The Cloak of Wonderous Items

The Wizard Dallehm is a long-dead character in my campaigns. But he was the owner of many magic items and the inventor of several spell ideas. He did not live long enough to create new items or spells.  

Besides the famous crown, Dallehm also owned the Cloak of Wondrous Items. One of the Cloaks is in the possession of Sybil, and is a copy of one her father owns. How Sybil's father came by it is unknown. 

The Cloak of Wonderous Items is similar to a Robe of Useful Items, but with the ability to return non-living, non-burning items back to the cloak for later use. This is done by covering the item with the cloak or brushing the cloak over the item. 

New items cannot be added. Nothing that comes from the cloak is lit or on fire. Burning items must be extinguished before being returned. 

I stole this idea from the Many Colored Lands series. One of the characters has an outfit festooned with tiny pockets with components to assemble devices that are not otherwise allowed where the owner is going. The implication is that searching a cloak is tedious and would only turn up items that are allowed because the individual components are benign. It's the combining of items that makes them useful and dangerous. 

The cloak always has 2 of the following: 

• A pair of daggers, one silver and one cold iron, 
• A 12-foot tent pole, 
• 8 iron spikes,
• 1 large wooden stake, 
• A torches,
• A tinderbox, 
• A waterskin, full, 
• A mallet, 
• A hatchet
• 1 shirt, 1 pair of pants, and boots, all sized to the owner. These are neatly folded in one package.

There are 3d6 other items found on this random generation table: 

01-04    A pair of war dogs. 
05-08    A riding horse, with saddle and bags.
09-15    A bottle of wine or brandy with four wooden cups
16-22    A rowboat with anchor and oars. Holds 8 people. 
23-30    Logs and tinder, suitable for a campfire lasting all night in the coldest winter. 
31-44    A wicker mantlet. It's a siege shield with wheels and is usable by anyone. 
45-51    100 feet of rope.
52-59    A trestle table with two benches, and bowls of bread and water for 8 people. 
60-68    A rack with 6 crystal vials. 2 are holy water, two are oil, and 2 contain a powerful acid. 
69-75    A round shield, not usable by the Magic-User.
76-83    A lantern full of oil, unlit. 
84-90    A potion of healing with 8 doses. Returns 1d4+1 hp per dose. 
91-94    An 8-man tent, unassembled. It has its own spikes, mallet, and tent poles. 
95-00    A pig on a spit, ready for roasting. Serves 3d12 people. 

Alternatively, you may simply choose to have every item available once. 

The healing potions are unique and can't be returned. The same for the oil, acid, and holy water vials in the rack. The horse and war dogs also cannot be returned to the cloak. They are permanent and genuinely love the cloak's owner. 

Returning the table, waterskins, wine and brandy bottles, and roasting spit, emptied, will regenerate the food and liquids 24 hours later. Returning torch nubs or empty lanterns will regenerate the tinder, oil, wicks, and torches in 12 hours. 

Broken or lost mundane items may be replaced with an exact substitute. Characters may not replace items with substitutes if they still have the original item. 

The owner of the cloak always knows the properties of the various liquids. They will never mistake a vial of acid for a healing potion or holy water. 

This cloak is limited to Magic-Users and Illusionists; however, anyone can use the items. 

You may wish to add the following details to the items:  

• The tent is labeled, "Camp Crystal Lake, NJ". 
• The table is bright green and stamped with the words: "Property of Erie County Public Works". 
• The rowboat has a number on it and the name: "Sandusky, OH". 
• The vial rack is labeled: "Fr. G. Sarducci". 
• The brandy is labeled "Thunderball" and the wine is branded "Dom Pérignon, 1955". 
• As with all tents, no magic in the world can restore lost parts even if returned to the cloak. The rope, pole, mallet, and spikes are all intended to work with the provided tent. 
• The rope must be neatly wrapped before returning. Be kind, rewind. 
• The round shield has a white star with blue and red stripes. 

Stat'ing Up Sybil

I have decided that Sybil is the new Magic-User to join the party. In this post, I generated her stats using the OSE NPC Generator. As I promised, I would be flipping her stats to put that 7 in Wisdom. This is to slightly counteract the ring of 4 wishes. She isn't wise to be devious. 

As I did for all other randomly generated characters, I rerolled any stat of 11 or under. If I were able to beat the original score, it would be increased. If I did not beat that score, it stayed the same. Here is what I got: 

STR: 11 (unchanged, I rolled lower.)
INT: 13 (no reroll)
WIS:  7 (unchanged, as I decided I wanted this score.)
DEX: 14 (was 7)
CON: 10 (was 9)
CHR: 13 (was 9)

That seemed fair. She is quick and quick-witted, and good with people, but perhaps naive. 

As the ring of 4 wishes, which is completely ridiculous on the surface for a second-level character, I used OSR Solo to adjudicate the wishes. This is modified by my general rules of thumb for wishes in my campaign. 

In the generic, rings of wishes are much more limited in their ability to suborn wishes, at the same time as being mechanically resistant to harming anyone. Magic rings don't have agency. 

If I deem a wish to be out of bounds, a magic ring gets physically hot. It will not operate for a time, at least for that person. I decide how long and for whom. It does not waste a wish because the last wish causes the ring to stop being magic. Magic rings have enough agency not to destroy themselves needlessly. I also have a tradition that all rings of wishes are white gold and transform into lead rings when expended. Click the link to see a scenario where that happens. 

Should a wish be granted by a creature, these rules of thumb go right out the window. Creatures do have agency and agendas. For example, a god or demon may desire to bring certain people back to life and may twist a badly worded wish to do as THEY desire. The key bit is that the wish is the expression of their power, which may benefit the PC's. 

Anyway, I already determined one wish was "A Magic Dog!" I made that wish #4. The wishes were: 

1. A copy of all of her father's adventuring equipment. 
2. A magic dagger or shortsword that is almost exactly like Sting from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Click the link to see Sting in action on YouTube. 
3. A doubling of Sybil's current powers and abilities. 
4. A Magic Frickin' Dog!

The first wish is pretty good; she wished for a copy of her father's items. That would prevent harming her father. If this were worded in other ways, it could cause her father to lose the use of his equipment or maybe cause Sybil to inherit his stuff after he dies. That second possibility could be useless if he has a long life, or worse, it causes his death, so she inherited his stuff. 

I hate it when a wish would cause a paradox. If her father were already dead, she would have his stuff through inheritance, so why would she wish for this? I try to avoid that at all costs with wishes. It's also a good reason not to hose PCs in with the worst possible outcomes of wishes. 

The second wish is meta. I would expect and accept this from a player character. Sting-like swords are cool and do exist in my campaign, so I'd let it go. 

The third wish is well-worded to prevent it from being meta while also being something I would expect from a PC. 

OSR Solo has a great likelihood table that goes beyond yes and no. You can click this link to buy a copy at DriveThruRPG. I personally like the physical books, but there is also a PDF for less.  

For the first wish, she rolled a 6. That is "yes and...". This is an excellent result and grants more than the equipment she knew about. She also has a copy of her father's spell book and magic robes. I decided there is a limitation on the spell book. It contains spells she doesn't know and can't read yet. 

I rolled a 4 for the second wish. That is a flat yes. She has a +1 dagger or small shortsword. It does 1d4+1 and glows in the presence of goblinoids and giant spiders. That is basically Sting in a nutshell. 

Were I dealing with a PC who made this wish, I would troll them. "Funny, your dad has a sword just like it. It's a shame you wished for his equipment but not his weapons." 

For the third wish, "double my power," I rolled a 3, which is "yes but..." There is a hindrance to this wish. This is really straightforward for this wish. She has doubled her power, from level 2 to level 4. BUT, she didn't gain the experience. She has all of the benefits and abilities of a 4th-level Magic-User in all ways, but won't gain any more power until she has the experience points to reach 5th level. Painful, but easily implementable. I don't like wishes that cause paperwork. 

Where she really won was in hit points, which are simply doubled. I give max hit points for the first level, and require a roll for higher levels, rerolling ones. Sybil has 16 hp as she rolled a 4 for her second level. The character generator shows a lower HP value, but I did reroll everyone else's hit points to drop ones and include max hit points at level 1.  

The Magic Dog is crazy and fun. I decided to ask a series of questions:

• Is it really magic? The result was "yes". 
• Is it a Blink Dog? "No". 
• Is it a Hell Hound? "No, and..." it is afraid of Hell Hounds. This choice of modifier is easy and natural. Everyone is afraid of Hell Hounds. 
• Can it talk? "Yes... but". If I did this to PC, I would again troll them by saying the dog speaks in a Scottish brogue... and only understands you if YOU speak in a Scottish brogue. This doesn't make sense in this context of a text-only experience, so I'll let that one go. At a table full of players, it would be funny.  

I stopped asking questions at 4. Four wishes allows for 4 questions. It looks good enough to me. 

In doing this exercise, I also determined something else about Sybil. She might be neutral as she sees Blink Dogs and Hell Hounds as attractive and useful. Her father also imparted some lore about his time adventuring and is encouraging of her. 

OSR Solo is really handy book for off-the-cuff items. 

Observations from The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 All Sessions - Part 2

Here is part of my observations on all sessions to date for B2 Keep on the Borderlands. I really hope you bought a copy, so I can stop posting the link to DriveThruRPG. 

I have mentioned the map scale several times and the headache that it gives. The valley for the Caves of Chaos is far too small, and the distance from the Keep is tiny. The module gives travel times as 1 square (100 yards) per hour when searching, which seems fine, but then gives non-searching speeds of 300 yards per hour. That's 0.17 miles per hour or less than 6 hours to cover one mile. 

I'm a little chubby and I walk much faster than that. 

Keep on the Borderlands was published a year before the Basic and Expert sets. These sets combine to codify indoor and outdoor travel speeds. It was a welcome choice and a great option. I politely ignore the travel times in the module, and as a consequence, I don't let much happen on the road. 

The next issue with scale is the sheer number of people inside the Keep itself. I counted 239 fighting men and 47 non-fighter types. I will not die on these numbers. I am probably wrong because I counted quickly. Gary Gygax's writing can be obscure or unclear, to say the least. But I did my best. If I had read it more slowly, I would have gotten it right because I'm sure it is all there. 

A castle similar to Bodiam Castle

This population fits my historical thinking. In keeping with my quick, back-of-the-envelope calculations, the Keep is roughly 3 times bigger than Bodiam Castle. This "castle" is more of a fortified estate, a family home over fortification. Much of its defences revolve around big walls and surrounding features instead of manpower. The walls and moat were two defences, but it also had satellite ponds designed to slow someone down and force them to take in the grandeur of the site. That was the intent: to slow an attacker so everyone got a look at everyone else. Sometimes, that is all you need to stop an opposing force. 

I found a notation that Bodiam Castle was 1/3 the size of the Keep in B2 and that it could support up to 80 people for a limited time. Those would have been guests and merchants, not fighting men, most of the time. If the Keep is 3 times bigger, the number of troops is perfect. The Keep is not overpopulated; it's overmanned by soldiers. I tend to describe it as an up-and-coming Keep, where the 47 non-fighting types are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to population. They are the people the characters notice, not all of the people. I often introduce several huts, a few camping fishermen by the river, a small farm, and a woodsman's shack near the Keep. This is flavoring and landmarks for the party, so they know roughly where they are. 

This also gives me something to do with the raiders and spies south of the Keep. They sit near the road, the only road to the Keep. This road has to bring in thousands of gold pieces of cash and goods to the Keep, because the Keep has no means of support in the surrounding empty territory. The raiders could actually steal a wagon or bribe the caravan guards and do serious harm to the Keep, even if they only stole food. That's a really good plot point. One quick raid hands the Castellian a big loss. 

Better yet, the raiders already have something in their description that hints at a possible avenue of profit and, in a way, an economic attack. Since they hunt the forests, they have fresh game meat to trade. They don't want to walk into the Keep to do this; they sell it to the caravan, which in turn sells it to the people in the Keep at a good profit. Everyone knows what is happening. There is no real surprise that the Castellian doesn't try to remove them if he discovers them, because everyone loves fresh food. 

As spies, they don't have to do too much. I would imagine the captain and lieutenant would try to spy and make contacts in the Keep itself. There is not much to keep them out. The rest of the "raiders" would also venture to the Keep for major news. They wouldn't do anything nefarious. They simply want to know if something "big" is happening in the Keep so they don't surprise themselves. 

As described, the raiders do represent a minor threat to a party of about equal size. They can't really get a TPK, but they can brain-drain a party by wiping out Magic-Users, Clerics, and Thieves. 

One thing that WILL cause a TPK is giving the raiders horses if the party is on foot. Those spearmen become very deadly on horseback. The same happens if more than 2 guys have bows or crossbows. Gary Gygax must have thought this out with the intent of a fair, but tough fight. 

I'll need to create a plotline for the raiders in one of the upcoming sessions.  

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 6 - Book Keeping and Wishes

I had planned on doing a longer session today, but my blood sugar bounced. It tends to put me in a reflective mode. 

My main goal was to update the character sheets for Rety and the Clerics. Rety is level 2, finally, and the Clerics are level three. I had planned to have Rety hire a second Magic-User and something funny happened. 

I used the OSE NPC Generator. It is super easy. I must have clicked on "create" 2 dozen times, looking for the right combo of stats, spells, and magic items. As per normal, I wanted this character to have a Bag of Holding or a Ring of Protection. 

This is what I got: 

Wow. A ring of wishes on a second-level character. That is fun! Since I am in charge here, I decided to change that to 2-4 wishes instead of the original 1-2. 

Why? 

It's my game, plus I am the referee AND the player characters. Who wouldn't want a ring of 4 wishes? I have every intention of swapping this character's Wisdom and Dexterity before he starts making wishes. 

Additionally, it gives me a chance to tell a really offbeat story. 

I had a bunch of players who refused every adventure hook, running around town doing everything they wanted and nothing that I planned. Because: PLAYER CHARACTERS!

They were having the time of their lives, and I was going out of my skull planning stuff that would never be used. I came up with a great idea that I stole from Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures. You can purchase this book on Amazon.com with this link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Someone offered to sell them a great mansion in a nice location. The party declined and selected a smaller place in a horrible part of town. Since I was reading a lot of Robert Asprin, this town was a lot like Sanctuary in the Thieves World books. 

(Again, you can purchase this book on Amazon.com with this link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.) 

Basically, the town was hell on earth, and the party decided to move into the worst circle of that hell. Of course, since this was a railroad, I used the same floor plan as the original house I had thought of, with all the tricks and secrets I had originally planned. 

This house had doors and cubbies that led to other places like mines, and dungeons, and a castle in the sky. Somehow, the party avoided investigating them all. It wasn't like they were trying; they were having too much fun doing their own thing to look in cabinets and cubbies. 

Instead of trying to trick them or kill the party off, I spent most of my time gentrifying the neighborhood. Sanctuary is a hard city to have fun in, and it really didn't fit with what the party was doing. 

I threw in a gag where the party was robbed, but the robbers noticed the cleric, and covered their ill-deeds with an offering to the priest. Then, it happened again right after they spent all of their cash on workmen to clean up the house. The thieves took pity on their lack of funds a second time and gave them a few coins for soup. 

Once the house was in order, I decided to inflict a comical plague on them. Their neighbors were the Bumpuses from A Christmas Story, complete with the pack of hounds. The hounds and thieves became minor backing characters in the party's wild rumpus throughout my wrecked campaign. 

I'm sorry, I get overly wordy and ramble when my blood sugar drops and bounces back. 

We are finally at the part where the party gets a ring of wishes. It was a random treasure roll, nothing I had planned, but I foolishly let it happen anyway. And comedy gold ensued. 

Two different characters wished for two very useful and interesting things. I wish I could tell what those exact wishes were, but besides being well thought out and sincere, I can't remember because the third wish blew them right out of my memory. 

Forever.

The Fighter snatched up the ring and wished for: "A Magic Dog!" 

No stipulations, no modifying phrases or clauses, and no explanation at all. Just "A Magic Dog!" at a time when the party was surrounded by dogs. 

What the hell, Fighter! 

So, obviously, our new Magic User character will burn that fourth wish on "A Magic Dog!" 

I will be back when I feel better and explain what happened once the party rejoins the adventure at The Keep on the Borderlands. I am sick of posting this link to DriveThruRPG, so why don't you try Return to Keep on the Borderlands for 2e? 

Book Review - A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle

Title: A Fine and Private Place
Author: Peter S. Beagle
Year: 1960
Pages: 272 pages
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Peter S. Beagle’s A Fine and Private Place is a novel that doesn't fit neatly in a category. Part fantasy, part meditation, part quirky slice-of-life, it’s the sort of story that sinks its teeth into you. This is Beagle's first book, published about 8 years before his best-known book, The Last Unicorn. 

The links above are to AbeBooks, I earn money from your qualifying purchases. 

Honathan Rebeck was a former pharmacist who transferred to the Yorkchester Cemetery in an unknown big city for reasons unknown. While reading the book, I kept flip-flopping between Chicago and New York City in my mind, but it isn't either. It's a snapshot of a bustling city wrapped around green spaces, subways, museums, and cemeteries. It's anywhere in the 1960s. 

The setting is brilliant: Yorkchester Cemetery. It’s here that Jonathan Rebeck, who has withdrawn from the world, has chosen to live. His home is a mausoleum. He is befriended by a talking raven that delivers food and news as needed. The raven is one of my favorite characters in the book. He’s blunt, greedy, funny, and oddly wise in his way of constantly reminding Rebeck that, no matter how withdrawn from society you become, the living have daily needs. 

The cemetery is also home to the newly dead, who linger as ghosts for a while. Among them are Michael and Laura, two spirits who meet after death and fall in love. Their romance is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. They know their time together is limited. They will eventually move on and fade to an unknown fate, but they cling to one another anyway. Their relationship is the emotional anchor of the story. 

Gertrude Klapper, a widow who visits her husband’s grave and ends up entangled in Rebeck’s strange little world. Unlike Rebeck, Gertrude isn’t hiding from life. At least not exactly. She’s practical, witty, and a little sharp-tongued. She offers Rebeck something he hasn’t had in years: real conversation, companionship, and the possibility of a future. The romance between them unfolds slowly, but it feels real, grounded not in passion or youthful idealism but in shared loneliness and the desire to live again.

As much as Rebeck has withdrawn, Gertrude only superficially interacts with the living beside Rebeck. Appearing more engaged, Gertrude is looking and failing to find more in life outside of the cemetery. But inside, she joins Rebeck's weird little clan and demonstrates rather than learns acceptance. 

The title of the novel is from Andrew Marvell's poem, To His Coy Mistress: “The grave’s a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace.” Beagle takes that line and asks: What if people do embrace them? What if love and hope could still flourish after death? That’s the novel’s central question, and answered well. 

And that’s what I love most about A Fine and Private Place: it isn’t about excitement, instead focusing on characters and adventure. There are no battles, no magical systems, no apocalyptic stakes. The drama comes from conversations, small choices, and fleeting connections. It’s a novel about people learning, very quietly, how to live, how to let go, and most importantly, how to love.

The ending manages to be both sad and hopeful. Some characters move on, both literally and figuratively, while others take tentative steps back into life. There’s no neat bow tied around everything, but that’s exactly the point. Life and death don’t work that way. What Beagle offers instead is a reminder that impermanence doesn’t make love or connection meaningless. It makes them precious and joyous. 

You can also purchase this book on Amazon.com with this link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Old School Essentials - Experience Tables

This is an addendum to the Keep on the Borderlands Sessions. When we last left the party, several characters were leveling up. It turns out that only three of the PCs will level and not the three I expected: Rety the Thief, Donian, and Thomas, who are both Clerics. Although I had a good record of experience earned, I hadn't consulted the experience tables before making this declaration.

So now I have only 2 first-level characters, Left and Punch. The other two first-level characters have left the party for safety and sanity. I would imagine that Hender and Simon, the two fathers of young adult children, will stick together back at the Keep. Simon has two daughters and probably needs a drink if they hang out with Hender's son, Sonny. 

Class	1	2	3	4	5
Basic OSE
Cleric	0	1,500	3,000	6,000	12,000
Dwarf	0	2,200	4,400	8,800	17,000
Elf	0	4,000	8,000	16,000	32,000
Fighter	0	2,000	4,000	8,000	16,000
Halfing	0	2,000	4,000	8,000	16,000
Magic User	0	2,500	5,000	10,000	20,000
Thief	0	1,200	2,400	4,800	9,600
Advanced OSE
Acrobat	0	1,200	2,400	4,800	9,600
Assassin	0	1,500	3,000	6,000	12,000
Barbarian	0	2,500	5,000	10,000	18,500
Bard	0	2,000	4,000	8,000	16,000
Drow	0	4,000	8,000	16,000	32,000
Druid	0	2,000	4,000	7,500	12,500
Duergar	0	2,800	5,600	11,200	23,000
Gnome	0	2,000	6,000	12,000	30,000
Half-Elf	0	2,500	5,000	10,000	20,000
Half-Orc	0	1,800	3,600	7,000	14,000
Illusionist	0	2,500	5,000	10,000	20,000
Knight	0	2,500	5,000	10,000	18,500
Paladin	0	2,750	5,500	12,000	24,000
Ranger	0	2,250	4,800	10,000	20,000
Svirfneblin	0	2,400	4,800	10,000	20,000

Looking back at the table, I am not sure why I put in level one because it always starts at zero. I am writing directly to code, not with a WYSIWYG editor so fixing it is a pain.

You can simplify the table by combining characters into their sequence of progression.

Class	1	2	3	4	5
Basic OSE
Cleric (Assassin)	0	1,500	3,000	6,000	12,000
Dwarf	0	2,200	4,400	8,800	17,000
Elf (Drow)	0	4,000	8,000	16,000	32,000
Fighter (Bard)	0	2,000	4,000	8,000	16,000
Halfing	0	2,000	4,000	8,000	16,000
Magic User (Half-Elf, Illusionist)	0	2,500	5,000	10,000	20,000
Thief (Acrobat)	0	1,200	2,400	4,800	9,600
Advanced OSE
Barbarian (Knight)	0	2,500	5,000	10,000	18,500
Druid	0	2,000	4,000	7,500	12,500
Duergar	0	2,800	5,600	11,200	23,000
Gnome	0	2,000	6,000	12,000	30,000
Half-Orc	0	1,800	3,600	7,000	14,000
Knight	0	2,500	5,000	10,000	18,500
Ranger	0	2,250	4,800	10,000	20,000
Svirfneblin	0	2,400	4,800	10,000	20,000

This reduces the number of character types by progression to 15. I find this format handy.

My next step is to return for Session 6, but since I have started writing in HTML, I might make a detour through fixing my horrible Index page for reviews. That really needs some love.

Observations from The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 All Sessions - Part 1

We are five sessions into this mess. The party has returned to the Keep after suffering several losses that were not evidenced in the last session. Run as two parties, they suffered the deaths of Duskin and Pavel, the 3 drover characters stepping away, and from session 5, Sonny and Hender were hurt badly. NPCs and characters run in a solo campaign can act in very meta ways. 

There is nothing meta about dying, but the 3 drover characters were offered a huge paycheck to take a supporting role. Simon and his daughters are very aware of how far 300 gps goes in life and realized it was much safer to stay in the background. Hender is Sonny's (Henderson) father. Having watched his son almost die, you know he is thinking about taking that secondary role, too. 

My rationale for taking these steps is to increase the types of characters while reducing the amount of paperwork to keep this project going. 

Back to looking at this series, I am assuming that you play the way I do. My campaigns are very high magic. Magic is concerning, but not a source of terror. In some cases, magic is a consumer product. Rety wanted a bag of holding, so she bought one. The challenges she has in making the purchase are that the Keep is a wayward outpost with fewer resources than normal. This might be the normal state of affairs in your campaign, but not having a magic shop is very weird for me. 

In playing through B2 Keep on the Borderlands, you may notice that the monsters come in either singletons or groups of 6-8. I think this harkens back to the Dungeons and Dragons connection to Chainmail. (That is a link to DTRPG for purchasing.) It is almost like Gary Gygax selected figurines and assembled them in unit-sized groups and stat'd them up. You'll notice that the party is 6-9 player characters of levels 1-3, against groups of monsters in 4, 6, and 8. Those are tiny units, but units nonetheless. And they are almost on part with each other. 

This messes with time and space. In session 3, I mentioned how small the valley floor is when tripling movement and ranges. I know that this was done for artistic reasons; the scale indoors was imparted to the scale outdoors, so one did not have a giant map of empty, uninteresting exterior space. It works, until it doesn't. 

A round is 10 seconds. An unencumbered player normally moves 40' a round or 120' at a sprint. That is 4 feet or 12 feet a second indoors. Outdoors, that cranks up to 12 feet or 36 feet a second. Whew!  

People are fast, and monsters are faster. Here is a clip of a football player going endzone to endzone. The clip is a little longer than 10 seconds for clarity. This guy is dodging tackles and perhaps not running flat out the whole time.  

 

Because people are so fast, as a general rule, combat is abstract. The 6 points of damage a character or monster probably isn't a single hit. Here is a 10-second clip of a fat, old ninja swinging nunchucks. 

While I only make one slashing attack transition towards the end, notice how slow I am moving and how unfocused my eyes are. I am not even trying. This is also a very confined space; my feet are rooted, and I couldn't extend my arms. It's kind of like being in a dungeon. But it is still quick. Any one of those spins could have been a slash. Imagine how fast a fencer would move and how lethal a sword point is vs. a slap from a nunchuck.  

(This is an unedited video; you should see the outtake where I hit a pipe and made the house ring.) 

In light of these observations and many more, characters and monsters can get in and out of combat or trouble quickly. By the rules, characters are limited to a fighting retreat at no penalty or worse, giving up attacks to run for it. The first doesn't allow a character to exit combat if his or her attacker presses the attack. The second is an invitation to get hit in the back. As a DM, I choose a sort of middle ground where someone can do a fighting retreat as per the rules, or choose to forgo an attack to disengage, and of course, the disastrous spin and run. Disengagement requires A) space to move back a good distance and B) remain facing your opponent. Being faster than an enemy is good enough. Having someone available to tag in or threaten a flank or rear is best. And players intuitively handle these scenarios very well when asked.  

You see this a couple of times in session 3. When Belaphon outruns the owlbear with Pavel chasing both; then again, when the chase swaps Belaphon and Pavel; and finally, when Slammer tries to pull Pavel's body away while the Knights cover him. Monsters under threat aren't going to ignore an obvious threat, giving PC's extra time to do extra things. Slammer's attempt to pull a body from a creature isn't wise, but it makes sense. He traded an attack for a grab, but failed. 

In sessions 3 and 5, the characters experience blocking. Many of the missile-armed characters find themselves behind their friends engaged in melee. They can't shoot. Oddly, Belaphon does shoot. It is one of the joys of Magic Missile - you can't miss. Rety, the Clerics, or Sonny could have tried to shoot into melee, but friendly fire sucks.  

Being blocked is a give-and-take. You can't be hit, but you also can't hit back. 

I've forshadowed events in session 6, given my rationale for certain events, and explained how I use certain rules. There will be a part two where I get into alignment and motivation, plus hit points.

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 5 Beak, Bone and Stone

Welcome back to The Keep on the Borderlands. There is your link to DrivethruRPG. I hope you click through and purchase this classic module. 

Camp

The party left the Keep at dawn to arrive in the Valley early. As Rety promised, Simon, his daughters, and their guard detail are left to set up camp near the road. The party was armed for a war, with all of the fighting men wielding spears, in addition to their regular weapons. They march west into the valley. 

A quick look around surprised everyone. The kobolds' trees were gone, their cave entrance clogged with branches. Several mean-looking giant rats were sunning themselves. Mud was churned up in front of D and F caves. Scattered bones surrounded a fire pit in the middle of the valley. 

"The goblins," muttered Punch. He is assuming the folks in Cave F were also goblins. 

As much as she wanted the owlbear's beak, Rety decided to enter Cave D to secure a flank. The party was organized into 3 groups: Rety, Sonny, and Belphon took the lead to scout; Slammer, Punch, Lefty, and Solvo, with spears ready, brought up the rear, with Dorian, Hender, and Thomas guarding the cave entrance. They move quietly with no lights. 

I have marked these teams as R, L, and T, for Rety, Lefty, and Thomas.  

I used OSR Solo to determine that the party saw no one in the east and west rooms. They saw candlelight from both rooms, and they heard voices to the east. Rety motion for Lefty's team to move eastward, while her group moved west. 

Yeah, I made this hard on myself. Lefty's team is moving to the right, and Rety's team moves left.  

As each team creeps down the hall, all hell breaks loose. Rety spotted two goblins running away. Lefty's team was confronted with 5 of 6 goblins advancing with spears leveled. By previous arrangement, the clerics and barbarians lit torches but held their position. 

Ladies first, round 1. Rety and Sonny loose arrows, one per goblin. One was killed instantly, while the other struggled on, dragging a bag. 

The fighting men and the goblins struck simultaneously, like miniature phalanxes colliding. Four goblins go down, while Solvo and Slammer were hit for 1 and 3 hp damage. 

Next round. 4 goblins sprang from the western room. Arrows flew, and a goblin fell. The attempt to close the gap, but they won't arrive until the next round, as they are moving in formation. Solvo and the goblin exchanged blows, and the last goblin went down. The four men turn to help Rety's team. 

Punch and Lefty wear armor

Round 3, chaos ensues. The party won initiative. Rety, Sonny, and Belaphon manage to slide through the fighting men's formation, and the four men met the goblin's spears. A goblin was killed. Punch took a slash to the face. Belaphon was struck from behind by the last eastern goblin's spear. 

Round 4. The eastern goblin ran back to the room for another spear while Rety and Sonny stalked after it. Two more goblins were killed, and Slammer took a good hit. Arrows clatter against walls as the archers miss. The clerics and barbarians move down the tunnel, torches lighting up the area. 

Round 5. The phalanx took empty room 18. Rety and Sonny killed the last eastern goblin with arrows. Combat ends because the party swapped sides. No one in room 18 knew the last goblin escaped through the secret door. 

This provoked an "Oh, shit!" moment for the ogre and goblin. The goblin wasn't supposed to enter the orge's cave, and it killed him. The ogre's "Oh, shit!" moment was when the bag of gold hit the ground. He took a moment to decide what to do with the body. 

In the meantime, the whole party met up in room 17. While the party searches the room, the Clerics attend to Belaphon and Solvo, who were the most injured. 

Combat sequence 2. No was surprised, but the ogre won initiative. This beast has AC 4, HD 4+1 for 25 hp, and does 1d10+2. This is above average for an OSE ogre. I decide the rule of funny is in effect. The ogre makes two missile attacks; the bag of gold and the body of the goblin become projectiles. Punch was struck by the gold, and Lefty by the body for 5 and 3 hp damage. 

Lefty struck for 2 points of damage while Punch missed. A magic missile hit for 4 points of damage. Sonny, Solvo, Hender, and Slammer melee. Hender and Solvo did 10 points of damage. Rety and Clerics can't strike due to the wild melee.   

Round 2, combat is simultaneous, except for Belaphon, who unleashed another magic missile for 6 hp first. The ogre was down to 3 hp. It pounded Sonny to the ground, while the ogre was cut down. Punch and Lefty get back up. All of the noise brought the roving band of goblins to the party. They came from the western doorway. 

Round 3 was again simultaneous. The Clerics snatch up Sonny and pour a healing potion down his throat, restoring him 2 hp. Six goblins exchange blows with Solvo, Slammer, Hender, Punch, Rety, and Lefty. Two goblins were felled, Hender was knocked down to 5 hp, and Sonny was KO'ed. 

Rety's prize

Rounds 4 and 5 were the party's time to shine. Thomas grabbed Sonny while the party attacked. In round 4, all but one goblin were killed. It did not survive round 5. There was a flurry of flight as the chieftain led his remaining people out of the cave mouth and up to the hobgoblin caves, taking all the treasure they could carry. Everything not in the rooms the players entered was taken. 

The party divided again. The Hender runs off to the camp for the drover cart. It will be needed. Rety and Belaphon gather up Rety's owlbear beak and bones. She offers a salute to the goblins and hobgoblins watching her. The rest of the party found the ogre's treasure. In the mouth of cave D, the treasure piles up. 

Ogre

Sonny was loaded in the cart before all the other treasures. The drovers declined to help, as it was beyond their contract, but they sent one of the crossbowmen to help. Quietly and grusomely, Rety claimed the orge's teeth. 

Back at camp, Rety wisely declares victory and prepares the team to move back to the Keep. She explains that healing would be faster in a warm bed. The drovers were somewhat put out, as they had set the camp for a week. Rety pays them an additional 10 gp each, including the crossbowmen. The drovers let Rety and the crossbowmen do most of the work. 

Rety humbly works her butt off to get everyone out of camp and back on the road to the Keep. The players earn 1500 exp from this adventure. I need to total up Experience because I think a couple of characters may be leveling up.  

One more link. The image I have labeled as Ogre is a Cyclops drawn by Jeremy Hart. He has a massive collection of paper minis and Stock Art on DrivethruRPG, all reasonably priced. I have a ton of them. 

Review - The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Tradition

Title: The Basic Witch: The Pumpkin Spice Tradition
Publisher: The Other Side Publishing
Author: Timothy S. Brannan
Year: 2019
Pages: 65 pages
Rating: 5 of 5 stars

UPDATE - It is getting a little cool outside, so let's refresh a cool product review. This was originally posted Saturday, April 17, 2021. When I originally wrote this, I don't think there was a POD option. 

This book is designed for Labyrinth Lord as part of the Back to Basic series. Originally, it started as a joke on everything Pumpkin spice-themed. It roughly follows the form of the other books in the series, except for some level limits for non-human characters. 

This is my favorite of the series. While not entirely tongue-in-cheek, it's a fun read. It comes across as the film A Knight's Tale. Popular culture is mixed up and presented in a timeless way. The idea of harvest, fall, and Halloween is in this product's DNA, but in a way that would not detract from a series of Dungeons and Dragons experiences. Yes, there are jokey bits, but they are well thought out, so they don't break the theme of D&D. If you like Angel or Buffy, these details will be right up your alley. 

This particular set calls out Labyrinth Lord, but readers will find that it is a nice addition to any basic era game, such as BlueHolme or the Red box set. (Personally, I use BX or OSE, but that is your whole chocolate vs. strawberry argument) With a little adaptation, this book could be plugged into a great many rule sets like AD&D. The author specifically mentions a desire for this title to be cross-compatible, but also noted they didn't make that the focus of this work. I suspect that Mr. Brannan wanted this book to cover a far wider range of game systems than I am familiar with using. Even if it doesn't go there, it's still a rock-solid offering. 

Usually, when I do a review, I mention the artwork. This product is loaded with art. I didn't count, but it seems like every other page or every third has something. In this book, most of the artwork is a quarter page and inline with the text, rather than being placed in the centerline like 3.5 books. Again, like the subject matter in the book, the artwork has a gothic summer-turned-autumn feel. 

Somehow, this version of the witch character class feels old, but not too old. It invokes a pleasant feeling of Deja Vu of my college days, when game night also featured a movie or TV before or after. That feeling of people just out to get together and have fun. 

Reviewer's note: The date is taken from the forward; this could be the most recent update rather than the original publication date. If that is the case, my apologies, but then that also means the author is providing an excellent experience by routinely updating his works. 

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 4.5 Intermission

I didn't have a picture of
a gravestone,
so please pretend.

In the last session, the party lost two characters: Duskin the Elf and Pavel the Ranger, but also reunited both teams. 

This presents Rety and the gang with some problems. They took the bodies back to Rety's camp on the concept that Thomas the Cleric could do something. Sadly, he could not. 

This left Rety in a lurch. Her objection to the A Team's handling of injured people was the cause of the NPCs abandoning the party. Now that she has to deal with those people, she is obligated to treat them better. That and cover the theft of many items. 

She elects to go back to Keep, to ensure the Elf and Ranger receive proper burials. The B-Team forms a proper escort back to the Keep. Rety does not make any promises beyond a burial to her former employers so as not to disappoint. She pays for rooms at the inn, too. 

By mid-morning, they are on their way, smoke filling the valley behind them.

Let me tell you a bit of backstory on the name Rety. I encountered this name in a David Brin book called Brightness Reef. I've always liked this name despite the character being slightly unlikable at the start. She was a young Sooner woman, a tribe of people falling down the societial path. Her tribe is brutish and barbaric, but she knows there is a better way out there, some place in the 5 galaxies. 

She never really escapes her rustic roots, but becomes a force to be reckoned with. I like that sort of character and stole her. As a D&D character, she should properly be a Barbarian, but I made her a Thief due to the circumstances. 

Here is my link to DriveThruRPG for Keep on the Borderlands. I might be trying too hard. If you don't have this by now, you never will. 

Anyway, back to the Keep. 

Being a bit of a rustic sort, Rety had no problem accosting the Curate and demanded magic and rituals for the dead. She was very humble and honest, offering service, allegiance, and even money to care for the dead. While completely overboard, the Curate found it charming in a weird way. This also reinforces Lefty and Punch's loyalty to her as she has shown respect to a higher power. It also makes the rest of the A Team more amenable to her. That and she paid for proper rooms for all of them at the inn, plus food and drink to honor the fallen.  

She paid for the burials. She made an offering and hinted that Punch and Lefty should consider service to the Curate's congregation. She assisted the A Team with contacts to help them sell their treasures. 

There was a welcome but startling discovery as the party dispensed with their loot. The Curate's followers recognize the amulets as a hazard. They will pay for the privilege of destroying these evil devices. The Curate's men advise that not only do they make it hard to turn undead wearing them, but should a cleric hold or possess an amulet, the holder loses their ability to turn undead. This explains why Dorian couldn't turn undead at the end of Session 2 and why he received a couple of rolls when he should not have. This also makes the amulets slightly cursed.

Rety tries to purchase some magic items. This is not entirely accounted for in the module. I used OSR Solo to generate some answers to Rety's desire. 

First, she wants a bag of holding. The other characters are unwilling to sell theirs, so she approaches the Curate and the loan bank. The Curate has access to one, but the price is too much. The loan bank has one but will only trade for the beak of an owlbear. Hmm. That was a bust for now. 

Rety knows the potions of healing saved the party, so she repeats the process for more potions. The Curate will not provide healing to anyone outside of his congregation, so that is not an option. Rety rolls a 6 when dealing with the loan bank. They will sell her 4 for 100 gps each. He does this because he really wants that owlbear beak. Rety has essentially doubled down on this objective. 

Despite making all the right moves, Rety gained 4 followers but lost 3. She proposed selling off the horses to adventure in the Caves. The remains of the A Team liked this idea and threw in with her. But Bela, Liz, and Simon are lifelong drovers; they hate this idea and said so. Rety was understanding and paid them to stay at the Keep, venturing out on Sundays to resupply the party. The drover family agreed to this as Rety gave them 300 gps to support the party's interest in town. One-third was salary, the next 100 was for supplies, and the last 100 was to hire an appropriate guard. This was way too much money to pass on, so the drovers agreed. 

Promises made, the party rested before heading back to the Valley of the Caves of Chaos. Rety learns of the gems in the cave of skeletons and wants them. However, she will need a good plan to secure their flanks and back before striking against the shrine. 

One of the nice things about this module is that you can make it a living place by implementing changes on the fly. I introduced the ruins, the fact that sometimes the kobolds, striges, and other monsters appear to operate together without seeming to conspire against the party unfairly. 

We need to head back to the Valley and the Caves of Chaos. 

The PCs left the body of an owlbear and a horse on display for all to see. It didn't take long for kobolds, goblins, and others to decide to butcher them. The kobolds are a thorn in everyone's side. The goblins chased them off. To add insult to injury, they cut down the kobolds' trees and burned them. This was the smoke the party saw on leaving. 

While the kobolds are the weakest creatures in the Caves, they are not helpless. To make up for their losses to the party, they adventured Cave G and herded the giant rats to their cave in the dead of night. Around the top of their cave, they dug warrens for the rats and camouflaged them. As a final step, the kobolds gathered broken branches for makeshift spears. They have no heads, but they fireharden the points. All of the kobolds will be armed from here on out. 

The Clerics in the Shrine suffered worse losses. They cannot replace their zombies, but they steal the kobold bodies for future animation. They send word of the losses to the Priest at the Keep. The priest networks and burns his platinum pieces in an attempt to hire 6 crossbowmen as reinforcing mercenaries for the shrine. 

I decided to use the book OSR Solo for this hiring task because the Priest needs to assure himself that the mercenaries are evil or at least amenable to his cause. OSR Solo provides a handy table for this sort of thing. With one die, you get results of "yes" and "no", "yes, but...", "yes and...", "no and...", and "complications". 

One crossbowman turns him down flat and is "disappeared". Two sign up right away, the third signs up but demands twice the money, a fourth accepts and brings his shieldbearer along. I also rolled two"complications". 

In this case, I decided to make the complication rather simple. The crossbowmen have a bad feeling and accept a competing offer... to guard Simon and his daughters. This handy book saved me a couple of die rolls.

I really like this tool. You can pick it up on DriveThruRPG. It is super short at 19 pages, but you don't read this sort of book. As an added bonus, the examples are from B2! 

Now, the Caves of Chaos are ready for the party to return. 

The Keep on the Borderlands 2025 - Session 4 Run Away to Reunion

Welcome to Episode 4, Run Away to Reunion. 

Here is your weekly link to DriveThruRPG's page for Keep on the Borderland. If you click this link, I may receive remuneration for this. While I am at it, the Keep was revisited for AD&D, Second Edition. 

Let's check in with the parties. Rety leads her two Knights to the eastern edge of the valley, so they can select a cave to explore. The A Team is at the top of the western side of the Valley. 

In the meantime, the A Team has spotted them from their hilltop vantage point and decided to go down and attempt a meeting with the Knights. Remember, the A Team has not recognized any of these people due to the distance. They have forgotten to use their Eyes of the Eagle. They used the Ropes of Climbing on the rougher portions of the climb and descended to an area just south of cave G.

During the descent, both teams sighted each other a few times, but once the A team reached the valley floor, there were too many trees in the way. Rety and the Knights hold their position. The A Team took a moment to get out their weapons before marching east. 

On the map below, the A Team starts in the green circle while Rety's B Team is in the purple circle. The map looks large, but when people are sprinting, it's very small. I've been calling this a valley, but it's not that big. 

Round One, the set up. Pavel the Ranger and Belaphon the Mage were wearing leather armor and robes, respectively. They both move at the same speed, 120' a round, while everyone else moves 90' due to their heavier chainmail. Belaphon heard something from cave G and moved to 2. M. Pavel moved to cover him. A shadow moved to the mouth of the cave, but everyone waited for whatever to emerge. 

Sorry about starting everyone at point 2. It was an oddity that everyone moved in round one but didn't move in round 2. 

Round 2, the excitement begins! An owlbear appeared from the mouth of the cave. If the Rule of Funny were in effect, instead of shrieking, the owlbear would parroted: "Run Away! Run Away!" The party gets ready to run as the owlbear looks over the menu. 

Round 3. The party won initiative and runs for it. In three different directions. The Ranger moved to 3. R, while the Magic User bolted to 3. M. Everyone else moved to 3. E. The Knights heard the shriek. They readied their spears and dropped their visors. The owlbear loped in a zig-zag course after the Magic User. Belaphon was just as fast as the owlbear and managed to stay just ahead of it. The others watched in horror as the owlbear raced after him. 

Round 4. As Belaphon approached cave A, the kobolds popped out of the trees. This causes the Knights to swing away from them. Belaphon uses the distraction to put a magic missile into the owlbear, reducing it to 26 hp. Pavel fired an arrow as the others caught up with him. The owlbear was struck for 6 more points of damage and turns on Pavel. 

Due to all of the running and lack of combat, I was playing fast and loose with allowing movement and shooting. All of this is technically feasible, but there should probably be an extra round inserted here. 

Round 5. The Owlbear swung in a circle, dodging through the trees and kobolds with Belaphon in hot pursuit. Pavel went down under a flurry of blows. He was down to 6 hp, even with his magic armor absorbing damage. The owlbear avoided the furious response from the rest of the party. 

In round 6, things go from bad to worse. Pavel is down with -2 hp. The party rallied to his defense. Slammer struck for 7 points of damage, while everyone else missed. Belaphon readied his last spell. 

This round, the owlbear won initiative. Pavel was killed by a bite to the head, while Dunkin the Half Elf and Solvo the Elf were struck for 5 hp each. The A Team saw Punch and Lefty explode from the trees, spears leveled and pulled back to make room for their attack run. The Knights did a total of 12 points of damage, while the magic missile did 3 points. The owlbear has just 5 hp left. Slammer attempted to pull Pavel's body away and failed. 

Round 8, the party manages to win initiative. Lefty and Punch need to wheel around and come back. Slammer and Dunkin finish the beast off. Rety finally reached the battle, too late to help. 

But not too late to take charge. She decided they needed to move Pavel's body to a horse and bring him back to camp. She wanted a second opinion* from her Cleric. 

*As an aside, Rety is expressing hopes and a little superiority, instead of actually knowing something special. A second Cleric isn't going to do any better. I allow for this all the time with NPCs and player characters. No one can be 100% sure of anything in a fantasy setting. It also keeps your options open as DM. 

As the party attended to Pavel's body, the kobolds returned in force. The 8 from the trees and the 6 from the guardroom ambushed the party. It was a brutal fight with lots of targets. 

I won't run through another chaotic battle, but the party switched to missile weapons as the Knights slashed through the enemy forces. Only 3 kobolds survived to run away. 

Horse-mounted knights plus missile fire was deadly. But not quick. Dorian, Dunkin, and Solvo went down along with Punch's horse. Belaphon used the party's healing potions, but it was too little to save Duskin. 

With heavy hearts, they retreated to Rety's camp. 

Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Begins game

I don't know why I like the easy entry tests for games. Today I found the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Begins game on my shelf. Yeah, there is a lot on my shelf that I lose large games in full boxes from time to time. 

Adventure Begins takes the players on an adventure in the lands of Neverwinter.

It might be the tangibles that come with these sets that get me. The set includes:

• 4 mini-figures,
• 4 Boss tiles,
• 4 20-sided dice,
• 10-sided Dungeon Master die,
• damage clip,
• 4 health trackers,
• plastic deck holder,
• 20 character tiles,
• 4 dungeon boards,
• 24 gold,
• 4 adventure decks,
• item deck,
• 4 reference cards,
• 8 backpack cards,
• 12 gatekeeper cards,
• And the rules booklet.

This strikes me as being similar to the Invasion of Theed put out by WotC for Star Wars years ago. I will probably do a review in the next week or two. 

This was posted in 2020 with a link to a retailer. I removed the link and accidentally disabled the post at some point. I like this game and will be doing a review soon, so I restored it.