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.
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.
This all sounds really cool! Keep us posted!
Karameikos will always be a Grand Duchy! :mad:
How can you tell that Mystara (aka the basic D&D world) was where I did all of my adolescent adventuring. :blush:
Quote from: Barrister on February 08, 2012, 10:31:40 PM
Karameikos will always be a Grand Duchy! :mad:
How can you tell that Mystara (aka the basic D&D world) was where I did all of my adolescent adventuring. :blush:
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.
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.
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
Quote from: Razgovory on February 09, 2012, 02:12:07 AM
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. :(
:nerd:
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.
This thread makes me happy, even though I (being slightly younger than Beeb) spent most of my adventuring days in Faerun.
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.
sounds an odd game with the months of bear hunting :D
Not much to say other than I am reading this. :)
Quote from: Tyr on February 12, 2012, 01:45:38 AM
sounds an odd game with the months of bear hunting :D
Elf starting area sucks :mad:
Will Morgan Ironwolf make an appearance? :perv:
So you pick either a race or class but not both?
Quote from: Maximus on February 13, 2012, 08:02:51 PM
So you pick either a race or class but not both?
BECMI rules.
Meh. It all went downhill after 1st edition.
QFT, although even 2nd ed was not bad
L.
Quote from: Caliga on February 13, 2012, 07:30:57 PM
Will Morgan Ironwolf make an appearance? :perv:
Probably not, but Aleena might.
Group 2 played Sunday evening. Four players showed up and rolled up: a Cleric, an Elf, a Fighter and a Dwarf.
Their starting situation was the same as group 1. The aspiring adventurers had ended up in the town of Penhaligon, at the Mark of the Swan. Several of them were financially embarassed as it were, so they were hoping to secure some sort of employment post-haste.
As the quartet was taking its evening meal (and the Fighter - who had only been able to afford leather armour and five arrows for her bow - was contemplating how she would pay for room and board tomorrow), a young woman dressed in dirty but otherwise high quality farmer's clothes. Blonde, fairly youthful and her eyes reddened from crying, she seemed uncertain of herself. Eventually, with a bit of encouragement from Severin Coldhand, she spoke her name and revealed her business.
Ilinka (that was her name) had come from her family homestead, not far from the village of Kaskas. A few nights ago she had been away and upon her return had found signs of combat and plundering at the homestead; everyone - her parents, her two brothers and extended family and farmhands (another 8 people) - were gone.
Distraught, Ilinka eventually dug up the family savings (about 100 gp) and went to Penhaligon in the hope of finding help (the homestead was outside the borders of the barony or any other domain, so there was no help to be had from the authorities - the king is too far away and the local lords won't bother with someone outside of their protection). Some goblins have recently moved into a nearby gully, and Ilinka was certain that they were behind the attack. She wanted the adventurers to enter the gully and recover her kin. Without expressing any undue sympathy and setting the price at all her money (half up front), the party took the job (the fighter quickly buying some more arrows).
The next morning they set off down the road. By nightfall they were beyond the writ of the Baroness Penhaligon. As they set camp under some trees, five fellow travellers - men of a somewhat rough mien - asked to share their fire for the night. The men shared a small keg of very good wine with the party as they settled in; they also propositioned the women (Ilinka and the figher) somewhat crudely, but didn't push it too far; they also joked about joining forces with the party in banditry, but that wasn't particularly well received either.
In the middle of the night, the five men got up to attack the party, apparently hoping to get the drop on the adventurers. Being adventurers (green as they might be), the quartet were not too surprised and quickly got up to defend themselves.
The elf used his ventriliquism spell to shout "stop! you are surrounded!" from the darkness of the forest. This unnerved the bandits, and they turned to flee (failed morale check). Being a bit bloody minded, the adventurers set off in pursuit. The fighter caught up to one of the bandits (the advantage of wearing leather armour) and chopped him down. While searching the corpse, she noticed that he was wearing an iron bracelet too small to be removed. It appeared to have been riveted shut. When she brought the bloody bracelet back to the party, they recalled that each of the bandits had worn a similar bracelet.
The next day they arrived at the village of Kaskas and heard some rumours of the steamy hill across the river (where party #1 is adventuring). They also showed the bracelet to the innkeeper there - Leocas; it was noted that his eyebrow twitched, but nonetheless he claimed he'd never seen such a thing before. In reality, the bracelet is often worn by rank and file members of the Iron Ring a secret society that does a fair bit of kidnapping and slave trading (illegal in Karameikos). As it happens, Leocas is a member of the Iron Ring, so the party will have more trouble from them soon since they talked at some length with Leocas about their plans.
The next morning they went a few hours south to Ilinka's homestead. As they arrived they saw two wolves feasting on a corpse. Dispatching the wolves, they found the corpse to be that of a goblin; several crow feathered arrows were found stuck in various buildings further supporting the goblin attack hypothesis (though the Dwarf wasn't convinced). Upon further investigation they found the place completely looted to the point that every bit of furniture and crockery was missing.
At her suggestion, Ilinki led them to the nearby gully where the goblins had taken up residence. The gully itself was more of a ravine or possibly even a chasm (200' deep or so). Beneath a great big tree, a hole presumably led to their dwelling.
As the party approached, two well placed crow-feathered arrows hit the elf and the cleric square in the chests (4 hp damage each). Two goblins were hidden in the tree and objected the party's approach. Wasting no time, the quartet returned fire and the two goblins were soon riddled with arrows, falling out of the tree as a result.
... to be continued ...
QuoteThe fighter caught up to one of the bandits (the advantage of wearing leather armour) and chopped him down. While searching the corpse, she noticed that he was wearing an iron bracelet too small to be removed. It appeared to have been riveted shut. When she brought the bloody bracelet back to the party, they recalled that each of the bandits had worn a similar bracelet.
:lol:
These things can be quite horrific if put a certain way .
How did I miss this thread? Mystara was my first D&D setting. You should put Bargle the Infamous against the adventurers, he's a classic villain.
Hehe. I remember him.
You know, I wasn't planning on using any of the iconic or classic characters but due to this thread I think I may put both Aleena and Bargle in there.
Also... should this thing make it into the part where the players have dominions to manage, I have this harebrained scheme that I want languish posters to be involved in some capacity to make decisions for nearby dominions. It's still probably years out, so I still rate it as "bloody unlikely" but it's a nice thought nonetheless.
... to continue:
They entered the cave and after progressing through an empty room, surprised a group of goblins playing dice with a pair of gold dice. Some of the furniture they were sitting on was rather obviously looted from the homestead.
The party descended on them. It turned out that two more goblins with bows were in the room next door. Not only that, but they were armed with bows and were happy to shoot into the fight.
A couple of goblins were quickly downed, but so was the Elf! And the Cleric! The Dwarf and the Fighter quickly dispatched the other two goblins in the room, causing the archer goblins to turn tail and flee. The Fighter, thinking quick, pulled out her longbow and shot one. The other goblin made it to the exit.
The doorway out of the room led to the gulley, to a suspension bridge across the gulley. For reference, I was using this map:
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frpgcharacters.files.wordpress.com%2F2009%2F08%2Fmap-goblin-gully-smaller.jpg%3Fw%3D529&hash=07fb6bb4a9b0a66f3b6d24d849ae7793f78e9bf7)
The fighter managed to peg the fleeing goblin just before it made it into the room on the other side. Breathing a sigh of relief, the two survivors returned to the corpses of their comrades; I explained the death house rule:
Characters reduced to 0 hp may recover in about a week if they are taken into care immediately (and if what reduced them to 0 hp didn't obviously kill them). They'll have to roll on a table to see if there are any permanent effects from the ordeal.
Ilinka had been waiting outside, and with her help they brought their comatose comrades back to the homestead. She was somewhat distraught at their fates, especially the Cleric who had been sort of nice to her. In any case, she vowed to do her utmost to restore them to health.
Conveniently enough, soon thereafter two other adventurers showed up at the homestead (everyone had rolled two sets of stats, to have a replacement character ready to go if necessary).
One was Andrei the Farmer (a fighter), a young man from a nearby homestead. While it hasn't come out yet, the reason that Ilinka wasn't at the farmstead when it was raided is that she was spending the night in arms of Andrei. Naturally, Andrei being a gallant man hurried to her side once he learned she'd returned from Penhaligon.
The other newcomer was a Magic-user, the somewhat snooty brother of the Fighter.
Encouraged by the reinforcement the party returned to the goblin gully the next day. The corpses of the slain goblins were gone, as were the gold dice the goblins had been playing with.
The rooms that had been cleared previously remained empty. Gingerly, the party crossed the suspension bridge. The room across the gully was empty, with a hole in the middle of the ceiling and a staircase at opposite end.
As the party made their way across the room, a pack of goblins - about six of them - jumped up from the staircase where they had been lying in ambush. Reacting quickly, the mage cast (his one spell) sleep. Every single one of the goblins sank to the floor ensorcelled.
In that exact moment of silence as everyone contemplated the sleeping goblins, the party heard a soft "thunk" behind them. Looking, they saw that a rope had been dropped through the hole in the ceiling; had combat been raging they would've absolutely missed it, but now it was obvious.
Thinking quickly again, the mage pulled out a flask of oil and poured it on the rope; fumbling with his lantern, he managed to light the hemp on fire. Soon thereafter four goblins plummeted screaming through the smoke above. Two of them broke their necks, and the other two were quickly dispatched. While the Dwarf and Fighters dealt with the goblins from above, the Magic-user started killing off the sleeping goblins; soon there were no goblins left alive in the gully.
Descending down the staircase, the party found more looted furniture and a barred (from this side) door. On the other side was a bound cleric who said he was named Dragomir. The goblins had, apparently, left him at the top of this deep pit to starve. Further down the pit, he said, were several undead which he'd managed to keep at bay with his prayers.
Going back upstairs, they climbed up the shaft to where the goblin leader had lived. Again, they found more items looted from the homestead and an untrapped chest containing a hoard of copper and electrum pieces, as well as Dragomir's gear. It included a cryptic note, with names, cities and a few comments next to each (it's a list of Iron Ring operatives that Dragomir have tried to win to his cause, he is a devotee of a destructive god - the Pearl Dragon (the immortal ruler of chaotic dragons) - and also dedicated the Traladarans throwing out or killing the Thyatians in their midst).
Having found no sign of any of Ilinka's kin, the party decided to deal with the undead in the pit. There were five (goblin) skeletons and three (bugbear) zombies. Using their bows to good effect and using the stairway to funnel the melee (which could've been avoided had the Dwarf not rolled a 1 to attack and knocked over a few people, allowing the zombies to close), the undead creatures were dispatched with no undue difficulty.
With that, the party returned to the homestead. There, the Dwarf gave the young woman a few encouraging words ("the harvest must be brought in"); it seems like they are going to do their best by her and stick around for a bit in the style of the Seven Samurai.
And that's where the story of Group #2 stood at the end of the first session.
Next session fro Group #2 is scheduled for the Sunday after next (with an additional player joining), though several of the guys have a history of flakery, so we'll see how it goes. Group #1 should be on next Saturday.
great thread Jacob/ nice recaps....
What's BECMI mean, again? Or did I miss it in the thread?
And did you guys see they're reissuing the 1st Edition Player's Handbook, DM Guide, and Monster Manual in April? Collector's Edition covers, but with the original content and art.*
*Of course, not the Cthulhu-Monster Manual version.
Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal, referring to the succession of original D&D boxed sets that took you through the levels.
Ah, gotcha.
My AD&D experience time frame ended somewhere roughly after Oriental Adventures.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on February 23, 2012, 11:53:49 AM
What's BECMI mean, again? Or did I miss it in the thread?
This is how I recall it.
Around the time the old 1E hardbacks were being sold in the late 70s, TSR (or whatever it was called back then) began to market a simple set of "basic" rules as an intro for new players, covering levels 1-3. It came as a book with a blue cover.
The "blue book" sold pretty well and a few years later they made a revised version (red???) That book sold even better, so well that an expansion was written to take the game to intermediate levels (4-8 or something like that) and then more books after that, until there was a whole parallel series of books with their own fan base. That's "BECMI" Hardcore guys and "old timers" (such as they were back then) stuck with the 1E hardbacks. It is sort of like what is starting to go on now with ASL and ASL "Starter".
QuoteMy AD&D experience time frame ended somewhere roughly after Oriental Adventures.
The same, but the BECMI series predates it (at least basic and intermediate).
Quote from: CountDeMoney on February 23, 2012, 11:53:49 AM
And did you guys see they're reissuing the 1st Edition Player's Handbook, DM Guide, and Monster Manual in April? Collector's Edition covers, but with the original content and art.*
Still have my old books in the basement, gathering mold.
If you are nostalgic there is a free PDF series of 1E rules on the net called "OSRIC" - it's better organized IMO than the original 1E rule set and nicely arrnaged, although it's missing the original "art" and rather um . . distinctive writing style.
Quote from: The Minsky Moment on February 24, 2012, 12:26:37 PM
Around the time the old 1E hardbacks were being sold in the late 70s, TSR (or whatever it was called back then) began to market a simple set of "basic" rules as an intro for new players, covering levels 1-3. It came as a book with a blue cover.
The "blue book" sold pretty well and a few years later they made a revised version (red???) That book sold even better, so well that an expansion was written to take the game to intermediate levels (4-8 or something like that) and then more books after that, until there was a whole parallel series of books with their own fan base. That's "BECMI" Hardcore guys and "old timers" (such as they were back then) stuck with the 1E hardbacks. It is sort of like what is starting to go on now with ASL and ASL "Starter".
Ah, yes, I remember seeing the different colored box kits for a while in the early and mid-80s at bookstores and such. OK.
Since a new weekend is coming, I better recap last week's session:
Group 1 didn't happen as a 17 year old cat was in the process of passing way. My friend and his wife (both players) didn't want to leave him alone when his condition was deteriorating so rapidly so naturally we cancelled the session. Rest in peace, Simon.
Group 2 came over on Sunday.
The players rolled for the incapacitated characters. One got a personality change (change alignment) and the other looked set to recover fully; they'd just have to wait 5 to 7 days to get back to 0 HP.
Of course, they weren't going to sit around so the players decided to continue playing their secondary characters. They were also joined by a fifth player - a Thief who knew the Magic-User from back in Specularum (the capital). The Dwarf player was absent, so we assumed he was off...doing something....
All that sorted, the party organized a crew of local peasants to come by and return all the stolen furnishings to the homestead.
While back in the goblin gully they searched diligently for secret doors and, in the end found set into a carved wall (depicting crows, elven maidens and warriors in feathered cloaks apparently). The thief was cautious enough, and avoided getting hit by the rock-fall trap that was triggered by opening the door.
Inside the room they found two cobwebbed covered warriors standing guard on either side of a passage. The warriors looked similar to the warriors on the relief carving in the adjoining room, and their two handed swords were glowing. The party entered very cautiously, but eventually overcame the guards (they were just two skeletons with continual light cast on their swords). The party found little of use and proceeded up a staircase to the next room.
There they found a veritable (but old) armoury of elven weapons, guarded by a living crystal statue (again, a warrior with a crow feathered cloak) that attacked as soon as they touched anything. The thief was the first to touch the weaponry, and was quickly cut down by the statue (4 HP doesn't get you far). The player brought out his back up character, a cleric who we agreed originally hailed from the area, and she met the party back at the farm.
They did defeat the statue. It was guarding a warded, magically enhanced door that simply would not budge; the magic-user surmised that a knock spell might do the trick though.
After some bickering they decided to follow some tracks off beyond the gulley. It led into further goblin territory (actually bugbear), past several territorial markers. They met three bugbears who were warning them off. The fighter shot one unceremoniously, and a quick sleep spell from the magic-user put them all out of commission. The fighter killed off the wounded one and was about to proceed to kill the others (she believed that her family had been killed by goblins, so she's not fond of them). The other fighter, Andrei Farmer, stopped her and it led to a fairly protracted passive-aggressive back and forth between the two of them that had everyone at the table in stitches with laughter. In the end, Andrei won out and they released the other two bugbears, apologized and sent them back to where they came from while the party returned to regroup at the farm.
There Ilinka fed them and the neighbours a nice meal as thanks for the help. There they decided they were better off moving to Kaskas (the village) and they had pretty much left (taking Ilinka with them, for her safety) until someone said "wait, what about the three wounded unconscious people - the PCs. Oops. The farm remained their base.
Nonetheless, they went to town to see what was going on; from what they'd seen at the gulley and heard from various farmers they were beginning to suspect bandits rather than goblins. They gathered some rumours - that Cornelius Corvex (a local Thyatian landowner with pretentions to lordship) was behind the bandits (so everyone would have to turn to him for protection) - that the local merchant was in cahoots with the bandits to sell the stolen goods - and finally, Leocas the Innkeeper was very enthusiastic about raising a militia. Another rumour they heard, and dismissed, was that the bandits all wore fake red beards to disguise their identities when they attack; though this was dismissed as being silly. Oh, and they also hear about the other adventuring party going to investigate the hill.
As they were milling about at the village well, a man wearing a black robe with arcane symbols and many rings on his fingers rode up to them, accompanied by five rough looking types on foot. He asked for directions to the farmstead, so the PCs decided to accompany him there.
Pretty much as soon as they arrived, the magic-user (because that's what he was) cast charm person on Ilinka and tried to induce her to leave. The party, of course, would have none of it and a fight broke out. The wizard, his name was Pax, used his wand of fear (saves were made), and got Ilinka up on his horse as his guards kept the party away from them. The tide was turning against the guards, but the wizard was riding off with the girl.
The magic-users sleep spell put a quick end to that.
The fighter called out to the remaining bandits (because that's what they were) to give up; she would pay them double what Pax did. One of them took her up on the offer and promptly stabbed one of his fellows in the back. It made him popular with the party, because the guy he killed had been making lewd comments at the cleric as they travelled back to the farmstead earlier.
They woke up Pax and interrogated him, putting him on his horse with a noose around his neck, ready to hang. Fearing for his life he revealed that the leader of the bandits - calling himself the Silver Blade - had sent him to secure Ilinka. They already had the rest of her family. He also offered to lead them to the leader's buried treasure - 6000 gp. He was quite worried for his hide, you see.
The fighter asked about the Baroness Penhaligon, the nearest authority figure about two days' walk away. When she confirmed that the Baroness was quite young (maybe 20) and that people weren't sure how solid a grip she has on power, the fighter decided the Baroness couldn't be trusted to do carry out justice. Thus, she slapped the horse and Pax the magic-user died from a broken neck.
The converted bandit was happy to talk - there are about 25 bandits, he can lead them to their camp, and addition to the Silver Blade there's a red-headed elf woman with them. And yeah, they were the ones who raided the farmstead and took Ilinka's family captive, intending to sell them as slaves (slavery is illegal in Karameikos, but not in neighbouring Thyatis). He also said he would run rather than fight the Silver Blade as that man was lethal (which is true - he's a 3rd level fighter, skilled with his two handed magical sword - if he hits a PC it's instant death). The party was not deterred and started preparations to attack the bandit camp. There was talk of trying to raise a militia.
Oh... and each of the killed bandits and Pax each carried a fake red beard with them. Apparently the rumour was correct, no matter how silly it might have seemed.
... and that's where we ended.
Is it still going?
Oh yeah... lots going on. I haven't been able to keep up with the updates.
Group 1 is now completely new characters. The only "original" character left in the party is Clovis who was originally hired as a cheap mule; he was basically a "normal man" acolyte to the Cleric who got killed in the steam cavern, at which point he got promoted to PC. Everyone else is dead and replaced.
It was sort of funny, the Elf was the last original character who died. They'd finished delving into the dungeon (I replaced it with one of my own), but not completed it. In it, they'd found more evidence of the cult of the Dark Dragon. They also managed to find and rescue the lordling's son (Cornelius Corvex II) and a red haired elf maiden with her pet mountain lion (Misty and Misery); the elf is the escaped second in command of the bandits group 2 defeated, but she obviously didn't quite volunteer that. She's attached to the party for now, but will make off as soon as it makes sense and she can profit from it; she has an ESP medallion, so she has a pretty good idea what's going on.
In the dungeon, they found out that the Goblin leader was amassing troops with support from some Baron (unnamed, but there aren't many candidates - it is of course Ludovico of Halag aka Ludwig of the Black Eagle Barony in the Gazeteer), a resurgent cult of the dragon (who are trying to awaken and control the dragon sleeping further down in the dungeon and are into things like human sacrifice) and a certain infamous wizard named Bargle. The Iron Ring was also mentioned as being in on it, providing weapons and being willing to by slaves. The various correspondence they found revealing this information indicated that the various villains were often working at cross purpose (I'm drawing here from various office politics shenanigans). They had some decent roleplaying along the way, convincing some ogres they were hired by the goblin king and otherwise bullshitting to much hilarity.
They came across the dragon, sleeping on a big pile of treasure, and pretty much shit their pants (it's a red dragon with a reasonable amount of HP, so it's way beyond their ability to handle right now). After much sneaking about, they left the treasure and the dragon and the dungeon to return to the village.
They lit a fire on the riverbank to get the fisherman to pick them up, as previously arranged. A few hobgoblins came by as they waited, and only one escaped with his life. That one hobgoblin returned a few hours later as the party pushed off in the fishing boat, with another 20 or so of his friends. They fired a few volleys of arrows at the boat as they drifted away... I rolled a handful of d20 for the arrows... I assigned them randomly... they all bounced off or missed, one by one... well, one character took 1 point of damage... the last arrow remained... AC 2, on the elf... just exactly good enough to hit... roll damage... six points... she only had four. Dead. The last arrow from the last hobgoblin killed the elf just as they floated out of range. Sad and funny at the same time. Now the player is playing a magic user.
They returned first to the village, then back to the larger town (Penhaligon) where they'd started, to report, collect rewards and regroup. Almost everyone's level 2 now (except the new magic-user). They also learned that a rebel cleric named Elwyn had stolen a sacred bell from the temple and turned to the Dark Dragon, but an adventurer had recovered it (my wife, in a solo game I'm running for her, on and off). Oh, and that dragons had generally not been around these last few decades as a great hero had done something that caused them all to slumber, but that the cult wanted to awaken them again.
The party plans to return to try to extract the treasure from the dragon without waking it, and have hired a few henchmen and a boat for that purpose.
Meanwhile....
Group 2
Went off to collect the head of the Baron of Penhaligon from the goblin who cut it off, at the behest of Cornelius Corvex (the landlord they don't like). The journey was without much combat; they had a goblin guide and bribed some goblins and a troll to give them passage, ran into some weird elves living in a tree (and had some romantic fun with them, oh those elves) before tracking down this other goblin chieftain in his lair. Along the way, they saw a dragon fly overhead (possibly the Dragon Group 1 is going to go steal the treasure from, depending how that goes; I have somewhat elastic timelines, luckily).
The party found the chieftain (after a few fights with his last followers) and walked in, all swagger and bad attitude ready to kill him. It turned out that he'd lost most of his followers (many turned to stone by a wizard (who, the chieftain said, has lots of treasure and is related to the various crow things they've seen around); the rest of his minions had run off) and he was feeling pretty pessimistic. Sure, they could have the head, he didn't give a fuck. Were they going to kill him? Sure, go right ahead, he didn't care. So, of course, they didn't kill him as they almost felt sorry for him. The fighter did rob him of his last valuables (a few rings). He laughed at that and said he wanted her to lead his armies once he had some armies to lead. She said no, but relented and they agreed that if he could provide her a dragon mount she'd be his henchman. I think the magic-user took up the offer as well.
The return trip was fairly uneventful.
When they turned the head over the Cornelius Corvex I, they felt he insulted them (though he paid them in full). He also offered them another job; he wanted them to collect a debt owed him from a local clan who didn't want to pay. Privately, several people in the party thought the terms were usurious (100% interest after a year).
While thinking it over, Dragomir - the cleric they'd rescued from the Goblin Gulley - met them and suggested they broke into Cornelius' estate to steal the debt papers; many locals owe him money, and to erase the debts would do a good thing (of course, Dragomir's intention was to collect the debts owed for himself and his church, he's part of the resurging cult of the dark dragon, but the party hasn't quite twigged to that yet).
Anyhow, Group 2 takes the debt collection job but plans on playing their employer false. Their job was to go collect the debt, and if the leader of the Zoltran clan didn't pay up, take possession of a plot of land with a ruined castle on it instead (he intends to rebuild the castle). They went to meet Zoltran and told him they were going to pretend to take over the land, so please don't cause trouble, and then fix everything (they plan to break in and get the debt paperwork like Dragomir suggested.
Right now they're camped out in the ruins of the castle and awaiting an opportunity to strike. Zoltran, for his part, gathered some 40 followers and doesn't seem happy, but maybe he's just play acting like they suggested? Someone did burn down their camp the last time they left it, forcing them to spend more money on tents.
Then there's the door in the castle foundation, presumably leading to some sort of dungeon below....
... so yeah, definitely still going. I wonder what will happen to this Cornelius Corvex fellow. He's trying to work his way up to be a lord in these lands, but Group 2 in particular may destroy that ambition. They'll run in to Misty and Misery at some point as well (assuming she makes it out alive from trying to lift the dragon's treasure).
So yeah, Group 2 took out the bandits though their leader ("the Silver Blade" a fighter wielding a 2-handed silvered sword) managed to escape after a long duel by taking a potion of gaseous form (leaving his gear behind).
As the party led a militia of villagers to assault the bandit camp, they saw a redheaded elf lady ride off, accompanied by a great cat of some sort (mentioned in the previous post). They were also betrayed by the village inn keeper who, it turned out, was in league with some sort of bandits. Also, the bandits had been trying to join up with the Iron Ring (whoever they may be) for trading slaves.
Thanks for summary. I'm eager to read more of it. :nerd:
You should introduce them to the Warhammer40K universe. Much more cheerful.