's redemption. No. They were here to demolish and eradicate the beastmen that established camp so close to Hara. Not due to benevolence nor heroic aspirations, but due to Hagar accepting Namelin's offer to become their candidate for Hara's new castellan.

The party chucked the plank to the side and descended into the drug den.

Bell-shaped entrance chamber was different than before. It was cleaned. There were no impaled corpses.

Adventurers decided to head right. They swept chamber after chamber. All empty. Rotting straw mats, broken weapons, signs of being lived-in by filthy creatures. Gone.

“I recall orc and goblin barrack being around here. These were probably their rooms.”

Ransacked library housed three mutilated corpses. Hagar recognised Celeborn of Revelshire whom he had adventured twelve months ago with. Two decayed humans were unknown to him, but were probably adventurers as well.

Pushing on, the party followed a twisting corridor into a dry, tobacco smelling storage room. There another door led into a trap that failed to foil Hagar and Tamren. Upon forcing the doors open, they both noticed a corridor extending into infinity. Instinctively, both looked away.

There was no magic, only trickery of perspective using two bottom to ceiling mirrors facing each other. Averting their gaze, the adventurers pressed forth, into a sixty feet wide chamber with a thirty feet long pool.

“What a weird chamber...”

The chamber was pristine. The water was crystal clear and warm. Stone pegs jutted out of north wall.

“Look, a dagger!”

Indeed in the center of the pool a dagger rested at the bottom. The bottom was at an incline, with south side being three feet deep, and north side around ten feet.

One of the adventurers pushed the dagger with the ten foot pole to the south end. Then Hagar jumped into the water and picked the dagger up. It was a nice looking weapon, but ultimately mundane.

“The night should fall soon. We should get out before orcs come out and realise somebody killed the guards.”

And thus the adventurers rapidly backtracked, hopped on their horses and rode hard to Hara. They got lost during the night, but once they found the Farhills river it was trivial to follow it downstream.

They reached Hara on Sunstrong 3rd, few hours after sunrise.

Beastmen got to live yet another day.

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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This post is part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers.

JG1040 Wondrous Weapons was one of the late Judges Guild publications. It has four pages for random generation of magical weapons that are unlike anything else at that time (see bottom of the post for the tables). Although they are for The Judges Guild Universal System, they can easily be used with any TSR Dungeons & Dragons editions and their retroclones. I don't think they were playtested at all, but at the same time I think they can produce some cool and creative results.

Without further ado, here are ten wondrous weapons:

  1. Almeh's Fury: short sword +1 to hit, double damage. An elegant single edged shortsword with elaborate hand guard (1 AC bonus). Three sapphires are embedded in the pommel; removing or destroying them will make the sword lose its powers.
  2. Bearaxe: battle axe +2 damage. The blade is decorated with copper-filled engravings of bear motifs.
  3. Grower: two-handed sword. Grower can shrink on command, up to 1/20th of original size.
  4. Invisible Doom: arrow +1. A single arrow with chameleon power (colour changes to match surroundings). The arrow is difficult to spot (odds as for detecting secret doors). Three rock runes and three transparent opals (worth 6 000 gp intact) adorn its body.
  5. Ironcarver: dagger. A medium sized dagger with a straight, single edge. It cuts and punctures through cold metal with great ease (target counts as if it is unarmoured). The
  6. Ithixhul: two-handed sword +2. Very light sword (as dagger) made of pure mithril with electrum details on the pommel. Two blood-red rubies adorns its extensive handguard (2 AC bonus). The rubies can absorb 3 points of fire damage per day. Ithixhul can harm ethereal creatures.
  7. Rock: rock. Rock is a sentient rock (INT 17, COM empathy, AL rock) with gold veins. Its only purpose is to kill all.
  8. Silver Seeker: javelin +2. Can how two different targets on a single throw, and returns to the thrower every time but must be caught. Javelin is made of pure mithril and covered with adamantite runes of alien origin.
  9. Stalwart's Blade: sword. This steel blade decorated with silver geometric patterns will adjust its length to match the wielder's height, ensuring perfect reach. Additionally it will bestow the wielder with +2 CON as long as it senses that wielder is acting as someone's defender.
  10. Zontar: hand axe. This hand axe made from pure orichalcrum imbues the wielder with agility (2 AC bonus). Further, it does 3 points of cold and four points of electrical damage with each strike. Struck creature suffers this magical damage at the end of round.

As promised, here are the tables:

Alas, despite my love for Judges Guild material, outputs from the above tables require a lot of work. For example, for previous posts I used all the outputs. This time I had to roll almost 100 results to get a selection that I was happy to work with...

#RPGBlogCarnival #Resource #ODnD #OSR

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This post is part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers.

Arduin Grimoires by Dave Hargrave were notorious supplements for OD&D published in 1977 and onwards. They were filled with crazy tables that definitely were not everyones cup of tea.

But I certainly love some of them—like his Special Ability Charts that we used in our game for years—and even when I didn't use them, I certainly was inspired to make something of my own.

This week I decided to use the “Random Chance Chart For Magik Weapons” from The Arduin Grimoire Volume (scroll down for legend and explanation of the chart):

  1. Alrika's Cleaver: Battleaxe +1 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Lawful; INT 4; EGO 17; COM none; MOT renown; POW none. An elegant dwarven battleaxe made of finest dwarven steel. Forged for famed dwarven battle-priestess, Alrika Frigasniz. Although it lacks communicative abilities, it will become noticeably dull and darker if it isn't flattered and praised regularly. It will attempt to assert control over the owner whenever they take a swing against any dwarf.
  2. Blackblade: Hand and a Half Broadsword +5 to hit, +2 to damage; AL Neutral Good; INT 9; EGO 13; COM empathy; MOT renown; POW none. Wicked looking bastard sword made of blackened mithril. It has an obsession with sheaths made of exotic leather. It will demand at least dozen of sheaths to be taken on every adventure. It will be very unhappy unless it is told a gory bed time story every night.
  3. Deepthrust: Rapier +1 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Neutral Evil; INT 18; EGO 16; COM telepathy within 12”, speaks one language; MOT renown; POW Clairvoyance, Detect Life, Flight, Frost Giant Strength. Diamond studded thin blade with gilded guard and exquisite sheath (worth 4 000 gp). Deepthrust enjoys duels and will refuse its powers to anyone whom it deems cowardly or unfit in any way. It will always demand a full share of treasure, which is to be spent on sheaths, oils, and bards. It hates clumsiness and will refuse to serve any such person (with DEX less than 12)—in fact it will viciously mock them, hoping to incite a duel. Deepthrust is not stupid, so it will see through insincere flattery and react accordingly. Deepthrust allows the wielder to fight with strength of a Frost Giant, meaning it attacks as 10+1 HD monster and hits for 2d6+1 damage.
  4. Hellfire: Sling +2 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Chaotic Evil; INT 18; EGO 18; COM telepathy within 12”, speaks one language; MOT renown; POW +1 versus Undead, Paralysis, and Life Drain attacks, Detect Life, Haste, Fire Giant Strength, Treat all armor classes hit as AC 9. This hateful weapon has been forged in the very core of the planet by Ammonuz, a fire giant cleric, to wage ware on Overlanders. It is a simple Y-shaped sling, with body made of black rock. The sling itself is of unknown material. Hellfire cares for nothing but destruction, and will instantly attempt to dominate anyone who dares touch it. And destructive it is: not only does the wielder strike with power of a fire giant (as 11+3 HD monster for 2d6+2 damage), but any living target counts as if it had AC of 9. That means that they are automatically struck, unless they have means of reducing the attacker's attack probability. Hellfire might be sufficiently impressed by new “owner” if the latter destroys everything and everyone, including its allies, upon picking it up. But its appetite for destruction is endless, and no owner has survived it.
  5. Moonlight: Light Crossbow +1 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Lawful Evil; INT 9; EGO 17; COM empathy; MOT renown; POW none. Ultralight crossbow with mechanism that doesn't require any maintenance nor oiling. It is so perfect it can be fired and reloaded with a single hand. Used to be a favourite weapon of notorious assassin Mateis Fluoniope. Moonlight will refuse to shoot “shoddily” made quarrels, which it is very particular about (roll a d4, on 1 it refuses to shoot a bolt). It will happily spend hours inspecting bolts for use, and will occasionally demand special-made bolts.
  6. Nedbryn: Shortbow +2 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Lawful Evil; INT 20; EGO 1; COM telepathy within 12”, speaks four languages; MOT renown; POW Detect Alignment (like cleric spell Detect Evil but at double range and can detect any alignment), Flight, Haste (Cursed). Made from hangman tree hardened in blood of one hundred demi-humans. Bowstring is enchanted spidersilk. Nedbryn possesses alien-like intelligence, and revels in causing prolonged suffering. She will introduce herself to any adventurer within range and seek help, playing to their ego. Although she can impeccably detect alignment, she will hide her own. Only clerics of name level and higher can correctly detect her alignment—and only if they spend number of months equal to the difference between her intelligence and their wisdom. Nedbryn will adjust to her wielder. Her patience is endless. She can tolerate abuse. She will learn everything there is to learn about her owner. She will give out genuinely helpful advice, but always in the service of her agenda. There is nothing she enjoys more than building up an aspiring adventurer into respected ruler and then slowly ruining them. If she gets bored she will malfunction at the most inappropriate time, e.g. when flying over a precipice or running away from a horde of monsters.
  7. Princekiller: Lance +3 to hit, +2 to damage; AL Neutral; INT 8; EGO 16; COM empathy; MOT renown; POW none. By all account a mundane lance, indistinguishable from others. Forged by vengeful wizard Cullen Leeper whom was slighted by a local king. He planted the lance for tournament organised by the king, in which king's son was participating as well. Leeper ensured the lance ended in a dull man's hands, and son was “accidentally” killed. Princekiller has a sizeable ego, and will demand tournaments organised in its favour at least bimonthly. It will also demand the best of horses and the best of challengers.
  8. Red Sun: Two Handed Battleaxe +3 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Neutral Good; INT 5; EGO 16; COM none; MOT renown; POW none. Large two-handed double-bitted battleaxe with ironwood shaft and bright red blades. It hates prolonged exposure to darkness, and thoroughly enjoys sunbathing. When happy, the blades look as if sun rays are bouncing within them. When unhappy, the blades look like dimmed sun.
  9. Sarioin: Halberd +3 to hit, +1 to damage; AL Neutral; INT 10; EGO 16; COM speaks two languages; MOT renown; POW none. A halberd with iron shaft and tempered steel blade. Sarioin will introduce himself as “warrior's finest weapon, but strategist's true weapon!” It is quite spendthrifty, and will always look for reasons why something else should be bought too, e.g. “quality costs!”, “buy thrice, cry once!”, “are you sure we don't need another one?” Sarioin will not demand anything be spent on it, but will greatly appreciate that. What it will demand every single time is to be consulted on battle plans and course of action. It will speak out of order and let anyone know if it disagrees with the approach, plans, or ideas. Sarioin is the prototypical armchair general, and will always have something to say.
  10. Volmago the Vampire Vanquisher: Spear +4 to hit, +2 to damage; AL Neutral; INT 18; EGO 8; COM telepathy within 12”, speaks two languages; MOT renown; POW Detect Distance, Detect Undead, +2 versus Undead, Paralysis, and Life Drain attacks. A silver tipped spear with shaft of cold iron. Volmago is still grieving its former owner, great paladin Cladus Eacham, whom was betrayed by his party and slain by a mated pair of vampires. Volmago desires only to be left to grieve and will refuse cooperation. If the new to-be owner is able to get it to open up and avenge Cladus, then Volmago will serve that person with undying loyalty. Volmago knows a lot about undead and will share that information.

Legend: AL: alignment; INT: sword's intelligence; EGO: sword's ego; COM: sword's means of communication; POW sword's power(s).

As I wrote, for this article I decided to use the “Random Chance Chart For Magik Weapons” from The Arduin Grimoire Volume 1 (1977):

Even if you are familiar with OD&D some of the table entries might leave you a bit puzzled. There are no explanations or details beyond above table. Spell that don't appear in OD&D are also not detailed in the grimoires. For example Detect Alignment. I just assume it works the same as Detect Evil/Good in OD&D.

Weapon “character and alignment” is interesting as well. In the grimoires Dave explicated his views on alignment, which are kind of summarised in the following table:

Weapon intelligence and ego scores can be much higher than in OD&D, meaning much higher probability a player character might have really bad time. In fact, imagine rolling a chaotic evil weapon with high intelligence and ego. Yes, it might end up with many special powers, but since it would easily dominate even the strongest characters, it almost acts as a cursed weapon.

How many powers gets assigned is a bit ambiguous, especially regarding special powers. Number of “normal powers” depends on the weapon's intelligence:

INT Normal Powers
14–15 1
16–17 2
18–19 3
20–21 4
22 5

Number of “special attributes” depends on the weapon's intelligence and ego:

INT EGO Special Attributes
15–17 15–17 1
18–20 18–20 2
21–23 21–23 3
24 24 4

Finally, I interpret Dave's table as supplemental to procedures in the OD&D. I used those to determine weapon's purpose (1:10 for it to be special), communication abilities, and number of languages spoken. All three original Arduin Grimoires have been reprinted in the Arduin Trilogy.

#RPGBlogCarnival #Resource #Arduin #ODnD #SW #OSR

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This July we celebrated the 100th session of Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign. Our first session was on March 8, 2022. Time flies! Below are my reflections and answers to some questions I have received about running the campaign.

Background

Our campaign is located in the Wilderlands Barbarian Altanis. We play weekly (Tuesdays evening) for three hours, online, using Discord and Owlbear Rodeo. Between the sessions we sometimes engage in play-by-post, especially for downtime activities. That way we can really focus on action in every session.

Each player makes three characters when they join the game. They pick one they begin with and start playing. They can activate another character in case the first one dies, or gets stuck somewhere (e.g. in another dungeon delve we are not continuing because more than half of the players aren't present).

I've allowed anyone interested to join us and try out our game. Since we've begun there have been dozens of players that came and went, with around twenty sticking around. Roughly a quarter of those are active non-stop, another quarter is active but joins live sessions a bit rarer, and remainder joins whenever life allows.

Our campaign is very open ended, with a lot of freedom for the players. This also puts onus on them to decide what to do, what do prioritise, and how to organise themselves. Over time this has led to players controlling multiple characters, embarking on concurrent expeditions, racing against time, causing and fixing trouble in the land, and so on.

In other words—we are playing an open ended sandbox where the world is alive and is actively shaping and being shaped by the players.

Lessons Learned

  1. Don't take it personally. People come and go. Life happens. Miscommunication happen as well. When somebody leaves the game without notice or stops playing I don't dwell on it.
  2. Be consistent and predictable. Game is on Tuesdays evening. Game happens as long as someone signs up. Game event is put up three days ahead, and player roll call is broadcast the day before. Game happens every week. If there is change of days, that is communicated a week before.
  3. Clear boundaries. I have only two hard rules that would make me act immediately: no player-versus-player behaviour and no sexual violence. I repeat these two rules to each new player. I state them in a direct, no chance to misunderstand, manner.
  4. Keep a furious pace. We are playing for 180 minutes. That isn't much time. There are no breaks. “What are you doing next?” is my most common question. For longer discussion I activate a ten-minute timer that is visible to all players.
  5. Keep interferences to a minimum. I do my best to ensure players need as little as possible to play. Currently they only need internet browser with three open tabs: Discord for voice chat and dice rolling, Owlbear Rodeo for simple VTT map, and Google Slides for their character sheets. I don't want them to waste time wrestling with tools.
  6. Keep the game running and review rules after. If I can't look something up within 180 seconds, and it is not a life or death situation, then I'll make a ruling and tell players that I'll look up the exact rule or numbers after the game.
  7. Don't correct. If I make a mistake while running a module or something I've written down, I do not retcon it. The “mistake” becomes canon and I work it in. One such “mistake” led to fifty memorable game sessions.
  8. Be generous. My default stance is to rule in players' favour when uncertain or if I made a procedural error. For example, if I forgot to ask for declarations and one of the PCs was supposed to cast a spell, I will allow it. After all, it is me who made the error. There will always be another chance for that PC to die, no matter how generous I am.
  9. Don't be afraid of exceptional PCs. Scroll with powerful spells? Magic weapons with strong bonuses and abilities? Large treasure cache that would allow everyone to level up? Gasp! Who cares! Let them have it! The stronger they are, the more fun we can have! Players always find novel ways to kill their characters anyway.
  10. Fun isn't always right. Long-running open-ended sandboxes require some logistics and politicking and serious intelligence gathering. Sometimes a winding down session is welcome after a series of mentally intensive sessions. A “boring” session every two dozen sessions is a welcome respite that also allows players to realign regarding their goals.
  11. Take great notes. I have created three templates that I use every session: day tracker, combat tracker, and session tracker. I take notes on every character, combat, and in-game day. I maintain in-game calendar. At any moment I know where and when each and every character is. That is critical for running an open-world sandbox with multiple player characters adventuring at the same time.
  12. Do the math. After every session I list recovered treasure, earned experience (in bulk, as not to reveal how much XP each individual treasure or monster is equal, which is sometimes useful), and distribution of experience (what character are eligible for experience and what is their share). I also write out how much XP is each share worth, including bonuses. Since I take great notes this takes me less than five minutes and preemptively solves many questions. Players just need to find their character, share, and update experience.
  13. Don't overprepare. I have an inexpensive egg timer. My partner hates its ticking sound. So I use a watch instead. 30 minutes for a session. That's how much I give myself. If I do something more than ten times, then I either automate it with a spreadsheet or script, or create a reusable template.
  14. Do the bare minimum. I prepare everything in iterations. Published material is organised so I can easily access it, while everything else has just the essential ready. For example, if players suddenly decide to take a turn into some settlement, then I'll play with nothing but one to two sentence description and procedural charts in my Judge binder. If they remain in the settlement for longer than one session, then I will sketch it. If they stay longer, I'll flesh it out a bit more. Same goes for dungeons and wilderness locales. First they are rumours, then they are entrances with areas around them, then they are fleshed out.
  15. Everything beyond the bare minimum should be a reward in itself. If I decide to spend more time on something it is because I want to, and have no expectation players will do anything with it. Creating a dungeon or locale, researching rules and procedures, polishing house rules... I do them because I find them fun, and might use them in game, but without any plan or expectation to force them on the players.
  16. Prune the Judge binder regularly. Every quarter I go through my Judge binder and move sheets around. Those that get used during the game go up front. Those that get used during prep go to the back, separated by a coloured divider. Those that don't get used get removed.
  17. Convene community. Since we are all on the same Discord server, the discussion is always flowing. We have a generic “lobby” channel where we discuss many non-game related topics. There are players from all walks of life so there is always something new to learn from each other. Memes and jokes are shared, new products and crowdfunding campaigns recommended so we all get a bit poorer, ideas are traded and critiqued, and so on and so forth. Everyone participates, regardless of how often they play.
  18. Create a space that encourages mutual support and reflection. Many players mean many different personalities and play styles. Of course, those that remains are relatively similar, but that doesn't mean there is no room for improvement. I often use plurals and ask players to think “we” and “our,” especially when discussing their next steps.
  19. Facilitate players outside of the game. Love for specific type of gameplay is what brought us together. It is fair to assume there might be more mutual interests. If someone wants to run a one-shot with different rules or their own game, or recruit people for a game they are starting, or needs help with something they are working on, or anything else, I do my best to connect them together.
  20. Public praise, private punishment. I do my best to congratulate and reward good play, thinking, and cooperation with a kind word and explicit praise in front of everyone. If somebody is misbehaving, then I have a one to one conversation with them. Public shaming is for military and prisons, not games.
  21. Don't absolve responsibility. At the end of the day I am the person responsible for our game and community. That isn't something that can or should be delegated.

Questions & Answers

I've received some additional questions about our campaign and my style that aren't covered with above lessons. I'm including these questions and my answers below.

If you have a question of your own feel free to email me or share it in the comment below, and I'll reply when I have time.

Question

How to handle dropping players into a sandbox game without them feeling lost, overwhelmed with so much potential choice that it feels like no choice at all, or lacking direction; and about how to encourage them to seek out adventure hooks and pursue their own goals. I wasn't there for the first session of Barbarian Altanis, but I'd love to hear about how you set up that first session, and how you prepared prior to the beginning of the game. Did you begin by giving the players a clear quest to go on? Did you give them a limited number of hooks from which they could choose? Or something else entirely?

Answer

Preparation: I read the Wilderlands material and picked region I liked the most, Barbarian Altanis.

Session 0: I introduced Wilderlands, Barbarian Altanis, type of game I will run (open-ended, player driven, no PvP, no sexual violence). Then I asked players to pick a starting point. They choose Kestizar.

Session 1: we begun playing. I read hexes around Kestizar and placed some dungeons within 25 mile radius. I collated hooks and gave them out randomly during the sessions. I mixed that with random tables. There was no clear quest; purely player driven.

Reflection: in retrospect I think some of the players were a bit confused and/or lost. It took several sessions before they committed to a specific hook. Few of them led to very violent outcomes with few survivors. Our first year was a bit mudcore, to an extent because of player choices (since I never intended it to be as I placed plenty of treasure and magic items, but refused to railroad you to them). There were multiple (!) occasions where they'd give up right before hitting a big pile of treasure. But then the hydra lair changed everything. ;)

Question

Advice that worked or didn't work for you. Resources that you found useful—what books did you keep on hand during sessions and/or prep, sort of thing? Is there a book/resource that isn't made that you would have loved to have used?

Answer

Honestly, I did not seek advice beyond the rulebooks. First I spent a year or so reading B/X, then BECMI, and then Rules Cyclopedia. Then I read AD&D 1e DMG and PHB. In parallel, I spent a lot of time understanding TSR's catalogue, editions, publications, how they tie in together, what is their focus, and what are the differences. I don't remember why, but I decided to try out B/X and RC/BECMI, so I found a game of each and begun playing. I want to see the rules in action. From that experience I decided to run B/X first, so I master it and then in the future potentially upgrade into a more advanced system. After all, that was TSR's promise!

When I was exploring TSR's catalogue their main settings did not grab me. Mystara was fine, but not captivating. I liked Dark Sun, but wanted something closer to regular fantasy or sword & sorcery. Thunder Rift was cool, but felt too constrained. Then somehow, and I don't even remember when or how, I stumbled upon Wilderlands of High Fantasy. It blew my mind. It was fucking awesome.

CITY STATE OF THE INVINCIBLE OVERLORD.

BARBARIAN ALTANIS.

CITY STATE OF THE WORLD EMPEROR.

Hex one-liners with crazy hooks. Vast, but not too big. Populated, but not too dense. Ready for adventure as is, but easily expanded and filled out with anything. Setting that can take abuse. Setting that can be improvised with. I like the content, I liked the aesthetics, and I liked the ethos. That was the time I took a deep dive into Judges Guild and their catalogue.

Having picked the ruleset and setting, my next step was to get all the core books. By now I have acquired most of the TSR catalogue, so I begun hunting down Wilderlands publications. After studying the four booklets and Necromancer Games boxset, I felt like I was ready to run a life long campaign. My next step was to pick an area. I've selected because (1) I liked it so fucking much, and (2) it was in the middle of everything. My next step was to read up on adventures and shortlist a dozen or so I want to run.

I spent time making a list of best rated modules (usually starting with tenfootpole.org), and then I'd seek more reviews of publications I liked. If I was still hooked, then I'd buy and skim them. If I still liked them, on the list they would go. When the players selected their starting point on the map, I looked for few low level modules and placed them in the region.

Following all that, I made a binder with key notes on Barbarian Altanis, list of modules, empty papers for additional notes, and print outs of modules the players would be most likely to visit. Then I made another binder, the Judge binder, where I put all the procedures I use during play, including those for random procedural generation. I'm confident enough to improvise anything, but still like using good tables.

Bar none, my most references book is Ready Ref Sheets by Judges Guild. It is amazing. Some of the procedures are bad. Most are great. But the flavour is inimitable. Besides those, I frequently reference d30 DM Companion and d30 Sandbox Companion. Heck, I got d30s just because of them. I do have a collection of other tables as well, mostly from AD&D 1e and Arduin.

I don't feel like I need another book in life. With above two binders I could run a game until I die. That of course does not mean I am not acquiring more books... What can I say, I like reading stuff old and new.

Question

Did you find your preparation methods shifted, and how? and was that change from your own developing skill, or because of the length of the game? Is there anything you learned or did that you wish you'd known or done before you started, or that you wish you had done earlier in the campaign?

Answer

Over time I shortened my preparation even more, but the methods are still the same. Or at least I think they are.

Once I made a four-level tower with adjacent camp and underground dungeon with cave complex. I made it because players were dead-set on marching on it to fight barbarians there. Then, after mustering a mercenary army they decide to go somewhere else instead. I do not regret making it, but it was a good signal to maintain my usual iterative approach to developing points of interest.

Question

You've run a long open table. What are the stats on your player pool? Did trends emerge for how players played in an open table format? What sort of players should GMs of open tables look to recruit? What sort of “player stable management” did you do?

Answer

Yeah, it's been going more than two and half years now. I've been maintaining a public character roster that includes characters from all players that are still playing.

When a player leaves, I delete their character from the “Alive” list, but keep them in the other lists. In other words, I haven't been tracking exact number of how many people came and left. There was a good number that was curious to learn more about our play style, who would come play a few sessions and then leave. There were some that would join and then leave.

There are currently 21 players with 34 characters. There are more, but some of the are uncertain, so I don't want to spoil anything. Let's just say that at least two have been playing in a months long play-by-post session that still hasn't come to an end.

Regarding recruiting, I basically try to recruit more people that are like people I'm playing with right now. As I wrote elsewhere, I strongly believe that good games are to be had with good players, hence I care more about attitude than skill or years of gaming experience. The only foolproof way to test compatibility is to play a session together.

For player character “stables” I did not use anything special. Make a character sheet for each character and keep track of them. That's it.

Question

How was it putting session reports in A&E?

Answer

It is fun! It took me some time to get use to the format, and contributors publishing their reaction and comments to previous issue in the next issue. Like commenting on blogs, but with longer delay and more in depth commentary. Collating reports for A&E is another chance at proofreading, and I often cringe at mistakes I catch. Another thing I used to do much more, but haven't done a lot of it in my latest submission, is including art. Initially I'd hunt for stock images, play with Midjourney to generate something usable, and try to fill in the gaps with art. Now I just use a little bit of abstract art and maybe one or two stock illustrations. My plan is to keep publishing the reports in A&E as long as the game keeps on going and zine keeps coming out. A fun side bonus is getting fan mail from strangers.

Next 100 Sessions

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