RPG, a nights play, in The Midderlands Setting

Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to a Midderlands one off game, run by none other than Mr MonkeyBloodDesign, Glynn Seal.

For anyone who isn't aware, MonkeyBloodDesign ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring the world of The Midderlands to the world. The books are in from the printers, and once the custom pledges (special one off covers) are all sorted, they will be shipped. The Midderlands is compatible with the Swords and Wizardry rules, which makes it an easy convert to a huge array of OSR systems. Or you can just take the setting and ideas and maps and use those. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to write a brief introductory adventure that is included in the book, a disclaimer I should make sure is nice and early in this post!

If you read this, and would like more information, please contact MonkeyBloodDesign directly, just google for them, or search on g+ you will find them! My understanding is that once the Kickstarter backers have the book in their hands that there will be copies available to purchase (they come with an awesome map), but you would need to contact MonkeyBloodDesign for more information.

However this isn't a review, I will leave that to others. This is all about our game last night. So without further waffling; at the table we had:

GM: MonkeyBloodDesign - Glynn Seal
Horatio: A Human Magic User played by Lee
Jerry: A human thief played by Pete
Chopper: A human cleric played by Phil
Quinn: A dwarven fighter played by Scott
Kesh: A human ranger played by Dunc
Monkey: A human monk played by me

Before we started there were a few items we needed to cover. The GM gave us an overview of The Midderlands environment. Our cleric selected the God Mephistophael (P.19 in the book) for his deity (lets just say he isn't like on the "nice" side of things). It should be noted that the Gods in the Midderlands are apathetic towards the populace, so don't go expecting large deity interventions. We were all started as level 3 characters which had been pre-rolled. Finally for this adventure were were using the Swords and Wizardry complete rules.

As the sun set, the murky green day, darkened into a murkier greener evening. The party found themselves drinking in The Juicy Carp Inn, in the town of Tamewort. The party settled in to drink as much beer as they could, figuring this was as good a job as any other. Horatio made a bet with Jerry to see if he could steal beer from the bar. Jerry accepted and headed purposefully towards the bar. Kesh went to use the outside shitter and bumped into Donald Fairbairn who exclaimed, "Yowl not b'lieve tis, I foond a Centidemonpede in the shitter". Kesh agreed to meet him inside the inn for a game of Centidemonpede Racing .. a game that is as likely to get you dead as rich.

As Jerry returned to the Inn, bowels evacuated, a skull masked Gloombugger walked past the window. Gloombugs are used in lanterns in the Midderlands to light specific streets during the night. The party decided, after more beers were quaffed, that seeing how many gloombugs it would take (eaten) to make your piss luminescent, may be the way to pass the evening.

At this point Jerry reached the bar, ordered 6 beers, and as Boris the Barkeep's back was turned, put one under his cloak. Horatio yelled, "Yow theivin b'stard, ee swiped a beer" pointing at Jerry. Before Boris could really complain the door opened, allowing a little Midderfog to roll into the inn, followed by a rotund man with a tricorn hat and tarnished bell. His girth stretched his green coat to bursting, patches of shirt visible between the buttons.

Our arrival introduced himself to the inn at large as John Hitchcock, an employee of Lord Ebben, who wished to hire  mercenaries to sort some trouble in the nearby countryside. Speaking to John revealed that cows and people had disappeared, and that a pack of dogs had been seen in the vicinity. Obviously the more worrying was the cows as they are worth a lot more when bartering! The barkeep asked John to make the party take the job just to make sure they wouldn't spend the following day in his establishment. John squeezed one fat hand inside his jacket … not something the party needed to see … and retrieved documents that could be turned in, with proof, to claim the bounty on the work. The job itself was worth 25 gold quids, 2 sheep, and a barrow of turnips. As everyone knows turnips don't grow on trees, so the party accepted.

The following day we departed the town, and following the directions provided by John, made our way slightly North East of the town (to Hex 3111 if you have the map/book). The day was green, damp, dark, and drizzly. Or was Midderlanders would probably describe it "Nowt tay bad".
Eventually after plodding through the damp morning we discovered a cave opening in the side of a mound. Although the entrance looked natural in origin, it had the look of being enlarged by some animal or other.

Game in progress ... just look at that map!

Being a bunch of suspicious buggers, we held back eyeing the cave entrance nervously. Eventually Kesh, who really wanted to tame "the dogs", approached the cave entrance with a rope lasso in hand. As they got closer the ranger could discern animal foot prints in the mud in the cave entrance. Given the size of the prints they drew their sword. Quinn, seeing Kesh draw their sword barrelled forward making a lot of huffing, puffing, jingling, and thudding noises. Kesh turned to make him be quiet, and they spent the next few minutes arguing over why Kesh had drawn their sword when there was no fight to be had!

Further inspection allowed Kesh to identify several sets of what looked like human heavily clad boot marks in the mud. The party decided this was either a sign that someone was in "cahoots" with the dogs, or another adventuring group had gone in, and not returned. There were also a variety of bones littered around; most of the bones were larger than human size so could well have come from cows, however they were all very definitely gnawed.

Only Quinn could really see in the cave, so he headed in first, followed by the rest of us, who as humans were a little poor with bad lighting. Jerry fortunately had a lamp, and after agreeing with the GM, angled it downwards providing light for the humans to see by, but not ruining Quinns dark vision.

Slowly edging into the cave system, Quinn quickly came to a junction, the tunnel branching off to the right, and continuing roughly straight on. Deciding to forge on into the depths of the system, Quinn headed straight on. We hadn't gone much further when a second branch presented itself. After a quick discussion we decided that heading back, and avoiding anyone coming up from behind, was the best course of action.

As we approached the original tunnel, that forked off, a ratdog (P.134 in the book; barrel chested, with horns where ears should be) charged out of the shadows directly at Kesh narrowly missing them with a headbutt. Spinning around the ratdog snapped at Chopper, just missing his leg, but tearing a huge gash in his trousers. Looking in indignation at the gash, Chopper swung round his mace and crushed the ratdogs head against the tunnel floor with one massive blow.

We debated how to prove they had killed the beast when back at town, and decided that taking back paws would suffice, so removed the deceased ratdog's paw.

Moving forwards carefully, the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. To the left was some form of bed the ratdog had made from scavenged bits of clothing, hair, and skin. At the back of the room was a large hole. Peering in we could just make out a faint dirty green luminescent glow, somewhere in its depths. Lowering the lantern on a rope still didn't let us see the bottom … that is a very very deep hole!

After finding nothing else of note in the room, we returned to the original corridor and the second junction. Taking the left fork, the tunnel opened up into a second large cavern, with three ratdogs staring straight at us.

Springing to the attack I let fly with two arrows, both spectacularly missing their intended targets. However Horatio wiggled his fingers and all three ratdogs fell to the ground asleep. The party quickly dispatched them, taking a paw off each as evidence. While heartlessly hacking off paws from the beasts three more ratdogs surprised us from behind. Seeming to come from no-where two ratdogs headbutted Jerry and me leaving us both prone on the floor. A third ratdog tried to bite Horatio, but missed flesh, as his billowy robes robbed it of a good solid bit of leg.

The ratdog standing over me bit my leg, infecting it with a nasty disease. Quinn managed to distract the ratdog attacking Jerry and dodged its snapping jaws as it tried to bite him. Horatio was not as lucky, as the ratdog, getting wise to his billowy robes, found a good bit of thigh and bit in, also leaving Horatio with a nasty disease ridden wound.

While his ratdog was distracted with Quinn, Jerry managed to land a good blow on its flank, before Quinn finished it off with a solid strike, leaving several parts of the animal no longer attached.

I struck a ratdog on a nerve bundle and rendered it stunned for 9 rounds, allowing Kesh to move in and finish it off with a deft thrust of their sword.

Chopper swung at the last ratdog, which despite trying to dodge at the last minute, was caught a glancing blow on its shoulder. Spun around from the glancing blow the ratdog leapt forwards biting my throat and leaving me twitching on the floor. While distracted with my jugular Jerry leapt forward and skewered the ratdog on his sword.

Taking in the bloody scene Chopper quickly stabilised me, and muttering words to his god, healed me back to 6HP.

While searching the room we found:
Onions (good for Rat Dog Broth)
9 Brass Tuppences
A hand sized Old Hob Idol carved on bone (Summarily crushed by Chopper)
2 Potions, after a quick sniff, and taste, Chopper declared them Potions of Health (Extra Healing 3d8+3 HP)
Scroll of mirror image
98 gold quids.

We discussed whether we should just cut our losses and run at this point, having found a small fortune in onions! However the adventuring spirit won out, and we returned to the unexplored corridor, which opened up into a cavern with 3 normal rat dogs and a double sized Alpha.

The ratdogs charged the intruders, however in their eagerness to rip them to shreds, the alpha slipped on faeces and bones temporarily losing its footing, however recovering it swiped one large paw, leaving great gashes along Quinns arm.

Up close we could see the Alphas horns were longer than normal and slightly twisted, they also seemed to be twitching and giving off a faint green glow.

Jerry darted in with his thief quick reflexes and skewered a ratdog killing it outright as his sword appeared out the other side of its ribs. Kesh followed up with smashing another ratdog killing it outright, and Quinn, outraged at the Alpha raking him with claws, hit him back, leaving a great cut against the alphas flank. I dove in and totally missed.

Unnoticed by the dogs Horatio stood at the back of the cavern, beads of sweat on his face as he concentrated, his lips moving silently as he repeated an incantation. Successfully casting Phantasmal Force, Horatio created a ratdog bigger and meaner looking than the Alpha. Diving forwards the remaining ratdog sank its teeth into me rendering me unconscious on the floor. As I kindly held the ratdog in place with my throat, Chopper swung his mace in a great arc and smashed the ratdog off my unconscious form, killing it. The Alpha now besieged on all sides, and quite nervous of the Phantom ratdog didn't notice Jerry sneaking around behind it, allowing him a successful backstab. The Phantom dog finally diving in and finishing off the alpha.

Muttering prayers to his God, Chopper healed me (again).

A search of the room revealed:
Armoured boot prints leading into a tunnel leading off from the back of the cavern.
93 gold quids.
A small green glowing stone containing a small gloombug, just visible inside the hard green gem.

We had to call it there due to already being close to midnight.

The game was fantastic fun. We spent a good hour in the inn at the start making general Midderlands comments and really enjoying the scene.

I look forward to more Midderlands adventures in the near future! If you don't have it winging its way to you soon I really would recommend buying a copy of the book, you even get a fantastic map which shows the Midderlands in all its glory.

Basic Fantasy RPG - Part V

You may have noticed a slight stall in the continuing story of my adventurers first foray into Basic Fantasy RPG. Real life unfortunately intervened, but in true gamer fashion we rescheduled and got going again!

At the end of the last session, the players were battered beaten and bruised. You may remember our thief is minus an eye, and generally the party are feeling sorry for themselves. However they have successfully cleared out the first level of the dungeon and collected some suitable loot.

With some feedback from the players they were finding it difficult in some instances to get to grips with hitting things (although a large number of sub 5 rolls on a d20 were not helping). Now this is where Basic Fantasy comes into its own for me (I recognise other systems will have similar offerings however I'm just covering BFRPG here). The core rule book has various options for helping the players. There are also a load of optional rules available for download from the BRFPG website.

After some reading and providing options to the players we decided upon the following.

Firstly we used an optional rule from the core book to allow the players to exchange gold for XP. We played this as they scoured the dungeon of every last hide gold piece and scrap of saleable rubbish and did a few trips back to town to ensure they had flogged everything not nailed down. 

Once they had all their money ..... 

The Thief disappeared into the shadows ... we aren't sure where he went but when he came back he was a little more adept at opening things that didn't belong to him.

Our Fighter blew his money in every tavern he could picking fights with anyone and anything he could find. By the end of this he was a little bit better at hitting things.

The Mage entered a strange building that was on the edge of town that everyone was sure wasn't there before. When he came back out a few days later he had a spring in his step and more thoughtful composed look on his face.

Our Cleric found a suitable temple and prayed. His God was obviously very happy with him as when he left he seemed to be imbued with a little more of his Gods power.

So that found them all at level 2 ... broke .. but at level 2! Still they had a little cured wolf meat left over and another dungeon level to sort!

We then decided to also roll in some other interesting extras that are available for download.

First we gave the Mage and Cleric cantrips. I decided to not extend this to the other players as I wanted to keep it "special" for the magic users.

Our final extra that we added was weapon specialisation for our Fighter. This is a brilliant extra that allows the fighter to put a point against a specific weapon that they specialise in. At 1 point of specialisation this gave our fighter a +1 to hit with their two handed sword, add to this their +4 strength and +2 attack bonus as a level 2 fighter and they were suddenly on +4 to hit!

The final change for this session was the use of tokens to represent each character. This way when we hit an encounter or some other more treacherous part of the adventure we could lay out not only where the players are but also where the monsters/adversaries are. This allowed them to be more strategic on where everyone stood to maximise the armour and protect the more squishy.

So that was the characters all set and ready to hit the second level of the dungeon! Below is the map, not really a spoiler as they had seen it, although I didn't provide a copy. They entered by going down the stairs bringing them out at the bottom of the "A".

After lighting all their lanterns the group proceeded forwards till they came to the first junction. There they saw what appeared to be a mound of rags on the floor. Being suspicious of the bundle on the floor they decided to play it safe. One of the adventurers poked the pile of rags with the Clerics staff, nothing initially happened and the party debated whether they should just torch the lot to be safe (I love paranoia!).

The pile of rags moved and started to make groaning noises; the party decided it may be a little premature to fire them up just yet!

The bundle of rags said "uh oh please can you help me.....", the Thief passed an intelligence test and recognised the voice as none other than Gilgan. Gilgan first met our adventurers when he healed their Clerics blindness .... but not before he persuaded him to get naked ... you know just because he could really.

Gilgan rolled over and sat up, his face all beaten and bruised. The Cleric took his opportunity to offer to heal him if he got naked ... Gilgan laughed so hard he spat out a tooth.

There was then a heated discussion between the group as to whether they should stab him and leave him here, just leave him here, or still set fire to him. Eventually the Cleric decided he should guide the group along a more spiritual path, and as much as he wants to even the score with Gilgan, he felt that killing him was probably too much.

Gilgan proceeded to tell the adventurers how a group of bandits had come to his temple to seek healing. He had, as is is wont, insisted on them stripping naked. However when he laughed and told them it was just his little joke they apparently didn't see the funny side, beating him mercilessly. Gilgan managed to escape but was pursued by them through the cellars of his temple and through winding caverns. After days of running he finally collapsed here where they found him. Gilgan asked the adventurers if they would be prepared to help him get back to his temple, and clear out any of the bandits if they are still around.

At the knowledge he had made the bandits strip the players had a second heated discussion between the group as to whether they should stab him and leave him here, just leave him here, or still set fire to him. Again the Cleric decided that maybe they really should help him.

Before moving off the Cleric, a Dwarf, tried to discern whether either of the two passageways sloped downwards but was unable to discern any real difference. Gilgan laughed (he does this a lot) and got back gingerly to his feet following the party up the corridor towards the top of the A.

The Thief's keen ears picked out some low voices from the gloom ahead (a brilliant listening check) ...

Voice 1: "what was that...."
Voice 2: "I dunno but be quiet.."
Voice 1: "Me....your the one making all the noise...."
**soft thud**

The voices were drifting down from the ledge just in front of the party, a rickety wooden ladder leaning against the wall. After a quick whispered discussion the Fighter created a distraction by throwing a rock up and over the ledge; this made a loud "thunk" noise as it hit the wall at the back of the ledge. The voices again could be heard exclaiming "what was that.."
At the same time as the Fighter threw the rock the Thief crept quietly up the ladder, making excellent use of his Elf slippers granting him a 90% chance to sneak! Gaining the top of the ledge he saw two humans facing away from him. Stealthily moving behind the first he slid his dagger around their throat, in one smooth motion he sliced the throat clean open; blood pumping through his grasping fingers the man fell to the ground, twitched a couple of times then lay still. The second man span around to face the Thief, however his lightening reflexes allowed him to slash out quickly at the bandit. A red streak blossomed on the mans cheek as he leaped back to avoid the full force of the blow, his stumbling in his haste he fell his head smashing on a rock as he hit the ground. A cursory check was all that was needed to confirm the poor bandit had bashed his own brains out.

The Thief rejoined the party and they continued on down the passageway towards the bottom of the "E". The caves seemed relatively quiet in this section of the dungeon, possibly having been cleared out by the bandits as they had searched for Gilgan (no 1's on my d6 rolls there!). As they reached the junction at the bottom of the E the party discovered some blood red lichen on the cave wall.

The Thief was convinced this was blood lichen and extremely dangerous. Wanting to keep some to try and use it to poison a weapon he borrowed a bottle from the Cleric and scraped some off into it. A successful dex test had none fall on him, and the party decided to ask Gilgan if he knew what it was. Holding up the bottle they asked him if he knew what it was to which he replied "Yes...it's moss" ... they asked what sort of moss .. "Red moss...." (Gilgan laughed a little). Gilgan swiped the bottle off the players and emptied the moss into his palm then rubbed it all over his face. Laughing he says "It really is just moss".

There was then a heated discussion between the group as to whether they should stab him and leave him here, just leave him here, or still set fire to him. Eventually the Cleric decided he should guide the group along a more spiritual path, and as much as he wants to even the score with Gilgan, he felt that killing him was probably too much. (Yes I just copied this from above because .. well that's what happened :) )

The group proceeded up the corridor (the top of the "E"), slowly working their way along the Thief held his hand up for everyone to stop. Straining his ears he could just make out the sound of breathing. Scanning the corridor ahead, the thief identified a section along the right hand wall where the shadows appeared deeper. Readying his bow the Thief let loose with an arrow at the shadow. A sharp crack broke the silence as the arrow shattered on the stone wall. A split second if silence followed before a bandit came running out into the corridor from the hidden natural alcove. Swinging his sword wildly the bandit ran straight for the Thief who felled him in one go.

Continuing to the end of the corridor the party could see a tapestry of a golden chalice with light emanating from it. Ripping the tapestry down the party found themselves face to face with 8 skeletons. Acting quickly the Cleric raised his hands into the air and called a blessing to his God. Three of the Skeletons feeling the power of his God burning from within him turned and started trying to claw through the wall behind them. The Cleric was then unceremoniously pushed aside by Gilgan as he said "You do it like this boy...." and with a flowery wave of one hand the remaining 5 skeletons turn around and start trying desperately to escape.

The party then quickly discussed their next move. The Cleric was all for heading elsewhere, but the others were sniffing some XP and wanted a fight. The Mage reminded everyone he had holy water ... Gilgan offered them a bottle of yellow water he swore blind was "holy" but the party declined. Finally they decided to go for it. The Mage pulled back his hand and put everything he had into the throw....unfortunately he forgot to let go until the last minute and smashed the bottle at his feet. However a good dose of it splashed over the skeletons who were in fact quite near, but now also quite annoyed.

The ensuing battle saw the Cleric absorbing damage from the skeletons who were now hacking and slashing for all they were worth.
The Mage threw a magic missile which struck a skeleton soundly, the magic wrapped and warped around his bones, the crackling blue energy dissipating too quickly and not doing any damage (although it did burn off the tattered remains of clothing on the skeleton).
The Mage threw a second Magic missile, this time the blue magic took hold as it wrapped around the bones, catching and feeding off the bone consuming it in blue fire.
The Cleric smashed one with a massive blow reducing the skull and most of the torso to mere dust.
The battle ebbed and flowed, blows from the skeletons bouncing off armour, and strikes from the adventurers toppling skeletons, and knocking them off balance, causing their fellows strikes to just skim wide of their mark. The party had whittled the skeletons down to half strength when 4 magic missiles curved past them, two hitting skeletons, the blue magic writhing and dissipating before it could catch hold, the other two striking and gaining power, consuming the skeletons till not even dust remained.
The party finished off the other two skeletons and paused for breath. Gilgan checked them all and healed the Fighter who had taken the most damage in the fight.

The party, who as we have already ascertained as a suspicious lot,  proceeded to discuss what was actually going on with Gilgan. Firstly how can a Cleric use a Mage spell, and secondly if he did 4 Magic missiles then he must also be quite powerful ... so how come the bandits beat him up. Who is Gilgan really ... apart from a really really annoying git.

The party discussed these issues while they explored the other corridors (Gilgan content to follow them humming tunelessly to himself) finding nothing more exciting than a rock and a dead end. Eventually the party discovered stairs leading down at the bottom of the "E".

The party decided this was a good place to make camp while they recover from their wounds and rest up before descending to the next level.

Summary

The changes have helped, although I do think we may consider looking at dual wielding. I think the big things that changed this session are:

Our fighter now he is on level 2 and with his specialism is hitting more, and has more damage to soak up some hits.
Our mage is now taking offensive spells which really helped.
Our cleric is really guiding the group and between solidly soaking up some damage and also dealing some good blows is a solid backbone.
Our thief is being really thiefy and playing to their strengths. With the added skills boosts from level 2 they are making the most of their abilities.
Using the tokens so we know where everyone is in the scene makes a massive difference and helps protect the squishier party members.

Hopefully it won't be so long till the next session. As always I'll write it up and make it available as soon as possible.

Adventure Creation Things you Never See: Horses

So, I'm currently on a mini break from writing Carnival of Dreams to produce another adventure. One of the things that continues to amaze me is the level of detail people will go into on RPG and adventure creation. Sometimes those little bits of realism are what makes the difference between the adventure world being believed or people struggling to accept it.

So in looking into this I wanted to find out about horses and carts, and travel times, distances and speeds. I came across this resource: http://www.lrgaf.org/guide/writers-guide.htm

What I noticed most was that this seems to be from a fairly reputable source, but also that the speeds the horses travel seem to vary from a lot of the RPG sources I could find. I found the paragraph on endurance interesting as people probably overlook weather conditions etc. as really effecting a horse. There are other items that reference the distance a horse can travel in a day, but often they omit their definition of day. Is it 9 - 5, is it sun up to sun down, all these things matter.

So there you have it, I spent some of today researching horses and some researching international spy techniques for identification of contacts, and all this for potentially a single line in an RPG to add some believably

So next time you play an RPG spare a thought for the poor soul who wrote it. They probably did a lot more research, thinking, and general writing and re-writing, than the finished product will ever let on.

Writing an RPG - That Choke moment

Well here I am again, at the keyboard. I actually got some work done tonight on the RPG! However I have noticed that in the last week or so I have struggled to maintain focus.

I am calling this current phase in the development "Choke Moment". It is that time when I have the bulk of everything written. I'm re-writing bits, tidying up and generally dotting i's and crossing t's.

I have spoken to an excellent cartographer about some work so that I don't have sucky Maps. I have also started talking to an artist who has a style I really dig, and I'm hoping I'll be able to work with over the years on multiple projects.

So there is plenty going on so what do I mean by the "Choke Moment". Well it is that moment when I am dangerously close to having to release my baby into the wild for play testing. That time when I find out all the bits I missed, the holes, the pit falls. I realise this is all a learning experience. This is adventure 1 of many (according to my 5 year plan) and I need to make the most of any and all feedback as I try and grow my online presence. I need to hone my skills, and use any feedback I get to get better. But that doesn't stop the butterflies, it doesn't stop the self doubt and the worrying.

I am quietly confident in my ideas. I think they offer the potential for people to play and explore interesting worlds and themes and adventures. What concerns me is my ability to express that in a way that ensures that others get as much enjoyment out of the adventure as I have when I originally run it .... I never mentioned that did I ... before I commit to turning one of my one night RPGs into a real live online pay something possibly for it book, I play it with people. If it doesn't work, or just sucks, then it will get canned. It will only progress if the players have fun.

So there you have it. I'm guessing that anyone writing an RPG with the intention of releasing it to the world will at some point reach this choke point, where everything else seems far more interesting as they work on ways to procrastinate rather than finish that final 5% of the writing.

However I have a deadline. I need this written to my initial satisfaction for 2 weeks time (that's the plan). Then I will alternate between layout, and writing another RPG for a good friend.

So there you have it. I am going to force through this choke point. I am out tomorrow, but the weekend beckons and some 4 day work weeks. So time enough to get this complete!

Basic RPG Map

I fancied a break so thought I would have a go at a little map. Not sure how well it has turned out but then I haven't really done a map in over 20 years.

Here it is in all its glory. The idea is a throne room ontop of a hill. Run down and derelict. A secret door leads back through a cave to a wizards tower which is hurried underground rather than towering up. A small alter to the right side and some stairs going down...No idea where.

If anyone wants to use it please do. If not we'll it is here for me to look back in years to come.