The IRL Update - Where did I go, What happened to Fiver and AI Shenanigans

The last 5 weeks have been Shenanigans. Things went sideways when our boy Fiver broke a leg. We have no idea how this happened, but it did. It was a bad break that required surgery. 

Of course, this happened a day before we planned to go to Lake George and a week before my daughter Catherine was going to move out. Neither could be canceled, so Catherine got him to the vet for an assessment while we went off on vacation. The break required some screws and plates, something the local vet was not able to do. The other option was amputation, again, something the local vet wasn't equipped to do. 

I said the local vet couldn't do this or that like that is a bad thing. It wasn't. They were able to get us to the appropriate animal hospital, coordinate appointments, and stabilize him with medication for comfort. They were awesome. 

As soon as my wife and I got back from Lake George, Catherine and Jen packed up Fiver and drove to the closest animal hospital that could do the surgery: Cornell University Exotic Pet Hospital. They did an amazing job. Fiver spent the week at their facility before coming home. 

During this time, I managed to get the garden ready. As you can see from the image, Fiver gets a daily pile of fresh herbs. He was not happy with the cage at first, but he got used to it. It's more like a cage in a pen. The whole area is about 8 feet long and six feet wide, with a small dog crate inside. There is nothing stopping the cats from getting in there to visit their buddy, and Fiver is smart enough to get out. But he doesn't feel like escaping right now. We don't lock him in the crate unless he is traveling, and he uses it as a bedroom. 

I know virtually everyone in the world has rabbits outside their homes, but what makes all rabbits "exotic" is the equipment and resources necessary to provide care. Our vet can't do surgeries on rabbits, especially a giant rabbit. They don't have much call for it. Dogs and cats have surgery all of the time, perhaps many times a day. They are equipped for those procedures because of the frequency of the need. Also, it's relatively cheap because of the frequency; the volume creates a built-in subsidy for that care. For that reason, getting a dog or cat neutered or spayed is super cheap. In case you were wondering, that cost us over $500 for Fiver, and it had nothing to do with his extraordinary size. 

Think twice before you buy a rabbit. They really are exotic. 

The garden is tied to Fiver. We grow a lot of food for him. This year, I used AI for planning the garden. It helped me schedule when to start seeds, what to grow, how to arrange plants, etc. It could tell me what sort of things were safe for rabbits or bad for them. This is a big help as Fiver broke his leg at the exact moment all of these tasks were due. 

One of the drawbacks of AI like Gemini and ChatGPT is the lack of persistent memory. From the user's perspective, every new chat is a blank slate. You can schedule events in Calendar or Gmail, and make lists in Keep, but it isn't the same as having a little avatar waiting for you. Creating an account allows you to access prior chats, and both services have a persistent memory of what has gone before, but it's really weird. 

For example, when the LLM updates or the interface changes, I have to remind the AI to stop calling me "Phil". I know who I am. The other odd thing is, sometimes the language model will dredge up information and fixate on a couple of random bits, often in the form of "safety warnings". 

For example, it is aware that I like wine and I have diabetes. Out of the blue, it will suggest alcohol treatment centers or a better doctor. Thanks. It's conflating my purchasing wine for birthdays and holiday gifts with actual consumption. I do 3 wine tastings a year, and I use AI to keep a running tab of what my preferences, those of my wife, and family members and friends I buy gifts for, so it is kind of understandable that it thinks I drink a lot. 

In my last post, I mentioned that AI fixated on 4 characters from my Castle Amber Sessions. I asked it to find many of the misspellings I made in those posts. However, it also noticed that the names Lance, Gabby, Khouri, and Dorian appear more often than not and locked on to them when I asked it to simulate the statues interacting with the party. 

One of the more perplexing things is the name Rakshasa. Both AI and my spellchecker are horrible at correcting typos of this name. I am fixing that today, without the help of AI. I write using my 1999 iBook, and all of the text exported from there is fine, but when I throw it in Blogger, Gemini and the built-in spellchecker go nuts. 

In my next post, I will detail what the party received from the Statues. Right after I fix the Rakshasa issue... manually. 

These IRL updates won't be shared on social media because they are outside the genre of games, so if you like these posts, click that follow button or try Campaign Wiki, which gathers blog posts for you. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 6.0 Count Your Curses and Blessings

Tangent! You can now get these books POD!
Basic here and Expert here.

Gamers often perceive Old School D&D as lethal. That is true and false. Combat tends to be lethal because the players make poor choices in combat OR the DM goofs and throws a scenario at the party that they misconstrue as winnable. This is poor playing by either the character, the DM, or both.

Completely random things tend to be mitigated by the party being aware of a threat that they avoid, plus they have a saving throw or skill throw as a backup option. That tends to make magic, tricks, and traps far less deadly than combat. 

In all fairness, PC in anything higher than 2nd edition have way too many ways to avoid death. It's the way people play. Instead of the campaign, it's the individual players that count. I dislike this because players can be heroes, but never the stuff of legends. 

When playing OSE or any AD&D or B/X game, I have a general guideline: If no one rolls for it, whatever is expected happens, for good or bad. This isn't cheating. It's simply not leaving fate to dice.  

Back to the scenario at hand. Castle Amber, the Chapel. This is my typical ad link so you can buy it. 

I know... I know. If you are one of the dozens of people who are reading this, you own it. But still, there is the ad link.

It's been over a month, so let's recap. The heroes met the Dragon and the Unicorn, and with their help, defeated the Wild Hunt. There are 13 or 14 characters, depending on how you count:

1. Alexei (turned to a ghost) 

2. Belaphon

3. Dorian

4. Gabby

5. Jude

6. Khouri

7. Lance

8. Merry

9. Nononn

10. Rety

11. Sybil

Maybe one of the statues looks like
this.

We can add Warren, Parker, and Gronk the rabbit. Gronk will never have stats, being a familiar and a rabbit, but the two Magen are there to absorb party losses by slowly becoming a classed character. 

The party has advanced to the door to the chapel of Castle Amber. I need to put on my DM hat to navigate this part of the module. In the chapel, there are 24 statues with a 1-in-6 chance of coming to life (per character) and bestowing a curse or boon on that person. The problem is obvious: with only the 10 classed characters, every single statue should trigger every single time. That is neither mysterious nor fun, because the characters have a 50-50 chance of receiving a bad or a good effect. This turns the whole scenario into a Monty Hall conga line. The surviving characters would receive only the benefits of taking the fallen's treasure. 

The way I read this is that part of the module is that this is an event that should be mysterious. I also don't want the possibility of forking out 24 magic items, boosting everyone's stats, or giving every character a permanent plus one. I want events that further the story. 

Good-bad-good-bad!

First things first, upon entering the chapel, the party hears strains of music. Alexei's ghost plays a sad song on his lute. Surprised, but not too surprised, the party greets him. He warns them that what is about to happen is tragic. Madeline Amber was buried by her brother prematurely, and it will be unlikely that the party will be able to save them both. He also warns them about the dangers of the statues. 

Being non-corporeal, he does the only thing he can to assist them: he casts sleep on Madeline Amber to give the party time to think. He also mentions the Rakshasa entered the Chapel, discovered the trap door, and have moved on to their certain doom. Having done his good deeds, he fades away to his now eternal work of playing for the revelers in the Dining Hall. 

I dislike the trap door in this area because it is a dead end for the party to make it to the dungeon without finding the keys and secret to escape Castle Amber. This is one of the challenges when writing a module: something may make sense on paper, like the presence of a trap door, but could also vex the players and DM by causing unfixable problems. Alexei's warning to the party made more sense to me than ignoring the trap door as the module advised. 

Next problem. The statues trigger too often to be mysterious. One in six is a lot. I devised a new mechanic to trigger the statues. Looking at the saving throw charts, most of the characters have around 5 in 20 to save vs the effects of the statue. Well, that is close to 3 out of 4, so I rolled a bunch of four-siders. If the result was 1-3, then I rolled a 1d6 to see if the statue came to life. Yeah, the math doesn't work, and I am doing it backwards. 

After a bit, even this felt like too much die rolling. I could have resorted to my favorite OSR Solo oracle book, but that is also more die-rolling. I am not a fan of AI, but I do have a Gemini and ChatGPT account, so I asked AI to do it. 

And it was not as good as what I would have gotten from OSR Solo, but it was easier.  

I was reminded of why I don't like AI. I got a result, but a very curious one. The numbers look random, but for some reason the bot fixated on specific characters. I repeated this 4 times per chatbot. For some reason, it fixated on just 4 characters: Lance, Gabby, Khouri, and Dorian. At least 2 of those characters were hit in every run, sometimes more than once. When I removed several from the mix, the AI locked on two other characters. 

I don't like these results, but I am running with them with one modification. When Gabby saw the first statue touch Dorian, she immediately stopped participating. Jude stopped with them. In rerunning the scenario without these three characters, Lance, Khouri, and Merry became victims of AI fixation. 

Here were the results: Dorian was cursed. Lance received a magic item, as did Merry. Khouri was cursed to grow a tail (the slowing result), which her Post-Human physiology negated. Again, she suffered some harm as she overheated from negating the attack. Merry was touched a second time and was diseased. He is immune to that. Sybil received a +1 to one ability, and it was not a helpful one.  

I might make a follow-up post because I think I know why I got these results. We are going to leave off here. The next post will be 6.1, where I detail these results and possibly talk about AI. 

Pickpocketing 101

One of the hard parts of being a DM is the characters doing random things, like pickpocketing a random person. Here is a list of 101 random things that could be found in a pocket. Two notes: I run a post-apocalyptic campaign where modern items might be found, plus in the Middle Ages, "pockets" might be larger pouches and bags than what you would expect. 

1. A hard-boiled egg
2. 7 pieces of bullion (for broth) 
3. A box of matches, two crushed packs of cigarettes, and a couple of Tic-Tacs
   
   
4. A pack of Fruit Stripe gum
5. One nugget of gold
6. a Polariod of Meri, Pippin, and Treebeard
7. Half a turkey sandwich in waxed paper 
8. 17 ketchup packets
9. 3 fortune cookies, two are broken, but the third still functions
10. A spork and a knife
11. A bar of soap and one sock
12. A cheese knife and a wedge of cheese
13. A multitool 
14. Hockey tape and puck
15. A sling and 7 bullets
16. A sewing kit
17. One large onion
18. A ball of twine
19. 7 quarters and 3 dimes
20. A jar of Grey Poupon
21. A pair of gloves and a trowel
    
    
22. A Zippo lighter
23. 3 perfect skipping stones
24. A pair of glasses
    
25. 3 silver bars
26. A bundle of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. 
27. A set of files
28. A measuring tape
29. Scissors and a piece of chalk
30. A small first aid kit
31. A heel of bread
32. A small box of snuff
33. 4 tubes of paint and a brush (white, vermillion, ivory black, and yellow ochre) 
34. A balisong
35. A pipe, a tobacco pouch, and a cleaning tool
    
36. A laser pointer
37. A small pouch
38. A tin cup and a tea ball
39. A can of grease
40. A lucky coin
41. 3 chess pieces, one bishop, one queen, one rook. 
42. An Uno deck
43. 3 bungee cords
44. A paperback book, "What is Dungeons and Dragons?"
45. 6 ball bearings, 1" steel
46. 12 copper pennies in a snap pouch
47. A kalimba 
48. A pair of small nunchucks (1d3 damage) 
    
    
49. A folding pocket knife with the letter "P" engraved on it
    
    
50. Archery bracer and finger gaurds
51. Steel wool
52. Pegs for a lute
53. 15 safety pins
54. A compass
55. A small oil lamp, empty
56. Sunglasses, pink with rhinestones
57. A hymnal
58. Three tiny screwdrivers and a 10 mm socket
59. A pack of clove cigarettes and a book of matches
60. A tube of toothpaste and a well-used toothbrush
61. 3 votive candles in glass and wire holders 
62. 3 Sharpie markers, orange, brown, and black
    
    
63. 6 sheets of paper, the 6th has plans for a garden
64. A small book: "The Early History of Rome" by Levy
65. A pair of pliers and 8 nails
66. A canvas roll for paint brushes
67. 3 cards: a Jack, a Queen, and two, all clubs
68. A roll of Duct Tape and a small razor
    
    
69. A brush and soap in a cup
70. 3 carabiners and three iron spikes
71. A tiny 6" hammer
72. A play program from "Guys and Dolls"
73. A box with 3 gears on the front
74. 6 packets of seeds: tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, and goblins
75. A kitten
76. 24 cough drops
77. 72" of wick and a ball of wax
78. An oil can, full
79. A fabric map of France
80. A set of dominoes
81. Wolfsbane
82. 17 wooden dice, all 1d6
    
83. A set of shot glasses
84. Two ferrets
85. A straight razor and a small leather strop
86. A jar of Nutella 
    
    
87. A brass electric torch
88. Thieves tools
89. Brass wire and cutter
90. A set of guitar strings
91. A can of chicken noodle soup with a P-38 can opener
92. 23 recipe cards
93. A flask of brandy
94. A bottle of fluid, clearly labeled "food poisoning"
95. A glass cutter
96. 3 quartz crystals on a lanyard
97. 3 packs of sugar and 16 packs of saccharine
98. A glass jar full of milk
99. A pair of mittens and a hat
100. One rubber spatula

Bonus item: 

101. The One Ring

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 5.0 - Ancient and Secret Ways

The Indoor Forest is a shockingly big place. In 1 inch=5 feet, the map would be about 70 inches across and up and down. 

This area should be a slog, but there are not enough events and wandering monsters to make it too difficult. In fact, the party doesn't meet a single wandering monster. 

Previously, I mentioned the Rakshasa entered the forest first. What I did in this case was roll for wandering monsters on a schedule, then gave the party and the Rakshasa a 50-50 chance of meeting the rolled monsters. The Rakshasa got the short end of the stick using this method. They ran from a group of bears before getting into a fight.  

With Gabby and Gronk as guides at the front of the group, the party made it through relatively quickly. This area is really only dangerous if the party wanders from the path, and Gabby wouldn't let them. 

I would make a real group of players pick a proper marching order, but since this is a solo session, the order is very loose. Gronk and Lance lead, with Nononn and Gabby behind them. Jude, Merry, Parker, and Warren ring the magic users and clerics. Rety is the trailer, watching everyone's backs. 

To bring the Killer Trees back, Gabby and Lance threw meat to them, which made them happy. The rough patch happens with the illusions. Sybil has become less wise and is empowered by magic and chaos. She wanted to investigate endlessly, increasing her chances of wandering into something dangerous. Rety, Lance, and Gabby convinced her to return to the task at hand. 

Having made their way to the lady and unicorn, Gabby and Gronk sat down to wait for them to awake. The rest of the party doesn't exactly follow suit, but they do become aware that this is some sort of game between the witch and the denizens of the forest. Lance and Khouri took a knee nearby when they realized both were pretending to sleep. The rest of the party stood by politely. 

"It's ok," said Gabby. "We shared Bonds of Hospitality, which prevents violence." 

The lady sat up and said, "That was a long time ago, and it should not hold." 

This ritual spell is limited to a day or so, but I would use this spell to introduce some weirdness of Castle Amber to the party. 

"You should not have cast it on an immortal being. I dislike being bound, even in pleasant cases," said the unicorn. "You are well met, again, witch." 

Gabby bowed to them both before bringing out the key. "We wish to be free." 

The lady nodded. I personally dislike how long it takes the party to know the secret of Castle Amber. 

The lady, full of the lore of dragons, can recite part of the mystery but not all: 

"The secret that will break the curse surrounding Castle Amber and lift the gray mist is engraved on the inside lid of Stephen Amber's casket. To summon Prince Stephen's tomb from beyond space and time, four magical items are needed. And it starts with the key." 

Gabby smiled at them. 

"Where is the tomb?" asked Nononn. 

"We do not know," the unicorn answered, "but it is reachable from the castle. You will have to explore it more." 

"Wait," said Rety, "Have you explored the castle completely?" 

The lady smiled. "No, we are immortal beings; we are not confined by the mists and magic. We can leave any time we like."

"And no, we can lead you out. You are trapped by your own doing just, and I and the 'corn are bound by Gabby's spell," the lady continued. "We suggest either traveling east or north."

"Beware of the cat men, the Rakshasa. They move ahead of you, seeking something else entirely." 

(I think I have spelled "Rakshasa" wrong every time, differently. If only AI was good for something.) 

The party thanked them and moved north along the path. At the fountain in the middle of the forest, they found bodies, the aftermath of a fight. Five Rakshasa lay dead, along with a horse and a woman. The woman was Isidora Amber. Disturbingly, it appeared the Rakshasa attacked each other. All had noticeable tiger-claw wounds. 

The party deduces that the woman was waylaid by the Rakshasa as she sat near the fountain. The reality was the opposite. Isidora Amber ambushed the Rakshasa as they killed the amoeba in the fountain. The survivors escaped with the key. Gabby took Isidora's potion and ring while Bel took her spell book. 

The party moved northwest and stopped when they spotted movement to the right. 

"Show-offs!" grumbled Gronk. 

At first, the party only saw squirrels. Then they saw the squirrels transform acorns into gold. More curious and amused, Bel, Rety, Lance, and Sybil started feeding them. They were perplexed that the squirrels didn't turn apples, peaches, and plums into gold. They had a nervous moment when a squirrel touched Lance, but he didn't turn to gold either. 

Amused, they started to move away when Wild Hunt blocked the path before them. 

Warren, Parker, Nononn, Jude, and Merry formed a line between the rest of the party and The Hunt. No one moved as both groups stared each other down. The impasse was broken by an angry snort from behind the party. The lady and the unicorn had followed them. 

The lady dismounted and waved to Jude, who smiled. He mounted the `corn with his pole arm held like a lance. Nononn gave him a shield, and I pulled out my copy of Chainmail to use the jousting rules. That link is to DriveThruRPG. 

Breaking a lance does 1d4 points of damage, unhorsing does 1d6, and helmet hits, and injuries do full weapon damage. Jude manages to unhorse Andrew David. I could have had Jude continue with the other four, or I could have stopped here, using the morale rules. Andrew David, having been knocked down, would have counted as the first casualty. 

Although the unicorn was simply a vehicle for Jude to use his abilities, I do have a fully spec'ed out Unicorn class to use. You can check it out here. I may reformat this and post it as an actual character class on DrivethruRPG and Ko-Fi. 

I have never really been satisfied with mounted combat in D&D, in every version. I use a format where the mount handles all movement and gives up its attacks. Once the rider becomes separated from their mount, both are free to attack. Anything else is too overpowering. I guess I should get better at describing quick and fast movement, because I can't find a way to fix these rules. They are good enough. 

I didn't take detailed notes as I went through this combat while watching hockey. The party was victorious, having killed Andrew David, the elk, two tigers, and both lupin. They now have his potion, his mace +2, and his shield. I figured he had a shield to go with the lance. The rest fled due to failing morale. 

The party healed themselves up and proceeded on to the Chapel entrance. The next session will be session 6.0. 

Over the next week, I will be watching the Sabres battle the Canadiens while making some changes to the website. The top banner for DriveThruRPG is only the start of some changes around here. 

X2 - Castle Amber 2026 - Session 4.2 Character Updates - Officially Wrong

The other day, I posted updated Character Sheets and then realized I had forgotten to update their ability scores and ancillary stats. I like to relax and watch a hockey game, and sometimes write a bit while doing that. Updating character sheets while watching hockey simply didn't work. 

You know what I did? I did it again for the Sabres vs. Stars game. I did go back after the game and tried to double-check things. If I have made a mistake this time, it will be Officially Wrong forever. 

I have a feeling I botched Jude's stats, but lost my notes. I guess I'll never know for sure. 

Gabby's sheet is still blank on the equipment. This is because I am not using the standard sheet for her. I am using the character folio made by JV West for Other Side Publishing. 

I didn't want to post a file of that, but here is the sample image from DrivethruRPG:

I love it. 

This weekend, I will continue the adventure. 

To get us ready, let's have a brief recap of where we left the party. There were some clear winners and losers at dinner in Castle Amber. Gabby was able to save the day a couple of times to prevent instant death. She had foreknowledge of the potential dangers from a disastrous meal eaten by the Rakshasa. 

Gronk, as a rabbit, offered a lot of bad advice. He warned the characters about the beef, bread, and mushrooms - all items rabbits can't eat. He offered no opinion on the alcohol because, as an intelligent rabbit, he doesn't consume alcohol but knows humanoids do and enjoy it. All of this happened because some of the items were outside of his knowledge. As a DM, you can feed the party information, but the party would be wise to understand that some creatures don't have the same ideas or perspectives as themselves. That's right out of Niven's Laws:

15. There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently.
15a. Niven's corollary: The gene-tampered turkey you're talking to isn't necessarily one of them. 

Giant rabbits aren't turkeys, but they are close. And heavier. And eat more.  

All of the participants in the meal had their stats scrambled. Sybil, as a chaotic character, was damaged the most by losing a point of Wisdom and gaining Charisma. She can talk a good game, but the games won't be ones you'd want to play. 

Alexei paid the ultimate price, fading away to join the ghostly party. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. 

This is the soul version of Hotel California. The reason for it is two-fold. It's a good song that holds up to changes. That's how I like to play D&D. It's also a callback to when my wife and I saw Don Henley in concert. You know he HAD to play this song, but after decades of playing Hotel California, he gave it a Zydeco rhythm. Sometimes, you have to change things up to keep it fresh. 

This is Gabby's role in the party. She has more experience in the Castle and a wildly different perspective than the party. She will attempt to herd this wacky bunch through the Indoor Forest, a place she knows pretty well. It couldn't be worse than herding Rakshasa. Lance followed her in there, so at least he is willing to trust her. That may sway the party into avoiding some of the threats. 

So, I will see you next time in the Wood Between Worlds... er the Indoor Forest.