Attronarch's Athenaeum

Convention

Next year's Cauldron convention will take place from 8 to 11 October, 2026:

That will be from Thursday to Sunday. Save the date and keep an eye on their website, for this year's tickets were sold out in hours.

Cauldron is the best convention to attend if you have any interest in playing old-school Dungeons & Dragons, be it any flavour of the originals from the 70s, or the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

To get the feeling of atmosphere and games that take place at Cauldron, I recommend the following accounts & reflections:

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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I spent last weekend (October 17–19) playing old-school Dungeons & Dragons at Cauldron, “an OSR Euro Con.” I had an absolute blast of a time, organisers did an amazing job, and players were all great.

In this post I share my reflections on the whole experience. See this post for reports on games I either played or hosted.

Preparation

I've decided to take a night bus to Frankfurt, then a train to Marburg, and then hitched a shuttle ride offered by the organisers to the final destination, Hofraithe Rosenthal.

Everything I needed to run my games was packed in a single yellow binder: five reference sheets for OD&D, player reference sheet for Magic-User and Cleric spells, character index with eighty fourth level characters, eighty character sheets printed on yellowish paper, and, of course, module notes and maps.

Early on I decided I will (1) run three games myself—The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor on Friday night, Conquering Barbarian Altanis on Saturday night, and Darkness Beneath Megadungeon level on Sunday morning—and (2) join three other games. That, I felt, was a fair balance of supporting others and offering what I like to others.

Since I've already written about why I have chosen to run OD&D and above adventures, I point you to the following post.

Friday

Night bus was perfect for me. I've slept through most of the journey and arrived well rested. I did not get to experience the horrors of DB. My train arrived on time, and organisers greeted me on the train station as agreed upon. An hour or so later we reached nice white houses with timber beams, my home for the next three days.

First thing I did was make my bed. No way I'd be in the mood to do so at 2 am, or whichever time would my Friday night game finish. That proved to be great foresight. Next, I scanned all the gaming rooms. Organisers provided a small map and a list with all the games and associated tables and rooms.

Tables were beautiful, chunky and concrete. Beams worried me a bit, for they too were chunky and concrete. My assigned table was just between two beams and between two other tables. I worried how many player could realistically fit given that I wasn't even able to wedge in eight chairs. Second table was kind of useless because there were other beams around, so there was nowhere it could be moved without blocking passageway. And I didn't want to stand in the way of gamers trying to reach their fix.

My games were with unlimited attendance. I was committed to running a game for two or twenty players. I tried out few different layouts, but ultimately decided to pull the horizontal table behind me and place it against the wall. Then I left all my belongings on that table—now promoted to the Judge Table—and decided to have nothing on the Player Table.

There were some really great rooms, but Linde, the one I was assigned to, had the most concurrent games. I knew it'd be loud, but I was looking forward to it nonetheless because I knew the atmosphere would be great.

With everything prepared I mingled around, meeting people and chatting. It was great to connect faces with online nicknames and handles. This was also a very special convention because I met several long-time players from our Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign. That was absolutely awesome. I am unable to express in words how great it was to meet in person after gaming since 2022 together.

Playing in Dreadlord's game was mighty fun. Read more about it here. We smashed through the dungeon and almost completed it with great success. My character died in the process, but one of our adventuring party member's escaped with the scroll. Dreadlord is an outstanding Judge, with quick wit and great humour. Players were great too—I was impressed by the gaming skills of all present!

Hearty dinner was served. It was then that I noticed that pretty much everything was home cooked. And how awesome is that?! This made me feel like I was at a barbecue, an intimate event, and not some corporate convention with fancy catering and what not. Organisers told me there was around hundred people here, but it felt much tighter. The atmosphere was just great.

Given that I had a night game to run I elected to skip soda drinks and focused on water. Throat was to be protected. I had hours and hours of being loud ahead of me. A Chainmail game was being set up on the ground floor. It looked really great, and I was looking forward to hearing from everyone how it went. Settembrini and Dreadlord tried to convert me to figure-collector-painter-sufferer but I made my saving throw and remained committed to avoiding adding another expensive hobby to my life.

People slowly queued up for the game sign-up forms. I took a glance at the papers and they were filling up fast. Great, just how it should be! My assumptions about Linde and table setup were quickly proven true. We shimmied the table a bit to make room for everyone. Packed tight, we were ready to game!

I framed the game as simple as I could: no player versus player, your objective is to exterminate the Cult of Angall, we play until we want. I went over the core gameplay loop with two moves per turn, dexterity ranking no-roll initiative, and assigned a caller. Game time!

45 minutes into the session and players suffered a near total TPK caused by Wand of Cold. Only one character managed to escape. That was a total of 10 in game turns. New characters were distributed, and players planned a new delve, intent on getting it proper this time.

The session is described in detail here. I am not sure until when did session go, perhaps 1 or 2 in the morning. Players managed to breach the Temple, but then noped out with Beads of Escape after seeing all the opposition inside. As I cleaned up the table I took a glance at the character index. 18 characters out of 70 got used up on the first day. That was one quarter of all characters! 8 of them perished. People preferred human fighters and magic-users.

I smiled. This will be a great con.

Saturday

It was already Saturday by the time we wrapped up our Friday night game. I walked around, looking at the items for silent auction. There was some cool stuff so I added few lazy bids. Most of the games were done, but Chainmail game was still raging on. I had some tea for the throat and then retreated to the room.

Morning brought more mingling, good home-made food (cakes!). People were approaching me, pumped about the night session I were to run later that day. More about that in a moment. I drank tea after tea...

The first session I played in was the Blue Mausoleum by the indomitable Melan. It was flat out awesome. All players were great. We adopted a very aggressive play style, going straight for the grand jewel, ignoring everything else. If my count is correct we went through almost 25 keyed areas, killing and looting. Professionalism!
On mapping duty.

Next up was another game by Dreadlord, Setian Vault that will be published in one of the upcoming Fight On! issues. I politely refused the mapping and caller duty, opting to focus on drinking tea, and stabbing things. The game was chill. We barreled through the dungeon, finding secret doors to shortcut sraight to the evil artefact. Once again, iron focus won the day. We crushed evil snake-children without any mercy whatsoever. We destroyed their altar and left with great treasure, unharmed. Dreadlord was stellar as always.

Suckling pig and sauerkraut were served galore for the dinner. Auction followed, with many cool items. All my items bombed hard, getting zero bids. In fact, I only sold and traded items outside of the auction, so there was at least that.
Food of champions.

The list for the Wilderlands game was filling up fast. That was great. But there was no way Linde could take all of that. Dreadlord, or perhaps Niko, suggested I speak to Settembrini about using the dining room instead. With the organiser's blessing I changed the room on the paper from Linde to Dining Hall.
Photo by James Knight.

Theo, Mitch, Niko, and Sam rode into the hall like four riders of the apocalypse, all dressed up in Wilderlands shirts. They helped me arrange the tables. As other players trickled in they joined in on the work. Since I have experience managing large workshops and groups I made it extremely clear that one side of combined tables is exclusively mine. There were to be no tables nor anyone sitting next to me.

This is a simple trick to ensure that I have everyone's undivided attention. I am one and the players are many—and I must do whatever I can to minimise distractions. With such large group my number one priority was to ensure everybody gets to play, not spectate but play! In order for players to play they must have a clear view of me, hear my words, and understand the information I am communicating. That is why it is vital for large games to have a central spot without any additional distractions.

As more and more people poured in we added more and more tables. We were filling up the dining hall! Settembrini kindly reminded us that we still have a full tray of pork behind us. Indeed, it is important to be well nourished for peak gaming performance.

This was a session 149 of our ongoing Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign. What happened here is part of our regular game. Stakes are real. Consequences enduring. Choices endless. We brought our whole open-world sandbox to Cauldron, and opened it up for all those present to rock it as they wish.

I already provided a detailed in-game session report in this blog post, and now I wish to focus more on behind the scenes.

First, I did not bring any preconceived notions of what the players would or wouldn't do. Total and complete freedom. What I did bring though is a summary of intelligence player characters have so there is something to work with.

Once everyone was seated and had a character sheet I opened by framing the game. I explained it is a part of our home game and that everyone has a say in what they wish to do tonight. Regular players would get no extra voting power. In fact, I encouraged everyone to consider their own goals and not simply delegate the decision making to regular players! I repeated my two HARD NO rules—no player versus player and no sexual violence—and then summarised the in game situation. Some were taking notes, some soaking it in, and some suffered in their own way. Finally, I said there will be no breaks. Anyone can get up and leave to do whatever they can. Just inform the player next to you to take care of your character. We will play until the last man standing.

As I wrote several times before (see here or article in Fight On! #16), I prefer high-energy, fast-moving games. People came to play in Wilderlands, not sight-see people playing Wilderlands! Therefore I adopted a style that would “activate” every player every in-game turn, discussion, and decision. With large groups delegation and clear, concise instructions are key. Plus, it was already late when we started. I knew player concentration would only diminish as we played.

It was an endurance marathon. And I was about to run it as a sprint.

To begin I divided players in three teams, asked them to discuss intelligence and leads I have shared with them, and decide on which they would like to pursue and why. Alternatively, they were also free to propose an option of their own. Once they decide they must choose one amongst them to present their thoughts to the whole table. I gave them a timer and off we went.
How it started.

The thrill of that moment is something that cannot be described. I love to be challenged as a Judge. Where will they go? What will they decide on? Everything is a possibility! Theo and his team pitch to storm the palace and kill the queen. Other two teams argue for the Windowless Tower full of valuable crystals. One, they are valuable, two, they are light to carry. In less than 10 minutes we had 15 players agree, align, and commit to a specific expedition goal. I cannot stress how important that is for running sandbox games where players have total freedom.

Although I brought along laptop with me, I did not want to power it up. It is small, but it still would be a barrier between players and myself. Everything I needed was in my head. I know map of Barbarian Altanis by heart. I know distances between major spots. I could describe and draw all the directions players could imagine to go into. I referenced my material only when I absolutely had to—which was usually to double check something before wrecking player characters. Key to brutal, no fudge games, is ensuring players are not unfairly butchered. I never killed a player character out of spite or deliberately. I simply create conditions in which players get their characters killed.

During the overland exploration, I made use of the teams to discuss and align on the plans. This ensured we maintain a brisk pace and alignment. This also allowed us to split the party (more like company given their numbers) and cover more terrain. Once the dungeon entrance was located, I advised everyone should enter, simply because deciding to do otherwise would be deciding not to play.

Once they entered the dungeon proper I asked them to draw up marching order. This is a vital piece of information for me, especially given the size of the group. From then on I was rapidly calling out players, asking them to declare and describe their character's actions. It doesn't matter if they are still doing the same thing (“I keep watch,” “I guard the exit,” “I follow behind him”)! What matters is that the brain gets activated, they speak up, and they are involved. This was super important to maintain attention given we were playing past midnight after a full day of gaming.

The shenanigans that went on were beyond belief. But it was exactly the type of Dungeons & Dragons I love to play. Characters exploring dangerous environments. Characters interacting with dangerous stuff, bringing ruin to themselves and others. Characters succeeding despite the odds, emerging victorious.
In action. Photo by Gus.

Just imagine fourteen characters in a large cave, three of them trying to build a human-elf-hobbit pyramid to reach a large bronze bell above them, five of them forcing open large stone double doors, a dwarf peeking down bottomless chasm, other checking some rubble on the other side of the cave. Then one character activates magic mouth which causes a wandering monster to come. I roll a purple worm, which then burst out the cave walls, causes total chaos, characters scrambling all over. In panic and tiredness, one of them pulls the Wand of Fireballs and blasts the worm. But with limited space, fire ball fills the volume and kills half the characters.

What do we do with five players whose characters just died? Kick them out? Absolutely not! The purple worm has a blast hole in it. And it just happened to swallow five adventurers before bursting into the chamber. Keep on playing! Bell went off, roll wandering monster, FIVE FUCKING PURPLE WORMS INCOMING!

“You better run,” I advise the players. They oblige, but run in different directions. The energy of such chaotic game is incredible; something that cannot be captured in any medium. I do not think it can be described in writing, nor recorded on dictaphone, nor video. It has to be lived in the moment; experienced together.

Our hollering attracted people passing by. To be fair, we were playing in the dining hall, so people were coming for food and drinks too. I offered everyone whom approached the table or watched to join us. A simple yes and I'd give them a character sheet. Come join the madness.

Iron Golem of Wishing had me in stitches. I find it incredibly funny—not in a demeaning way—when players decide to give something a go, despite everyone being well aware that something is most likely a trap. I am incredibly grateful to the player who stepped on the copper disk and made his wish. I was in tears, laughing.

Another notable situation was when hobbit and elf detected secret doors high above the floor. They improvised a ladder by hammering in some iron pitons, which the hobbit scaled. He was in a bad spot, with poor balance, leaning backwards, pulling onto something that required force.

“Roll snake eyes on 2d6 to succeed. That is around 2,5% chance to succeed.” I declared.

Whole room erupted as Gus rolled 1 and 1 on his emerald green dice. But why 2 on 2d6? Why didn't I ask for % on d00 or something on d20 or something else? In my mind rules are more than rules. They come with certain aesthetics. OD&D, or more specifically little brown booklets, use primarily d6s. Yes, there are other dice, but d6s are rolled a lot. I know 2d6 distribution almost by heart. 8+ is around 40%, 9+ 30%, 10+ 15%, 11+ 10%, 12+ 3% (not exact probabilities, but rounded well enough for adjudicating in the moment). This was a nearly impossible task, so 12+ sounds good. But 2, i.e. snake eyes, has slightly different flavour and yet the odds are the same. So in a split moment I adjudicate the odds (cca 2,5%), the dice to be rolled (2d6), and target number (2), all congruent with aesthetics and feeling of the game we are playing.

We began with 15 players. One dropped as soon as he joined. Around 1:30 in the morning another 8 dropped due to tiredness and exhaustion. Two more joined. One vanished. Around 2:30 three more left, retreating into their bed chambers. The Final Four Titans played until 3:30 when they recovered great treasure and escaped the dungeon against all odds.

I salute their endurance and congratulate everyone on their success. They have just unleashed terrible artefact into our game. I love it.
The final four in action. Photo by James Knight.

Sunday

It was around 4:30 in the morning by the time I cleaned up the room. Players helped me and then retreated. We congratulated each other on a game well played. I put the reference sheets back into the judge binder. Character sheets were for players to keep—either to play in other games, take home as memorabilia, or both.

I was too pumped to go to sleep. I went for a walk through the gaming rooms upstairs. They were all empty, lights turned off. I lost all my bids. Oh well, at least it wasn't anything that I really desired. But losing for one euro feels funny. Anyway, I had some snacks and something to drink.

It was almost 5:00 in the morning and there was a small group of folk discussing loudly by the Chainmail table. A gentleman was tallying up the scores for best player, best judge, and whatever else was there. I realised I forgot to ask players to fill in any of those. Oops. I had a pleasant conversation about society, technology, belief systems, philosophy of science, and breaking jaws with Prince of Nothing, Oger (I think), and two more gentlemen whose names I unfortunately forgot.

I set my alarm to 7:30 and went to my room. My roommates were in deep sleep. I laid down and slept like a baby. Woke up on time and packed everything up since we were to leave the rooms.

There was an awards ceremony followed by a group photo in the morning. As one of the Judges I was granted access to the Chest of Treasure, from which I had pulled a branded notebook. Once again, the atmosphere was great as we all cheered for the best player, the best Judge, winners of the tournament, so on and so forth. At one moment I wondered “who are these people?!”

Then it hit me how packed the agenda was. I was playing non-stop since I arrived. Virtually the only time I stopped to chat and mingle was Sunday before dawn. It'd be great if the con was extended by one more day, but then again, would I simply play one day longer or actually hang out? I guess I will see next year, because the organisers announced Cauldron 2026 will be from Thursday to Sunday.
Cauldron dice tray and notebook.
FAG cap, a gift from Dreadlord.

I glanced at the character index. 20 were taken last night for the Wilderlands session, leaving around 32 more characters to pick from for the last game. There were only one human fighter and one magic-user left. There were plenty of human clerics, and hobbit fighters. Perfect for the Darkness Beneath Megadungeon session I ran for the final gaming slot. We were back in Linde, squeezing with others. Luckily, table to our left abandoned the room, so we had some extra space to accommodate all ten players that joined.

As before, I framed the game, outlining the goal and boundaries. I was also explicit on ending the session 15 minutes before scheduled ending time so everyone would have time to say goodbyes and do whatever else they need to before leaving the premises. Fascinatingly, no one showed any signs of weariness! I loved that, for this was another high-energy, fast-paced game. Interestingly, this party had the same random encounter as the last party I led through this dungeon, which was for Precognition con earlier this year. Brain rats jumping in river, boarding the coracles, and causing chaos.

By the end of the con 45 player characters from my list of 70 pregenerated characters were used. That is almost 65%! Of those, 19 died, some 40%. Of those, 25% died due to friendly fire. Great numbers.
Blue for characters that were used, red for those that perished.

Summation

An absolute spectacle of convention. Pesa Nexus and volunteers did an amazing job. There is room for improvement, but they are well aware of all the points raised by the attendees and are working on it. And I cannot stress enough how minor these issues are in the light of an awesome convention they ran.

This is the event for people desiring to play old-school Dungeons & Dragons, be it any flavour of the originals from the 70s, or the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Congratulations to organisers for their hard work, great effort, and amazing experience they have provided us. Also, a special call out for young players who were volunteering and playing in between. I was impressed by their skills— they played like pros! The game will survive us just fine.

I hope to see you there next year. You can expect another Wilderlands marathon session, and perhaps even a special romp through the City State of the Invincible Overlord. Fight on!
Until next year!

Cauldron 2025 Posts

All posts for the Cauldron 2025 convention:

#Convention #Cauldron #OSR #FightOn

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I spent last weekend (October 17–19) playing old-school Dungeons & Dragons at Cauldron, “an OSR Euro Con.” I had an absolute blast of a time, organisers did an amazing job, and players were all great.

In this post I share reports for all games I either ran or played in:

You can read more on my preparation for the con here, and my reflection on the whole con here.

Friday games

Friday Block I Temple of Doom Sidekick: Coliseum of the Lunar Lion

Game Coliseum of the Lunar Lion
System AD&D 1e
Judge Dreadlord
Player Characters 8

Five hours to get in and retrieve a stolen scroll before magical defenses and guards reactivate. Protective systems are driven by lunar power. In total we were eight player characters, myself playing Gorath Zult.

We opened by invading the titular coliseum, where we slaughtered mounted knight and six berserkers shooting at us from elevated platforms. The former provided us with a magic long sword. From there we barreled through room after room with suspicious looking items, frequently interacting with them in disrespectful manner.
Colliseum massacre.

Gorath broke evil statue of a horse, which netted him a ghostly stallion. Not to ride, but to be ridden by. It galloped right through the him. After few more turns of wandering around, our Magic-User cast Locate Object from the scroll, giving us a rough direction to go in.

From then on we constantly pushed in that direction, triggering few traps along the way. One of them was a concave floor that caved in as soon as Gorath stepped on it. Luckily for him, he did so just as he heard trot of a galloping horse—ethereal stallion charged but missed him since he was in a freefall.

Some foul mud elemental came out of water, but ultimately did nothing to our invincible party. We eventually burst into a vile dark chamber where skeletal figure cackles and teleports 6 out of 8 characters. Gorath rushes back, as do others. Skeletal figure is immune to everything but magical weapons, which only Gorath has. A quick decision is made as time tickles.

The cleric grapples vile undead while Gorath beats down on it with a magical sword. Others keep exploring, triggering more traps and mischief. Gorath and cleric take some time do destroy the undead.

In his final moments, Gorath runs after the party, past a horde of undead and into the chamber where thief, ranger, and dwarf fighter have found the scroll. Dwarf turns on the party, Gorath knocks him unconscious, and tries to drag him out, but is slain by an imp.

Friday Block II: The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor

Game The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor
System OD&D
Judge Attronarch
Player Characters 18

A party of eight champions of Law were recruited to exterminate the Temple of Angall beneath the Fortress Badabaskor. Alphabetically: Becuma the Sneaky, Bess Lindenbrook, Fork-Tongued Dragolen, Gisulf the Gray, Iaroslavna, Justin (as Jagastyr), Medr the Silent, and Squeaky Bebba.

Acting on their intelligence, the party traversed miles long cave and tunnel system, until they emerged in a large cavern. After some prodding and exploring they found a hewn corridor, and followed it. Navigating the corridors they found their way down, and followed the stench of death.

This led them to three zombies guarding battered wooden doors. They cut them down with great ease, broke through the doors, and were promptly blasted by a Wand of Cold. No one was sparred given that they were all in the straight corridor. Becuma, Jagastyr, Gisulf, Dragolen, and Bess were immediately frozen to death. Medr the Silent and Squeaky Bebba were beaten to death by an evil cleric inside the room. Iaroslavna broke her glass bead and teleported away, to safety.
TPK intermission.

New Champions of Law were recruited for the same mission, this time ten of them. Iaroslavna was the only returning Hero, providing much needed additional intelligence. Others were Aethelthryth the Cruel, Egil Goldenrod, Erif the Hapless, Gerta Gertasniz, Maranel Shasfana / Touchinglight, Side-Eye Oleg, Sophia Strongarm, Thorvald Godspeaker, and Winniperga.

Armed with Iaroslavna's insight, new party decides to explore the large cave before proceeding deeper into the dungeon. Thus they turn left and follow the cave wall, slowly going upwards. Casting Detect Evil reveals a massive red dragon napping in the gaping mouth of an even bigger dragon. Luckily, the latter is just a stone carving, and not an actual, living and breathing, dragon.

Adventurers freeze in place as the dragon opens it eyes lazily. With some quick thinking, one of the adventurers speaks Orcish, stating that they are nothing but lowly servants here to serve a mighty dragon. Old dragon began coughing violently, claiming to have a really dry throat. His only medicine? Something fatty, like a hobbit or dwarf or pig.

“We shall bring you some pigs!” the adventurers promise as they retreat and follow Iaroslavna's instructions to cut across the cavernous cave and into the hewn corridor.

“A medusa! Or worse!” one of the adventurer's gasps as they find a life-like statue of a dwarf lying on its belly, arms outstretched forward, and head looking behind it, face of mangled terror. With vengeance on their mind, the party descended, turned left, crossed the junction, and stormed the room where their comrades were blasted to death.

Alas! Nothing but shame and horror greeted them! The chamber was completely empty, sans the rotting corpses of adventurers that were slain here month ago. Backtracking to the junction, party decides to follow northern route. Two hundred feet later they experience a joy of losing a character to a pit trap. Undeterred, they moved onwards.

Labyrinthine corridors led them to a junction. Long stairs down were southwards. Dark corridor westwards. Thorvald Godspeaker felt a strong presence of Chaos. This was a foul, foul place. Unsure which route to take, adventurers reasoned that deep evil must be at deep levels. Thus, they went down.

Long descent awarded them with a four way junction. Party elected to explore the east passageway. They went straight for some hundred feet, turned right, and then progressed for another hundred or so feet before they were surprised by a child!

Paranoid and on high alert, they were incredibly suspicious of this little kid appearing in front of them. “Thorvald! Please save us, Thorvald!” the child cried, dropping on her knees. She pleaded and begged, eyes full of tears.

With generous use of ESP and Detect Evil, adventurers surmised that this child was a victim of slavers, captured in the Barbarian Altanis, and taken to the Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor. She knew Thorvald's name because he visited her village months ago.

Champions of Law lived up to their name. They consoled the child, and stormed the chamber behind her. There they found a sad sight best left undescribed. Amongst the remains was another scared child. Maranel and Egil gave up their escape beads and both kids were teleported to safety.

Exploring the chamber revealed a secret sliding doors in the south west corner. Opening them revealed a dark corridor. At the edge of light a young woman stood, asking for help. Once she was Detected as Evil she fled, hissing and laughing, into the darkness. Giving chase, Maranel spotted another secret slider, just to the left. Abandoning the pursuit, adventurers opened the secret doors, seen a three-headed fire-breathing hydra, and promptly closed the doors.

Thorvald did not feel a strong presence of Chaos as before. Therefore, adventurers decided to return upstairs to explore the corridor facing west. This led them to another junction, splitting south and further west. Growling and grunting could be heard from the latter direction.

Brisk fifty feet forward, another pit trap, and a break-in later, the party found themselves facing off against two were-boars and one were-tiger. By all accounts, they just burst in on a heated discussion on how to divide loot. A Charm Person spell later, and boars dismembered the tiger.

Reasoning that gold is better than whatever their victims previously possessed, the adventurers came n possession of Bag of Holding, Mace of Disruption, Bracers of Defence, and Ring of Delusion. Last was taken by Egil, whom immediately began forging megalomaniacal plans.

Were-boars agreed to Egil's plan to raid the Temple of Angall for more treasure and goodly loot, and shared everything they know about what lies further south.

Let it be known that the following were to the south: Priests' Quarters, Sacrificial Room, and Prayer Room. Lycanthropes of course did not know neither the names nor purpose of each room, but from time to time they loitered in each, and were thus able to inform the adventurers broadly about them.

Party decided to follow the Right Hand Path, and thus burst into the Prayer Room. There they surprised six evil Bishops deep in prayer to some weird looking plinths. Without any hesitation they charged the men in prayer, slaying them indiscriminately, Two managed to escape, fleeing south.

There was a copper ring on each plinth. First granted improved saving throws to the wearer. Second sent Egil to eternal slumber. Other adventurers were too busy with pursuit to notice that Egil was down.

Evil Bishops ran south, some eighty or so feet, then turned left and through massive copper doors plated with gold. Adventures chased them through the doors, breaking into the Temple of Angall.

Floor shimmered in white-silver coin—in fact hundreds of thousands of silver pieces were inlaid in the floor—while the ceiling was made of brass with intricate patterns and motifs. A large black diamond dominated the center of the ceiling. Massive altar emanating Chaos Beyond Comprehension rested along the south wall.

Vampires, wraiths, spectres, and flying snakes assaulted the adventurers without mercy. Champions of Law crushed their Beads of Escape, teleporting into safety.

Maranel and Egil were left behind, their fate unknown.

And thus, The Cult of Angall remains a threat to all of Wilderlands.

Saturday games

Saturday Block I: The Blue Mausoleum

Game The Blue Mausoleum
System AD&D 1E
Judge Gabor Lux
Player Characters 8

A party of eight set upon ancient mausoleum worthy of robbing. We marched in cocky, got blasted by skeletal statues by the entrance, Jimmy the Thief figured out we just need to bribe them, and all was good.

Maximus the Hero was neither the strongest, nor the most dexterous, nor the sturdiest, amongst the adventurers, but he had gumption, determination, and courage aplenty. This is his retelling of the expedition.

“Jimmy the Blade and others roped me in in yet another questionable delve. “We have treasure maps!” they said. But all the hey was a piece of parchment with Carnivorous something and another piece of parchment with some sort of riddle or something. Bah! Anyway, there was this mausoleum, supposedly full of riches.”

“So we go to this massive domed thing, and lo and behold, the entrance is guarded by skeletal statues. There is some hundred or so feet of stairs, with a pair of statues every ten or twenty feet. I don't remember exact measures. But I do remember getting zapped by rays from the statues after passing by them!”

“It was Jimmy the Knave who figured out that you have to bribe the statues. Unbelievable—even the dead desire coin! What for?! Like they can use it. Nonsense. Anyway, the bribe worked well and we were able to descend.”

“We exited in a large chamber, some eighty by hundred or so feet—like I don't know why they keep bringing me along! It surely ain't for brawn, for Sir Connor, Brocken, and Gordo all have mightier thews. Nah, they bring me along because I can scribble quick maps. Yeah. Anyway. While everyone was busy running around, I was busy taking notes.”

“This chamber had a number of egresses. Six corridors, two on each wall except the south one. Then a large hole leading some fifty feet down. And of course the entrance we came through. Anyway, the gang decided it'd be best to rappel down the opening.”

“Chamber beneath it was filled with rubble and remnants of broke statues. Why? What for? Fuck me if I know. Jimmy the Mole eventually found some secret doors leading us to series of tight corridors and burial sites. Gray ooze attempted to surprise is, but we exterminated it so quick it didn't even have time to turn around and flee. Anyway, we backtracked to explore a portion of the mausoleum that looked much older.”

“That proved to be a route most great, for we encountered a creature most disgusting and vile. Some sort of abomination, taking the worst from humans, spiders, and caterpillars. Jimmy the Bait did his job proper, and led the monstrosity to us. We gave it a proper beating. Then we looted its foul lair. Heck yea! Adventuring! Treasure! Wealth! Magic! Anyway, we pushed on and explored stairs leading up.”

“This was helpful, for we identified another way to get out from the second level without having to worry about someone or something destroying all our anchors and ropes. Anyway, we returned to that part of the complex with fancier crypts. And then we barely touched them! Fine, fine, we were hyper focused on finding this Carnivorous something something.”

“We eventually stumbled upon totally insane dwarf preoccupied with his collection of garbage. He tried really hard to explain how this were very valuable historical artefacts and items, but all I could see is broken debris arranged in weird ways. Anyway, he tells us the place we are looking for is south west. So we go there.”

“Now, listen to this nonsense. Jimmy the Scout goes up ahead alone and is jumped by a band of morlocks chucking barber spears at him. The gall of the pale inbreeds! In no time the whole clan of degenerates descended upon us. We fell back and assumed superior position. Brother Po chucked a proper fire bomb at them, making them wail and cry in agony. Anyway, I see one huge-ass albino degenerate leading this pack. He took half of the tribe and ran past them and into some corridor.”

“Little did they know I am the best mapper this party ever had. It was immediately obvious that the chieftain had split his force in order to attack us both from front and behind. Ha! Not with Maximus here! I let others finish the burning mass of morlocks, while I charged our rear, ready for the oncoming chieftain and his lackeys. Indeed, they showed up just on time. Anyway, I insult the big albino, and we duke it out.”

“Morlock tribal leader tried to smack me with his large battleaxe. No matter how many people he called to his aid, I crushed them all. In his last moment the chieftain begged, down on his knees. But I have no ear nor sympathy to those who worship Chaos. Thus I beheaded him without any doubts. Anyway, we casually genocided a whole tribe of morlocks, raided their shoddy temple, and escaped the Blue Mausoleum with full backpacks and sacks of coin. What more can one ask for!”

“Oh yes, I sold my maps to another band of adventurers. Hopefully they trip and die so we can loot them for their magic items.”

Saturday Block II: The Setian Vault

Game The Setian Vault
System AD&D 1E
Judge Dreadlord
Player Characters 5

Cattle mutilated and drained of blood. Wands of gold. Children playing in caves. In this adventure I played a Ranger, adventuring with a Paladin, a Fighter, a Magic-User, and a Druid. It was a fun romp through a well designed dungeon.

We began by exploring a long cave tunnel connecting two dungeon entrances. Whilst doing so we were almost surprised by a large snake. Druid quickly cast Speak With Animals (good thinking!) which revealed that this snake was once a human or similar. We convince it we will leave, and then turn on it in the last moment. Poor thing did not stand a chance.

Next we raid its little lair, recovering some useful items. Shiny lichen does not fool us and we find the secret doors leading to an underground water slide. I volunteer to explore it first, because why not. En route downwards I notice there is a cave tunnel and get in there. Others soon join me and we meet an emaciated Druid claiming he has been battling great evil here for long time. Centuries? More? He insists on sucking one of us in return for a magical weapon that can destroy evil fountain which transforms people into snakes. Paladin accepts. He walks away with magical sword +3 versus reptiles and weaker for a level.

The water slide led to a grate beneath which was a crypt. The water pressure was keeping the sarcophagus open. Druid had a brilliant idea that allowed us to proceed. He cast Stone to Mud and loosened the grates just enough that we were able to kick them out. Sarcophagus was well warded and we wisely decided to just leave it alone.

Adjacent room contained some sort of stone guardian we accidentally activated. We fled back in the water room, and then shoot at it while it tried to break in. The thing malfunctioned and fell apart. We followed the stairs leading up, past doors with intricate gears, and into a more regular chamber. It seemed like we just exited some well protected vault. Turns out we backdoored it! Because that is what professional adventurers do!

From then on we crawled through a number of rooms and chambers, exterminating a bunch of child-sized serpent people who spit acid and have mean bite. Eventually we found the columned corridor leading to the fountain. Magic-User saved our bacon by casting Dancing Lights and sending them down the corridor. This fooled a bunch of snake-children waiting in the ambush. Oh boy, were they surprised when we ambushed them and hacked them all down.

Paladin drove the Druid's magical sword straight through the fountain's gaping maw. The whole thing came crashing down. We picked up as much treasure as we could, fled back to the crypt with hexed sarcophagus, and then climbed up to the water slide. Gaunt Druid was where we left him, delighted to hear about our success. He invited the Paladin for one last caress. The sword disappeared, but divine warrior found himself stronger and more experienced than before. The Druid also left behind a chest filled with platinum pieces.

We rocked out of the dungeon filled to the gills with treasure. There would be no more snake-people bothering locals. We were, of course, wrong, but that was now someone else's problem.
Suffering from success.

Saturday Night Block: Conquering the Barbarian Altanis

Game Conquering the Barbarian Altanis
System OD&D
Judge Attronarch
Player Characters 24

This was an amazing marathon session that began around 21:30 and lasted until 03:30. It involved 17 players, 24 player characters, and a number of spectators. Full session report is available here, and behind-the-scenes reflections here.
Photo by Gus.

Sunday game

Sunday Block I: Darkness Beneath Megadungeon

Game Darkness Beneath Megadungeon
System OD&D
Judge Attronarch
Player Characters 10

Four dwarves, namely Duree Fathand, Gottri Smallbaily, Skorri Redgenerous, and Vikram Grimlisson, joined forces with Aldoin Xill, Bresal The Seer, Errras Valholen Pellad / Underflower, Judge Theodohilda, Sann, and Wild Thecla to rescue an adventurer captured by the Cult of Crab-Men. If they were to fail, then their friend would be transformed into an mongrel-like abominable mixture of dwarf and crab. Thus, the ten descended into the Darkness Beneath, and assaulted the Spawning Grounds of the CRAB-MEN!

Navigating the labyrinthine tunnels, the party eventually arrived in an elongated, wet cavern, through which an underground river was running. Adventurers spread out and searched all the cave walls, seeking secret doorways and passages. It was Underflower, the sole elf in the party, ho spotted two arrow slits carved some fifteen feet above the cave floor. Others hadn't found much otherwise.

Bresal cast Levitate and slowly crawled upwards. Then she covered the slits with large sacks. She heard grunts and guttural sounds on the other side, but was otherwise unmolested. Others investigated the crab-shell dugouts, or rather coracles, that were right next to the river bank. Each was large enough to fit at least four adventurers. There was six of them in total, and within each were paddles carved out of crab pincers.

Adventurers came up with a plan. They tied all crab shells with rope, forming a little train. Skorri and Sann boarded the first coracle, Wild Thecla second, Aldoin and one more in third, so on and so forth. The plan was to push in coracle by coracle, ensuring they are relatively evenly spaced.

Disaster struck by the time three coracles were plopped in! Thecla and Skorri spotted a horde of giant rats—with brains exposed in a glass jar screwed on top of their skulls—emerged from the cave on the other side of the river, jumped in the water, and swarmed all three coracles!

Wild Thecla was toppled down, and fought like a savage from her back. She was relentlessly attacked by four dog sized rats. Adventurers shoot at the rats from the river bank, reasoning there is “not great” chance of shooting Thecla in the head.

Aldoin Xill was smashing rats left and right, maintaining balance in his coracle. Beefcakes Skorri and Sann on the other hand, immediately rocked their coracle. Sann, having longer legs and more balance, avoided falling in the river. Skorri lost his footing, tripped, and fell backwards. Sann grabbed him in the last moment. Their coracle tipped over, leaning at almost 45 degrees.

The dwarf was taking large gulps of underground water, while Sann was crouching, leaning backwards, and using all his strength to hold the dwarf above water. It was total chaos.

Judge Theodohilda judged it was the right time to use her Staff of Commanding. She wrestled control of several giant rats and ordered them to chew through others. Frankly, the rats would not be so much of a threat, but given how heavily armoured most adventurers were, there was a real threat of drowning.

Bresal, still levitating, dragged herself along the cave wall. She pushed herself off, levitating above Sann and Skorri. “Here, catch this rope!” The rope landed next to Skorri. And then floated off. “I did all I could!” She levitated off, following the cave wall further down river and then south.
Witness my generosity as I reveal the map. Photo by MK Ultra.

Sann watched onwards, straining all his muscles to hold onto the dwarf. Their coracle bobbed and rocked as the stream accelerated and reached a fork. The river split around an islet upon which a ruined tower stood. They flowed left. Skorri pulled out a dagger and began cutting of the straps of his armour.

Seeing that nothing is going according the plan, other adventures began singing sailor songs. Everyone—those on land and those in coracles—began pulling on the rope right in front of them. Wiser of the crowd took out sacks to minimise hand burns.

Skorri cut off one shoulder strap just in time to avoid smashing into stone debris of broken bridge. At this moment both Sann and Skorri could hear noise of great waterfall. Sann let go off Skorri, holding him now with only one hand, while using the other to hurl grappling hook onto the islet. Alas! He failed to grab onto anything that would act as a solid anchor point.

The dwarf managed to cut off his second strap and belt. He was almost catapulted backwards as Sann pulled him out. The duo laid wet on their backs in the bobbing coracle, heaving from exhaustion. For a moment they slowed down. Then a snap was heard and they were flying mid air, rushing towards a great underground lake.

Those pulling suddenly found it much easier to pull. Wild Thecla pulled forth nothing but snapped rope. First coracle was lost. But there was no time for weeping! Bresal, still levitating, pointed to the tower at the islet. She put to Sleep three disgusting frog-like creatures. Others paddled to the islet and disembarked.

There were two bridges. One to the east was collapsed and unusable. The one to west was intact and doors behind it were broken open. Judge Theodohilda sent forth her brain-rats to investigate. A dozen or so degenerate cave-men laid in ambush, hiding atop the rubble.

Undeterred, adventurers charged in, funneled through a three feet wide corridor. Cave-men attacked with spears from above, but they were no match to the awesomeness of the party. Gottri barreled in like a wrecking ball. Bresal used her Wand of Fear to scare cave-men within clear line of sight. Elf shoot left and right. Duree was chucking her Hammer of Return, bursting heads left and right.

“Clonk! Clonk! Clonk!” cave-men chanted. Indeed, Vikram was faced off by an ogre-sized abomination, a human-shaped crab with massive left pincer and deformed human-like right arm. Creature wielded a magical shortsword. It clacked with its claw and counter charged the dwarf. With more adventurers pouring it, now it was free for all. Total madness and chaos, a swirling mass of twenty combatants.

Bresal scaled the rubble, just in time to spot four giant crabs attempting to enter through south corridor. Luckily, they were so big they had to enter one by one. She aimed her Wand of Fear down the corridor, and forced three to flee. They tore the fourth one apart for it stood in their way.

Sann laid dazed in the coracle. Skorri looked around the lake. He took the paddle out and moved them towards north cave wall. Then he followed it eastwards. He eventually found a landing in the northeast portion of the cavern. There he saw steps carved sideways into the cave wall. On top were four muscled out SPECI-MEN. Huge, bulging muscles, veins as thick as child's arm, tongues hanging out sideways, crazy hairs. Two were sitting on the ledge, while other two were striking body-builder poses.

Skorri, in nothing but loincloth, reciprocated by striking poses of his own. Suddenly one of the SPECI-MEN lunged forward, jumped, and dive bombed into the lake. Others howled and clapped. Sann, recovering his facilities, clapped, as did Skorri. They waved them up. Second SPECI-MAN rushed forward, slipped on the ledge, and fell straight on his head. His neck snapped. SPECI-MAN sat up, dazed, snapped his neck back, and cried out. Those above him cheered him one. Sann offered to rub his feet with some oil. “It will feel good, I promise.” Skorri looked on in confused horror.

Up close, they could see that SPECI-MEN had talons on both hands and feet. Their jaws were thrice the size of normal men. Their teeth were all sharp, like sharks. They blinked and twitched several times per second. Sann tried to rub the feet of injured SPECI-MAN, but even his feet were muscled and veiny. Two SPECI-MEN on the ledge above invited Skorri to join them. Dwarf obliged, and then accepted to do a jump with them. They lifted him like a baby, ran forwards, and then somersaulted forward. What a spectacular jump it was! What form!

Adventuring duo conversed with SPECI-MEN, learning they crave nothing more than LIQUID JOY. They also offered Sann and Skorri to introduce them to the MAKER who can make them bigger, stronger, and faster. And who makes LIQUID JOY! Desiring even bigger muscles, Skorri accepted and was led to a chute in the ground. He jumped down and was never seen again. Sann on the other hand claimed he know people who have LIQUID JOY.

“They are right up that waterfall, where the little island with broken tower is.”

Upon hearing that, the SPECI-MEN entered overexcitement induced frenzy, grabbed Sann and lifted him like a baby, and charged through corridors. They moved left, left, straight,left, through diagonal corridor, burst open double doors, and jumped over the broken bridge. Alas, they slipped a bit, and rammed the bridge ledge with Sann's head. The fighter was now properly concussed and dazed.

Judge Theodohilda, who was standing on intact bridge, noticed the approaching SPECI-MEN. Confused with their demand of LIQUID JOY, she offered them some red wine. They spat it out in disgust. With little left to do, she used her Staff of Commanding to subdue them.

During this time the battle inside the rubble filled antechamber raged on. Wild Thecla drank Potion of Giant Strength and was using cave-men to kill other cave-men. Gottri duelled Crazy Clonk, delivering blow after blow. Alas, at one moment the dwarf lost his footing, and Crazy Clonk punished him greatly for it. Crab-Man grabbed his sword arm with pincer, nearly severing it in the process. Then it pinned the dwarf with its great bulk, and repeatedly stabbed him with his magical shortsword. The dwarf died a brutal death.

But Crazy Clonk was far from over. He dropped his little short sword, and seized Gottri's Flaming Sword. Now that was a proper magical sword! Cave-men cheered, but not for long, for they were summarily exterminated by enraged adventurers. Bresal turned her attention to Clonk, summoned a Sea-Food Chef via Phantasmal Force, which sent the Crab-Man fleeing in terror. Wild Thecla grabbed him, pried open his shell and then ripped him apart.

There was not time to mourn the fallen. Loud chanting sounds could be heard from the south west corridor. Adventurers rushed forth, charging into the temple filled with Crab Cultists. A dwarf was chained to the alter, funnel forced in his mouth, with a naked man dressed in crab shells pouring some foul concoction down his throat.

Aldoin cast Hold Person, elf shot, fighters charged in. Wild Thecla, now armed with hear magical sword +1 as well as Flaming sword, hacked through the cultists with glee. Others did not fall behind too much. It was a sixty second massacre. They freed the dwarf, and fled back to the islet.

“How do we get back?!”

“I have an idea.” Judge Theodohilda said. She commanded that SPECI-MEN jump in the river, ropes tied to them, and swim upstream. They tied coracle to them. SPECI-MEN found this to be great fun. And so did adventurers save one of their dwarven friends, while leaving another to a fate more horrible than death itself.

Cauldron 2025 Posts

All posts for the Cauldron 2025 convention:

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Coming Friday I will be in Germany, playing and running some old-school Dungeons & Dragons at Cauldron, “an OSR Euro Con.” The con will run for three days, and has agenda absolutely packed with great games.

I will be running three OD&D games using little brown books only:

In preparation I have organised a Judge binder with player reference sheets, adventure notes, pregenerated characters, and player handouts. A bit more on the process below.

Selecting adventures to run

I prefer bold, energetic, and fast play, especially so at in-person conventions. Likewise, I am committed to run a game for any number of players that show up. One? We'll have one-to-one, with single player running a whole party. Twenty? Everybody gets a character and I switch gears to use procedures that are quicker to ensure underworld exploration and combat run smooth.

Following the above, I enjoy playing challenging adventures. Likewise, as a Judge I enjoy running adventures that offer challenge. On Friday night I will run The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor, an old Judges Guild classic. Completely unbalanced, surprising enemies in surprising places, and tough as nails but ultimately fair. Some have asked me how do I plan to complete it in allotted time (four hours, but since it is a night slot we can keep on playing until we fall asleep). The answer lies in the opening and where the party will be entering from. And that I will share during the game. Players should expect total violence and merciless carnage.

On the following day I will run a session of our ongoing Conquering the Barbarian Altanis Wilderlands campaign. Four players from our campaign will be attending the con as well, and this will be first time we play in person together. Of course, this session will be open to everyone willing to subject themselves to the savagery of the Barbarian Altanis. Exact focus of the session will be decided on the spot, but it largely depends on what happens in our campaign before the con. I do have two very challenging—and relatively obscure—adventure modules ready just in case. Players can expect total freedom and opportunity to leave a lasting impression on an ongoing campaign.

Finally, on Sunday I will run one of the levels from the community-driven Darkness Beneath Megadungeon. This will be an adrenaline fueled race against time, in a hostile environment that is scarier and meaner than the monsters themselves. Players should expect to think quickly, act decisively, and have little time to weep for their losses. As a bonus, everybody who attends will get a discount code for Fight On! zine.

Preparing supporting material

First, I must express total and complete gratitude to the organisers for providing me the essentials needed to run the session: battlemat, markers, wiping cloth, minis, tokens, and dice. It means a ton not having to carry all of that.

One of the reasons I prefer running OD&D at cons is because of how lean and fast it is. It is mostly rolling d6s and d20s, options and spells are limited (just compare Cleric spell lists in Men & Magic to the one in Greyhawk), there are only three classes, and contains only the most essential procedures for running underworld and wilderness adventures. Perfect!

I created four Judge reference sheets by combining material from OD&D Reference Sheets, Ready Ref Sheets, and few pages I have written myself. They contain attack matrices, saving throws, key procedures (especially monster reactions and NPC reactions), surprise rules, durations, monster intelligence, and few other pieces of miscellaneous information I find useful. To be fair, I rarely reference these sheets since I know the rules almost by heart—it is more about having them at hand to avoid wasting time going through the booklets.

Fighters are super-simple so they get no references. Players with Clerics and Magic-Users will get a single-page handout with all spells they are capable of memorising. Since all pregenerated player characters are of fourth level, that means they can only memorise spells of first and second level.

At the beginning of the year I rolled-up eighty fourth level characters (70 actual characters, since elves can pick if they adventure as Fighting-Man or Magic-User I count). To facilitate quick distribution I prepared a numbered index, so I can quickly ask for player's preference, random number, and hand them out the appropriate character record.

Since sharing a blog post is a bit inconvenient for an in-person game I made a simple original-inspired character record sheet. Top third contains class, race, level, alignment, languages, attributes (including ranking), hit points, armour class, movement, saving throws, appearance description, and traits. Everything is concise to allow maximum player improvisation. Lower two thirds are divided into armour, weapons, hirelings & mounts, gear, coin & treasure, encumbrance, and space for notes. The latter also has quick reference for dwarves, elves, and hobbits. I printed the sheets on yellowish paper for that extra touch.

Choosing games to join

Running games and playing in games is mutually beneficial. Not to mention fun too. There is a ton of games offered, most AD&D, some OD&D, and few retroclones too. Having to pick between several awesome sessions is a sweet problem to have.

On Friday I plan to join Dreadlord's Coliseum of the Lunar Lion. After that I will run The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor. I will begin Saturday with Gabor Lux and The Blue Mausoleum, follow up with The Setian Vault another game by Dreadlord, and finish the day by running Conquering the Barbarian Altanis. On Sunday there is only one slot, and I'll be running a Darkness Beneath Megadungeon level then.

Looking forward to next weekend. And if you are attending come say hi even if we don't play in any of the games together.

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I will be hosting two original Dungeons & Dragons games (little brown booklets only) at Precognition. Both games will be delves into the legendary Darkness Beneath megadungeon published in the finest OSR zine Fight On:

Precognition is an independently-organized virtual tabletop roleplaying convention taking place March 14th–16th:

Welcome to Precognition, your portal to an entire weekend of online tabletop roleplaying. From March 14th–16th, we’re bringing gamers together from around the world to explore a broad range of roleplaying games—from classic fantasy settings to cutting-edge sci-fi worlds. Whether you’re seeking new adventures or just looking to connect with fellow enthusiasts, we invite you to roll dice, share stories, and forge friendships in our virtual halls.

Passes (i.e. tickets) are available via Kickstarter:

  • $5 for one-day pass
  • $10 for weekend pass (covers entire event)
  • $30 for four weekend passes

Once the Kickstarter is over, convention organisers will open up the site for backers to sign-up for games. Full list of hosted games is available here.

See you there?

#Convention #Precognition #FightOn #OSR

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This weekend I had the pleasure of attending Liburnicon, a charming regional SF & fantasy convention. Keynote speaker was Monte Cook, who delivered two talks. There were no OSR games played; perhaps I will offer to run a convention session using Original Edition rules set in Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

So, first talk by Monte Cook was “Into the Depths of the Earth”, which was in essence about dungeons and their importance to the game.

It was nice seeing the original edition referenced. I was a bit surprised that he showcased S1 as classic dungeon, but then again he said “Oh, this picture shouldn't be here.” From dungeon design perspective he was focused on entertaining players and what not, which I expected given his play style and preferences.

He showed a large map from Tim Hartin / Paratime Design as an example of kind of map he likes (alongside few others I did not recognise).

Monte is a good speaker so audience was quite engaged. Q&A, which went for a little bit over an hour was more interesting, especially hearing anecdotes from his TSR days, thoughts on adventure design, publishing, and so on. I asked him about his favourite classic adventure, and he went with D3 Vault of the Drow out of all the modules.

There were some questions about OSR play style as well (which surprised me since this was a small con in a small country in a small town), to which Monte gave a solid answer (it's deadly, it's one way of playing, me and my group didn't play like that back in the day). There was of course bashing of rations and torches.

Second talk he gave was “The Best Players Have the Best Games,” which was about tips for GMs and players.

His tips for gamemasters are:

  • Provide meaningful choices, i.e. different options that lead to different consequences.
  • Understand players' and player characters' motivations and play to them.
  • Create a shared imaginary space by providing brief descriptions and inviting players to ask questions. Give attention to what they inquire into.
  • Be mindful of pacing; follow the energy.
  • Start with a bang (e.g., something to interact with); end with a mystery (e.g., open question).
  • Remember that there is more to game than just combat.
  • Evoke emotion whenever possible. For example have an NPC that is genuinely good and not out there to fuck up PCs. Have him serve cookies to PCs. And then get that PC in trouble with bad guys.
  • Check in with players on a regular basis.

And his tips for players were:

  • Create an appropriate character for the campaign you are joining.
  • Be curious and interested; ask many questions about the world.
  • Be flexible, and open to conversation.
  • Create and add to the world, e.g. through your items, backstory, relationship with other characters, and so on.
  • Be okay with failure. Just because you wanted a castle by name level, and failed to achieve so, does not mean you nor your character are a failure.
  • Play how you want, but let others play how they want.
  • Share the spotlight; pay attention to quiet players and invite them to contribute.
  • Get to know the rules and the world. You shouldn't be asking how to do an attack roll three years into the game.
  • Be a good guest or host.

He also mentioned that there is more advice for both game masters and players in his book Your Best Game Ever. His talk was good enough to get me to buy; but I yet have to read it.

Q&A portion was shorter this time. I asked him to share more about online sessions, but he gave a very general response (talk with players, have shorter sessions, have breaks, leverage digital tools).

Both talks were recorded; they will be published at the organiser's official YouTube channel when ready.

#Convention #Liburnicon

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