Session II, Part I

Now, with a delve under K's belt, we proceed on to our first classic Olde School D&D adventure!  And (for me,  anyway), it doesn't get more classic than the iconic solo adventure in the Mentzer Red Box (1983):

As a gateway to role-playing, Frank Mentzer's Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (affectionately nicknamed the "Red Box") is an excellent entry point to RPGs for young children (as I was at the time), with its easy to follow, step-by-step tutorial.  Since the Red Box was my first RPG product, it's not surprising that the solo adventure is the first adventure I ever played.  In a smart design decision, the solo adventure was written in a game book format, and, as an avid reader of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books at the time, it wasn't a big leap for me to start dungeon crawling.

Also, it's worth pointing out the ridiculously badass Fighter on Larry Elmore's evocative cover, who we catch in medias res trying to solo a ginormous dragon!  If you want a snapshot of epic daring and audacity, this is hard to beat.  By all rights, the nameless Fighter should be dragon chow, but you get the sense that somehow the lizard is going to end up with the short end of the stick.


As the new Session begins, first off, we handle experience from Session I: as I've mentioned before, I have no love for accounting or other fiddly bits:

As a result, I got rid of experience points in my house rules.  Instead, advancement is based on the number of major challenges that the PCs overcome, with  the definitions of "major challenge" and "overcome" left to the DM's discretion.

I feel this makes much more sense than the Olde School D&D rule of GP = XP.  Yes, it's true than folks like Conan the Barbarian, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser were often in it for precious gems or such, but  you didn't see them carting off furniture!

Also, incidentally, since my house rules balanced the player classes, I use a unified advancement table, a move which I'm glad that D&D Next has also followed.

Anyway, I figured that successfully rescuing Petit Moi qualifies as a "overcoming a major challenge" and the PCs are credited with such.

Taking a couple days rest after their first delve, the PCs are then contacted by a friend of Médecin Diabolique, Capitaine d'Artagnan of L'Eau Noire:

Seeing the picture, K asks, "Are there guns in this setting?"

I say, "No, in that picture d'Artagnan is holding a Wand of Fireballs."

K muses, "So, there are wandkateers in this setting?"

[After a moment] I reply, "Well, I guess so."

L'Eau Noire is the world's most successful (read "notorious") company of private military contractors, currently employed by the Vietnamese government to work with their internal security forces.  Capitaine d'Artagnan tells the party that kobolds operating in a city is a new and troubling development (they've heretofore only been encountered in the countryside), so L'Eau Noire has analyzed papers recovered from the Kobold Chieftain's lair, which point to a handler working secretly from the caves underneath some ruins just outside of Vĩnh Long.

D'Artagnan needs a team to head up to the ruins ASAP and identify the handler (street name "Mr. Infamous") before Mr. Infamous realizes his cover is blown.  D'Artagnan also casually mentions that the PCs weren't his first choice, but the elite team he originally sent was eaten by a shoggoth.

Undeterred, the PCs accept the job.  Capitaine d'Artagnan says that the ruins are known to be inhabited by undead so the PCs should pick up some maces and, noticing their lack of a cleric, d'Artagnan also suggests that they see the world's greatest monster hunter, Father Bernardo Gui:

Father Gui, the only person to single-handledly destroy a shoggoth (using nothing but his sheer fanaticism), terrifies the PCs with his gaze.  Once they regains their composure, the party tells the Grand Inquisitor about their mission.  Beaming, Gui says he's got a new cleric, fresh from seminary, who'd be perfect!

Thus, Father Gui introduces the PCs to his beloved niece, Aleena:

Session I, Part III

FYI, here again is the excellent sewer map by Dyson Logos, reposted from Session I, Part II:

Copyright Dyson Logos

After clearing out the first room and looting the dead kobolds, the party returns to the hallway and continues south, coming to another door.

D rolls for Find/Remove Traps and fails, then deadpans and proclaims, "No traps here!"

K is suspicious and the nameless Fighter looks for himself, finding a spear trap.  The tip of the spear from the trap is covered in some kind of dark substance.

In my games, anyone can look for traps (or perform other thief skills): The difference is that a thief's successful Find/Remove Traps roll will auto-succeed, whereas the other classes need to roleplay what they do.

The party enters a large room with four alcoves and an exit to the west.

The room is a guard post, presumably for the kobolds, and in the alcoves, they find dead prisoners chained to the walls.    Looting the bodies, they find a gold signet ring overlooked by the kobolds when they hear someone approaching from the west.

Shuttering their lantern and hiding in the alcove closest to the exit to the west, the nameless Fighter and the nameless Thief  wait until a group of three infravision-using kobolds walk past the party in the dark, then the PCs step out behind the kobolds, unshutter their lantern, and ambush the reptilians!

Nightblinded, two kobolds go down quickly.

Kobold #3 is slain!

Kobold #4 is slain!

Like Kobold #2 earlier, Kobold #5 drops his sword, and holds out his hands in a non-threatening manner.  It ends predictably: The party decides to check if the substance covering the spear tip is poison.

Kobold #5 is slain!

Moments later, the party hears someone else approaching from the west   They ready their weapons but it turns out to be one of the Public Sanitation workers who disappeared down here a few days ago.  I decide to call him Mr. Nguyễn (阮), since that's the most generic Vietnamese surname (~38%).

Mr. Nguyễn tells the nameless Fighter and the nameless Thief that Petit Moi is being held by the Kobold Chieftain (in the series of rooms near Exit "C") and tells them the layout of the sewer.  He also tells them that the kobolds ate his partner and that there's a giant crocodile in the main sewage stream , then Nguyễn heads back to the surface.  Consequently, the PCs decide to take some dead kobold bodies.

Proceeding west  the party quickly overcomes a portcullis and approach the main sewage stream.  Spying the giant crocodile, the PCs toss the dead kobold bodies to the south, which attracts the giant crocodile, and then cross the makeshift bridge to the north.

K muses on the missed opportunity to make a crocodile backscratcher.

Heading south and east, the party listens at the door to the Kobold Chieftain's chambers and hear someone rushing to head out!  The PCs flatten against the hallway, allowing four kobolds to run past them to the west bank of the main sewage stream.  In the surprise round, the nameless Fighter misses but the nameless Thief successfully backstabs for double weapon damage!

Kobold #6 is slain!

In the next round, Kobold #7 rolls a critical failure, dropping his weapon!

Kobold #8 rolls a critical failure, dropping his weapon!

The nameless Thief rolls a critical failure, dropping his weapon!

The remaining kobolds beat a hasty retreat, and the nameless Thief picks up his weapon before the party enters the door.  Shortly thereafter, the party meets the Kobold Chieftain, a magic-user, who casts Sleep!

The nameless Thief fails his save, slumping to the ground, but his companion stands fast.  With the Kobold Chieftain preparing another spell, K gambles: the nameless Fighter decides to wake the nameless Thief… as he is zapped by Magic Missile!

Against two-on-one odds, with the PCs circling around, the Kobold Chieftain decides to face the nameless Thief to prevent a backstab.  The swordplay is fast and furious, until the Kobold Chieftain is struck down by two mortal blows.

The Kobold Chieftain is slain!


Suddenly, a diminutive figure bursts from the shadows, wrapping itself around the legs of the nameless Thief and biting.  It's Petit Moi, dressed as a kobold and with serious case of Stockholm Syndrome.  The PCs easily restrain him, loot the room, and head back to the surface for their (un)just reward.

Session I, Part II

Before meeting Médecin Diabolique, the party decides to get outfitted.  Again, in my games, I hand wave starting wealth, equipment and encumbrance within reason, since I'm not particularly interested in doing accounting or other fiddly bits that can slow down a game.

The nameless Fighter selects a short sword, some daggers (for throwing) and a mail hauberk.  The nameless Thief selects a short sword and leather armor.  They both also pick up the Standard Adventurer's Kit.

Arriving at Chez Médecin Diabolique, the party finds that Diabolique is looking for his "son" Petit Moi:

Incredulous, the nameless Thief asks, "Son?"

Flustered, Diabolique replies, "Yes, son…" and adds, muttering under his breath, "son… clone…"

In any event, the party doesn't pry because Diabolique offers a huge pile of lucre, which they gleefully accept, and Diabolique says that Petit Moi disappeared whilst hanging out in his favorite spot, the Black Market: as you might expect, it's a place where one can purchase just about anything for the right price, and where the authorities turn a blind eye in exchange for bribes.

Doing some investigation at the Black Market, the nameless Thief & the nameless Fighter find that Petit Moi was last seen near an entrance to the sewers, of which the locals are afraid since a couple of Public Sanitation workers also disappeared down there a few days earlier.  For the sewers, I used this gorgeous map by Dyson Logos:

Copyright Dyson Logos

As an introductory dungeon and teaching tool, "The Sewers of Travon" is excellent: the size is reasonable, the terrain presents various obstacles and opportunities for the players, and, as a naturalistic dungeon, there's a logic to the place that you don't always see in Olde School modules.

The party enters the sewers from entrance "A".  Before they go in, I query them on a few things: In terms of hands (a key resource to manage in my games), the nameless Fighter is carrying the lantern and a throwing dagger, with his short sword sheathed, and the nameless Thief is carrying his short sword.  For marching order, the Fighter goes in front, allowing the Thief to peel off to either side.

First, the party proceeds cautiously down the long flight of stairs into the dark.  OOC, there's is a certain palatable tension as the party descends into the unknown.  Reaching the bottom, they decide to check out the door directly in front of them to the east.

The nameless Thief listens at the door, hearing something inside.  He checks for traps (I allow the players to roll their own dice, since I try to keep my die rolling to a minimum) and finds none, so the party decides to kick the door down and charge in!


Inside, the party faces a pair of humanoid creatures in leather armor rising from straw palates and drawing their short swords!

The picture spurs discussion by the players.  For fairness, I let them know that while in this setting these creatures are called "kobolds," they aren't the standard D&D creatures.  Rather, these guys are my stand-in for Sword & Sorcery intelligent lizard men, being much larger (5' tall), stronger and more capable than kobolds in D&D.

In the surprise round, the nameless Fighter throws his dagger (missing) and draws his sword.  The nameless Thief steps out so that each matches up with a kobold.  Obviously, I'm not a big stickler for map positioning.

Also, as is my wont to reduce the number of dice rolls, I use party initiative: d6 with lower being faster.  The kobolds win, going first but both miss.   The nameless Fighter also misses and the nameless Thief rolls a critical failure, dropping his weapon!


In the second combat round, the party wins initiative and the Fighter runs through his opponent.

Kobold #1 is slain!


Since self-preservation is top priority and Kobold #2 is outmatched, outnumbered and has nowhere to flee, he drops his sword, and holds out his hands in a non-threatening manner.

[As DM] I say, "You think the kobold might be trying to surrender…"

D says, "But we don't *know* that, right?"

K says, "Yeah, we don't speak Kobold," and the Fighter runs through the prisoner.

Kobold #2 is slain!

Movie Review: Hercules (2014)

While it did reasonably well at the box office and it does have flaws, Hercules, in my humble opinion, still hasn't gotten quite the love I think it deserves.  

I'm not trying to suggest that Hercules belongs in the same category as a Gladiator (2000) or a Conan the Barbarian (1982), but as a popcorn action flick, it is more than serviceable.  Based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars, our story finds Hercules after he has completed his twelve legendary labors: Banished from Athens, he sells his sword (well, club actually, which is pretty neat since that's an underrepresented heroic weapon) for coin.  Lord Cotys of Thrace offers Hercules his weight in gold and hijinks ensue.

As you might expect, director Brett Ratner is workmanlike, and the work behind the camera is competent but not particularly noteworthy.  Set and costume design are better, and I particularly like that the film's use of CGI is more limited and subtle than it might otherwise be.  The action is solid and worth the price of admission, as is the writing, which never has any eye rolling or groan worthy moments.

Even better is the cast: Of note is Ian McShane chewing scenery with relish, but I particularly liked Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock), who apparently spent 6 months training for the movie and is absolutely jacked (selling the physicality of the titular role).  Additionally, Messr Johnson's acting has come light years from The Scorpion King, to the point where Hercules' pathos is reasonably believable.


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I know that some people were disappointed by the "twist" that Hercules is a mere mortal (though, some of his onscreen feats belie that point) and his "legendary labors" were actually military missions undertaken by he and his team and then embellished by his PR guy.  However, that didn't bother me: conversely, I thought it was an interesting and refreshing take on the character.

Plus, the movie, at its core, is a classic D&D adventure: a group of adventurers meet in a tavern, face trials and tribulations, and eventually defeat the evil king.

So, if you're looking for a ripping Sword & Sandal yarn, you could do worse than this movie.  In fact, you need go no further than the other Hercules film released this summer.

SC's Parting Shot: 7 of 10

Session I, Part I

For my own homebrewed adventures, I try to avoid railroading by presenting the players with several possible story hooks and letting them decide what they want to do.  It's a very freestyle, improv way to Dungeon Master and, consequently, my preparation usually consists of fleshing out only certain key NPCs, places and plot points that the PCs are likely to encounter.  The rest is developed on the fly.

First off, the party arrives fresh off the boat in Fantasy Vietnam:

Some jokes are made about how the PCs spent the entire cruise drunk.  After some discussion, they decide to use Vĩnh Long as their home base.

The first order of business is getting an Adventurer's License, which will allow them to open carry weapons and armor.  Arriving at the Adventurers' Guild, they meet the Marquis de Picard, a courtly and aristocratic figure who is quite depressed to be surrounded by and leading a bunch of brigands.  The Adventurer's Application Form is 15 pages long and essentially says over and over "Adventuring is dangerous!?!  Are you sure you want to do this?!?"

After the PCs get their Adventurer's Licenses, the Marquis provides an info dump about the situation on the ground in Fantasy Vietnam, including the increasing presence of the Việt Cộng, secret cultists dedicated to a return to the "Old Ways".

Yes, I know that Việt Cộng is a contraction of Việt Nam Cộng-sản ("Vietnamese communist"), but cultists commune with stuff, amirite?

The biggest problem presented by the Việt Cộng is that anyone can be a cultist, and the Marquis tells of adventurers who are lured to their doom by undercover VC.  The Marquis also gives the PCs several possible adventure hooks, and they select the one that doesn't require leaving the city or relying on the locals: A highly successful expat businessman is looking for some discreet adventurers to solve a problem of a highly personal nature.

His name is Médecin Diabolique:

Playstyle, Players and Characters

My preferred playstyle is to treat role-playing as a collective creative story.  Consequently,  there's no Us v. Them mentality, no hide the ball, no grossly unfair gotcha moments.

I see my role as Dungeon Master as presenting the players with challenges to solve.  I frequently offer advice or insights to the players, particularly if they have difficulty with something or if their proposed course of action puts them in foreseeable danger.  It also helps that my players have bought into my view that adventuring is dangerous, that adventurers always need to be cautious, and that often the best tactic is "Run away!"

Another key maxim of mine is "Keep the story moving": if the PCs get bogged down on a plot point, sometimes I'll feed suggestions until they get rolling again.  As a corollary to this, I dislike having to look up rules too often, so I adjusted the target numbers in my homebrew to be more intuitive (i.e., I don't need to refer in-game to charts or the like).  Thus, I can eyeball a die roll and decide within 3 seconds at a 95% confidence level whether something is a success or failure.  If I decide something incorrectly against the players, typically they'll quickly let me know.

It helps to keep things moving that my homebrew's group is small, tight knit, and been playing together for a couple years.  As of today, I'm running my homebrew with a couple guys from a REIGN game that I also GM:

• D is a veteran player, whose knowledge and system mastery of D&D (all editions) exceeds my own.  He's running a Thief (stats pre-generated): 
• Str 16, Int 16, Wil 8, Dex 17, Con 15, Cha 9
• Base HP: 8
• Proficiencies: Additional encounter HD, Short Blades (i.e., Daggers and Short Swords), First Magic-user level
• Skill Points: Hasn't decided on most but did take a point in Painting
• K was (prior to this campaign) a complete rookie to D&D, whose only experience with RPGs was our REIGN game.  He rolled up a Fighter: 
• Str 17, Int 8, Wil 8, Dex 18, Con 11, Cha 16
• Base HP: 6
• Proficiencies: Additional encounter HD, Short Blades, Thrown Weapon, Armor Bulkiness
• Skill Points: Has one point each in Climb, Ride Horses and Negotiation, and the rest are to be determined

NB: "Base HP" and "Additional encounter HD" refer to a house ruled way to handle Hit Points that's in between the original system and the system presented in Carcosa.  "Short Blades" refers to a house ruled way to group weapons inspired by Baldur's Gate.  "First Magic-user level" refers to a house ruled way to handle limited, genre-inspired multi-classing.


Also, as per my view of OSR, the characters don't get names unless they survive until 2nd level.

Next up: Giving the homebrew a spin!

Fantasy Vietnam

My original conception for the campaign setting was "Fantasy F*cking Vietnam" set in a fantasy version of Vietnam in 1945, on the eve of the First Indochine War.  Doesn't get much more grim and gritty than that.  Plus, by using the First Indochine War as the backdrop, rather than the Second Indochine War (which is called the Vietnam War by the US), I could set up and subvert my players' expectations at various points.

However, upon further thought, I realized that when the party wasn't olde school dungeoneering, they'd be facing the whole host of issues from being in colonial Vietnam, flying in the face of the lighthearted humor of our gaming group.  Alternately, as Dungeon Master, I could whitewash or ignore such issues, but that didn't seem right to me.  I do think that Vietnam is an interesting place, with a rich history.  Moreover, jungle settings are a staple of Swords & Sorcery, so I decided to keep the location but went with something much simpler:

It's 350 AD and southern Vietnam has been overrun by monsters.  Unfortunately, the Vietnamese Emperor has even more pressing issues, so he's put out a call for foreign mercenaries to help keep control of the region until the army is deployed.  Answering the call, the characters are Gauls from the Roman Empire (one of Fantasy Vietnam's most important trading partners).

As you can see from the above, I'm clearly not aiming for 100% historical accuracy!  Rather, I wanted something vaguely familiar to the players but to also have creative freedom to mix-and-match as desired, as well as satisfy my own taste for the slightly gonzo.  For example, the head of the Adventurers' Guild is the Marquis de Picard:

Next up: Dramatis personæ!

Greetings and Salutations!

Welcome to my humble corner of the interwebs.  This is my first blog (and first blog post), so please kindly bear with me.

For my own amusement, I'm working on a Swords & Sorcery-themed 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons homebrew, partly inspired by this excellent thread, and running my players through classic D&D adventures.  I've tweaked the 1st Ed AD&D engine to make it faster (with combat encounters generally lasting ten minutes or less, fifteen on the outside) and to make it not require a battle mat.  To make it feel more Swords & Sorcery, I've made the power curve flatter.  To increase verisimilitude, I've removed gamist restrictions (e.g., clerics, thieves and magic-users can use all weapons and armor).  

However, I'm also borrowing the things I like from other editions as well: using a slightly modified version of the general modifier table from BECMI, making the cleric is more like the OD&D version by increasing combat power and decreasing spell power, using an armor-by-piece system like Oriental Adventures, etc.

Default assumptions (as of today):

• Keep the basic building blocks of the engine: classes, relatively abstract combat (e.g., hp, THAC0), saving throws
• Focus on rulings, rather than rules
• Remove the mechanical bits that are IMHO overly complex or decrease verisimilitude
• Streamline and unify the mechanics somewhat
• Streamline the equipment to increase verisimilitude
• Focus on the PCs as a small tactical unit, so no retainers or hirelings
• Flatten the power curve: 
• PCs start as competent professionals and lower levels are more survivable 
• A much smaller power disparity between lower levels and higher levels
• Use an Iron Age setting rather than Medieval 
• Shift genre from High Fantasy to Swords & Sorcery (e.g., grim & gritty, PCs are explicitly self-interested scoundrels, not heroes)
• Although niche protection is diminished because gamist class restrictions are removed, classes still have clear strengths and roles:
• Fighters- infantry
• Clerics- strategic reserve/special operations
• Thieves- cavalry
• Magic-users- artillery

Please note that the above is merely my opinion as to what I personally find interesting.  It goes without saying that YMMV, and all that jazz.

Also, the homebrew is a work in progress, so the above may change or expand a bit going forward.

Next up: Campaign background!