Two New Copies of Classic D&D Adventures Arrive

D&D, DM/GM Tips, new arrivals, RPG

If you have been watching Matt Colville’s Running the Game YouTube videos for anytime you will have seen episode 7 – Your Town (video embedded further down in the post).

In the video he talks about using a town from an existing adventure like Phandalin in the Lost Mines of Phandelver.

Matt Colville – Running the Game episode 7 – Your Town

He then goes on to talk about the three he uses, Hommlet, Orlane, and Milborne from classic D&D adventures.

Now if you have been playing D&D for a very long time you may own the adventures these towns appear in.

However if you don’t (like me) you could go to eBay and pay eBay prices for original copies.

Or you can look on DriveThruRPG get a good quality scan as a pdf for less than £5, and/or (if an option) get a physical copy at a very reasonable price. Which will definitely be cheaper than the eBay prices.

I finally got round to adding copies of The Village of Hommlet, and Against the Cult of the Reptile God, to add Hommlet and Orlane as resources to use.

DriveThruRPG do a good job printing, the copies are stapled together magazine style. Being print on demand the turn around is pretty quick too. These took about a week.

I’m a big fan of the repurposing of existing adventures to save work in my own campaign.

I’ve used maps from Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Lost Mines of Phandelver in my current campaign.

These two classics join others I have in my “library” of classics to call upon.

There is a copy of the dungeon map from the Keep on the Borderlands in my DM folder incase I need an unplanned dungeon during a session (read here for why).

The Mastering Dungeons podcast did a series of episodes on updating old adventures to 5e. They (along with Seth Skorkowsky) have looked at the Isle of Dread, which I have as the heavy Goodman Press printing, and a copy of the original.

Sadly I’ve had to settle for just the pdf for the classic adventure Pharaoh! It be cool to get a physical copy but not at eBay prices. But it’s more the maps I was interested in. At least with the pdf I can print these out.

It’s worth listening to the Mastering Dungeons series as it will give you ideas for updating old adventures for use in your own campaign, or you might think that sounds cool I’ll get it for the maps.

Old adventures are a great resource to raid for ideas, maps, even adventures to run. Yeah they might require a bit of work to use in 5e, but I think they are worth it.

Hope’s Last Day – An Alien RPG Taster Session Prep #1

Alien, Alien RPG, one shot, RPG, session planning

Plans are afoot to run the cinematic one shot from the Alien RPG core rulebook, Hope’s Last Day.

I floated the idea soon after the D&D taster session. It’s amazing what you’ll do whilst on the high of a “successful” session.

No date has been set yet. But all those that took part in that taster session are keen to try it. So once I have my work schedule that covers December I’ll suggest some dates. Obviously learning from our mistakes we won’t be choosing a night that there is an open mic session going on.

This will be a very different experience for all of us. None of us have played the Alien RPG, nor run it. So it will basically be a learning game, most definitely mistakes will be made, but as long as we have fun.

Two of us have the core rulebook. Plus I also have the starter set cut down rulebook. So it won’t be the group sharing a single rulebook.

I’ll be rewatching (I watched this video ages ago) the Seth Skorkowskys review of Hope’s Last Day (see below). Not only does Seth review the adventure itself, but you also get useful tips/advice from his experience from running it.

I was hoping that Free League had the pre-filled character sheets ready to download and print for use. But they don’t.

I will try to produce a GM cheat sheet for the game similar to my D&D one. They are handy for quick reference. And I think will really be needed this time.

Tonely Hope’s Last Day or any Alien RPG adventure is going to be be much darker than a D&D adventure (unless you are doing something based on a realm of dread).

There will need to be a session zero discussion before the actual play. Particularly warning the players of the darker theme, use of body horror (we’ll look into this more in another post). Plus get in place a safety system for when playing, and what subjects etc to avoid.

That’s about it for now. Lots to do. So you bet there will be more posts.

Grp2: When last we left our heroes… #10

D&D, D&D Grp2, post mortem, RPG

Later than planned but this has been a busy week at work, and I felt like writing the other post mortem for the taster session first.

So let’s get on with looking at session 10 of the campaign set in Sly Flourish’s City of Arches.

The party met up with Adele and Tantalos outside her Emporium of Magical Relics. Where they were told a mystery person is trying to find out lore and artifacts that will allow the Children of Ibraxus to open an archway to Choul and allow the return of Ibraxus.

Whilst Adele and Tantalos went off to speak to the Golden Council, the party were sent off to Kartan, Tower of the Arcane to speak to archmage Savandra Thricecursed.

Instead of asking about the impending threat of the archway to Choul being opened up, the party decided to find out more about Rullus Hobb (an evil sorcerer who has a pretty large reward out on him). During their conversation with Savandra they were given some items that might help them.

The party adjourned to an inn to unwind and discuss plans. Which saw the party splitting into those that needed to unwind some more, milk contacts for information, and those that needed to get some rest (party poopers).

On the way back to their lodgings Jeb, Babs, and Dottie got attacked by a group of thugs. A fireball and some moves later the thugs were defeated just as the others turned up.

We left our party settling in for a well earned rest at their lodgings.

Post Mortem

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else. #justsaynotometagaming

Work really does get in the way of having a good time!

Like the previous session I had another early shift on the day of our planned session. Which meant another ridiculous long day. However it’s the only way we could fit the session in. So needs must and all that.

This was a role play heavy session. Not my strongest strength as a DM.

It was strange in that sense.

I did end up throwing in an impromptu combat near the end to try and add a contrast to the rest of the session, and draw back in the odd player that may have started to get bored (of which I’m sure there was one).

For that combat I did have the players roll for initiative instead of using the cards to decide it. I used for my initiative roll a number from a list of die rolls I’d done before the session started. That list will be used in future combats.

I still get amazed by what the players pick up on and ignore.

With the players ignoring the thread about the return of Ibraxus and instead concentrating on the manhunt the majority of the secrets and clues went out of the window. They would have been dropped in the conversation with Savandra had they gone down that route.

Yes I could have stared the conversation to the Ibraxus stuff, but that would feel like I was railroading the players. I do like the players to have freedom in what they do. Even if it means I have to throw away what I prepped and improvise on the spot.

Although they will find that whilst they are off doing whatever the return of Ibraxus will progress. Even if it’s snippets of the story they get via Adele and Tantalos, who will be doing everything they can to stop it.

There is a potential John Wick 3 thread I can use that came out of the session with the Drenol character. Having Drenol excommunicated from the mercenary group he is a member of for offing another member might be an interesting sub-plot to follow.

As we left it the clock ticked over another day…

A date was set for the next session.

One Shot Taster Session Post Mortem

D&D, game night, post mortem, RPG, taster

It’s a day or two since the D&D taster session took place. Even longer since the D&D campaign was held. But here we are with the post mortem for the taster first.

Despite a less than conducive environment for playing D&D everyone had a good time, and enjoyed themselves.

The adventure that I went with for the session was The Lost Tomb of the Delian Order (by Matt Colville).

I started the adventure off at the foot of the hill on a dusty road with the owner of a local inn hiring the adventurers to investigate missing people from the nearby village.

The inn keeper gave the party a bloodied bone and told them to break it when they got to the entrance of the tomb. The bloodied bone was a magical item I created to cast the spell aid over the party when it was broken into two.

Sadly the party did not do this.

They finally did use it over the scrying pool.

On a practical level I used The Giant Book of Battle Mats (generously given to me by Shane) along with scatter terrain to give the layout of the tomb.

I should have used my Big Book of Battle Maps because table space was once more limited. I thought before hand we would be using two of the folding 6ft tables.

However unbeknownst to us all, the evening of our taster session at the community centre it was also open mic night.

In my opinion they would have been better off watching us play D&D than listening to the public murder of songs.

That’s why earlier I said that the environment was less than conducive to playing D&D.

The volume of the “performers” murdering rock and pop songs was bordering on making it impossible to play.

The Wizkids 2D miniatures worked well. I think the players enjoyed having something to represent their chosen characters.

The puzzle in the adventure appeared harder than I thought it was. The other group I’ve run this adventure with got it pretty quickly. A fact that when strategically shared with Gavin made him determined to solve the puzzle.

I did give some time at the start of the session for the players to read their character sheets and ask questions. There was a whistle stop tour of the abilities and how an ability check works.

Having multiple copies of the Starter Set rulebooks available was a good call. I think for a taster session for new players they were just right. Especially for finding out the details of the spells. Easier to navigate, and a lot less to search through.

I did half the damage that the goblins did in combat. It seemed the right thing to do considering they low hit points first level characters have. It meant I was able to avoid a tpk. Although it was looking likely at one point!

Having The Arcane Library PC Cards on hand with the pregen details on was useful, and worked well for me.

I think that’s about it for now. Who knows if and when I’ll run another taster session. Maybe it’ll just be an adhoc one one shot for this group instead.

One Shot Taster Session Planning #3

D&D, one shot, RPG, session planning

Decided that I really should be starting these posts with a similar warning as my campaign session planning posts. Just on the off chance that one of the folks planning to take part in the taster session wants to not have the twists and turns of whichever adventure we play ruined.

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming one shot/taster session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one. REMEMBER you have been warned.

I decided to create a separate DM folder for running one shots and taster sessions.

Compared to my campaign DM folder it’s very sparse.

The aim obviously is use it when running a one shot or taster session. So there is a lot of stuff in my DM folder that I just don’t need.

Some bits I will have to move between folders, such as the magic spell area of effect template, or the odd monster/NPC card. Plus my laminated DM cheat sheet.

I’ve decided to tweak the Matt Colville The Lost Tomb of the Delian Order! WTF! Who am I to change the great MC’s design? How dare I?

It’s not a big change. In the original if the party discovers the secret room, defeat the skeletons, their reward is a magic sword. And that’s my tweak. Using the notes from the other days post on creating magic items. That magical sword now becomes an ancient divine longsword that allows the barer to cast Word of Radiance (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) once a day, and gives +1 to attack rolls.

I think that makes the sword seem more special for whoever gets it. I might even give the sword a name.

Btw this should not in anyway be seen as me saying this is the adventure I’m going with.

I’m also liking the idea of running The Goblin Ambush (from Lost Mines of Phandelver) and then have the goblin trail lead up to The Lost Tomb of the Delian Order (by Matt Colville). That’d be a nice little mashup I think.

But I think the Goblin Ambush could also be modified so it’s cultists instead of goblins, and lead into The Obsidian Skull (from the City of Arches).

Either way I think works. Plus they have the advantage of being more player friendly than going into the Cragmaw Hideout.

For better or worse I’ve decided we’ll be using the official WotC Starter Set pregen characters. Mainly because there is less for me to print off and costs me less.

The stats have been copied to the blank player cards from Arcane Library for me to reference during the session and printed out.

D&D Grp 2 Session 10 Planning #7

D&D, D&D Grp2, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one. REMEMBER you have been warned.

I now have the Arcane Library Combat Cards Ultimate bundle. For me it’s nice to have the srd item, magic, and monster cards. But it’s the templates I’m more interested in.

I’m going to be using the templates to up my handout game. So these magic items I’m generating using the Lazy DM Companion and Workbook tables such as the ancient gnomish longsword will be on them.

Plus any spells not covered by the srd I’ll copy and paste onto a template so I can reference the details quickly.

Apart from having to print them out this is such a cheap way to get your hands on a large amount of item, magic, and monster cards to use in a game. Plus you are supporting a really great content creator.

Now I have a day or two to create and print out the magic items for the next session.

I’ve also been looking at the spell glyph of warding for use as a trap. It feels appropriate that the magic users of Kartan, Tower of the Arcane would use this spell to protect valuable magical artifacts,objects, etc. They most definitely would of used them to seal the Sealed Vaults to stop the horrors within being released.

I’ve dug out my old Galeforce Nine Spell cards and pulled the ones that I might potentially use with the glyph of warding. I’ll keep these in the folder for easy reference.

I also came across an old note where Kelsey (of Arcane Library) talked about slow adventure pacing. In there was a photo of the “something happens” table from an old D&D DM screen. Basically this is the Mat Colville “orcs attack” table. However Kelsey also shared a d100 table that she created that did the same thing. I’ve printed out the short d20 table. It meets my potential needs (at the moment).

Two new to me games and this post

game night

Yesterday was meant to be a day off, with some gaming arranged for the evening.

But things change, and I ended up in work for three hours making sure we had enough people in store.

The important thing is that the gaming went ahead.

For me it was an evening of new to me games with great company.

Our first game was Jonathan’s copy of Sushi Roll, the dice version of Sushi Go!

After playing this game I was left feeling a little indifferent. Even now the next day having slept on it I still feel that way.

The original game Sushi Go! Isn’t the heaviest of games. The follow up Sushi Go! Party could be a bit more challenging depending on the menu you chose to play.

I had a pleasant time playing the game. I didn’t hate it.

But I’m just thinking why? Why did they feel that Sushi Go! needed a dice version?

Somehow they created a game that feels lighter than the original card game! Does it play quicker? Maybe, it’s close I think.

I got why they did Party. It added more variety, different styles, level of play.

The reason for this puzzles me.

I’d play it again. But I’d rather the card versions.

Jonathan won by the way!

Our second and last game of the evening was Colin’s copy of the sci-fi space themed version (follow up?) of Survive: Escape from Atlantis, Survive: Space Attack!

I really like the original version. There are not many intentionally mean games out there. Being mean to other players is baked into the game, it’s in its DNA.

Survive: Space Attack! brings that DNA to space with a couple of twists.

The first being the laser cannons and the four tiles they go on. Being on one of those tiles allows you to shoot one of the aliens and get control of that alien! Which takes it off the board, and then at the start of a future turn allows you to place it on an empty space tile of your choosing.

Also the end game trigger of the exploding reactor tile is one of the four tiles the laser cannons are on. So Space Attack lasts a little bit longer turn wise.

Fighters, single seat space ships are the dolphins of this version with the added power of being able to shoot aliens.

This next one could be house ruled in the original game, but you get a victory point for each corner you have managed to get at least one survivor to.

There is another side to the board used for challenges. But didn’t get a chance to look into that.

I really like this series of games and you get most out of it leaning into the mean side of it, playing the wounded innocent one when some-one reciprocates and kills one of your survivors.

We had a blast playing this. Charlene didn’t get any survivors to safety. But that might have been to inconveniently placed aliens by yours truly blocking her.

Somehow through all the chaos and screwing each other over Jonathan won!

It was a fun midweek gaming session. A big thank you to Jonathan, Charlene and Colin for coming along and making it so.

Lazy Magic Items

D&D, DM/GM Tips, RPG

Wow I started this post over a year ago and it’s been sitting in the draft folder ever since.

But considering that this post was intended to be all about something I am currently doing for my next D&D session. It seemed about time to dust off the words, finish the post, and share it with the world.

Last week (well it was when I originally wrote this) Mike aka Sly Flourish put up a short video on building lazy magic items (video embedded below).

These are my notes from watching the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu7M090KkSE

In the video Mike uses four “questions” to come up with a new unique magic item for your campaign, adventure, or one shot (I think that covers everything). They are the following:

  • What is the condition of the item? – Get a list of conditions from Lazy DM Workbook (LDMWB) page 13.
  • What is the origin of the item? – Who made it? Use the list in LDMWB on page 13 or DMG page 142.
  • What type of item is it? – There is a list of mundane items in LDMWB on page 14, or the trinkets table 160 of PHB, if you want to make an object special and move away from the usual weapon/armour.
  • What special power does the item have? – If it’s a weapon consider giving it a spell effect as well as +1 attack/defence bonus. Daily use power, number of charges, or single use more powerful item. You can also use the tables on page 14 of LDMWB or PHB.

Since then Mike has published the Lazy DM Companion which also allows you to create “… powerful single-use magic items generated with the condition, origin, item, and spell tables from the core adventure generator.”

Even if it’s a weapon like a sword with a +1 to attack rolls that you want to give the players, doing the first two and the last question adds so much extra flavour to the sword, all of a sudden it’s grimy gnomish longsword that twice a day allows the spell bane to be cast, and gives +1 to attack rolls. Wait I’m going to use that this Saturday!

I hope you have found these notes helpful. It’s a great way to create unique magic items for your game that will feel fresh to your players.

Brief – I’m alive (but tired) post

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

This is going to be one of those brief still alive posts.

After a weeks holiday it was back to work Sunday. Although my next few weeks work schedule sees me swapping between lates and omg it’s early shifts. Before having another weeks holiday at the end of the month.

With my next bit of gaming this weekends D&D session. You may have noticed from the recent posts that’s my main focus, along with the D&D taster session three or four days after.

I’ve managed to swap shifts at work so that I can attend the next Fenland Gamers club night. So really glad was able to do that.

And hopefully there might be a gaming session with Diego somewhere amongst these things too if schedules work out.

Right that’s another proof of life over. Catch you in the next post.

D&D Grp 2 Session 10 Planning #6

D&D, D&D Grp2, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one. REMEMBER you have been warned.

Last night I took my DM bag with me to the Fenland Gamers fortnightly gaming session to show a friend who is just dipping their toes into D&D and being a DM.

Obviously I pointed out that this was built up over time.

I also took the opportunity to “refresh” my DM folder.

I consolidated one or two pages into one. They were only there for their list of names for NPCs. So those names are on a single page now.

I added some pages too. Such as a d100 table for generating NPC names. Along with notes on magic item crafting. Which is one area I want to explore more in the campaign. Visiting Kartan, Tower of the Arcane is the ideal opportunity to start this off.

Some pages got taken out because I have them in the Lazy DM Companion. Although I left a couple in that meet that criteria also because I want them on hand quickly!

I’m still waiting on a couple of character sheets so I can finish the reference cards for me to use during a session. I’ve had to message the players directly to ask for them. Otherwise I’m going to have to waste time at the start of the session getting the info required.

Come payday I plan to purchase the Arcane Library ULTIMATE BUNDLE: COMBAT CARDS FULL SET (5E). Which will give me the following:

  • The Monster Bundle: 357 pre-filled monster cards
  • The Item Cards Expansion Pack: 495 pre-filled magic item cards
  • The Spell Cards Expansion Pack: 319 pre-filled spell cards
  • Seven form-fillable PDFs for making your own items, monsters, legendary creatures, PCs, spells, and spellcasters
  • Print-friendly, black-and-white versions of everything

I do like what the Arcane Library produce. I’m using the character cards templates for recording the character info.

While the party are visiting Kartan, Tower of the Arcane they will bump into Dram, halfling wizard. Well I had to find a way to insert him somehow.

More in the week.