Gloriana, a vain knight errant (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
Emma Lee, a gluttonous guard (fighter) who grew up as a
woodsman (E.A. was away, so L.B. played Emma Lee.)
T.A. — Elric, an superstitious student of ancient lore (elf) who grew up as
a street urchin
M.A. — Zoric, a superstitious oracle (cleric) who grew up as a woodsman
Play
To room #1, kill 7 rats, look around, to room #2, 7 goblins wander in,
Zoric to #1 and falls on his back, breaking 5 of the 10 oil flasks in
his backpack. Elric cuts him out of his backpack, pulls him back, and
sets the oil ablaze with his torch. Goblins have to fight around
flame, only 2 at a time, and are defeated eventually, leaving the
party to struggle back to town for four more days of rest. They head
back to the dungeon, to room #7 via room #1. On to room #8, room #11,
room #9, room #10a, room #11. Emma Lee and Elric are down and
unconscious, but Zoric turns the skeletons. Back to town. They rest
three days and go shopping on the next day. The chain mail they found
is a relic of the Old Kingdom.
L.B. — Gloriana, a vain knight errant (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
M.A. — Zoric, a superstitious oracle (cleric) who grew up as a woodsman
T.A. — Elric, an superstitious student of ancient lore (elf) who grew up as
a street urchin
E.A. — Emma Lee, a gluttonous guard (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
Play
Started in room #6. To room #7, to room #1, to room #2. Rats attack
Elric & Gloriana, a few rounds later the ferrets from #3 join in,
attacking Zoric & Emma Lee, who end up unconscious. Gloriana throws
bacon over ferrets, who run after it and eat. Elric and Gloriana pick
up their friends and flee back north, but ferrets run around and trap
them in the narrow corridors. Gloriana killed one behind, which
blocked tunnel, while Elric fell against the other. Gloriana
sacrificed her shield and helmet to turn 2 death blows and finally
killed the 2nd ferret. Gloriana again was the only PC left standing,
and she dragged the other PCs back to room #6. While pulling the last
PC back to room #6 she ran into a wandering monster, a hobgoblin,
which she killed. They stayed in the locked room, slowly healing up,
and left the dungeon on the evening of day 4, and arrived back in town
before dawn on day 5. They healed up and went shopping.
Total loot: 131 gp 1 ep each.
Elric left Zoric's lantern burning in the rat's passage, but Gloriana
bought a new one for Zoric.
L.B. was in for spring break, so I decided to run Dyson's Delve
using Swords & Wizardry Whitebox (the Brave Halfling version,
which I have in hardback and box). Unfortunately, L.B.'s cousins
weren't on spring break, so we be played in the evenings after they
got their homework done, and since they had to get up early in time
for school the next day we played fairly short sessions.
Attending
Clockwise, starting with the Dungeon Master
T.K.B. — Dungeon Master
E.A. — Emma Lee, a gluttonous guard (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
L.B. — Gloriana, a vain knight errant (fighter) who grew up as a woodsman
M.A. — Zoric, a superstitious oracle (cleric) who grew up as a woodsman
T.A. — Elric, an superstitious student of ancient lore (elf) who grew up as
a street urchin
Character Generation
I decided we'd use Alex Schroeder's Character Generation
Shortcuts (which covered Fighters, Clerics, and Wizards) and More
Character Generation Shortcuts (which covered Elves, Dwarves, and
Halfings) charts to create characters. This sped up character
generation, but it also gave the characters customized classes,
past experience, character qualities, and background qualities and
events from the characters' early years and recent past, and their
standard equipment. For example, one of the PCs was Elf, a
superstitiousstudent of ancient lore who was originally a street
urchin and who had recently committed a shameful deed and had to
flee town.
He had a PDF of the former, and I made a quick
PDF of the later so I could have a printout for the character
generation session.
(Alex later posted a revised PDF with more demihuman backgrounds and a
starting spell for the wizard and elf backgrounds.)
I think the subclass approach he used is a great idea - it adds a lot
of flavor, without needing any additional rules.
I also decided to use the background as a skill substitute. If the
character needed to do something that was covered by their background
(for example, a woodsman could track) they could either just do it, or
if it was difficult they could make a saving throw, possibly with a
bonus.
Anyway, we rolled up characters using Alex's tables and 3d6 for
attributes, arranged to taste. I let them have max hitpoints for 1st
level, and I decided that cleric spells would start at first level (in
S&W Whitebox, like Original D&D and Basic D&D, clerics get their
first spell at 2nd level) because the kids tend to rush into things
with out thinking them out, so they'd need cure light
wounds. I also let them buy some extra equipment beyond what was in
Alex's tables.
The kids all really enjoyed the customized classes and the background
elements from Alex's tables.
Play
I decided that a merchant wagon train had been attacked by goblins and
the merchant had been kidnapped. One of the ox drivers had survived
and stumbled into the a nearby town with the stories. The PCs decided
to try and rescue him in hopes of a reward. They found the trail of
the goblins, and it lead them to a hill topped with ruins. In the
ruins they found a hole under a leaning, partially collapsed wall that
lead to the steps that lead down to room #4 of Dyson's Delve.
They killed one of the goblins guarding the entrance stairs, but the
other goblin got away, alerting the goblins in room #5. The PCs
paused briefly to loot the dead goblin, but then ran after the other
goblin, into room #5, where they were ambushed by the alerted goblins.
Battle raged around the room, and when the boss from room #6 joined in
things looked bleak for a while, but they killed off the goblins with
only Gloriana still standing. Gloriana dragged everybody to room #6
and locked the door, and there they stayed for a couple of days until
people were healed up a bit. They then went to explore more, even
though several of them were hurt quite badly. They went back to room
#4, and spent some time arguing, until they were attacked by giant
rats. After that they spent more time in room #6.
Law of the Broken Earth, book 3 of The Griffin Mage, by
Rachel Neumeier.
The completion of the trilogy.
I shall have to look for her new book, House of Shadows.
About
Lacking Natural Simplicity is one, not particularly flattering,
definition of sophisticated.
This blog chronicles my journey through our at times too complicated
and sophisticated world.
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