Well, had an interesting game last night. The players dutifully set about exploring the lost city. Although I gave them the pep talk about how not everything wants to kill them, they quickly settled on a policy of attack first, talk when you have prisoners.
They chased a group of Cynidiceans down to the second tier, completely bypassing any of the Brotherhood of Gorm, their first real encounter being with some hobgoblins and then a party of Warrior Maidens of Madarua. They settled on killing most of them, taking one alive, and considering what to do. It was eventually agreed that they would go meet Pandora and convince them of their resolve to aid them in overthrowing Zargon.
This was tough for me as GM. On the one hand, the party had killed four of the warrior maidens, but, then again, I figured Pandora could use the extra muscle in the fights against everyone else. To move the game along and give some opportunity to the players to engage, I decided that Pandora would give them a mission before they could become 'friends' of the warrior maidens. A quick scan of the map, and I decided to send them to kill the Draco in room 13. That's going to be for next session, but, provided the players pull it off, I think Pandora is going to manipulate them into weakening the other factions as her deniable shock troops, then sick them on Zargon.
The game went well, I had prepared by making some 1PDs of each tier, and reading through some play reports. I think I should have had some more thought put into the random encounters, so I was ready to play it out when they turned up, and some more thought into each of the factions (though I hadn't presumed the players would get this far...). I've got some more work to do before the next fortnight, but it should be good.
The players definitely seemed to appreciate the openness of B/X, and the simplicity with which it ran. For the sake of survival, I gave each player a henchman. The first was killed by friendly fire, the other by a warrior maiden, leaving only the three party members and one surviving henchman. The 'shields shall be splintered' rule has definitely demonstrated to them just how deadly this game can be at first level...
Friday, March 15, 2019
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
The Lost City
Well, after far too long, I've finally remembered I had a blog... Turns out I've missed much drama, some good ideas, and interesting developments in the old OSR space.
For my part, I've had intermittent gaming, got bored with a project of converting 1/72 miniatures into my own sci fi setting for wargaming with FAD, and now wondering whether I can afford Star Wars Legion.
But, the most pressing part, is that I am finally starting a new campaign this week: B4 the Lost City, except I've taken a leaf from that one blog whose name I forget, so now everyone are Vikings looting the city.
I've done my prep of converting the levels into 1PD, and reading Philotomy's old play reports to consider what I can change and what may happen in the game. Decided that the basic premise will be that the players are doing their summer raiding and looting. The thane decided a great idea would be to serve as mercenaries in a war brewing in the desert kingdoms (that may or may not be the Emirates of Ylaurum, or else my own setting. For now, vague enough...). Unfortunately, said war has cooled down, leaving a bunch of Vikings in their own temporary settlement looking for cash. The players, being enterprising fellows, have hired a guide who claims to know the location of a lost city and, after being stuck in a sandstorm and deserted by said guide, who took their food and water to boot, have finally arrived. Cue manipulating weird factions, freaking out drugged Cynidiceans, and running off to civilisation.
The basic rules are B/X. I'm open to players' wants, but will probably end up throwing in skills and weapon mastery from the RC, giving everyone max hp at 1st level, and definitely using the classic shields shall be splintered rule. I haven't decided yet, but I'm highly tempted to use this wonderful death and dismemberment table. Mostly out of hope that the players will roll something in the 20s...
Everyone also starts with a buddy, a normal man retainer. I rolled up all their equipment, traits, &c using Kellri's wonderful Encounters reference. Plus, for my own entertainment, using this gem of a 1PD in the hopes I get a TPK.
In general, though, I must say I'm impressed with the design of B4, having only bought it last week thanks to RPGNow's sale. It's simple, maybe not logical, but well designed in slowly introducing new players into the factions, non-deadly traps at the start, the dead hobgoblin to get them thinking about traps, and so on. I'm modifying as I go (i.e. no more random stirges in a sealed room...), but I'm looking forward to it. Nothing sounds more entertaining than three slightly odd factions, coupled with the varied possibilities from encountering the Cynidiceans. I'm ruling that it's a five-day journey back to the viking settlement, so players can get more supplies and do other things if they get bored of a dungeon. I'll also adopt the burial rules from here. Someone modified it by saying a new character starts with 25% of their predecessor's xp; 50% if they get a proper burial (sadly I forget the blog). This seems appropriately viking to me, so will be gleefully chucked into my hodge-podge D&D game.
Oddly enough, for most of the players, this is their first introduction to D&D. One has played 5e, so this will be a bit of a shock... Anyway, I'm hoping for some good old, OSR, sword and sorcery manipulating, chopping, running away, and negotiating with strange people. Let's see if I keep up with the blog!
For my part, I've had intermittent gaming, got bored with a project of converting 1/72 miniatures into my own sci fi setting for wargaming with FAD, and now wondering whether I can afford Star Wars Legion.
But, the most pressing part, is that I am finally starting a new campaign this week: B4 the Lost City, except I've taken a leaf from that one blog whose name I forget, so now everyone are Vikings looting the city.
I've done my prep of converting the levels into 1PD, and reading Philotomy's old play reports to consider what I can change and what may happen in the game. Decided that the basic premise will be that the players are doing their summer raiding and looting. The thane decided a great idea would be to serve as mercenaries in a war brewing in the desert kingdoms (that may or may not be the Emirates of Ylaurum, or else my own setting. For now, vague enough...). Unfortunately, said war has cooled down, leaving a bunch of Vikings in their own temporary settlement looking for cash. The players, being enterprising fellows, have hired a guide who claims to know the location of a lost city and, after being stuck in a sandstorm and deserted by said guide, who took their food and water to boot, have finally arrived. Cue manipulating weird factions, freaking out drugged Cynidiceans, and running off to civilisation.
The basic rules are B/X. I'm open to players' wants, but will probably end up throwing in skills and weapon mastery from the RC, giving everyone max hp at 1st level, and definitely using the classic shields shall be splintered rule. I haven't decided yet, but I'm highly tempted to use this wonderful death and dismemberment table. Mostly out of hope that the players will roll something in the 20s...
Everyone also starts with a buddy, a normal man retainer. I rolled up all their equipment, traits, &c using Kellri's wonderful Encounters reference. Plus, for my own entertainment, using this gem of a 1PD in the hopes I get a TPK.
In general, though, I must say I'm impressed with the design of B4, having only bought it last week thanks to RPGNow's sale. It's simple, maybe not logical, but well designed in slowly introducing new players into the factions, non-deadly traps at the start, the dead hobgoblin to get them thinking about traps, and so on. I'm modifying as I go (i.e. no more random stirges in a sealed room...), but I'm looking forward to it. Nothing sounds more entertaining than three slightly odd factions, coupled with the varied possibilities from encountering the Cynidiceans. I'm ruling that it's a five-day journey back to the viking settlement, so players can get more supplies and do other things if they get bored of a dungeon. I'll also adopt the burial rules from here. Someone modified it by saying a new character starts with 25% of their predecessor's xp; 50% if they get a proper burial (sadly I forget the blog). This seems appropriately viking to me, so will be gleefully chucked into my hodge-podge D&D game.
Oddly enough, for most of the players, this is their first introduction to D&D. One has played 5e, so this will be a bit of a shock... Anyway, I'm hoping for some good old, OSR, sword and sorcery manipulating, chopping, running away, and negotiating with strange people. Let's see if I keep up with the blog!
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