12/6/13

Catching Up...

Blogging was on the back burner for the month of November. The last big tasks of our merger were on my plate, which included me moving into my new position (COO of a larger organization) while still doing bits and pieces of my old job (CEO of a smaller organization). While the scope of my new position is narrower than my old, I went from leading 65 staff to leading 400 staff. I finally completed the physical move of my office this week and am taking the ton of Paid Time Off that I have accumulated. My body needs it, as I am in the middle of an auto-immune flareup (another reason why I have not been blogging). I am sure the flare-up is due to stress and lack of sleep, so I am mostly sleeping and reading during my time off.

I did get in a bit of gaming in November. I ran one session of the Montporte Dungeon and +Rob Conley (The Bat in the Attic) ran two playtest sessions of his revamped Majestic Wilderlands (combining elements of Fate, Fudge, GURPS, and Swords & Wizardry).

I have some catching up to do with the blog. I have three Montporte Sessions to write about and a few other items that I want to post this month.

10/28/13

Monday Moodsetter 33

RPG Rorschach: What's the first gaming thought that pops into your head?

10/27/13

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."

10/15/13

My Favorite Cleric

My Dad was a huge fan of westerns--books, movies and television shows. So when I think of clerics, I always start with Clint Eastwood's Preacher. Of questionable origins, alignment, and religion, Preacher is the prototypical cleric for me. No weird Gygaxian mix of alignment, militant religious orders, schoolboy Greek mythology, or cosmology...just a holy symbol filled with lead and a glare that will stop undead in their tracks.

10/14/13

Monday Moodsetter 32

RPG Rorschach: What's the first gaming thought that pops into your head?

10/12/13

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 18 Notes

The Cast
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Dante Rathburn (Human, Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Luven Lightfinger (Human, Thief): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, Marksman): NPC
Ansarkhan ("Mushroom Man", Fighter): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
5 cave goat
Map A (1 Square = 5 Feet)
The Session
The party of brave adventurers finished Session 17 in Room 1 (Map A above). This area is part of an abandoned silver mine, that continued on to the north. The party had been in this area (Room 7 on Map A) back in Session 12.

The party continued further into the mine in Room 2, where they found a human corpse standing in the middle of the room in mid-stride. He had an obsidian staff in his hand and his flesh was dried and burned, resembling the texture of beef jerky. There were rat bones in the area and evidence on the corpse that the rats had done some gnawing on the legs of the dead guy.

Using gloves, Luven knocked the obsidian staff out of the corpse's hand. Adzeer then examined the staff, using the Lens of Melnar. The staff was magical, but the real magic of the staff came from its inhabitant, some sort of creature that was kind of like a fire elemental but also possessing negative energy. In the meantime, Luven snatched up a scroll case off the corpse without anyone in the party noticing.

The party decided to leave the staff alone and moved east, exploring a few rooms until they arrived in Room 3 (Map A above). From Room 3, the party could see north into Room 4 and they spied a large pile of rock and dust slowly moving south towards them. The pile was huge and had a vague humanoid shape. They decided to stay in Room 3, hoping that the mystery pile of dirt couldn't pass through the narrow opening between the rooms.

It turned out that the creature was able to pass through the stone walls and they found themselves attacked by a tough but slow moving mystery creature, which they guessed was some sort of elemental. The mystery creature absorbed considerable damage without causing any harm, which eased the party's fear of it. However, confidence turned to full scale alarm when it finally hit Luven and drained part of his life force plus did a lot of damage. The party turned to magic but most of the spells failed. Finally, they were able to destroy the fell creature.

Luven finally revealed the scroll he had swiped off the corpse and it turned out to be written in elvish. Dante was able to read it and he recognized, based on the content, that it was written by a ancient elven scholar of great reknown, Pliny the Alder. The information in the scroll was dated, to say the least, but it did give the party more information about the Montporte Dungeon and its previous inhabitants (the pdf file of the scroll can be viewed here).

Having gained a bit more information about the Montporte Dungeon, the party continued to move east from Room 4 into Room 5. The group  started to move into Room 6 when Luven, who was in Room 5, heard a noise from the south. It sounded to him like the clank of someone walking in armor.

Adzeer moved south to scout out the noise and saw a red-hooded figure with two crabmen and two armored "super gaunts" in Room 7 (Map A above). The party retreated into Room 5 and Little Larry moved into the corridor between Room 6 and Room 8, into to outflank the opponents with his bow as they moved into Room 8.

And their opponents did move into Room 7 and then north, where Adzeer and Dante could take them on one at a time at the opening of the corridor. Little Larry started pouring arrows into the enemies, with Ansarkhan watching his back.

The opponent's party split, leaving Little Larry a bit exposed. He backed into Room 6, where Ansarkhan could help out. It was a close run battle, with Ansarkhan going down with critical wounds. The party, however, was victorious and was able to heal Ansarkhan.

Given the abuse the party had suffered in their two encounters during the session, they decided to hole up in Room 9, a room that they had been in previously.

This is where the session ended for the evening.

The Dungeon So Far
Level 1 (1 Square = 5 Feet)
Level 2 (1 Square = 5 Feet)

10/10/13

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: The One-Page Dungeon

The One-Page Dungeon idea captured my heart back in 2008-2009 and its influence can be seen in Michael Curtis' (The Society of Torch, Pole, and RopeStonehell dungeon (which is actually a composite of two-page dungeons). The One-Page Dungeon approach is a great way to design a dungeon and I have used it quite a bit myself. The One-Page Dungeon template (by Michael at ChicagoWiz's RPG Blog) is a great way to get a playable dungeon area created, as it enforces the discipline of not creating too much extraneous material that either becomes a time suck (if you are a perfectionist) or simply won't be used in play.

You can see the key posts by Dave (Sham's Grog & Blog) here and here. Michael (ChicagoWiz's RPG Blog) had an important post in between Dave's two posts, which you can find here. Michael Curtis (The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope) wraps up this class of Hall of Fame inductees with his post on the same topic here.