Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols

I'm happy to announce issue #5 of the old school fantasy roleplaying zine Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols is available and includes an encounter by yours truly.  WMLP is a cool little homemade, DIY, punk rock kind of gaming aid for all those D&Desque GMs looking for something kind of weird.

In this particular issue, Alex Fotinakes continues his vast dungeon with "Part 5a: The Emerald Halls".  Each issue goes deeper and deeper beneath the ruins of Kihago.  Such a cool idea - a bi-monthly or quarterly dungeon that just keeps going.  I ran the first three parts for my group after they finished with LotDS, and everyone loved it.  "Beneath the Ruins" definitely kept the weird going!

Anyways, my piece was inspired by the cover of issue #3 (pictured at right).  It was so bizarre and silly that I immediately started to sketch an idea down on paper.  Get #3, #5, and all of them here!

Enjoy,


VS

Beneath the Ruins

This past Saturday was the second night of Beneath the Ruins, an old school minimalist pamphlet by Alex Fotinakes and published by Geoffrey McKinney's Psychedelic Fantasies series (although, an expanded version of Beneath the Ruins is spread out through issues of Alex's Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols zine.

While I preferred the second Psychedelic Fantasies adventure, Within the Radiant Dome, to this one, I still think Beneath the Ruins was a good, solid, OSR mini-module for the kind of Dungeon Master who loves taking the existing bones and building his own skeletal creature - the meat is added whilst playing.  At least, that's how I took it.

Beneath the Ruins has a few cool concepts, but each are explained in a sentence or three.  Any kind of detailed elaboration falls upon the DM.  I'm sure this can either be an exciting thrill-ride or treacherous nightmare, depending on the guy running the game.  For myself, I enjoy the challenge.  And not only that, I enjoy tinkering, adjusting, and adding a whole other dimension (sometimes literally) to the adventure.

Such was the case last session.  An old friend visit the PCs again to ask a favor in return for a uber-powerful magical weapon.  Unfortunately, only one player at the table that night had previously encountered said "old friend".  No matter, since he was the one whose help was required.

For months, I had wanted to set up a kind of wizard's duel.  Now was the time, this was the session!  I didn't have a lot of time to coordinate the logistics of how such a match would be resolved, so I winged it with what seemed appropriate.  The duel was to be a simple as it was deadly.  Both wizards were of equal power, so they made a straight d20 roll to see who came out on top (this round).  The villain won.  Harold's Elf had to make a saving throw vs. death magic.  He did.  Round two saw Terrinel (I never know how to spell his Elf's name) the victor.  Now, it was the antagonist's turn to save vs. death magic.  He failed; the villain turned to ash.  That's old school.

Looking back, I wish I would have illustrated the duel between sorcerers with some vividly purple prose.  But I didn't.  Oh well.  Next time.

Moving on, one of the great battles of that night was against a tentacled beast living beneath a cavern pool with night lotuses floating on top.  A tentacle had to be severed or else it would get an automatic hit the next round.  Then, when all tentacles had been chopped to bits, the creature bit a PC to unconsciousness.  I did, however, go into detail regarding how much could be seen beneath the pond's surface - the water now filled with slime and blood.  It was a cool fight.

After the beast was defeated, Terrinel and the others assumed there was some kind of treasure down at the bottom of the pool.  They waded in, searching for anything discoverable.  I made my usual 33% roll to see if a small magic item - like a ring - was down there.  I rolled too high, meaning that there was nothing.  However, I decided to exercise my DM prerogative and go against my own ruling... mitigated by the fact that the magic ring found was cursed!  Scanning the 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide, I happened upon a ring of weakness (or something like that).  That description became the core of their newly acquired cursed ring.

Even though Beneath the Ruins lacks those kinds of surprises, it has some great bones.  I recommend both that and Within the Radiant Dome even though there's no art and no real depth - being only the size of a pamphlet.

How much module do you like to start a session with?  How much do you alter before the game and during?  How spontaneous are you as a DM?  Does that ever get you in trouble?  Of course, some elements depend on PC actions... but can the entire adventure turn on a dime?  Should it?


VS

Make their lives Hell

For starters, let me just say that I still can't get last night's Game of Thrones end scene out of my head.  It pervaded my dreams.  Not sure what made it so disturbing.  After all, I've seen most of Quentin Tarantino's films.  And yet, I have to admit I lost sleep over it - and the sleep I didn't lose kind of freaked me out a little bit.  I don't want to spoil anything, so that's the end of that, but God damn!  Ok, now I'm done.

Last Saturday, I cautioned the players that before reaching 5th level, they would each have to pay 4,000 in gold, services, trade, etc.  As expected, protests were voiced.  "What about all the monster killing we do in the dungeons?"  And, "How come we've never had to pay a mentor for training before?"  To the former, I answered, "Even several minutes a day embroiled in combat doesn't allow one to learn new martial disciplines."  And to the latter, I said, "Because at 5th level your characters are reaching a new tier or power and capabilities.  You've plateaued.  Now, it's time for your characters to break that plateau by paying for expert training.  (I'm probably writing it better than I explained it, actually.)

Well, even though they still had a little ways to go before reaching 5th level, they didn't have the gold.  I patiently, silently waited for their bellyaching to end before explaining the treasure-laded hook for that evening's adventure.  Finally, things settled down and the business of exploring began.

This Saturday (just a few days ago), we had a new guy play.  Before going on my vacation I was asked and agreed to teach an Intro to Roleplaying workshop for the local Geek Meetup group.  Long story short, it went well.  I got a chance to further playtest Liberation of the Demon Slayer, and even got a new player out of the two night workshop.

Being a noob, the new guy (who played a warrior) didn't have any preconceived nonsense or bullshit sense of entitlement.  Sadly, towards the session's conclusion, his character was dismembered by a spell.  An arm and both legs magically cut off and sent flying across the room.  Still alive, he clutched his sword +1 of regeneration.

After the battle, the limbs were gathered up, and thoughts turned towards healing.  Unfortunately, the cleric didn't have the spiritual juice to restore the warrior.  The Elf tried to use a mend spell, but ended up critically failing and causing his own leg to be severed.  Appealing to his deity, the lawful cleric asked for guidance.  "You must sacrifice your hand."  P'tah, the pseudo-Egyptian God of Order replied.

Well, the cleric, Orron, didn't like that answer.  In the meantime, the party's Elf, Tirrynel asked the Dungeon Crawl Classics version of T'sathoggua for help.  T'sathoggua spoke to the Elf, telling him to sacrifice the cleric to him.  Being chaotic (and without both his legs), Tirrynel, decided the Toad God was making sense.  He whispered a quick plan of attack, "Sacrifice the cleric."  to his Dwarf character (everyone but the new guy was running two characters), and some inter-party aggression began.

For whatever reason, I couldn't suppress my laughter.  This is the first time in however many sessions (20 or so?) that PCs came to blows.  It all seemed inevitable while, at the same time, being eminently avoidable.  Regardless of whether it was warranted, laugh I did.  Infectious laughter, and Tirrynel's player joined in - or perhaps I had joined in with his infectious laughter.

Orron was driven out, running rather than fighting or doing anything to stop the presumed ass-kicking-to-come.  He still did not accept that giving up his hand in exchange for re-attaching 4 limbs (3 for the warrior and 1 for the Elf) was a fair trade.  Nearly getting impregnated by a burrowing worm's pre-fertilized eggs, the cleric managed to find his way out of the dungeon.

That's all we had time for.  Normally, we stop between 11:30pm - midnight.  That session didn't end until 12:30am because of the heightened dramatic tension which we all wanted resolved.  Plus, this was new territory - we were curious to see what would happen next.

As of now, I don't know the cleric's future.  I haven't received anything from the player, and just sent a text asking him about what he wants to do.  The cleric might decide to go off on his own, come crawling back to the party, or seek revenge.  Time will tell.

Incidentally, this was the first or possibly second time the adventurers came up against an enemy with anti-magic.  That, a dismembering wizard, and a few 2 HD humans running around with laser pistols really gave the party a run for its money.  I'll talk about the old school module "Beneath the Ruins" I ran after next Saturday; not sure if it will conclude by then, but we'll be real close if not finished.

So, what do you think?  After he tries and fails, should a cleric be expected to sacrifice a valuable magic item, body part, or considerable amount of gold in order to work miracles?  How about the magic-user?  How do you handle in-party fighting?  What would you plan for next time regarding the current situation - anything specific... would you wait to hear from the cleric's player?  What about stepping in to arbitrate or negotiate things even though no one has asked you to?

The title of this blog post is, "Make their lives Hell" for a reason.  I feel it's the Dungeon Master's job to provide challenges - that means coming up with and unleashing tricky situations, formidable opponents, and mysterious encounters upon the PCs every week.  Some of which has unexpected consequences.  Things occasionally get crazy.  That's part of the old school renaissance, the non-standardization of gaming which allows, in one game, individuals doused in giant pink psionic snail slime to repel magical fire; while, in another game, giant pink psionic snails don't exist!

Also, I should note, that it's not all hellish.  DMs have two faces (or is it three?), the one doling out awesome loot and making the adventurers look all heroic by narrating the bloody defeat of their long-suffering enemies.

Comments welcome!

VS