Session Report - Keep on the Borderlands, Strange Game Play

We played outside, until the wind flipped the table and scatter our dice and sheets. 

That's ok. This second session was a building session and since I cleared up the character sheets, I can put names to stats, so to speak. 

Lauren is a human ranger, second level. 
Aleric is a half elven fighter-cleric-magic user. He is the only 1st level character. 
Vandohl or Vandal (spelled two different ways) is the dwarven cleric. 
Belaphon is an elven magic user. 
Solvo is the hobbit thief and the only character injured in the last session. He has 1 hit point left.
Helvani is a human paladin. 

There is an odd PLAYER dynamic happening, I have three players controlling two players each. Ranger is matched to thief, the cleric with the paladin, and C-F-MU with MU. Two people can heal the thief, but no one has offered and it hasn't been asked for. Not sure why. 

So, let's rewind to review session one. The characters got chased off by the kobolds after entering area A. They now know there is a pit trap and at least 8 kobold guards. They knocked two kobolds down to zero hp, but their friends dragged them into their lair. They will heal up. 

Instead of participating with all of the archery, the thief (Solvo) ran into the Ogre's lair. He was struck for 6 points of damage and played dead. The Ogre ran at the party but was driven off by missile fire and spells. When he returned to his lair, Solvo killed him with backstab in the dark. The party dragged the body to their original camp and laid him out like a sleeping camper. In the image below, the red circle is the abandoned campsite, which has the ogre's body and a fire.  

At the start of session 2, the players have posted guards at the entrance to their cave E. They are watching for monsters. They noticed movement above the tree over cave A, marked in orange. These things are too big to be kobolds. They noticed the kobolds seem to appear out the tree, apparently they sneak up there from the entrance. The yellow line is another set of creatures, they are bigger than kobolds but smaller than humans. 

In the morning the party hacked down some branches to sweep out the litter in the cave and promptly discover the treasure. The thief immediately noticed some of the gold pieces are lead. The team formulates a plan. 

Lauren, Belaphon and Helvani will return to the Keep with their found gold pieces and the party's remaining funds for more supplies. 

The according to the map, the keep is about fifty 100 yard squares away. The module says characters can cover 3 squares or 300 yards an hour. I've never bought that one. It's about 3 miles away, they have a map and a ranger. The Keep is 1 to 2 hour away from the Caves, if no mistakes are made. 

While the party is divided, Solvo, Vandal and Aleric discover the magic arrows, the potion and the scroll while cleaning. They debate over the purpose of the gold plated lead coins and count everything else. They take turns cutting firewood with the only hatchet they have.

They have three interesting sightings through out the day. Vandal heard goblin voices from the east. Instead of spotting actual goblins, he spied a mountain lion. Later in the day, Solvo notices three smaller orcs foraging for firewood. They seem to be children and the party retreats deeper into the cave.  

After dinner, the rest of the party returns. They pause at their old camp and notice that an animal has eaten part of the ogre. Mountain Lions. Ick. From there, they make a crazy slow-panicked dash to their new home, with many odd things. 

Back at the Keep, the players were determined to find several dogs. They found two full sized mastiff like dogs and a collie puppy. The mastiffs were used to tow two small wagons. These wagons are children's toys and were lashed to the dogs with two 10 foot poles each. In the wagons were a barrel of water and a large wooden chest packed full of iron rations plus a few implements like shovels, axes and brooms. Each PC was carrying 50' of rope, three wine skins and three waterskins. They have quivers of arrows and slings and an extra pair of bows lashed to their backs. They are dying from the weight. 

They also have 3 books, ink and pens which the ranger bought to write down spells. This sparked a heated conversation with the mage who knew they weren't the right materials. Before leaving, there was a second fight about bankrolling the remaining gold. The weight made the choice easy, but tempers were short.  

It took an hour to get to the keep at a jog, 3 hours to find the dogs and less than an hour to buy all of the rest of the stuff. The return trip was a 4 hour circus, because the dogs aren't draft animals and the alternative was the players leading a dog while pulling a wagon, which left the third PC to keep track of the puppy and items that were dropped. 

The characters all settled in their new hobbit hole. Half the party ate and sacked out immediately. Solvo, Vandal and Alaric straighten up a bit and drew straws for guard duty. Belaphon grumpily pitched in when not pretending to sleep. He spent some time talking about the merits of magic over prayer while examining the found scroll, which is clerical in nature. 

Three times in the night, the guard sighted orcs by the tree and heard both kobolds and goblins. Solvo could swear he heard goblins right in their cave, but could find nothing. 

The players didn't seem interested in experience points, so I didn't award any this time. I have to tabulate the pool, but I think they earned a total 600 from the treasure alone and probably an equal amount as role play and clear thinking awards. By the way, Solvo is up one hit point from natural healing. I'll allow it this time, but he needs magic or rest. 

If you like the character sheets from the image above, you can download them from DriveThruRPG. There are 2 styles, both with 7 stats for AD&D and Unearthed Arcana.  

Character Sheet for AD&D

Character Sheet for AD&D

#RPGADAY 12. Message

#Message

What to do with this one? 

Have you utterly sent the wrong message to the players? Have your players misinterpreted a message and decided to play another game? 

As a DM, this is frustrating because usually a message, especially a written message is supposed to be super clear, totally unambiguous. 

My last campaign died of COVID-19. We have no particular plans to start up again. But it was suffering from a horribly ambiguous statement I made. I gave the characters a note which said they were to receive 5,000 pounds silver. I actually wrote it down for them. 

This one was special, I cribbed it from history. I pieced together details from a couple of manuscript and books on the death of William the Conqueror. The oldest son, Richard received all of Normandy and the William Rufus, the middle son received the Throne of England, 

"...while Henry received five thousand pounds in silver, which he hastened to secure, having it carefully weighed out to make certain that none of his appanage was denied him." 

~~Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Peterborough MS)

So Henry ran off to count his money. These documents have a biting edge that amused me and I thought that it would amuse the players to see something like this. 

It did. 

Except for one little thing. As I pieced together several documents to get the flavor right, but forgot the actual message because this often occurs in these historical writings. You have to piece together several to get a good read on the actual message of the author. Clearly, they are taking pot shots at their leadership. They also have pretty low opinions of them, because these families are clearly fighting with each other. 

William the Conqueror left these funds to Henry so he could purchase his own lands... but only left Henry enough silver to purchase about 1500 acres or 2.3 miles. So, Richard got Normandy, William Rufus got all of England and Henry got some silver, which is nothing when compared to what his brother's got. Talk about sending a message! 

Unfortunately, just like the Chronicle above I forgot to name the purpose of the silver, leaving the party with a ridiculous sum on paper. They were to buy or rent a ship with it. Worse, the way I phrased it, the players never actually got their hands on the physical silver, just a letter from the Emperor promising the silver to whoever was reading it. So, the party could show the letter saying they were to have access to 5,000 pounds silver worth of goods and then nothing... For relatively small purchases, no one would take this letter from the party. The party wrote out an IOU from the Emperor's treasury, which is hysterical when you think about it .

And boy, did they use it to the fullest. 

The message of this post is, don't forget the message. 

B2 Session - Standout Play during Keep on the Borderlands

I ran the kids through one session of Keep on the Borderlands. For fun, I let them use AD&D characters. They have a Cleric, a Thief (halfing), a Paladin, a Ranger, a Fighter-Magic User-Cleric (half elven) and a Magic User (elven). Each character is 2nd level, except the F-MU-C who is 1st level. 

They were less than impressed with the Keep itself and as soon as they got directions to the Caves of Chaos they set off. They also learned some gossip about the area, but disregarded much of it. They picked out a campsite to the east of the Caves and explored for the first day. They spent a lot of time checking the area to the west of the Cave complex, but finally mapped out the four cave entrances on the lowest level. Areas D, E, G and A, in that order. Since they didn't try to enter any of these areas, nothing happened. The thief tried to listen at each cave mouth, but heard nothing. Of course, everyone else tried to listen but didn't get that close. 

Out of an abundance of laziness, once they completed the circuit of the area, they went back to Cave Entrance A. All six of them entered the cave behind the thief who was prodding around for traps. He spotted the pit just as the 8 kobolds outside spot the characters.   

Everyone but the thief made a mad dash for the eastern mouth of the ravine, but pulled up short under the large tree. The kobolds don't have missile weapons, so they pursued on foot. At the tree, the MU wanted to get a spell ready while everyone except the Cleric got out missile weapons. In the meantime, the thief sprinted for the entrance to cave E. 

One volley of arrows sent the kobolds back to their cave. The party wanted to regroup and rethink their plan but this was disrupted by a horrible scream and thud from Cave E. The ogre clobbered the thief, who had one hit point left and played dead. The ogre saw the rest of the party and charged. Several flights of arrows and a magic missile routed him back to his cave.

The characters loosed 4 flights of arrows in two rounds as per AD&D rules, most missed but doubling up missile attacks makes AD&D missiles more deadly than D&D.  Out of a hail of 12 arrows, only 5 hit along with the magic missile but they knocked the ogre's hp to just 4. Strangely, the cleric didn't pull out a missile weapon for second time and stood off to one side with her mace.

In those 2 round of activity, the thief picked himself up and hid just inside the entrance to the cave. Shockingly, he backstabbed the ogre for a one shot kill. 

Impressive. 

Now here is where things went sideways. They moved into Cave E to camp for the night. The cleric threw out the idea of waiting until dark to move the ogre's body to their campsite to the east. They lit a nice fire for him and lay him out like a sleeping adventurer. The cleric prayed for the ogre out of respect for a fallen foe. 

Back at the cave, the characters mounted 3 watches. They are not simply guarding, they were watching for someone or something to investigate the body and the fire. 

That's a really nice plan and we ended on this high note. The next session will be a rare series of nighttime encounters. 

Experience awards were meager because the players don't know they are sitting on a pile treasure. They think the bag is a lumpy bed. They knocked 2 kobolds down to 0 hit, but their friends dragged them inside. I'm gonna count those as kills along with ogre. 

I have to give credit where credit is due. The cleric's idea to dispose of the body plus use it as a lure for other monsters was great. That is worth at least 200 experience. The thief's idea to to play dead to set up a backstab was turning lemons into lemonade. 

On paper that is 533 experience points. I'll add another 77 to make it an even 600 divided by 6. 

Since they made Cave E their base camp they will be pleasantly surprised when they investigate further. I will award another round of experience the moment they discover the treasure. 

If you don't already have this module, check it out on DriveThruRPG. 

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands

#RPGADAY2020 11. Stack

#Stack

I like this one because it flows from the last entry, "want". 

When I design my campaigns and sessions, I stack the deck in my player's favor. My players are more likely to be wiped out by a bad die roll than any creation of mine. 

When planning, I use the rule of three to stack the deck in their favor. At the table, there are three ways to complete a task: Conflict, Parley, Escape. Usually, they end up being called: Combat, Talking and Flight. Under those three categories, I think of three ways to be victorious in a fight, three things the characters could say that would end the conflict and three ways to escape. 

Of course, my players are smart and they end up doing the exact same thing, with completely different answers and completely different outcomes. By working with the players ideas, the game flows naturally but no one can say where that flow will take us. 

Of late, I have been playing D&D with my family. A lot of one off modules, sessions and different rule sets. Last weekend, we tried playing Keep on the Borderlands with AD&D characters. It's a favorite of mine. 

This time, my kids found a game breaker in their first expedition to the caves. In all the times I've hosted or played "The Keep", this one possibility never occurred to me. And I look for game breakers. Mainly so I don't accidentally kill the party or allow the party to kill themselves. This solution to "Keep on the Borderlands" is pretty cool. I'll post about that separately, but the point is, by stacking all of the possibilities with the players capabilities in mind, you get an enjoyable game which does contain risk, but doesn't come off as "over-powering" or "loaded" against the people playing. 

#RPGADAY2020 10. Want

#Want

I want my players and I to have a good time. That's all. 

I could go into all of the other wants I have in life, but that would be a wordy list of things that would all point back to having a good time. 

"A good time" is a complex thing, at the table or in real life. It doesn't necessarily mean "you had a good time", it means quality.

A flat tire sucks. Having a flat time at exactly the moment you have a young driver in the car, who will need to know how to change a flat, is "a good time" because of the quality of the experience. Spending time with a child, teaching a skill, learning a skill are all quality events. 

That's all I want.