OD&D Solo game w/wife - How one woman nearly starts a war

No miniatures were put on the table this game, nor were any attack dice thrown. The only table referenced in this game was the "Carousing" table from Jeff Rient's The Miscellaneum of Cinder. And yet we had a diplomatic incident, tons of roleplaying and lots of laughter. What else could you expect from a game?

The defeat of Alaxus netted the brave adventurers quite a bit of loot and some XP, but @thePrincessWife's character Aeli was lacking 550 XP to make fifth level. Being the generous and kind-hearted DM that I am (why did I just hear a ton of raspberries?) I offered her a chance at the carousing table for 275gp (I give double XP to go against the Carousing table) and even reminded her about the d30 rule. @thePrincessWife was hoping that she'd fail her saving throw...

I've never seen a "1" rolled on my d30 before, but she did it. That was not only a fail, it was an epic failure, the kind of failure that would have long lasting consequences for the character, the kind of failure where you hear a pin-drop and a gasp of breath... and then the gleeful laughter from @thePrincessWife as I made her roll her fate. A 7. According to Jeff's chart, that means: "Insult local person of rank. A successful Charisma check indicates the personage is amenable to some sort of apology and reparations."

Well crap. So far, Aeli has managed to completely befriend just about everyone of note in Valetown. It was going to be hard to find someone that might be insulted by her... hmm.. think, think, think... I asked for 5 minutes to figure out her fate. Flip over to Finch's City Encounter table, roll a few dice... no, I don't think a "local guard" counts as a local person of rank... hmm... roll again... "Sporgo Frogface, carrying the Pennant of the city’s Overlord, exhorting all to courage in the face of adversity, and loyalty to the city’s government, 1d6gp."

Well, doublecrap, there is no overlord to Valetown, so probably no Sporgo... although what kind of overbearing, stuffed shirt would be in Valetown, which is just a small farming/agricultural center, almost a market town kind of place...  Wait a minute... Sporgo's kinda like an ambassador. What ambassador would care about farming? One on a trade mission. What would be best for a stuffed shirt ambassador that Aeli could insult?

Only one answer - the hidebound, strictly-by-the-book, lawful-stick-up-the-rear Southron Empire! Prepared with a name "Gale Merry" (snicker), I introduced Aeli's carousing efforts. I asked @thePrincessWife how she would have insulted the honorable ambassador during her two day-long rip-roaring bash over killing the Minotaur Mage.

Her: "I step on his toes and call him a buffoon!"
Me: "OK, he looks down his nose at you, calls you a typical Northern drunk trollop and tells you to go home to your husband who should keep a leash on you."
Her (warming up): "Oh really? Well, I laugh at him and point to his 'wee weenie' and call it that. I also tell him to wear loose trousers or stuff something into those tight pants of his." (gales of laughter)
Me: "Well.. that's impressive! The ambassador's face goes beet red and he says the only loose thing around here is you and your lips! That any man who would want you would have to keep you locked up to keep you from running them so freely."
Her (really into it now): "Oh yea, I tell him that the only thing he needs to worry about locking up is his ugly pig wife from leaving him! Hahah! I'm insulting his wife now!"

At this point, her friend and NPC party-member Tironell intervenes and attempts with help from her henchmen, to hustle her away up the stairs. As she was being escorted out, the ambassador had a parting shot.

Me: "Well, he says I would expect no less of rudeness from the so called Hero of Valetown, a swine living among pigs!"
Her: "Yea? If you're lucky, we'll give you leftover slop!"

So at this point, she passes out and wakes up to find out she has to make amends to the good ambassador. At first, Aeli was going to blow it off, but when told that news would go back to Lord Risz, the noble who the governor of the area, and that word would be passed on to the King himself as the Ambassador was threatening to end his trade mission, her face fell and thus the making up happened. Aeli ran around town, spending a good chunk of gold to find the best dress possible and she agreed to give up the two large gems found in Alaxus's tomb.

The "apology" would have to be done according to strict Southron custom, which involved Aeli taking a submissive, secondary role while Tironell acted as a proxy for a male member of her family making amends. She had to enter, assume a bended knee position and hold the gems while Tironell gave the apology. Here's where the CHA check came in. Given she was of nobility, I deemed the difficulty "normal/easy" and made her roll 3d6 to equal or be less than 12.

15. She could not make a roll this game to save her life! @thePrincessWife told me how her sword scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaped across the floor and ruined the mood of the apology. While the ambassador took the gems (duh), he also declared that she should never step foot in Southron lands, lest she fall under his rules - an implied threat!

So while the apology temporarily assuaged the ambassador's anger, it's clear that Aeli now has a possible enemy! I wonder if she'll ever have to travel to the Southron empire...

I really enjoyed the chance to broaden Aeli's/@thePrincessWife's view of the world, introduce an element that could play into her future (should she ever need to travel that far) and see how she'd roleplay it, especially since Aeli's background was nobility. We had great fun and I always enjoy bringing an element into the game that we've not had a chance to explore - this time being the relationship between the Southron Empire and the Northern Kingdom. We didn't get a chance to play much more than this, but I'm looking forward to her next game as she deals with the aftermath of her successful adventure... and maybe even find more ways of draining her gold from her. I think I got about 1,000 gp through this whole carousing deal and aftermath - thanks Jeff!

OD&D Solo game w/wife - The (second) death of Alaxus

"WHO DARES TO DISTURB MY SLUMBER? IS IT YOU, ANNOYING RAT KING?" thundered a sepulcherous voice from the elaborate coffin at the top of the dais. Before it stood 8 hulking, rotted minotaur zombies. Behind the dais crouched 8 piles of bones, with a bull skull perched ominous on top.

"No, it's just me!" Aeli (@thePrincessWife's character) called back. Beside her stood her loyal henchmen, Turchao and Rather. Behind her stood 6 hirelings with flasks of oil and torches, her mage companion Tironell and the mysterious Osash - acolyte to the Patriarch of Valetown.

"A WOMAN?!" boomed the voice. "NO... NO... I SAW YOU DIE AS LIFE LEFT MY BODY. I KILLED YOU ONCE. NO... NOT THAT SWORD! NOT THAT ACCURSED SWORD! NO, IT CANNOT BE YOU AGAIN! I WILL KILL YOU AGAIN!" With that challenge, a cadaverous form of a minotaur skeleton wreathed in a layer of rotted skin stood in the coffin, draped in rotted mage robes. This had to be Alaxus, in some type of evil undead form.

Aeli and her companions waited. Hands gripped swords and spears with white knuckles. Short breaths were heard as everyone stared in dread at the sight before them. In the rear, Tironell muttered as he desperately tried to figure out how to activate the thin "Fizbin's Shooting Stars" wand he had recently acquired but not yet figured out.

"GO AND DESTROY THEM, MY MINIONS!" Alaxus thundered and he gestured towards the group standing in the doorway.

"This is it!" Aeli called out. "Stand your ground and force them to fight into the door. Osash, can you turn them?!"

"I believe so..." called out Osash in a strangely untroubled voice. He chanted words that made the group's collective skin crawl and Aeli felt a chill run down her spine. The zombies lurched to a halt, and then turned around!

"Aha!" called out Tironell as Osash triumphantly concluded his chanting and gestured the zombies away. "I've figured it out... FIZBINS SHOOTING STARS!" and the wand's end burst into a silvery/purple glow and a small glowing "star" shot out of it and smashed into the hulking minotaur mage.

"ARRRGH!" Alaxus groaned and then he lifted his right hand. "ARISE MY LOYAL WARRIORS! CRUSH THESE INTRUDERS!" Behind him, to the left, four of the piles of bones began to spin in a circular motion, rising up from the ground to form shambling skeletal minotaur warriors. They lurched forward at the door.

"Down and throw at the mage!" Aeli commanded. The front rank immediately went to one knee and  hunkered behind shields. Behind them, Osash again chanted his odd words and Tironell sang out "FIZBINS SHOOTING STARS!" again. The skeletons immediately spun on their heels and fled for the opposite wall of the sepulcher, scratching at the wall to get out. Flasks of oil sailed towards the mage as another silvery star smashed into him. One flask sailed overhead, but the other two broke on him and the coffin, covering him in dripping oil.

"NO! ARISE MY WARRIORS!" Alaxus called out and he gestured to his left. In similar fashion, two more piles of bones spun in the air and arose to skeletons. Alaxus boomed in laughter. "YOU WILL NOT LIVE TO SEE THE SUN AGAIN!"

In answer, Osash again chanted his faith in his religion and the two skeletons were repulsed. As if to answer in challenge, three torches sailed from the second rank towards Alaxus. One hit the doorway and broke apart, covering the party in cinders, which they quickly beat out. One sailed over Alaxus but the last skittered across the dais and touched the oil puddled at his feet. Almost immediately, the oil burst into a conflagration which burned away the rotting robes and charred the mage's undead skin. (**1) Once again, Tironell called out the words that caused the wand to spit a magic missile at Alaxus.

"NOOOO!!!!" howled Alaxus. "PROTECT ME, MY FAITHFUL!" and he gestured one last time to the remaining two bone piles, which arose into warriors.

"Tironell, why aren't you using that wand?" Aeli called out urgently, still hunched over behind her shield.

"I... I... if I use this wand up, it's gone! It's the only one I  have!" confessed Tironell.

"If we make it out of here, I'll buy you all the wands you want! Kill that damn thing!" snapped Aeli.

Tironell muttered, but his response was lost due to the chanting of Osash, who faltered and then trailed off... the skeletons continued to advance.

"Up and hold! Wait till they get close enough! Second rank, spears at ready!" Aeli barked. She hefted the Blade of Runes which was shining a bright blue light so painful, it was almost too much to look at directly. As Turchao and Rather glanced at her, she almost seemed to look like the famous heroine of legend that slew Alaxus originally. In their stupefied state, they almost immediately dropped their swords as the skeletons charged in their attack.

The skeletons clawed at Aeli and the front rank, ripping flesh and bone on Turchao who screamed in pain. Alaxus laughed coldly and gestured at Aeli.

"NOW  YOU DIE!" and he snarled words that seem to stab at her, in the form of three small red/silver balls of energy that smashed in her, nearly knocking her on her feet. Behind her, the hirelings stabbed at the skeletons with their spears, smashing bones and destroying one completely.

"Tironell... use that wand!" Aeli groaned in pain as she staggered to her feet and battled the last skeleton, her sword slicing it into an unmoving pile. The flaming oil encasing Alaxus had burned out, leaving scraps of skin hanging like tattered curtains on the undead mage's bones. He snarled another spell and before the party's unbelieving eyes, he grew.. and grew... and grew to a huge form! His evil laughter filled the sepulcher.

"YES, LOOK UPON YOUR DOOM... " began Alaxus and then a small voice was heard "FIZBIN'S SHOOTING STARS!" and a silvery/purple missile shot out and smashed into Alaxus. He staggered...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo....." he wailed as his form began to crumble into dust from the inside out. A whistling sound was heard as the ancient mage of Evil fell.. again...

The party stopped moving for a moment in disbelief... then Aeli turned, grabbed Tironell by his waist and hoisted him so high, he almost hit the tunnel's ceiling with his head.

"We did it!" she yelled. "We did it! We won!!!"

---

And that, my friends, is how @thePrincessWife slew the proto-lich Alaxus, found his treasure haul (which gained her about 5,000 XP), found a blackened skin covered spell book, found his notes which may give her clues to her ancestor Kellus and found a mysterious silver-filigreed black crystal ball, which she had to pry from the coffin's lid. She almost forgot to check the coffin, she was a bit in shock and awe of having achieved her goal.

Mechanically, I made Tironell do a 5d6 attribute check to figure out the wand - he passed quite handily. That wand, the oil, and the discipline of Aeli's attack at the door, holding her ground and forcing Alaxus to commit his forces, were the keys to success. I was going to have Tironell stop using his wand, but Aeli made him continue to fire it. @thePrincessWife really roleplayed the session well.

Turchao and Rather, her henchmen, both fumbled at the same time, in the same way, when the skeletons charged. Aeli used the Fighting Man - Multiple Attacks rule and we successfully converted to DAC so I could use the Target20 algorithm. I use it in my AD&D games and it's just so easy for me now.

We also had a treat that I used my big Battlemat for the first time with her. She liked it! I may have to use it again. I don't want to focus on the miniatures as boardgame pieces, but she enjoyed "seeing" the room.

Now Aeli has a lot of things to do. She's got the books, written in the Black Tongue of Mhaldor(**2) to translate. She has a mysterious orb she knows nothing about. She has a favor to return to the Patriarch for use of his acolyte. She also still has to find out why her arch-enemy Calypso was so interested in her ancestor Kellus that he'd kill her entire family over it.

I can't wait for the next game!

**1 - in my OD&D campaign, I've ruled that most physical undead can be affected by fire, the more powerful at half damage. Non-corporeal cannot.

**2 - one genuine ChicagoWiz No-Prize to the person who not only can identify where Mhaldor came from, but has virtually been there and can tell me what my use of this place probably means... :)

A few bits...

In lieu of a real blog post, I'm going to post a few links.

Dark Ages Elves - my online Google game has encountered some elves on a pilgrimage to their home base of Skalfier. So I've been busy fleshing out more details on elves. It's interesting how sometimes the online game pushes me, then the tabletop does and so on.

The different thing about my elves is that they're more human than most D&D games allow for. Think of Norsemen sailors that are shorter than humans. Or think of the iconic OD&D elf picture to the left there. Those are my elves. I've never quibbled about the ears thing, but I've never seen elves as almond-eyed, pointy-eared in my campaign. I've mostly let the players go about elves as they typically seen them. As I'm maturing into my campaign and growing comfortable in how to articulate (and document) these little tidbits, I'm stressing them more and more.

Solo Game - Blade of Runes - @thePrincessWife finally freed herself of the influence of the "Fancy Blade" and now she has a nice shiny Blade of Runes. If you own "Wrath of the Minotaur", you can look up the stats on it - it's a nice little blade! We're still trying to get some peace and quiet time when neither of us is exhausted to try and finish the Tomb of Alaxus. In speaking of the solo game, I've also codified the Combat - Fighting Man attacks houserule and the Combat - Fighting Man Cleave houserule. Nice additions for her to survive better in a solo game, maybe you'll find them useful.

Oh yea, and one other thing - the Classic D&D Marathon is coming up in 11 days! This means that 1) It's time to officially PANIC [haha] and 2) it's time to repimp the game. This year, it's at Unique Gifts & Games in Grayslake. I know 4 people have RSVP'd on the meetup group and the owner tells me he has some signups. Whether I have partial or full table, there will be a lot of fun to be had! I'm running X1 - Isle of Dread with some quirks and twists... no telling if Dragon Turtles will be seen or not... muahahaha...

Plans for the weekend

Plumbing & Furniture... that should be some sort of game. "I rolled a 1! The pipes leak all over the place!"

Wait, that's probably gonna happen anyway. My first time soldering copper piping. If you have small children or weak constitutions, you probably should stay away - the cussing will be epic.

Anyway, I'll finish up on my 5 OWM/Reaper orcs. It took about a week to crank out 5 of them - probably about 12 to 15 hours of work in them but it's worth it - they look great and the emulation of a particular theme came out like I hoped. I'm also extra-grossifying the OWM orc shaman, but I'll let the Februrary minis recap tell that story.

Next on the list is a quick 'break' of two old Citadel ghosts in a neat fashion, then I'm moving on to "the piece of shit that shall be cool" WotC Red Dragon. With that, I'll conclude all 39 of my "primed" list I started in January. What will I do after? I should be getting some archers in a minis exchange soon, so I'll have my DBA Sumerian I/1a army waiting to be done... but more OWM pretties first!

Oh and if anyone has a spare Merry/Pippen for the Games Workshop Mines of Moria game... I tossed them out by accident when I was separating the sprues. I'm still a little WTF over that...

So all that and hopefully, hopefully... @thePrincessWife will take on Alaxus in our OD&D solo game! She's rid of the cursed "fancy sword" and hired some extra muscle to take on the 8 rotting things, 8 piles of bones (they're not sure if they're alive or not.. and I'm not telling -yet-) and one "something" that closed a door by pointing at it. We'll see how it all turns out... I'm excited! :)

Pendragon Solo game w/wife - Laughing giants and Picts

For about a year or so, I've been reading SirLarkin's blog The RPG Corner for updates of his Great Pendragon Campaign solo game with his wife. As far as I can tell, we're the only two who are actively blogging about RPG'ing with our significant others. I'm not sure what that says, aside from maybe we're either very lucky or very crazy ... or both ... but it's been a fun ride reading about Sir Herringdale, his wife's character. I have to confess, when the old valiant knight finally passes on, I'm going to feel some sadness.

Anyway... the whole deal sounded like great fun and I know that @thePrincessWife loves the Merlin tales. I've never been much of any opinion about them, but between SirLarkins and her, I was convinced to seek out a 1st edition box of Pendragon and give it a shot. It's sat on my bookshelf for about 6 months now, and it wasn't until I could get the Great Pendragon Campaign sourcebook as POD book from RPGNow that I finally decided to start playing.

@thePrincessWife's RPG experiences are singularly D&D, so I wanted something that we both could "quick start" into. Fortunately, Green Knight provided a "How To Play Pendragon" demo that is available on the web (not sure if it's legal or not, but since it's billed as a demonstration module, I'm guessing it's nothing I'll get sued over.) This covers the basics of combat, traits, passions and skills as well as providing an easy-peasy scenario that leads right to the wacking of swords and stabbing of lances.

So my wife was given the character of Sir Caradoc of Malahaut (I don't know if it's supposed to be the same Caradoc as of Arthurian legend, but we weren't focused on that.) and after being told he was a giant of a man, she played him as a fun-loving, lets-all-have-a-ball knight, even when he was getting punched off his horse. But more of that in a minute...

So the scenario has Sir Caradoc about to cross a bridge when he notices a knight's party tent (aka pavilion), a couple of warhorses and a shield whose heraldry Caradoc didn't recognize. (she didn't make her Heraldry roll... off by 1!) A squire with a ridiculous Monty-Python-esque French accent asked Caradoc to halt and joust with his Lord, as the mysterious Blue Knight wished to see if all zeeze Breeteesh kin-ites are ze bezt zat zey all zey zey arrrrrr! (.. if all these British knights are the best that they all say they are. Told ya it was bad.)

Sir Caradoc, being all chivalrous and honorly (and the wife wanting to do some old fashioned Medieval wacking) accepted the challenge. Now he being squireless, Caradoc was on his own lugging his crap, so he set up while the Blue Knight waited on the other side of the field. There would be three passes of the lance and three swings of the sword.

The combat system of opposed rolls at or under the skill used is a neat and easy mechanic and very much concentrates on mano-v-mano. Unfortunately, it went badly for Caradoc on his horse. The first pass, Caradoc was able to bring up his shield and deflect the Blue Knight's lance, but it was clearly the visitor's point. The second pass, Caradoc shattered his lance and took a nice glancing blow that he'd feel tomorrow. After dismounting, getting his own backup lance and remounting, Caradoc took to the field for the third pass. He didn't get himself and his lance set right because the Blue Knight not only connected, but Caradoc was knocked out of his saddle and landed in a heap. THUD! (@thePrincessWife fumbled the final pass, so I ruled she fell off her horse due to not having a squire help Caradoc prepare adequately.)

So it looked like the Blue Knight was going to best Caradoc, but we had the sword battle to deal with. This whole time, Caradoc was laughing and saluting his opponent. Despite being knocked for almost half his hit points, he was enjoying the contest.

The sword fight was short, brutal and composed primarily of Caradoc knocking the Blue Knight around. @thePrincessWife lost the first blow which her armor soaked up, but handily beat out the Blue Knight the last two, landing a pretty damn good shot that rattled the Blue Knight through and through. Having each won a contest, the Blue Knight revealed himself as Sir Norman St. Germaine, here in Britain to travel to the tourney at Camelot and pit himself against the best. Having seen that British knights were indeed honorable, chivalrous as well as being able to take a lot of punishment and then dish it out, he asked Caradoc for an invite, which was gladly given. The crazeeee squire with ze out-rahgious French ahhc-cent applied a great deal of effective first aid to Caradoc and off they traveled to Camelot. Close curtain.

We then decided to start rolling up a character for @thePrincessWife. Thus, Sir Smitely of the Wall, a Pict knight with a family who knows a thing or two about heraldry, was born. We got most of the way through chargen, which is a game in itself, when the eyes started glazing over and we knocked it off for awhile. We were up in the Dells to have some alone time, not crunch numbers! Still, the whole deal seems pretty neat, and I'm going to use one of the beginning adventures from the Pendragon adventure book "Tales of Chivalry and Romance" to put us on our way to learning this game.

No, I'm not buying Arthurian miniatures... er... yet...

OD&D Solo game w/wife - The fancy sword of "I don't think so..."

Calypso (the miniature)
Yes, I'm painting him.

Aeli and her merry band of fighters and one long-suffering mage once again entered the dark tunnels of the Tomb of Alaxus to recover the famed Runeblade and investigate the tomb. Aeli is still looking for clues as to why her family was killed by the mage Calypso. Having been thwarted from entering the sepulcher by a skeletal hand reaching out of a coffin, Aeli began searching other areas of the tomb. She hoped to find some means of opening the newly formed locked on the sepulcher doors.

I took the opportunity to help @thePrincessWife plot some strategy on how to fight the things that she saw surrounding the probable coffin of Alaxus. I suggested ways of using the dungeon terrain (the door) and gave tips on how to use oil/missile weapons, plus spears in the second rank. So off they went... and shortly, they found themselves confronting the ratling king, his host of ratling followers and two very nasty giant weasels. The vast majority of ratlings went down from an NPC's Sleep spell, but the weasels proved very difficult. @thePrincessWife sacrificed her shield arm (Shields Shall Be Splintered!) to prevent a blow that would have taken her to 3 hit points (the weasel attached and was sucking hp automatically per round until successfully damaged to cause it to break off). The brave cleric of Patharcus healed Aeli, only to die from a weasel's bite shortly thereafter. In the end, the other hirelings proved their worth by defeating the weasels and the Ratling King was killed in a fight to the death (he wanted to retreat, but there was no other way out, so it was to the death.)

I am coaching @thePrincessWife on using some of the variant rules for OD&D to make the fighter an interesting choice, as well as giving her some options to increase her survivability as a solo player. The ones I have been using mainly are the "Cleave" (if she kills an opponent, she can immediately attack another opponent of lesser HD in that same round, provided the opponent is within melee range - 10') and the "Multiple Attacks per round" at FM Level - Creature HD = # of attacks.

With the ratling king dead, she could now retrieve the sword with crystal runes embedded in the blade that glowed an odd blue. Tironell, the NPC mage, saw the blade for what is was: the fabled Runeblade that legends say slew Alaxus! So Aeli bent down to pick up the blade and...

... 10 minutes later, she realized she was happily cleaning and sharpening her "fancy blade" (the one with runes on it that say "Covet Me"). Everyone else is looking at her like she's out of her mind. Shrugging it off, she took the large silver key that dangled about the ratling king's neck, noting that it was very similar to the key displayed in various murals found in Alaxus's tomb - and hopefully the key that would open the sepulcher doors! With only 8 hp and no cleric, she decided to return to town to heal and discuss the Runeblade.


Thus began some of the better roleplaying that we've had so far in the two plus years of this on-again, off-again campaign. Aeli was very reluctant to admit that there might be something wrong with her "fancy sword" but when pressed by Tironell, she tried to pick up the Runeblade again. 10 minutes later, she realizes Tironell is staring at her while she's cleaning her precious fancy sword. So, as a test, he offers to trade her his dagger for her sword as a permanent exchange. 10 minutes later, she realizes she's cleaning her sword (AGAIN) while Tironell is hiding behind the door, with the dagger stuck into the door about where his head HAD been!

It was at this point that Aeli finally admitted that yes, something might be wrong. Next game, we'll be resolving this with a trip to the Patriarch priest to have Remove Curse cast upon her.

In game terms, @thePrincessWife has a sword with some personality! She's not entirely sure that the sword has been beneficial to her, although it seems to have been a good sword. She is playing up her character to be a "damn the torpedos" type of person who doesn't like to admit she's wrong and wants to present a brave front. She also likes her pretties as well (life/art imitation? *grin*) and this "fancy sword" has been her mainstay, although @thePrincessWife said she really does want the Runeblade.


So on to the next game! Will she be forced to confront whatever lies in Alaxus's sepulcher with the Runeblade or the "fancy sword"?

OD&D Solo game w/wife - The doors on the tomb go "open and shut..."

(If you're humming "Wheels on the Bus" right now, that's where the title is from...)

After a brief distraction with confronting and capturing some wandering bandits, Aeli and her band returned to the Tomb of Alaxus to crawl through a ratling tunnel (more of a natural crack in a hill) to see if she could find a different way into the tomb. We had a little time to spare, life has gotten quite hectic in January, with something going on almost every evening. This was a treat to have a couple of hours to play.

We also play short sessions. @thePrincessWife isn't the type to sit at the gaming table for 10 to 12 hours, unlike her idiot husband, so I try to take it in short bursts and I'll let her stop the game in dungeons. Since it's just her and I, there's that luxury.

So... on to the game and the meaning of the title...

After crawling through bugs (a "small" giant centipede dropped on the NPC mage who promptly decided he did not like crawling through tunnels...) and into a room that looked suspiciously like other tomb rooms, Aeli found herself back in a hexagonal chamber with a skeleton in plate armor and a shield with a sunburst. One of the henchmen decided to take the shield, but Aeli was more interested in the jet black double doors that lay to the north.

Brief segue.. I hate it when my screw ups in directions lead to player confusion in mapping. Talk about a way to kill a great game flow... kinda like this segue... anyway...

So the jet black doors, with bas-reliefs of minotaur heads and silver bull-head door ring pulls. She pulled the doors open and she saw a dias with a coffin in the middle. Between the dias and the door looked to be 8 rotting minotaurs and behind the dias were 8 piles of bones. It was the tomb of Alaxus!

In the meantime, I've been waiting for her to finally find this tomb. So I'm excitedly setting up the minis, putting up the terrain and just all happy. @thePrincessWife's eyes are as big as plates right now and she's considering the backing and the pedalling. It's a huge climax ...

... and then as I reviewed the description to make sure I had everything, I saw a single line at the very beginning of the room description, where it is describing the jet black stone doors... "These doors are locked."

...

...

...

Yea... so what to do? Do I leave the doors unlocked? Do I go "oops. Wait.. this didn't happen."

No.

So Aeli and party are still at the door, gaping at the sight before them, when a skeletal hand reaches up out of the coffin, points to the doors AND THEY SHUT! Right on those adventurer's noses!

So Aeli and company plot and get oil and cleric ready.. they're going to go in... but the door will not push open! The two silver bull head ring pulls suddenly liquefy (ala Terminator 2) and form one solid bullhead, it's mouth now a giant keyhole.

(Insert sudden dawning realization on @thePrincessWife's face and then the glaring and growling and "WTF'ing"...)

Heh. A cinematic moment made more cinematic by an old school "GET OFF MY LAWN!" performed by something in the coffin.

Aeli and party returned to the skeleton and she took the plate mail armor and dressed in it. Now if you're familiar with "Wrath of the Minotaur" module by Jeff Grubb, you know that this is most likely the armor of the famous mage-killer/Hero that slew Alaxus a long time ago with the Sword of Runes. The henchman who had taken the shield sheepishly (and a little in awe) gave it Aeli saying the shield probably belonged with the armor.

That's something I've started giving to Aeli (and to my Dark Ages players as well) at 4th level - some respect and admiration. In OD&D, 4th level was equivalent to Chainmail's Hero, making 4 attacks per turn instead of 1. These were the bad-ass knights, the snarling ferocious barbarian leaders or the dudes that were gonna go get some serious ass-kicking on. Well, they get some deference and notoriety. Aeli saw a bit of that when she captured the bandits, and now that she's donning platemail that may have been worn by an ancient hero.. well, that's just the shit!

She exited the Tombs on that note, and went back to town to drink. A wandering minstrel took note of her and sang a song of the famous fight between the unnamed female Hero and Alaxus the Blackest of Mages.

The screwup with the door has presented itself with opportunities for her and for me. For her, it means that "peek" gives her a tactical edge - she knows what to expect and she can prepare better for it. I won't begrudge that to her, hell, it was my screwup and her gain. It gave me some fun with a moment that you won't see in most fantasy movies and depending on what she does/where she goes to find how to unlock the door, more opportunities to have some fun. So not too disheartening and just a quick improv - thank gods I pulled that outta my ass!

I can't wait to play again!

OD&D Solo game w/wife - The return of Aeli

After 10 months of trying, @thePrincessWife and I finally sat down at the table and tossed some dice, shoved metal figures around and had fun playing OD&D again. With the step-daughter, 4 year old granddaughter, 2 teenage daughters and a constant revolving door of people coming and going, it's hard to set aside time to get to gaming, but we manged to do it. I had recapped the previous adventures of Aeli and her band of rag-tag misfits (heh) earlier on the campaign wiki, and we picked up much where we left off.

Now I'm not one for the blow-by-blow recaps, but I would like to point out a couple of neat things:

1. I'm noodling around with a house-rule that says a Fighting Man can attack multiple targets at rate of Level - HD attacks. It basically breaks down like this: Fighting Man Level - HD of creature = Number of attacks per round. Any numbers < 1 = 1.

Here's a chart:

HD      <1  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9+
Level          
1       1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
2       2   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
3       3   2   1   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
4       4   3   2   1   1   1   1   1   1   1
5       5   4   3   2   1   1   1   1   1   1
6       6   5   4   3   2   1   1   1   1   1
7       7   6   5   4   3   2   1   1   1   1
8       8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   1   1
9       9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1   1
10      10  9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

The math checks out. The problem is that I keep forgetting to give Aeli the extra attacks! I bet if I tell her this rule, she'll make sure to ask me if she can get extra attacks! :) This really will help with the solo game survivability as well.

2. Tying up loose ends. A few adventures ago, Aeli captured some bandits with the "help" of a local neer-do-well by the name of "Nib". Well, he fled her company once the bandits had been caught and she suspected him of attempting to double-cross her. So in this game, she ended up with a bandit encounter and guess who I ruled was leading the bunch? Nib. This wilderness encounter, which the dice told the story, ended up derailing her plans for the day. Thanks to her charge through the line of ill-prepared bandits to grab Nib, as well as the monsters rolling "surrender" after the first death of the opponents, Aeli had to take the bandits back to town for a justly deserved reward... which she can collect once she takes the Writ of Reward to the Keep to cash in.

I am a big/huge proponent of taking the story the dice tell and weaving it into the narrative. Had there been no bandit encounter, Nib would still be out there, but now he's in chains awaiting trial and @thePrincessWife has a nice conclusion to that tale, as well as a bit of cash.

3. The story lives. OK, this is more of a thought after the game and a bit morbid but... do you write out the thoughts in your head as to where the story might go... just in case?

This is probably really damn personal and a bit odd, but if I die, the story dies and @thePrincessWife would never know how it would end. Now I know this is the fear of any writer anywhere, or any artist that creates... but it strikes me that DMs really do show a personal side of their creativity and if they pass on - well, we don't know where things would've went.

There are no notes about Castle Greyhawk that point definitively to how it was supposed to really look, all fleshed out. I don't know how detailed things were for Blackmoor, and I get the feeling that Tekumel/EPT is so well fleshed out that people would be able to see Prof. Barker's notes.

So OK, it made me worry about my lovely wife, so I actually wrote out where things are going IF she continues on her path. It's a constantly evolving story, as she makes decisions and things change, but if God forbid something were to happen to me, I'd want her to know. OK, morbid.. sorry. But the solo game has become such a thing that I feel between her and I that I want her to have this. No matter what.

OK, go hug your SO and kids now. :)

OD&D Solo game w/wife - Falling in love again

ThePrincessWife and I are about to start gaming again, both with OD&D/Swords & Wizardry and in Pendragon. To that, I've been going through all my old game notes and coming up with recaps that she can read and get back up to speed. I thought I would share them here as well.

Here are the links:
A recap of the game so far - Part 1
A recap of the game so far - Part 2

(Should I reproduce the text here? Or just the links?)

Anyway, in writing these out, I found myself remembering a lot of ideas, memories and half formed plans - those "Oh yea... what about this... and this..." and I found myself wanting to go back to The Vale again and being the exploration. It was like pulling back the curtain and falling in love again with this setting and what was so exciting about playing it.

I think I'm really healed from the drek and scum from the TARGA and YesNoOSR deals. It feels good to just be excited to game. Now if I pick up my miniatures painting brush, I'm REALLY in trouble. I still have almost 100 left to paint! LMAO!

OD&D Solo game w/wife - 4th level

My @thePrincessWife reached an achievement in OD&D/Swords & Wizardry; she attained 4th level. On the eve of her birthday no less! In OD&D, she would now be a "Hero" which was significant in Chainmail - she would be considered a special type of character and now able to confront the truly fantastic of creatures. I mentioned to her that word of her accomplishments and travels are starting to become noteworthy not only in the immediate area, but regionally.

We played a bit last night - much of it was concerning "paperwork" in reviewing things like how Hit Dice worked, her various skills and abilities and her henchmen.

We also had some fun watching the dice give @thePrincessWife fits! She has concluded that there must be a back entrance to the Tomb of Alaxus, given that these ratlings seem to be living there and probably did not come through the front door. She is not a ranger or skilled woodsmen, so I gave her character, Aeli, a base chance of each hour finding something, if something was there. The more she searched, the more I raised the likelihood of finding something, or positively concluding that nothing was to be found. The only downfall was wandering monster checks.

[Spongebob Announcer Voice] Five hours later... [/Voice]

So the dice were not kind and five hours passed in-game while the group trekked around this hill looking for something - anything! It wasn't until the wandering ratlings cued Aeli to the location of the secret entrance that she found it. We all had a good laugh on that and had to regretfully stop playing for the night as we just ran out of time. Either tonight or tomorrow, she'll enter this narrow hole in the ground and see where it leads to.

I'm really looking forward to getting her new "true" 25mm miniature all painted up and ready to go - as I am looking forward to completing Tironell's miniature (the NPC mage that accompanies Aeli.) Although I have no problem killing him if needs be, I have come to enjoy the banter between her character and Tironell. Unsurprisingly, it mirrors some of the same banter she and I have. Go figure!

OD&D Solo game w/wife - Small steps

Previously, about two months ago, my wife braved the depths of chambers beneath the Tower of Alaxus to find clues to her ancient mage ancestor, Kellus Therran. She had defeated the Smoke Dragon guardian, but had fallen afoul of a nasty gelatinous cube, losing her "magical" sword in the process. She was subsequently robbed at the hands of a large band of goblins and slunk back into Valetown, broke and depressed.

The Patriarch of Valetown agreed to trade some of the valuable old books from the Tower in exchange for coins and a refit. Tironell, Aeli's erstwhile mage companion, agreed reluctantly. Subsequently refitted and rearmed, the group of Aeli and Tironell, along with her loyal henchmen Turchao and Rather and three hirelings - Fan, Jan and Chin, made their way back to the tower. (Hey... I wasn't feeling all that original and hirelings need easy names to remember... at least with the turnover that Aeli's group experiences...)

They planned on using oil to flame the cube to death, but that involved luring the cube into an ambush. Aeli volunteered to be the bait, so she crept down the corridor to the room that the cube was in. Her sword was no longer stuck in the wall, no doubt now in the belly of the beast. She peered into the room, and got the cube's attention to follow her. That's when disaster almost struck!

Aeli wasn't quite quick enough to dash away before the cube had a chance to lash out at her and paralyze her - beginning the process of enveloping her! [See DM Note #1 below] Her companions, hearing her cry, rushed down the hall and were able to kill the cube before it killed her - a short while later, she recovered. There was a great deal of happiness at the recovery of her sword, along with what appeared to be a potion of healing and some coins and a bejeweled dagger.

The cube had been sitting in front of a crack in the wall, a winding passageway that was barely wide enough for a human to squeeze through. Since the main passage forward was blocked by a cave-in, and apparently some creature(s) on the other side, Aeli chose this route. After awhile of squeezing through this passage, she found herself in another room similar to the one the cube had been in... except this one was populated by rat-like humanoids roughly 4 feet tall.

Aeli, not being much of the diplomat, asked if she could pass through. The ratlings were not impressed by her speech given that it was her vs. 10 of the creatures. She pushed forward to allow others to get out of the crack, but the fight went poorly for the party. It wasn't until Tironell cast sleep that the party was able to overcome the ratlings. Unfortunately, they had little in the way of treasure, a single ancient coin and a dead spider charm.

Aeli made her way out of another exit in the chamber and boldly walked down the corridor and opened the door to peek inside. [DM note #2] Something was peeking at her.. more ratlings! There was another group of 10, but this time, 5 of them were across the room with bows. Recognizing that this was A Bad Situation, Aeli backed up down the hall and managed to close and spike the door before the creatures were able to yank it open. The party decided to cut their losses and head back to town to regroup and restock - as well as persuade the mage to memorize TWO sleep spells (which I've not decided if I'll allow in this campaign.. I kinda like the thought of only one of a spell able to live in your head. Tironell might make a scroll though... )

@theprincesswife had a tough night with the dice not favoring her. She did get her sword back and she's now somewhat annoyed at these rat creatures for blocking her progress. Funny how princess fighters get annoyed at the world... LOL! ;)

Zack over at RPG Blog 2 is running a Friday article about our Significant Others supporting our gaming. I'm a very lucky guy that @theprincesswife enjoys playing our game and is very supportive of my gaming. She puts up with the games out of the house, with me obsessing over miniatures, she does enjoy playing in my game and hearing about my AD&D campaign (although she freely admits she would have a hard time playing with others... )

I'm a very grateful and lucky guy to have a wonderful woman like this.

She is, however, still insistent that someday there will be a Carebare-LittlePoniesw/Lasers-Tinkerbell-CutePuppies D&D game. I may not survive that one.

---

DM Note #1 - The cube is slower than Aeli, but she was trying to lure it away. In my head, movement is not simultaneous, giving the winner of initiative some advantage. So it caught up to her and next round, when she tried to run away, it won initiative again, so was able to get a free attack on her in her running away.

Now that's an interesting point and one that could go either way. In a way, that's why I like Philotomy's more complex rules that break down movement to "half" steps - it breaks up the movement to give running away a bit of a chance. Since she was probably moving slower to lure the thing, it was easier to rule that it caught up - had she been running full tilt in retreat, it wouldn't have had a chance. Still, this was made even more sticky when she was knocked out! At that point, @theprincesswife was pretty sure she was dead. Fortunately, it takes a few minutes to actually kill someone in a cube, so the hirelings quick blades were timely.

DM Note #2 - This is one of those times where I have to balance the NPCs going "What, are you nuts!?! Don't just yank open doors!" and allowing @theprincesswife to learn (relearn) some of the cautious lessons. It had been a couple of months and she's still new... so I ruled that although there was no surprise, the ratlings weren't in a killing position yet as she had basically marched straight down the corridor and opened the door. No time for anyone to prepare. If they had been prepared, there would have been a hail of arrows shooting at the players. Yea. 20 arrow shots in a round? People would have died.

OD&D Solo game w/wife - Misfortunes

You just know this can't be good...

After Friday night's victory over the smoke dragon and opening of Alaxus's Tomb, @theprincesswife's PC Aeli was ready to plumb the depths of the ancient Black Mage's final resting place. Things, however, didn't quite turn out the way she hoped. Sometimes the dice love players, sometimes the dice hate players.

After a brief survey of a room with a rune-carved plinth, she found a room littered with bones ankle-deep. The bones were packed down to a smooth surface and a shimmering distortion could be seen. As they approached it, it reached out suddenly with a pseudopod and slammed one of her hirelings. Down he went, paralyzed. It was a gelatinous cube!

Thus began a disjointed retreat from the creature. Aeli attempted to hold at the door, but she fumbled and now her glowing, possibly magical/weird sword was stuck in the wall! With only 3 hit points left, one man down and the rest injured from the smoke dragon, Aeli had no choice but to flee. The party had to leave behind the chest of gold they'd taken from the dragon, as it was slowing them down. They fled the tomb and dungeon proper to the forest outside. Fortunately, her paralyzed henchman recovered.

The party was dejected as they bedded down in front of the tomb. Sleep came to them, however, sleep that was rudely interrupted by a harsh laugh and a croaking "Well-ho, boys! What do we have here?" and the answering laugh... from creatures encircling the party's camp! A band of goblins had stumbled onto the party and now had them in a bad place. Aeli looked to make a fight of it, despite being surrounded and without armor (you can't sleep in armor in my game), but the NPCs and hirelings told her this was a bad situation. Aeli and the goblin sergeant negotiated and he took all their coins and a couple of weapons and left them alive.

Thus Aeli and company marched back to Valetown, now injured, dejected AND penniless. The Patriarch (spiritual leader and mayor of Valetown) took them in, healed them and agreed to keep some items he'd borrowed from them in exchange for coin and weapons refit from the town guard. Tironell, the mage NPC, knew the books were worth 5 times what the Patriarch could spare, but the party had little choice. The evening ended with the Patriarch directing the innkeeper to allow Aeli & company to have a barrel of beer, which they consumed to drown out the memories.

The dice were just not with @theprincesswife. This time, the cube did not fall so easily as had one in the past and Aeli was still injured from her previous encounter with the smoke dragon. When the follower fell, that was the cube getting a good hit, and the fumble (with following roll resulting in "weapon stuck in wall/floor") was further bad luck. I thought for a minute that my wife would stay, but when she realized they could outrun the cube, she pulled back and tried to bomb it with oil. That missed, so they fled proper.

What made it worse was the wandering monster result I rolled up during their camp-out. When I came up with a large band of goblins, I thought of how this might go... and I decided that the goblins were in a good place to try and pull off a bluff. Goblins are sneaky and canny, and they don't want to sell their lives cheaply. The leader had the advantage, so he pressed it to get some easy coin and a couple of weapons. A good score for the goblins without them losing any lives - made perfect sense to me. It was a low point for my wife, for sure, but if this had gone to combat I think it would have been a very bad go. She was, in a way, lucky that the goblins felt they had a good advantage AND she's lucky in some sense her glowing magic sword was stuck in the tomb's wall. If the goblins would have seen that and tried to claim it, it would have been bad, bad, bad. My wife does not give up her sparklies and pretties easily.

The dice sometimes are with you, and sometimes they really kick you in the ass. So Aeli lives another day, but she's been taken down a peg and she doesn't like that! I have no doubt my wife will return to the Tomb, but I think in retrospect, she should have healed up before venturing further into the dungeon. Even at 3rd level, a good hit from a tough creature can bring you down fast. So last night was enjoyable from just playing, but in the words of my wife - "That adventure SUCKED!"

That'll make the next success all the sweeter.

OD&D Solo game w/wife - Dragons!

Last night, I got to do something that I've not done as a DM - I got to run a dragon. OK, it was a smoke dragon - a construct - but it was still fun to have this thing billow forth, put the Black Dragon miniature on the altar and have it thunder "BEGONE INTRUDERS OR DIE!!!" It was a guardian to the Tomb of Alaxus, so it was rather limited in scope, but it still was powerful enough to put 3/4ths of the party out of commission with it's choking breath weapon. It roared forth a streaming, billowing cloud of smoke around the party and most of them went down choking and coughing with failed saving throws.

That was when I could the "screw it, I'm dead" look on my wife's face. She was overwhelmed with her plans and party falling apart almost from the get go. It was at that point that I slowed the game down and walked her through what she knew:
- The dragon was a construct, linked to some sort of anchor - clues in the tomb told her it was a cup. She had just gone through a few days worth of adventure to get a sage to give her some advice on how to defeat it, but all that ran out her head when she faced the danger.
- Where was the cup? She had assumed she could just walk in, grab the cub and control the dragon. She had forgotten that the first time she entered the huge chamber, the dragon appeared right away. She wasn't putting the clues together in her panic - that the smoke originated from the stone altar in the corner. By slowing down the game and walking her through it, she realized that the cup was probably on the altar, but hidden now by the smoke from the dragon.
- What to do now that the original plan was up in smoke? (hehehehe) She had herself and another party member left. "What can you do?" She thought about it and came up with the remaining active hireling to go grab the cup while she confronted the dragon, distracting it. That was a reasonable plan, as the dragon recognized Aeli as the strongest party member. It's confidence was it's undoing as the dice had favored my wife... this thing had on 13hp and it was a 4HD monster!

The plan worked! Aeli chopped into the smoke dragon, disrupting it's cohesiveness with a nice series of blows. The hireling named Rather dashed up to the altar, found the cup and just as the dragon was turning to throw it's breath weapon at him, he smashed the cup while Aeli sliced through for the final blow!

One relieved wife looting the chest of gold later...

I also ran into a classic potential dead end myself... there's a tomb here, she legitemately found the symbol indicating the door, but she was failing rolls to find the way to open it. She knew what was going on, but the dice were saying that she wasn't getting it done right away. Well, sometimes you let the dice tell the story and sometimes you have to figure out what else to do. So, I gave her a tradeoff. She spent two hours figuring out the hidden double doors, then using swords from fallen skeletons to pry it open a crack, then her and a party member testing their Strength against it to pull it open enough for one person to squeeze through.

I think the new gamers call it "taking 10", but I called it 5 wandering monster rolls that came up empty (argh!) and the loss of 6 ancient swords that could have been worth money. Man, talk about the rolls going her way with monsters! Dead end overcome through resource exchange and risking combat. I'll take that and now she's got a dark, damp corridor beckoning...

So we've frozen the game in place (a luxury that I indulge in when we're going to play the next day) and we'll see what happens as she begins to plumb the Tomb of Alaxus. I can't wait!

OD&D Solo game w/wife - One year campaign anniversary

A year is a neat milestone to achieve in a campaign. A year says that despite all of the obstacles that life throws at you, despite all of the issues of learning and adapting a game to the DM/players, despite setbacks and sometimes bad sessions, you've hung in there to make it through a year.

It was roughly a year ago that I played OD&D with my wife(@theprincesswife on twitter) as a solo game for the first time. I took a campaign setting that I had dreamed up long ago and took her into it. I started off using microlite74 as our game system, then switched to Swords & Wizardry to get more options and to bring it to the D&D I had grown up with. We started off in "Westport", with her exploring the Tower of Zenopus from the 1979 Basic D&D book.

It was fitting that over the Thanksgiving break, her character Aeli revisited the Tower to regain books for a sage, and to investigate the possibility of bandits using the cellar as a base. It was also fitting that she finally ran into the loot stash of the Tower - the underground beach base of the bandits. In the year that we've played, my wife has gotten quite good at various strategies - using doorways as choke-points, recon, and using the element of surprise to her advantage. She's also gotten quite ruthless at dealing with prisoners. Last game, she marched Notuk, a goblin, through town in the daylight tied up. This game, she forced a bandit prisoner to strip so he wouldn't run away.

In that year, her character Aeli has made some interesting discoveries and encountered some strange creatures. She's still on her quest to avenge the slaughter of her family. We had a good session where I recapped what has gone on and she took some good notes. We've also started using Obsidian Portal to document the setting and what she knows. That way, she can keep the thread going.

That's probably the biggest issue we've had. By the time we get home at night, done with the kids, the chores, dinner and all the other stuff we have, we're exhausted! We've tried shorter games, we've tried scheduling, but life for us has many things going on, and that makes it hard to get in some games. We both "get out of the habit" and have to shake it off and get back to playing. Memory fades though, and sometimes I forget something that she'll remember, or vice versa. Having a "recall session" to set up the next game helped.

One other cool thing happened in my campaign world - my son and youngest daughter also adventured in the same setting - making it a family campaign. My eldest daughter also played with my wife a game or two -- however, my wife has since learned she prefers to play solo! Ha!

So Aeli is now richer, she has finished some important missions and she's looking to get back to her original mission - find the murderer of her family. She's been given some interesting clues, there are still some adventure hooks dangling in front of her and some new places to explore. The next year should be very interesting!

OD&D Solo game w/wife - Restarting

I needed to get back to what makes me happy - running games. So last night, @theprincesswife and I reviewed where our campaign had taken her character, Aeli and her merry band of henchmen, hirelings and other miscreants... er... followers.

The outcome is that I've started a new Obsidian Portal campaign wiki for the Vale Campaign: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/the-vale-solo-campaign

Tonight, she's plunging back into the Tower of Zenopus to seek books for the sage Nikodemos. She knows that there are goblins and bandits within... I wonder what else she'll find?

Solo Gaming with the wife

Today's main post is about solo gaming and meeting expectations - co-written by my lovely @thePrincessWife (she of the "tie goblins up and parade them about town" gaming).

What started this post was something that Archmage writes in his blog:

We have different priorities when it comes to gaming. We both want to have fun, but our ideas of fun are light years apart. ... The mistakes I'm making when I try to run D&D with her include:
I over-prep
I say no when i should say yes
I get impatient that she isn't interested in the aspects of D&D that I'm interested in
I become upset and feel guilty that I'm not running a fun game for her

I don't know how to break out of this. Could it just be that I can't DM D&D for her? Should I try a different game? Am I just so out of practice, and so stuck in a certain style of gaming that I'm ruining gaming for her?

Trollsmyth, over at his blog, gives some great advice:

- As much as you can, outline what you want from the game ahead of time.
- Prepare to compromise, and to stand fast where it's necessary. And then honestly adhere to this social contract.
- Demolish all the boundaries you've created in your minds about what the game “must” be about.
- Obviously, you both love the fantastical, so there's some strong overlap there. Find those points of interests in the movies and shows and books you both enjoy and mine them for ideas.

So I sat down (virtually, over GTalk) with @theprincesswife (tPw) and we talked about it - this is a condensed version of our discussion.

Me: So you've had a chance to read those posts, what do you think?

tPw: I think no two people "imagine" in their heads alike. To me, the entire game is in my head. Since I don't really know (care) about the rules, it's more about the story in my head.

Me: It sounds like these two have come to the table and they have two different games they want to play.

tPw: No, I see it as the same game, two different ways to play. Imagination creates your style

Me: Right... so if they both imagine in different ways, then it becomes difficult. Do you think we did/do that?

tPw: I am sure we do. For us, yours (way of playing) does not really rub mine the wrong way. Mine pretty much just flows in my head. I think you and I are very different in how we play, maybe ?

Me: How so? [Ed. Note: I was REALLY surprised...]

tPw: I see you pouring over the books and writing them and all the rules and stuff and it just doesn't interest me. Instead, my head is always wondering, what am i gonna do when i get back to the dragon... whats next ...

Me: If I'm more into the "game" than you are, why does it work well for us at the table?

tPw: You're not more into it, just into it in a different way. I am busy picking out the pieces that interest me. It doesn't bother me - the other stuff that you are into. I'm always busy with the "story" in my head. If you were trying to push the story, we would rub.

Me: So the way we play, my interests and your interests don't collide so much. And the fact that I'm letting you tell the story helps?

tPw: It's (the story) everything to me in our game, the part I enjoy the most. You set the stages.

Me: So your expectation is to tell your story, and my expectation is to set the stage by which your story is told.

tPw: Yes. If the DM cant help the expectation of the player, quite frankly and honestly the player is not gonna have fun. They wont want to play.

Me: Right... can you think of anytime where we did rub?

tPw: Ahhh, I can only think of one time i didnt have so much fun. The whole puzzle of the doors with the statue. Frustrated the crap out of me. [Ed. Note: The turning statue in the Tower of Zenopus from the Holmes Basic book.]
Me: Right - you were pretty stumped there. What ended up helping?

tPw: My imagination was "stuck!" LOL. Your patience helped and you gave some big hints. When you're solo, you dont have anyone to bounce ideas back and forth. Sometimes the NPC has to be a player. You think it's railroading ?

Me: We've talked about that, how I worry about that fine line between you being in control and me being in control.

tPw: DM's don't want to be players? You have to, or I might as well play by myself.

Me: I do want to play.. but it's a different play. The problem I've always worried about is Tironell "taking charge" too much so that you're playing in my story, rather than me presenting, the stage for you to play your story. We've done pretty good so far though.

Me: What would you tell this couple with the game issue?

tPw: I don't know. It is kind of like giving marital advice to a couple you don't know. They are locked in their own expectations, maybe? Why should they care what the expectations are, can't they both have what they want ?

Me: What advice would you give her and him?

tPw: For her: Play it how she see's it (in her head). For him: Give a game to her how she wants it, but if he can't - he can't.

Me: True. Archmage talks about wanting to do a lot of stuff he likes. I was thinking in our game, I have alot of stuff going on that I like... but your story overlays it. I have a sandbox, but your focus is your story, so I go with that.

tPw: I get what I want, the fun imagination story, so when you put the other stuff in there it doesnt really rub me?

Me: I get what I want -- dungeons, hard tough monsters, a world that continues to revolve with or without you... some old school things like hirelings and the real threat of death.

tPw: Thats all cool to me to though.

So in retrospect, I guess what has worked for us is that I have a game where we both are getting the elements of what we want. I have a setting that I'm able to put into motion and have elements of the game that are important to me, but in reality, it's the story she's following and concentrating on (finding the murderer of her family) that sets the tone and pace. It's a sandbox with a plot that she drives.

Thank you, @thePrincessWife!

OD&D Solo game w/wife - The Parade

It has been a month since I last sat down at the table with @theprincesswife for Swords & Wizardry/OD&D play. She's just been feeling so worn out, she hasn't felt like playing. I was really surprised when Saturday night she asked if we could play. Could we? I think I had the dice, minis and campaign binder out in record time.

When we last played, a bit of player/DM miscommunication led Aeli and her band of henchmen and hirelings to the Tower of Zenopus rather than the Minotaur Mage's tower. She had been sent there to look into the issue of possible bandits in the tower, who'd been plauging Westport for weeks. She took her first steps back into her old stomping ground and ... [insert record needle scratch noise here] ... except we had to pause for a moment where her almost 8 month old map confused her and I had to tell her what she was seeing versus what she'd put down on paper.

Right, so we got that all set and she marches up a familiar hallway to find doors that are spiked shut. After a rather noisy series of attempts at yanking them open (and requisite wandering monster rolls), she came face to face with an unexpected sight... bandits AND goblins with a green fist on their tunics! (Note to my AD&D campaign players - yes, I reuse ideas. This is one of my favorite metal songs!)

A bit of nasty negotiation happened and resulted in Aeli slamming the door shut on the group and hightailing it out of the dungeon. She didn't like the odds of almost 2 to 1 and decided to go get reinforcements. A quick trip to the Keep and discussion with the Captain of the Guard ("You *are* the Champion of Westport, right?") and a very annoyed Aeli had 2 militia men and one 1st level fighter.

Back to the dungeon and the band of bandits and goblins sprung an ambush with a volley of arrows down a corridor as soon as the our party of adventurers entered. A chase through the Tower and several rooms found one goblin dead and another cowering, begging for mercy.

DM Note - this is one of the areas where I have a bit of a mental block - adjudicating running battles. My MO up till now has been if movement rates are equal, if the ones doing the chasing get initiative, they can perform a "charge" attack. Otherwise, if the pursued win initiative, I feel they'd somehow kept out of range for an attack. If there's a difference in favor of the pursuers, they can chase and end it with a charge attack. If it's in favor of the pursued, well... keep running, boys! It's probably not the cleanest ruling, but it works.

So Aeli and company tie up the goblin and start to drag him out of the dungeon. He starts raising a ruckus, so one of the hireling whacks him in the mouth! Aeli was in no mood. They drag him out into the sunlight, at which point No-took starts screaming in pain. They cover him with a sack and drag him through the city.

So here's an armed party, dragging a moaning, crying goblin tied up through a bustling seaport. So what does my wife do? "What tavern is nearest? I'm thirsty!" Probably one of the nastiest, lowdown places in Westport, but at the sight of almost 10 well-armed warriors (and one mage - my NPC Tironell - who at this point was getting a neck-ache shaking his head in disbelief...) the whole bar cleared out. Aeli had her drink, they proceeded to the Keep at which point the game ended. Next game, she'll get the results of the interrogation.

Sometimes you just have to let your players really do crazy stuff - I was rolling the entire time Aeli/@theprincesswife were parading the captured goblin through town. Not too subtle, my wife's character... it's great!

I'm really hoping we can keep doing these 1 to 2 hour sessions - she was cheered up after it was over.

OD&D Solo game w/wife - Dice story telling

Last night's game was a story courtesy of the dice and of a miscommunication which made the game even more interesting. After the game, she said "This was a really fun game" which always makes me smile and fills me with satisfaction. So what exactly happened?

My wife's character Aeli has commissioned a sage to find clues to defeating a magical smoke dragon guardian. To do this, she had to "go on credit" to provide the sage with a total of 500 gold plus some books from another individual. She also needed to finish a task of bringing bandits back to the Lord's keep for trial.

A side note - I had the pleasure of finally meeting a fellow OD&D gamer, Tavis from the East Coast. I've known him from the OD&D Boards and we made plans to play some Swords & Wizardry at GenCon. He joined in the large game I ran Saturday night with the crazy blogger crew. Although much silliness ensued during that game, Tavis ran a tight character and did all the right things. To his credit, he participated in all the battles, he disarmed a trap and he survived long enough to find a treasure hoard on level 1. Unfortunately, he was fighting alone at the end and he died. I really enjoyed playing with him.

Tavis posted on the OD&D board on Monday about the dice telling the story and reading it was like gaining another DM level for me. I let the dice tell the story for the AD&D/OSRIC hex crawling game on Tuesday and I let the dice tell the story last night. Both games have gone really well and it has allowed me to become as much an explorer of the game, plot and sandbox as the players are. I think, as a DM referee, this is ideal for me. The dice are impartial, therefore I'm impartial.

As the solo game progressed, Aeli rode with a group of soldiers to return the bandits for trial. It was a very wet, rainy trip. Upon arriving, she left to go see if the Patriarch would give her the books she had retrieved from the Minotaur Mage's ruined tower. However, he was apparently in seclusion and unavailable for the time being. Aeli was going to have to return to the sage empty-handed.

She rounded up the bandits from jail and the escort made their way back through the forest and wild hills back to the Lord's Keep. Surprisingly, there was no attack by the bandits to retrieve their fellow compatriots. Upon return, Aeli was handed 200 gold for the mission (which included some extra for having actually captured the bandits in an earlier adventure) and dismissed.

What is cool is that all of those elements were completely random. A plot-driven, story-driven game might have included a huge bandit attack to free their compatriots, the Patriarch giving the books to Aeli and a completely successful mission. The dice, however, told a different story. No random encounter/wandering monsters were rolled during the game - had there been, then it would have been most likely bandits. There was a 1 in 6 chance that the Patriarch was unavailable - and he was. What is neat is that this opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities that otherwise might not have happened - Aeli has to figure out where to get some books from (the sage is interested in any books from ancient mages - and Aeli has two possible avenues of getting them) and she is now wondering why the bandits didn't attack. Is this the real bandit leader then? Are there other things afoot?

It's freeing and really awesome to see the story develop to my surprise as much as it is for her. I have the broad brush strokes of how the world would progress given no PC input, but once Aeli performs her actions, I get to figure out what happens.

The miscommunication actually made for a better game! Aeli wants to find books for the sage, in return for him telling her how to defeat the smoke dragon. She knows that there may be books in the dungeons she's been in: the ruined tower of Zenopus in the city of Westport and the ruined tower of Alaxus, the Minotaur Mage, near Valetown.

She was in Westport after returning the bandits to the Lord, when my wife says "OK, I want to go to the tower." I'm thinking "OK, Westport, Zenopus's Tower - that's COOL. She wants to return to her first dungeon. Now what would have happened in a month..." So while I got a drink from the fridge, I decided that the Lord probably would have mounted guards and forbidden entrance until the bandit situation is resolved and he could mount an expedition into the tower to determine what was there. So I returned to the table and started playing the role of the guards at the tower's entrance...

... except SHE thought she was back at Alaxus's tower near Valetown! So we're playing two different games for about 10 minutes! She went along with it, even tried to persuade the mage NPC to put the guards to sleep (he was horrified by the suggestion - he doesn't want to hang for attacking guards...) but then when I described what she saw as she went in, it dawned on both of us what had happened! Much laughter followed, but we agreed to play it the way I had interpreted it. That's because she realized she might be able to find more of Zenopus's books AND she was asked by the Captain of the guard to look for bandits in the ruins - which may mean more rewards!

So the plot thickened because of the mistake. Now how cool is that?

Image title: Lady and Youth Playing Draughts, Source: Green, J. R.: "A Short History of the English People" (1902)

OD&D Solo game w/wife - quick bits

Last night, we continued our "quick sessions" style to conclude my wife's investigations of the ancient tower and underground areas that she's been exploring for awhile. Last night was one of those "all role playing information dump" kind of games.

I will not love my NPC or plots

From day 1, I've been very leery of how much to involve my NPC. I've treated him like another character in terms of advancement and opportunities, and I've tried to always play him second fiddle to my wife's character, Aeli. He gets spells as he finds them - he doesn't even have Detect Magic and wants to find more spells to trade with. He tries to help but not be overbearing. I've come to like this mage though - and although I find it easy to keep him hamstrung because I don't want to make a mistake and create a "DM's favorite" - I find I am developing a bit of emotional investment to him. Probably time to kill him off. :D I don't want to fall into that trap.

I have, however, gotten over my reluctance to suggest directions and point out things that the NPC knows and would want Aeli to know, and last night, my NPC semi-lectured/chided Aeli for some things. It was a moment where the NPC showed Aeli that he really is fond of her and is now involved in her goals and priorities, and was able to deliver his thoughts and suggestions without me feeling like I was railroading her.

I think that the solo game has a slightly different danger than I had first supposed - the DM becoming emotionally involved in the goals of the player to the point where it could have the DM railroading for success. It's harder when you're dealing with just one person - especially since this is my wife and I am having fun as she's having fun. It occurs to me that the danger of "falling in love" with her plot is real - and that I have to remain as impartial as possible.

I realized this because of the NPC talking to Aeli about his thoughts on her actions and possible things he's seeing from her. I realized what a slippery slope I'm on - and that I have to let her develop her own story without railroads. Gah, I think I'm never going to be truly comfortable with this edge - and maybe that's a good thing. It keeps me honest so that I don't abandon her to no help at all - in a group setting, she'd get it; at the same time, I don't railroad her.

Identifying Magic without Identify

I am playing D&D without the Identify spell and it's making it interesting as Aeli puzzles over the items she's found in the ancient mage's library/tower.

Potions can be sipped and at least hints of the effects can be noted - Cure Light Wounds is an obvious one that Aeli knows full well now. Aeli's strange sword (inscribed with script that reads "Covet Me") has given her some interesting moments, but she's not too concerned about it.

For the ring that Aeli just found, she's had to jump through some hoops. Since the NPC mage doesn't have Detect Magic, he was limited in what he could do. Through Detect Evil, they found that the ring doesn't have an evil enchantment. So they went to see if someone else in the farm town could help them. The Detect Magic that the Patriarch cast shows that the ring is magical in nature, but it will require a sage to study the ring to discern its properties - in the meantime, she's wearing it to see what happens.

I like this "figure it out" approach - it just feels right. I'm sure she's curious and now I have the fun of making some sort of effect happen when the ring does what its going to do.

I also got to plant some "magic can be nasty" seeds in her head - the NPC mage did not just want to cast Read Magic on ancient mage robes with runes - some of them may explode when read and he didn't know if they were enchanted or not.

Another Just In Time sandbox prep - combined with published modules

My sandbox is based in large part on the old late-2E Fast Play rules (1998 Fast Play and "Crypt of the Smoke Dragon" Fast Play) and setting, as well as the . I've now started incorporating both of the follow-on modules Wrath of the Minotaur and Eye of the Wyvern.

One of main points to "Wrath" is the ancient mage Alaxus, and that this dungeon is related to him. Now the trick was how to integrate Alaxus to the sandbox and campaign.

- In the module, he was an evil mage in control of the area called "the Vale". OK, no problem, we'll keep that.

- How does he relate to the history of my campaign? Aside from controlling the Vale, he was also one of the founding members of Um-Loran - the black school of magic. That was a spur of the moment decision, and since I have broad brush strokes on what Um-Loran is all about (except that they're hunting Aeli), this was an easy detail to fill in.

- How does he fit into the "overall timeline and events of the world"? Oh, I can't reveal that just yet, but Aeli has to do some digging and exploring (not to mention, face an actual Dragon) to see if he does fit in - this was thought up as I was just mentally exploring how Alaxus fit into things.

- Can the campaign continue if she decides to not explore further? Yup, it can and will. She's got the freedom to do what she wants.
- Can I tie in the monsters to other things going on? Yup, already made changes.

All in all, the changes to the module and the details took me about 15 minutes. I have some notes to make now after the game, but it was the play that really pushed how he integrated.

The really neat thing is that I can also include "Wyvern" into this as well, as I've planted the hook in front of Aeli - if she takes it, then I can run that module - if not - then she doesn't and it's doesn't mean the campaign collapses. It'll be interesting to see if she does.

OD&D Solo game w/wife continues

Last night, @theprincesswife and I picked our solo game back up after a monthlong hiatus. June was a particularly stressful month, with many things planned and the ongoing health issues with my father. It was nice to have a couple of hours of game-time and enjoy some simple fun.

When we last left my wife's character, Aeli, she had just gotten herself extricated from jail after a run-in with some bandits. After preparing a fairly interesting version of a large slingshot, Aeli and party set forth to explore an area of a dungeon guarded by skeletons in a tough defensive position.

In an anticlimatic resolution, the hireling cleric turned the skeletons and the party mopped up on them cowering against a locked door. Beyond that door, Aeli found more interesting situations.

One room literally was 10x10 - except instead of an orc with pie, there were the remains of an exploded chest, an intact chest, a burnt body and it's apparent protector, a small dog. My wife kept expecting the dog to morph into a fantastically nasty creature, but it didn't. What the dog did do was prevent Aeli from approaching the body and second chest.

The ensuing ... resolution ... has given the NPCs and hirelings much mirth - Aeli has several new nicknames. However, I've been told that if I reveal exactly what she did, she will post rather embarassing photos of me in revenge. Let me just say that she chose the most difficult way of resolving the issue.

The climax of the evening was when the party followed a group of turned skeletons in a huge cavern and I got to do something I hardly ever do in the game "Dungeons & Dragons" -- I plopped down the miniature of a black dragon in front of the characters. The cavern had a huge brazier on an altar and a "smoke dragon" had appeared to intone a warning to the players.

Aeli promptly turned and high-tailed it out of the cavern. I have to admit, I was proud of her and slightly disappointed - but I know she'll be back. She just has to hire another posse. She had only 3 fighting men with her, a 2nd level cleric and 3rd level mage - but Aeli likes to have armies when facing hard foes.

In the 10x10 room, Aeli found a mysterious set of robes with possibly arcane writing on them, as well as a mysterious iron ring in a silk pouch. I've been told she wants to do some research on these items, as well as the mysterious minotaur symbol found all over this dungeon. Hmmm...