NORTH TEXAS CON SUMMARY 2019

CONVERSATIONS

• Talking with Matt Finch over the differences between old/new styles of DMing. As well as chatting about how he DMs 20+ players in a session after watching him do just that. Best part about said session was:
1. GM Finch asking the group, "Who bows down to the shrunken' halfing head now possessed by a demon?"
2. The 5 PCs that did immediately gained tattoos, teeth, horns, and one person- wings!
3. Then GM Finch started offering 5,000 XP bonuses if the tattooed players would perform tasks for the demon. Not compulsory, just move this person to that staircase or temporarily blind another PC.
   
   
• Talking with Greg Gillespie about Forbidden Caverns of Archaia. That man is very nice✤, low-key on social media, and very big. Like halflings would be an AC bonus in combat with him big. He also filled me in on the next big megadungeon- wizards, floating dungeons, teleporters. I think he has a nice insight about D&D and I hope he does more podcasts in the future.
  
  

  ✤ Update 2023: Its a shame that I have to go back and revise old blog posts. Since meeting Gillespie in 2019, I have learned a lot more about him through his public posts, comments on the RPG scene, and comments from students in his RPG course. The end result is I've reversed my opinion to the exact opposite-- I don't believe his insight into D&D is any greater than anyone else in the scene, nor do I want him doing more podcasts in the future. Instead, listen to these better minds on megadungeons on the Into The Megadungeon podcast. 

  
  
• Talking with David "Zeb" Cook was a real big delight, I also got my bound copy of B/X signed by him. But forgot to bring my Planescape box set! We initially had a short conversation but I met him later in the Dwarven Forge hotel party were we covered:
• Magical realism & Italio Calvino
• Russian fantasy movies on Netflix
• How he wasn't on the team that did Planescape: Torment
• A little of the origins of the Planescape setting

GAMES WHERE I WAS THE DM

• Through Ultan's Door did not really garner much attention, but I did end up thinking of a new hook for it and running it through with my friends. The better idea I came up with is to start the highest CHA PC off as the new "chosen one" in a group of acolytes of the Cult of Sleep on the run after their cult had been smashed. Once through the door, the PCs have to find the demon to re-anoint the chosen one with the God of Sleep's favor. Three players with 6, level two, B/X PCs- two of which died in the first encounter and one that was sacrificed to gain the demon's favor.
  It worked out well and I want to develop this angle better and look forward to continuing using issue #2.
  


• Zjelwyin Fall was the second game I ran, again B/X pre-gens all of level two. This module requires the players to travel to the Astral Plane and infiltrate a lich's phylactery and obtain the Quantum Crown. Each of the modules seven levels is a puzzle. Now, I thought this would be a good con module because its a unique setting, made for low-levels, and doesn't involve combat. However, what I realized is that the meta-problem with puzzle dungeons is that players solve them as players, not as characters. So that might have sapped some of the experience.

GAMES WHERE I WAS THE PLAYER

• LotFP's Grinding Gears --again, a puzzle module that I started playing a player not really getting into it as a character. The DM was one of the folks that run The Long Con which is another small con in Texas. He ran a good game that kept us guessing, but still, I think the problem of puzzle dungeons stands.
  
  
  
• The second game I played was a playtest of a new style of gaming that focused on encouraging RP by handing out tokens as the players attempted certain actions. The idea is that your character starts out with 0 attributes and skills. But as you perform actions the GM awards tokens that you use to buy, real-time, attributes and abilities. The actual adventure itself involved a band of dwarves separated from a war band coming upon a lost keep controlled by four factions guarding an evil power.

THINGS I BOUGHT

• B/X Essentials Magic-User & Cleric Spells: Fantastic asset at the table.
• Big Dragon's DM Screen: Nice heavy cardboard. And really great physical "master" character sheets on cardboard for scanning or copying.
• B4 The Lost City & AD&D Player's Handbook (the demon idol one of course)

OTHER MUSINGS

• Meeting both Larry Elmore and Jeff Easley and learning they are both from KY was pretty fantastic. I also got DARLENE to sign all the original Greyhawk maps I have!
• Watching the Midnight Auction was hilarious- free booze- "Zeb" Cook produced the Honeymooners board game?!
• Looking around you can tell the NTRPG CON is put together with a lot of love, but I do wonder when the old guard passes on to the mythic underground, what will become of it? Can this Con evolve into something new or encourage fresh blood?

DARK FORCES GATHER AMONG VAIN RICHES IN RUINED ARCHAIA!

[Below are the first few session reports from my on-going store game using Forbidden Cavern of Archaia and 5e D&D run in an old school style. The part in italics is on the flyer I posted].

DARK FORCES GATHER AMONG VAIN RICHES IN RUINED ARCHAIA!

THIS 5E GAME OF D&D will use just the free Basic Rules found online at: http://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/DnD_BasicRules_2018.pdf
Making it perfect for those new to the hobby and curious. New players are very welcome! Not even dice are needed.

FIFTH EDITION RUN IN AN OLD SCHOOL STYLE: We will use a few of the alternative 5e rules for slower healing and stress. EXP is mainly gained by loot which removes the focus on combat. Dead characters are replaced by a 3d6-down-the-line generation. And this megadungeon exploration is in the vein of METROID/DARKEST DUNGEON, but there are plenty of NPCs and factions to manipulate for your own selfish ends!

#2 PREVIOUSLY: TOMB RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARCHAIA. Two devout clerics of St. Ygg dared to plunge into the Forbidden Lands with their recently liberated thi--, "relic hunter", in tow. Their goal is to bring dangerous relics of the past and information about the gathering chaotic hoards back to the warm, lawful embrace of Ygg. Currently, they are hunkered down in an elven crypt with four magical but fragile amphora-- worth plenty if they can get them back safely.

#3 PREVIOUSLY: OH GREAT, ELVES. With the arrival of the elven "delegation", Katyanna, Buddy, Radon, and their halfing burglar Brakka, Ukko and Gunter see their grave digg--- relic retrieval in peril. But diplomatic name-calling and judicious use of thieves cant brokered a deal where the adventuring party would help with the urns and then only draw from the recently recovered (and very slippery) Deck of Many Things once they were safely around other innocent Ygg-fearing souls. A treacherous climb awaited, but Ukko was to suffer the first non-Deck misfortune, by almost falling to his death! Where it not for the entirely inadequate medical attention performed by almost everyone and Gunther's devotion to Ygg, Ukko would have been dead. But instead, he lived to deal with the jerks of St. Ygg. Now much richer, the party drinks really, really well and decides their next course of action!

#4 PREVIOUSLY: JUST A BUNCH OF ROCKS. Loaded up with supplies, the party leaves early in the morning to explore more of the dread sunken city. Playing it safe, the party plunges into one of the upper caverns to avoid the humanoid patrols on the canyon floor. They tangled with well-disguised denizens in the forms of a large draco-form and stalactite-like crustaceans. Then, once across one of the broken city's many subterranean gulfs, the party pauses in a puzzling vine-covered foyer and muffled cries for help!

#5 PREVIOUSLY: STONE COLD DEATH! Disaster strikes! After meeting up with a pair of inquisitive dwarves, a sufferer of demonic thrall, and another sly thief, the party battled their way past ravenous mimetic plant life to a maze of doors. While mostly empty, the designs on the wall revealed this tomb to be the resting place of a powerful Archaian summoner and necromancer. Soon enough the party found themselves in said tomb tempted by a large brilliant ruby and a crypt of magic items. But it was all a trap...

Stone guardians mobilized and although moved like drunken men from years of dormancy, they laid low all but two of the party. Those two escaped from death leaving behind the mournful songs of their crushed friends- may Ygg take them quickly.

#6 PREVIOUSLY: ABRAKADABRA! THE PARTY GOT A MYSTERIOUS STAFF BUT STILL LEFT CADAVERS! Undaunted by death and haunted by the mysterious crypt, the sole survivor of the previous trek gathered a new band of adventurers to raid the crypt of the Archaian sorcerer.

The trip was fill fated from the beginning as the party was attacked at Dragon's Tooth Henge by undeath rising out of the growing mounds of mold, filth, and garbage at the henge. Each bore the crude mark of a hand with a fanged mouth in the palm. Although surrounded, the adventurers overcame and finally laid to rest these horrid bones.

Once back at the crypt of the sorcerer, a plan was hatched to steal the staff, ring, and the too-enticing-to-be-left ruby. The results were the same, but this time the two surviving members have a mysterious ebony staff and gold ring. Now if they can just get it back to Eastdale...

MORE ON WEAPONS

Still always milling over how to make weapons simple, but contain meaningful context-dependant choices so that combat can become faster and environments matter.

THE EMERGENT STORY & OSR PLAY

A very excellent post from Ben L. (of Ultan's Door Fame which I'll be running at North Texas RPG Con) about story emerging from sandbox play. He also gives a really even-handed explanation of the different approaches adopted by the OSR and indie games in their response to "trad rpgs". 

I could quote it to death, but here is one of my favorite parts:

If we don't see ourselves as storytelling, then in what sense do we take pleasure in "emergent stories"? When we say we're into "stories that emerge from play", we mean precisely stories that no one aimed to produce. Like in ordinary life, where we do various things not intending to produce a story, but nonetheless through the interaction of chance, the dubiousness of colorful characters, and our boldness in the moment, a memorable story emerges. 

OBJECTIVES FOR COMBAT BEYOND "KILL EVERYONE"

Into The Breach

D&D Combat Objectives

Into The Breach continues to influence how I think D&D combat should be run. Its because in addition to varried terrain, Into The Breach uses a limited set of turns and variable objectives: Kill X, Guard Y, Hold Z, Destroy A, Don’t take B total damage. This makes each round section of combat a short tactical puzzle. Your “party” in this game consists of 3 mechs with limited movement, HP, and 1-2 attacks that do damage, push/pull enemies, freeze them, set them on fire etc.

Often D&D combat can devolve into a sluggish exchange of blows between sides with the only objective being to kill one side. This is often unrealistic- most people don’t want to die and really only the most zealous will fight to the death.

B/X provides tools to help a DM guard against this outcome by employing three checks: Suprise (2-in-6), Encounter Reaction (2d6), and the Morale Check(2d6).

Another tool to add would be eliminating “kill everyone” as the default objective to combat once its determined the encounter is hostile and involves conflict. Here is my stab at such a thing:

INTELLIGENT CREATURES (Goblins & Gnolls, Orcs & Ogres)
01 | Grab the gold/valuables
02 | Capture the caster & spellbook
03 | Sacrifice the cleric in the name of foul gods.
04 | Hit & Run! Reduce 1+ PCs to 50% HP then withdraw
05 | Loot the party for supply and equipment packs
06 | Push the PCs out of the room/area/bridge; then guard it
07 | Capture the animals/NPCs/Hirelings
08 | Hold position until more dangerous reinforcement arrives.

INSTINCTUAL CREATURES (Animals, Beasts, Basilisks & Hydras)
01 | Attack the nearest NPC/pack animal-- drag into the underbrush
02 | Attack the weakest/smallest PC-- drag into the underbrush
03 | Hold a specific territory
04 | Bloody the largest PC in a territorial display
05 | Fight until hit with magic
06 | Ravage backpacks for food
07 | Hit & Run-- next three encounters will be with this creature
08 | Territorial display, but will yield ground quickly

UNINTELLIGENT CREATURES (Oozes, Constructs, (Most) Plants)
01 | Attack nearest PC
02 | Consumes one PC then goes dormant or leaves
03 | Probe each PC looking for X: gold, nectar, metal, stolen jewels
04 | Attacks until PCs issue a command or says “stop” in creature language
05 | Moves to inconveniently occupy a space the PCs want to move to/through
06 | Covers or grows around an object of significance for reasons unknown
07 | Attracted to PC with specific color/sound/smell/taste/astral aura
08 | Attack those who stole something

CARCOSA: A PLAYER'S MAP (Hex Kit 2.0)

Don't know if anyone is in the market, but here is my version of Carcosa done in Hex Kit 2.0. An awesome mapping program that does everything I've always wanted Hexographer to do.

As a bonus, here is a simple map of Hot Springs Island (again, more of a player facing one).

HOLMES ULTRABLUE: A PROSPECTUS FOR COMBAT RULES

HOLMES ULTRABLUE 

GOAL: Things that need to matter in combat: weapon choice, range, initiative, morale & maneuvers/environment. Basically trying to increase choice and speed of combat.

Holmes Basic: All weapons do 1d6 damage (this is also found in B/X, but lets take the focus off variable damage- the optional rule in B/X). 

Bastionland: Supercharge 5e D&D Combat but scaled to Basic D&D with 10-foot Polemic's notch system thrown in. Notches in weapons decrease dmg by 1, notches in armor decrease AC by 1.
Nat 1: Miss; 1 weapon notch; no dmg (0 dmg)
< AC: Glance; min. dmg, but can't bring below 1 hp (1 dmg)
> AC: Hit; avg. dmg, but can bring below 1 hp (3 dmg)
Nat 20: Crit; 1 armor notch; max dmg (6 dmg)

No-damage options: (to trip, disarm, shove, pull) : Glance is a struggle with a chance of a reversal (contested roll) while Hit is a non-damage effect (trip, disarm, shove, pull).

Basic Initiative: Roll 1d6, highest goes first; ties favor the PCs

Pathfinder 2e: Weapons have traits and "Crit Abilities". Let's stick to stripped down Holmes Basic weapons. Don't have a good idea about what to list as Crit abilities.
Sword- s- parry
Bow- p- ranged; forgo movement to get 2nd attack
Mace- b- +1 to-hit vs. AC > 15
Axe- s- +1 dmg vs AC < 15
Spear- p- reach

B/X Basic: What is in your off-hand?
Two-weapon fighting: +1 to-hit (if two different weapons, odd roll is one, even roll is the other)
Two-handed weapon: +1 to dmg
Shield: +1 to AC
Torch: Light, Crit sets the target on fire on a 5-in-6

Holmes Basic Armor:
Nothing AC 10 (40' 8 sq)
Leather AC 12 (30' 6 sq)
Chain AC 14 (20' 4 sq)
Plate AC 16 (10' 2 sq)

What about magic in combat?

• Use list of magic spells from Knave or any other level-less books of magic (these are often more about manipulation of things than just straight up damage- more interesting).
• Wizard can safely cast spells from slots equal to their level (Level 3 = 3 spell slots)
• To cast a spell with 0 spell slots, a Wizard must make a save throw: Pass spell successfully, Fail roll on mishaps table (as this invites uncontrolled, unchanneled arcane energies into the world & invites risk/reward)
• Wizards can release a bolt (range) of magical energy at their target for every one slot (we'll still give wizards a little juice).
• Roll to hit: Miss bolt dissipates; Glance is 1d6 damage; Hit is 2d4 damage; Crit is 10 damage
• An additional spell slot can be spent to give the energy an elemental property: fire, cold, electricity, force

Morale Check: One of the more interesting optional rules in B/X which helps prevent all combat being to the death. Role 2d6 versus morale when:

• The first enemy dies
• 50% of forces are defeated or 50% of HP is depleted (if single enemy or pair).
• Enemy leader dies, is captured, or incapacitated