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| Great illo from the Pyramid of the Undying |
Last Friday I was asked to run a game of D&D over pizza and beer. A classic pairing and impossible to say "no" to. The hosting couple was I had previously run my "wine dungeon" . And given that the last outing ended in somewhat of a TPK, they were down for starting over with new characters. I asked if they wanted to try to delve the wine dungeon again or try something more classic?
"Classic" was the answer and I just happened to have a revamped copy of B4 The Lost City✦ with me. No, not the Goodman Games one, but a lighter PDF call "Pyramid of the Undying"- highly recommend this PDF. It creates a much tighter layout for the first 5 tiers of the dungeon, changes the gods to the more familar Zeus, Athena, and Hermes, and also creates a small set of boons if you join the factions. Keeps Zargon of course.
This group of novices had played with me before, so they are used to my low(er) fantasy D&D. It doesn't seem to bother them a bit. In deference to this being a friendly game, I just allowed my friend a STR 18 "barbarian" (or a fighter with a background equipping him with a battleaxe, leather, horned helmet, and 2x oil flasks). Each of the 3 players rolled 2 characters, so in total we had 6: fighter, thief, cleric, wizard, wizard, thief. I also started folks at Level 2 because- eh, wanted to keep the game light. I'm trying to get folks to have fun with D&D not prove some sort of old-school bona fide.
What was also interesting was that despite offering maybe a d66 roll for additional power, the players elected just to start the game. Again, I interpret this as your average player of D&D just wants to start playing some D&D ASAP.
Adventuring in The Lost City
- My brief background is that the party is fleeing through the desert from a definitive war their side lost. I ask three questions to establish this and at least answering one of them brought about the fact that dragons no longer exist. Oops, now we are playing Dungeons & [deleted].
- Needing water in 2 hours (12 exploration turns), the party succeeds in only setting off 1 trap before figuring out a way to disable the other two. And dropping torches down into the first level to trick the fire beetles below.
- After a brief scuffle, they investigate the three doors and scare off a pale-skinned "werewolf" by waving wolfsbane (randomly rolled equipment) in their face. The explored northward and ran into a well-armed group wearing the stylized mask of an old bearded man- the devotees of Zeus.
- Despite the chauvinistic leanings of this group and in desperate need of water, the party decides to join up and receive food, water (!), and lodging. They are led down below to Level 3 where they decide to try delivering a message of parley to each of the other two factions.
- The exploration yields a remnant of a potential "fourth" faction devoted to a sun god, but the altar is destroyed and desecrated. A vicious fight with a giant black widow spider ensues and almost kills the two fighters. They decide to leave this area and make it back to the Zesus compound to recuperate but not before encountering a group of pale figures clad in the costume of adventurers. A brief beheading (Nat 20, plus max damage, +1 STR bay-bee!) by one of the PC fighters is enough to get them to back down.
- When the PCs return to the compound they recount their sojourn with gusto. A series of awkward looks are exchanged between the Zeusians: "While we appreciate your need to protect yourselves, we do try to avoid killing the former inhabitants of our great city. It is our duty to protect them."
PCs: Oh...😓...mah bad
✦ I've always wanted to do a review of B4 The Lost City because I believe it's possibly the best module of the B series and I think actually deserves a spot higher than the venerated B2 Keep on the Borderlands.
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