E is for "Equipping Characters"

One of the most time consuming activities that happens at my game table, is players choosing and upgrading their equipment. As part of the “plot” of the campaign, player characters get thrown into a prison camp without any gear, they only have the clothes on their backs. This worked well for a few sessions, as the first forays into the dungeon meant gradual gear upgrades.

The problem turned out to be, that new players joined the campaign and the party, after a large amount of funds and gear had been accumulated. So, after introducing the characters, we spent a good amount of time, gearing them, in the session. There are two factors that exacerbate the issue.

1. A good amount of my players are either entirely new to TTRPGs or at least new to the system we play, so they are unfamiliar with both the gear itself, and with the process of outfitting a character.

2. The list of weapons, armour and adventuring gear is quite long, and it is, al least in the 2e PHB, organised like crap.  You need to look at 2 separate pages for armour type and for AC, the weapons list is so extensive that could be called bloated, and the gear list is both missing essential items and too long at the same time.

I still feel justified, in keeping new characters “gearless,” mostly because a) fits the mood of the campaign and b) if I revert my decision now, I retroactively shaft all the characters that started with no gear before. As long as the party remains in the prison camp, they will start gearless. As soon as they escape and find a new home base/adventuring location, they can their new characters start with gear.

In the meantime, I will try to patchwork 2 solutions. One I have already implemented: I trimmed the gear list and created a neat armour and weapons table. I also cut down on the dumber of polearms and adjusted the list of weapons to better fit my setting. See the screenshots below.

This is my adventuring gear page (to be fair this is not really that trim, I could set the most important items on bold for better visibility):

 

This is my melee weapons page (ranged weapons are unchanged, polearms severly trimmed):

 

This is my armour page; I have converted it to ascending AC and sorted it by bonus and weight:

 

Another thing that might be useful, is some sort of starting equipment pack. Personally, I have taken inspirations from the “Ye Olde Fast Pack” section from the Barrowmaze Referee’s screen. See the screenshot  down below:

 

Let’s hope my solutions prove useful at the table. Thanks for reading!

Next article: “F is for finishing maps”

 

D is for Dungeoncrawling in 2e

 The 2e dungeon crawl procedures exist, but almost seem like an afterthought and without prior/outside knowledge I doubt, I would have succeeded in running a 28 session long campaign. As far as I understand it, the playstyle of AD&D 2e leans more into a trad campaign style and away from the grittier and more risqué elements contained in 1e, such as the existence of assassins or demons & devils. I have heard it said that this can be mostly laid at the feet of the satanic panic, and the resulting push from TSR to create a safer/more sanitized version with 2e.

The need for treasure creates an organic incentive to explore the dungeon and plunder it of its riches. Who but adrenalin junkies, weird wizards, or the necrophiliac, would enter the deadly domain of a dungeon, if there was not a substantial monetary reward? XP for retrieved nonmagical treasure is the raison d’tetre for a dungeon crawl.

It is a real shame that elements which should be cornerstones of the system, such as gold for XP, are reduced to (badly written) optional rules in the 2e DMG. It has to be mentioned at this point that the problem is not the fact that it is an optional rule, 2e is filled with those and the modularity of the system is a strength in my opinion. The problem is the accompanying advice we get from the 2e DM is not great. Let’s take a look.   

“As an option, the DM can award XP for the cash value of non-magical treasures. One XP can be given per gold piece found. However, overuse of this option can increase the tendency to give out too much treasure in the campaign” (Advanced Dungeon & Dragons 2^nd Edition, Dungeon Master Guide. Page 69)

Giving out too much treasure is not a concern of mine; I actually do not think it is possible. There are so many things the party spends money on, and even more thing they could spend money on. For example: A fighter needs 2000XP to  reach level 2. Let’s assume that at least 2/3rds come from treasure. As I am using the silver standard, this would translate to 1500 silver pieces. He needs 150 silver for his 1 week training to level 2. If he wants to take a new weapon proficiency at level 3, he needs to train between 2 weeks 1 month for it, which will cost 300-600 silver. Every day in the prison camp costs him 3 silver just for food, which amounts to 84 silver a month. Henchmen take a cut of the total treasure hoard and reduce the actual money in the players hands, Hirelings impose a cost of 3 silver per hireling per day. Plate mail starts at 600 silver pieces. Dungeon supplies, especially burning oil, are costly at 6 silver per flask.

I got endless ways to nickel and dime my players, “too much treasure” it never a concern and misses the point entirely. And we are not even out of the prison camp (the starting location of my current campaign) at this point, the need for raw cash will only increase if the party decides to explore the wilderness or sets up a permanent basecamp somewhere else. If the campaign lasts until domain play, the characters need hoards of cash to build their castles, wizard towers, thief’s guilds, or churches.

After getting the rant portion of this article out of the way, lets cover the substantial factors that need to be addresses to run second edition as a proper dungeon crawler.

Movement Speed: A dungeon turn is 10 minutes and has 10, 1 minute rounds. Per RAW 2e a character can move tens of feet per round during dungeon movement. This means that a human character that is not encumbered could move his base movement rate, in this case 12, in tens of feet per round, which would be 12x10= 120ft per round. This results in a movement of 1200ft per turn, which is enough to cover even my most expansive dungeon in just about 1 turn. To avoid this instance, I use something much closer to B/X, characters can move their current movement speed in tens of feet per turn in unexplored, unmapped territory. In mapped territory they can move up to three times faster.  This means that they can at most move 360ft per turn. It is usually much less, because the party moves as a group, and is limited by the member with the lowest movement speed. Halflings and heavily armoured fighters are the most likely cause of slow movement speed in my game.

Wandering Monsters: In second edition, it is suggested that one random encounter check is made every hour, with an encounter occurring as a result of 1 on a roll of 1d10. This is completely neutered compared to the frequency of a random encounter check every second turn, where an encounter happens on a 1 on a 1d6 roll. The 2e DMG does mention that the frequency should be increased in case the area is particularly dangerous or the players create excessive noise, but that does not change that the base frequency is insufficient.

Reaction rolls:  These rules are quite unwieldy in RAW second edition and I adapted the simpler B/X schema to be compatible with 2e stat-bonuses. I will talk more about this in a far off article: “M is for Morale”

Vision and Light: I have implemented both normal darkvision and a form of cat-like lowlight vision in my game. It is not the usual infravision, that is common in old-school games, but it works quite well. And the fact that demi-human races have one or the other depending on locations, is a cool bit of flavour on my mind. The exact mechanics are described below.

• Lowlight Vision: Enables a character to see in an environment that possesses ambient light (moon, star, candles  etc.) for 60ft as if it were daylight, as long as they do not stand in a directly lit area (for ex. the light radius of a torch, lantern, or light spell)
• Darkvision: Enables a character to see in total darkness for 60ft as if it were daylight.

All demi-human races (Dwarves, Elves, Half-elves, Half-orcs, and Halflings) possess both lowlight and darkvision. Dwarves and Half-orcs have darkvision underground and lowlight vision above ground. Elves, Half-elves, and Halflings have darkvision above ground and lowlight vision underground

I use the AD&D 1e durations for lanterns and torches in my game, this means lanterns burn for 4h/pint of oil and torches burn for 1 hour. For some reason, lanterns burned for 6h at some point in my game, and I have no idea where I got that duration from, the standard 2e values place them at 2 hours per pint.

 

I think that implementing these procedures into the skeleton of 2e, was the essential step that enabled me to run a successful dungeon crawl. I have had failed attempts before, most of them in fifth edition, and I had the feeling that the system itself did not support this playstyle at all. Second edition at least has the necessary parts, even if they are a bit mangled and need fixing.

Next article: “E is for Equipping your character”  

"C" is for Campaign Recaps and Statistics

 In the following article I will give you a rough recap of my current campaign and some hopefully interesting stats like the number of deaths and the treasure recovered.

Player Character Accomplishments

The initial campaign was pitched as: “You are prisoners that get thrown into the newly established prison colony. It is called “the pit” and is essentially a 900ft deep crater in the ground. Mages only have limited spells which are tattooed onto their arms. The king wants a metal, galvorn, which is found in the dungeon adjacent to the crater. You have nothing except the clothes on your back. Good luck”

Considering the limited resources, the party has started with, they have done remarkably well for themselves. Over the course of the game, the first 2 Floors of the dungeon have been mostly scoured of treasure, the party has exterminated the resident tribe of cave goblins, and they almost died to ghouls in 3 consecutive sessions at the exact same place in the dungeon (A fact that was not engineered by me but happened through random wandering monster rolls and bad luck). The party is currently digging a secure storage/living space into the side of the crater. About 90% of the required labour is done by the enslaved remnants of the goblin tribe they exterminated. 

The party has found a large part of the treasure hidden on the first two floors of the dungeon. By my rough estimation this should amount to about 30’000 Silver, not counting magic items. This calculation may be somewhat inaccurate because I switched the campaign to the silver standard halfway through. It also does not account for all the experience the party has amassed over the campaign. The fact that I use a stripped down version of class experience from the 2e DMG as well as RAW 2e monster experience which is higher than B/X or 1e, plays a large role in this, I think. I will detail these rules in a later article.

Surprisingly there have not been many deaths on the player character front. Here is a list of the 5 deaths and their causes so far.

1. Pokus, a large gangly wizard played by T., killed by a shadow the party did not detect in session 9. Ate a crit in the surprise round, which killed him instantly. If he had survived, he would have been the first level 2 wizard in the game.
2. Sinatra, a 3^rd level human Fighter played by Na. She got eviscerated by ghouls in an almost TPK, after the party recklessly explored the vast graveyard cave, adjacent to the camp.
3. Velverosa Idrian, an elven wizard/thief (I think at 4^th level of thief and 2^nd wizard, I can’t find the character sheet right now), killed  in session 19, with a brutal critical while fighting in the camps arena. She had 4 HP and a cultist of the crow goddess crit her with exactly 14 damage, this took her from 4 HP to -10 instantly. She did not even have time to bleed out.
4. Veriditas, a young human Fighter played by St. He got executed for murder in session 26 after being caught red handed by a group of camp guards. This should be a lesson to all players who want to enter a blood-pact with an evil sword.
5. Zefix, a 5^th level druid played by A. He died to a system shock check he incurred due to being attacked by a live force draining monster. He missed his 88% system shock check, by 2%. I am convinced that he would have survived if he had not said something akin to “why am I rolling, I am dead anyway” before rolling his dice. 

Player Attendance and Levels

Over the course of the campaign the group has both grown in numbers of potential players (from 5-6 to 14) and shifted organically to an open table format. This has obviously led to some players pulling ahead in experience and in-game knowledge. I have done a rough count of the attended sessions per player and ordered them from high to low. The names are abbreviated.

1.  T. attended 24 sessions and has the longest unbroken streak from session 1 to 23.
2.   P. attended 14 sessions, had the highest level wizard at some point. 3^rd highest streak at 5 sessions.
3.   A. sits in 3^rd place with 12 attended sessions, was also in the possession of the highest level spellcaster, Zefix a 5^th level druid, before dying in session 26.
4.   M. and Na. attended 11 sessions. Na. has the second highest streak at 7 sessions.
5.   S. attended 10 sessions before his character got executed in session 26.
6.   N. attended 6 sessions.
7.  Ma. Mo. and St. attended 5 sessions.
8.   F. L. and Se. attended 2 sessions each.
9.    Lu. attended only 1 session.

There has been both experience gained, and experience lost over the last 28 sessions. Here is a ranking of both alive and dead characters per their total experience. The italicized characters are henchmen.

1. Aelf total experience 21428 XP split into fighter 6680, mage: 3769, thief: 10979
2. Grover ca 13k XP; elven bard   small update: the character has 14474XP
3. Lemi, halfling thief at 9999XP
4. Lem, a human fighter at 6656 XP
5. Bol-Duke, half-orc berserker, 6288 XP
6. Varghild, a human fighter at 5338
7. Arne, human fighter at 4735 XP
8. Elda, a human fighter at 3964 XP
9. Simsala Slim, human wizard at 3700 XP
10. Uludag, a human Fighter/Priest with 3444.5 total XP
11. Morda, a Priestess of Hood (The god of death), at 3284 XP
12.  Bob, a dwarven fighter at 2597 XP

All other characters are either below level 1 or 2, or I don’t have an exact experience count for them.

The dead characters are ranked in the following way:

1. Velv, thief/wizard 10969.5/3902.5
2. Zefix, half-elven druid, 8494
3. Veriditas, human fighter 6916
4. Sinatra, a human fighter 4070
5. Pokus, a human wizard, just under level 2. 

Out of game Time vs In-game Time

We have played for 28 sessions over a period of about 11 months. The bulk of these sessions, 25 to be exact, happened in the months of September 2022 until March 2023.

“In-game” however much less time has passed: The arrival of the first group of player characters in the adventure location, the campaign is happening in, is dated to the 7^th of July 1023 AM (Anno Makosh = Year after the founding of the now fallen human empire). The current date is the 18^th   of November 1023 AM. I switched from the real-world calendar to a custom one (with 4 seven day weeks per month and 13 months) at the first of September, mostly because I kept making mistakes in the normal calendar.

This means that we spent exactly 130 days in the campaign. If we consider the fact that the dungeon was entered in all but 3 sessions, a dungeon expedition was mounted every 5.2 days on average.

Houserules

• The silver standard, inspired by Deltas excellent post about the subject. http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2010/05/money-results.html
• Training rules adapted from the 1e DMG but at a rate of only 150 Silver per week of training, instead of the 1500 gold pieces Gygax proposes. I also got rid of the rating system that determines the length of training. Now it simply takes longer depending on the level.
• An abbreviated and amended adventuring gear and weapons chart, custom to my homebrew world: I will cover this in a later article in more detail.
• The Berserker class, mostly inspired from the complete barbarian’s handbook.
• The dungeon crawl procedures, which are quite neutered and hidden in 2e, have been changed to be somewhat closer to earlier versions of D&D, B/X and AD&D 1e to be specific. I will cover the extent of my changes in the next article “D is for dungeon crawling”
• Half-orcs, which are not in the core 2e books, have been adapted from one of the 2e supplements, it might have been Greyhawk, but I am not sure. 

Overall, I am very happy with the campaign, and with the fact that I got to share it with my players. This has been my first “serious” attempt at running an old-school dungeon-crawl, created by myself and not out of a module.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading, and I hope to see you in the next article: “D is for dungeoncrawling.”