In session 1, the party retreated to the Castle's exterior to take stock. Merry, Jude, Rety, and Nononn make a plan of attack once the foyer doors open in the morning.
Session 1.5 presented the character sheets. If you want to know what the party has, take a moment to review.
The party obtained some treasure, but more importantly, received two Demos Magen who are now behaving oddly. They make the choice to leave them outside under the watchful eye of Pizzaballa while the rest of the team explores the northwestern corner of the castle.
Rety checks the door just south of rooms 6, 7, and 8 and finds it unlocked. As the main party listens at door 8, there is a click. Alexei and Lance walked to room 6 and opened the door. Nononn has a caniption. While the team searches the linen closet, he orders the two green characters into the main hall to listen for Pizzaballa and keep watch on the approach.
The party doesn't hear anything in room 8 and opens the door. They study the slime-encrusted room and decide that there is nothing of interest at the moment. They close the door.
Rety believes she heard something in room 7, so the party arms itself for battle. In reality, she failed her roll and reacted to an imagined sound.
Rety, Merry, and Kuri take a knee, bows drawn in 5 feet back from the door. Behind them, the magic-using characters stand ready to fling magic missiles over the bowmen's heads. Thomas and Dorian flank either side of the door to push it open. Behind the clerics, Jude and Nononn wait, weapons drawn.
This is Kevin.
On the other side of the door, Ted turns to Bob and hisses, "Did you hear that?"
Kevin waves 6 of his eight legs. "Someone's stealing our towels."
The Arenea ready themselves for what will be known as The Battle of Soap and Towels.
This is one of those odd times, where A) I wasn't going to do a commercial but now I am, and B) one module refers to another. Castle Amber refers the reader to X1, which features the Arenea as antagonists to the Phantons on the Isle of Dread.
In this case, neither side will engage in movement. Everyone is locked and loaded. Thomas unlatches the door. Both Dorian and Thomas give it a good push. Initiative is simultaneous, and no one is surprised.
I have decided I didn't like the Arenea's spells and gave them different ones, but it doesn't matter much. All three bow wielders target Bob and let fly. Not only is his spell foiled, but he drops dead. Kevin and Ted unleash Magic Missiles at the same time as Solvo, Sybil, and Belaphon.
All of the magic users are hit and are slightly toasty. Since the party is making all kinds of noise, I roll for a wandering monster and get Raskasta. Alexei and Lance notice the largest Cat Man they have ever seen and retreat into the corner of the main hall, behind the double doors on the south wall. They are trying not to be seen. A group of five of them comes out of the Study. No one looks at Alexei and Lance.
Round 2. The Arenea win initiative and take the fight vertical, skittering up the walls to the ceiling. Thomas, Dorian, Nononn, and Jude rush into the room. The two Arenea try to blind Nononn and Jude with continual light spells, but fail. Jude has a polearm and is able to take Ted off the ceiling. No one else can reach that high.
The Magic Users fade southward, with Solvo guarding them. They both took heavy hits in the last round and are really annoyed. They don't realize Alexei and Lance are not visible.
The party found better jewelry than this.
The lead Raskasta gives a gruff command to a young woman and closes the door to the Study. The woman runs off down the hall to the Indoor Forest.
Round 3. The bowmen advance into the room, and the party mops the floor with Kevin. Bel, and Sybil lead by Solvo, stumble out into the main hallway to regroup as the rest of the party searches for more monsters hiding in the webs. They were tagged by one magic missile each, but sometimes Magic Users will play up their spells' power for the watching masses.
Bel sees the door to the Indoor Forest close. He looks to Lance and Alexei, but they are nowhere to be found. Bel lets out a groan as Sybil runs to the foyer to check on Pizzaballa.
The party splits again. Bel, leads Nononn, Solvo, and Rety to the doors to the Forest, bows ready. Sybil and Pizzaballa return to the southside of the main hall with Merry and his bow for cover. Kuri, Jude, Dorian, and Thomas continue to search the Arenea lair.
Bel opens the door to the Forest. There is no one in sight. They communicate this the best they can with hand gestures to Merry's team. Jude collects up the treasure they find in the lair and returns to the team in the main hallway.
Each character has gained 435 Experience, except Lance, Alexei, and Pizzaballa, who missed out on the combat. This closes up Session 2. I hope you enjoyed it.
Here is the scorecard post. I should have started with a character list and character sheets. You know why? In Session 1, I put Lance at the front and in the last rank in the marching order. Dummy. Tracking 13 characters is a beast.
These are PDF files from my Google Drive account. You don't need an account to download them
There are also Demos Magen with the party now. They do not have character sheets.
If I had posted these earlier, I would have successfully completed my #CharacterCreationChallenge. As it stands, I am still a few short.
Before we go further, let's have the overt DriveThruRPG commercial:
I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials. I picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.
Exactly why I haven't been posting links to X2 Castle Amber is beyond me. I've been nattering on about it for weeks.
When I posted Session 0, I listed the characters' levels. I didn't do that this time because modules like X2 put the characters in a sweet spot where low-level characters rapidly catch up with somewhat higher-level characters due to the taking of gold. The party won 10,000 gps from Jean-Louis D'Amberville in Session 1.
In adapting this for my table, I have solved the railroad problem by allowing the characters to retreat to a point of safety outside of the Foyer. That's cool. However, the module was written as a railroad and doesn't take into account that if you subvert that point, the party could return to Jean-Louis's Salon over and over again.
Should 10,000 gps and 3 more Magen be available every time?
Yes-No. Jean-Louis and his Magen should be there, but should not offer a match to the players each time. At least not for money. That would be game-breaking because dumping 10,000 gps on the party would send their levels through the roof in short order.
Here is a handy post where I compare all of the character level charts from OSE. Since OSE doesn't have the concept of "Challenge Rating", you can use this chart to quickly determine how much experience is too much to hand out. It doesn't help with creating a combat scenario, but it will stop you from throwing too much cash at the party in one go. It also helps you determine how quickly low-level characters can catch up to higher ones and what classes will rapidly level.
Jude (formerly known as Punch) had this issue. In the B2 sessions, he struggled to keep up because he obtained most of his experience from combat, not treasure. In B/X, limiting the treasure is the best way to keep characters in a certain regime of play.
I don't know if we'll see Jean-Louis later, but I have a couple of ideas about how I would play him. He was a pomus ass at first, then morphed into a gamer and gambler. The next time the party sees him, I suspect he will act like a trainer, a promoter, and a coach. He should stay interesting, but slightly annoying, so the party doesn't get stuck. This is why I gave him a cell phone in the last session. Players would catch the meta of a pre-republic French dude trying to be an Instagram influencer. That's fun.
I believe I'll have time to post again on Saturday or Sunday.
In modern role-play, Castle Amber is challenging. There are so many moving parts, and the module is presented as a straight-up railroad.
In Session 0, I suggested that the DM either dispense with the mist/fog to stop the railroad. Or present it as a mysterious force that stymies the party. The module was written for an unknown cast of players and makes the obvious assumption that one purchased X2 to play X2. That requires the author to turn it into a railroad.
At your table, the motivation to explore Castle Amber can be different, specific to your campaign world. Therefore, you don't need to push so hard.
I have given these characters a version of "Horse Heaven", so that they feel safe in proceeding into the castle, and the question of the mist never came up. After setting up camp, the party walked right into the adventure.
Theoretically, the party could explore all of the castle without being forced or arm-twisted into slogging through the whole adventure. At least until they reach the gates to Averoigne. Then they are trapped.
The entry to Averoigne wouldn't be a surprise. They can back out, up until that moment.
This does present some flex in your campaign world. If the party can back out of Castle Amber, why can't other parties find it, too? That is where you need to get creative and make something different or special happen to the characters.
Anyway, let's get into Session 1.
The party has opted to enter the Grand Salon with Jean-Louis D'Amberville. If you opted for the railroad option, this is your first challenge. Most modern players would question Jean-Louis about the situation. I dodged that here by allowing the players to retreat to a safe zone.
Nononn is fully suited in his ghostie armor and throws open the door.
"Marvelous! Enchanting!" exclaims Jean-Louis. "Take it off! And step in the ring, please."
Nononn's ghostie armor should cause fear, but the D'Amberville family is highly magical and bat-shit crazy. I figured I'd put a lampshade on that from the get-go. That would give players a nice meta-jolt.
The party exchanges a few questions, while Jean-Louis encourages one of them to get in the ring with his Magen. Jean-Louis really wants Nonnon to be the first. Jean-Louis's bet is his suit of armor vs. the ghostie armor. As per the instructions, he also offers side bets. There is a lot of gold here, and therefore a lot of experience on the line.
The Magen is not much of a challenge to an equal-level character like Nononn, who is 4th level. This is because most characters with high strength, dexterity, and constitution have bonuses. What hinders the party is the fact that they don't know the Magen's stats, plus they have the opportunity to throw in the towel, whether the combatant wants it or not.
The challenge for the DM is managing a large party watching a single combat. I would sort the party by PLAYER demeanor. Those who want to fight go into one group, those who want to gamble go into another group, and those who are not interested in either of those go into the third group.
Before we go much further, let's have the overt commercial:
I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials. I picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.
I mention this because this combat uses non-standard rules per the module. PC's do 1 or 2 HP of damage while the Magen does 1-3. Any time a combatant does max damage, there is 5% chance of a KO. Being reduced to zero kills a combatant. Each boxing round is 6 normal combat rounds, and there are 5 boxing rounds. Mechanically, we are talking 30 initiative rolls and 60 to hit rolls. This is why I split up the party into 3 groups.
I use one house rule at all times, which means I can't take it back for this scenario. All characters, including monsters, can go to -10 hp before dying. It makes death virtually impossible in this scenario. It also sets up a dramatic twist later. There is a second house rule in play that I will mention later.*
Those interested in boxing are engaged with Nononn, and Nononn's player can ask other players to make his die rolls if he wishes. Gamers are a superstitious lot and may want to switch who rolls and what dice are used for luck. They also get to throw in the towel for Nonnon, even against his wishes. This keeps them busy.
The gamblers are verbally engaged with Jean-Louis, making bets and throwing taunts. You want to have snappy patter going for them.
The last group will take over the DM's role and will roll the dice for the Demos Magen, including throwing in the towel. This sets up a little friendly hostility because they can screw the party with random die rolls or save the party by throwing in the party. Jean-Louis will meta-shit-talk them if they throw the towel without a good reason.
By breaking the party up into different groups, you get everyone engaged rather than 1 person rolling dozens of times while everyone else watches.
Remember, I mentioned that a like-level fighter has an advantage in this combat? That is not entirely true. They only have an advantage if they know the Magen's hit points. And only the group rolling the dice knows the Magen's hit points, and I ask them not to reveal them on pain of forfeit. They need this information so they know when to throw in the towel.
*My second house rule that is always in effect is "Just say it". If a player is discussing gameplay and tactics, but not speaking for their characters, they can use numbers and such. If they flip it around and have the characters speak about HP or levels, I'll break the fourth wall and mock them. This is important for this boxing match because it clues in the party as to Nononn's state of health.
Nononn doffs his armor and gets in the ring. The other two Magens signal the start of the match by stamping their feet. To make the insanity of the situation complete, the floating wizard's eyes appear, and Jean-Louis orders his Magens to cheer. I want the vibe to be Heath Ledger's William Thatcher vs. Heath Ledger's Joker. And here we have it.
Nononn is a beast of a fighter. He has more hit points, is harder to hit than the Magen, and he has a plus one to damage and to hit. At the end of the first round of boxing (six combat rounds), the Magen is down to 18 HP from 29, plus Nononn tags him for both a 20 to hit plus max damage at the end of the first. The Magen avoids being KO'ed. Nononn has 22 hp left.
In the middle of the second round, things go south for the party. The Magen rolls a pair of 20's in a row, rocking Nononn. He takes damage and rolls 94% and 06% to avoid being knocked out.
Remember what I said about players being a superstitious lot? Due to a fluke of the dice, Nononn happened to roll within one of the top five or bottom five on a 1d100. The team got spooked and threw in the towel. That's not how random or die rolls work, but that is the choice they made. Players do this all the time, but shouldn't.
Annoyed, Nononn climbs out of the ring, glaring at his friends. The party heals Nononn and more than a few characters ask for double or nothing.
Jean-Louis suits up in the ghostie armor and asks the party, "Do you really have enough for double or nothing?"
They do not. They do have 2500 gps and Jean-Louis bets his suit of +2 chainmail against them. Ana replaces Nononn in the ring. Jean-Louis orders one of the guardian Magens to take the place of the slightly banged-up Magen.
If anyone asks, the ghostie armor has turned into something unusual, but completely normal plate armor once Jean-Louis dons it. It is essentially non-magical now.
Ana and the Magen survive round one and round two, but the Magen goes down in round 3. Pleased, the Nononn accepts the +2 chainmail and suits up.
Back in December, I posted about my first and second run through of X2. And I would like to incorporate an event that happened decades ago. The party in that session healed the Demos Magenes they defeated, and a perplexed Jean-Louis asked:
"Why would you do that? They are just automata. A thing."
Jean-Louis is still super excited and dismisses the banged-up Magens to the corner, like broken toys. But he hasn't had this much fun in a long time, so he wants to go again. The third Magnus takes off his armor and gets in the ring.
The gang of gamblers wants to go big. In addition to the 2500 gps the party has, they offer a pair of +1 daggers, a +1 short sword, a bag of holding, and a cloak of elven kind as a wager.
"My, my. You are suddenly very rich, and perhaps on a winning streak."
The healed but bruised Demos groans at the condescending tone. He is now ashen, instead of the golden tone he started with. The party dismisses it as not remembering correctly, and Jean-Louis ignores the automata entirely.
The floating eyes examine the groaning creature, then the party's wager. After an oddly one-sided conversation with the eyes, Jean-Louis gives back the party bag of holding and bets 10,000 gps against the party's wager. Everyone is all smiles as Merry starts to strip off his armor.
Jean-Louis bellows, "Bravo!" and the party turns around. Jude, armor off, is standing in the middle of the ring.
"What a fine challenge this will be. The lightning bruiser against the magical automata!" Jean-Louis is not wrong. "Perhaps, you would like to accept my offer of magical preparation? I wish I had ordered food and libations for this." He pulls out a cell phone, but having no data here, puts it away.
Thomas enters the ring and bestows a blessing on Jude, who kneels to accept it. Jude has an 18 strength. He now has a +4 to hit and damage thanks to the spell. But he only has 18 hit points vs. the Magen's 29 HP. Rety and Bel consult each other as Sybil uses her magical Cloak of Wondrous Items to produce a pig on a spit.
Jean-Louis claps and 2 of his creatures approach to assist him out of his not-so-ghostie armor. The ashen Magen is nearly useless in this task, and Thomas takes an interest in him. It removes a guantlet and stops to examine it. The other Magen completes the task before it is finished.
After everyone is situated with food and drink, Jean-Louis asks if they are ready.
Rety replies, "Almost," then nods to Sybil.
"Wait!" shouts Jude as Sybil casts invisibility on him. Jean-Louis is not amused and mutters something about cheaters being drawn and quartered. The Wizard Eyes flutter around the boxing ring. The eyes face each other, bouncing up and down as if having an animated conversation.
The challenging Magen vanishes, as one of the eyes casts invisibility on it.
Jean-Louis chuckles appreciative and says, "With that, I believe we are ready."
For drama, Invisibility isn't canceled by attempting to attack. It's the rolling of damage that causes the spell to end. The first round of boxing doesn't go well. Jean-Louis roars with laughter as the two combatants stumble around the ring trying to find each other. Jude utters an oath, and the Magen fixates on his location. Jude moves, and the ring quakes as the Magen strikes the turnbuckles.
The party seems to be ok with this turn of affairs, continuing to engage with their host. The food and libations go down fast. The round ends, and the opponents retreat to their corners and the merriment continues.
The second round is a stunner. Both fighters come out of their corners swinging, and as a consequence, both drop their invisibility spells. The Magen strikes on each swing, but does poorly with damage rolls. When Jude hits, he rocks the Demos Magus hard.
They move on to the third and final round. Jude is staggered by a series of hits, stumbling around with one hit point left. The Knight pulls himself up and chases the Demos Magen now. Jean-Louis considers throwing the towel. Jude unloads 3 powerful hits to finish the fight.
The party cheers, and Jude comes out of the ring. They collect their winnings as Jude asks to retreat from this horrible place to rest. Thomas, Merry, and Dorian pour on the healing spells as the party cleans up. They have decided to exit Castle Amber and rest until the next morning.
Sybil laughs and smiles as she turns to recover the empty spit. Lance packs up the food, but Nononn and Thomas are dismayed.
Jean-Louis is pointing at the two Magens who received healing. Both have lost their golden luster and no longer respond to the man's orders. They dumbly allow themselves to be led out by Nononn and Thomas.
The party has won 10,000 gps and a +2 suit of armor.
In the yard outside the foyer, one Magen mumbles, "We don't remember our name."
I've been jonesing for a Sci-Fi game. I picked up the Free League Publishing Alien RPG, but before I did that, I took another look at both Star Smuggler and Star Frontiers.
All three games are very different from each other. Star Frontiers is very operatic, where characters can dish out and eat high levels of damage. It also has its own starship rules. Star Smuggler is more deadly. It is harder to dish out damage, but once it occurs, it's deadly. And Alien is exactly like movies - Survival is incumbent upon not letting the Aliens close.
The links above are to my review posts on these games. I have links to Brainiac to download Star Smuggler for free. Star Frontiers is available at DriveThruRPG. I haven't completed my review of Alien, so I don't have links at all.
I am forever tinkering with Star Smuggler. Right at the start of the book is a suggestion to use this game as a campaign guideline. Personally, I think it is just meaty enough to support an actual RPG. It does need slight modification to be usable as a standalone game.
First things first, it needs to allow for classes and levels. Duke, your avatar in the game is both multi-classed and higher level than typical NPC characters. If you allow your players to create a crew, then you don't need Duke. You DO need the ability to let characters rise to Duke's abilities.
What I am tinkering with is allowing each character to have a cunning stat like Duke. This stat is given a second purpose instead of bamboozling people. You can trade one point of cunning to increase one statistic by one point or trade 5 to learn a different trade.
For example, Duke can pilot, navigate, drive a skimmer, and operate starship guns. On the surface, this is done so that Duke can lead the NPC by filling certain roles. Since you won't have Duke anymore, the rest of the characters need his capabilities and the ability to grow and learn.
There are just a handful of scenarios that add cunning. To address this, I created a mechanism to increase cunning. Once per event, if a character hits the exact target number of a die roll, they increase their cunning by 1. I like this method as it morphs and shifts throughout play. You aren't trying to roll 2 sixes, but to exactly match your target. In many cases, some characters will have a chance to increase their cunning, while others will not.
For example, if the party has a shoot-out escaping from a planet, only those who make attack rolls can gain cunning. After combat, medics and engineers can gain Cunning by repairing and healing. The default rules don't make you roll for these actions. I would impose a roll of 1-3, where an exact roll of 3 results in success and a point of cunning. This can only occur once during RRR, no matter how many people are healed or how many items are repaired.
The next item that needs to be addressed is the money sink. You could maintain the default rules to pay off the ship's loan. It's clunky and requires paperwork.
One quirk of the rules is that Hypercharges are the only item I have noticed with a standard cost. If you wanted to eat cash quickly, change this to the base cost. This creates a cash sink that requires no paperwork. It also causes players to plan ahead so they aren't purchasing Hypercharges on a high-wealth planet. I feel it is both elegant and time-saving.
Since I love tinkering with stuff, there are a few events that bug me. In e081, you can capture a Battleship. But then the event says you can't keep it. I suspect that the reason is to stop game-breaking events and the ship is not entirely defined.
The whole scenario can be fixed by creating deckplans and statistics. I doubt this was expedient or practical when writing the solo adventure.
The Battleship is ridiculously huge, having 120 hits. The ship also behaves weirdly in combat under the pretense of a skeleton crew.
That makes sense.
There are two methods to take the Battleship. Either get lucky, which I have never done, or cheat. The easiest cheat that is not precluded is having more than one ship. Two Antelopes, with two shuttles each, can overwhelm the Battleship. The main issue is that the Battleship will waste shots on the shuttles while your Antelopes close for the kill. It's a lot of die rolls, but it is doable.
It's hard to do, but nothing stops you from having several ships. It is highly likely that multiple players can coordinate the attack. If you allow for boarding actions, it becomes more reasonable.
The deckplan to the left is what I came up with for a Pocket Battleship. I would use a fully crewed Battleship so that it has a chance against an attack.
The ship has several features that make it stand out against normal ships. First, the crew quarters are divided into 6-man pods. A critical hit only affects one pod. The crew quarters are protected against mass decompression. This setup allows for both the skeleton crew option in the game while also allowing for a full 60-man crew.
The infirmary is likewise protected; it can't take a critical hit at all. It is only destroyed when the whole ship is destroyed.
It has 2 gun batteries, left and right. Batteries operate just like regular ship guns, except they operate as a unit. One six-gun battery can only fire on one target. To give the ship some teeth, it has one bow chaser turret and two stern guns for use against smaller ships like the hopper.
Speaking of hoppers, this ship is equipped with two improved hoppers. The main difference is how the cargo and crew are divvied up. These are more troop transports than fighting ships. You could mount guns, or you can drop 6-7 crew on a planet with a skimmer, with space for LSU and Fuel. The last feature is a garage large enough to hold a tank. I have depicted the ship with two skimmers instead.
Players taking the ship will immediately experience the skeleton crew problem themselves. It is unlikely any party would have the 14-16 starship gunners necessary to utilize all of the guns.
I just picked up a copy of Alien by Free League Publishing at Great Escape in the Waldern Galleria mall. I can't think of the last time I went to a local shop in the mall and found a game I liked there. Here is a link to the PDF on DriveThru.
The Alien Franchise ticks all of the boxes for me. Horror, Spaceships, Aliens, and Space Marines.
This book is packed with details. It's hundreds of pages of rules, setting information, and pictures. I can't wait to review it.
I struggled to find a copy online and paid a tiny bit more at Great Escape, but ended up with exactly what I wanted. They do have a starter set for less, but I decided to skip over that for the moment. Don't let that fool you, I will be buying the starter set, because I love those things.
Now that I am parsing the rules, I will purchase some dice for this game. One of the nice things about this ruleset is the trackable consumables. I have a half dozen Atlas Games The White Box Set for tracking every conceivable item.
From the photo to the left, you can see I got impatient and created some of my own dice and a box to hold them. I need to print some character sheets. I'll use these.
The box was laser-cut. For the dice, I used DollarStore wood cubes and a set of steel dies to punch the numbers in. They are very rustic, fitting the crapsack world of Alien.
Anyway, back to the rules set. It's several hundred pages. The rules are well organized, neat, and easy to read, but it is still 300+ pages to digest. This is going to take a while.
The art is really nice. It captures the world of Weyland-Yutani, across all eras. The shifts from Corporate White and Green, to gritty images of the nooks and crannies where humans and Xenomorphs really compete.
While this is horror-based, the art doesn't descend into gore. It also doesn't try to reproduce the films. There are a few pictures where you think you see Ripley or Hudson, but they don't come off as copies of the film. They capture the films from a slightly different angle than what you saw on-screen, as if you were tapped into a different helmet feed. I like it.
I can't wait to dig into this RPG, play, and review it.
It is time to begin. This is the introductory post of my solo play-through of Castle Amber. I grabbed a copy just before Christmas from DriveThruRPG, and you can, too. Click the link.
I am using the Old School Essentials rule set. For the most part, these are available on Drivethru. You might like the Rule Tome, or you can carry on with whatever old-school D&D product. I've played it with AD&D e1, B/X, BECMI, and RC. There is no real reason to change what you are comfortable with. None of these rule changes should break X2.
Carry on as you see fit.
I have already outlined the characters that will be adventuring in Castle Amber in this post. The party is loaded towards physical combat, having only 2 Magic Users and 3 Clerics. Two elves give the party a little more magic. For brevity, I will simply list all 13 characters:
Merry the Halfling, Paladin, 4th level
(Ana) Khouri, Post Human, Fighter, 4th level
Lance, Human, Fighter, 1st level
Alexei, Elf, Bard, 2nd level
Pizzaballa, Elf, Cleric, 2nd level
Nodonn, Human, Fighter, 4th level
Solvo, Elf, 3rd level
Thomas, Cleric, 3rd level
Jude (aka Punch), Knight, 2nd level
Rety, Thief, 3rd level
Dorian, Cleric, 3rd level
Sybil, MU, 4th level
Belaphon (aka Bel), MU, 3rd level
I said the magic words: Comfort and Brevity. This is not a good combination. You should be comfortable with the rules you are using, which is why I suggest your favorite because you will know them best. X2 launches with a railroad. The characters find themselves in the 1. The Foyer. There is no path but forward. This is where brevity hurts.
There is no way the author could know what type of campaign you run, so it goes into a default railroad scenario. This might not be necessary for your campaign setting and style of play. First, you can ditch the railroad entirely by landing your characters in the Foyer, but not subjecting them to the mist. This is easy enough, but you have to know your players, not the characters. The presentation you use might put a bug in their bonnet to explore Castle Amber without the nasty wall of mist to force them. It's your world, and Castle Amber can sit idle until the party takes the challenge. You can wait them out.
Or you can go all Fifth Edition and declare a "one-shot" where Castle Amber is the ONLY adventure for a series of sessions.
For my session 0, I am going to lay out a cosy-catastraphe scenario. The party has wandered to the castle in the dark, and is brought up short by locked doors to the Foyer. The doors unlock in the daytime. The party sets up camp for the night.
In the dark, exploration is limited to an area of 200 or 300 feet east, west, and south. In my campaign world, I limit nighttime activities, and I would not present any wandering monsters or other suggestions they should explore at night.
In the morning, they will be able to either try to get out of the area and fail or proceed willingly into the Foyer. If they explore the environs, the trail approaching the castle goes south for a few hundred feet and turns. It is entirely hemmed in by trees.
Proceeding around the bend will result in the party stumbling back to the castle. A perplexing mystery. If they wander into the trees, they will encounter the fog and mist as described in X2, with one change. Animals won't wander into the mist, and the mist hides a dense forest.
It is like the box to the right. Not particularly notable or scary, just odd.
Next, the area around the entrance to the foyer has fruit trees, berries, grass, two troughs of water filled by a fountain, and two wall-mounted hay racks. There are also several post-mounted hitches on at the foot of the stairs.
This area has several magical oddities:
Horses tied to the hitches will magically release themselves to graze.
The hayboxes will refill every morning.
Dogs will find bones and small prey easily, as if set out for them.
If a character mentions a type of fruit or berry that has not been described previously, it will appear the next morning.
The gist of all of his is that it is horse heaven. The party should feel very comfortable leaving their animals here, which speeds progress into the Castle.
Try not to make the party too inquisitive here. The windows are too high to easily reach and have dark-stained glass in the panes, meaning they can't peek into rooms. The party could load up on fruit and berries here if short on supplies. For several sessions, they can retreat here to heal up and rest.
On the first night and first morning, the party discovers themselves in a trap.
Alexei and Rety scope out the Foyer doors and deem them safe and free of traps, while everyone else readies their gear. The Foyer's inner doors open by themselves, jump-scaring everyone. The weapons come out and the party assembles into a marching order:
Merry, Lance, Jude, and Nodonn take the front rank.
Ana, Alexei, Solvo, and Thomas are in the second rank.
Dorian and Thomas bracket Sybil and Bel, who want to go first.
Lance, Pizzaballa, and Rety take the rear.
The party bypasses the door to room 2 quietly and moves into the main hallway. Entering the majestic hallway leaves the party perplexed. They put away their weapons, except for Solvo and Lance, who keep their bows out. They quietly send Rety and Alexei down the hall, creeping down the right and left walls respectively.
Rety listens at each door, but hears nothing. She detects a musky and smoky smell from the second door. She also notes this is the only door with a keyhole. The door is very thick and has covers on both sides of the keyhole, so she can see nothing. Once they reach the end of the hall, they pull out their bows to cover the rest of the party.
Merry, Jude, and Nodonn quietly advance to Rety and Lance's position. At this point, I roll for wandering monsters, and the result is nothing. Bel and Sybil follow the three men to the door to Indoor Forest. Merry signals for everyone to draw weapons and open the door.
Curious glances are exchanged as they view the Indoor Forest. Cautiously, the rest of the party advances to get a look. Confused by the sight, Lance and Alexei are sent back outside to get a better look. They return and confirm that this forest is actually inside the castle. I roll again for wandering monsters, and again the result is nothing.
The whole party exits the castle to regroup.
They know three doors have locks, but do not try them. These are the two bedrooms and the study. The party opens and closes the door to the Indoor Forest. They know there are no traps in the hallways, and the carpet nicely silences footsteps. They have no reason to believe there are wandering monsters, but this is wrong.
Rety, Nodonn, Merry, and Jude convince the party to start at the first door, searching room by room until they discover someone or something.
This collection of characters is all third-level characters with secret weapons. They are known to Otto, and he fears them with good reason.
Of course, these characters were created for Old School Essentials, but I am going to link to a copy of Fiend Folio on Drivethru. It fits the vibe of these three characters and their creepy equipment.
Thomas Reed, Third Level Human Thief
STR 11 INT 10 WIS 13 DEX 15 CON 12 CHA 14
HP 10 AC 7 Leather
GP: 7 SP: 100 CP: 100 EP: 0 PP: 0 Gems: a small diamond, 100 gps
Previously, I mentioned Ghostie equipment. Rather than sketch out these characters, I will describe the Ghostie weapons and armor they have and how they use them.
Ghostie equipment is high-tech, not magical. All Ghostie equipment is old and battered.
Ghostie armor and weapons have many strange properties. Ghostie equipment is always +1. However, it has many other properties that inspire terror in opponents. Creatures of animal intelligence must make a morale check when the equipment is around. Typically, they will flee rather than stay around to fight someone using Ghostie equipment.
Let's start with the armor.
Ghostie equipment cannot be directly sensed. It can only be seen out of the corner of the eye. Once out of sight, creatures forget they saw it. If worn and buttoned up for combat, it stops making any noise caused by movement. Distressingly, the wearer's voice and breathing are amplified. The wearer cannot stop this. If the wearer is motionless and quiet, there is a good chance (a save vs. paralyzation) that they will be mistaken for an empty suit of armor. AND forgotten when the creature looks away.
Opponents should flee.
If someone asks the DM about this property, the DM should gaslight them:
"Armor? I didn't say armor. Oh my god, an armored thing sneaking up on you - roll for initiative!"
If you can get a jolt out of players, do it a couple of times in a row. Don't let the PC's make any rolls except initiative. Do everything yourself. At the start of each round, use a script like this:
"You're winded and lying on the ground. As you stand up, you can't remember how you came to be on the floor. It seems important. The room is empty except for scuff marks on the ground where you fought...
"The armored thing is coming at you! You remember it hit you. Roll for initiative!"
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Eventually, this will get old, and you should stop. Assume the terror weakens with exposure. Animals won't hang out for this type of abuse. After a while, the characters will figure out how to compensate for the forgetting and the terror. Any indirect spell or weapon can easily hit Ghostie armor, such as fireball, magic missile, vials of oil or acid, etc.
Ghostie weapons are +1 to hit and damage. Since they can't be seen directly, the user gains a bonus of 1 to their AC. On to hit rolls, a natural 20 skips the damage roll. The strike will do weapon type's maximum damage ( and a +1) and forces a roll vs. poison. If this save failed, in 1d3 days, the character will begin to suffer from infection. This is caused by the debris and dirt that the weapon pushed into the wound.
Ghostie weapons are also invisible to direct sight and are forgotten once out of sight, just like the armor. This creates a curious problem when they get dropped because it affects the owner as much as the opponents.
These three men have a sheet of Ghostie material that they cut up to use as a mask or veil. It is utterly terrifying because their faces are blank spaces, but it doesn't have the full effect of armor or weapons.
The most common armor is plate and mail, followed by chainmail, and/or shields. There is no such thing as soft Ghostie armors. Weapons come in several types: hook-like daggers, axes, stilettos, and long swords. There are no Ghostie missile weapons, spears, hammers, or maces.
I liked creating Willy Pete and his Merry Gang, so this time I created 8 more characters as a group or party. Six characters are 1st level while the remaining two, Thrain and Elma, are second level. They are currently co-leaders.
Oddly, the thief, Otto Grimm, pulled the party together. He is a bit perplexing, having low wisdom and modest intelligence with a gift for languages. He was able to fool the other party members into following him until the ideas and cash ran out. At that point, the most experienced characters took over. The Bollin Cay, the fighter decided to call the group "Pieces of 8" since they had 64 coppers, silvers, and gold.
Let's sketch out this party, starting with the co-leaders, starting with Thrain and moving on to the elf, Elma.
Thrain Ironfist, Second Level Dwarven Fighter
STR 15 INT 13 WIS 11 DEX 10 CON 14 CHA 10
HP 12
AC 4 (chain, shield)
GP: 8 SP: 8 CP: 8 EP: 0 PP: 0 Gems: None
Spells: None Languages: Common, Dwarven
Equipment:
Battle axe
Backpack 7 torches 50’ rope Iron rations Pickaxe
Hatchet Bedroll Change of clothes
Maybe Elma has a shield like this.
Elma Strider, Second Level Elf
STR 10 INT 13 WIS 12 DEX 14 CON 11 CHA 10
HP 9 AC 6 Leather, Shield
GP: 8 SP: 8 CP: 8 EP: 0 PP: 0 Gems: None
Spells: Languages: Common, Dwarven, Elven
Equipment: Longsword Hatchet Bow and 24 arrows
Spellbook Elevn cloak Wineskin Hatchet
Iron rations
Bedroll Change of clothes
You will note all the characters have a hatchet, rations, a bedroll, and a change of clothes. They are carrying everything they own on their backs. They do not have much.
Elma and Thrain have hopes of either joining a crew heading to the Isle of Dread or becoming a guard troop for a caravan heading north. If they join a crew, they will have no need of a leader. If they join a caravan, they have decided Elma will lead. Thrain is currently the leader in the port town.
Bollin Cay, First Level Human Fighter
STR 14 INT 13 WIS 10 DEX 12 CON 13 CHA 11
HP 7 AC 5 Chainmail
GP: 8 SP: 8 CP: 8 EP: 0 PP: 0 Gems: None
Spells: Languages: Common, Elven
Equipment: Spear +1 Long Bow and 24 arrows Short Sword
Hammer Lantern
Flask of oil Tinderbox Lyre Hatchet
Iron rations
Bedroll Change of clothes
Nissa the Quick, First Level Halfling
STR 15 INT 10 WIS 11 DEX 16 CON 12 CHA 13
HP 5 AC 6 Leather and shield
GP: 8 SP: 8 CP: 8 EP: 0 PP: 0 Gems: None
Spells: None Languages: Common, Halfling
Short sword
Silver dagger Sling
Backpack
Lockpicks Greatcloak Flask of oil
2 sacks Tinderbox Hatchet
Iron rations
Bedroll Change of clothes
Alvin, First Level Cleric
STR 12 INT 10 WIS 15 DEX 11 CON 13 CHA 11
HP 6 AC 5 Chainmail
GP: 8 SP: 8 CP: 8 EP: 0 PP: 0 Gems: None
Spells: Clerical Languages: Common
Equipment:
Holy Water Sprinkler (1d8) Sling +1 30 bullets
Backpack Holy symbol Holy water Prayer book Music book Drum Tinderbox Hatchet
Iron rations
Bedroll Change of clothes
Alvin, Cay, and Nissa make up the heart of the party. They all have an interest in music. They are also the only ones with magic weapons. They are the first to gather firewood and set camp, and the last to leave the camp after cleaning up the dishes.
They perform whenever the rest of the party lets them. In town, they have busked the party a free drink or ten. They really aren't that bad... at singing.
They can handle dishes and starting fires, but the three of them are abysmal cooks and worse at hunting. Even picking berries and fruit doesn't go well for them unless under the guidance of someone else. They are the happy little band.
Dawn'wen and Morcant the Pale are the team's unlikely couple. Both are soft-spoken, often quiet but friendly when they get speaking. The two barely speak to each other, but are great friends. They are the only ones who sleep in a tent. Dawn'wen hunts with her bow, and Morcant cleans and cooks what she provides.
Both wear expensive torcs of matching designs. The rest of the party suspects these are bands of ownership and believe they are escaped slaves. The rest of the party would never dream of asking. The torcs and the couple occasionally attract ill-attention. Such attention is usually handled by Otto Grimm.
Otto Grimm First Level Thief
STR 13 INT 12 WIS 6 DEX 17 CON 11 CHA 13
HP 6 AC 7 (leather)
GP: 8 SP: 8 CP: 8 EP: 0 PP: 0 Gems: None
Spells: None Languages: Common, Elven, Halfling, Orc, Goblin, and several others.
Equipment:
A pair of stiletto's Mithril long sword Sling Wire garrot
Lockpicks Lock grease Chalk Vial of acid Holy Water Tinderbox Hatchet
Iron rations
Bedroll Change of clothes
Otto is a gregarious man of little wisdom. He talks a great game, but when the rubber hits the road, he comes up short all of the time. No one is exactly sure how this moron knows so many languages, but he is great at them.
In combat, he is extremely wily and dangerous, packing more weapons than anyone else. He has a fine Mithril sword that, by all accounts, should be magical. The party has tested it several times, and it has a distinct lack of magic.
Dawn'wen Star has a theory about Otto. He is an assassin, one who has been cursed to be good and lawful. Thrain believes her more than anyone else, because he has seen the results of Otto's hand when anybody bothers the young couple.
Well, let me know what you think of this crazy crew of characters.
I'll end today with the overt commercial:
I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials, but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this with two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.
Since I mentioned in two posts, here is a link to Isle of Dread on DriveThruRPG.
I have cooked up two different products I hope to sell in the near future: Card Boxes and Dungeon Tiles.
Let me start with the Commander Deck Box. This link is to Etsy. I receive no remuneration for this. I liked the design for a variety of different projects, so I removed the logo and started cutting.
The files have a restriction or two. First, the creator didn't license the logos, so I removed them. Second, I can't sell digital products based on this. BUT the creator allows sales of physical items.
Good enough for me.
I have no idea how to play Magic: The Gathering, but I have a lot of friends who do.
Second, this box also accommodates Battletech Alpha Strike cards, so I have personal use for it. I could see this box holding a whole stack of cards, dice, and a lance or two of Mechs. It's even tall enough to accommodate an Atlas, the tallest figure made.
This is a great design.
I could also see this box holding thread, needles, and bobbins as is. Additionally, my wife has a ton of oils for a diffuser. This is perfect for that, too.
If I downscaled the size, it would nicely hold 4 different types of tea. Upscaling would make a nice A5 journal holder with space for pencils or markers. There are so many different options for just one product.
I love it.
Next is a design of my own. I made myself some dungeon tiles, something I have done on paper in the past. This 3D dungeon design is more ot my liking.
Since the box above required several sheets of wood, I added a couple of the smaller pieces as a test print. These are 1" x 1" columns and 2" x 2" walls. They are simply downscaled storage boxes. I also have designs for 4" and 6" walls. I would like to make some doors and other decorations.
I love how these came out. I could do so much with just these 6 pieces.
Since this was a test cut, I didn't bother to etch the stone on the surfaces. Although the laser can go faster when etching, the amount of detail really slows the process.
These 6 came together quickly. After messing with them for a bit, I realized I could do levels, stairs, columns, and corners. They are super light because they are hollow boxes.
What I envision is a 12" by 12" by 2.5" box containing dozens of pieces. Since each piece is exactly an inch thick, I could put around 121 inches worth of walls in that box, with some space to spare. The lid of the box and the bottom of the box would be etched with stone work to act as a base or platform.
In looking at these, I was thinking of gray paint or natural wood. But I could also spray them with chalkboard paint or dry-erase paint so people could draw on them. The possibilities are endless.
Here is what the design looks like in Inkscape:
I may sell the digital file over on my Ko-Fi page and sell physical product in person. (Insert lament about the price of shipping.)
I might refine the design. The bottom of each piece has a raised bottom, which strengthens the design. I don't know if that is really necessary. They are so light and strong with just the top end cap. I did this out of habit; large boxes need that extra structure to stay rigid. That doesn't seem to be the case with something so small.
Here is a character I reverse-engineered: Mugwar, the Man of Mystery.
A few years back, I made an impulse purchase of the Dungeon Masters Adventure Log (Link to Noble Knights). I know this is an item I always wanted, but never had. When I saw it at Noble Knight Games, I had to have it.
The prior owner wrote in it... as they should. Nowadays, I can just scan and Photoshop a new book for myself, but there is a lot of value to me in a pre-loved book.
Of course, these aren't full-character sheets, but I can guess what they might have looked like. Rangers have minimum stats, and the prior owner kindly wrote some bonuses to AC and attacks. I can also tell this was AD&D e1, but they also had Unearthed Arcana because they had a Caviler in the party.
One oddity, and I don't find it too odd, is that they had a Halfling in the party. I do the same thing, mixing and matching B/X and AD&D.
It appears that Mugwar survived approximately 8 modules. He leveled up from 1 to 9. He has used many different weapons and many different types of armor.
Usually, I start with the commercial. Today, it's at the end.
I use Necrotic Gnome's Old-School Essentials, but picked up the boxed sets from a Kickstarter. You can approximate this by purchasing two titles: The Referee's Tome and The Player's Tome. Or you could taste test it with the Basic Rules. These are free.
