Sunday, May 28, 2017

O5R Dwimmermount Campaign


I finally started a new fantasy RPG camapign - old school D&D; although, I'll be using modified Sword & Wizardry rules and the mercurial magic random table from Dungeon Crawl Classics.

One of the players was reading an extra S&W book on hand and was shocked to see that it was just like Dungeons & Dragons from the 80's.  How could they do that, he asked?  I told him about the open gaming license of WotC D&D, the OSR, etc.

Despite the hefty price tag $75, I've decided to run Dwimmermount based on everything I've read about it on Grognardia by +James Maliszewski.  But it will most assuredly be my Dwimmermount - I'm changing things up here and there.

My table had 5 players, all of them opting to begin play with 4 zero level characters.  That means 20 PCs began in Muntberg, chatted with some possible hirelings, one hedonistic cleric making plans for a debauched celebration upon his return, and then made their way - with "crank master" Karn, Muntberg's drawbridge operator, along for the ride.  One of the PCs actually convinced Karn to pay him 2 gold pieces in order to join the adventuring party.

They met some orcs with a metal detector, disabled a laser eye above the double iron door entrance to Dwimmermount, and many were burned in a second altercation with even more orcs who used alchemist's fire .  Oh yeah, one thief was dissolved from the inside by a green slime that fell from the ceiling.  And another's life was drained from him at the touch of a shrieking phantom coming through the wall.

Out of 20 PCs and 3 NPCs who set out on this journey, the party ended the session with 9 PCs and 2 NPCs.  So, pretty much 50%.  Here is the list of survivors...

  1. Nopers, Fighter, Dwarf
  2. Daycy, Fighter, Human
  3. Iron Fist, Fighter, Dwarf
  4. Cheye, Magic-User, Human
  5. Mabnezer, Druid, Half-Elf
  6. Dormud, Cleric, Dwarf
  7. Sir-Yut, Ranger, Human
  8. Kalbana, Cleric, Human
  9. George, Druid, Human
_______
  1. Sage, Magic-User, Human
  2. Poncenbee, Figher, Human

It was fun to get back to old school D&D again and I enjoyed running something that I've never ran before.  I haven't used experience points to track levels in years, so that's a conscious decision I wanted to make.

I also wanted to keep advantage/disadvantage and inspiration (with modifications) from 5e.  Whenever a spell is cast for the first time, I have the player roll on Dungeon Crawl Classics' mercurial magic table to see how that spell will affect the world whenever it's cast by that particular magic-user.

Here's my favorite line of the session, in regards to interrogation:  "Nothing good in orc is ever said."

Someone picked up a magic sword that not only yielded a +1 bonus to hit and damage foes, but also protected its wielder from harm once per day (up to 5 points of non-magical damage). I intend all magic swords to be sentient with a personality all their own.  I'm rolling now (as I type this) on the tables in The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence... 

(22) Foreign Speaking and (5) A sorcerer named Zar'toro created the sword; he wove spells into its steel, making sure it would be able to face the coming war between Law and Chaos.  Which makes sense, because after the sword was picked up I rolled its alignment as Neutral.  Now, should it speak French, Latin, or something else...

I plan to follow-up with session #2 in June.  I honestly can't wait - wish like Hell I could swing a weekly game, but with a sleep-deprived wife and 5 kids... it just ain't in the cards.

VS


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