UPDATE (4/19/2009) - Sharpen your pencils, get out the graph paper and enter the One Page Dungeon Contest! A "metric ton" of awesome prizes awaits those who dare! Contest ends May 14th, 2009!
Yesterday, Sham/Dave posted about his attempts to create a template for a "one page" dungeon level key. That was all prompted by a discussion on the Original D&D Forum about creating megadungeons.
As I said, one of my "McFly" weaknesses is someone saying "Gee, I wish a geek would do this...". It's how I created the microlite20 character generator and microlite20 NPC generator (which actually got me back into PHP and helped me to find a job in July, but that's a strange story for another day...) and it's how I was tempted (obsessed) to solve Sham's problem.
The hardest part actually was getting the 6 line/in, 30x30 grid from the Incompetech PDF (I used the Cornell template, based on Norman Harman's suggestion) into the OpenOffice document - I learned how to upgrade Ubuntu 8.10 to OpenOffice 3.0 in a roundabout way and got the PDF import extension. After that, it was pretty easy to use frames (text boxes) and line everything up.
The One Page Dungeon Level Templates can be downloaded here. This zip includes both Word and OpenOffice documents/templates.
(http://sites.google.com/site/chgowizsite/Home/OnePageDungeonLevelTemplates.zip?attredirects=0)
In honor of Sham's ideas, I'm releasing my own One Page Dungeon Level - The Wizard's Ruined Tower Level 1 - it's based loosely on an old 2E Fast Play module and one of the (I think) 3E Quick Start adventures. I can't remember quite where it came from. The map is hand-drawn in pencil. It's stat'ed for an OD&Dish type of game, so microlite74, OD&D, Holmes and Swords/Wizardry should work just fine with this. I used this to tweak the one page template.
Please, please... feel free to use this and give me feedback. One Page Dungeon Level Templates is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. If you publish, just please throw a link in to my blog, please.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
When mapping becomes a chore (Wife's solo game observation)
Taken from the OSRIC Version 2.0 Core Rulebook:
It is important to understand the purpose of the players’ map. The goal is not to create an exact copy of the GM’s map, but to keep a record of which areas are explored and which not, to allow the party to fi nd their way back to the entrance and, on subsequent expeditions, fi nd their way back to where they left off. If the dungeon is small or simple in layout the players may not need a map. Even if the dungeon is larger or more complex, a “trailing map” with lines for corridors and squares for rooms and chambers, maybe with marginal markings showing length or size, is almost always enough. Only in the most labyrinthine of dungeon levels, with rooms and corridors tightly packed together, are players likely to fi nd making a strictly accurate map rewarding.
...
Many players hate mapping, considering it a fun-killing burden, and these players will often try to get the GM to design simpler dungeons or even to draw the map for them. The OSRIC GM
should avoid these “solutions”; play goes quicker if a player maps. Encourage the players to map appropriately—i.e. only when necessary and use a trailing map where possible.
During the past couple of sessions with my wife, I've watched her slave more and more over the map. She did some things that I've done in the past - she tried to accurately map the rooms dimensions in scale with the other rooms and what she's interpreted from my descriptions. Of course, this leads to a mess - unless one is using graph paper (instead of lined notebook paper or blank paper) and precise measurements then a map is going to be all relative, and soon enough become a mess.(wandering monsters love careful/slow mappers...)
This happened to her as she circled through Zenopus's Tower in the Holmes Basic book. When I told her that she had come into the room with the burnt spider body, I could see the frustration on her face. She shuffled the three pieces of paper she had laboriously worked over, looked up at me and said "We're back where we came from!"
It was getting late, we were getting a bit tired, but I didn't want her to walk away from the table with that frustration, and since there are no other experienced players at the table who could talk to her about mapping, I paused the game and took some time to walk her through where she'd been.
I think there's a fine balance between "throwing someone in the pond and sink or swim" and taking a few minutes to teach the fine art of dog-paddling. In this case, since she is solo and since it's going to be up to her to find her (and the party's) way out of places, I wanted to give her an idea of what mapping should be:
1. Mapping is useful for solving riddles and finding your way back out. Put enough time into it to serve your purposes. It's usually sufficient to draw enough of a map so that you have a general idea of where you're at and how to get out. Notes will be very useful, especially on places that are noteworthy.
As we were going through where she'd been, my wife said to the effect that she hadn't been paying attention to the descriptions and probably should have been. To me, that kind of experience is just as much a "win" as slaying the monsters. She's becoming a better player and that's really neat to see. One thing my wife loves is competition, and if she learns that by being a good player, she'll be challenging the DM to get better, that will get her going. Game on!
2. Learn to use what OSRIC describes as a "trailing map" - just a set of squares and lines that represent the corridors between.
I did this for my wife of where'd she been so far. I had her write down what she could remember from each room. So that she wouldn't get frustrated, I gave her small hints (and in one case reminded her outright) of what she had seen there to fill out her notes. At the end, I "toured" her around to show her that she could find her way through where she'd been. (In writing this, I realized that I need to 'redo' it a bit to show her the value of leaving lots of white space so when you run into places you haven't been, you can put them in there.)
3. Accept that your map is probably not going to be reality - and doesn't need to be.
When she looked at me and complained "That's not right, that's not what my map says", I had to let her know that her map didn't reflect reality. She accepted that, once we talked about scales and how hard it would be to make things all line up. Again, the trailing map (I also used to call it a 'flowchart' map) will help - can you find your way out? Yup - so what if your map doesn't show the exact corridor dimensions? Unless you're in a maze, or unless you *know* you have to find something secret, a map is not going to really need to be detailed. Knowing that you need to go down a corridor that turns left and right 3 times versus knowing that each leg to the west was 20' and to the right was 40' is not critical. If it is, well, you'll have to do it, but that's something you'll find out as a player as you go through the dungeon. As a DM, if the setting doesn't scream "Map Me!", and it's a critical piece, you'll have to use your judgement on how much you'll hint that maybe a more detailed map is a good idea.
One of the tricks that I use is to leave a LOT of space between areas on the trailing map when I have multiple sessions in the same dungeon. Sometimes the corridors will look like spaghetti, but that's OK, as long as the rough room layout is good, at least with room counts and door/opening layouts. Enough for someone to say "OK, we've come to the room with 4 doors and we just came from the room where we bashed the skeletons last time, I know where we are!"
4. Don't let mapping get in the way of fun.
I tried to nip her frustration in the bud - definitely one of the nice things about playing one on one. She had no problem running through the corridors and I didn't give her much of a chance to map while that was happening. In the future, if someone's running full tilt after monsters, I'm not going to let them map at all... but again, I'm introducing her one step at a time to things.
If you see your players getting frustrated at mapping, it's not a bad idea to have an experienced person talk to them, or even talk to them yourself. It took up 20 minutes of our night for me to review the map with her, but that's OK. I think the benefits of that are worth the effort.
How have you had frustrations at mapping or have taught people how to map? This is all stuff that works for me, does it work for you?
ETA - One final funny bit - my wife also asked "How can a room be behind the stairs?" and that just threw me until I explained it in terms of a set of basement stairs... sometimes my brain locks in how to describe things.
It is important to understand the purpose of the players’ map. The goal is not to create an exact copy of the GM’s map, but to keep a record of which areas are explored and which not, to allow the party to fi nd their way back to the entrance and, on subsequent expeditions, fi nd their way back to where they left off. If the dungeon is small or simple in layout the players may not need a map. Even if the dungeon is larger or more complex, a “trailing map” with lines for corridors and squares for rooms and chambers, maybe with marginal markings showing length or size, is almost always enough. Only in the most labyrinthine of dungeon levels, with rooms and corridors tightly packed together, are players likely to fi nd making a strictly accurate map rewarding.
...
Many players hate mapping, considering it a fun-killing burden, and these players will often try to get the GM to design simpler dungeons or even to draw the map for them. The OSRIC GM
should avoid these “solutions”; play goes quicker if a player maps. Encourage the players to map appropriately—i.e. only when necessary and use a trailing map where possible.
During the past couple of sessions with my wife, I've watched her slave more and more over the map. She did some things that I've done in the past - she tried to accurately map the rooms dimensions in scale with the other rooms and what she's interpreted from my descriptions. Of course, this leads to a mess - unless one is using graph paper (instead of lined notebook paper or blank paper) and precise measurements then a map is going to be all relative, and soon enough become a mess.(wandering monsters love careful/slow mappers...)
This happened to her as she circled through Zenopus's Tower in the Holmes Basic book. When I told her that she had come into the room with the burnt spider body, I could see the frustration on her face. She shuffled the three pieces of paper she had laboriously worked over, looked up at me and said "We're back where we came from!"
It was getting late, we were getting a bit tired, but I didn't want her to walk away from the table with that frustration, and since there are no other experienced players at the table who could talk to her about mapping, I paused the game and took some time to walk her through where she'd been.
I think there's a fine balance between "throwing someone in the pond and sink or swim" and taking a few minutes to teach the fine art of dog-paddling. In this case, since she is solo and since it's going to be up to her to find her (and the party's) way out of places, I wanted to give her an idea of what mapping should be:
1. Mapping is useful for solving riddles and finding your way back out. Put enough time into it to serve your purposes. It's usually sufficient to draw enough of a map so that you have a general idea of where you're at and how to get out. Notes will be very useful, especially on places that are noteworthy.
As we were going through where she'd been, my wife said to the effect that she hadn't been paying attention to the descriptions and probably should have been. To me, that kind of experience is just as much a "win" as slaying the monsters. She's becoming a better player and that's really neat to see. One thing my wife loves is competition, and if she learns that by being a good player, she'll be challenging the DM to get better, that will get her going. Game on!
2. Learn to use what OSRIC describes as a "trailing map" - just a set of squares and lines that represent the corridors between.
I did this for my wife of where'd she been so far. I had her write down what she could remember from each room. So that she wouldn't get frustrated, I gave her small hints (and in one case reminded her outright) of what she had seen there to fill out her notes. At the end, I "toured" her around to show her that she could find her way through where she'd been. (In writing this, I realized that I need to 'redo' it a bit to show her the value of leaving lots of white space so when you run into places you haven't been, you can put them in there.)
3. Accept that your map is probably not going to be reality - and doesn't need to be.
When she looked at me and complained "That's not right, that's not what my map says", I had to let her know that her map didn't reflect reality. She accepted that, once we talked about scales and how hard it would be to make things all line up. Again, the trailing map (I also used to call it a 'flowchart' map) will help - can you find your way out? Yup - so what if your map doesn't show the exact corridor dimensions? Unless you're in a maze, or unless you *know* you have to find something secret, a map is not going to really need to be detailed. Knowing that you need to go down a corridor that turns left and right 3 times versus knowing that each leg to the west was 20' and to the right was 40' is not critical. If it is, well, you'll have to do it, but that's something you'll find out as a player as you go through the dungeon. As a DM, if the setting doesn't scream "Map Me!", and it's a critical piece, you'll have to use your judgement on how much you'll hint that maybe a more detailed map is a good idea.
One of the tricks that I use is to leave a LOT of space between areas on the trailing map when I have multiple sessions in the same dungeon. Sometimes the corridors will look like spaghetti, but that's OK, as long as the rough room layout is good, at least with room counts and door/opening layouts. Enough for someone to say "OK, we've come to the room with 4 doors and we just came from the room where we bashed the skeletons last time, I know where we are!"
4. Don't let mapping get in the way of fun.
I tried to nip her frustration in the bud - definitely one of the nice things about playing one on one. She had no problem running through the corridors and I didn't give her much of a chance to map while that was happening. In the future, if someone's running full tilt after monsters, I'm not going to let them map at all... but again, I'm introducing her one step at a time to things.
If you see your players getting frustrated at mapping, it's not a bad idea to have an experienced person talk to them, or even talk to them yourself. It took up 20 minutes of our night for me to review the map with her, but that's OK. I think the benefits of that are worth the effort.
How have you had frustrations at mapping or have taught people how to map? This is all stuff that works for me, does it work for you?
ETA - One final funny bit - my wife also asked "How can a room be behind the stairs?" and that just threw me until I explained it in terms of a set of basement stairs... sometimes my brain locks in how to describe things.
Playing an OD&D Solo Game with my wife - fourth (and ongoing) session
We continued our solo game last night, having paused it from Sunday night because we both just got too tired to continue. And, like Sunday night, we had such a good time that the two hours passed very quickly. I decided to pause it yet again in the dungeon, as we had to take a time out to resolve a mapping crisis.
On Sunday night, Aeli (my wife's character) dragged the two bodies of the dead hirelings to the temple in Westport for a proper burial. [-- I had a chance to introduce more NPCs and a bit of flavoring of the campaign - the Goddess of the Sea and her temple. (The picture is approximate to what I described, except that at the temple, there is the large statue of the Goddess in the center of plaza, arm outstretched - this picture shows part of the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA). ]
Once she'd been ushered inside by the lower priests, she met the main priest - Worlale - who questioned her and Tironell about the deaths of the hirelings. He emphatically told her to stop "messing with things that are best left undisturbed." He asked Aeli to cover the cost of the service for the two, which came out to about 40gp. She paid, at which point the priest's attitude towards her changed. He even told her about a vision he'd had of her, given by the Goddess to him. [ -- This was based on her backstory of the evil mage who had betrayed, then slaughtered her family.]
Afterwards, she arrived to the inn to find the hirelings celebrating (Ales and Whores, baybee!), even after being paid a platinum to "keep their mouths shut." Aeli ended up carousing with them, and spent a few gold herself. After a restless night of sleep in which she had her own vision of the dark figure and blood on her hands, Aeli woke, restocked on her light supply and the party returned to the dungeon.
Well, at this point, I'd had several NPCs tell of a rival adventuring group that was looking for the entrance, so Aeli and her party tried to take a roundabout, Family-Circle-style back to the entrance to the Tower. [ -- I finally drew out a rough map of what the area looks like. ] Unfortunately, a well-armed party of tough looking adventurers finds it hard to skulk around a busy port during the middle of the day, and they realized they were being followed when they suddenly doubled back and saw someone take off running away from them.
They uncovered the entrance, entered, covered it back up as well as they could from the inside and proceeded back into the dungeon. After a bit of retracing their steps through some familiar areas, Aeli sauntered casually down a long corridor into a four-way intersection, thinking about whatever PCs think right before... "Make a Reflex roll" [-- I'm using microlite74ish rules so some of the D20'isms still apply, including the 3 types of saves: Fortitude, Reflex and Will ]
At this point, my wife gets a slightly "ohcrapnowwhat" look on her face, especially after she fails the save. An embarassed Aeli was pulled out of the pit with some rope and they continued on - with much poking of the 10' pole ahead to see if anything else would happen.
They ventured into an area that smelled of musty and fetid, and after some walking down this long room, realized they were in a burial area with ten sarcophagi in the middle. A random giant rat shot out of one of of the holes in the wall and attacked the party, who quickly dispatched. Amazingly, though, Aeli crept through the room and out of it without disturbing any of the sarcophagi. [-- When I told her later that I was very surprised, she said "I just knew there'd be a monster in there and I didn't want to run into more of those corpse eaters." Heh. Fear. I like that. ]
They left the room and down the corridor, they found the remains of several poorly dressed men. These were the bandits that Aeli and her party had killed on Day 1. [ -- At this point, we paused on Sunday night, and picked it back up Monday night.] A bit more exploring took Aeli through another room they'd been before on Day 1, the room where the grey humanoids eating dead bodies had been. A walk into the next room, and the party happened to surprise two bandits about to open a door.
One turned, tossed a dagger at the party while the other yanked open the door and took off. Aeli gave chase, charging the one that had paused to toss the dagger, and skewered him into the door. She then took off, running like mad to catch the other bandit. A run around a couple of corners took her into another familiar room, a room full of garbage and dead giant rat bodies. (They'd been here on Day 2). She killed him as he was trying to yank open another door to keep fleeing. [-- It's a good thing she didn't end up like Han Solo did when he chased two Storm Troopers... ]
Exploring through a room full of debris (from when Zenopus's Tower full) brought Aeli to a door where she heard a human voice muttering and the sounds of paper rustling on the other side. She cautiously opened the door and peeked in. She saw 3 extremely detailed statues of men, a heavily armed man and a table. Opening the door and walking in, she saw a robed man behind the table. He looked up, snarled something at the players and then ordered the fighter to attack. "Get them, slave!"
I'm going to pause the recap here, since this has gotten quite large and I don't want to make too long of a single post.
I was thrilled that my wife was having a lot of fun. She had fun dashing through the dungeon and I'm starting to get the hang of how combat works when someone is chasing another. She learned a lesson about traps and she made an interesting choice NOT to plunder the sarcophagi, because she was worried. I liked seeing her play that way, as it meant she was thinking. Risk versus reward...
On Sunday night, Aeli (my wife's character) dragged the two bodies of the dead hirelings to the temple in Westport for a proper burial. [-- I had a chance to introduce more NPCs and a bit of flavoring of the campaign - the Goddess of the Sea and her temple. (The picture is approximate to what I described, except that at the temple, there is the large statue of the Goddess in the center of plaza, arm outstretched - this picture shows part of the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA). ]Once she'd been ushered inside by the lower priests, she met the main priest - Worlale - who questioned her and Tironell about the deaths of the hirelings. He emphatically told her to stop "messing with things that are best left undisturbed." He asked Aeli to cover the cost of the service for the two, which came out to about 40gp. She paid, at which point the priest's attitude towards her changed. He even told her about a vision he'd had of her, given by the Goddess to him. [ -- This was based on her backstory of the evil mage who had betrayed, then slaughtered her family.]
Afterwards, she arrived to the inn to find the hirelings celebrating (Ales and Whores, baybee!), even after being paid a platinum to "keep their mouths shut." Aeli ended up carousing with them, and spent a few gold herself. After a restless night of sleep in which she had her own vision of the dark figure and blood on her hands, Aeli woke, restocked on her light supply and the party returned to the dungeon.
Well, at this point, I'd had several NPCs tell of a rival adventuring group that was looking for the entrance, so Aeli and her party tried to take a roundabout, Family-Circle-style back to the entrance to the Tower. [ -- I finally drew out a rough map of what the area looks like. ] Unfortunately, a well-armed party of tough looking adventurers finds it hard to skulk around a busy port during the middle of the day, and they realized they were being followed when they suddenly doubled back and saw someone take off running away from them.
They uncovered the entrance, entered, covered it back up as well as they could from the inside and proceeded back into the dungeon. After a bit of retracing their steps through some familiar areas, Aeli sauntered casually down a long corridor into a four-way intersection, thinking about whatever PCs think right before... "Make a Reflex roll" [-- I'm using microlite74ish rules so some of the D20'isms still apply, including the 3 types of saves: Fortitude, Reflex and Will ]
At this point, my wife gets a slightly "ohcrapnowwhat" look on her face, especially after she fails the save. An embarassed Aeli was pulled out of the pit with some rope and they continued on - with much poking of the 10' pole ahead to see if anything else would happen.
They ventured into an area that smelled of musty and fetid, and after some walking down this long room, realized they were in a burial area with ten sarcophagi in the middle. A random giant rat shot out of one of of the holes in the wall and attacked the party, who quickly dispatched. Amazingly, though, Aeli crept through the room and out of it without disturbing any of the sarcophagi. [-- When I told her later that I was very surprised, she said "I just knew there'd be a monster in there and I didn't want to run into more of those corpse eaters." Heh. Fear. I like that. ]
They left the room and down the corridor, they found the remains of several poorly dressed men. These were the bandits that Aeli and her party had killed on Day 1. [ -- At this point, we paused on Sunday night, and picked it back up Monday night.] A bit more exploring took Aeli through another room they'd been before on Day 1, the room where the grey humanoids eating dead bodies had been. A walk into the next room, and the party happened to surprise two bandits about to open a door.
One turned, tossed a dagger at the party while the other yanked open the door and took off. Aeli gave chase, charging the one that had paused to toss the dagger, and skewered him into the door. She then took off, running like mad to catch the other bandit. A run around a couple of corners took her into another familiar room, a room full of garbage and dead giant rat bodies. (They'd been here on Day 2). She killed him as he was trying to yank open another door to keep fleeing. [-- It's a good thing she didn't end up like Han Solo did when he chased two Storm Troopers... ]
Exploring through a room full of debris (from when Zenopus's Tower full) brought Aeli to a door where she heard a human voice muttering and the sounds of paper rustling on the other side. She cautiously opened the door and peeked in. She saw 3 extremely detailed statues of men, a heavily armed man and a table. Opening the door and walking in, she saw a robed man behind the table. He looked up, snarled something at the players and then ordered the fighter to attack. "Get them, slave!"
I'm going to pause the recap here, since this has gotten quite large and I don't want to make too long of a single post.
I was thrilled that my wife was having a lot of fun. She had fun dashing through the dungeon and I'm starting to get the hang of how combat works when someone is chasing another. She learned a lesson about traps and she made an interesting choice NOT to plunder the sarcophagi, because she was worried. I liked seeing her play that way, as it meant she was thinking. Risk versus reward...
Saturday, December 27, 2008
From Chainmail to OD&D - Counterspells!
Remember 1984's Conan the Destroyer? Aside from the cute blonde (hey, I was 18, give me a break...) and Grace Jones, the one thing that really stood out in my head was Akiro the mage getting into a spell battle with the evil priest. That sequence always fascinated me because it implied that mages just didn't cast spells at targets, they also could direct and bend their energies, perhaps enough to overcome another's spells.
At the time, I had always wondered how I could do these sorts of things in the games I played, but I didn't put enough thought into it. I'm not familiar enough with 3.xE or 4E (or even all the variants of 2E and 1E) to know if the ability to counter an enemy's spells is given in the rules, but I was overjoyed when my reading of Chainmail revealed that Counterspells is a well described tactic in the rules for Wizards. I just couldn't figure out how to make it work for D&D.
A thread on the Original D&D forum about Chainmail spell complexity and counterspelling has led to one gentleman, dubeers, to post his proposed house rule for Counterspells for OD&D - huzzah!
It's a fantastic variant that allows a mage to "do battle" against another magic user. Now, instead of your first through third level MUs being paper thin "one shot" participants, they can match wits against opposing mages in countering spells.
If your trusty mage faces off against the vile goblin shaman, and said shaman begins to weave his spell of Sleep against your party, the mage can declare a counterspell. A duel begins where the counterspell rolls against a value based on the level difference between mages.
If the counterspell is successful, the spell is disrupted and the original caster loses the spell from memory. In addition, to spice it up, both make a saving throw. The counterspelling mage may also lose a spell from memory in the attempt, as well as the original caster may suffer additional effects, such as confusion, unconsciousness or even HP loss! Such is the way of the fickle power of Magick that we deal with!
I really like this, because it gives the mage something to do other than just be the magical equivalent of a bow and arrows. Now there can be duels, spells and counterspells crackling in the air and battles akin to what we've always dreamed of.
I know this is going to be added and playtested in my 1E/OSRIC game. I'll put it in my wife's solo game, but since the mage is an NPC, and I don't like "outshining" the players, I will probably not use it.
At the time, I had always wondered how I could do these sorts of things in the games I played, but I didn't put enough thought into it. I'm not familiar enough with 3.xE or 4E (or even all the variants of 2E and 1E) to know if the ability to counter an enemy's spells is given in the rules, but I was overjoyed when my reading of Chainmail revealed that Counterspells is a well described tactic in the rules for Wizards. I just couldn't figure out how to make it work for D&D.
A thread on the Original D&D forum about Chainmail spell complexity and counterspelling has led to one gentleman, dubeers, to post his proposed house rule for Counterspells for OD&D - huzzah!
It's a fantastic variant that allows a mage to "do battle" against another magic user. Now, instead of your first through third level MUs being paper thin "one shot" participants, they can match wits against opposing mages in countering spells.
If your trusty mage faces off against the vile goblin shaman, and said shaman begins to weave his spell of Sleep against your party, the mage can declare a counterspell. A duel begins where the counterspell rolls against a value based on the level difference between mages.
If the counterspell is successful, the spell is disrupted and the original caster loses the spell from memory. In addition, to spice it up, both make a saving throw. The counterspelling mage may also lose a spell from memory in the attempt, as well as the original caster may suffer additional effects, such as confusion, unconsciousness or even HP loss! Such is the way of the fickle power of Magick that we deal with!
I really like this, because it gives the mage something to do other than just be the magical equivalent of a bow and arrows. Now there can be duels, spells and counterspells crackling in the air and battles akin to what we've always dreamed of.
I know this is going to be added and playtested in my 1E/OSRIC game. I'll put it in my wife's solo game, but since the mage is an NPC, and I don't like "outshining" the players, I will probably not use it.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Playing an OD&D Solo Game with my wife - third game
Friday night, my wife and I, along with my visiting 10 year old daughter, sat down to continue the exploration of the ruins of Zenopus's Tower. It was a really fun game, and one where I saw my wife and daughter achieve something that a lot of gamers take for granted - solving a puzzle. I think that can be one of the hardest, most frustrating experiences for new gamers, but when they achieve it, there's an "AhHA!" moment that they'll not soon forget - and they can use that for future reference.
I've tried to RP with my daughter before, and she didn't enjoy it so much. I had tried to give her a game where there was a very obvious story, but she didn't want to do it. She also didn't want to just explore the town. I think it just wasn't something that caught her imagination, and I think she didn't like playing solo. In talking to her, it seems like she likes to be part of a group, so she doesn't like having to make the decisions by herself, but she also definitely doesn't want a railroad type of story.
I had a few pregenerated characters, so she picked the very strong dwarf. Both her and my wife were happy that I hand-waved the character introductions and just dropped her in the party. My wife wanted to get back to the dungeon and bash things, and I think my daughter didn't want to do a lot of RP'ing herself.
When we last played, my wife had done a lot of interaction with the townsfolk of Westport and had found out that hirelings had lives too - the widow of a dead hireling wanted his body back for a proper burial! So that was job 1 for Aeli, get the bodies back.
My wife is starting to map now, which caused some interesting discussions because the map she had didn't match the descriptions I was giving her. I was describing what she saw, and she replied "That's not it..." so that was a quick gentle reminder that yes, I am describing what she saw. I need to remember to remind her that maps are general guidelines, and they might get confused, but that I'm not going to change things to mess her up.
So they trooped through the goblin room, with dead goblin bodies, and back into the spider room, where the door was closed, of course. Aeli and Yakimi (my daughter's dwarf) grabbed the bodies and started lugging them behind, at the rear of the party. Reopening doors to head back, they come face to face with wandering monsters, more bandits!
Then began another standoff - "Get out of our dungeon!", "No, you get out!" and combat was had. Aeli and Yakimi were boxed in behind the hirelings as the fight was at a doorway, and I now realize that I did a big no-no; I had a fight that didn't have the PCs participating much. One of the hirelings fell from a huge wound, so Aeli was able to step in, and the other gave way to allow Yakimi into the fray. Two bandits fell, two routed and that was it.
The party healed the hireling with one of their healing potions, put the recovered bodies near the stairs and decided to head to a new section of the dungeon. They entered an extremely dusty room with cobwebbed niches - of course something was going to burst from them, 4 skeletons!
Thus began bash #2. Aeli and Yakimi dashed towards the skeletons and the hirelings... well, they taught my wife a new lesson in combat tactics - the fighting circle! She saw that they grouped up in the middle of the room. She said "Hey, where are you guys going!?" and one of them retorted "We're being smart and forming a circle!". The skeletons, being mindless automatons, attacked what was closest, two on each single PC!
Although the battle was short and sweet, it was good to see my wife start backing up back into the circle. She's playing a good headstrong "bash 'em all" fighter type, but she's also seeing some tactics in action and in ways that don't force her to do what I think she should do. Sure, go ahead and run into the middle of the bad guys... but you see your hirelings doing smart things? ;)
An exploration of a few empty rooms, which always serves to heighten the tension, led them to what I saw as the highlight of the evening.
The party came to a door that was very different from the rest of the typical wooden/iron-banded/ring-in-the-middle doors they'd run into. This door was finely crafted, with scrollwork on the doors. It also had no ring to open it, but smoothly and *quietly* opened to the touch. It swung all the way open on it's own, then swung shut. Aeli could hold it open, but she could feel a pressure that wanted to shut the door. Yakimi could see a statue of a figure with a distorted head, and horns (a demon looking figure) facing the door, with an outstretched hand towards the door.
So all of the party went in, with Aeli holding the door. After seeing that there was nothing else in the room, except for doors in all four walls, Aeli followed and allowed the door to shut. I then mentioned how each door fit flush into the wall. You probably see where this is going, but my wife and daughter didn't... until they tried to exit another door.
"We push the door open."
"It doesn't push open. It's flush into the wall and doesn't move when you push it."
"..."
They realized there was nothing to grab onto to open the doors, and they couldn't pry them open. The whole room was finely crafted, well built and hardly the worse for wear. The statue was on a pedastal.
My daughter tried bashing open the doors with her hand-axe. Each stroke resulted in just sparks from the axe hitting the door. Eventually, her axe broke, because she said she kept hitting the axe on the door.
My wife tried pushing the statue. I rolled a d6 to see if a hint would happen, and she got a 6, so I told her that she felt "something". Repeated pushes, which she described as pushing to try and topple the statue, lead to nothing. My daughter's dwarf climbed on the statue, pulled on it's arms and head, but nothing happened. I had them describe to me exactly what they were doing, and tried to determine if anything would help, but they weren't doing anything that would solve the puzzle. My daughter proclaimed "We're dead!" and her dwarf proceeded to take a nap because she was bored with trying to figure it out.
I could see that my wife and daughter were getting a bit frustrated, and this was a dangerous point. I did NOT want the NPCs to "stumble" on the secret and give it away, and I did NOT want the solution to come to a dice roll. Tironell, my mage NPC, did mention that it didn't seem magical and that all we had to work with was the doors and statue, and this probably wasn't meant to be a death trap.
After a bit, and my NPC asking Aeli "What else can we do to the statue?", she started trying to move it in all directions, which then I could say "The statue twists slightly on the pedestal." That was the "AHA!" moment at which my wife started moving the statue, since it rotated in one direction only, the hand points to a door and it silently swings open and shut. Since the party was starting to run out of torches (my wife now is starting to learn that resources are NOT infinite), it was time to go the way they came.
A quick foray into a "garbage room" and a really quick fight with rats - one of my hirelings stabbed a 1 HP rat through the middle, held it up and proclaimed in his sidekick voice "Rat on a Stick. Yea." (Turchao and Rather are two "brothers" who are Men at Arms together. Turchao is the talker, all Rather says is "Yea." after everything, so this speech was surprising to everyone. I love dropping in things like that.) The party found 50 platinum pieces and a silver dagger. They left the dungeon and called it a day, as we have a bit of RP'ing to do when Aeli takes back the bodies to the local temple and meets the cleric of the town for the first time. He's going to have a reaction to her that will tie into her story, but we'll save that for later.
My wife admitted later that the puzzle room had been hard, and that it had been frustrating, but I pointed out (and awarded XP) that she had solved it, and that she did it on her own. The nice thing is now she's learning that not everything is going to be in front of her and that creative thinking may be needed.
My daughter had a blast and couldn't wait to play again. Unfortunately, the way the weekend went, my wife didn't feel good and so we've put off the next game till tonight. I'm really happy she had a fun time.
OD&D/microlite74/Philotomy's Simple combat is quick, fun, and not overloaded with a lot of rules. I varied off the m74 rules a bit and allowed a bit of movement and melee in the same round, if it was a short movement. Playing with miniatures helped, although they did distract my wife a bit in terms of the marching order, but we got it all sorted out. I'm trying to remember to be descriptive and give each thing they do some sort of sense-cue, without overdoing it. Random sounds, wandering monsters, they all make this a way to introduce a sense of "oh crap, what are we doing here in the dark..."
I've tried to RP with my daughter before, and she didn't enjoy it so much. I had tried to give her a game where there was a very obvious story, but she didn't want to do it. She also didn't want to just explore the town. I think it just wasn't something that caught her imagination, and I think she didn't like playing solo. In talking to her, it seems like she likes to be part of a group, so she doesn't like having to make the decisions by herself, but she also definitely doesn't want a railroad type of story.
I had a few pregenerated characters, so she picked the very strong dwarf. Both her and my wife were happy that I hand-waved the character introductions and just dropped her in the party. My wife wanted to get back to the dungeon and bash things, and I think my daughter didn't want to do a lot of RP'ing herself.
When we last played, my wife had done a lot of interaction with the townsfolk of Westport and had found out that hirelings had lives too - the widow of a dead hireling wanted his body back for a proper burial! So that was job 1 for Aeli, get the bodies back.
My wife is starting to map now, which caused some interesting discussions because the map she had didn't match the descriptions I was giving her. I was describing what she saw, and she replied "That's not it..." so that was a quick gentle reminder that yes, I am describing what she saw. I need to remember to remind her that maps are general guidelines, and they might get confused, but that I'm not going to change things to mess her up.
So they trooped through the goblin room, with dead goblin bodies, and back into the spider room, where the door was closed, of course. Aeli and Yakimi (my daughter's dwarf) grabbed the bodies and started lugging them behind, at the rear of the party. Reopening doors to head back, they come face to face with wandering monsters, more bandits!
Then began another standoff - "Get out of our dungeon!", "No, you get out!" and combat was had. Aeli and Yakimi were boxed in behind the hirelings as the fight was at a doorway, and I now realize that I did a big no-no; I had a fight that didn't have the PCs participating much. One of the hirelings fell from a huge wound, so Aeli was able to step in, and the other gave way to allow Yakimi into the fray. Two bandits fell, two routed and that was it.
The party healed the hireling with one of their healing potions, put the recovered bodies near the stairs and decided to head to a new section of the dungeon. They entered an extremely dusty room with cobwebbed niches - of course something was going to burst from them, 4 skeletons!
Thus began bash #2. Aeli and Yakimi dashed towards the skeletons and the hirelings... well, they taught my wife a new lesson in combat tactics - the fighting circle! She saw that they grouped up in the middle of the room. She said "Hey, where are you guys going!?" and one of them retorted "We're being smart and forming a circle!". The skeletons, being mindless automatons, attacked what was closest, two on each single PC!
Although the battle was short and sweet, it was good to see my wife start backing up back into the circle. She's playing a good headstrong "bash 'em all" fighter type, but she's also seeing some tactics in action and in ways that don't force her to do what I think she should do. Sure, go ahead and run into the middle of the bad guys... but you see your hirelings doing smart things? ;)
An exploration of a few empty rooms, which always serves to heighten the tension, led them to what I saw as the highlight of the evening.
The party came to a door that was very different from the rest of the typical wooden/iron-banded/ring-in-the-middle doors they'd run into. This door was finely crafted, with scrollwork on the doors. It also had no ring to open it, but smoothly and *quietly* opened to the touch. It swung all the way open on it's own, then swung shut. Aeli could hold it open, but she could feel a pressure that wanted to shut the door. Yakimi could see a statue of a figure with a distorted head, and horns (a demon looking figure) facing the door, with an outstretched hand towards the door.
So all of the party went in, with Aeli holding the door. After seeing that there was nothing else in the room, except for doors in all four walls, Aeli followed and allowed the door to shut. I then mentioned how each door fit flush into the wall. You probably see where this is going, but my wife and daughter didn't... until they tried to exit another door.
"We push the door open."
"It doesn't push open. It's flush into the wall and doesn't move when you push it."
"..."
They realized there was nothing to grab onto to open the doors, and they couldn't pry them open. The whole room was finely crafted, well built and hardly the worse for wear. The statue was on a pedastal.
My daughter tried bashing open the doors with her hand-axe. Each stroke resulted in just sparks from the axe hitting the door. Eventually, her axe broke, because she said she kept hitting the axe on the door.
My wife tried pushing the statue. I rolled a d6 to see if a hint would happen, and she got a 6, so I told her that she felt "something". Repeated pushes, which she described as pushing to try and topple the statue, lead to nothing. My daughter's dwarf climbed on the statue, pulled on it's arms and head, but nothing happened. I had them describe to me exactly what they were doing, and tried to determine if anything would help, but they weren't doing anything that would solve the puzzle. My daughter proclaimed "We're dead!" and her dwarf proceeded to take a nap because she was bored with trying to figure it out.
I could see that my wife and daughter were getting a bit frustrated, and this was a dangerous point. I did NOT want the NPCs to "stumble" on the secret and give it away, and I did NOT want the solution to come to a dice roll. Tironell, my mage NPC, did mention that it didn't seem magical and that all we had to work with was the doors and statue, and this probably wasn't meant to be a death trap.
After a bit, and my NPC asking Aeli "What else can we do to the statue?", she started trying to move it in all directions, which then I could say "The statue twists slightly on the pedestal." That was the "AHA!" moment at which my wife started moving the statue, since it rotated in one direction only, the hand points to a door and it silently swings open and shut. Since the party was starting to run out of torches (my wife now is starting to learn that resources are NOT infinite), it was time to go the way they came.
A quick foray into a "garbage room" and a really quick fight with rats - one of my hirelings stabbed a 1 HP rat through the middle, held it up and proclaimed in his sidekick voice "Rat on a Stick. Yea." (Turchao and Rather are two "brothers" who are Men at Arms together. Turchao is the talker, all Rather says is "Yea." after everything, so this speech was surprising to everyone. I love dropping in things like that.) The party found 50 platinum pieces and a silver dagger. They left the dungeon and called it a day, as we have a bit of RP'ing to do when Aeli takes back the bodies to the local temple and meets the cleric of the town for the first time. He's going to have a reaction to her that will tie into her story, but we'll save that for later.
My wife admitted later that the puzzle room had been hard, and that it had been frustrating, but I pointed out (and awarded XP) that she had solved it, and that she did it on her own. The nice thing is now she's learning that not everything is going to be in front of her and that creative thinking may be needed.
My daughter had a blast and couldn't wait to play again. Unfortunately, the way the weekend went, my wife didn't feel good and so we've put off the next game till tonight. I'm really happy she had a fun time.
OD&D/microlite74/Philotomy's Simple combat is quick, fun, and not overloaded with a lot of rules. I varied off the m74 rules a bit and allowed a bit of movement and melee in the same round, if it was a short movement. Playing with miniatures helped, although they did distract my wife a bit in terms of the marching order, but we got it all sorted out. I'm trying to remember to be descriptive and give each thing they do some sort of sense-cue, without overdoing it. Random sounds, wandering monsters, they all make this a way to introduce a sense of "oh crap, what are we doing here in the dark..."
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Playing an OD&D Solo Game with my wife - Session recap
Last night, my wife and I were able to squeeze in about 60 minutes of play before we had to break off for the evening. That's the good thing about solo games - you can take advantage of odd moments and be very flexible on when you can play, but it also means that you might not have the time to do some RP'ing above ground and head to the Underworld (and back) in the same session.
Based on the fine comments of Mr. Maliszewski about his secrets to successful campaigns, I came armed to this session with many NPCs fleshed out and the small city of Westport became a bit more "alive." Each NPC has a "one sentence" (or more) backstory going with them. I also wrote up a quick "developments" page to center my thoughts about where things were at and help keep the story into motion.
Still, I found myself ad-libbing during the session, right from the get-go. As we opened up, Aeli (my wife's character) was rising from a well deserved rest after fighting off spiders and goblins to gain some treasure. Unfortunately, she hadn't taken any healing magics with her, so the two hirelings that had died from the spider were still lying cold on the floor in the dungeon. This just screamed "opportunity" to me all week and just as Berlbur, the forgetful (but singing) innkeeper came to her door, it hit me.
Thus Tyrana, the ageworn woman and now widow of the late Bieb-the-man-at-arms stood behind the innkeeper, demanding to know why Aeli had left Bieb's body down in the dungeon, when he should have been brought up for a proper burial. Now his soul was going to wander the ruined tower of Zenopus forever and that wasn't the way it.was.to.be.
The look on my wife's face was worth the ad-lib, because now she had a problem on her hands. Aeli tried to pass it off as a "party decision", to which the widow retorted that everyone else said she was in charge. After a bit of back and forth, and some foot shuffling by the innkeeper, Aeli reluctantly agreed that she would bring the bodies back.
- I am really happy that I followed my instincts to add this on-the-spot. One, it gave me an opportunity to enrich the environment around Aeli. Although hirelings/men-at-arms are usually Red Shirted security officers, they are people too, with lives and interests. This gives my wife a bit of an eye-opener that she's in an environment where actions have consequences and although the bashings and beatings will happen, there may be Prices To Pay. Secondly, it helps to give me some opportunities to talk about alignment and "role playing" for the future. I hope all of my ad libs go this well!
After a quick discussion with Berlbur, who not only confirmed the Westport tradition of burying their dead at sea so that their souls would be free to move on, but also that word had -again- spread quickly of the party's adventures, Aeli made her way downstairs to meet the recurring NPC mage, Tironell.
The party had found a mysterious vial with an unknown liquid inside, so there was a discussion about this. Tironell tasted the liquid, and offered it to Aeli to taste. She roleplayed her character well in being suspicious of the offer, but she did taste it, which tingled her tongue, had a very different taste to it, but nothing happened. This gave me the hook for Tironell to take Aeli to see another NPC, the sage Nickodemus, a dandy man who is also a magic shop owner.
Tironell also related that rumors were flying about the possibility of other townsfolk and maybe even other adventurers wanting to find the secret entrance to Zenopus's Tower, now that treasure was being found, but that the deaths of two hirelings had also given people room for pause - and probably driven up the prices of hirelings.
With that, Aeli and Tironell made their way to Nickodemus's shop. He's a very confident, very proper dandy who took to Aeli immediately. He offered to identify the contents of the vial for 100 gold, and as well, sell Aeli two potions of healing for an additional 100 gold. Some negotiating happened, and Aeli agreed to trade the potion (of growth) in exchange for the two CLW potions. Nickodemus also slipped in some advice about trying to heal people even when they've been injured to death.
Aeli then visited Thumbold, the one-eyed dwarf smith who repaired her bow (string broke from a fumble) and gave her some tactical advice based on rumors coming back from the hirelings on how combat had went. She likes Thumbold because he's crass, to the point and gruff.
- This also introduces a possible way for her to ask questions of tactics without having the NPCs 'lead the way' or to get some suggestions and constructive criticism without it seeming like I'm telling her what to do. One thing I do not want to do is to make her think I'm telling her how to play the game. I'd like her to learn by doing, but also give her some things to think about.
Aeli then went back to the Inn of the Dancing Sea and negotiated with the existing two hirelings (Nodwig, the bearer - and yes, he's a fainting coward who complains about his back, and Torim, the surviving MaA from the previous game who now wants a bit more treasure to risk his neck.) She also met two grizzled looking Men-at-Arms, Turchao and Rather. They work as a team, and they wanted 3 days up front pay, plus a bit more of the share of loot than the other hirelings had asked for. Clearly, rumors of danger and higher rewards was driving up the pay a bit!
- At this point, my wife seemed a bit overwhelmed and unsure why the hirelings were asking for 3 days up front, when in the previous two games, it was a day by day proposition. I took some time to talk OOC about to think of it like free-lance contract work and risk/reward. I thought it was important that she see that there is a way of how things work, that its not arbitrary, and I'm evolving her knowledge of how things work and how she'll have to make choices and balance her resources. I want the game to be fun for her within the necessities of outfitting and preparing a party, so I tried to take the time to explain it out for her.
At this point, with having gone through most of the coins she found in the previous dive (1000 copper, 500 silver and some gold), I hand-waved the storage of her treasure, although I did tell her that if she gained a lot of loot, she'd have to start thinking about how to store that much treasure.
And with that, we were getting late enough that a dungeon dive and required exit would take us far later than I wanted to be on a weeknight, so we suspended play for awhile.
Am I holding her hand too much? She is enjoying herself and she doesn't think so, but I want to make it a good balance between "teaching" her some tricks of the trade and give her some options, while not making it overwhelming. The Tower of Zenopus is a good "Hall for Noobs" adventure, deadly, but not so deadly that she'll die instantly - she'll get in some roleplaying around Westport and she'll gain some experience. She's almost at second level and hasn't yet almost died, so I hope I'm not being *too* soft - she's faced ghouls, bandits, goblins and a giant death-dealing spider. There is more to come in the tower, but I have a feeling she'll hit second level very soon.
We're having fun, so I think that's all good. I've got a great background story from her, I've got plenty of plot hooks running around for her to latch onto and certainly, she's now heard about the Mayor/Patriarch and the high priest of the local temple, so I think we've got some good directions. She enjoyed the back and forth with her and the NPCs, so this all bodes well for the future.
Based on the fine comments of Mr. Maliszewski about his secrets to successful campaigns, I came armed to this session with many NPCs fleshed out and the small city of Westport became a bit more "alive." Each NPC has a "one sentence" (or more) backstory going with them. I also wrote up a quick "developments" page to center my thoughts about where things were at and help keep the story into motion.
Still, I found myself ad-libbing during the session, right from the get-go. As we opened up, Aeli (my wife's character) was rising from a well deserved rest after fighting off spiders and goblins to gain some treasure. Unfortunately, she hadn't taken any healing magics with her, so the two hirelings that had died from the spider were still lying cold on the floor in the dungeon. This just screamed "opportunity" to me all week and just as Berlbur, the forgetful (but singing) innkeeper came to her door, it hit me.
Thus Tyrana, the ageworn woman and now widow of the late Bieb-the-man-at-arms stood behind the innkeeper, demanding to know why Aeli had left Bieb's body down in the dungeon, when he should have been brought up for a proper burial. Now his soul was going to wander the ruined tower of Zenopus forever and that wasn't the way it.was.to.be.
The look on my wife's face was worth the ad-lib, because now she had a problem on her hands. Aeli tried to pass it off as a "party decision", to which the widow retorted that everyone else said she was in charge. After a bit of back and forth, and some foot shuffling by the innkeeper, Aeli reluctantly agreed that she would bring the bodies back.
- I am really happy that I followed my instincts to add this on-the-spot. One, it gave me an opportunity to enrich the environment around Aeli. Although hirelings/men-at-arms are usually Red Shirted security officers, they are people too, with lives and interests. This gives my wife a bit of an eye-opener that she's in an environment where actions have consequences and although the bashings and beatings will happen, there may be Prices To Pay. Secondly, it helps to give me some opportunities to talk about alignment and "role playing" for the future. I hope all of my ad libs go this well!
After a quick discussion with Berlbur, who not only confirmed the Westport tradition of burying their dead at sea so that their souls would be free to move on, but also that word had -again- spread quickly of the party's adventures, Aeli made her way downstairs to meet the recurring NPC mage, Tironell.
The party had found a mysterious vial with an unknown liquid inside, so there was a discussion about this. Tironell tasted the liquid, and offered it to Aeli to taste. She roleplayed her character well in being suspicious of the offer, but she did taste it, which tingled her tongue, had a very different taste to it, but nothing happened. This gave me the hook for Tironell to take Aeli to see another NPC, the sage Nickodemus, a dandy man who is also a magic shop owner.
Tironell also related that rumors were flying about the possibility of other townsfolk and maybe even other adventurers wanting to find the secret entrance to Zenopus's Tower, now that treasure was being found, but that the deaths of two hirelings had also given people room for pause - and probably driven up the prices of hirelings.
With that, Aeli and Tironell made their way to Nickodemus's shop. He's a very confident, very proper dandy who took to Aeli immediately. He offered to identify the contents of the vial for 100 gold, and as well, sell Aeli two potions of healing for an additional 100 gold. Some negotiating happened, and Aeli agreed to trade the potion (of growth) in exchange for the two CLW potions. Nickodemus also slipped in some advice about trying to heal people even when they've been injured to death.
Aeli then visited Thumbold, the one-eyed dwarf smith who repaired her bow (string broke from a fumble) and gave her some tactical advice based on rumors coming back from the hirelings on how combat had went. She likes Thumbold because he's crass, to the point and gruff.
- This also introduces a possible way for her to ask questions of tactics without having the NPCs 'lead the way' or to get some suggestions and constructive criticism without it seeming like I'm telling her what to do. One thing I do not want to do is to make her think I'm telling her how to play the game. I'd like her to learn by doing, but also give her some things to think about.
Aeli then went back to the Inn of the Dancing Sea and negotiated with the existing two hirelings (Nodwig, the bearer - and yes, he's a fainting coward who complains about his back, and Torim, the surviving MaA from the previous game who now wants a bit more treasure to risk his neck.) She also met two grizzled looking Men-at-Arms, Turchao and Rather. They work as a team, and they wanted 3 days up front pay, plus a bit more of the share of loot than the other hirelings had asked for. Clearly, rumors of danger and higher rewards was driving up the pay a bit!
- At this point, my wife seemed a bit overwhelmed and unsure why the hirelings were asking for 3 days up front, when in the previous two games, it was a day by day proposition. I took some time to talk OOC about to think of it like free-lance contract work and risk/reward. I thought it was important that she see that there is a way of how things work, that its not arbitrary, and I'm evolving her knowledge of how things work and how she'll have to make choices and balance her resources. I want the game to be fun for her within the necessities of outfitting and preparing a party, so I tried to take the time to explain it out for her.
At this point, with having gone through most of the coins she found in the previous dive (1000 copper, 500 silver and some gold), I hand-waved the storage of her treasure, although I did tell her that if she gained a lot of loot, she'd have to start thinking about how to store that much treasure.
And with that, we were getting late enough that a dungeon dive and required exit would take us far later than I wanted to be on a weeknight, so we suspended play for awhile.
Am I holding her hand too much? She is enjoying herself and she doesn't think so, but I want to make it a good balance between "teaching" her some tricks of the trade and give her some options, while not making it overwhelming. The Tower of Zenopus is a good "Hall for Noobs" adventure, deadly, but not so deadly that she'll die instantly - she'll get in some roleplaying around Westport and she'll gain some experience. She's almost at second level and hasn't yet almost died, so I hope I'm not being *too* soft - she's faced ghouls, bandits, goblins and a giant death-dealing spider. There is more to come in the tower, but I have a feeling she'll hit second level very soon.
We're having fun, so I think that's all good. I've got a great background story from her, I've got plenty of plot hooks running around for her to latch onto and certainly, she's now heard about the Mayor/Patriarch and the high priest of the local temple, so I think we've got some good directions. She enjoyed the back and forth with her and the NPCs, so this all bodes well for the future.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Argh
The best planned game sessions often go awry. Friday night ended up not happening, and a possible session today is cancelled because my wife is sick :( Here's hoping she doesn't end up with what I had last week, I was down for two days. We'll see if we can squeeze in a session this week.
I have started mapping out a possible setting/dungeon/encounter for the Chicago Suburbs 1E/OSRIC group that might happen in January. So far, it's looking good.
And if you haven't had enough silliness this Sunday, please check out a visit to this post on Oozing Charm (and now Oozing Charm redux!) for double your ickiness pleasure!
I have started mapping out a possible setting/dungeon/encounter for the Chicago Suburbs 1E/OSRIC group that might happen in January. So far, it's looking good.
And if you haven't had enough silliness this Sunday, please check out a visit to this post on Oozing Charm (and now Oozing Charm redux!) for double your ickiness pleasure!
Friday, December 12, 2008
It's Friday! Game night!
Tonight is going to be another chapter in my solo game with my wife. Although the dungeon is well prepped, I need to have a few more NPCs and hirelings gathered.
I've gotten some really good feedback on ideas and thoughts about how to teach "tactics" without turning my NPC into the "answer book" - randalls gave me a fairly good idea on how to provide NPC 'guidance' on my old m20 blog. I also had some good comments from SirLarkins who is in my head about the effect of hireling deaths and rumors of treasure being found will have on things. It's going to be an interesting time in Westport tonight! After reading this comment about retainer costs and attitudes, I have a few more options to spin.
She hasn't started exploring the city of Westport yet, which I'm now going to collapse into my town of Vale and combine the two. I was going to have her finish this little example dungeon and give her the opportunity to "move on" , but that would be railroading - so I'm going to make "the village of Vale" disappear and now Westport will combine the two. It'll serve as a good base for her to explore, learn more things and start exploring some the more interesting aspects of the Vale area.
And just because I'm a HUGE fan of the 'Ale and Whores' concept, I submit to you this image, as provided by the blog Demons and Dragons Friday Gallery
I've gotten some really good feedback on ideas and thoughts about how to teach "tactics" without turning my NPC into the "answer book" - randalls gave me a fairly good idea on how to provide NPC 'guidance' on my old m20 blog. I also had some good comments from SirLarkins who is in my head about the effect of hireling deaths and rumors of treasure being found will have on things. It's going to be an interesting time in Westport tonight! After reading this comment about retainer costs and attitudes, I have a few more options to spin.
She hasn't started exploring the city of Westport yet, which I'm now going to collapse into my town of Vale and combine the two. I was going to have her finish this little example dungeon and give her the opportunity to "move on" , but that would be railroading - so I'm going to make "the village of Vale" disappear and now Westport will combine the two. It'll serve as a good base for her to explore, learn more things and start exploring some the more interesting aspects of the Vale area.
And just because I'm a HUGE fan of the 'Ale and Whores' concept, I submit to you this image, as provided by the blog Demons and Dragons Friday Gallery
Monday, December 8, 2008
Playing an OD&D Solo Game with my wife
In the tradition of Oakspar7777 (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=471897), I thought I would put down some of my thoughts, ideas and game replays of an OD&D campaign I'm running with my wife. It's a one-on-one game, using a mashup of microlite74, OD&D according to the Little Brown Books and Holmes Basic, as well as Swords & Wizardry and some house rules. My wife played D&D as a teenager in highschool, much as I did, although I've spoken a bit about my history as an RPG'er on this blog.
[[Read more to read the full blog story]]
I wanted to come up with something for my wife that would be easy to play, and yet fairly filled out and quick for me to convert to microlite74, so the sample dungeon (1st level of the Tower of Zenopus) from the back of the Holmes basic book was my test. If she likes it, then I'll move to converting the 1st level of a dungeon I created for a campaign that I've bounced around my skull and various maps called "The Vale." It's something I've semi-fleshed out and have started the same "intro" adventure a couple of times with various people under various rulesets. This time, I'm making it stick!
The first game went pretty well, and pretty quick, which I mentioned here: http://www.microlite20.net/node/104 . During the week, I asked my wife a little bit more about the type of game she wanted to play. "Oh, I like to bash heads in" she replied and my heart warmed - I knew there was a reason I loved this woman - she likes to get into the dirty dungeons and play whack-a-goblin! I went through some questions/answers (based on Oakspar's list of questions to get an idea of what kind of game a player might enjoy) and based on her answers, I think my Vale campaign idea will still fit the bill. She wants to dungeon delve, but as she gets more confident with the rules and the flow of the game, more role playing. She would enjoy mid-level fantasy (think Tolkein/Conan), mid-power magic, she likes the thought of a low powered game where the characters struggle and fight to succeed, she'd like all sorts of tones from dark to light, and she's good with a lot of gore.
Now these questions were more about "plot" than they were about my settings. The dungeons are going to be the dungeons, but the campaign that I wrap around them is where the plot and story come in. She's also fully aware that death is fairly easy to happen (as she saw in the game we just played) and that survival will be more about luck and her wits than any sort of powers found on her character sheet. The really cool thing is that she really doesn't have any sort of "bias" or pre-existing expectation, so in a way, I am really taking her through a learning curve. That's somewhat scary, as I'm in a (re)learning curve myself at being a DM.
So we've come up with a short history of her character (or characters that she might play, depending on if her character survives) but that's about it.
So... on with the game.
We started off with her character, Aeli, counting the spoils of their first 2 room dive into the ruins of Zenopus's Tower. Everyone had survived, aside from the torch/loot bearer fainting after the combat with the ghouls. Aeli was off to spend some of her hard earned loot. She bought a bow/arrows/quiver combo, although she was really ripped off by the merchant! 75gp for a set that would have cost 50 at list, but she didn't barter, so the merchant closed his shop early that day!
He did feel expansive enough to tell her that after their first dive into the Tower, a bit of fame had spread about them. He also gave her some information on the recent history of the tower - namely that it hadn't been explored in recent memory, and that everyone was nervous about the strange lights and the dark figures dancing on the top of the fallen tower's roof. (My wife was a bit unsure of 'talking' to the merchant, so I gave her some benefit of doubt and encouragement and she got into the spirit of asking questions.) Her history has some bad feelings about mages, so she quizzed the merchant about the NPC that I've had go along with her, Tironell. The merchant knew nothing.
After that, she went back to the Inn to meet up with the band for another day of tower diving. Unfortunately, the hirelings/men-at-arms were busy drinking down their pay and boasting of their exploits, so now EVERYONE wanted to go with Aeli. Aeli also wanted to renegotiate the shares/payment arrangement with Tironell - since she'd proven her mettle, she didn't want to pay for the hirelings on her own! After a bit of back and forth, Tironell agreed to split the cost. She decided to hire one more man-at-arms and rehire the 3 from earlier and off they went.
(I asked her if she wanted to hire more men, and she wasn't sure, so I use my NPC to drop hints and suggestions, but I'm also making it clear that she's the one that decides. When she's tried to put the NPCs/hirelings "in charge", I play them in a way so that she feels like she's the one to make decisions. She's starting to get the hang of it.)
They found the entrance again, and once again, stepped into the dark corridors. At first, she wanted the hirelings to go in front, but they were really reluctant to do so, so Aeli agreed to be in the front. Muahahaha.
(My wife started making simple maps - and I repeated some of the advice that I've read elsewhere about not going crazy with the maps, as long as it's useful for her to find her way back out. She seemed reassured by that.)
The group reached the first, and familiar, 4 way intersection after the stairs and she decided they would go forward. After listening and opening a door to an empty room, she then just yanked open the following door across the way (no listening or preparation) and came face to face with 5 goblins that had heard her open the first door and were fully prepared to do battle. (As soon as she told me she was opening the door and I started to speak, I saw a look of "Oh crap, that was a bad idea!" come across her face. Experience is the best teacher at times...)
Thus began the first parlay of Aeli with goblins. Tironell, by dint of his Intelligence (and a quick on the spot ruling by myself), could speak some goblinish and was able to translate the conversation. The goblins demanded that the party leave. She demanded that they let the party through. The goblins replied that they could pass, once, if they paid 15 gold. After a quick discussion with the NPCs, Aeli offered 8, which the goblins took, but the goblins warned the party to not return. Aeli decided they would take the door opposite the one they came in. Aeli asked the goblins what was behind the door and the goblin leader smirked "What you deserve..."
What was behind the door was a very small 15 foot long corridor with another door. As soon as the party was in the corridor (and the hireling/mage were in the open doorway of the goblin room) the goblins rushed the door, pushed everyone into the corridor by slamming it shut behind them and began hammering spikes into the door.
So now Aeli and 5 other people are squished into a 15 ft by 10 ft area. Listening at the door was difficult, and she heard nothing obvious, so Aeli opened the door (it swung into the room) and her and one of the hirelines were basically pushed into the room by the press of people.
Unfortunately, the giant spider that was lurking in the ceiling of the room heard the noises and based on random roll, jumped on the hireling instead of her. The spider missed and combat was joined.
(This was where I took the time to give my wife some suggestions about tactics. She would have stayed at the doorway, preventing the other men-at-arms an opportunity to attack, so I suggested she let the rest in. We were using dice as miniatures at this point, and once she saw how things were stacked up, she spent a turn moving [m74 combat turns are one action - move or attack or cast] - now maybe that's a bit of too much hand-holding, but I also saw this as a good way of giving her some things to think about without telling her what to do. I hope I'm not leading her too much by the hand, but I also don't want her to get too frustrated, so I'm walking a balance that I'm probably not good at walking. Anyone else have comments on teaching someone about tactics?)
A couple of rounds of misses, and then Aeli scored a critical hit (natural 20), so I let her roll another die of damage (just an on the spot ruling, since she had rolled a 1 damage) and described how her arrow had pierced one of the eyes of the spider and ripped through it's head to come out the other side through another eye. The spider lost a great deal of hit points, but was still around. Unfortunately, the next two rounds were disastrous for the party.
One of the hirelings rolled a 1 and his sword went sailing across the room. The spider then scored a hit and proceeded to rip out the hireling's throat, killing him. The next round, Aeli herself fumbled (natural 1) and her bowstring broke. The spider bit another hireling and he failed his saving throw - died from poison. Things were looking pretty bleak when the mage NPC finally scored with a tossed flask and torch and now the room was lit with the flames of a burning spider. Another hireling managed to land the killing blow and now the room was filled with the fumes of charred arachnid and the sight of 2 dead hirelings. After a quick search of the room, the party had to decide what to do.
(At this point, my wife was pretty surprised at how fast things could seesaw back and forth. I also started asking her to be more explicit in how she was doing things. Instead of "I'm searching the room.", I asked her how and where she was searching. No die rolls, in the spirit of OD&D. That meant that because she didn't poke around the remains of the spider, she missed a +1 dagger. But that's how it is...)
Aeli wanted to move on into the dungeon, but I role played the NPC mage who protested that "we've lost a third of our party, we're stuck exploring an area that we don't know about, and you want us to push on?" Aeli wanted to know how only 2 fighters and a mage could take on 5 goblins and a spiked door. Tironell mentioned that he might be able to dispatch some of them with a spell, allowing her and the other man-at-arms better odds.
So the party stripped the hirelings of their gear (and Aeli took back the gold she'd spent on hiring them - rather cold blooded, my wife is!) and went back to the now spiked door.
(My wife wasn't sure what to do at this point, so I pointed to the swinging door that lies between our kitchen and dining room and asked her how she would get that door open if she were on one side and I was on the other keeping it from opening. She thought about it, and said she'd try to push it open and maybe put her shoulder into it. So I suggested she try it.)
Aeli put her shoulder into the door and it gave a bit. Encouraged, Aeli and the remaining man-at-arms put their shoulders into the door and started ramming into it. A quick roll of a d6 to see how many times it would take, and two pushes shoved the spiked door open (apparently the goblins didn't do a very good job).
Of course, the goblins were waiting in a battle formation and combat ensued. The mage put two of the goblins to sleep, one of the goblins fumbled and ended up on his back, but managed to avoid getting hit and two goblins were slain by Aeli. The fumbling goblin attempted to flee, but because he had to open doors, Aeli caught up with him and sliced him in half.
After recovering their 8gp toll on the goblin leader, a discussion between Aeli and mage was about what to do with the sleeping goblins. Aeli wanted to kill them - "They'll be here when we come back!" and Tironell was reluctant to. He pointed out that they were more than likely to not hang around, but Aeli said "They might come back with friends [DM Note - oh yes they will!!! Muahahaha!] Tironell managed to convince Aeli to just tie them up, so she did and then she explored the room.
She found several sacks of thousands of copper and a mysterious glass vial with a substance inside and an unlocked, closed chest. Once again, not thinking, Aeli flipped the lid open, only to be surrounded by a green gas. Aeli made her Fortitude Save (microlite74 mechanic) and the mage wryly observed that she should be a bit more cautious next time. Inside the chest was more treasure, a few hundred silver. After loading down the poor bearer (who is rightfully named Nodwig), the party returned to the surface and ended the game.
With this intro game, I wanted my wife to learn a few things - and after the game, we talked about it. She figured out that jumping into things is going to get her killed, even though she likes to play headstrong. If you ever get to know my wife, you'd say "well, that's not a surprise!" *laugh* I praised her for parlaying with the goblins, and she said "Well, they weren't attacking, so we weren't." She also likes the quick combat pace - the spider combat lasted the longest at about 3 to 5 minutes. So, so far, her introduction to OD&D is going well.
Now what I have to decide is:
- How do they get the glass vial identified? (I'm thinking that they could find a sage or wizard who might do it for a fee... )
- How the town will deal with the rumors that the hirelings will bring back of death from above, goblins and danger in the tower - and the lure of treasure. There might be another adventure group forming? Competition?
I also have some plot ideas based on my wife's backstory for Aeli. Aeli's recent history was filled with a terrible tragedy and one that has left her with a single purpose in life - revenge. She was of a rich noble family. The family was rumored to have held great secrets from an ancient relative who had brought them to their noble status. A mage befriended Aeli, seeking to take advantage of her naivetee, to gain access to these secrets?
After learning how best to infiltrate the family's home, he did so, seeking the scrolls. He attacked the home with many hirelings and a horrific battle ensued between the bandits and her family's men-at-arms. They were eventually overcome. The mage could not find the ancient secrets, and he killed the majority of her family (some where not present during the attack) trying to get the information on where the scrolls were kept.
Aeli was not at the family estate, as she had been away preparing for her impending marriage. Upon learning of the attack, she ran off from her family and fiancee to track down the mage and make him pay.
Now the cool thing is that if Aeli dies, and she wants to keep this plot going, her 'replacement' could be a sister, or brother, or cousin or a friend of the family's.
I've also got the BBEG all planned out - Calypso, who may or may not be what he seems. He seduced Aeli to get to the ancient knowledge... but is he keeping tabs on Aeli? What is he? What does he want? I am plotting that out, and the nice thing is that my Vale setting was vague enough that Calypso and Aeli will fit right in.
So far, running solo works out nice! I'm really trying hard to make sure that my wife is the decision maker and I'm only giving suggestions when she's really stuck, or there's a teaching moment, like with battle tactics. I'm letting her learn the hard way, like with yanking open doors and chests - but also providing some food for thought - like when she wanted to keep going with half her party's fighting ability taken out by the spider.
There's more to Zenopus's Tower example, but once she's done first level, I think I'll have the plot present an opportunity for her to pursue her story, or keep going in Zenopus's Tower. We'll see.
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