Freeport Campaign - Death in Freeport summary

The module Death in Freeport was one of the first d20 modules released by Green Ronin for D&D 3^rd Edition at Gen Con in 2000 which is where I got my copy.  It was later released again as part of the Freeport Trilogy 5^th Anniversary compilation for the 3.5 rules.  I ran the adventure using the Pathfinder rules.  The characters were created using PF but for most of the NPCs I did little to convert them fully to PF.  Where a PF version of a monster or basic NPC existed in the Bestiary or Gamemastery Guide I used that over the original stat block.  General warning – there are a lot of spoilers for this module below.

Session notes – Friday 8/19/2011-Saturday 8/20/2011

Party:

Alaina, Human Rogue (Keith)

Betadrome, Human Evoker, “The Wizard” (Keith)

Krodin, Human Corsair (Derrick)

Malevir, Half-Elf Sorcerer (Tom)

Rollo, Gnome Fighter (Tom)

Thorgrim, Dwarf Cleric of the God of Valor (Derrick)

Welcome to Freeport

The party arrives on the docks in Freeport and quickly becomes the target of an attempt to press gang them.  The scurvy dogs who try end up finding themselves outmatched and those not knocked down run for the hills.

After the incident, they are greeted by a priest named Egil who has a job proposal for them and offers to buy them drinks at the tavern known as the Bilge Rat if they’ll hear him out.  He’s a brother at the Temple of the God of Knowledge (known as Seltrok) and is seeking a missing friend of his named Lucius, a librarian at the temple.  The party stuck in Freeport without employment agrees to the offer.

Investigation Begins

Egil informs them of a quiet inn called the Scholar’s Quill where they can stay.  The Innkeeper Desy runs a pretty tight ship and for a gold piece per day the party is given rooms and meals.

A search of Egil’s friend Lucius’s house turns up a few things.  A to-do list Lucius wrote provided some insight into his activities.  The party also turned up a diary in the false bottom of the drawer in the desk.  They find a hatch in the back of the house that leads down to the basement.  This revealed little except for some new shelving that was empty (something missing?).

A Pirate’s Life

The party discovers that the Captain Scarbelly mentioned on the list is an orc pirate and his ship the Bloody Vengeance is currently in port.  Scarbelly is rumored to have killed 29 men in hand-to-hand combat so he doesn’t sound like one to take lightly.  He and his crew have mostly stayed on board the vessel.  There are 10 orcs along with the captain and his brutal first mate named Aggro.  The party decides to setup a diversion of a fire on the docks at night and while that was happening, the rogue Alaina, swims out stealthily, climbs on board and sneaks into the forecastle cabin where she finds some coins and a magical staff of defense whose specific powers couldn’t be identified by the party casters.  (DM note:  The staff apparently was created by at least an 11^th level caster.)

Later, the party confronts two thugs who were spying on the Scholar’s Quill.  After this, the party decides to keep their old rooms but get another spot across the way to watch who’s looking for them.

Temple of Knowledge

The party went to the temple to report to Egil.  The head priest of the temple, Thuron, seems suspicious to the party (“a dirty bird”) from what they hear as is his right hand man, Milos (probably a “Nazi”, nicknamed Mogwae by the party).  They party is denied access to meet with Thuron who is apparently busy working on the upcoming dedication of the Lighthouse of Drac.  Milton Drac, the Sea Lord and top dog in Freeport, has been constructing the immense lighthouse overlooking the harbor for ten years in honor of his ancestors who founded the city.  The lighthouse is due to be completed shortly and opened to much fanfare.

The party was granted an audience with Milos where they asked him about the staff (claims he doesn’t know about it) and name dropped Lucius.  Milos claims that Lucius is an excellent librarian that made some poor choices.  He was gone from the temple for four years but returned last year.  Milos indicates as they talk that Lucius has appeared worn down lately and asked a lot of strange questions.  According to Milos, Lucius had violated the inner sanctum and was expelled before his travels but was let back in upon his return because he supplied the temple with an interesting collection of books he acquired during his worldly travels.  He hasn’t been to the temple in a few days.  Milos seems to think that Lucius is ok and just sleeping off a hangover somewhere.

Norton, Milos’ assistant shows the party where Lucius had been curating in the geography section.

Boat Ride

After leaving the temple, the party hires a small boat manned by a fisherman and his son to take them out to the lighthouse to investigate.  The party seems to have been followed part way but didn’t see who it was.  The party notes something odd about the construction.  On the return to town, the party’s little boat is overtaken by Scarbelly and the Bloody Vengeance.  The orc captain seems to believe that the party stole some things of his but via some negotiations and discussions the party agrees to search for a staff for Scarbelly (the one the party in fact stole) and in return he’ll provide some information he has regarding Lucius.  Scarbelly decides to hold the fisherman, his son and their boat as collateral.

The Yellow Shield Gang

Upon returning to shore, the party is heading back towards their lodging when they get jumped in the street.  Crossbow bolts fly and a group of warriors carrying yellow shields come from the alleys to attack them.  Krodin whacks a horse on the rump to see if it will run down some of the gang with a cart it is attached to but the enemy dodges the runaway beast.  The party ends up winning the fight in the end and takes the gang’s gear.  Among the items taken were an ivory hilted dagger with an L in the hilt, a silver ring and a crumpled piece of parchment with an address on it located down by the docks.  They interrogate the leader, a man named Rittoro who along with his sorcerer Belko were hired by someone named Enzo to take out the party.  The gang was supposed to meet Enzo on the docks at the Black Gull Tavern at 7pm to get paid.

The Cowardly Cultist

Sending the gang on their way, the party heads down to make the rendezvous with Enzo.  He’s a coward as it turns out and some mild interrogation pretty quickly gets him to spill the beans.  He was hired by “The Master”, the leader of a cult called the Brotherhood to have the party killed in order to prove his worth.  It’s clear that Enzo is just being used as a pawn, lackey and errand boy to do dirty work for the cult.  Enzo reveals that he is supposed to go to a small house in Scurvytown to confirm that the job to eliminate the party is done.  Enzo has been periodically taking food to this house and the party ponders if this is to feed Lucius.

Dark Temple

When the party arrives they find the structure empty.  A trap door in the floor is discovered that leads down to a wine cellar.  The room has nine barrels, some full, some empty.  The third barrel on the left turns out to be hollow and lead to a tunnel behind it.  At this point the party sends Enzo packing after they leave a note behind telling that the job is complete.

The party proceeds to head down the tunnel which goes down a flight of stairs until reaching a small T shaped room with two doors ahead and to the right.  Despite his stone cunning, Thorgrim fails to notice a covered pit and falls into it.  The party extracts him.  They listen at the two doors and find that the one on the right opens to an octagonal room that is some kind of vile chapel or ritual chamber of sorts.  The party turns and goes through the other door which leads to a hallway with doors to the left and right before it bends out of sight.  Upon opening the left door, they discover a small rectangular room with garish purple curtains.  But the décor isn’t the worst part.  Skeletal figures spring to life and attack the party.  Meanwhile from behind, lizard or serpent creatures of some kind with poisonous bites step out from a secret door in the T shaped room.  The battle is tough but all of the party survives.  The skeleton room contained four chests, two with magical auras.  In addition to some mundane treasures, the party finds a bottle, a heavy shield and a magic spear.

The party then explores across the hall and finds a small octagonal room filled with books and scrolls of “dark blasphemous crap”.  Among these is the Book of the Unspeakable One.  There are also a couple of letters discussing progress on the lighthouse.  The party theorizes that it’s to be some “Soul Sucking Ziggurat”.  They find a letter from someone named Natal indicating that “The Brotherhood is counting on you”.

The party goes back to the T room and enters the secret tunnels.  They find a second secret door that would have opened into the skeleton room and then further down a large cavern with a side tunnel to yet another secret door.  This third door opens into what appears to be the main temple.  The Temple of the Unspeakable One is a large chamber with six pillars and a black basalt altar.  Three hooded figures are in the room and one is revealed to be none other than Milos.  A tense battle ensued with Milos casting spells that held the gnome and caused other damage.  In the end the party killed the assistants and backed him up behind the altar and finished him off.  As he died he underwent a horrible transformation and turned into an ophidian serpent man similar to those that attacked the party before.

Tied up below the altar was a man who turned out to be the missing Lucius.  He tells that he was sent to the small brick house where he was overpowered and tied up.  The party arrived just in time for surely he’d have become a sacrifice to the dark god of this temple.

Epilogue and Experience

After safely returning Lucius to town and reuniting him with his friend Egil, the party ties up some loose ends.  They take the staff back to Scarbelly to exchange for the information about Lucius’ time with the orcs.  It turns out the information he yields is nothing really new at this point.  Lucius had come by the orc to find out about his time on the Bloody Vengeance of which he didn’t remember.  The captain indicates that the librarian and ridden with them and mostly stayed out of the way.  Surprisingly, Scarbelly honors his deal and returns the fishing boat and his two hostages.

Given the infrequent running of the Freeport adventures, I’m going to use the fast Pathfinder experience track (1300 XP for 2^nd level).

Combat Experience (per PC):

Press Gang (8) – 280 XP

Thugs (2) – 130 XP

Yellow Shields (4) – 100 XP

Belko – 35 XP

Rittoro – 65 XP

Serpent Men (5) – 125 XP

Skeletons (8) – 200 XP

Milos – 135 XP

Assistants (2) – 50 XP

TOTAL = 1120 XP

Roleplaying Experience (per PC):

Stealing staff from Scarbelly and dealing with him without a fight – 500 XP

Setting up second lodging to spy on first – 50 XP

Checking out lighthouse – 25 XP

Recovering Lucius – 100 XP

TOTAL = 675 XP

GRAND TOTAL XP/PC = 1795 XP

Ninjas Pirates Dinosaurs

Today's review is a short one but it touches on something a lot of D&D gamers would probably agree on.  The paper Dragon and Dungeon magazines were excellent and shouldn't have been dropped.  The other day I grabbed Dragon #318 from April 2004 off the shelf and it's as good as it gets.  As the title of the blog entry suggests, this is an issue with articles on all three of these mostly disconnected items but the articles inside this issue were great.  It had 3.5 updates to Oriental Adventures.  It had stats for several new dinosaurs.  It had the first intro article on the warforged prior to the Eberron release.  It had an article on using historical Port Royal as a pirate base in a game.  One winning article after another.  I'm not saying that WotC couldn't offer the release of the magazines as a PDF each month, but a paper version of the issues would still be a great idea.  And if the quality was as good as the Paizo years of the magazine were, I'm certain that it would stand out as a great way to promote the game on store shelves.  Until then I'll pick up the odd old issue now and again and enjoy a glimse into one of the finer parts of gaming's past.

Long time away

It's been a long time since I posted here.  Going to start putting more up again soon.  I've been on an ebay binge since the summer and have a lot of classic items I picked up that I hope to start to review.  I also want to start posting summaries of the Ravenloft email campaign I'm running.  Stay tuned!

What will be the next big thing?

Roleplaying games are one of those hobbies that seems to be at a loss for the next big thing.  I'd say the last big thing was Open Game License in 2000.  Since that time there have been a lot of different games that have come out and products for existing games but nothing about them has really been revolutionary.  So if I had to guess as to what the next big change will be, I'm going to guess it will have to do with the virtual tabletops.  If WotC gets their act together and has their VTT hit main stream for 4E (and possibly older E) gaming in a way that takes advantage of all of the various modern devices and connection approaches I think it could really get the games going again and we'll see a wealth of new products hit the streets that really finally start to give that at the table experience in a virtual environment.

Planning for an adventure

Been a while since I posted.  One thing I find is that preparing for running an adventure is something that gets easier when you do it all the time.  I'm finding I'm really a bit out of practice as I prepare to run the first adventure of the Freeport trilogy at an upcoming August weekend.  Here it is June and I'm really enthusiastic about this but it feels like it's a slow process.  Of course, some of that is probably the character creation process which a) normally wouldn't be the case if the players were making their own characters but this is essentially a one shot so I'm doing pre-gens and b) involves the Pathfinder system which is close to 3.5 but different enough that it's a learning curve.  But while I've read the module a number of times I still have a lot to do converting/learning the encounters and planning the visual presentation of the encounters with maps/tiles and minis.  I'm still confidant I can do it by August since it's not even July yet but I'm trying to recall if it's felt like this before.  What steps do you go through when you normally prep to run an adventure from a published product?

Storage and presentation

I recently added a five shelf bookshelf to my game area to make more of my game books and materials accessible.  In arranging stuff, I was wondering how most people like to store their RPG books.  I usually try to group like game materials together and make the most likely to be used the easiest to get at.  But do some people put stuff on the shelf chonilogically, alphabetically, thematically?

FLGS – part 2

It’s been a while (March) since I talked about this subject but some recent message threads I’ve been reading  brought me back to it so I’d like to pick up where I left off – describing the FLGS using the letters of the acronym.

We already talked about F, friendly, before but I’d like to add to it.  One aspect of a store being friendly is for it to be inviting – both physically and socially.  I talked about some of physical things like being well lit.  What I mean here by socially inviting is that the store, and its employees, act as if they want you to be there.  This is done in several ways.  For the employees – start with a uniform of some kind.  It doesn’t have to be anything fancy.  A simple T-shirt design will suffice.  The point is not to have me guess who of the people in the store actually works there.  Hygiene is also very important.  You’d think nobody would ever have to bring this up but I’ve been in stores where the help, or the help’s friends they are chatting with, need to learn about running water, soap and deodorant.  I have to say I don’t care much about piercings and tattoos and all that, but being lively and attentive without being overbearing is critical.  As for the store itself being socially inviting, I think the key here is advertisement, a good web site, promotions, email updates of store events and a willingness to go the extra mile for the customer.

When we look at the L, or local, part of the FLGS, satisfying folks gets to be a little more difficult.  What’s local to me may not be local to you.  That said the key in part is location, location, location.  The best place for a game store to be local (read convenient) to the most customers is if they are at a shopping center that has good road access and ideally good access to public transportation.  For drivers, it needs to have good, and ideally free, parking.  The store should also be collocated with related establishments, to make it a convenient extra stop when making the rounds.  So if the game store isn’t also a comic store for example, it would be near one.  Similarly, it would be good if it was near some book stores and things like video game, toy, craft, stationary and big box stores.  I don’t want to have to drive 30 minutes out of my way at $4 a gallon for gas.  It goes without saying that another type of business that a game store needs to be near is dining, in particular pizza, takeout and fast food choices.  Lastly, the most local a game store can be is with its virtual presence.  It needs a good web site.  In a perfect world, that site has message boards, calendars where you can schedule resources like rooms/tables in the store for events, it has a connection as a marketplace that lets me buy on line with the option to ship or to pick up my goods at the store.

G, Game, is arguably the most important part of the acronym because without the games, why would we go there to shop at all?  The key for a great FLGS in this area is to have a lot of games to choose from, in all categories – card, board, classic, RPG, miniature, etc.  There should be no shortage of choices in each category and the store needs to have all of the supplemental material that goes along with the games – for example dice for RPGs or paints and brushes for miniatures.  A good FLGS has all of the new releases, and keeps customers apprised of what’s coming on what days.  They will allow for pre-ordering of games that are coming soon, maybe going so far as to pull products for regular customers of favorite product lines like comic stores often do.  The ideal game store stocks out of print and collectible products as well.  Looking for that adventure module for the 1980s, a rare Magic card from three sets ago or a specific miniature?  They’ve got you covered.  While the employees of the store don’t need to play all of the different games, they should be basically knowledgeable about the products that the store carries and be able to answer questions or get back to customers if they don’t know.  A good FLGS also has a sizeable and uncluttered game play area as well.  Ideally this place space can be reserved for specific groups or events, it isn’t in the way of shopping, and allows for people to observe games in progress to learn about them without interfering with the players.

Finally we get to the last letter S for store.  The store needs to be well stocked.  They need to offer the products you want at the best prices they can manage.  They need to reward frequent customers.  They need to accept major credit cards.  They need great store hours.  They need good parking.  They need to get new product in on the release date or as close to it as they can manage.

Choices

Over the years, one of the ways the D&D game has changed a lot is in the number of choices players have to make in order to construct and level up their characters.  In the classic "Basic" D&D I started with you basically had to choose a class out of seven choices.  The rest of your choices were basically what equipment to buy and use and what spells to learn and memorize if you were a spellcaster.  The ability scores were random, the thief skill progression was fixed, there were no proficiencies or skills, you didn't multiclass.  Starting with 3E in particular, the number of choices grew greatly as you not only could pick skills and feats but had to choose what class you wanted each level with a large class and race combo option.  I confess that for me, sometimes I like it simple and sometimes I like to have a lot of choices to make when creating a PC.  It depends kind of on the mood.  The one thing I've found to watch out for with the later versions though is that not all choices are equal.  Sure it may cost the same to improve your spot skill versus your craft(pottery) skill, but which will get used more in play?  Sometimes it's fun to pick oddball choices though.  I gets it depends.

Life as Game

So how often has life beeen used by you to make a game session or come up with a campaign concept?  Looking at recent news items such as the flooding in the US midwest, the royal wedding in England, the killing of Bin Laden, the tsunami in Japan, civil war in Libya, etc. in can be seen where such things could be used as inspiration for a roleplaying game.  I have to say, despite the richness of real life in terms of making story, I don't usually find myself using the news as a primary source of inspiration.  But shouldn't I?  Who out there uses news stories, recent or historical, for most of their game ideas?

Are you scared yet?

I've always been a big fan of the horror setting Ravenloft and I like a lot of the trappings of horror adventures.  That said, in my experience it can be really hard to scare the players, or to make them feel scared for their characters.  About the only thing the average player seems to worry about is either a force of nature they don't feel they can fight and just need to run from (for example a tornado) or something that assaults their possessions (for example a rust monster).  Maybe it's the abstract nature of the combat system in D&D that leads to this.  I could have a maximum of 80 hit points and be down to my last one and still be 100% functional.  It's not like a real fight in the sense you could be maimed and lose the ability to walk or see.  I think another aspect of horror games that is a little more difficult is that you have to feel some closer attachment to the character and be more concerned about their goals, history, worries, etc.  If the character is just a game piece and the game style is strictly about tactical combat or optimized skill usage then you'll be too detached to feel any fear or horror.  I need to think about this more before my next game which should have a horror element to it.  And no, putting on spooky music and turning the lights down so you're too blind to see the table isn't going to cut it.

Summon Monster

How often does monster summoning by the PCs come into play in a typical game of D&D?  I'd have to say before we started playing third edition, it basically never happened.  I'm not sure if it was the casting time of the spells, or the added complexity or what but I don't think I can recall a single time before 2000 where at any of the tables I played at there was monster summoning that influenced combat.  Sure, the DM might gate extra demons in using a demon's power to bring in more of its kind, but the PCs wouldn't be calling creatures from beyond to fight for them.  3E changed that for us.  All of the sudden the clerics, sorcerers and wizards of the party were regularly bringing in celestial bisons and whatnot.  It made for some pretty entertaining combat situations as these short lived and expendable minions came in and were used to mix it up.  To some extent, the concept of summoning creatures from beyond the world always seemed in fantasy like it should involve elaborate expensive rituals and time consuming casting.  The 3E spells were more like hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat.  I think both ideas work in a game situation, though I'm not sure in a single campaign if I'd want to blend the two styles.  Thoughts?

Mind over Matter

Do psionics belong in the D&D game?  It's always been an outside system, something stuck on top of the game in an appendix or supplement rather than right in the middle of the core rules.  Despite the mechanical differences the system has seen over the years, I think the main reasons that it doesn't get used are more flavor driven.  Psionics to a lot of folks doesn't feel right for a medieval fantasy setting.  I think that's part of the reason it saw success in the more post-apocalyptic Dark Sun.  Well that and the fact that for that setting they made a point of assuming it as part of the setting rather than have it tacked on.  Personally, I think psionics are cool but they won't fit every campaign and they need to be incorporated from the start.

Best Demon Lord

D&D's demon lords are among the best big bads the game has ever seen.  A number of them have been added to the game over the years.  I was looking at the 3E Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss last night which is a great supplement.  Who's your favorite demon lord of the ones in the book?
Baphomet, Prince of Beasts
Dagon, Prince of the Depths
Demogorgon, Prince of Demons
Fraz-Urb'Luu, Prince of Deception
Graz'zt, The Dark Prince
Juiblex, The Faceless Lord
Kostchtchie, Prince of Wrath
Malcanthet, Queen of the Succubi
Obox-Ob, Prince of Vermin
Orcus, Prince of the Undead
Pale Night, The Mother of Demons
Pazuzu, Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms
Yeenoghu, Prince of Gnolls
Zuggtmoy, Lady of Fungi

Here there be monsters

I think one of the best ways for the DM to make an adventure or campaign unique is through the use of the monsters you throw at your PCs.  Monsters, in my opinion, should not just be thrown randomly at the party.  I'm not saying you don't have wandering monsters.  I'm saying the monsters need to make sense, at least from the perspective of where the PCs are.  Most of the monsters in a normal environment will be similar to each other or part of the same organization.  You won't find a goblin sharing a room with a black pudding for example unless he's some kind of pudding master or something.

Additionally, I think that the DM should consider the following categories when adding monsters to their adventure.

1. Include monsters that are part of the overall campaign thread.  So if there's a githyanki invasion going on that links the adventures together, you should have some githyanki or their agents included.
2. Include that particular adventure's main monster.  If the PCs are in a dragon's lair, you probably need to have a dragon.
3. There should be some common monsters within the context of the adventure.  These are the typical grunts and minions.  In the evil priest's lair, he might have skeletons walking around that guard the place.
4. Lastly, you probably need to throw in one unexpected monster that's included as a set piece to surprise the PCs, while still giving it a reason for being there.

Vile Darkness

The Book of Vile Darkness is one of the more interesting third edition D&D books.  Targeted at a mature audience, it's goal is to introduce rules, villains and monsters that really bring the evil of your campaign's evil to the foreground.  Here is a book that talks about all of the nasty things the enemies of your PCs can and will do to the innocent.  Personally, I think it's a great addition to the DM's arsenal, especially if they are running a game with a particular emphasis on horror and horrific villains.  Yes, I would agree this is a book that isn't for children, it is one that delivers what it promises.  If you want to scare, disgust or gross out your PCs, this book has some ideas for you.

Savage Species

The Savage Species supplement for late D&D 3.0 is one of those products that I've always really liked.  This product gives you all the options to play a monster, whether an almost human but nasty goblin, orc or bugbear to something weird like a minotaur or mind flayer.  It's just well done with lots of fun sounding options and good art.  But for some reason it's something I've never used. Maybe part of the reason is the mechanical aspects of it, figuring out how your character fits in with normal PCs.  Maybe it's more about how it assumes a different type of campaign since monsters don't normally just get to walk into the tavern.  Maybe I just haven't found the time to use it yet.  Have you played a monster today and if so, what kind?

Boxed sets

Back in the early 80s when I started playing D&D and other RPGs, it was very common for companies to produce boxed sets, especially for the initial product in a game line.  The classic Mentzer Red Box D&D set is a great example of that period.  For the AD&D line, there were a bunch of boxed sets in the 90s, but those were mostly for campaign settings (Ravenloft, Planescape, Dark Sun, etc.).  Then the boxed set went out of style.  The hardback rulebook returned as king.  But now, in the last few years since around 2008-2009 boxed sets are back.  D&D Essentials, Doctor Who, Dragon Age, Warhammer Fantasy and more.  So are they back for nostalgia reasons?  Are they back for design reasons - combining the rules, dice, adventure all in one box?  Are they back because of marketing, a choice to have the boxes on store shelves like "regular games" instead of books?  I'm guessing it's a combination of these.  In any event I'm glad to see them although to be fair I can't say I've really seen them much in the big box stores yet, not counting the big book chains.

What is in a name?

I was reading over the Faces of Evil supplement for Planescape last night and I was reminded of house TSR had decided not to call the demons and devils by those straight forward titles to avoid the whole hysteria about how D&D got kids into cults and whatnot.  They instead used the names ta'nari and baatezu.  While it has no impact on how any such creatures got used in play, it made the fluff different.  In hindsight, my take is that this wasn't all bad and giving the creatures alien sounding names for their races is kind of cool.  I like how in 3rd edition they pretty much made use of both the plain titles (to organize them in the monster manual) and the fancier TSR ones and even used those names to distinguish between different categories of demons for instance.  What do you think?

Desert Island RPG books

Like a lot of RPG book collectors I haved numerous game products from numerous companies and game lines.  Most of them are good for a casual read or in preparing or running a particular adventure.  A lot of them have cool art or layout.  Some just have sentimental value.  But every once in a while a game book comes along that falls into the Desert Island category, namely, this is a game product so well done and complete that if you were stuck on a desert island and could only have one RPG book with you, this is the one you'd take.

For me, that book is the 1991 D&D Rules Cyclopedia by Aaron Allston from TSR.  This book compiled together the majority of the content from the BECM Frank Mentzer D&D boxed sets into a single rulebook.  It really has everything you'd need to run a game of D&D.  It has character classes that go from first to 36th level.  It has magic items and treasure.  It has monsters. It has a rough outline of the D&D Known World Mystara and it's Hollow World interior as a default campaign setting.  It has rules for skills and weapon mastery and mass combat.  I could easily run any number of RPG sessions from this book alone.

Is it perfect?  No.  The art of the book is often criticized and I have to say that some of it is only ok.  I like the Easley cover but it's far from my favorite work of his or the other main line TSR artists of the time.  The book is fairly readable but the page numbers are microscopic.  There's no real sample dungeon or short adventure.  Still, if like me and a lot of other people who got it at the time you already had some of the earlier copies of the rules and you had the Gazetteers and adventures to use, or were making your own, this book was one stop shopping to bring to your game table.  And if you never had the chance to play the classic BECM D&D rules, this book is your ticket to that.

So what game book would you take with you to the island?

Planar Adventures

Back in the second edition days I became a big fan of the Planescape setting with it's unique concepts, great art and amazing style and layout.  Before then, I think I mostly thought of the planes as just a source for really tough monsters like devils and demons and elementals.  Afterwards, they became living, breathing parts of the D&D universe and really felt like locations for adventure.  Despite this and despite enjoying the various planar supplements for third edition and now 4E as well, I'm not sure if pressed for time that I'd choose to run a game based in the planes over a more traditional material world setting with dungeon crawls, wilderness exploration and urban intrigue.  Are the outer planes just too different to make for a game setting you can use full time because the DM has too much scenery to convey?  Or is it just a case of not having tried running a planar game that's kept me from using them?

Future of the Hobby

There are always a lot of debates about where the RPG hobby is headed.  Is it slowly dying out?  Is there new blood joining the fold of gamers?  Are video games replacing in person games?  My quick take is that there will always be people who play tabletop RPGs and there will always be a high degree of overlap between those who play in person with those who enjoy video games, in particular games played online.  The real factor here is the shared social experience.  From an industry perspective though, I feel as if RPGs are going to fall into two categories: a collection of companies with well supported, high quality physical products with online support tools and a whole lot of fan generated, free or inexpensive PDF products.  I think in both cases there will be an overall improvement in the quality and quantity of material, it's just the number of books you'll find in brick and mortar stores will gradually decline except for a few titles from big companies.

Freeport Companion: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Edition

One of the books I just got was new companion for the Freeport setting that gives rules information for the Pathfinder RPG.  I've been a fan of the Freeport setting from the start and while I've yet after 11 years had the chance to run a game in the setting, in particular the original classic trilogy, I know I want to someday.  Given that most of the Freeport products are written using D&D 3E as the rules engine, and given PF is just an update to 3E, I figured the companion book I wanted for my Pirate's Guide to Freeport is the PF edition.  So what did I get?  This is a 175 page perfect bound book that talks about how to use the PF races and classes in the Freeport setting.  On top of that it adds five new core classes, an NPC class (the cultist), and five prestige classes.  That's a nice amount of crunch and options when combined with Paizo's PF classes and prestige classes in the core book, Advanced Players Guide, etc.  But wait, there's more.  This book also has rules for firearms in PF, since guns and pirates go together like rum and coke.  It has 48 pages of NPC stat blocks, a combination of generic thieves, pirates, merchants, etc. and a bunch of named inviduals from the campaign setting.  Lastly, the book has some beasts and an adventure, Fury in Freeport.  That's a lot and all of it combined makes for a book you really must have if you plan to run Freeport using the PF rules.  Are there negatives?  Yes, but they're cosmetic ones so far in my reading.  Recycled art including the same cover as the Pirate's Guide.  The book is all black and white inside, again with a lot of recycled art.  The map of the city hurts in particular by not being in color.  At an MSRP of $27.95 the price is up there with a lot of smaller full color hardbacks from WotC and others.  Still, I give this product four out of five pieces of eight.

New Products

I just received a box from Amazon with some new game books.  Those were the Plane Above and Plane Below supplements for D&D 4E, the Pathfinder RPG edition of the Freeport Companion, the Smallville RPG and the Aliens and Creatures box for the Doctor Who RPG from Cubicle 7.  All great stuff.  I plan to review these over the next several days, starting with Freeport Companion.  More to come.

Best adventure formats

Adventures come in a number of formats all with their advantages and disadvantages.  I'll group them as follows:

1) One shots - these are short, say up to about 32 pages, that stand alone.  Usually these can be played in a single long session or a few 4-5 hour sessions.
2) Series - these are usually trilogies of connected adventures which individually take 1-3 sessions to play.  While they can be played independently, they usually have tightly coupled plot lines.
3) Adventure path - this is the extension of the series, as seen with the numerous APs that Paizo has created, which basically take the characters from first level to level 15-20.  As with the Series, these are well coupled with an over arching plot line but in my experience the individual adventures that make up an AP can be made to stand alone fairly well.
4) Megamodule - unlike the AP, the mega module or super adventure is a single long adventure.  It usually is meant to take characters across a span of 4-8 levels and often consists of a single location like a giant dungeon.  These take months of regular play to finish.  Frequently, they are broken into several sections but it can be hard to break out a section.

I've owned all four types of adventure but my experience has mostly been one shots, connected together, more or less, to form a campaign, or the megamodule.  As a single product that makes for the best reading, I have to say I'm partial to the mega module.  That said, under my current situation I'd get the most bang for my buck out of individual stand alone modules.  With some good hooks it can be easy to integrate it into a longer campaign if desired.  A great AP in my opinion is really a bunch of one shots with a really loose plot line and great setting hooking them together.

In an upcoming post, I'll talk about some of my favorite examples in each category.

DMing

I certainly have enjoyed both running and playing in games over the years but in general I find myself behind the screen more than in front of it.  I think the reason here in part has something to do with something I heard someone say on a You Tube video I was watching recently.  During the game, the DM is always involved.  He's a part of every scene, every battle, every initiative count.  There's no downtime for the DM.  I think the other reason is just that the DM gets to play so many characters - and a lot of those characters are monsters.  Monsters are cool.  And it doesn't matter if it's just a dumb hungry animal or an evil vampire lord, there's fun to be had there and a challenge to adapt every scene.  Oh, and the DM can fudge dice rolls.  lol

FLGS - part 1

The Friendly Local Game Store.  You'll see a lot of discussion at times on line about the FLGS.  Saving the FLGS seems to be a cause like saving the whales to some people.  There's a signficant portion of the gaming community that looks at it like treason if you buy your game products online or through a large big box chain of book stores or the like.  I have my own feeling about game stores and over several posts I'm going to explore my feelings on them and where I think they are going.  I'd like to look at the letters of the acronym as a focal point for the discussion. 

Let's start with F.  Have you ever been in a game store that wasn't friendly?  Chances are high that the answer is yes.  And by friendly, I mean several things.  The most obvious is that the people working there need to literally be friendly.  They need to greet customers when they come in.  They need to be working and available to you if you have questions.  And when you are ready to check out they need to be ready to check you out.

Another aspect of friendly is the store itself.  This combines several things but the most obvious are the store shouldn't be overly cluttered, it shouldn't be overly dark, it should be in a good location, it should have good hours, it should be clean, and well organized.  I've seen plenty that failed on one or more of these points.

To be continued.

Campaign Settings: The Known World

While the first real campaign setting supplement I ever bought for a roleplaying game was the World of Greyhawk boxed set that was released in 1983, and Greyhawk is one of my favorite settings for D&D, I have to say that my favorite setting is still after all this time Mystara, or as it was originally called, the Known World.  From that first wilderness map in the Mentzer Expert set showing the nations, to include the Isle of Dread far south, it had such a great mix of locations to make your own.  As a setting, it always felt like it was yours to do with as you wanted.  That said, they did provide a great amount of setting detail in the form of the wonderful Gazetteer series, eventually 14 of them in all, all set in the same moment in time.  On top of that there were boxed sets, trail maps and a wonderful travel log in the form of the Voyage of the Princess Ark series in Dragon magazine.  Given the BECMI rules around which it was designed which supported characters up to 36th level, this setting really supports play of all levels from your basic dungeon crawls near Threshold in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, to claiming your own territory in Norwold, to fighting a war with the Master of the Desert Nomads.  I'll try to go into more details on the various parts of this world and the campaign products themselves in future installments.

Missing the magazines

I was a long time subscriber to the Dragon and Dungeon magazines from Wizards of the Coast and thought they were at their best when Paizo was publishing them.  The content was excellent as was the art.  Last night I was looking through one of my old issues and realized how I miss having those magazines in a physical form.  Don't get me wrong, there have been some good articles and adventures posted online on the DDI which I subscribe to but it's really not the same.  To use an analogy, the paper magazine issues were like albums - a whole collection of material.  Sure, each issue had its hits and misses but overall they combined to form a great product.  Downloading an article here or there is like downloading a single song and not getting the whole record.  I even miss the advertisements.  It's great to look at issues from years ago to see what was being sold at the time.  I miss getting those magazines in my mailbox each month.  I do get Kobold Quarterly which is well done and has a lot of the same feel but it's not up to the same production level at this time and with only four issues per year instead of twelve doesn't get me my fix as often.  I'd love it if WotC decided to restore the magazines to the prime material plane.

Classic adventures

I have a large number of roleplaying game supplements starting with the first D&D adventure I ever purchased back in the early 1980s, X5 Temple of Death.  Back in those days we started originally playing using the 1981 Moldvay/Cook version of Basic and Expert on the living room coffee table after school.  I recall us playing B2, B3, B4 and X1 with that first campaign and set of characters.  We later played more first edition AD&D.  Looking back now it's really clear to me, that what defined the experience those days were the TSR adventures we all played.  There weren't 100 supplements with extra races, classes and spells.  There weren't dozens of published campaign settings.  But there were these iconic adventures with memorable encounters, great new monsters, and great villains.  Do you recall fighting Zargon?  Remember facing off against Strahd Von Zarovich?  Plundering the depths of the pyramid in Pharaoh?  I know I do.

Let the games begin

Here it goes.  This is my first blog entry in the new Dungeon Explorers blog.  This blog will mostly be about pen and paper roleplaying games but all manner of games will be sure to come up.