Preparing the Sandbox

In getting ready for my OD&D "Exploring the Outside Inn" game, I jotted down lots of little notes, some of which became earlier entries here.  This past Friday, during our initial game, I used several of the ideas to give the world a certain feel.  The main door of Milburn Hall, which opened outward, was blocked by a huge wooden T leaning against the door and partially buried.  Kemper village had smaller T-bars blocking the doors of about half the houses the party explored, while the other half had their door broken and the door frame split.  The Kemper Village Mausoleum not only had a T-bar, but was chained and locked as well.

The party has encountered giant rats, kobolds and orcs, zombies, skeletons, rot grubs, and a roc, but not a single human that didn't come to Milburn Hall from Cittá...

They were very interested in the Mausoleum, so on Saturday I wrote a one sentence description of the main building, and each of the first six levels below ground, including the type of construction and the general feel of each level.  I also decided the orcs they had encountered on the way to Kemper Village would be a bit more civilized than your average orcs.  Finally, I decided the kobolds would become more aggressive, since the party had begun to cut down the brambles that provided cover for all their tunnel entrances.

On Sunday morning, getting ready for our afternoon game, I quickly mapped out the mausoleum's main level and described the contents.  I used the AD&D Random Dungeon Generator at Donjon to build the first six underground levels of the mausoleum, changing the Random Seed and comparing the results in each case to the descriptions I'd written the day before.  Those that didn't match what I had in mind were simply ignored and new levels generated until I liked what I had.  I also used it to generate the first level of the caverns the kobolds inhabit near Milburn Hall.

Finally, I used the AD&D Random Treasure Generator to determine the Kobolds' treasure.

A quick trip to Kinkos, and everything was printed and ready to go!

House Rules for Exploring the Outside Inn

House Rules for my Exploring the Outside Inn campaign:

• Players will start off with 5 zero level characters:

          -- Roll on the Occupation Table for occupation, weapon and extra item
          -- Roll 1d6 for gold, 3d6 for silver, and 5d6 for copper coins
          -- Pick a name, and choose alignment (law, neutrality, chaos)
          -- No stats are rolled until needed, then are rolled using 3d6
          -- Zero level hit points will be a d4, with 1s counting as 2s, and modified by constitution
          -- Zero level characters start at -500 experience

• To reach first level and choose a class, all six of a character's basic stats must be revealed, and he must have earned 500 experience

• Experience points come from monsters and treasure; additional experience can be earned for spending treasure on non-adventuring activities

• Hit dice will be rerolled at each new level, and the higher of the prior or new roll taken as the new hit points

Other rules will be added as I modify the LBB rules, or attempt to fill in gaps... but the goal is to maintain an old school feel for the campaign.

My house rules have been influenced by the gaming blogs I read... and when I come across the original posts that prompted me to try a rule, I'll come back here and update this post to give credit where due.  In the meantime, you can check out the "Blogs I Follow" and see for yourself!

2013 Gaming Goals

Tim, over at Gothridge Manor, asked this question the other day, "So now the world is not ending, what game are you hoping to get into this year?  What gaming goal, if you have one, would you like to accomplish?"

My gaming goals for 2013 are several... First, I want to run my Star Clans Traveller game at least monthly.  This will probably be the tough one, since the current players are my son's high school marching band friends, a group of young people with very little free time!  Second, I want to finally start the OD&D campaign that's been floating around in my head since summer.  I may actually run two groups there, my son's friends, and a group on the Air Force base where I work.  There's a nice cafeteria/lounge area that's available in the evenings, and I know of several folks there who might be interested.

Finally, I WILL do a better job of posting on my blog(s), both in terms of frequency, and length/content!

My OD&D (LBB) Sandbox

I've been mulling it over for a while, promising my son, and now some others, that I'd be ready to run a new campaign world soon...

Lot of ideas floating around in my head.  Here's a detail free list of some of them...


Citta (The World City) and The Outside Inn
Tesseracts, Klein bottles, and Mobius Strips
Portals, Gates, Windows and Doorways
Space Travel, Time Travel, Mutants and Aliens
Primordial Gods, Forgotten Gods, Missing Gods, New Gods and Dead Gods
Golden Ages, Apocalypses and Post-Apocalyptic Ages
Cursed Lands, Blessed Realms, Parallel Worlds and Skew
Memory, Masks, Dreams and Nightmares
Eternity, Stagnation and Change
Birth, Life, Sleep, Disease, Madness, Death and Rebirth
Swords and Sorcery

Ann Rice, M.A.R. Barker, Gary Gygax, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Arthur C. Clarke, to name a few...

Hexmapping

Have been working on an OD&D (LBB) campaign world, and was at a loss as to the best size for a campaign map hex... came across this gem of an article:  In-praise-of-6-mile-hex.  Using 6 mile hexes, with (when necessary) half-mile sub-hexes, and 72 mile superhexes should work out very well!

Spiders

Came across "Monstrous Television" just now... and read a nice piece on spiders!  Stop Ruining Spiders

I'll have to include giant spiders in my almost-ready-to run LBB campaign.  Far creepier than I ever gave them credit for.

From the Journal of Corrin Aledrinker

Almost five months have passed since we last ventured into the dungeons below the city.  In that time, I've supported myself by working as a bartender in several local establishments.  I've also furthered my education!  Of great interest, though not great taste, is a local favorite called Rustymeade.  The Dwarven brewers who make it bottle it in raw iron flasks containing lumps of iron ore... and the mead picks up an orange color and metallic taste.  Horrible stuff, really, but interesting to look at, and the Dwarves love it!

Anyway, recently there've been rumors of the Forbidden Land... they say the gods have dropped the veil that kept it hidden for the last thousand years, and people are going there to explore.  I thought it was bunk, but four days ago a couple of men were here bragging about their journey there, and all the wealth they'd found.  Of course, they had little gold to show, but that's not surprising, given their reckless spending and drinking.

The one thing they DID have, was a map.  Not a very good map, but a map they claimed they made during their journey.  They called it a treasure map, and wanted 50 gold for it!  As much as they thought me a fool for buying it, I know I got the better of the bargain, for they didn't make this map.  It was old, on ancient leather, stained and much worn, but it was real.  It showed the location of several major cities, including one I knew from family lore, Bayar, for it is the town my ancestors lived in before the gods banished us from that land.

I'm sure to find valuable brewing secrets there, especially if I've any distant relatives still living there.  Hopefully, the lure of treasure will be enough to convince my companions it's time to move on!