BECMI D&D

[Jacob]

In a fit of foolishness, I've started running a BECMI D&D game. Not only that, but I'm trying to run it with multiple groups in a persistent world; in other words, different groups can get up in each other's shit. I'm running it in my version of Mystara, in Karameikos (it's a kingdom, not a grand duchy). I've got some long term plans, but let's see if the game keeps going.

A couple of minor house rules:

1) I'm using the weapon skills from the master set and anyone can learn any weapon, but it takes time and money (so by mid-game you might see clerics with swords and so on)

2) All the various humanoids and demi-humans and so on can breed, assuming not too disparate sizes. Any offspring is either one or the other of the races of the parents. Mostly people are fairly xenophobic, though, so it doesn't happen too much.

Cultural assumptions are pretty baseline D&D, with a few of minor specific points of note:

1) Being an adventurer is a thing and it's pretty much like the martial artists in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - it's somewhat disreputable but also somewhat romanticized, existing pretty much as a sub-culture within the larger culture. Also, you usually start off guarding caravans.

2) Alignments are not that big a deal. There are many nasty people, but objective good and evil isn't really relevant.

3) The various humanoids are not universally seen as evil enemies. They are sometimes hired as mercenaries, they come to the towns to trade; occasionally they rise up and cause trouble.

4) Religion is pantheistic, most people give respect to several immortals. Clerics are usually not devotees of a specific immortal, as much as they're individuals who know how to intercede with and draw power from the various immortals. So the various "evil" gods are not inherently anathema, as most people will pay their respects to them to avoid misfortune. Of course, occasionally people will devote themselves fully to the darker immortals, and that usually leads to some trouble.

First session - the players rolled up characters: a fighter, a cleric, an elf, a dwarf and a magic-user.

They start in the town of Penhaligon, the last town on the Northern trade route to Darokin; they've all come off minor caravan guarding work. The Baron of Penhaligon died last year, leading a raid against goblins. Or rather, he just never come back, but several of his soldiers saw his head cut off in battle, so the barony passed to his daughter.

They're all staying at the House of the Swan which is basically a hostel for adventurers, run by a retired adventurer of some note named Severin Coldhand. It's a clean and safe place to stay, and those who need help from adventurers know, or can easily find out, to go to the house of the swan.

Sure enough, a man named Pavel - a courtier and advisor to the young Baroness shows up with a job. Some decades ago, when the barony was just being established worshippers of the Dark Dragon (basically the immortal dragon of the destructive aspects of dragons) had a thriving temple on a hill just beyond the borders of the domain. They were causing all sorts of trouble, until Baron Penhaligon took his army and put and end to it (much as he was doing with the goblins until his unfortunate demise).

The party, should they accept (and they do), are tasked to go to the ruins of the monastery to asses whether recent rumours of armed cultists and/or goblins preparing to cause trouble again are true. This leads to the old Horror on the Hill module as made to fit the campaign.

The adventurers of party #1 travel by river boat to the village of Kaskas, on the bank opposite the hill in question. There they gather a few rumours (there are slave trading ogres on the hill, there's a haunted graveyard over there, another adventuring party went there a few weeks ago and never came back).

The also meat a local notable - the richest man in the village (a retired Thyatian officer now owning many fish farms; looks like Tywin Lannister). Apparently his no-good son decided to go with the earlier adventurers to the Hill. Not only that, but he took his father's sword (without permission). He offers 500 gp for the return of his son (alive), and 500 gp for the sword. If he can have only one, he wants the sword.

With that all done, they organize transport across the river the next dawn, and make their way up the hill. So far, they dealt with some stirges and a not small amount of goblins. A minor classic moment occured when they came across a band of wandering goblins - the first sentient beings encountered - and the figher in the lead (speaking goblin) encouraged a parlay; the cleric had other ideas and managed to kill the lead goblin with a well placed sling shot to the forehead. They also picked a bunch of healing berries, but they don't know they're healing berries because the only people who've eaten them had full hp. We ended with the defeat of a large band of goblins (thanks to a lucky roll on the Elf's sleep spell). They tied them up and buried their weapons, but "convinced" one of the goblins to lead them to the monastery where the Hobgoblin king lives.

All of that, and they only got about 15 xp each because there's not much profit in killing goblins. You need to get some gold when you roll old school style.

[Jacob]

Then last night, I ran a solo session with my wife. She rolled up an Elf, but got a shit roll for money. We agreed she lived with her parents - retired adventurers themselves, but poor - in a little wood somewhere. Sesame (the Elf's name) wants to be an adventurer. Her father advised her to hunt some animals for the skins to sell when she gets to town; she'll need better gear than what she has.

Eventually she tracks down a bear. She puts an arrow in it, but it gets away.

Some days later, she tracks it down again. Again she hits it with her bow, but it manages to find her and she's no match for it hand to hand so she manages to escape.

Some days after that, she comes across some goblins viciously attacking a large dog in the woods. When she tries to talk them out of it, they attack her. She kills one and the others run away. She takes the wounded dog back to her parents and nurse it back to full health, then spends months training it.

Now, with a trusty and loyal wardog (HD 2+2) at her side she ventures forth again to find the bear. Instead, the surviving goblins, joined by two more buddies, show up. They announce their intention to kill and eat not only the dog, but also the Elf.

Sesame objects and quickly puts and arrow in the lead goblin. This fails to deter the others (making their morale checks repeatedly), but the goblins are no match for the elf and the dog.

Alright... back to the bear. With the help of the dog, they find the bear. Again she manages to put an arrow in the bear, but it closes the distance and mauls the dog seriously before taking off. After bringing the dog back to her parents to be nursed back to health, Sesame decides that's where it should stay. She can't have it on her conscience if the poor dog is killed.

On last try at the damn bear; she tracks it to it's lair. Again, the bear is wounded, but then starts climbing up the tree she's hiding in and she takes off.

Vowing to return for the damn creature, she says her goodbyes to her parents and sets off towards a human village about six miles downriver. She has an introduction letter to Severin Coldhand in the town of Penhaligon. She is to look for him in a house with a swan painted on the door; he should be able to give her more advice and help her find a job.

As she travels along the river she spies three armed men leading a bound woman, apparently a farmer's girl. The men are talking about "selling her" to "the iron ring" (whoever they are) in the hopes of joining them. Deciding she's heard enough, Sesame shoots (and drops) the leader of the group. As they try to figure out what's happening, she drops another; the last guy takes off but is shot down as he flees (some good rolling here, much better than against the bear).

The girl is a farmer's girl (just like she looks), from the village towards which Sesame was heading. The men had been staying in the village for a few days; when they left this morning they had jumped her as she was tending her sheep.

Looting the bandits' bodies, Sesame lucks out (I rolled for random treasure), finding two pearls and several platinum pieces. She also loots their gear, before heading to the village with Miralis (the girl). She is greeted as a hero by the villagers and gets some free stuff (a shield, room and board). The next day she buys a horse, intending to continue on to Penhaligon and Severin but perhaps finding out more about this "iron ring".

... and that was that.

On Saturday I'm running group #1 again. On Sunday, group #2 is (probably) going to show up and roll characters. They'll start much like group #1 in Penhaligon, where they'll have the choice to head to the Hill or to search a nearby gully for a missing person but for little offered pay.

[Shade]

This all sounds really cool! Keep us posted!

[Barrister]

Karameikos will always be a Grand Duchy!





How can you tell that Mystara (aka the basic D&D world) was where I did all of my adolescent adventuring.   

[Razgovory]

Karameikos will always be a Grand Duchy!





How can you tell that Mystara (aka the basic D&D world) was where I did all of my adolescent adventuring.   

D&D was always weird with titles.  Like they didn't actually know what the titles meant.  Take Birthright for example.  In the land of Anuire there is a Prince, a Queen (who isn't related to the Prince), an Arch-Duke, a Patriarch, several counts, Dukes, and barons, a "guilder", a Thane and something called a "Mhor". There is no clear hierarchy or meaning attached to any of the titles.  In fact some of the people who are counts rule Duchies (or their territories that were numbered in the "12 Duchies" of Anuire at least.  Some times their titles change in the same article.  One guy who rules two Dukedoms is called a baron.  I know feudal obligations meant that a noble might wear many hats, but it was kinda silly.

[Jacob]

In this particular case it made a bit of sense though.

The lands of Karameikos used to be a backwater colony of the Empire of Thyatis. Stephanos Karameikos, a Thyatian duke of some wealth made a deal with the emperor; he handed over his very rich duchy to the imperial crown (who stripped it of wealth, essentially) in return for undisputed title to Karameikos (naming it after himself) as an independent nation.

However, he thought his new nation might fall easy prey to other nations and wanted to give the impression of stronger ties to the powerful empire, thus he went with "Grand Duchy" until such a time as he was ready to declare himself King. I believe in some of the later D&D products set in Mystara they advanced the timeline to when Stephano had declared himself king.

It's still a bit daft, IMO but not as daft as what you describe about the Birthright setting, so I figure he went straight to declaring himself king.

[Razgovory]

I'm trying to remember who borders Karameikos.  There was that evil barony guy, and a Republic and maybe some dwarves.  Oh and that empire they broke off of.  I suppose there is some historical precedent for that sort of behavior in the Republic of Venice

[Barrister]

I'm trying to remember who borders Karameikos.  There was that evil barony guy, and a Republic and maybe some dwarves.  Oh and that empire they broke off of.  I suppose there is some historical precedent for that sort of behavior in the Republic of Venice

Let's see...

Thyatis to the east, the Republic of Darokin to the north, and the halflings (Five Shires?) to the west.

Can't remember the island nation to the south.

[Jacob]

Minrothad Guilds and Ierendi to the South.

The evil baron dude to the West was (is) actually a vassal of the crown of Karameikos, being the duke's (king's) cousin.

[Neil]

This thread makes me happy, even though I (being slightly younger than Beeb) spent most of my adventuring days in Faerun.

[Jacob]

Group 1 had another session today (and I remember the character names - Greybear the fighter, Gimeric the dwarf, Thorn the cleric, Dracos the magic-user and Aeryn the elf).

After a brief and late lunch, the party decided to continue down the path. They brought one of the hobgoblins along - Gogol - but apart from a bit of comic relief he had little impact.

Shortly thereafter they came upon a glade in which they found three scantily clad maidens frolicking and playing music. The dryads (that is what they were) beckoned them over, but the party was extremely sceptical and kept their distance. They were offered wine, and the dryads wanted to offer information about the hill in exchange for entertainment. Other offers were possible, but the party were not interested in negotiating.

This was pretty amusing, because the dryads were wholly benign - they'd like the party to kill some ogres further one (they abducted their sister, a fourth dryad). The party would have none of it and continued on. It's even more amusing because the dryads have the magic sword the party is looking for (belonging to Cornelius - the retired Thyatian officer who looks like Tywin Lannister). The earlier party passed by and were dicks to the dryads, so they used their charm spells to relieve them of their favoured tools to make the onward quest harder. Helping the dryads would've been step one to retrieving the sword.

But as I said, the party would have none of it and they continued on until they came to a big cliff face (they were on the top). Two caves were visible, one halfway down and the other at the bottom (which is where the ogres reside).

Gimeric and Torn decide to descend to investigate the closest caves. They get down there okay. The cave is warm and damp; there are pools of warm water along the floor, condensation forming on the walls and so on. The two press further inwards. Suddenly, they hear a gurgling sound from deeper within the cave. Gimeric takes this to be a clue to investigate and heads deeper into the cave, followed by Thorn. The gurgling grows in intensity; the two are certain that they've found something worthwhile and press on. They find a crevasse in the cave just as it releases a big gout of superheated steam, filling the cave and their lungs. They take damage and turn to run. However, due to being level one and having pressed further into the cave they succumb to the steam and die. The steam goes on for another hour or so, basically steam-boiling the two unfortunate adventurers.

First two fatalities.

The party camps a bit off the trail to recover. Thorn's player decides that Clovis (his "disciple" who was essentially used as a cheap pack mule) steps up to become a full fledged adventurer; Gimeric's player rolls up Otho, a halfling who - having just escaped from goblin kidnappers - stumbles upon their camp that night).

The next day they have to backtrack to the dryad glade. The dryads asked if they'd seen any ogres down the way they came, but they had not. The dryads then asked the party if they were willing to go kill the ogres for them; they said "maybe later" and went down another path. This path too ended up at a sheer cliff face with a cave halfway up. Having had enough of caves in cliffs, the party had to return to the dryad glade yet again.

This time a (wandering monster) ogre was attacking the dryads. The party intervened, Dracos using a sleep spell on the ogre. The dryads were ecstatic, offering healing wine (refused) or anything else the party desired. Again the party were sceptical. The dryads asked them to kill the sleeping ogre, and Greybeard (the most suspicious one of the lot) obliged them before stalking off. One of the pretty dryads had gone off to fetch a sword to cut off the head of the ogre, but the party was so keen on leaving that they were too far away to see that it was the one they were looking for as the dryads set about to decapitate the ogre (to use as decoration).

The group made their way back to where they had previously defeated and tied up hobgoblins. The hobgoblins had recovered and escaped, returning to a nearby camp which the party soon found. Some fire arrows from Otho and Aeryn in hiding and a lucky morale roll saw the goblins flee after their leader was hit with an arrow. During this battle, Greybear sets Gogol free as part of a (not very clear to me) plan to convince the hobgoblins that they're surrounded; as it turns out it wasn't necessary.

They followed at leisure, coming across first a graveyard (where Clovis turned some ghouls with a 12 on 2D6, needing an 11) and finally the ruined monastery. As they started to explore the outlying buildings, the now regrouped hobgoblins issued forth from the main building intent on revenge. The party managed to stay quiet in an abandoned building and the hobgoblins went off down the path, leaving the monastery.

... and that's where we called it quits for the night.

Tomorrow group two is going to roll up characters.

[Josquius]

sounds an odd game with the months of bear hunting

[sbr]

Not much to say other than I am reading this. 

[Jacob]

sounds an odd game with the months of bear hunting

Elf starting area sucks

[Caliga]

Will Morgan Ironwolf make an appearance?