Bradley Keep - Session 7

Bradley Keep is the name of my Labyrinth Lord sandbox campaign. The goal is to highlight some of the best that the OSR community has to offer.

Date: Saturday April 28, 2012

Keegan - Glaven Fiser (Human Magic User); Manfred the Oaf (Human Fighter)

Leslie - Grenver (Dwarf)

Brad - Leif (Human Fighter); Feardill (Elf)

Jim - Crymena (Human Cleric); Niktu Florenglade (Elf)

Josh - Fasrip (Human Thief; Tipton the Poor (Human Thief)

NPC - Tony (Torchbearer), Jaarko, Dom, Henrick, Timo, Matty (Men at Arms)

Regular readers will notice some unfamiliar names in the party list. I ran this game as part of the All State Gaming Retreat last weekend. I'd like to give a more detailed report, but it's been a week since the game. Unfortunately, my computer has been wracked by Windows problems, and I just got around to updating today (next step, go back through RPG Now and download a bunch of stuff I lost. I was being lazy about backing up my hard drive for the past couple weeks...).

The group hit the Stonehell Dungeon. Glaven, Leif, Crymena, and Fasrip, plus most of the NPCs were taken down by various undead. They talked with a kobold work crew and learned some secrets of Stonehell. They talked with a giant statue head and spun the Wheel of Fortune. By the end of the session, they had mapped out most of the Hell's Antechamber and part of the Quiet Halls. 

I'll make another post about the All State Gaming Retreat soon. Got another game in about 30 minutes I should be preparing for right now.

Bradley Keep - Session 6

Bradley Keep is the name of my Labyrinth Lord sandbox campaign. The goal is to highlight some of the best that the OSR community has to offer.

Date: Sunday April 15, 2012

Adventurers:

• Corolla Clayfoot - Halfling Fighter (Dan)
• Jaffa the Blade - Human Thief (Dan)
• Gork - Half Orc Fighter (Allen)
• Carl "Suicide Machine" Weathers - Human Magic User (Allen)
• Crimmin Thorndodger - Dwarf Fighter (Tim)
• Slynthe Vorhees - Human Cleric (Tim)
• Fin, Tylde, Crump, & Snape - Men at Arms (NPC)

Regular player Dave was unable to make it to the game this week. Since he was the only one to survive the blood-bath last session, I decided to run a side quest - Modnar's Cellar from Stonehell Supplement 2. Next game we'll pick up with him recruiting some new guys to finish the Shadowbrook Manor job.

Since we were missing the crux of the current story arc, I tossed this bone at the players -- They were recruited by the Keep guard to track down a bandit. I reward of 250 gp for his return or 100 gp for his corpse. Some information regarding his whereabouts was provided, in addition to 4 men-at-arms from the guard. The players took the job and headed towards the ruins.

Arriving there without incident, the group of ten quickly descended into the labyrinth. Tylde slipped on some slime on the steps, tumbled to the ground and made one hell of a racket. Wandering monster check - hit. A pair of skeletons lumber down the hall. Slynthe succeeds in turning them, so the party starts investigating. 

Heading down the eastern hallway, they find a statue of a wizard with a glowing stone in the chest. Not sure what to make of it, they had back down to the first room then continue west. They come across a room filled with rats and trash. No bandit, they the follow the hall to the south. After navigating the corridors for a bit, they come to a room guarded by a hungry albino ape. It charges the heroes, but misses with both claws. A pair of critical hits by Crimmin and Gork take it down. In the next room, Jaffa notices a pit trap in the floor. To be safe, they set off the trap, and again make a heck of a racket. No wandering monsters this time, although it does alert the two bugbears in the next room. The party crashes through the door, the bugbears launch themselves from the shadows and get the drop on the party. Tylde is run through by a spear, but the rest of the party makes quick work of the beasts (due to some lousy rolls on my part and good rolls by them). They snag the chest of electrum and move on.

They listen at the next room and hear a group of kobolds conversing about what they should do. In my mind, kobolds sort of sound like Beavis. "Dude...I don't think it's the bugbears." "Dude...who else would be out there?" "Dude...there are like, too many of them or something..." Instead of engaging, the party spikes the door from the outside. Thinking that someone is knocking, the kobolds call out, "Dude...we don't want any. Like go away or something." The players giggle about their cruel trick and move on.

They stumble into a low gravity training room, a library with a nasty crab spider, and a pile of refuse crawling with giant centipedes. Some lucking rolls and everyone is still standing. The thief managed to snag a new suit of +1 leather armor off a corpse and the magic user found an old spell book. 

The group enters a room to find a lone, unlocked chest. It was sitting on a carpet in the center of the room. A little leery, but not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouse, the thief approaches, checks for traps on the chest, and not finding any, opens the lid. Lifting the lid sets off a different trap -- an invisible net and pulley yank anyone on the carpet up to the ceiling. Since it was assumed that the other players were milling around in the room, I gave everyone besides the thief a save vs. paralyze to avoid being caught. Two of the guardsmen and Crimmin avoid the trap. At that point, the bandit saunters in saying, "Well what do we have here...." Then noticing the dwarf and the guardsmen, shouts "Oh SHIT!!" and takes off running. Crimmin takes advantage of his infravision while making chase and manages to catch up to the fleeing criminal, knocking him out with the flat of his sword, while the rest of the party takes to cutting themselves out of the net.

"Suicide Machine" wants to check out a couple of the other rooms on the way out. He finds a well that appears to be filled with quicksilver. Around the mouth of the well are some eldritch runes. He rips the Read Magic spell out of the newly found spell book, casts the spell (I have a house rule that spells in books can be used as scrolls, but the process destroys it), and discovers that swimming the well can impart some benefit on the character. In the end, Grok, "Suicide Machine", Corolla, and Jaffa swim the well. Everyone besides Corolla managed to increase one of their attributes (who lost a couple points of constitution).

The party lead the criminal back to town, collected their reward, and headed to the tavern to spend some of their hard earned loot.

Bradley Keep - Session 5

Bradley Keep is the name of my Labyrinth Lord sandbox campaign. The goal is to highlight some of the best that the OSR community has to offer.

Date: Sunday April 8, 2012

Adventurers:

• Linus the Courageous - Human Fighter (Dan)
• The Artless Dodger - Human Thief & Savran - Elf Fighter (Allen) w/ retainer Reldoon
• Graelyn Thorn - Elf Magic User/Cleric (Dave) w/ Talbot George
• Samantha the Butcher - Human Magic User (Brad) w/Rottweiler Marsha & retainer Balik
• Bargar - Torch Bearer (NPC)

The previous game left the characters standing around in the main corridor of Shadowbrook Manor. They continued exploring. Graelyn Thorn was still under the effects of the True Seeing from consuming the absinthe in the previous game, which gave away a lot of the nasty tricks left in the house. I wasn't sure how to referee some of those situations, since the house is chocked full of player-screw-over items and rooms. Since the chances of the character actually getting the benefits of the absinthe was so slim, I pretty much gave everything away, if he asked. 

While clearing out the remainder of the ground floor, they took care of a room full of shadows and avoided a ghost trapped in a jar. One player correctly guessed that the shadows were tied to the candles and they took very little damage. While exploring the second floor, they discover a room with a corpse lying on a table and a brain in a jar in the corner. The module suggested that the brain would attempt to charm the party (like the spell) convincing them to fight to the death for it's amusement. Thinking they've had it easy to this point, I decided that the brain could cast against the entire group because I wasted to see what might happened. For better or worse, what happened is everyone...yes...EVERYONE, down to the dogs and retainers, failed their save. Eleven failed saves by one party. They seemed to be down with it, so we went PVP. The drunken Graelyn Thorn was the only one who survived the melee. The brain decided to make him a minion. Unfortunately, for the brain, Graelyn managed to save vs. the charm the following day, won the initiative and destroyed the vessel and brain.

Graelyn used his scroll of invisibility and high-tailed it back to the Keep, deciding to try and recruit a new group to back into the house, collect the stuff off of his old friends corpses, and finish the job on the house. 

At that point we decided to wrap. I've been sick for the past few days, so a few hours of DMing was more than enough for the day. The PC binder needs some restocking, so three of us hung out after the game and statted up some cannon fodder.

Wrestleworld Promo - Ladder Match

Wrestleworld is the brain child of Jason over at The Only Successful One. It is a D&D/Pro-Wrestling hybrid game.  Contact Jason via the blog, the ConstantCon announcement, or find him on G+ if you are interested. It's totally gonzo.

Thursday March 29, 2012 - Ladder Match

[Still drunk from their win over Smash O'Bloody  and The Pride of Boston, not to mention the copious amount of beer consumed, The Spoiler III and Caltrop Cal stumble up to Brother Solomon and his camera crew]


Spoiler: What I tell ya, Solomon, what I tell you. Those Irish bastards were no match for the likes of us and the Galaxians...no match at all.
Cal: No match!!!
Spoiler: I gotta hand it to the booker at this here arena, though. A ladder match? That ain't The Spoiler's style. Where I come from, we fight with our feet on the ground. That's why I'm planning to take a week off and enjoy some rest and relaxation. I ain't climbing no damn ladder, ya see.
Cal: Yeah!! No ladder!
Spoiler: But ol' Cal here, he's got more guts than brains, so he's throwing his hat into the ring. He's gonna climb that ladder. He's gonna take that brief case. He's going to walk out of here with all that cash and the contract. I don't see any of these flunkies challenging him.
Cal: Damn them flunkies!!!
Spoiler: Ya see, this is a very special kind of match. The kind of match where you gotta be a little loose in the noggin'. Anybody willing to even enter the ring ain't right in my book. But that's where ol' Cal got the advantage. He's damn near lost his mind, but he can still fight. We've been training together these past couple weeks, and I taught him more than a thing or two. My ring sense, plus Cal's reckless nature are the perfect combination to take home that brief case. Now if you'll excuse us, we have a couple of things to go over before this thing gets under way.
Cal: [grins deviously then barks at the camera as the screen fades to black]. 

Wrestleword Session 2 - Play Report

Wrestleworld is the brain child of Jason over at The Only Successful One. It is a D&D/Pro-Wrestling hybrid game. I've joined on to try to it out via G+ Hangout game that meets on Thursday nights. This session featured Jason as GM and Greg Backus and me as the PCs. Contact Jason via the blog, the ConstantCon announcement, or find him on G+ if you are interested. It's totally gonzo. We're sort of developing it as we play, so there is a lot of room for input from new players. If you've ever fantasy booked your own Wrestlemania with your LJNs when you were a kid, this is the game for you.

Thursday March 15, 2012 - Saint Smashtrick's Day

Head Booker - Jason Kielbasa

Enhancement Talent:

• Mike Bolam 
• The Spoiler III - Classic American Brawler 
• Caltrop Cal - Scumbag Deathmatch Specialist 
• Greg Backus 
• Galaxian Alpha 
• Galaxian Beta 

Full of piss and vinegar, and still high off their defeat of the Freebards the previous week, The Spoiler and Cal stumble upon the Galaxians in the Wrestleworld Complex parking lot. Realizing the two don't speak a lick of English, they direct them towards the entrance to the arena. The arena is completely decked out in the colors of the Irish Flag, and the quartet prepare for a wild beating in the Irish Death Match promoted that evening.

Spoiler steps up to Brother Solomon and let's him know that the four of them are looking to take on ol' Smash O' Bloody and The Pride of Boston - The Fireman and Kelly O'Beaten. Spoiler is mostly concerned about Smash and informs Solomon that "The Pride" are nuthin' but a couple punks. They leave the entrance way and check out the first room, where they find a trio of combatants dressed in La Parka gear. These knuckleheads clearly aren't here to talk and a fight quickly breaks out. Cal is quickly impressed by the toughness of Galaxian Alpha. After the fight, Alpha takes a stroll down to the snack bar while the other three ransack the room.

Finding nothing, Alpha starts looking around for a potential weapon and comes across a janitorial closet. He grabs a mop and Cal pilfers a couple packets of VoBan Vomit Absorber. They head to the ring area. The Irish team is already in the ring. The two groups start jawing at each other. Eventually The Fireman launches himself through the ropes at the Galaxians, while the other two grab the Shillelaghs in the the corners.

During the confusion on the floor, Cal heads under the ring to try to sneak up on the opponents from behind. Spoiler and Beta attempt to run interference, while Alpha brawls with the Fireman on the floor. Under the ring, Cal discovers a Leprechaun. He offers him a trail ration and befriends the little guy. The Leprechaun gives him a magic kelly green bowler hat, which Cal wears throughout the match. Due to the distractions by the guys on the floor, Cal is able to sneak up on Kelly O'Beaten and attacks him from behind, disarming him. They start slugging it out as Spoiler attempts to enter the ring. He's beaten back by O' Bloody, but manages to disarm the guy. The Fireman knocks out Alpha, but is quickly downed by a Shillelagh between the eyes. O'Bloody and O'Beaten decide to double team Cal in the ring, giving Spoiler the opportunity to get involved. The Irishmen botch the double-team and to add insult, Cal steals O'Beaten's finisher, dropping him with The Drunken Irishman Yakuza Kick. O'Beaten is a tough mother, though, and stumbles back to his feet. Beta is dropped in the scrum and is unable to make it to his feet before he is counted out.

Cal, Alpha and Spoiler all take a minute to down a beer and regain some strength. Cal temporarily blinds O'Beaten with the VoBan, while Spoiler and Alpha go to work on O'Bloody. The 3 on 2 battle quickly turns in our hero's favor as the beat the living hell out of O'Beaten and O'Bloody. While the ref is counting them out, Cal invites his new friend out from under the ring. The Leprechaun delivers the tadpole splash from the top rope to ensure the victory. Beta, Spoiler, and Cal celebrate in the ring with their new buddy. As the match ends, the Shillelaghs and magical bowler cap disintegrate and the Irish themed decorations disappear, as the screen fades to black.

Tune in next week to discover the next opponents for these rough and tumble brawlers...

Wrestleworld Session 1 - Play Report

Wrestleworld is the brain child of Jason over at The Only Successful One. It is a  D&D/Pro-Wrestling hybrid game. I've joined on to try to it out via G+ Hangout game that meets on Thursday nights. The first session was just Jason and I, but we had a blast playing out the wrestling adventure.

Contact Jason via the blog, the ConstantCon announcement, or find him on G+ if you are interested. It's totally gonzo. We're sort of developing it as we play, so there is a lot of room for input from new players. If you've ever fantasy booked your own Wrestlemania with your LJNs when you were a kid, this is the game for you.

Thursday March 15, 2012

Head Booker - Jason Kielbasa
Enhancement Talent:

• The Spoiler III - Classic American Brawler
• Caltrop Cal - Scumbag Deathmatch Specialist
• Mazmorra Extraordinio - High Flying Luchador

The unlikely trio approach the worn down hockey arena, looking to prove themselves in the squared circle.

Inside the main doors, they find Brother Solomon, find broadcast interviewer Brother Solomon and proceed to cut a promo on the featured main event competition for the evening, The Freebards. The Spoiler knows their reputation, but assures Solomon that the three of them are prepared to step into the ring.

After searching around some corporate offices (and finding an "intelligent" catcher's chest protector named D'Lo), they stumble into the fighting arena. The stands are half filled with jeering kobold's, and the promised 50' scaffold looks to only be about 20' high. In the stands, they spy Vader-taur (Minotaur-Vader hybrid??), and deciding to test his mettle, The Spoiler calls him out. The kobolds go crazy as Vader-taur prepared to charge them. It's a brutal fight, but the three greenhorns are eventually able to drop the mutant. The big high spot of the match played out as follow -- Mazmorra climbs to the top of the bleachers and gets a running start. Spoiler sees him and goes for the power bomb on the Vader-taur (Minotaur-Vader hybrid??). Spoiler hits the crit, turning his Spoiler Bomb into a Super Spoiler bomb. Mazmorra takes off from the top of bleachers for a crazy plancha and hits. Spoiler manages a jumping power bomb that is spiked by Mazmorra's body as he descends from the rafters. They strip Vader-taur of any fancy looking gear and turn towards the scaffolding.

The boys taunt the Freebards at the top of the scaffolding a bit, but decide to grab some nachos before the main event. They also spend some gold to find out the properties of some of the loot on Vader-taur. The most amusing was the red & yellow headband that makes you feel "more American".  After stumbling through a few back rooms, they eventually come down the entrance ramp as their theme music blares through a couple of blown out speakers.

They quickly climb towards the rafters and start the clubbering on the old Freebards. The boys take a beating, but manage to take out the more experienced Freebards. Mazmorra took a nasty fall from the top of the scaffold, and it will likely be a while before we see him around the Wrestleworld Pavilion again. Cal and Spoiler claim their prize, a diamond encrusted belt, then head back to the snack bar to recover their stamina with a couple beers.

The Spoiler and Cal are set to take on Irish Brawler Smash O'Bloody and his crew this Thursday. Don't miss it!!!

Wrestleworld Promo for March 22, 2012

Spoiler III: I gotta hand it to you, Brother Solomon...those Freebards were some tough cookies. We're not talking Betty Crocker here.
Caltrop Cal: Yeaaaaah...Tough Cookies!
Spoiler: Those guys were the Otis Spunkmeyers of this here Wrestleworld...but, no, they weren't as tough as The Spoiler and ol' Caltrop over there. Not even close!
Cal: Yeah...not even close!
Spoiler: Looks like were set to take on that drunken bastard Smash O' Bloody in his signature match, The Irish Death Match.
Cal: I heard he ain't even Irish!!!
Spoiler: Now don't you say too much about ol' Smash, there Cal. He's a cagey vet and you could learn more than a thing or two from him in the squared circle. If that ain't enough, he's dragging them no-goods "The Pride of Boston." If that's what makes Boston proud, I'm glad I ain't from 'round them parts. Buncha no-good jerks if ya ask me.
Cal: Yeah...JERKS!
Spoiler: But the Spoiler, he's got a thing or two up his sleeve to handle those knuckle heads. And ol' Cal here, you don't even wanna know where he keeps his tricks. It ain't right, to be perfectly honest, but I know ol' Cal got the Spoilers back, and we're gonna take the heat to this crew.
Cal: [grins deviously then barks at the camera as the screen fades to black].

Wrestleworld Characters

Jason over at The Only Successful One is working on a D&D/Pro-Wrestling hybrid game. I've joined on to try to it out via G+ Hangout on Thursday night. I rolled up a couple characters based on the rules he put together on his blog.

Contact Jason via the blog, the ConstantCon announcement, or find him on G+ if you are interested. It's totally gonzo and should be a blast.

Here's what I have so far --

Name: The Spoiler III
Class: U.S./Canadian Brawler
Alignment: Tweener
Finisher: Spoiler Bomb
Signature Moves: Spoiler Diviving Spear, Fall Away Slam, A Left & A Right & A Left & A..., Spoiler Splash
Entrance Music: Sheer Terror - I Spoiler

Name: Caltrop Cal
Class: U.S./Canadian Death Match Wrestler
Alignment: Heel
Finisher: Caltrop Driver
Signature Moves: Ring Apron Back Breaker, Head Shot Politics, Barbed Wire Projectile, Hey Mr. Culligan Man!
Entrance Music: Fuck...I'm Dead - Shotgun Facelift

Name: Mazmorra Extraordinario
Class: Lucha High Flyer (masked)
Alignment: Technico
Finisher: Mazmorra Superfantastico (450 corkscrew splash)
Signature Moves: Flying Knee, Dragonrana, Springboard Ropewalk Dive to the Floor, Tope Con Giro
Entrance Music: Dragoner - Dios Del Metal

Bradley Keep - Session 4

Bradley Keep is the name of my Labyrinth Lord sandbox campaign. The goal is to highlight some of the best that the OSR community has to offer.

Date: Sunday March 11, 2012

Adventurers:

• Dorf the Dwarf (Tim)
• Stikky Fingas - Human Thief (Allen) 
• Linus the Courageous - Human Fighter (Jen) 
• Graelyn Thorn - Elf Magic User/Cleric (Gina)
• Samantha the Butcher - Human Magic User & Marsha - Rottweiller (Brad)
• Bargar - Torch Bearer (NPC)

The party finished off the last session by killing off Mierra, the skeletal seneschal. They started this game by searching the body, finding a pouch with a brass key. Pocketing the key, they head down the hall to the west and find two doors and a hallway to the north and a set of double doors to the south. They investigate the double doors and find a library with an ethereal woman arranging books. Calling to her, she turns, puts her finger to her lips and shushes. Graelyn enters, but his plate makes a bit too much noise. The noise sets off the librarian again, and again she shushes. Getting frustrated Dorf mocks the librarian's shushing. She turns and screams, causing aural damage to all of the characters. They slam the door and run off. 

Moving back down the hall the try the first door to the north. They notice some kind of magical script. Unable to decipher it on the spot, they continue to the second door to the north. They find the door locked and while Stikky tries to pick it, a creature shambles out of the darkness. Samantha unleashed the dog and the rest of the party fire ranged weapons and drop the zombie maid. They find a ring with a small gem on her finger and a skeleton key, which opens the door Stikky was working at. They find  a small room with a desk. In the desk, there were three scrolls, some parchments, arcane inks, quills, and a magnifying glass. They head up the hallway to the north and find a door about halfway up the hall. The room is unlocked. They find a large desk, a comfortable chair, and a small end table. A creepy little creature comes from behind the chair and flies at the group. It first swooped at Marsha, but missed the dog. On the next round, it moved to Stikky, biting and killing him. The group made quick work of the creature, but not without a huge loss. They loot the room, finding a bottle of absinthe on the end table, a quarterstaff hanging above the fireplace, and a polished onyx gem stone with an "R" embossed in gold. Deciding to cut their losses and get some additional help, the group heads back to the keep for a couple days of R&R.

The group pawns off the ring and discovers the onyx has some magical properties. Dorf decides to blow through some of his earnings and "hires" a woman for the evening. Trying to be classy, he breaks open one of the wine bottles from the Tower. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side and he succumbs to the poison contained within. He dies and the woman steals anything of worth on his person and flees. While Samantha tries to decipher her scrolls, she unfortunately discovers that one of them is cursed, striking her blind. She is taken to the temple, where she agrees to tithe 10% of her earnings to the Church of St. Cuthbert to have the curse removed. They also purchase a couple potions of healing. Graelyn purchased a Talbot hound and a carrier pigeon. The group recruits a new thief, The Artless Dodger, and another fighter, the Elf, Savron. Graelyn consumes a large amount of the absinthe, finishing the bottle. He is drunk, but seems to have some sort of magical ability of True Sight. After wrapping up the loose ends, they gather up the drunken Graelyn and head back to the Manor. 

On the trip back to the Manor, Savron spies a beautiful woman near a tree who beckons him. As he approaches with the Dodger. As the two get a bit closer, she disappears into the tree. They find no sign of her anywhere. When they get to the yard around the Manor, Graelyn inspects the statue of the gnome and realizes it was once a living creature. They take him into house and he identifies another magical cloak that has a protection from fire spell cast upon it, which the dodger dons. They then drag the drunk over to the magical script written above the first doorway. It reads "This Space Intentionally Left Blank." Confused, teh troupe moves back to the first room they had explored, the parlor. In the parlor, Graelyn identifies a number of potions. They also find some strange magical sling stones, and a secret passageway through up through the chimney. The party empties their water skins into the magical fire (a small elemental) and destroy it. The Dodger climbs the chimney and finds the master bedroom. The rest of the group climbs with the assistance of a rope dropped by the thief. In the room they find a electrum key under the mattress and a small jar, labelled "Oil of O'Lay". They check two doors on the eastern wall, finding a modern bath room, complete with magical toilet. The other room is literally full of skeletons. Each round, another skeleton emerges from the void beyond. After two rounds, they force the doors closed, stopping the assault. They then move to investigate the room to the north, finding a nursery with ornate crib and toy box. They pull out a finely crafted music box, a small gem, and a number of mundane toys. The main doors were made of an alien metal and would not open. Samantha goes back into the bathroom and applies some of the Oil of O'Lay. When she leaves rejoins the group, she looks noticeably younger. The still drunken Graelyn stated that they were attuned to a specific person.

Since there were no other exits, they went back down the chimney. Moving back down the hallway, they are approached by another ethereal form which starts miming for them to join her in the room at the end of the hall. Inside, they discover a skeleton in a porcelain tub. Eventually, they realize the ghostly figure would like the group to bury her remains. Linus and Savron gather up the remains, run outside and proceed to bury them. The ghost dissipates when the action is completed. The Dodger checks the two doors to the north of the hallway. The first is clearly the living quarters of the maid. They quickly search the room, but only find her  her wardrobe. In the room across the hall they find the zombie butler. They make quick work of it, discover a second skeleton key, a strange golden device (which the confused players quickly identified as a modern pocket watch). 

We wrapped the game at this point. They will continue exploring the rest of the manor at the next game.

Critical Hits and Fumbles

Here's another set of rules from our home games. Critical hits happen on a natural 20, and fumbles happen on a natural 1.

Fumbles are a bit simpler, so I'll describe that first. Fumbles always miss and cause you to go last in initiative in the following round while you recover. Since we use group initiative (both sides roll a d6 and the winning side acts first), this is only a real penalty if your side wins or ties in the following initiative round. If your side wins, your side goes, the bad guys go, then you go. If there is a tie, the groups act simultaneously. I usually just let the players go first. If they drop any of the monsters, the monster will still get a strike in as it dies. If you fumbled on the previous round, you lose the opportunity to get the dying strike off. A fumble also disrupts any other attack rolls a character or monster might have in the round. This is HUGE for multi-attack monsters (Claw/Claw/Bite), as all 3 dice are rolled at once. A single 1 in that handful causes a miss for the other attacks as well.

Critical hits always hit and do double dice damage, but do not double strength or other magic weapon bonuses.  When you crit, you roll another d20 to determine location and effects. One of John's old DMs originally designed the table and John modified it over the years. At first glance, it looks a bit cumbersome, but plays pretty quickly at the table.  I'll post current version, with modifications for Labyrinth Lord.

Download the Google Docs version.

The Wakulik Critical Hit Table

Labyrinth Lord revision

Roll 1d20 to determine location

1. Rt Knee/Lower Leg: -1/3 move; -1 to Dex AC bonus
2. Lt Knee/Lower Leg: -1/3 move; -1 to Dex AC bonus
3. Rt Leg: -1/2 move; -1 to Dex AC bonus
4. Lt Leg: -1/2 move; -1 to Dex AC bonus
5. Groin: -3 to hit, -2 dmg for 1d4 turns.  Males: -3/4 move & Save vs Pet or stunned 1d10 rds
6. Buttocks: -1/3 move; can’t sit down
7. Abdomen: -3 to hit, -1 dmg; instant death treated as mortal wound (see D below)
8. Rt Side(Ribs):-1 to hit, -2 dmg; roll under Con or broken rib (double penalties)
9. Lt Side(Ribs):-1 to hit, -2 dmg; roll under Con or broken rib (double penalties)
10. Rt Hand: Becomes useless; if sever indicated, roll 1d10: 1-5 lose rolled number of fingers, 6-10 lose whole hand
11. Lt Hand: Becomes useless; if sever indicated, roll 1d10: 1-5 lose rolled number of fingers, 6-10 lose whole hand
12. Rt Arm: -1 to hit, -2 dmg; roll under Con or broken (becomes useless until healed)
13. Lt Arm: -1 to hit, -2 dmg; roll under Con or broken (becomes useless until healed)
14. Chest: Save vs Death or lose 1 pt Con per 10 pts dmg (max 4 pt loss)
15. Rt Shoulder: -1 to hit, -2 dmg
16. Lt Shoulder: -1 to hit, -2 dmg
17. Neck: Save vs Poison or permanent loss of voice
18. Face: Roll 1d8: 1/2- R/L eye, 3- nose, 4- mouth, 5/6 R/L cheek, 7/8 R/L ear; lose 1 pt Cha per 10 pts dmg (max 3 pt loss)
19. Head: Roll 1d4: 1- forehead, 2- top, 3/4- R/L side; -1 to hit; save vs Pet or KO 1d10 rds
20. Death Blow(vital organs): Double damage dealt for purposes of determining chance of instant death

Notes

1. All critical hits cause a scar.
2. The GM may choose to modify the roll based on attacker/target size difference.  For each size category the attacker is larger than the defender, add +1 to the roll; subtract 1 for each size category smaller the attacker is than the defender.  In these cases, however, the modified roll may not exceed 19, and a rolled 20 should not be lowered: a death blow result can only, and will always, come from a natural 20.
3. Where “Roll vs Damage” is indicated,  roll percentile dice.  Damage is that sustained by character after all modifiers(double for critical hit, strength bonus, etc.).
4. Italics indicates a chance of instant death.  Roll vs Damage; if roll is equal to or under damage, death results.  If GM allows, a System Shock check may be made; success indicates mortal wound, with death in 1d4 minutes
5. Underlined locations are those that can be severed.  Roll vs Damage; if roll is equal to or under damage, area is severed from the body.  In the case of the groin, sever result can only be suffered by male characters.
6. Where sever and death are indicated, roll first for sever; if limb is not severed, there is no chance of instant death.  If limb is severed, make System Shock roll, with failure indicating death.  Note that severing the neck will result in instant death- no further roll is required.
7. All penalties are cumulative and will persist until wound is healed.  At GM’s discretion, a dedicated healing spell may be required to remove the penalties of any single critical hit. Note that only very powerful healing magics can repair a sever.

Equipment Lists

I think Gutter Cult is quickly becoming "The Blog Where I Answer Queries Posed By The Dungeoneering Dad..."

This time, Dan asked about starting gear packages for fantasy RPGs on G+ the other day (again, not sure how sturdy that like will be, and you'll probably need to be in Dan's RPG circle to read it). Selecting gear during character creation for old school games is definitely the slowest part of the procedure, particularly for new players. They can also be used to speed up equipping hirelings and henchmen. John, the other DM in my home games has some good lists, so I asked if I could post them up here on the blog.

These lists use Labryinth Lord and AEC prices and weights, but should be easy to convert to other systems.

Google Docs Word File (contains all gear from LL & AEC and the Packages listed below).

Adventurer Essentials	Price (GP)	Wt (lbs)		Cleric Package	Price (GP)	Wt (lbs)
Backpack (empty)	2	2		Candles (10)	0.1	0
Bedroll	0.1	5		Holy symbol, wooden	1	0
Flint and steel	2	0		Holy water (flask)	25	1
Pouch, small belt	0.5	0		Pouch, small belt	0.5	0
Torches (8)	0.3	8		Garlic (3 cloves)	5	0
Waterskin/Wineskin	1	4		Wolfsbane (per ounce)	0.8	0
Rations, trail (5 days)	2.5	5		Total	32.4 GP	1 lb
Rope, hemp (50 ft)	1	10		Magic User Package	Price (GP)	Wt (lbs)
Sack, large (empty)	0.2	0.5		Candles (10)	0.1	0
Total	9.6 GP	34.5 lbs		Case, map or scroll	1	0.5
Supplemental Package	Price (GP)	Wt (lbs)		Ink (1 oz. Vial)	8	0
Hammer	0.5	2		Quill pen	0.1	0
Lantern	9	3		Parchment (3 sheets)	0.6	0
Mirror, small steel	10	0.5		Spell book (blank)	15	3
Oil (3)	0.3	3		Total	24.8 GP	3.5 lbs
Spikes, iron (12)	1	8		Thief Package	Price (GP)	Wt (lbs)
Total	20.8 GP	16.5 lbs		Crowbar	2	5
Horse Package	Price (GP)			Grappling hook	1	4
Horse, riding	74			Pole, 10-foot wooden	0.2	8
Saddle	25			Thieves' tools	30	1
Saddle bag	0.1			Total	33.2 GP	18 lbs
Total	99.1 GP			Wizardly Clothing	Price (GP)	Wt (lbs)
Adventurer’s Clothing	Price (GP)	Wt (lbs)		Belt, wide leather	0.6	0.5
Belt, wide leather	0.6	0.5		Boots, low soft leather	2.5	3
Boots, high hard leather	2.5	3		Cap, leather	0.4	0
Shirt, leather patched	0.6	1		Cloak, cloth	0.5	3
Cloak, cloth	0.5	5		Robe, cloth	0.7	5
Trousers, heavy	0.8	4		Total	4.7 GP	11.5 lbs
Total	5 GP	8.5 lbs

The Character Binder

My buddy Dan, from The Dungeoneering Dad mentioned one of the "rules" from my home games on a post on G+ (I'm not sure how sturdy that link will be, and you'll probably have to be in Zak Smith's Gamer Circle to read it). If you aren't so into the whole G+ thing, here's what Dan said, "I read how +Michael Bolam 's group has a binder full of PCs that the players rolled up. When a PC bites it, the player goes to the binder and gets a new PC. I thought it was a cool way to have replacement PCs at the ready." I figured I'd give a little more detail about it here..

We're using Labyrinth Lord with the Advanced Edition Companion. Character generation is done by the book. Roll the 3d6 and place the numbers in order. Select race and class, roll hit points, roll gold and buy equipment, pick spells if necessary, and fill in all the other numbers. At the start of the first game, we all rolled up a handful of characters, selected one, and placed the rest in the binder. Since then, people occasionally show up with more characters to restock the binder. We have them separated by class, so you can quickly find what you want, thumb through what is available, and pick something. We've reserved the back of the binder as a "graveyard" for the characters who have died to this point.

We're running two games from the same pool of characters. Jonathan is running classic TSR modules every other Tuesday. I'm running some of my own stuff, combined with a lot of the OSR produced modules on Sundays. There is a fair amount of player overlap between the two games, but the goal was to keep this as open as possible. We are trying to be as realistic as possible, knowing that we all have full time jobs, many of us are in bands, or have kids, or something else that might get in the way of gaming. We know there are people in our circles that want to try out D&D, but don't have the time to commit to a regular schedule. Because of these facts, we're allowing anyone to drop in and out as necessary.

Once you select a character, you've got rights on that character as long as you continue to show up. If you miss a game, you have to accept that the character may be played by someone else, returned to the binder, or become an NPC for the night. Players are free to swap characters in and out of the binder at any point, assuming it makes sense for the current game (you are some place adventurers might hang out -- a town, village, keep, tavern along the road, etc). Characters active in the Tuesday game are not available for the Sunday game and vice versa. A character that has been returned to the binder is potentially active for either game after that point. Hired classed henchmen can also be taken from the binder (or created if something suitable isn't available) and will remain with the adventuring group until they are relieved of their duties. At that point, they are added back the binder, and become potential playable characters at future games.

If a character dies during play, and there are no NPCs floating around for the player to take control of, the player selects another character from the binder. At that point it's up to the DM to find a spot to fit them in to the adventure. We don't want anyone sitting there doing nothing for too long. After about 10 or so games, it's been working out very nicely. You do lose a bit of that connection to the character you might experience, since they just come from a generic pool. That said, low level characters in classic D&D are fairly fragile creatures, so there is bound to be a lot of turnover (aka We're not pulling any punches here. Characters die in these games.) We haven't had a TPK yet, but the potential is totally there. The pool of characters allows for some connection across games. Characters that were temporary retired could potentially be pulled to help keep the connection to previous sessions, if necessary.

We've got a game tonight and I think I'm going to try to crank out some "binder characters" while waiting for the rest of the group to show up.

Bradley Keep - Session 3

Bradley Keep is the name of my Labyrinth Lord sandbox campaign. The goal is to highlight some of the best that the OSR community has to offer.

Date: Sunday March 4, 2012

Adventurers:

• Dorf the Dwarf (Dan) 
• Stikky Fingas - Human Thief (Allen) 
• Linus the Courageous - Human Fighter & Behemoth - Boar Hound (Allen) 
• Graelyn Thorn - Elf Magic User/Cleric (Dave)
• Samantha the Butcher - Human Magic User & Marsha - Rottweiller (Brad)
• Vork the Sickly - Human Fighter (Tim)

After a bit of carousing in the Keep's tavern, the adventurers befriend the owner, Beasley, by purchasing the Honey Mead, his favorite beverage in the house. He provided them with some additional information about the Stonehell dungeon; mostly rumors he picked up off various other adventurers who had been through the Keep. They also learn that Lucius, the bailiff, is concerned about recent goblin attack, and is offering a bounty on goblin ears. Beasley also introduced Dorf to Amos, the jeweler currently residing in the Keep. Amos and Dorf agree to meet at the bank in the morning, so Amos can take a look at the crystal Dorf discovered in the Wizard's tower. 

The following morning, the group meets up with Amos, who offers Dorf 250 pp for the crystal, saying it was unlike anything he had seen before. Dorf decided to hold on to it for now, but let Amos know he would be first on the list if he were to sell it. They withdrew some cash and went to the armorer and upgraded Dorf, Linus, and Graelyn to plate armor. Lucius told the group about the goblin bounty (1 gp/ear). He also mentioned that there was man named Tazimak looking for people to clear out a house he had inherited. The house was one the outskirts of the village northwest of the Keep and rumored to be haunted. The party tracked Taz down in the tavern, where he offered them 50 GP, plus whatever they found in the manor. Figuring the house was closer than the dungeon, they would check it out first.

They hire Bargar on as a man-at-arms, and head to the Manor in the morning. While travelling to the manor, they are set upon by a band a 6 goblins. Moving to engage, Vork the Sickly was killed before ever getting to swing his sword (Tim took over playing Linus the Courageous - first game since the early 80s and his character dies before he even got to swing his sword - ouch). One of the other goblins dropped Behemoth in the same round. After a few rounds, the party was able to over take the goblins. They snagged the ears and looted the bodies and moved to the house.

While inspecting the strange topiary, they were set upon by a ghoul (groundskeeper). They make quick work of him and move to investigating the area around the house. They discover a sack of Magical Gro in the shed, avoid the outhouse, investigate a strange well, and take care of boar living in a dog house. Eventually, they enter the house and quickly search around the parlor. Graelyn notices something strange about the fire in the fire place (the log isn't actually burning). He tries squirting a little water on it, and the fire launches a small fire ball back at him. They decide to leave the room and check the door across the hall, finding a closet. Samantha tried on a reversible cloak, While messing around in the coat closet, a skeletal seneschal lumbers into the room. The party was able to take down the threat after a few rounds. We wrapped for the evening at the end of the fight.

20 Questions

Branden's survey has made for some interesting blog posts, so I figured I'd join the band wagon....and yes, I would jump off a bridge, assuming the rest of the old school D&D bloggers were doing it...

This info is for my Labyrinth Lord campaign. It's still pretty fresh, so some of this info is likely to change as time goes on...

1. Ability scores generation method?
3d6 straight. Players determine character race and class after rolling. We've created a binder full of characters anyone can use. You can pick what you want to play out of that binder. There are plenty of good, mediocre, and lousy characters to choose from. Every once in a while, someone shows up with a bunch of rolled characters to restock the population.


2. How are death and dying handled?
You die at 0. Unless you make other arrangements, the other players are free to loot your corpse, but do not gain experience for gained treasure. 


3. What about raising the dead?
If you can find someone to cast it, and you have a bunch of money (or are willing to take on a quest), we can probably work something out.


4. How are replacement PCs handled?
I've had people take over retainers or other NPCs. They can also find replacements (from the character sheet binder or something of their own creation) when they head to some sort of civilization. If they are in the middle of a dungeon crawl, I'd probably have them stumble across another party or individual.

5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?
Group rolls a d6 vs. the bad guys. In the case of a tie, the action is simultaneous. I let the players go first, then I go. If a PC or NPC dies during a tied initiative round, they still get their strike in.

6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?
Critical hits happen on a natural 20 only and do double die damage. Strength and bonuses from magic items do not double. Critical hits roll on a d20 table to determine location and cause scars (which mostly just look cool). Rolling a 1 will always miss the target. On the following round, you go after the PCs and the NPCs while you fumble around and try to regain your composure.

7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?
All armor is assumed to include a helmet of some sort. Magic users could purchase and wear some sort of helmet (preferably with ram horns on the sides). It doesn't come up much, but I could see a couple traps or specific locations where I might give a bonus if the character has a helmet.

8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?
Yes you can, but only if you fumble. Firing into melee is at a standard -4 penalty.

9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?
Running can be a very wise decision.

10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?
Sure...

11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?
Just like above. Playing traps, spells, monsters, poisons BTB. If the bug bears don't get you, the yellow mold will.

12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?
I'm not too strict with encumbrance. Just trying to keep things within reason.You shouldn't be carting around an entire adventuring supply shop plus your life's savings every time you leave the house. I am experimenting with tracking torches and rest periods, though. You'll also be expected to tick off rations for each day away from civilization.

13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?
No training or extended down time required, although you will need to rest before leveling. You can only get new spells by discovering them in treasure and copying to spell book. Large cities may have a Mage's Guild willing to allow copying for a fee (or quest).

14. What do I get experience for?
 Most of the XP will come from treasure at 1 XP per GP. No XP for magic items. Some XP will come from killing stuff. Occasionally XP can be gained from completing tasks. You've gotta get the treasure back to your base of operations before you get the XP, though.

15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?
Some combination. It depends on the trap. I roll behind the screen for people actively searching. If you are moving through the dungeon at the exploratory pace, I give passive rolls. If you are running or moving quickly, you do not get the passive roll.

16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?
Retainers are encouraged. 0-level men-at-arms and non-combat retainers do a morale roll at the end of the adventure and during dire situations. Charisma bonuses and general treatment bonuses will apply. Classed retainers expect a 1/3 share of found treasure, do not require "end of the adventure" morale rolls, but may desert in dire situations (again, general treatment and charisma bonuses apply).

17. How do I identify magic items?
Most must be identified through use or casting Identifiy (from LL AEC). Potions can be identified by sipping or consulting an alchemist.

18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?
 You can find magic items. You might be able to buy something on occasion, but the owner isn't likely to know about the magic properties. Potions can occasionally be purchased from alchemists or temples.

19. Can I create magic items? When and how?
 Sure...I haven't worked this out yet. I'd need to review the rules in the books. Definitely not at low levels.

20. What about splitting the party?
 If you really want to, but I wouldn't recommend it.