Playing D&D 5e in the Majestic Wilderlands

My blog posts have been less frequent, as I have had to focus on real life stuff. My gaming has been a bit inconsistent as well, although I am playing a human fighter, Aevin Steelhand, in +Rob Conley's (Bat in the Attic) Majestic Wilderlands setting. In our current campaign, we are using D&D 5e. I have also been playing Ben Monday, a history teacher turned supernatural sleuth, in +Tim Shorts' (Gothridge Manor) Wednesday night game, using The Esoterrorists as our rule set.

+Douglas Cole (Gaming Ballistic) has an excellent blog post, Majestic Wilderlands--Do You Hear People Sing?, summarizing our last session. Rob has some interesting posts about his use of feudalism in his setting. As a player, you have to know your station and who you are talking to. It is one my favorite aspects of playing in Rob's setting. Here are links to Rob's posts:

• Of Overlords, Kings, and Barons, Building a Feudal Setting Part I
• Of Overlords, Kings, and Barons, Building a Feudal Setting Part II
• Of Overlords, Kings, and Barons, Building a Feudal Setting Part III
• Of Overlords, Kings, and Barons, Building a Feudal Setting Part IV

Aeven Steelhand, My D&D 5e Fighter

Our Monday Night Gaming Group has been playing D&D 5e, with +Rob Conley (Bat in the Attic) running us through the Lost Mine of Phandelver, which he placed in his Majestic Wilderlands campaign setting.

I used the free D&D Basic Rules and went with a simple human fighter, Aeven Steelhand. When my Player's Handbook arrived, I opted to make him a Champion when he hit third level. This meant that Aeven had no spells and not much for specialized skills. He is the toughest frontline fighter in the group, but I found him lacking grit and punch compared to his peers who benefited from spells and special features. This was particularly noticeable when he went down quickly in battles with goblins and zombies. It should be said that our DM was rolling 20s in Roll20 (as if he had hacked the system).

I expected to be limited in my options, but I didn't expect to be so vulnerable.The fighter can wear heavier armor, but doesn't typically have the means to buy when starting out. While it was nice to get the improved critical as a Champion, I found that it didn't noticeably impact play. When playing AD&D 1e years ago and Castles & Crusades a few years back, we gave fighters a d12 for hit points. With Castles & Crusades, this hit point enhancement worked well as we were not using the barbarian class.

None of this changes my overall positive opinion of D&D 5e. I am looking forward to running my first session next Monday night.

Con on the Cob Post-Convention Post

Now that I have been to my first gaming convention, Con on the Cob, I can no longer consider myself a casual gamer. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy my convention experience, but I figured I should go at least once in my life. Now that I have been to a convention, I can say that I had an absolute blast. I am ready to go again.

Characters and Sessions

I played in five sessions--four of them official convention sessions and one unofficial. Five of our Monday Night Ubergoobers gaming group were able to attend and we had three sessions with all five of us.

Session 1: I played Theddrick, a human cleric, in a Dwimmermount session using Labyrinth Lord. This was a good session to start the Con on the Cob convention experience. The second half of the session was particularly fun. Kudos to +Jim Yoder for running a fun session.

Session 2: I played Pat West, a Tuscon AZ police officer, in a Cryptworld session. I immediately fell in love with the Cryptworld mechanics and we had an excellent group. +Tim Snider did a marvelous job running the session.

Session 3: Our Monday Night Ubergoobers got together for a session of The Esoterrorists (Gumshoe system). +Tim Shorts GMed the session and I played Ben Monday, a history teacher. It was the one session that didn't come to a conclusion so I am hoping we can get back to the setting and characters during our Monday night sessions. Tim did a great job of prepping for the session and running a compelling adventure. This was my one unofficial session at the convention.

Session 4: I played Billam the dwarf in a Dungeon Crawl Classics session, run by +Roy Snyder. Roy did a great job as GM and really liked the DCC rules. This was the one session where all five Monday Night Ubergoober gamers played together in a session run by someone else. It took some willpower for my character to not kill +Rob Conley's charisma 5 character (no one nails low charisma roleplaying like Rob). This session ran long so we moved it to the bar, which seems to be the appropriate place for a DCC session.

Session 5: I played Gnip Gnome (the "G" is not silent), a gnome fighter as +Rob Conley ran a Swords & Wizardry/Majestic Wilderlands session. Lots of great action and groovy opportunities for role playing, which is a hallmark of Rob's GMing. We had a low charisma group (3, 6, 6, 10 and 10) so there was lots of snarkiness and fun unpleasantries with our group.

Purchases
I had a good time spending money and I could have spent a lot more. Here is what I picked up:

• A boatload of green dice.
• Some D&D 2e stuff and a Holmes boxed set.. 
• Cryptworld and Majus from Goblinoid Games.
• A plushy owl from Live. Dream. Create.
• Some art from Eric Kemphfer.

Takaways
As I reflect back on my experience, here are some things that come to mind:

• I really like conventions. I am already looking forward to next year, plus I might add a few other conventions to my calendar in 2015. Maybe one in Michigan to catch up with my high school gaming buddies. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would.
• More sleep and healthier food. I need more sleep and healthier food. We did get a pile of sandwiches from Subway, but I should have packed fruit and other healthy stuff.
• Play things I would not otherwise have a chance to play. I really enjoyed DCC and Cryptworld--I picked up a copy of each (DCC from Rob Conley). Maybe try to play a Savage Worlds session next time.
• Meet people. I enjoyed meeting people and making some new gamer friends. Next time around I will be more proactive. 
• I have two new games that I will play: Cryptworld and Dungeon Crawl Classics. I am hoping to get a few local semi-gamer friends (plus my wife) into a Cryptworld campaign in the next month. Thanks to +Tim Snider for an inspirational session. 

Monday Night Playtesting

We had a couple of players absent from our Monday Night Gaming Group, so we decided to postpone Session 26 of the Montporte Dungeon Campaign. Instead, we took this as an opportunity to do more playtesting of +Rob Conley's (Bat in the Attic) embryonic Fudge-based rules for his Majestic Wilderlands setting. We focused on the rules for arcane and divine magic. I played Horace Spindlemeyer, a human mage, and Dan played Benit Vache, a dwarven cleric.

We had the simple task of tracking down some bandits. A timely use of a charm spell in an inn provided us with some inside information. We were able to find their most recent victim and we tracked them back to their hideout. A sleep spell read off a scroll took out all of the bandits, except for the one hiding in the cave. Unfortunately, I rolled -4 on the Fudge dice (----), so the casting of the spell wiped me out too.

Benit tied up the sleeping bandits but then he had to take on the remaining bandit in the cave. The remaining bandit got the drop on us but critically failed when he attempted to shoot Benit with a crossbow (another ----). There was actually a second bandit and Benit found himself in a bad way.

Fortunately, I regained my senses just in time and cast another sleep spell, this time from my own inventory of spells. I managed to keep myself put together after casting the spell. We tied up the final two bandits and loaded them on the bandits' wagon so that we could take them back to the proper authorities.

This process was interrupted by a hungry owlbear. We didn't really think we could put up much of a fight so we let him make off with a dinner of two tied-up bandits. Horace felt a bit guilty about that, but not guilty enough to take on a hungry owlbear.

We ended the night by taking the remaining prisoners back to the authorities. We kept their booty for ourselves, with the hopes that no one would ask about it.

After we finished playing, we spent a bit of time tweaking the rules, which was as enjoyable as playing.

Five For Friday 25: Dungeon Campaign Ideas

"Underground City" by Elias Lewinsky

We have made it to Session 25 of the Montporte Dungeon Campaign and our sessions are still going strong. It has me thinking about some other ways to use the dungeon setting that I have already created for some future campaigns (this won't happen for a while because the other four guys in our Monday Night Gaming Group are all chomping at the bit to GM). Here are five thoughts that I have had, in no particular order:

• Montporte Dungeon + GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: I really like what I have been reading about GURPS Dungeon Fantasy on other blog posts. More specifically, I have thought about GURPS templates based on the Holmes version of D&D (or maybe B/X), except I would drop halflings and add gnomes (based on what has already transpired with the Montporte Dungeon. I'd be tempted to start at 175 points for characters, but I think I would be fine with 250. I had also thought about a American Wild West or Victorian smash-up and then an hour later saw Peter D's (Dungeon Fantastic) review of Pyramid #3/60: Dungeon Fantasy III, I am definitely interested in checking out the article by David Pulver, "Eidetic Memory: High-Tech Dungeon Crawl."
• Montporte Dungeon + Fudge: I have been really interested in watching +Rob Conley adapt his Majestic Wilderlands setting to Fudge. I have played two campaigns in the Majestic Wilderlands, with Rob as GM--the first campaign using Swords & Wizardry and a second using GURPS. I have been in on one playtest session with the Fudge version of the Majestic Wilderlands and really liked it a lot. 
• Montporte Dungeon + Savage Worlds: This just looks like loads of fun (no apologies to those gamers who hate fun). I am not sure how Savage Worlds would hold up under a long campaign, but it would be groovy to do a shorter mini-campaign perhaps just to see how Savage World works (I haven't actually played it yet).
• Montporte Dungeon + Heavily House-Ruled Swords & Wizardry: I would combine the human classes of Crypts & Things (warriors, barbarians, thieves, and sorcerers) plus dwarves, elves and gnomes (using the race-as-class concept). Maybe I would drop the non-humans and just go with a slightly modified version of C&T.
• Montporte Dungeon + Onyx + GURPS: I thought about combining my half-baked idea for a medieval urban fantasy campaign (Onyx) with the dungeon by placing the city of Onyx deep in the Underdark. GURPS would be my preferred system. This seems like a lot of work, but I have parts of it already done.

Not sure if any of this will happen, but a boy can dream.

Playtesting Rob Conley's Fudge-Based Version of the Majestic Wilderlands

Our Monday Night Gaming Group is taking a little break from the Montporte Dungeon campaign to do some playtesting of +Rob Conley's (Bat in the Attic) Fudge-based version of the Majestic Wilderlands. It was a blast.

I really like Rob's approach to character creation. It took very little time to get up and running, thanks to his character templates. My initial thought was that our group was not very tough--two fighter types and a burglar, with me playing the burglar. However, we beat the snot out of party of orcs, despite being outnumbered two to one. Like GURPS, being outnumbered taxes a character's defensive options, but the potential consequences didn't seem so dire.

I really enjoy playtesting and providing feedback. I already am putting together a list of my thoughts for Rob, which I will give to him after our next session tomorrow night. 

As a side note, I am enjoying playing a burglar who has a bit of a Jeff Spicoli vibe to him. His name is Ampersand and he always finds himself between "hard luck & trouble."

GURPS Newbie Post: Our Next GURPS Campaign

It looks like our Monday Night Gaming Group will so be starting another GURPS campaign. We recently finished an awesome GURPS campaign in Rob Conley's (Bat in the Attic) Majestic Wildlerlands setting (with Rob as GM). Dan, who is currently appearing in my Montporte Dungeon Campaign as Duncan Kern (the Benny Hill of the gnome world), will be GM. According to Dan, his GURPS campaign with be high fantasy, using 150 point characters. I am not sure what my character will be, maybe a mage or maybe an archer or maybe a mage archer or maybe viking cleric (similar to  Belafore, the cleric I played in a recent GURPS one shot). Or maybe something completely different (but not an elf).

Until we begin Dan's campaign, my Montporte Dungeon Campaign has moved from second string to starter in our Monday Night Gaming Group. While I am enjoying GMing every week, I am anxious to start Dan's campaign and move the Montporte Dungeon back to the bench.

"Retiring to Run a B&B"--Final GURPS Sessions in the Majestic Wilderlands

Our GURPS campaign in the Rob's (Bat in the Attic) Majestic Wilderlands came to a fun and satisfying ending a week ago. We have had a few sessions since my last Magestic Wilderlands update. Delvin, my dwarf PC, provides a summary narrative below. Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield) and Tim (Gothridge Manor) also have some excellent posts on the end of the campaign (here and here). And now I will turn over the computer keyboard to Delvin so that he can tell his last tale.

The baron loaded us down with some goodies and wished well on our journey. The Plain of Cairns is nothing to take lightly. There is some nasty mojo there and we have been lucky to come back alive. The evil there is ancient and powerful, but it is like a bees nest. You only get stung when you go poking around. Only fools get stung. As we were foolish enough to start building our inn at the edge of the Plain, we are foolish enough to get ourselves stung as well.

We traveled carefully across the Plain of Cairns, towards the henge that seems to be the epicenter of the evil. As we neared the henge, the sneakier members of our group moved in closer and noted that some sort of ceremony and excavation was going on. We were told that we needed to find the taig that was given the task of protecting the Plain of Cairns in order to defeat the evil we were witnessing.

After doing our bit of spying, we crossed the Plain and found a simple stone building on the southeastern edge of the Plain. We entered the building and performed the simple ritual that was required of us. The taig demanded a shard of crystal, without which the taig would be unable to help us cleanse the Plain of evil.

Not knowing anything about this crystal shard or its whereabouts, the only thing we could think to do was go back to the center of the Plain and spy again on the hende and the activities. So this is what we did. We noticed that robed humans were leaving the henge and traveling to the northeast, so we decided to follow.

We followed the little procession to a battered keep. It turned out that the robed humans were actually skeletons and the keep--nothing more than a stone tower--was closely guarded by the undead. We retreated a short distance to safer ground. In the process, we encountered four evil-looking humans. We killed a mage and some sort of knight, plus one of their henchman. We captured another of their henchman and he seemed willing enough to go along with us. I guess he didn't like the alternative, as he had witnessed the quick demise of his friends.

Having settled into our camp, we made plans for the taking of the tower keep. It would not be an easy task. We were outnumbered and on the outside looking in. Our plan called for Brom and myself, as the stoutest fighters of our little party, to create a fuss about 100 feet from the door of the keep. We would draw the attention of the sentries by the door and the archers on the top of the tower. In the meantime, Kermit and Durgo would sneak up to the back of the keep. Kermit would use magic to move some stone to create an entrance on the backside of the tower. Then Kermit, Kermit's magic warrior, Durgo and the captured henchman, would move in and attack.

The plan worked to perfection. Even so, it was a tough battle. We were heavily outnumbered [never a good thing in GURPS]. Brom and I had some mighty poor luck and were pushed back. However, I finally was able to get in some solid axe strikes and we were able to take out the outside sentries and some of their helpers. Inside the keep, our party achieved surprise and made it count. We took the keep without loss of life on our side.

We searched the keep and, alas, found no shard of crystal. That was a bummer. We did assure ourselves that we had removed a significant danger from the Plain of Cairns.

We were at a bit of a loss and decided to search the northeastern sector of the Plain, in the hopes that something might turn up. I think that one of the guys in the party had learned a little bit more about the shard and its location, but, as a dwarven warrior, I sometimes miss those sorts of details. We ended up in the ancient ruins of a small village. There were wererats and giant rats a plenty. We made our way into a nearby barrow, found it inhabited with said wererats and giant rats, fought a nasty little skirmish, and led us to the shard. We almost didn't survive the combat, but the near death experience was worth it just to see Durgo leap over the crowd, somersault in mid-air and attack. It was amazing. In all of my many years as a mercenary, I had never seen anything quite like it. He missed, by the way.

The barrow served as our camp that night, despite the heebie-jeebies it was giving us. As we rested, we could hear excavating all around us. We decided to make our escape by riding out on horseback at full speed from the barrow. Fortunately, we had brought the horses and ponies inside after the battle.

We made haste to ride back to the taig. With more than a little trepidation, we offered him the shard. He took the shard and was transfigured before us. Cloaked in frightened power, the taig tore off towards the henge with us trailing far behind him.

The taig took out most of the minions at the henge but we were able to join the fray before it was over. I thought the taig would easily prevail, but I was wrong about that assumption. The nasty evil human mage was quite a spellcaster and he was able to stun the taig. It was good that we were there. We got the jump on the mage and took him out.

It was over.

The taig was effusive in his thanks, bestowing on us the blessing of his protection. Our inn would prosper after all. It was time to settle down and retire.

"Their cold leathery hands..." a GURPS Session in the Majestic Wilderlands

I recently summarized three GURPS Majestic Wilderlands sessions and this current post will give Delvin's take on our most recent session. Tim (Gothridge Manor) has a excellent summary of the session and Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield) captures some of the one-liners of the night (plus some from the previous week in Montporte Dungeon campaign. On Monday night, Rob (Bat in the Attic) was at his best as a GM and we had a nice mix of nail-biting action and immersive role-playing (the later being the hallmark of Rob's Majestic Wilderlands). The session featured a chase scene where, at Tim's suggestion, we used the Pathfinder Gamemastery Chase Cards Deck. We were able to translate them to GURPS on the fly and the cards generated a wildly unpredictable and fun hour of gaming.

We started the session where we had left off last time, in Dorn. We were ready to head out to Oxcross to warn the Baron that the Thothian mages might take action against him. I will let Delvin, my dwarf PC, take it from here.

We knew we needed to get over to Oxcross in a hurry. From Dorn, it would be an all day ride but maybe, just maybe, we could get to the Baron before the Thothian-types did any harm. We would be passing by the construction site for our inn, so we could do a quick check on that as well. Or so we thought.

When we arrived at our inn, the place was empty. Normally, there are at least a dozen humans working, milling around, and doing all the stuff that you humans are wont to do. This time, however, there was no one around. No one except a solitary zombie. Brom (Chris) and drew our weapons and cautiously rode towards the zombie. He was easy pickins for us.

In the meantime, Durge (Tim) noticed a big group of humans far off in the distance. The three of us rode out to the northeast, towards the crowd. It turned out to be our inn workers being chased by about thirty or so zombies. Not good.

Brom and Durgo stretched out a rope between them and trotted on either side of the zombies, knocking down a good number of them in the process. They then took up a position between the zombies and our inn folk. In the meantime, I started hacking away at the zombies in the rear, trying to draw their attention away from the group. I also enjoying cleaving them with my battleaxe. It is a good thing when you can mix fun with good tactical sense.

Brom told the inn workers to head north. We tried to engage the zombies enough to get them to follow us west while not getting overwhelmed by them in the process [editor's note: This is a really important consideration in GURPS]. Brom had a bit of difficulty as we were getting ourselves organized and he almost was clawed off of his pony. As for me, I was really careful to keep them away, as I did not want their cold leathery hands caressing my beautiful dwarven skin.

We finally got the zombies turned around and they gave chase as we rode off to the west. We tried not to ride too fast, as none of us excel at riding. No sense going fast, falling off, and becoming zombie snacks. We ran into one problem after another...negotiating down a steep hill, jumping over a fallen tree, and riding through a bunch of snakes. At each point, at least one of us had difficulties, which led to some of the zombies catching us for a moment. But at each difficulty more of the zombies fell behind. The snakes caused us particular difficulty as two of the mounts were bit and they turned out to be quite poisonous.

We still had a few zombies hot on our trail when we ran headlong into a small river...too fast and too deep to wade across. We could have let the mounts have a go at swimming, but we thought our chances would be better if we could find a ford. We turned south and found a ford within a hundred yards. The last of the zombies tried to cross and were swept away. Such a beautiful sight for dwarven eyes to behold. Really, none of this would be necessary if you humans were a bit more careful in disposing of your dead.

Durgo dosed the ponies with a neutralize poison potion and we headed back to the site of our inn. From there, we finally made our way to Oxcross. We were berated by some petty human functionary for stirring up the undead out on the Plain of Cairns. However, we were finally able to convince a higher up to let us see the Baron. It turned out that the Baron was indisposed; he was under the weather after a visit from a stranger.

We didn't know who the stranger was, but we knew he was a Thothian looking for the Baron's scroll about the Plain of Cairns. We had them get the Baron up and moving while someone else went to the check the library. The Baron turned out to be recovering but the scroll was gone.

The Baron immediately understood the gravity of the situation. He agreed to seek redress from the Thothians while we agreed to head back out the Plain of Cairns to get to the bottom of the evil lurking there. He equipped us with some magic items to help us, which showed him to be above average as far as humans go. Almost generous like a dwarf.

Catching Up...Some GURPS Sessions in the Majestic Wilderlands

We have been bouncing back and forth on Monday nights between my Montporte Dungeon campaign and Rob's (Bat in the Attic) Majestic Wilderlands GURPS campaign. I have been remiss in given Delvin, my dwarf PC, a chance to fill you in on his escapades. To be fair, he was hexed or charmed or otherwise magically taken out for a bit during that time period. No dwarf wants to publicly describe that sort of thing. I have, however, managed to convince him to pen a short catch-up post that covers three sessions in the Majestic Wilderlands to bring us all up to date after his last update. He will be writing another post later this week that covers a fourth session...that one merits its own post.

So after being chased off the Plain of Cairns by lots of shambling zombies and skeletons (not to mention the henge with the wicked demonic glow), we decided to head to Oxcross to pay our respects to the Baron. It was one of those human things that we "just had to do" seeing as how we were building an inn right down the road from him (you can see what's what on the map above). I was not happy about it, but I thought maybe we could check on the Plain of Cairns in a library or ask a pointy-headed sage-type about it.

So we go to Oxcross and find out that the circus is in town. Well, not really a circus, it was more of a carnival. It was run by the Beggars. I like the Beggars. As far as humans go, they are okay in my book. Any humans that can spook other humans the way that they do has got to have something going for them.

Anyway, we decide to splurge and buy the Baron a bigass horse. Oh, he was a pretty one and I could see the draw, despite my affinity for a closer-to-the-ground pony. We set up a time to see the Baron and he was suitably impressed by our gift. We were all set to talk business when a group of people rushed in, yelling about a murder.

Well, everyone was beside themselves, like they had never seen a dead body. It wasn't like it was a murdered dwarf; just a human. No biggie as far as I was concerned. However, the murder victim was a young woman, a girl, really. That's always sad.

So we set out to solve the murder for the baron. When you ride into town for the first time and a murder just happens to occur about the same time, it is always good form to solve the murder before it gets pinned on you. So, after questioning, tracking, examining the evidence, more questioning, and following the money, we decided that the two most likely perps were part of the Beggers' carnival: The knife thrower and the animal tamer.

We went with a few of the Baron's men to arrest them and, to no one's surprise, they were waiting for us. It was a short, messy battle with knives flying through the air and an unpleasant attack by a pack of dogs and a bear. I felt real bad about killing the dogs and I took out my bad feelings on the back the animal trainer's head with the flat of my battle axe. We took both scoundrels alive.

The Baron rewarded us and I asked if his library contained any information about the Plain of Cairns. Lo and behold, we hit the jackpot. A scroll written by a Thothian mage told of a battle on the Plain and how the elves placed a protective tree of great power in the middle of a large henge. The same place that we had seen lighting up the sky with an evil glow. Apparently, the protection of the tree didn't quite work. The Baron encouraged us to check in with the Thothian mages to get more information. The closest Thothians were in Dorn, just a day's journey.

So off we went to Dorn. We made our visit to the Thothian mages and it didn't go so well. Instead of being helpful, they were furious that we possessed this information and demanded to know the source of our knowledge. We were a bit evasive, sensing possible danger for the Baron. They put more pressure on us and...

...we found ourselves drinking at the local tavern. How did we get there? What happened with the Thothians? What did they do to us? Did they learn that the Baron and his library was our source? We did a quick check and discovered that the Thothians had swiped the information we had copied from the Baron's library. Fortunately, we had made two copies.

We went to the Temple of Mitra and they discovered that our minds had been tampered with. They also explained just how illegal the Thothians' actions against were and offered to help us report it. We agreed to this but also decided that we needed to head back to Oxcross to warn the Baron that the Thothians might come poking around.

I See Dead People...GURPS Session in the Majestic Wilderlands

Monday night found me connected to the Monday Night Game boys after me missing the previous week due to a work-related meeting (which led to my character, Delvin, scoping out stone for quarrying with our master mason). We are taking a break from the Montporte Dungeon and are back to the GURPS Majestic Wilderlands, GMed by Rob (Bat in the Attic). In the previous session, the group began to explore the Plain of Cairns to the east of where we are building our inn (the T-intersection in the middle of the map, just south of Bellsdale). Without Delvin’s trusty dwarven axe, the rest of the guys got the snot beat out of them. So with Delvin joining them, the party headed back out to the Plain of Cairns. Here is how it went:

The boys were pretty well beat up after going out to explore the Plain of Cairns without me. That’s what they get for insisting I go with the master mason to protect him as he scouted for possible quarry sites. Sure, send the dwarf to look for building stone. Where is the cliche in that?

In turns out that the Plain of Cairns is filled with all sorts of nastiness. Barrows sprouting up all over the place like pretty flowers growing out an elf's wazoo. We debated whether we should go make the rounds with the local rulers to the towns to the north, something we’ll need to do sooner or later. Lords, barons, counts, and what-have-you. All sorts of ranks and protocols…we dwarves just have a king and a queen and the rest of us are their drinking buddies. No need for courtesies and protocols and fancy speech, just beer me.

So, in the end we decided to head back out to the Plain of Cairns. Our goal was to check out the big henge in the middle, but we thought we’d check out the barrows along the way. The first barrow was empty but we did find some really old obsidian daggers in a pile of debris. Six daggers, in fact.

Right after that, we encountered five zombies shambling around on the plain. There were four of us. Given that our group is a mixed bag when it comes to fighting, I was none-too-giddy about being outnumbered. Durgo and the new guy, Brom, fought two of the zombies to no great effect on either side. The zombies were knocked down and the boys were trying to stomp on them with their horses. I went after the two most distant zombies and cleaved them handily, pressing home the attack as fast as I could and not worrying about defending myself.

In the meantime, Aeryon was hard-pressed to defend himself against a particularly aggressive zombie. I wheeled my pony around, headed over his way, and then split the zombie from head to crotch. While I was saving Aeryon, Durgo and Brom finally took out their zombies. Fun skirmish! Better than sitting around bowing and mindlessly saying “Yes, my lord” and “No, my lord.” Blah blah blah.

Getting my dwarven rage on, I was ready for more. Everyone else was a bit shaken and were thinking about heading back to the inn construction site. We did decide to head out to that big henge but as we approached, we could see a wicked malevolent purple glow from within the henge. The rest of the guys stopped and even I could see the foolishness of going on without knowing what we were up against. Lest you think me a wuss, I am sure that your average elf would have wet himself and fainted at the thought of it all.

We headed back to the inn, exploring another barrow along the way. This one was occupied with two human skeletons laid out on stone slabs decorated in an ancient style that had been influenced by the elves. Now, riddle me this? If you humans don’t want zombies, skeletons and all sorts of other creepy guys milling about and causing a ruckus, you should probably do a more thorough job of disposing of your dead. Ever think of adopting cremation as a regular habit?

As we arrived back to the inn construction site, we decided that we needed to head into the nearest town to find out more about the Plain of Cairns. The history of this place might provide a clue to the demonic power at the henge and all those undead ambling about.

Five For Friday 17: Swords & Wizardry Five Ways

This is my wrap-up post for my week-long celebration of Swords & Wizardry. Here are five different approaches to Swords & Wizardry that I enjoy (in alphabetical order):

• Crypts & Things: A good example what can happen by thoughtfully adding a few cool tweaks AND deleting extraneous materials. A very swords & sorcery approach, with a bit of horror thrown in. The mage class, a combination of cleric and magic-user, is particularly good.
• Majestic Wilderlands: Rob Conley's (Bat in the Attic) setting has a very "played in" feel to it for good reason: It has been his setting for thirty years.
• Qalidar:  Christina Lea's pandimensional ruined city is a very cool setting for Swords & Wizardry. I am thinking this would be an interesting setting for a GURPS campaign, as well.
• Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules: This is an almost exact replica of what I was playing back in 1977--a weird mix of Holmes D&D, the four supplements, the AD&D Monster Manual, and Judges Guild's Ready Ref Sheets.
• Swords & Wizardry Core: The simplicity of it all is the key to what makes it work so well...plus the PDF is free.

Mmmm...Bacon: GURPS Session in the Majestic Wilderlands

We ended our last session with the defeat of six wereboars at the hands of our party of four (plus our newly hired noncombatant innkeeper). Three of the wereboars remained after the quick killing of half of their group led to their surrender.

Delvin, my dwarf, was all for finishing off the other three. They gutted my pony, after all. I liked my pony. I judged my pony to be a better person than most people (at least most human people...and all elven people).

My mood softened as we heard the wereboars' tale of woe. They had been set up by their boss and captured by some sort of witchy woman. She was living in the foothills about 10 miles or so to the west of our current location. This caused a bit of concern, as we are preparing to build an inn just down the road. No one wants a witch or nymph or other troublesome female type, lurking around and turning men into pigs (well, okay, that is not really not much of a stretch when you consider it). We did our good for the day by sending the three piggy guys to the north with a few coins and the name of a temple that we hoped could help them.

Once they hit the road, we gathered  up the three remaining bodies and built a nasty hot fire. The more magically paranoid members in our group decided that leaving bodies of suspected lycanthropes lying around could come back to haunt us and our inn. You never know who might be looking for a meal and end up with a case of recurring indigestion every full moon. Yes, I did detect a note of bacon in the air.

The site for our inn was just down the road. It turned out to be an excellent location to build an inn. Plus, the natives like us. The dozen or so locals--freehold farmers and herdsmen--welcomed us. The prospects of prosperity and the tale of our victory over the wereboars won them over.

The next day, our master mason arrived. He and Kermit set about the site, doing whatever prep work needed to be done. Actually, Kermit and the mason seemed to be working on two different projects. There was a lot of bickering, so Durgo and I decided to ride out for a bit, making a circle around the inn to get the lay of the land. Bickering loses its interest when it cannot be settled by a well-timed axe swing.

We encountered a woman herding her flock. She threatened to plug us with an arrow. I wasn't too worried about our safety but we did want to make a good impression on our new neighbors. Wooing strangers does not play to my strengths, unless the wooing involves cleaving them from head to toe. Durgo is no social butterfly either. It was a bit awkward. However, once she realized that I was, in fact, a real live dwarf her countenance turned from hostility to an equal mix of wonder and greed. Apparently, here was another human who believed that dwarves, when held upside down by their feet and shaken, shoot gold nuggets out of our asses. Really...what is with you humans? After trying that trick on two of my cousins, an aunt, and our clan's priest, I can tell you flat out that it is an old elve's tale. I never saw a single nugget, although my aunt did let out a few poisonous toots.

We explored the handful of farms to the west of the inn site. Beyond that we could see the foothills and the likely home of the witchy woman. To the east, we found ancient stone megaliths and lots of cairns. Not surprising, given that we were on the western edge of the Plain of Cairns. Clever namers, those humans.

We arrived back at the inn site. We could hear the bickering long before we could see the bickerers. Fortunately, Kermit is a good sport and a quick learner. That boy has the magic touch when it comes to construction...something that I lack despite my dwarviness.

Alas, no fighting. However, the witch to the west and the cairns to the east promise plenty of future excitement.

Falling Down: GURPS Session in the Majestic Wilderlands

When I was a kid, my parents subjected me to five years worth of horse riding lessons (both English and Western). My sister became a good enough rider to win some events at horse shows. Me? I preferred dirt bikes and never really got past the fact that I was on a very large animal with a very small brain. However, in all of those years of riding, I never fell off a horse.

My GURPS character, Delvin, is not so lucky. He suffered the ultimate dwarven humiliation: Fall off your horse, land on your back, and then lie their with your beautiful short arms and legs flailing away for a round or so. It is a fate that I would not wish on anyone (well, maybe an elf).

The session started out innocent enough. We continued the work we needed to do on our inn. We secured membership with the inn guild, met with our innkeep, secured our brewmaster (a task that required significant rounds of testing), met with the master mason on construction, and came up with building plans. We also debated how to settle the 24 refugees that we had rescued. We decided to set up a little farming hamlet next to the inn.

With tentative plans laid, we hopped up on our horses and headed out to the actual building site, about a day's ride from where were have been staying (Dorn). There were four PCs in the group, plus one noncombatant NPC (our innkeeper). The ride was uneventful and would have been quite pleasant, had we not observed the lack of commercial traffic. Maybe this inn wasn't such a great idea?

The land became wilder as we moved closer to our destination. Suddenly, Durgo, the most observant of our party, noticed a group of armed men hiding up ahead in the trees and brush. We stopped, checked them out from a distance, and drew our weapons. I opted to prep my crossbow. This was a bit of a mistake.

As combat ensued, I missed my target (not surprisingly) and then wasted time drawing my two-handed battleaxe. While I was diddling with my axe, the six opponents shape-changed into boars. Oh, for crap. We were outnumbered six to five (never a good thing in GURPS), with our inkeeper as a noncombant. This made him a liability rather than an asset and also made it a four-on-six battle. Half of us would be outnumbered.

As I am the sole remaining meatshield in the group, I probably should not have wasted time with my crossbow. I am a killing machine with my battleaxe, but the crossbow is always a bit of an adventure for me. As I was drawing my axe and cursing my luck, I was heartened by the telling blows made by my companions. They were making a better showing than I expected. A series of strong attacks by my companions and poor defensive moves by our opponents tilted the field in our favor.

I was able to make my first swing of my axe count, killing a boar. It looked like the fight would end quickly and in our favor. But then our luck changed. Even as I confidently looked for my next foe, a boar attacked and my horse and I were not able to dodge. My horse was gored--fatally so--and I tumbled head over heels to the ground.

Now dwarves are not graceful folk. But we are not ashamed of this. We leave the dancing and prancing to pretty-boy elves. We prefer steadiness and sturdiness to flash and dance. However, rolling off a horse presents dwarves in the worst possible light. No steadiness. No sturdiness.

I found myself lying flat on my back, arms and legs flailing to right myself before I was set upon by a boar. My heavy armor prevented injury, but it accentuated by dwarven lack of grace. My sense of vulnerability was only surpassed by my embarrassment. I heard jeers of "turtle" even as I began to right myself.

As I began to waste precious seconds getting back to my feet, I noticed a stunned boar next me. I was able to take a measured swing (telegraphic) and kill him, even while on my knees. This redeemed the situation...a bit. By time I was ready to fight on my feet, the melee was over and the few remaining boars turned back to men and surrendered. I had taken out two of the six, even with waste-of-time crossbow shot and the tumble to the ground.

My colleagues began to question our captives. We discovered them to be cursed...probably not lycanthropes. It was obvious that the rest of my party was trying to figure out to save them from their wretched state. Me? I wanted to kill them, in part because they killed my horse (horses always win out over humans in my simple dwarven mind). Even apart from my horse, however, I wanted to silence them so that they could never speak of the dwarf lying on his back. The reputation of a dwarf is much more important than the life of a human (you humans are like rabbits...kill a few and they reproduce faster than ever).

This is where our session ended.

Weekend Update: Out and About with My Axe

Me with one of my axes

I have had a couple of busy weeks with music--3 gigs in the last two weeks plus rehearsals. Last night I was the substitute bass player for a three piece blues band. My plan is to set aside my gig money for music equipment, but it never quite works out that way. We usually raid the gig money envelope for cash for our NYC trips. Lately, the money has been going for RPG Kickstarters.

My world of gaming looks something like this:

• Delvin the dwarf in Rob's Majestic Wilderlands GURPS campaign. We started out as 75 point characters in a mercenary band. Having captured the enemy's king and received part of the king's ransom, we have decided to leave the mercenary business and build an inn. We had to get permission of the local bigwig, Sir Kaymus (which took up most of the last session). The next task is getting permission of the local guild. Delvin, who has spent his life as a soldier of fortune, is now faced with the task of learning how to brew ale (a specialty under the GURPS Cooking skill). Up until now, Delvin had little use for such non-martial skills.
• Montporte Dungeon: Our next Montporte session is scheduled for March 4, with me as GM. We are using Blood & Treasure. The guys are working on their characters. I am redoing my hand-drawn maps, using AutoREALM, so that I can upload JPEGs into Roll20. All of those cartography classes I took in college are finally being put to use...although I do have 30 years of rust.
• City of Onyx: I have a pile of notes to organize and some maps to create. Rob Conley has graciously offered to help me on the maps. I am also reading through the pile of GURPS books on our dining room table.
• The Manor: I am reworking two of my homebrew creatures for Tim to use in the next issue of The Manor.
• Kickstarters: Both of the Kickstarters I pledged surpassed their goals (Fate Core and Tavern Cards).

Montporte Dungeon Update

"The Known Universe" in the Montporte Dungeon

We decided, after our Montporte dungeon session, to try make an attempt to convert what was to be a one-shot session into an ongoing campaign. I know frequency will be insure as we are already playing in Rob's Majestic Wilderlands GURPS campaign. However, if we can get in one session a month, I think we will all be happy.

We are converting our Montporte stuff from AD&D 1e to Blood & Treasure. I am also working on creating new maps as JPEGs, using AutoREALM, for use in Roll20. It is a fun process, but it does take time.

GURPS Majestic Wilderlands Session Notes: From "Game of Thrones" to "Cheers"

We started our Majestic Wilderlands GURPS session tonight trying to figure out what to do with the King of the Scanadians that we had captured during our last session. We had noticed the striking resemblance between this king and the head of our mercenary band...sort of a father and son resemblance.

Our boss had no idea that the enemy King was his father, so we played up the surprise. The kings presence did create a crisis in our camp among some of the NPCs...some wondered if our boss was really after the throne instead of the more noble mission of freeing the slaves under Scanadian rule.

In the middle of all this, the leader of our PC band (our platoon leader, sort of), Sir Cei, went off on his own, leaving the rest of the player characters at a loss for our next move. The answer started to form when we found out that our big boss planned on ransoming his father back to his people. We decided to claim a portion of the king's ransom, a total of 90 gold crowns for us (lots of dough for mooks like us).

We then debated as so whether we would continue as mercenaries or take up a different line of work. As we discussed and debated, the idea formed that we would leave the mercernary trade at the top of our game (how could we top coming back from a raid with the enemy's king?). It was the logical move if Sir Cei was no longer our band's leader. Instead, we would open up a tavern...the best tavern ever...and use it as the base for whatever comes next.

So, what started as a Game of Thrones scheming campaign, with our puny 75 point characters as mercenary pawns, has now become more like Cheers.

Monday Night Gaming Prep (Montporte)

We are taking a few weeks off from our current Majestic Wilderlands GURPS campaign, due to family commitments and work-related travel. I offered to run an AD&D 1e session this coming Monday for any players available from our usual Monday night gang. I gave the following instructions:

• We are using AD&D 1e (PHB & DMG).
• Use Method I in the DMG for ability scores.
• Give yourself max hit points and max gold pieces.
• No need to determine your alignment, unless you are a paladin or druid (then it is automatic).
• If you are a cleric, create your own religion (as much as you feel you need to play).

Tim (Gothridge Manor) already created his character, Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle.

I wanted to create a quick setting that would support one session, but I also wanted enough for more (just in case). I didn't want to spend the session shopping, gathering rumors, or finding something to do. So I decided to get a bit railroady and created a simple scenario so that the action starts right away. Here is what the players are getting:

The Captain of the Guard of Montporte (pop. 1,028) has his hands full. Bandits have holed up in the castle ruins to the south, orcs have been harassing the mining village of Wootspil (pop. 106), the wildlands to the east continue to spew forth all manner of foul creatures (most recently giants), and a rebel force commanded by the Duke’s upstart brother lies between Montporte and help to the west.

The Captain has enlisted your aid to track down and eliminate the orcs. You have followed their path north from Wootspil through wooded foothills and you believe you have found their lair (the star on Map 1). The orc trail ends near a stream bed, amidst steep rock outcroppings, dense forest, scrub, and brambles. The Captain has sent two young soldiers with you, Spensol and Ian. He also sent veteran forester, Holat, and his son, Anders.

I used Rob's Points of Light I (the Southland setting) and his Points of Light II (the Amacui setting) as inspirations.

Combat Tactics (A GURPS Newbie Post)

Despite the difference in system mechanics, our current GURPS campaign in Rob's Majestic Wilderlands feels very much like our Swords & Wizardry campaign of a few years ago. Same setting, same GM, same players (with a few new additions), and same lousy weather.

GURPS is very different from S&W, yet the gaming sessions feel much the same. That makes it easy for a GURPS newbie like me. I have noticed, however, that GURPS does play differently in combat. Of course, the list of tactical options in GURPS is much greater than in S&W. However, even taking that difference into account, I have noticed a difference that I will illustrate by recounting a recent encounter in the Majestic Wilderlands. But, before I do that, I need to reference a recent post by Patrick at Renovating the Temple.

In his post, "Maintaining Encounter Balance", Patrick notes the following differences between GURPS and AD&D (and, by extension, S&W):

• AD&D is about managing resources (in combat, managing hit points) while GURPS is about managing actions.
• AD&D characters increase in defensive capacity faster than in offensive capacity. In GURPS, characters generally increase in offensive capabilities faster than they do in defensive capacity (I am not sure if that holds true for magic-users).
• In AD&D, one really powerful bad guy is a greater threat than several weaker bad guys. In GURPS, the opposite is generally true.

The above is my summary of Patrick's post and I could be misunderstanding his point, but as I never let facts stop me on this blog, I'll continue.

My epiphany came after reading Patrick's post and thinking about a recent Majestic Wilderlands session involving a fair amount of combat. Our characters are a group of low-powered mercenaries who most recently have been engaged in a series of border raids. As Tim Shorts puts it in a summary of one of our sessions, "Kill the lords, free the slaves." (or, for us, "kill the conquering Scanadians, free the peasants").

In this particularly session, our characters are attacking a small Scanadian manor house at the edge of a small village. The manor offered just enough defensive works to slow us down (low stone fence surrounding it, sturdy stone walls, and stout wooden doors). Our group attacked the few guards we could see posted on the outside of the building. As we overpowered the guards, I (Delvin the dwarf) took a peek over my shoulder to see what was happening in the village. Behind me, I could see about a half dozen armed Scanadians scattered around the village doing whatever Scanadians do in their conquered villages.

At this point, I had to make a tactical decision: Do I dismount and continue with my group on the assault of the manor house or do I turn my horse around and go after as many of the Scanadians in the village as I can get? In S&W (and AD&D), it doesn't really matter which I do, at least from a tactical perspective. I might be worried that a Scanadian will escape and get help, but that is a strategic worry, not a tactical concern. In AD&D, being outnumbered is not good, but it is not usually a significant tactical disadvantage.

In GURPS, however, being outnumbered is a bad thing. Although I didn't really know why at the time, I realized that we could be in big trouble if the Scanadians in the village were able to mount a counter-attack from behind us. Intuitively sensing the danger, Delvin wheeled his horse around and rode down the Scanadians, killing, wounding or scattering them as I traversed the length of the village.

That is one of the things I have come to enjoy about GURPS. Tactics matter in a way that they do not in some other systems.

Blades of Glory (Game Session Report)

Our Monday Night Gaming Group was back in action this past Monday, after a month off. We were again hounded by technical difficulties that threatened to TPK the session, but switching to Roll20 redeemed the evening.(1)

Our cast of characters currently serve as mercenaries who have been assigned the task of raiding Scanadian manors. We started the session by dropping off a group of refugees that we had escorted back to our camp. We also had to deposit our haul of coins and such. We were then going to head back out into Scanadian territory, but we were delayed by the disappearance of one of our henchmen, Bob. Given that he is only a human, my character (Delvin, a dwarf) was content to leave him behind but the others in the group felt compelled to search for him.

After checking with the local tavern and finding out that he was last seen in the company of lady of the evening, I was again ready to leave him to his fate (stupid humans are worse than rabbits) but again the group continued the search. Our tracker guy followed Bob and his companion's tracks out into the woods where it was obvious that they were intending to engage in a business transaction. We found the where they did the nasty (ewww) and then discovered a serious of insect/arachnid tracks all around. No humans but lots of giant creepy-crawly tracks. Truly a case of being caught with your pants down.

My lack of enthusiasm for risking my precious dwarven flesh to save these two humans was overcome by the joy of brandishing my battle axe against spiders. Delvin is at his best when he is moving forward and going all in with his axe blade.(2)

Notes:
(1) We have been struggling with fatal instabilities with Fantasy Grounds. The funny thing is that I (Delvin) always asks for a weather update at the beginning of the day, an inside joke that goes back to our GM (Rob) and his love of Harn weather charts. However, my last two weather queries are being blamed for our technical difficulties (as evidenced by this post and this post).

(2) I am thoroughly enjoying my first experience with GURPS. While there are lots of fiddly bits, the overall mechanics are very simple and I like the options we have as players both in character creation and as our characters are in action.