Out of Order in the Court!

I keep mentioning how I want to run X2 - Castle Amber as a solo adventure because the characters in my last solo adventure lost all of their gold and equipment. This state disallowed X2 - Isle of Dread. No cash for a ship. This also creates a couple of side issues. 

First, the Bills are in the playoffs. Second, the party is too small. Third, I have a bunch of laser crafts to finish. And suppose that someone should do the dishes and laundry. 

Ok. Laundry and Dishes are done. 

I'm back to the main issue at hand. 

I need more characters. So I rolled up a few to reach the 36 levels needed for X2. I'll describe a few of them after the list, because I stole their names from good books. 

Yes, this is turning into an Amazon Ad. 

• 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

I stole the following names from books: Merry is from The Lord of the Rings, Ana Khouri is from Revelation Space, and Nodonn Battlemaster is from the Many-Colored Land Series. Pizzaballa was stolen from a real person: He is a Cardinal at the Vatican. I find that hilarious. 

Let's start with Merry. In every edition of D&D that I own, Halflings are not allowed to be paladins. In 3.5 and beyond, it is possible. The reason I allow Halfling Paladins is, according to LotR lore, by any imaginable measure, Merry, Pippin, and Sam all became powerful heroes and leaders. Technically, they do not remotely match a D&D Paladin except in name, but I allow it. Here is a link to the books. This is a link to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The next two links are also Amazon ads.  

Nodonn Battlemaster is a lord from the book The Nonborn King, a part of the Many-Coloured Land Series. He is an alien, but I cast him as a human. His people, the Tanu, are the prototype for Elves. 

The last character I stole is the most interesting, in my opinion. My campaign world is post-apocalyptic, so Ana Khouri is stolen from a series of science fiction novels, Revelation Space. She has travelled to the stars before returning home to Earth. She is thousands of years old, thanks to high-tech rejuvenations and time dilation. She has been many things: spacer to soldier, mother, and assassin. 

With that background in place, she should have all kinds of superpowers. I decided against that. She does have some special abilities: She has infravision and vision like a starlight scope. She has machines in her blood that make her immune to two very particular spells: slow and haste. This is because she has been engineered for long life. She also receives the maximum number of HP per level. 

Mechanically, she started life having 18s in every stat, but as she ages and becomes more removed from the high-tech society that did this to her, all of her stats are falling. She appears typical for a human fighter of this epoch. Her highest stat is a 17 in Dex. She is agile like a dancer, but not inhumanly so. 

Having described these new characters, I can list off the remaining characters from my B2 sessions: 

• 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

In reading over the module, there are no particular items the player characters need. I have decided that the party has 6 healing potions. The old party will keep all of the items they used to have, but have accidentally misplaced the Eyes of the Eagle. They lost those, like I do with my glasses, 3 times a day. 

The new party members will have magical main weapons, but they lack other magic items. Two of them have an elven chain, which is AC 4 due to the craftsmanship, not magic.  

The only magic item I had my eye on was a Staff of Healing. But it felt unnecessary as the party has 3 clerics and a paladin, plus those 6 healing potions. Castle Amber has a lot of nooks and crannies to hide in for healing. A magical healing device is pointless. 

The next challenge will come soon enough. I need to plan a dinner for 13 people at Chateau d' Amberville. I shall consult with my family. 

One of the issues with this meal plan is how time-consuming it is. Each and every character is being offered 10 items, for a grand total of 130 choices, and 36 of them don't mean anything. It's like going to Panera Bread on Hangover Day. The line is long and grumpy. I need to find a way to streamline this. What I had in mind doesn't seem very good. I will get back to you once I finish this deadly meal plan. 

The DM's Rubric - X2 Castle Amber as an Example

In my last post, I said that X2 Castle Amber made me a better DM, but I did not fully explain why.

What makes a good DM and good players is understanding the assignment. There is a reason that meme exists. Most role-playing games give players and referees specific roles, often resolved through specific die rolls. Understanding which choices matter, which rolls apply, and what the consequences are is critical to fun and successful play.

I used to be a teacher, and one of the hardest lessons to learn was how to create a good rubric.

X2 Castle Amber made me a better Dungeon Master because it forced me to understand the difference between player agency and railroading, and how inconsistent expectations around choices and die rolls undermine good play. In teaching terms, Castle Amber shows what happens when a game’s rubric changes without warning. Learning to recognize that made me a better DM in every game I now run.

A rubric, as I like to define it, is this:

“A scoring guide that clearly defines the criteria, expectations, and levels of achievement for an assignment.”

In role-playing games, this means understanding how different roles and different die rolls are meant to work. When those expectations are clear and consistent, play improves.

I have touched on learning before. The White Box Set teaches gameplay through tangible examples. My five-star review of the 2000 Dungeons and Dragons movie is about how not to run a campaign (or a movie). My earlier X2 post describes a real learning experience at the table.

The first thing a DM needs to learn is what is and is not a railroad.

In my Keep on the Borderlands series, I ran the same end scenario three times. I prepared over one hundred monsters for a large fight. Two runs ended in total party kills. One did not. The difference was player agency. In the successful session, the players did the unexpected. I did not force them into a fight simply because I had prepared one. 

Players do not know or care what the DM prepared. If they show agency, they should not be pushed into a predetermined outcome. The thief might back away. The wizard might find a clever solution. The cleric might use magic. The fighter might decide the fight is not worth the cost. That is not avoiding play. That is play.

From the DM’s perspective, this should be a success. The players are engaged. It's a consequence of having great players, not a failure to anticipate what is needed or desired. 

Yes, it is frustrating to prepare material that does not get used. Too bad. That is part of the job. Having those monsters ready does not mean they must appear exactly as planned. Presenting the same material in a different way is not railroading.

If the party disguises themselves as enemies and talks their way into the leader’s tent, only a few of those creatures might ever be used and probably not in a fight. If they encounter the group of 100 creatures in smaller pieces and defeat them through magic, logic, or trickery, that is also not a railroad. In each case, the party made meaningful choices despite what the DM planned. 

De-escalating a railroad situation is not railroading.

X2 Castle Amber works differently. It presents a series of changing criteria and expectations. It uses alternating rubrics, and structurally it is a railroad. The players are trapped and pushed from scenario to scenario like a movie. The fun comes from recognizing the railroad and finding the exits. The module describes only one exit, but players are savvy and smart. They might come up with 3 exits. 

This only works if the players are competitive and willing to play that kind of game. If they are not, the DM should not run it. The same warning applies to “you wake up in a prison,” “the king summons you,” or even “you meet in a tavern.” Any of these can become a railroad if handled poorly.

At this point, you are getting spoilers for a 44-year-old module. I don't feel bad, but if you don't own this, perhaps you should stop reading here and buy it at DriveThruRPG.  

Consider the boxing match in X2. It is a straightforward sequence of attack rolls with the option to quit. The rules are clear and the odds are fair. The very next encounter, the dining room, is completely different. Survival depends on a chain of choices and saving throws. A saving throw is not the same as a combat roll.

An attack roll rarely kills a character outright. A saving throw often represents a single moment of survival or death. In the dining room, players are given chances to avoid those saves, but they are not told that those choices matter. The consequences are not clear. If the DM presents this poorly, the players may never realize they had a choice at all.

From a teaching perspective, combat is a series of connected decisions that lead to random outcomes. Each result feeds into the next choice. The character has agency.

Dice are uncertainty. Don't roll them
if everyone is certain. 

A saving throw is one roll with no follow-up. X2 makes this worse by mixing saves that grant benefits on failure, events with no rolls at all, and standard save-or-die effects. The rules change from scene to scene. When players face many such challenges in a row, survival becomes unlikely, not because of poor decisions, but because of constant uncertainty.

This reminds me of another lesson about rubrics.

In school, passing is often set at sixty-five percent. That may not sound impressive, but context matters. On a spelling test of seven to twelve words, that threshold makes sense. It balances difficulty, memory limits, but not the fairness. 

Problems arise when teachers scale assessments without adjusting expectations. A twenty-word spelling test with a ninety-five percent passing requirement allows only one mistake. That is unreasonable. It also confuses failure with consequence.

I remember having to write misspelled words ten times each. That was not failure. It was reinforcement. I was not retested, but I learned the words. That is a consequence, and it is good teaching.

The passing bar stays at sixty-five percent because some people have advantages. Some know spelling rules. Some do not. Knowing when to apply “I before E” is like knowing what the Deck of Many Things is before drawing from it. The situation is stacked whether you realize it or not, and there is nothing hard and fast about applying rules of thumb. "I before E" is often wrong and a Deck of Many Things is usually a deal from the bottom. 

In role-playing games, failure and consequence are often treated as the same thing. In real life, they are not. Surviving Castle Amber’s infamous meal, where the rules and consequences change from roll to roll, is hard. It can work, but only if players understand the choices they are making.

I have already scripted out the meal and the boxing match to conform to how I should have done the meal years ago and to match how I really handled the boxing match. One is what I wished I had done and the other will be a retelling of a good experience. I hope you roll with the creative drama. There will be spoilers warnings on the dramatic turn in my posts. And hopefully some sage advice. 

To survive Castle Amber and enjoy it, both the DM and the players need agency at the table. Once you understand what choices are available, you can make decisions that lead to success as a player, a character, and a DM.

I hope you will follow my future series on Castle Amber. I will be running it solo so I can explain the choices I make from both sides of the DM screen.

And now for 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. 

I hope that I can replace my original D&D books someday. 

You can get the Basic PDF from DriveThruRPG, and they offer both The Expert Book and B2 as print-on-demand. I cannot tell you how nuts that makes me. Why offer parts 2 and 3 as POD but not part one? Pull it together, WotC. You do crazy stuff. 

And for that matter, if they had the BECMI titles in POD, I'd own those, too. But alas, WotC. 

Erase-Rewind X2 Castle Amber

 When we last left Rety and the gang, I promised an adventure to X1 Isle of Dread. 

Erase and Rewind, because I've been changing my mind. 

The problem with X1 following B2 Keep on the Borderland is that my party lost nearly all of its resources in exchange for survival. They have no means to get a ship, short of some divine intervention. I could just make it so because it's my solo game, but I really don't want to do it. It seems like cheating. 

I have been replacing all of the modules and books I lost over the years. X2 Chateau d'Amberville was next on the list, and by providence, it arrived today. I've spent 3 hours poring over it. It's as good and crunchy as I remember it. I have to say, this was massive good luck. I don't think I waited more than 12-14 days for the POD to arrive. 

Thank you, DriveThruRPG. 

This module shaped my DM style. It's one of those modules you MUST read to understand. It has some warts, but if you're a good DM, you can make those sticky points pure magic. This is why you must read and re-read the whole module to understand where you are going. 

I want to write a review of this module so bad, but I will have to wait until I have some time off. In the meantime, check out Tim Brannan's The Other Side Blog post on Castle Amber. Tim covers all of the various iterations and many of the source materials, which are just as good as this module. 

Today, I will share how this one module changed my DM style. 

I purchased this at Kay-Bee Toys in the mall. The X2 came out in 1981. It was years before I saw it in the mall. I would guess the summer of 1985. At the time, I played in three very different groups. Group one was older players, like my parents' age. They focused on tactics and combat like a wargame. The second group consisted of all my friends' older brothers and sisters, who were familiar only with D&D, not wargaming. And then there was my Kiddie Table D&D group, us tweeners who were still learning how to play. 

The first time I played this module, it was a disaster. In the first two encounters, three-quarters of the party died. And they didn't understand what was happening. This is a 44-year-old module; you're getting spoilers. So if you don't want that, "Please stop reading now," as the good book says. 

The party wandered into John-Louis Amber's Salon. One character died of blunt force trauma, and two more were knocked out.  

I didn't know that could happen. That wasn't really an option in previous sessions or modules. I should have read the whole thing through. But I didn't. I figured the textboxes would be enough. It worked before.  

Magic in a Bottle

In the next room, the killing really began. As the party ate, they dropped like flies without ever really knowing why. They didn't know I was secretly rolling saving throws, and the food was the cause. They were baffled because I simply read the text to them, and they accepted everything I said without really making choices. No agency is deadly in and of itself. 

Confused, they wandered back to John-Louis and questioned him. This ended up in a brawl where most of the rest of the party died. The 3 survivors wander back to the foyer, desperate to find a way out. 

No one was happy, but no one was exactly angry. I muttered something like, "Next time, let's do something different." 

In the next session, I declared that events in Castle Amber had been a dream, and everyone was still alive. However, I also took the time to read the whole damn module. I was going to be a great DM, and this was the module that would make it happen. I could feel it.  

The party went on a side quest or four. At the end of each session, the characters found themselves dreaming about fog hemming them in. In the follow-up session, I never mentioned the odd dreams but ended again with the dreams of fog. I kept this up for a while. 

Through this series of adventures, the older kiddos were watching. Sometimes mocking, sometimes helping, but hardly very interested. They weren't intentionally mean. They were just 18 to 20-year-olds watching 12 to 13 play a game they had mastered to the point of near boredom. They probably would have quit playing D&D to move on to all of the things young adults do when they hit college age. 

Stuff, I was trying very hard to learn myself. I worked up the courage to introduce X2 again. 

First, I told my players I wanted to replay X2 Chateau d'Amberville. But this time, I wouldn't screw it up. They nodded in assent or maybe agreement that I had screwed it up.   

I gave them a piece of paper that looked similar to the one below and ducked outside for a cigarette. 

My five friends examined the paper, perplexed. Perplexed because no one in the 80s would smoke outside, not even a 13-year-old kid. They were left to stew for a few minutes. Just outside, below the window, were the older kids. I grabbed my bag out of the garage and pulled out a rope. 

I asked my friend's older brother to pull the rope when I opened the window. He thought it was odd but agreed. 

Back inside, I suspect the players had been going through my notes, as I planned. I adjusted my notes and handed my would-be girlfriend the end of the rope and took my place. I didn't have a screen. I just had the seat next to the window because I smoked. 

Maybe this is how Castle Amber looks.

I described the approach to Castle Amber, with the fog and darkness that they had all dreamed of closing in for real. One of the mules wandered off into the mist. 

I lit a cigarette. I used the smoke to describe the fog hemming the foyer in. As the smoke got too thick, I opened the window. 

The rope jerked. 

Howls erupted from the table. Followed by laughter from outside. The rope jerked again. 

"Something has the mule," I said calmly. 

Evil cackles came from the window as the rope jerked again and again. Who couldn't resist going overboard? Older teenagers, tormenting younger siblings and their friends, that's who. 

I told the party something evil was in the fog, mocking and laughing. 

Before long, the gang outside had to see what was happening and came in to watch. 

The party advanced to the Salon and the makeshift boxing ring. I lit up the table by having John-Louis remember them. He mentioned it was not that odd for the dead to walk the halls of Castle Amber. 

That's when I had everyone. 

The older siblings and friends wanted to play this, and there was a mad dash for paper, pencil, and dice. Suddenly, I had 11 people at my table, hanging on my every word. I didn't just hook the kids at the table. I had adults wanting to play my game. 

The party boxed again, but under slightly different rules. 0 HP would not kill you. I declared it was non-lethal damage that could turn deadly if they were too injured. Being forewarned, the party was more careful. 

John-Louis tutted at them when one of the Clerics healed a downed fighter. "Cheaters never prosper," he said. 

I knew what I missed before. I needed to paint pictures with words, and nothing drives that home like making an NPC step out of the pages. 

A Boxer, Demos Magen.

More fireworks went off in the next boxing session. The players had lost most of their money to John-Louis, and they combined all of their cash and resources to fight again, this time with a magically enhanced fighter. Bless and Strength gave the fighter the win. 

Then poof! It happened. A cleric cast cure light wounds on the Demos Magen, and it rose again. 

"Why would you want to do that?" asked John-Louis. "I wouldn't waste my time if I were you." 

The table went silent. My friend's older sister hissed and ran from the table, grabbing her bag from the closet. She pulled out a book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. (This is a link to Amazon.com and the book in question. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

"You have got to read this!" she said. 

When you are 13 and an 18-year-old woman hands you a book, you accept. She dog-eared several pages and took us all on a tangent about "Quality". I had brought Quality to my game.  

"This is so cool," her boyfriend said. "What happens next?" 

I agreed, it was cool. I was being praised by adults. Not for the first time, but in the most high-quality, public way. 

John-Louis was not impressed. He ordered the defeated, but healed Demos Magen to the corner and had it switch places with one of the guardian Magens. Two more fights, and the party was better than even with John-Louis. Pleased with the gold they won, they made their goodbyes. 

Knowing what would happen next, I gave the party a cruel parting gift. John-Louis ordered the two defeated Demos Magen to go with the party, as if they were somehow damaged, less than what they were. He was throwing them away. 

Bastard. 

The party encountered a wandering monster in the halls, a half-dozen Rakasta. The party ran to the study and crashed through the door. 

The lead Rakasta bellowed, "Get out!" 

Before the party could act, the six Rakasta from the hallway came in and ejected them. Now, I didn't roll reactions. I just thought the whole idea was intriguing and so did the players. 

Not everything has to be super deadly here, especially the still living creatures. They could be dangerous, but they are because the world they live in is dangerous. Why take needless risks? 

The party just left John-Louis and his totally dismissive attitude towards kindness, mercy, and compassion. Why couldn't the next room have people who were gruff but not cruel? 

It certainly piqued the party's interest. They were looking for the next challenge, the next would-be villain, the next hook. We played this one module for months. Since we played this one module for months. I could go on forever, but I won't. When I come back, I will have that review and a series of solo sessions in Castle Amber. 

A Tiny Map for a Tiny Place - The Kingdom of Saunders

The Kingdom of Saunders is such a tiny place, it is often not labeled on maps. It is the 3 blue hexes on the map. These are 24-mile hexes, so there is a fairly reasonable amount of area for the characters to romp through. 

Saunders was one of the first client kingdoms of the Human Empire (in red). It is pinched between the Empire and the always rebellious Savanna lands (in green). 

By way of background, the Kingdom is named "Saunders" because I liked the way it sounded. It reminded me of Winnie the Pooh, who lives under the name of Sanders. 

The original image I stole the name from is actually bigger than the map. Even the quote is larger than the whole kingdom map of Saunders: 

Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday, Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders.

(“What does ‘under the name’ mean?” asked Christopher Robin.

“It means he had the name over the door in gold letters, and lived under it.”

“Winnie-the-Pooh wasn’t quite sure,” said Christopher Robin.

“Now I am,” said a growly voice.

“Then I will go on,” said I.)

My campaign world is called "The Peninsula of Plenty," and you can read more about it on Ko-Fi. 

Returning to the Party

I used the OSE rule set for my last solo campaign run. You can get a copy from DriveThruRPG. This is the super bundle; you can actually pick and choose from various titles rather than purchase the whole bundle.  

I plan on taking the party to the Isle of Dread; however, I need to reboot the group. 

In the last session for the Keep on the Borderlands, the party lost several characters: Lefty and Slammer, Celia, and Dorin, plus several other unnamed NPCs. Additionally, some of the characters have changed wildly. 

Punch now uses his real name, Jude, and has become dedicated to the priests at the Keep. I imagine this is a tiny religious group based in the kingdom to the west of the Keep. Jude is now adventuring to become a fine and proper knight, with lordly guidance. In this case, he is seeking a religiously minded lord. While this might sound more like a Paladin's quest, it makes sense in the context of how he became a Knight in the wilderness.  

Sybil took an evil, murderous turn. She has returned west with the party to seek out her family and get herself back. Rety has joined her. Sybil's father is a magic user and adventurer, and her mother is a ranger. The two women hope to find some solace from the wise and experienced parental units. Rety isn't traveling with Sybil for support, but for self-healing. At the family home, Rety spends her days on a small boat on the family pond, trying to find some way to pick up her life after the disaster in the Caves of Chaos. She lost many friends and blames herself. 

The rest of the party: Dorian, Thomas, Belaphon, and Solvo took the same path as Sybil, Jude, and Rety. The tables have turned, and they now follow Simon the Drover and his two daughters. They have been making ends meet by performing guard duties for various shipments and caravans, but the work is very boring. 

On the positive side, Hender and Sonny have tagged along, and the party is vaguely amused by Sonny's attempt at a relationship with one of the drover girls. He has no idea what he is doing, which pleases Bela and Liz to no end. They haven't had this much positive attention before. Simon is less enthusiastic about Sonny's misadventures with his daughters, but remains aloof. It's a lot like watching a puppy learn how to socialize. Or house broken. Or something like that. 

The first issue I have in setting up X1 - Isle of Dread is that the party has no ship. They also have very few funds. In fact, Simon, Bela, and Liz are the only people with any significant funds, as Rety was paying them a lot. The adventuring party could sell of some of their goods to make up the funds and supplies they lost. Rety did leave several thousand gold back at the Keep, but that leaves them dozens of thousands short to purchase a ship. 

I am tinkering with OSR Solo to brainstorm ideas. There is a lot of meta going on here, as I run down things that seem reasonable, but after reflection are somewhat unworkable. I'll let you know how that goes. 

One choice that I have solidified is that Hender, Sonny, Liz, Bela, and Simon will be on that ship, but as NPCs that won't adventure much. That leaves the core group of Jude, Dorian, Thomas, Belaphon, Solvo, and Sybil. They will need new friends to adventure with. These new adventurers will not be the remnants of the NPC party they met in the Caves of Chaos. They are done as adventurers and have set up shop in the Keep. Maybe they will come back someday. 

I really haven't been using figures for this project, but I have to tell you, a collection of plastic dinosaurs sounds great right about now. Here is a link to a good-sized set on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

I hope you join me for this new adventure coming in December or, more likely, January 2026.