Playtest: The World Between for Fictive Hack (2)

Okay, so I ran a one-shot playtest scenario of The World Between for Fictive Hack for my group recently and everyone had a great time with it.  Then my players informed me that it was not, in fact, a one-shot scenario but that there would be another episode--and soon.  Luckily for me the game ended with them in a huge circular crypt dedicated to Father Lothak, god of the sea.  I added in some extra corridors and additional circular crypts, some will-o-the wisp variants, some fish-people who were temporary allies of the druid they'd dealt with last time, and we were off and running.

Our Heroes:
Dan: Dea, a Hunter
Bill: Mereda, an Archer
Kaiser: Kev, a Thief
Mike: Sly, an Assassin [Mike couldn't make this session]
Kirk: Nominie, a Damsel of the Lady

Within a few moments of the dying breath of the druid, the elemental barriers forming the odd maze dedicated to the god Charlak faded away.  As the fire pits dropped to mere embers the room became very, very dark.  The thief quickly lit his bullseye lantern and they surveyed their surroundings carefully.  The lantern offered far too little illumination for the huge cylindrical vault but they noted large bronze crypt portals on the ground floor, smaller stone-sealed individual crypts in rows above, and possibly the opening to a corridor off a balcony on the third level.  Kev, who assured everyone once again that he was an "adventurer, not a thief", suggested looking in the impressive large crypts around the main floor.  They agreed and slowly dragged one of the corroded doors open.

To their horror and hideous amorphous creature (a Babbler, done fish-person style) covered in shining scales, fishy eyes, and gasping mouths poured out of the darkness and moved to engulf them.  The creature's appearance and bizarre babbling cries sent Mereda and Dea fleeing into the darkness.  Kev and Nominie struggled with it briefly before retreating to join their friends.  Kev first tried to put on the druid's magic fire bracers but was unsuccessful.  Kev then attempted to lure it into one of the ember-filled fire trenches but lost his nerve and ran for the entrance as well.  Mereda and Dea headed up the wide corridor leading out but were surprised to not see daylight from the narrow ravine outside.  Reaching the opening they found it blocked with a mass of thick thorn bushes, apparently there due to druidic or fey magic.  The rest of the party joined them and they set to work hacking at it with a pair of small hatchets.  Just as they finished hacking an opening onto the landing beyond the creature emerged from the darkness behind them in pursuit.  In a panic they crossed back over the ravine by hopping across the old stone columns, swinging on vines, and using Kev's rope and grappling hook.  The thing dropped off the ledge behind them and disappeared down into the tangled undergrowth.

They debated doubling back to explore the passage leading off the balcony, but finally decided they'd had enough for one day.  Then Dea noticed the water running past their feet from the long passageway leading back to the seashore.  Looking up it, they saw an ever-increasing flow of water rushing down at them--clearly the tide was coming in!  They then remembered that the outermost portal was set down near the low tide mark on the narrow rocky beach.  They then realized that the entire place might fill up at high tide.  They again debated going back and climbing up to the balcony but decided that the risk of being trapped and drowned was too great.  The incoming water was up to their thighs as they struggled against each wave surging over the threshold at the top.  Using Kev's rope and grappling hook plus much grit and determination they worked their way to the top.

Dea noticed something outside and found to her dismay that a group of about eight fish-people with tridents were bobbing in the surf just outside the portal, babbling in their odd language.  Apparently they planned to enter once the burial complex had enough water in it.  The party tensely debated the merits of making a dash for the path which led up to the cliff top from the shore but didn't think their chances were good.  So, they waded back down the hall and recrossed the ravine.  As they crossed they noted that it was already filling with surging tidal brine, suggesting that there were openings below which connected with the sea at high tide.  The desperate crew splashed back across the main crypt, the floor already a few inches deep in water.  Kev once again employed his grappling hook [DM: easily the most useful item of equipment in the party] to put a rope in place.  Dea went up first to scout but stopped short upon seeing the faces of the two Dark Rose fairies looking down at him.  They'd forgotten about the archdruid's erstwhile allies whom Nominie had persuaded to withdraw.  The two perched on the edge of the balcony on either side of the rope, apparently planning some mischief.

The water was filling the room below and the fairies waited above with unfriendly grins on their faces.  Mereda got her bow ready, but Dea hit upon a brilliant ploy.  She asked if the fairies had enjoyed the cake.  Puzzled, they asked her what cake she was talking about.  Dea explained that they had given the one fairy outside an entire cake to share with them all.  Enraged at being cheated of their fair share, the fairies leaped off the balcony and flew out the entrance.  Relieved, and amused, the party quickly scrambled up the rope.  As they headed into the dark narrow passage ahead they heard the sounds of an altercation erupting between the fairies and the fish-people.

Pushing ahead they were taken aback as a ghostly figure with sword and shield emerged from the gloom ahead.  However, they were relieved to find that it was only a statue marking the architectural transition from the entrance hall into several short hallways lined with small crypts.  Then, suddenly the statue leapt our at them!  No, actually it was a ghostly apparition jumping out from the statue.  It soon faded but they were shaken by the horrific encounter.  As they began to relax Dea noticed a small child, actually a youngling of the fish-people, standing quietly in the corridor to their right [DM: actually a will-o-wisp].  It was pale and ghostly and beckoned to them to follow.  Dea was affected, but the others held her back and helped her break it's enchantment.  They explored several corridors, being frightened several more times by guardian statues and lured by small, ghostly fish younglings.  They began to worry about finding a way out of the darkness before it all filled with seawater.  During their explorations they found two more large cylindrical crypt chambers like the one where they had encountered the archdruid.  Both were filling with surging water from below.

Then they heard more of the strange speech of the fish-folk, coming from the hallway to the balcony they'd used.  They were no closer to finding an exit, the tide was rising to trap them, and the fish-people were filling the only way out.  But then they sighted some daylight.  It was coming from a fourth large cylindrical tiered crypt chamber to the south.  This one, however, had a sort of netting forming a top floor at the level of the door and there was a crude ladder-net leading to an opening where the ceiling had collapsed in.  The daylight was streaming down from outside--freedom!  Inside were several fish-folk, including a shaman repeatedly performing an odd rite around a large clay brazier.

The group hid and let the arriving group of fish-folk enter the room.  They saw that the warriors were carrying the heads of the two fairies.  Apparently the altercation had turned deadly.  The newcomers greeted the small group near the shaman, all of whom stared intently at the clay brazier as the rite continued.  The new group of fishmen departed by the ladder-net.  The party then attempted to sneak by the aquatic savages to the ladder-net but were discovered halfway through.  Battle was joined, and not with the party in advantageous positions.  The fight featured our heroes using arrows and thrown weapons to cut the net floor out from under most of their opponents and drop them into the waters far below.  Kev again tried putting on the druidic bracers in mid-fight to fry some fish, but got them on backwards.  All then scrambled up the net into the woods above the coast.  They rested a bit and decided to return to town.

[DM: thus endeth Episode Two of my one-episode play test of The World Between for Fictive Hack.]

More Dwarf Style Exercise - World Between Settlement Builder

Okay, so since the world didn't end as predicted I thought I'd follow up on my earlier exercise posted recently on building a stonach (dwarf) clan using Andrew's clan builder over at Fictive Hack.  This time I'll apply the companion clan settlement builder to the clan and see how it goes.  Now I set a couple parameters based on the story from the clan builder: only one settlement for the clan and size as Village.

Drakemeister Hall

Size: chosen as Village due to background story

Access: rolled off between Mingled Population and Integrated Community, again due to background story; got Integrated Community: stonach (dwarves) and shokoro (lizard people).

Results of initial rolls for the specific spaces in the settlement and the special attribute rolled for each one:

Crafting Spaces (5)
Armory (Cleverly hidden, secret doors to enter)
Jewelry (Cyclical glowing from runes/Day and night)
Armory (Cleverly hidden, secret doors to enter)
Mine (Ornamentation and carved decoration, themed on the Founder Markkus)
Mechanical Workshop (two significant restaurants)

Defense Spaces (3 spaces)
Outpost Fort (Ornamentation and carved decoration, themed on the Founder Markkus)
Gate Fort (two significant restaurants)
Outpost Fort (Cleverly hidden, secret doors to enter)

Food Spaces (1 space)
Brewery (Still water)

Public Spaces (4 spaces)
Market (Traps installed)
Market (Access to open sky)
Nexus Plaza (Still water)
Great Hall (Incomplete construction)

Residential Spaces (3 spaces)
Mansions (Ornamentation and carved decoration, themed on the Founder Markkus)
Barracks (Incomplete construction)
Garden Housing (Running Water)


Then, since the clan had the Magnificent Home attribute, I got to pick another six spaces.  I chose:
Food Space: Mushroom farm (Incomplete construction)
Food Space: Beetle farm (Cyclical glowing from lichen/Day and night)
Residential Space: Stack housing (Running Water)
Defense Space: Key defense (Cyclical glowing from runes/Day and night)
Public Space: Lore of the Ancients Reflection Hall (Traps installed)

Thus the final spaces are:
Crafting Spaces (5)
Armory (Cleverly hidden, secret doors to enter)
Armory (Cleverly hidden, secret doors to enter)
Jewelry (Cyclical glowing from runes/Day and night)
Mine (Ornamentation and carved decoration, themed on the Founder Markkus)
Mechanical Workshop (two significant restaurants)

Defense Spaces (4 spaces)
Outpost Fort (Ornamentation and carved decoration, themed on the Founder Markkus)
Gate Fort (two significant restaurants)
Outpost Fort (Cleverly hidden, secret doors to enter)
Defense Space: Key defense (Cyclical glowing from runes/Day and night)

Food Spaces (3 spaces)
Brewery (Still water)
Food Space: Mushroom farm (Incomplete construction)
Food Space: Beetle farm (Cyclical glowing from lichen/Day and night)

Public Spaces (5 spaces)
Market (Traps installed)
Market (Access to open sky)
Nexus Plaza (Still water)
Great Hall (Incomplete construction)
Public Space: Lore of the Ancients Reflection Hall (Traps installed) 

Residential Spaces (4 spaces)
Mansions (Ornamentation and carved decoration, themed on the Founder Markkus)
Barracks (Incomplete construction)
Garden Housing (Running Water)
Residential Space: Stack housing (Running Water)

With the final number of spaces determined, the population can be calculated.  For a Village sized settlement the population is [# spaces x 50], or 21 x 50 = 1,050.

The next step would be to draw up a map of Drakemeister Hall which includes all these spaces and elaborates on the special attributes ("ornamentation and carved decoration").

7 RPGs, My 2 Cents

Okay, so I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.  Mine was nice and I got snow today!  Currently there is a theme bouncing around various sits about posting seven RPGs you've played and seven you've run.  So, here are mine, listed roughly in chronological order:

Seven RPGs Played

1. Chivalry & Sorcery: introduced to the entire concept of RPGs with this game in boarding school in 1977-1978 by a fascinating fellow called Gib; for a hard-core historical wargamer only interested in "serious" games, this was like some psychedelic, mind-altering drug--and I was hooked immediately and forever.
2. AD&D (1E): in college I finally found some gamers; I ran a C&S game and played in George's AD&D game with the monk Cressa (still one of my favorite characters of all time); bought a lot of the AD&D books to expand my knowledge of RPGs but found it awkward and clunky.
3. AD&D (2E): played in an interesting high-level campaign for a while with my buddy Rob in England; played a monk again, but didn't like the 2E rules; didn't buy any of the books
4. D&D 3E: joined a campaign a couple years ago run by my buddy Steve; a high-level game so I jumped in with a 14th level cleric; between this game and Rob's I've decided that I don't want to jump into high-level games anymore; the 3.5 rules are good, but very rules heavy--playing a spell caster is a pain, what with choosing spells all the darn time.
5. Castles & Crusades: an on again/off again campaign by my buddy Kaiser; we're not sure what's going on but we're constantly running into some sort of situation; C&C is simpler than 3E/Pathfinder but not simple enough for a really clean break from them
6. Mutants & Masterminds: my buddy Dan started a game for us; cool campaign concept of all "mutants" being sent to a new quarantine city, and then of course the real trouble starts; lots of interesting plot lines going on; M&M very complicated, too much math; also, seems like I'm the only one in our group who doesn't actually like the superhero genre.
7. Old School Hack: my buddy Mike has run a couple games for us now and it's proving again to be a really innovative set of rules.

Seven RPGs Run

1. Chivalry & Sorcery: when my first DM transferred to another school I was the only one with the rules and desire to DM; I quickly whipped up a simple campaign world and started a game based on the party coming into possession of a large crystal which was to be part of the villain's magical superweapon.
2.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (in a homebrew setting): I came across this game and was intrigued by ideas for mutant animals as player races, but didn't care for the rest of it; I tossed together a near-future setting in Neo Tokyo and ran my group into a maze of X-Files wierdness with cultists, aliens, mobsters, and a secret army of mecha.
3. Paranoia: I picked this up with some trepidation, never having seen a good humorous game before, but immediately saw the potential; I've run several one-shot or short-run games for various groups; I love this game; still have the original boxed version.
4. Big Eyes, Small Mouth d20: I was looking for a new set of rules, just having been burned buying the D&D 3.0 books about three weeks before 3.5 came out (which I refused to buy); very cool mix of D&D 3E and point-buy based Big Eyes, Small Mouth; made up a set of classes based on the "jobs" in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance which I was playing at the time and repopulated my old C&S game map with Final Fantasy elements.
5. Big Eyes, Small Mouth 3E: I pre-ordered this based on my experiences with BESM d20 and reviews of earlier editions, and the publisher went bankrupt; luckily it got published; again made up a set of classes based on the "jobs" in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and re-launched my campaign; very simple rules, but suffers from lack of source books to save DMs time designing everything (at least for fantasy campaigns).
6. Pathfinder: Looking for something d20 with the support of D&D (but still bitter about my 3.0 experience) I finally bought Paizo's offering; love this game and using it for my current game in the Shackled City adventure path, but it's very rules heavy.
7. Old School Hack: randomly came across this game while looking for gaming stuff and was immediately impressed; an entire game, including game aids, in 28 pages; it's the feel of old school D&D but with "modern technology" from D&D 4E and the talented author; have turned my new group onto it and will be running short (3-4 hour) scenarios with it.

Playtest: The World Between for Fictive Hack

Okay, so last Wednesday I ran a session with the new and exciting "The World Between for Fictive Hack".  I came up with a short scenario loosely connected (same starting town) as my earlier Old School Hack scenarios.  The story was called "Archdruid of Charlak" and I designed it to run in one 3-4 hour evening session.  The players perused the book and chose to play:

Dan: Dea, a Hunter
Bill: Mereda, an Archer
Kaiser: Kev, a Thief
Mike: Sly, an Assassin
Kirk: Nominie, a Damsel of the Lady

Some designed their characters before arriving, some after arriving at the table.  After Kirk chose to play a Damsel of the Lady, some of the other players were surprised.  They had jumped in and chosen from the main list of templates near the front of the book, not noticing the magic/divine class templates which were mixed into later sections of the book.

The Session

The high priestess at the Church of the White Lady in their town had a dream about a fox of shadows who lived in a maze and was a druid.  There was a warning that this would spell doom for the town.  There wasn't much to go on, but the priestess charged Nominie with seeking out this druid and dealing with him.  Some likely types were recruited from the town to accompany her and off they went.  The Dea the Hunter was soon following the tracks of an unusually large fox southwest along the coast.  Two days later the tracks changed to those of probably a human male.  Searching about along the top of the sea cliff nearby they found ancient stone steps leading down into a large indentation in the cliffs.  At the bottom was a large carved open portal, clearly originally part of a temple dedicated to Father Sothak. God of the Briny Depths.

Peering in they saw a long sloping corridor carved into the rock, leading back inland away from the sea.  At the far end they could see daylight in the shape of another portal opening.  The party advanced cautiously in the shadowy darkness, taking time to look at the sea-themed carvings, odd empty niches, and dim recesses of the corridor.  Suddenly, one of the group stepped on a floor tile which shifted peculiarly.  With a crash and a rumble, a set of huge (3') stone balls dropped out of a compartment in the ceiling near the entrance and began rolling down the corridor.  The party members scrambled, two racing ahead to get to the far end, three others scrambling for places along the wall.  Luckily they survived and regrouped at the far portal.

At the end of the corridor they came out on a stone platform in a deep, narrow ravine.  Far above, through trees and hanging vines, was a long jagged slice of sky visible at the top of the ravine.  Many other trees clung to the rocky sides and vines drooped everywhere.  On the far side, across from the platform, was another tall portal with a similar platform.  A row of three tall stone pillars, apparently formerly supports for a wooden bridge, stood in a line between the two platforms.

As the party stood considering the best way across, one of them spotted (Awareness check) a fey fairy hiding in a tree above.  The fairy was the size of a small girl, in a tattered dress of black and grey which matched the black and grey of her fairy moth wings.

Dark Rose Fairy
AC8
2W
Dagger
Thorn Whip (Reach weapon)
some Thistlevine Seeds
Talents:
- Fly
- Weakness Pollen ("Fairy Dust") Commitment check vs. 10 or go limp for 1d6 rounds

 Unbeknownst to the party, the fairy was set there as a lookout by the archdruid.  Like most fey, she quickly became bored with doing a job and looked on the party as a chance to relieve the boredom.  Damsel Nomine was easily able to (non-magically) charm the fairy who informed them that the druid was nearby, but then refused to answer any further questions unless they had some pie for her.  The party was perplexed.  The temple had provided them with some traveling rations and the Hunter had butchered a couple of sea birds earlier but that was all they had.  (I then suggested they make Awareness checks to thoroughly search their backpacks.)  A search of their packs for anything useful did indeed turn up a slice of apple pie included by one of the kindly little old kitchen ladies at the temple as a treat for the poor dears.  The fairy took the pie back to her tree branch and directed them to the portal across the way.  The fairy sat and slowly enjoyed her tasty pie, totally not caring about warning the smelly old druid.  (Note to evil leader types: don't rely on fey to have a work ethic.)

To get across the ravine some of the party chose to hopscotch across the stone pillars (Brawn checks), other to make use of the many hanging vines (Daring checks).  All made it without incident and they found themselves once again looking down a long sloping corridor carved with aquatic themes.  This corridor was only about half as long and soon opened into a huge cylindrical room lit with huge flames rising from the wide circular floor.  They could see that the walls were lined with row upon row of niches, clearly for holding the remains of the departed.  Some were still sealed, others gaping open.  Despite the bright flames they could not see a ceiling in the shadows above.

Then they turned their attention to the source of the flames.  There appeared to be a set of large concentric channels about six feet wide carved into the floor.  The outermost one was filled with water, the next with leaping flames, the next possibly with a hedge growing out of it, and in the center a tall, bell-shaped structure shining like polished silver.  Additional observation revealed that the channels formed a maze.  Lacking any alternative the party proceeded into the simple maze, water on one side and crackling flames on the other.  After a few moments there was movement in the water, which two members of the party totally didn't notice (Awareness checks), and something nasty surged up from below.

A mass of tentacles with hideous bulging eyes assaulted them.  One party member was slapped hard (though not over into the flames, alas) and another constricted for a while before escaping.  The creature was a bit of a shock, but the party dispatched it and moved on.

Tentacle Terror
Body: AC10, 3 wounds
Tentacles: AC8, 1 would (reach weapon)
Talents:
- Pull (focus action); Brawn vs. 10 to avoid, Cunning vs. 10 to escape
- Squeeze (focus action); Brawn or Commitment vs. d10+2 or take 1 would
- Slap (constant);Daring vs. 10+2 or knocked 2d10 feet (Brawn vs. 10 or stunned)

The party wended their way past the flames and around some tall thorny magical hedges to a section where the hedges became stone walls.  Suddenly two fairies similar to the one outside flew down and covered them with their fairy dust (alas, everyone made their checks) and a weird masked figure jumped out and cast a spell.  The party attacked the mystery figure with arrows and thrown daggers causing injuries.  Damsel Nominie appealed to the fairies to depart and they did so, so charming was her personality and lovely red hair.  The spell of the druid (for that is who the mystery figure was) caused small woody creatures to leap from the hedges to attack as he threw a Thistlevine seed to make the party's surroundings "interesting".  The Damsel casually dismissed the druid's spell and the hedge creatures fell back into lifeless piles of thorny branches.  The rest of the party extricated themselves from the thistlevines and raced around the corner to confront the druid, still hoping they might take him alive.  However, the Archdruid of Charlak (for so he styled himself) had a nasty surprise waiting for them: he called out to his god and crashed his Elemental Bracers of Combustion together, causing a blast of flame to assail the heroes (who took 2 wounds).  The party engaged him in close combat and finally brought him down.  Investigating the large silver bell-shaped structure at the center of the maze, they found it to contain only a shrine to Charlak, God of Mazes.

[Thus ended the session for the evening]

So, overall everyone had a great time with the game.  I think the only real hiccups were that most of the players didn't notice the arcane/divine class templates embedded in sections back in the book and a big discussion about the wording for the Revivification talent for the Damsel for which we had a couple interpretations.

A Little Exercise, Dwarf Style

Okay, so I'm always complaining that I don't get enough exercise.  So I decided I'd do an exercise and use the new Stonach (Dwarf) Clan Builder for Old School Hack to make up a clan.  First, my roll results:

1. “Age and Pedigree.”
First Generation, hopeful Founders, clanless community struggling with its shame. (-2)

2. “Sacred Purpose.”
Where once all below the earth bowed to the Deep Goblins, they will revere your clan instead.

3.  “Why is your Founder Famous?”
Came to an area infested with a threat, and beat it down, establishing a guard against its return.

4. “Pride” and “Shame”.
Victorious warrior tradition (+3)
Magnificent home (+3)
Lost their detailed founding records (-3)
Mercenary culture (-3)

5. “Empowered Calling.”
 Runics. Runesmiths, mystics, scholars.

7.  “Traditional Allies” and “Traditional Enemies”
Traditional Allies: Shokoro (+1)
Traditional Enemies: Elves (-1)

8. "Wealth" Hard times. Starve, sell services, or beg. (-3)

9. "Safety" Established. Able to hold territory, respected. (+0)

10. Final background score: -5
Background disadvantage buyoff:
Hungry Beast - A big predator has settled nearby, and any time your clan steps out you are hunted by the beast and those that wish to please it. It loves the taste of you. (3)

Discrimination - The locals have marginalized your people, changing the laws so they can charge more money for less services. Everyone seems to be in on it. (2)

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Some years ago a group of stonach outcasts came to this rugged valley, led by Markkus the Black.  Markkus led his small band of followers and their families here after being driven out after losing out in a major power struggle in their old clan--the the name of which they are forbidden to speak again.  The valley was the lair of the dragon lord Stonespite and his shokoro slaves.  Markkus refused to be daunted by the presence of the evil drake and he advanced towards its lair with a band of his finest.  They encountered a lone shokoro and took it captive.  The creature implored them to free its people from the domination of the dragon.  Reinforcing his warband with some shokoro he laid the beast low and became master of the valley.  Markkus named his newly established clan Drakemeister in honor of the event.  They set about renovating the dragon's lair, originally an ancient elven temple, into a masterpiece of dwarven engineering.  The primitive shokoro helped where they could, particularly in sharing ancient lore which enhanced traditional dwarf runelore and other mystical lore.

Eventually word of the fall of the dragon reached the pointy ears of the elves of the woods beyond the valley.  The elves sent a delegation to the clan and demanded they stop "defacing" their ancient temple and return it to proper elven care.   Markkus was outraged and had them stripped, bound, and whipped all the way back out of his valley.  The elves returned in force and assaulted the bearded and scaled squatters defiling their precious holy temple.  The elves were driven back by the allies but the war has simmered on for years now.  The dwarves and their shokoro allies are too well fortified to be dislodged by the elves and their patrols hold the other denizens of the nearby mountains at bay as well.

However, the elves then convinced the local human potentate that the dwarves had struck it rich in mines below the former temple and should be paying him proper tribute.  He built a fort to command the ford on the only road out of the valley and began levying a toll on all traffic in and out.  The dwarves did not actually have any mines at all.  In fact their only source of income was exports of artisan goods.  The toll bit deep and the clan was forced contract out mercenary warbands of stonach and shokoro to make ends meet.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, the dragon's sister recently returned to visit her brother and was greatly grieved to find his skull on display over the front gate of Clan Drakemeister.  Although not as large and fierce as her elder brother, Cloudspite is extremely cunning.  Her constant ambushes of anyone attempting to enter or leave have the clan trapped and desperate.

Old School Hack: first session

    Okay, so I'm currently running a campaign (based on Paizo's Shackled City adventure path) and playing in another (homebrew by my buddy Steve).  The set of people involved almost totally overlaps, eight in one game and nine in the other.  The problem is that aligning the schedules of 8-9 adults with full lives is like getting the planets to align.  So, unfortunately, each game only runs every 2-4 months.  That is just not enough gaming!  So, my buddy Kaiser has started a bi-weekly Wednesday game with a couple of us us from the main group (hi, Kirk and Bill!), another gamer from the area (hi Mike!), and another gamer totally new to tabletop style RPGs (hello Keeton!).  We resolved that this group will not be another attempt at a full-scale campaign.  Rather we will aim for convention style scenarios, playtests of various games and rule sets, and other one-off events.  If some of the short scenarios feature the same characters and loosely relate then that's fine, so long as it's understood that we're not attempting a full-blown campaign.

     Our first session was a game of Old School Hack (OSH) which I ran for Kaiser, Mike, Keeton, and Bill.  When I first came across OSH I was immediately taken by the simple, fun design and the creative manner in which it blended elements from early D&D and 4th Edition.  So, I was quite keen to try it out in actual play.  However, I decided that for these "off-night" games I would deliberately avoid doing any deep prep.  I had recently discovered the excellent blog Dyson's Dodecahedron (http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/) and it's many excellent maps drawn in an engaging style.  I grabbed the "Oathbreaker's Hall" (http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/friday-map-oathbreakers-hall/) map to use as a dungeon.  For the larger world setting I grabbed the excellent "Map of Nevermore" by SozokuReed posted at www.deviantart.com.  For the starting castle-town I grabbed the flavorful "dungeons_and_dragons_map" by firstedition, also from DeviantArt.com.  I grabbed some monsters from the game, made up an orc shaman, and invented several mind-bending traps.  In town, the local priest character provided the PCs with the plot hook to travel to the dungeon and also a lore-poem (which contained clues to the four main traps).

     The game went very well, with all the players fully getting into the spirit of OSH and the don't-take-it-seriously attitude of a one-off game.  The newbie, Keeton, easily got right into the full spirit of roleplay at the table.  One thing which was a major takeaway for me was that I was suddenly able to grokk what people have been saying about the roll-playing of skill vs. old school style role-playing skills.  OSH dispenses with skill rules.  Instead you use attribute rolls (six attributes, but very different than those of D&D) supplemented by the player's noggin.  It really brought out more creativity in approaching various challenges than the D&D 3E/4E style skills usually do.  Thus I was not only entertained, but enlightened as well.