Attronarch's Athenaeum

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

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Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy Rules Tome is very easy to use. Combination of clean layout, terse writing, and information concentration make for a great reference book. It is a good example of applying technical writing principles to a RPG book. Alas, it also spawned a horde of copy-cats who just imitate OSE look, without understanding the underlying principles of the technical writing!

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What is great writing? To me, great would be evocative, inspirational, not too terse and not too verbose, and clear. I don't think I've encountered any RPG book yet that hits all of those criteria.

Three RPG books that I immensely enjoyed reading, even if they were verbose and opaque at times are classic Dungeon Masters Guide by Gary Gygax, Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised by Matt Finch, and The Arcanum Second Edition by Stephan Michael Sechi and Vernie Taylor.

Now, none of the above are terse, and do require some effort to parse. But boy, are they inspirational! Whenever I'm in a rut I can grab any of the three, and I'm full of ideas within moments.

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Drats, I just packed my RPG books because I'm moving them to another location, so I'll have to go off my memory. Three RPG books that have memorable art are:

  • Broodmother SkyFortress features great comic-like art by Ian MacLean.
  • HackMaster 4e features a ton of art in the vein of 1e, but more extreme, more tongue-in-cheek, and just more of everything.
  • AC9 Creature Catalogue features art by Jeff Anderson, Helen Bedfod, Gary Harrod, Tim Sell, Brian Williams, Geoff Wingate, and Pete Young. Not all pieces are great (or good), but there is some indescribable charm to them!

And all three are great for play as well!

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Dungeons & Dragons Basic / Expert have served as foundational rules for my long-running campaign Conquering the Barbarian Altanis—101 sessions over two and half years. Later this year we will be transition to original Dungeons & Dragons, ie. rulebooks published prior to the Advanced and Basic split.

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

This issue details sessions 55, 56, and 57.

Adventurers discover a ruined tower and embark on three expe- ditions, determined to plunder its riches.

You can download the issue here.

Overlord's Annals zine is available in print as part of the legendary Alarums & Excursions APA, issue 585:

#Zine

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#RPGaDAY2024

Most recent in The Keep on Yeoldelands campaign run by IdleDoodler: few sessions ago my two characters, Rarder Brete and Konrad Klaver, died to a pack of god-damn sea hags. The party is trying to get them reincarnated... IdleDoodler runs slightly house-ruled Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy.

Most recent in Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign: Hagar accepts invitation to attend dinner organised by the powerful merchant family Namelin. With some time to spare, the part decided to revisit one of the nearby dungeons they haven't cleared out. They choose trap-heavy dungeon, and get trapped without known way out.

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Well, let me check my buying history... As it turns out, I buy great majority of RPG stuff either through Kickstarter or DriveThruRPG.

Apparently I bought four isses of the Wyrd Science zine:

I remember them being pleasant to look at, but thin on gameable material, if any. They are more like articles and columns on various topics.

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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.
Foxglove Thief level 4 A willowy human, long hair ties in a pony tail, looks a bit dangerous and dainty at the same time.
Darius Cleric level 4 Follower of Dacron, God of Craftsmen.
Rorik Fighter level 3 A fighter.
Riker Magic-User level 2 A magic-user seeking glory or death.

Longrass 11th, Airday

Following a day-long deliberation on what to do that will take less than ten days in total, the party had decided to revisit a ruined tower some ten miles south-west of Hara.

The one where they recovered valuable silver orbs from.

The one where they lost on full party.

Spending a full watch scouting the surroundings for any changes, the adventurers determined nothing much changed. And so they descended down.

Hagar took the lead since he had been here before. They went through the secret passageway under the stairs, then left in the pendulum room, and then through north-west doors. From there they went forth, left, and then right.

“Locked. Can't find the mechanism!”

FoxGlove played with stone doors preventing their further progress. It had three holes, each in different shape: a five-point star, a six-point star, and an equilateral triangle.

They backtracked and moved into an unexplored corridor, then right turn, then more than hundred feet forward, left turn, and then through stone doors into a mostly empty chamber. A set of rusted bear traps were piled in one corner. Some were open, some were closed.

Finding nothing of value they proceeded through south doors, and down another long corridor. Alas, the moment they turned into the corridor a sliding stone slab prevented their return.

“I don't understand this dungeon. Is this to prevent something from coming out? Or us from retreating?” one of the adventurers wondered.

“Step aside, I'll smash it.” Hagar stepped forth with a sledgehammer.

An hour later and all he had to show was a fingernail-sized chip.

“I guess we head down the corridor then!”

Another hundred or so feet, a left turn, and stone doors, and the party entered another chamber. This one was peculiar since it had a long stone bench running along north, west, and south wall. The bench was low, and comfortable for dwarf to sit on. It had no legs and underneath was nothing but empty clearance. It felt pleasant to the bum.

South-east doors led into a large circular chamber with a swirling pattern carved into the floor. Grooves were obvious even to non-dwarves.

“Uh-huh, this is a trap.”

FoxGlove went in by himself, tied with a rope, and carefully explored everything. Alas, nothing much. Unwilling to risk finding out what the trap might be, the party backtracked into trapped corridor and spent significant time investigating every portion of wall. Alas, nothing.

Once the full party entered the round chamber the ground shook and spiral fell down, turning the floor into a downward slide. Ready for this, the party tumbled in a relatively controlled manner.

Lighting up extinguished torches, the party scanned the chamber they fell into. It was a similar circular chamber like the one they were moments ago. Stone doors were to south, and open archway to north. They chose the latter direction.

Navigating the maze-like corridors led them to portcullis with loud snoring, a direction which was immediately abandoned it. Moving opposite, down the corridor led to two dead ends.

The north one had a skeleton pinned to the wall. What they though to be javelins turned out to be long iron quills.

FoxGlove plundered the skeletons sack for some gems, and coins.

Peeking into a chamber filled with skeletons was sufficient to shut the doors and abandon that route as well. Backtracking the maze and following northern route led the party to stone doors flanked with holes, another obvious trap.

Adventurers triggered the trap with tenfoot pole, forcing five spears to launch out of the wall. Then they used the grappling hook with rope to bend each one of them.

Following that Hagar and Rorik forced the doors open. Alas, Rorik failed to synchronise with the beefy dwarf, and went straight through open doors. He stepped on the trap on the other side of the door, and triggered it.

He evaded two spears, deflected one, and got cut by two.

Illustration by kickmaniac.

The chamber had several human-sized skeletons laying on the ground, all facing down. Many had broken bones. The floor was full of small holes.

“Rorik! Rorik! We'll get to you!”

The fighter leaned back, making sure he doesn't step further into the chamber. Five iron spears just behind his back prevented his exit.

“Come on! Pull!”

Bending each spear took around ten minutes.

They could see Rorik sit down.

“Pull! Pull! We are coming for you! Hold in there!”

Rorik could feel his blood burn.

Rorik could feel his flesh ache.

Rorik could feel his heart racing.

Until Rorik could feel no more.

Darius closed the warrior's eyes.

And then two freshly recruited men-at-arms were turned into corpse porters.

Backtracking once more, the part retreated into the round chamber. There they camped and rested as long as it took six torches to burn.

Longrass 12th, Waterday

The adventurers now explored eastern set of corridors. Bunch of dead ends, one with gas trap that left Darius and Riker injured, and one hireling dead. That one was left behind.

“How about we check the south doors?”

This led them into a five hundred feet long winding corridor. They passed one dead end with robed corpse gripping a staff. Naturally they took the staff. The corridor terminated with an archway opening up in a wide chamber.

Three corpses with blast marked lied prostrated on the floor. These ones actually had some flesh on them, unlike ancient skeletons they had found so far.

“Careful there...”

Will the party manage to escape this time?

Or will they suffer the same fate as the party that went missing?

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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Fight On! is back with force!

Brand new issue 15 now available on DTRPG (PDF) and Lulu (POD and PDF):

Ten years later, we are back from the dead to Fight On once more! These revenant runes are just as jam-packed as you remember with classes, monsters, spells, magic items, rules mods, homebrews, and awesome adventures in the spirit of the eldritch era of fantasy roleplaying! Dedicated to seventies D&D legend J. Eric Holmes, this issue brings together old and new stalwarts alike to celebrate our 15th issue and new beginning! With art and articles by J. Eric and Christopher Holmes, Tom Gordon, Calithena, Gabor Lux, Jeff Rients, James Maliszewski, Kesher, Pete Mullen, Cameron Hawkey, Zach Howard, Alex Schroder, Richard Rittenhouse, Settembrini, Patrick Farley, Jason Sholtis, Robert Conley, Kelvin Green, Philipp H., Attronarch, Mitzi!, and many more, this is the first of our new forays into fanzine fame and glory! Ride that wyvern while the sun is shining, and keep Fighting On!

Here is the table of contents:

Article Author Page
Ten Ways to Holmesify your Game Zach Howard 3
Special Ability Charts Attronarch 4
The Orthogonal Dwarf Olle Skogren 11
Gremlins! Calithena 14
Maze Master's Miscellany Alex Schroeder & Calithena 15
The Catacombs under Old Samora Phillip H. 17
Knights & Knaves: Holmes Town Heroes Tony Rowe 28
Bringing It All Back Holmes Clark, Grodog, and Calithena 30
Maps from the Maze of Peril J. Eric Holmes 34
Distributary of Darkness Alex Zisch 36
The Silken See Motley Dice 37
Grognard’s Grimoire Richard Rittenhouse 41
The Wizard’s Satchel J. Blasso-Gieseke 43
Artifacts, Adjuncts, and Oddments Richard Rittenhouse 44
Victory or Death! Gabor Lux 46
Megadungeon Workshop Extravaganza! Kesher 50
Calvero! István Boldog-Bernád 53
Creepies & Crawlies James Maliszewski 61
Tables for Fables Al, Greco, Wetzel, and Rients 63
The Darkness Beneath Alex Schroder & Lior Wehrli 68
Henchmen-Я-Us: Pole Arm Caddies! Calithena 91
Chainmail: Battle for Bronzolo Settembrini 92
Doxy, Urgent Care Cleric Linneman & Green 98
Education of a Magic User Douglas Cox 99
Wham! Tom Gordon 100

It's been a great honour to contribute, and I look forward to contributing to next issue as well.

Back issues are available as PDFs via DTRPG and PODs via Lulu.

#News #OSR #FightOn

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Adventurers

Character Class Description
Ambros Cleric level 4 Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time.
Foxglove Thief level 4 A willowy human, long hair ties in a pony tail, looks a bit dangerous and dainty at the same time.
Darius Cleric level 4 Follower of Dacron, God of Craftsmen.
Rorik Fighter level 3 A fighter.
Bairstowbury the Chaotic Halfling level 1 Remarkably muscular for a halfling.
Centuria Elf level 1 An academic elf fond of teasing those of lower status.

Meadowlark 16th, Airday

“Get me out of this mess!”

The party had just slain a dozen spider-hen-pigeon-cat mutants. Two of the adventurers get tangled up in the webs, but without any opposition, they were soon out. Tarkus, Beorg, and Happy stuffed three monster corpses in a sack and when to the surface to rest and wait for others to come out. Bairstowbury and Centuria, the new recruit, switched with them and joined the party in the dungeon.

Illustration by IdleDoodler.

“Let's head up north to ensure nothing comes from behind. Also, there might be a loop leading to the lair of the spider-folk.”

Hundred feet long corridor was flanked by several empty rooms. One was completely barren, one had tattered remains of glowing rope, and one had a weathered, cracked, and faded fresco of skull biting a stone in the shape of infinity symbol.

There were also two unicorn statues, each in its respective alcove. First they encountered had broken off horn and front left leg. Second was intact, and if FoxGlove was correct, its horn looked like it could be rotated. A human male corpse was balled up in cowering position, sitting behind the second statue. The man looked youthful, even in his death. Ignoring the bright red cracked lips, taut, dehydrated look, and rigor mortis, that is.

With the help of divine magic, Darius discovered that the ceiling of the alcove is trapped. The party swiftly backed out, and then backtracked to the chamber with blue mist. From there they followed the long corridor east, taking two right and one left turn. They passed three doors, all emanating sickly green light. Two of them were brighter than the rest.

Adventurers arranged themselves in front of the first bright doors. Bairstowbury stepped forth, as the strongest of the six, and pulled on the doors. The party was almost blinded by the light—whole chamber was full of glowing webs. There was sufficient space alongside the floor, but humans would have to crawl.

Human corpse was suspended from the ceiling, it's huge, bloated belly sagging downwards. It's face was taut, as if something or someone had pulled it overs its cheekbones. It was a frozen image of excruciating pain. Man's teeth were crooked and his hair was thin. Glowing webs had melted the flesh away and were tightly wrapped around the exposed bones.

Something moved in the darkness.

Bairstowbury slammed the doors shut.

Something forced the doors open.

Illustration by IdleDoodler.

A large, spider-like creature was hanging upside down from the web. It had six spider appendages, as well as a pair of deformed human legs and arms hanging from its thorax. It's head was a misshapen atrocity of human face drawn over insectoid shape.

Ensuing scuffle was brief and violent. The monster bit FoxGlove, injecting him with vicious wasting venom. Adventurers discovered that creature was partly incorporeal, as their weapons passed right through its body. Rorik was able to strike it though, using a blade with skull in the pommel, which they recovered earlier in this dungeon. Ambros, in moment of desperation—or inspiration—called upon his deity to banish the monster.

It worked! to surprise of everyone involve.

“Very interesting.” Darius muttered, stroking his chin.

Mutant spider crawled up the wall, on the ceiling, and fled. But not before the party cut off three of its limbs and caused significant damage to it. Bairstowbury quickly stowed the appendages in his sack.

Illustration by IdleDoodler.

“Remember how they said these monsters procreate by inseminating corpses? Maybe we should hack that one up?”

Without volunteer to enter the chamber, the party decided to resort to true and tested method of burning everything. They oiled the bloated corpse and then set it on fire. Flesh caught fire, but webs remained intact.

Rorik observed, sword pulled out, ready to hack down any horror that might emerge.

The corpse burst open, spilling forth black ichor. A black mass with thin, long appendages fell to the ground, twitching and thrashing about chaotically. It burned away and melted into an oily slick, seeping into the ground through the cracks in the flagstone.

As this was happening, all but Darius, heard a loud shrill. So loud and so protracted that it felt like someone had driven a knife straight into their brain. The pain was such that thinking and acting was nearly impossible; even mere orientation and moving in the desired direction took significant effort.

Darius the Piper went to considerable lengths to ensure his colleagues exit the dungeon safely. He had to herd them like sheep, instruct them like little kids, and, eventually, just lead them by the rope. But he got them out intact.

Illustration by IdleDoodler.

“Let's go to Hara and rest there. That's where the home is.”

Longrass 1st, Airday

“Your sick friends must drink clean water and eat nothing but fresh fruits and vegetables. Strict bed rest is in order. No adventuring nor lollygagging about town.”

Such was the advice given the Hagar by the priest at the Temple of Poseidon. FoxGlove was still alive, but barely looking like it since the bite.

Rorik, Darius, Bairstowbury, and Centuria collected the monster remains and set off to Ironburg via river barge. They wanted to share all the new information with Old Crus.

Hagar and others remained in Hara. Dwarven hero was considered to be the de facto leader of this adventuring party—or at least that's how people of Hara had seen him.

Longrass 5th, Spiritday

Hagar finally managed to commission master sculptor Dragespius of Onhir. They agreed on 25 feet tall marble statue, to be made in Ahyf, facing the sea. Details to be arranged, as well as payment of 3 125 gold pieces.

Rorik, Darius, Bairstowbury, and Centuria had returned from their meeting with Crus.

They learned that spider-hen chimeras are called webbirds, and are basically bred for food by the creatures of the underdark. They were also frustrated at the other information shared by him, considering it to be vapid academic bloviation of little practical application.

Rorik shared with him hand drawn map of the explored area. In fact, Rorik was the only one of the adventurers that Crus had shown any remote sign of affection for.

Illustration by kickmaniac.

“One day, one day, you will be a great adventurer. Just you keep listening to me. As you grow in power I will reveal new things to you. Trust me, trust me. One day! But not today!”

Full party was now reunited in Hara.

Fresh mercenaries begun trickling in. The word must have spread.

After all, war breeds war.

Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.

#Wilderlands #SessionReport

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