Actual Play Review - Prince Charming, Reanimator

I ran into this adventure when I was looking for something with an old-school feel. If you want to see how that went, take at look at my impressions here. If you already like the idea of playing with multiple 0-level characters, read on. If the adventure seems fun, you can get it here.

FT 0 - Prince Charming, Reanimator is a short adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, inspired by fairy tales such as "The Sleeping Beauty". I found it to be clever, funny, and fun to play. There is a lot of little jokes in the text, such as Black Sabbath albums, animated brooms, undead princesses, and so on.

It is meant as "funnel" for 16 0-level characters, which means most of them will perish in the process. It can probably be played in a single session if you create the characters beforehand.

The adventure starts with the local prince rounding up some random villagers (the PCs) to explore the ruined castle in which, legend says, a Princess Beauty lies asleep for aeons. The prince, eager to take has a new bride (as his attempts to revive princesses Ella and Snow have failed), will not take "no" for an answer. Villagers that refuse must fight a group of 20 armed guards.

From there on, the adventure is a traditional (and well designed) dungeon crawl through the abandoned castle. The encounters are thematically appropriate and include goblin-like creatures, living vines, faeries with colorful dresses, a dragon made of roses and other plants, and a ghostly wizard that can give more information about the ruins.

Other than actually entering the castle (and not being allowed to leave), there is not much railroading in the adventure, nor is it too linear. There is significant part of the castle that MUST be explored in order to complete the mission, so at least half the keyed areas will be explored, but there are enough optional areas and choices for the players to make.

There are a few magic items scattered through the castle that I found quite powerful for 0-level characters, such as a shield that can always detect lies and an orb that can answer yes-or-no questions three time a day. Things like that can change the nature of a whole campaign whenever mysteries and conspiracies are involved, so the GM should consider this carefully before giving them away, although they are somewhat essential to the adventure itself.

I ran the game using modified TSR D&D system - adapting DCC stats was easy enough. About half the characters died, got incapacitated on ran away before the end of the adventure , although more would die if I used 0 HP = immediate death. All players found the adventure fun but showed no interested in going back to explore the castle further (nor is it the intention, anyway, as the series continues to other locations), even though I felt it would be a cool idea.

I strongly recommended this product for anyone looking for a short, old school lighthearted adventure that will kill lots of low-level characters while still allowing players to have plenty of fun.

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Going Old School, session 2

As promised, I gave another chance to what I see as "old school style" gaming. This isn't something my group is used to, as I've said before - in the past few years, all our games have been very story-oriented, "new school" affairs. It was a great experience nonetheless.

We didn't do 3d6 in order and B/X style modifiers like we did the last time. Instead, we used part of the tables on the Hill Cantons Compendium II with some house rules for character creation.

PCs had NO abilities. Instead, they've got backgrounds and on or two modifier between -1 and +2. Also, no levels or classes: all characters started at level 0 and were simple woodcutters, merchants, tax collectors, etc. One character was a knight, other a priest of the Great Old Ones, all with somewhat colorful stories. Also, no armor or elaborate weapons - they either had 1d4 clubs or 1d6 shortswords, spears, maces, etc. Each player had four characters, all human.

The time we've spent creating characters where similar than rolling 3d6 in order and choosing classes, skills (yes, I used those, a couple per character), and equipment, but the results were WAY more interesting. All the players agreed that character creation were more fun with backgrounds than with abilities, although they found quite strange to play D&D without them.

(In fact, I would like to have an even faster method of character creation, so that's what's I'm working on next. "One million instant characters for D&D" - sounds good?)

The backgrounds were the sources of many random ideas, jokes and interesting situations. The knight appointed himself leader, the merchant went looking for exotic goods to sell, and so on.

Instead of going with the one page dungeon I had written in a day, I went with something far more interesting: Daniel J. Bishop's adventure FT 0: Prince Charming, Reanimator, an adventure written for 16 0-level characters, based on fairy tales such as "The Sleeping Beauty". See my play-test review here.

With less HP, no classes and harsher rules (take a look at the death saving throws, old-school style I come up with after the game), the adventure was quite lethal. Some players cared a bit more about losing characters with interesting backgrounds, but not enough to upset the game. More important, some players liked the challenge of playing randomly-created characters with different backgrounds, although others felt there would be more connection if they created the characters themselves.

All this little changes made the session more enjoyable to everyone. As a GM, I had a great time watching the players face deadly challenges and come up with creative solutions - so much, in fact, that I think I will have a hard time playing other way. But not all players felt the same. They thought this to be fun, but maybe too simple, random, deadly and lighthearted to go on a extended campaign, preferring to be more involved with their characters, which was somewhat impaired by having multiple random PCs. I think some of it is because of personal preference, and some because of the way we got used to do things.

So, for the next session, we are probably going for something a bit more "modern". Still, I think my experiences with creepy dungeons, low level characters and random generation aren't over yet. We shall see.

The scary thing about dragons

Player characters in D&D aren't ordinary people. Sure, they may look a bit frail at the beginning, but if they survive long enough they can become legendary heroes - capable of flying, defeating armies, raising the dead, and hiding in mere shadows.

There is something special about D&D characters. As the books often say, not every warrior is a Fighter, not every priest a Cleric, and so on. And what makes them unique is their potential. Adventurers gains levels, and in doing so they can gain the world.

At first, they are weak. An orc or lowly goblin can be deadly to starting adventurers. Barring divine intervention, mostly will fall. But some will survive, and fight on, until they become legends. They will fight ghouls and gorgons, wight and wraiths, oozes and ogres.

And some will live long enough to fancy themselves Dragons-slayers.

But Dragons are something else entirely. The first time they appeared, it was already obvious they were special. Sure, purple worms seemed bigger at first, but Dragons could cast spells, and they got stronger as they aged.

Still, this isn't the most important thing about dragons.

You see, adventurers change. With each new edition, the get distracted by their new toys, their skills, their weapons and spells, their increasing hit points and infinite options.

But not Dragons.

Yes, they were shunned by all subsequent editions, handbooks and manuals. Treated as mere "monsters" or relegated to an distant habitat, away from the core rulebooks.

It doesn't matter. Dragons know their history. They know their roots. They remember their ancient rights, and are willing and able to defend them. Dragons are hardcore. Dragons are old school.

Dragons aren't monsters. They aren't mere "dragons" in lowercase. They are player characters in their own right. It says it right there in the First Volume of the First Game, page 8:

Other Character Types: There is no reason that players cannot be allowed to play as virtually anything, provided they begin relatively weak and work up to the top, i.e., a player wishing to be a Dragon wold have to begin as let us say, a "young" one and progress upwards in the usual manner, steps being predetermined by the campaign referee.
- Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

They are race-as-class before there were race-as-class. When elves, dwarves and halflings had limits when leveling up, Dragons had none.

"Just an example", you say? "Implicit limits"? "Referee's discretion"? This is not how Draconic Law works. Dragons are bound by the letter of the law, not its spirit. And this is what the rules says, on page 18:

There is no theoretical limit to how high a character may progress, i.e., 20th level Lord, 20th level Wizard, etc. Distinct names have only been included for the base levels, but this does not influence progression.
- Dungeons & Dragons (1974)

New editions would talk about level limits to other characters. But not Dragons. In fact, no edition would talk about Dragon player characters in the core rulebooks again. And nor will they ever do, because they've got it right the first time.

But don't let this fool you. You aren't playing Hamlets&Heroes, or Forts&Fighters. Dragons were given infinite potential, and no limits. You would think they are hoarding piles of gold, but in ancient Draconic Law, every gold piece is a point of experience. And once dragons get something, its theirs forever.

Because dragons don't change - they evolve.

And gain levels.

They have been doing it since 1974. They will never stop.

D&D 5e: Fixing food and water

The amounts of food and water required to keep a group of adventurers sustained is usually ignored by many groups. After all, we don't usually weight what we eat, and nor should fictional heroes, right? On the other hand, if you're playing a game that focuses on hiking, hex-crawling, survival and resource management, like some versions of D&D, this data might be useful.

D&D 5e has very interesting rules about food and water consumption. Let's take a look on what basic D&D says:

Food and Water

Characters who don’t eat or drink suffer the effects of exhaustion (see appendix A). Exhaustion caused by lack of food or water can’t be removed until the character eats and drinks the full required amount.

Food

A character needs one pound of food per day and can make food last longer by subsisting on half rations. Eating half a pound of food in a day counts as half a day without food. A character can go without food for a number of days equal to 3 + his or her Constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit, a character automatically suffers one level of exhaustion.

A normal day of eating resets the count of days without food to zero.

Water

A character needs one gallon of water per day, or two gallons per day if the weather is hot. A character who drinks only half that much water must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion at the end of the day. A character with access to even less water automatically suffers one level of exhaustion at the end of the day.

If the character already has one or more levels of exhaustion, the character takes two levels in either case.

Now, there are a few ideas here that are worth mentioning. 

Starvation and dehydration do not cause damage. Instead of losing HP, a character gets exhausted after a few days without food or water (although your max HP is halved after a while), which means 10th level characters are as likely to die of starvation as 1st level characters if they have the same Constitution. Hit Points - the usual gauge of survivability - aren't important.

Interestingly, the same isn't entirely true for water, as a character can survive longer with little water if he has a good Constitution saving throw - which might be affected by proficiency (which is determined by level).

The whole exhaustion mechanic is very cool, but I dislike the idea that starvation affects characters of all levels equally. At least it is somewhat "realistic", right?

Well, in fact, the numbers are a bit unreal. The numbers below (for the real world) aren't exact figures, either, but let me give you some rough examples of what I mean when I say D&D figures strike me as odd. This isn't particular to 5e. 3e has similar figures (with some extra issues I won't discuss for now).

An average american eats about 4 pounds of food per day (with little exercise) - an average D&D character needs about one pound of food every four days (with lots of exercise). Okay, I get it - we eat more than we need, too many carbs, etc. But one pound a day is too little for active characters (and if you're weighting your food in D&D, it is because you're travelling around and carrying stuff, not because you're on a diet). You can probably survive with a pound of food a day while active if you're eating lots of fat and protein, but a couple of pounds would be more reasonable.

The idea that after three days without food you can go "back to normal" by eating normally for a day is probably a mistake and, if you're weighting food at all, must be altered (or ignored) or there will be no reason to eat every day (unless "the full required amount" is meant to say the character must eat three days worth of food in day or something similar, which is doubtful). I would suggest removing the sentence and letting the GM deal with players that abuse the system.

The idea that you can spend 3+CON days without food also doesn't seem a good idea for gaming purposes, as characters will have to check for starvation in different days.

On the other hand, after about 10 days without food, most characters will die, which is excessively harsh, specially if you aren't very active (trapped in a cage, for example).

As for water, a gallon a day is a reasonable figure if you're walking all day. And the rules for water work better than the rules for food, in my opinion - I can see no reason to use two different sets of rules.

The good thing about "one pound food, one quart of water" is that it's easy to remember - provided that you're used to imperial units and knows how much a quarter of water weights (8.33 pounds) without checking - because encumbrance, if you're counting, is measured in pounds. My own mnemonic device is "10 pounds of food and water per person per day of travel".

In any case, here is my rewritten version to make things easier and a bit more reasonable.

Food and Water

Characters who don’t eat or drink suffer the effects of exhaustion (see appendix A). Exhaustion caused by lack of food or water can’t be removed until the character spends a day eating (or drinking) the full required amount.
A character needs two pounds of food and eight pounds of water (about a gallon - double the amount of water if the weather is hot) per day. After every day without enough water or three days without enough food, she suffers one level of exhaustion and must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, or suffer two levels instead. Consuming at least half the required amount of food (or water) doubles the number of days before each saving throw.

And if you think high level characters should always get a better chance, you can add proficiency bonus to everybody, and double it for characters proficient in Constitution saving throws.

UPDATE: check out my new take on a similar rule.

Death saving throws, old-school style

My house rule for death saving throws can be useful for 5e or other "modern" editions, but is way too merciful for old school, gritty games, where 0 HP usually carry very severe consequences. For this kinds of games, you can use something a tad more extreme. There are a couple of options below; you can use them in combination with the original post where applicable (specially, any rules for immediate death upon -10 HP, etc, still apply).

Option 1) If you reach 0 HP, save vs death. If you fail, you die. If you succeed, roll 1d6.

Option 2) If you reach 0 HP, roll 1d6.

Roll. Effect
1-2. Dying. Roll again every turn.
3-4. Disabled. Roll again if you try any significant effort (moving more than half speed, fighting, etc).
5-6. Unconscious. You can be awakened with ease by other characters, but if you aren't roll again after 10 minutes.

In any case, all dice rolled are kept on the table until you can get decent rest and healing (which usually means recovering HP). Rolling the same number twice means death.

Alternatively, you can use the table below, that includes more varied results.

1. Death.
2. Dying.
3. Disabled.
4. Unconscious.
5. Lasting injures to limbs, organs or abilities*.
6. Roll again, with 6s counting as "nothing happens for now".

* Roll 2d6 to find how many weeks until it naturally heals. If you roll the same number on both dice, it is permanent.

Going Old School, session 1

This week, I approached my group with an idea: trying to go all the way old school, as I haven't done in a long while. Needless to say, the exact meaning of "old school" varies from person to person, and my own ideas about the subject are something I'm going to discuss in future posts. For this session, here is what I proposed: every player would start with three characters, all level 1, 3d6 in order, and they would try to survive my one page dungeon.

The chosen flavor of D&D was... not a specific one, really. I didn't think I would need many rules other than d20+Fighter level to hit, or roll 3d6 under ability for skills, etc. As for the rest, I would make things up as we went.

Character creation was quick and fun. The players - not very used to random characters - had no problems in doing it. I was quite impressed, in fact - when I said "you can choose a couple of skills, anything you want", and "pick any class", that was enough information for them. It all goes back to D&D as lingua franca, I guess.

When rolling characters, some players had terrible luck while others rolled very well, making the whole group unbalanced from the start. They were all very cool about that, no complaints at all. Even so, I gave a few levels and perks to the weaker characters to make things more equal. That was my first mistake.

They chose a few characters to be wizards and clerics. I said each of them would pick a single spell per level. Any spell. I just made them up on the spot, and came up with a system so they could use it more than once a day, instead of the "limited" original version. That was my second mistake.

Finally, I just added a few house rules to increase survivability, making the transition a little easier. A few extra HP, a merciful save vs. death system, ignoring encumbrance for those who wore leather or less, and so on. That was my third mistake (but, alas, not the last one).

The game itself was tons of fun, at least for me. I promised high lethality (another thing my group isn't used to at all- most of our campaigns last for years without a single player character dying), and would show disappointment (jokingly, I think) as the characters survived fight after fight, but the players just laughed at it instead of feeling adversarial.

They had no problem playing the game with very simple rules and lots of rulings. A wizard preferred to avoid casting spells (my system's fault), so he fought valiantly with his dagger, even after coming close to death a couple of times. One of the characters went looking for treasure in a couple of rooms - and one of them was EXACTLY in the room with the most valuable treasure in the dungeon. I tried to avoid much improvisation from my part and use the dungeon exactly was written, but once or twice I would adjust things on the fly - and that was probably my last mistake that evening, as I wasn't happy with some of the adjustments I've made.

A single character died, because the group had awakened the a mutant giant bee and he was the slowest initiative on the room. The other characters let him to die - something I would NEVER expect to happen in our regular games. For me, this was the single most exciting moment, followed closely by the (second) time the wizard got saved from death by a lucky die roll.

My conclusion after the game was that I had underestimated both the capacity of my players to try something new, and the capacity of the characters to survive the adventure. Also, the party was just a bit too big to manage at once with the rules I was using, and the enemies a bit too weak.

After asking for feedback, my players offered some constructive criticism. Most of the rules I came up with on the spot were not that good. I thought they would complain from how the combats were too simple and the characters too weak and random (they didn't get to customize the characters at all), but I was wrong. Instead, the main comments and complaints were:

* The players kinda liked the simplicity of the system - some loved it. If felt "dynamic", "like an action movie", or "like a cooperative boardgame" (and this was said in a positive way). On the other hand, my own rules were less interesting and probably too complicated - although some players said they were hard at the beginning but fine once they got the gist of it.

* They said I haven't delivered in the lethality I had promised, which is true.

* Most players felt a lack of connection and depth to the characters, when compared to the games we used to play (that would usually take a few hours in character creation). One player said character creation was "excellent", but others not so much.

Overall, the results were mixed. As a GM, I had a lot of fun, but, most of all, I feel I've learned a lot from this. Ultimately, I think most mistakes I made was because I tried making things a bit more modern than early D&D. I have my own (very new-school) system to go back to - one that most of the players liked so far - but I still wish to try my hand in this kind of "old school gaming".

What's next? Well, I will give this at least one more try. But, this time, I will restrain myself from making things more "new school". No more half measures. Instead, I'm going full "older than old", character funnel style. 0-level commoners for everybody. No skills, no classes (they can get one when they reach 1st level), few hit points, and so on.

Let's see how that goes.

The Wretched Hive, my One Page Dungeon

I submitted a dungeon to the One Page Dungeon Contest. It was a fun, challenging and rewarding experience (more about that soon). There are some AWESOME dungeons this year, as it happened in previous contests. Here is my own, in a blog post format instead of a PDF format so you can easily copy, paste and edit, and have a better view of the map.

UPDATE: This is now a full-fledged OSR module! Check it out here!

The Wretched Hive

The wretched Chaos lord Xalavor and his minions have conquered a temple of the Queen Bee, the ancient lawful goddess of Life, in order to summon, imprison and warp an avatar of the Queen. They used her power to create a fearsome hive fortress over the marble ruins of the old temple, and an army of half-human, half-insect soldiers. Now hybrid creatures roam the countryside capturing riches and people for dark purposes.

The sacred forest surrounding the temple is now home to the wandering fugitive priestesses of the Queen. If treated with due respect, they may say: 1. Do not hurt the avatar of our Queen! 2. There are hidden amulets in the temple. 3. The hybrids have a spark of divinity, but may be hostile. 4. The Queens’s honey cures wounds. 5. Bees work in the fields during the day. 6. We will send one of us with you!

Approaching the Hive during the daytime may trigger an encounter (1-in-6 chance). Roll once more if the Hive is approached near dusk or dawn, and for every half hour the adventures spend in the surroundings.

The hexes are 50 feet wide and 25 feet high, and reasonably well-lit during the day. They are made of wax and may collapse if hit by a fireball or similar attack. Red hexes are darker and fouler than others, with walls made mostly of stone and metal. Yellow hexes are cleaner and emptier. Blue hexes are littered with ruins of the old temple. Doors leading from white to red or yellow areas are harder to open.

CREATURES

Bee-people, with near-human bodies and bee-like heads and wings, can fly but cannot talk. If they lose more than half HP, they will attack with a stinger, causing double damage and then dying. Soldiers (2HD) will attack on sight, with spears. Workers (1 HD) are unarmed - they will go about their businesses and won't attack unless attacked first. Each has a 1-in-6 chance of carrying honey (heals 1d6 HP, once per day).

The wretched are the evil, sadistic demons that follow Xalavor. They might be willing to negotiate at least half the time. Imps (1HD) are small, ugly, goblin-like creatures. Ogres (3HD) are stupid, demonic brutes with clubs. Biomancers (2HD) are cunning magic-users that create hybrids.

The groups dislike each other, but Xalavor has been able to keep the peace so far (up to a point).

Random encounters have a 1-in-6 chance of taking place for each hex crossed (or additional 10 minutes spent in it), empty or not - climbing a floor from the outside and walking on roofs count as crossing an hex. Roll 1d0. In the red area, roll 2d10 and pick highest. In the yellow and blue areas, roll 2d10 and pick lowest. At night, re-roll 1s when counting creatures.

1,2. 1d4 Soldiers. 3,4,5. 1d6 Workers. 6,7,8. 1d6 imps. 9. 1 biomancer. 10. 1d3 ogres.

THE MAP

Towers 1 though 3 are bee-people watchtowers. They have 1d6 soldiers per level and doors to the outside. The ground levels have holes to the underground (no stairs). All towers have a number of levels equal to its identifying number.

Tower 4 is home to Xalavor (8HD), that can always be found in the highest floor. There are three archfiends (3HD) with fiery weapons in the third floor.

A. Entrance. 2d6 imps and an ogre will question visitors.

B. Arsenal with many crude spears and machetes.

(C). Entrance. 2d6 soldiers.

D. An alien mass of putrid flesh and tentacles (5 HD) is trapped here. The doors are sealed from the outside.

[E] Barracks. 3d6 imps, half are sleeping.

[F] Mess hall. 2d6 imps.

G. Granary and treasury.

H. A biomancer with 4 mechanical assistants (1HD) keeps an alchemy lab in this hex.

[I] Beautiful artificial flowers in the middle of the room are the trigger to a fire trap that causes 2d6 damage to everyone that cannot duck fast enough.

[J]. Prison with 4d6 human captives.

K. Empty passage.

(L) A chest full of treasure, heavy but somewhat valuable, triggers spears coming from the ground, causing 2d4 damage to anyone standing in the hex.

(M). Empty passage.

[N] Downward spiral stairs lead to the underground.

[O] The arena where the wretched fight captured humans and bee-people. The 4d6 wretched in the audience, will not notice invaders unless attacked.

<P> 6 soldiers protect a fountain of honey. Will not let humans or wretched get near, but won't attack otherwise.

(Q) 1d6+1 mummified animals (wolves, boars, etc), imprisoned by a insane hunter-bee (3HD). One is still alive and can show gratitude if released.

(R) The Queen Avatar (7HD) is a giant bee, entranced by the sorcery of Xalavor, can barely move but is able to defend herself with paws and stinger (her sting causes immediate death).

S. Empty passage.

<T> A telepathic drone-man (2HD) hidden in this hex can communicate with human and bee. He will offer his services for protection (many bees want him dead).

<U> A statue of a maiden surrounded by flowers will heal any sincere allies of the Queen if they pray or ask for help (1d6 HP, once per day).

(V) Floor will collapse if more than 8 creatures are in the hex in the same time (bee-people don't count).

W. 2d6 soldiers guard this room.

<X> Hidden treasure under a secret door in the marbled floor (4 golden amulets, valuable and sacred).

<Y> Beautiful silk tapestries.

Z. A two-headed twelve-armed mutant troll-bee (5HD) sleeps here most of the time. If awaken, it will go on an unstoppable rampage.

The underground is dark and full of demons, biomancers, and breeding pits with larvae and royal jelly. Adventures beware. If the GM prefers the whole dungeon to be underground, just flip the map, transforming towers into pits.

If Xalavor is slain, the bee-people will destroy the remaining wretched. The Queen (now free from mental slavery) will telepathically ask the adventures for death, but she will resurrect (as an ordinary bee) in less than one minute and fly away. The fortress will collapse within 1d6+6 days.

If the Queen dies, bee-people will disperse immediately. It will take Xalavor 3d6 days to summon another avatar or come up with a new use for his fortress.

Released under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

UPDATE: If you like this, check out the expanded version on DTRPG!