I repeat the same things over and over in Felltower.
"Okay, you head out of Stericksburg through the North Gate, across the dwarf-made Stone Bridge over the polluted Silver River, to Sterick's Landing. You pass the broken remains of a statue of a horse with Sterick on it, only his headless and armless torso remains. You pass through the slums on the north side of the river and up the winding track to the top of the mountain."
Every time.
Then it's picking an entrance, and making your way through the same tunnels, time after time after time.
You want to get to the "apartment level?" You have to walk there, and talk me through getting there. You have to tell me how you open doors, and who makes the roll and who is holding a crowbar or just shouldering it. You have to tell me who touches the doors with the six-fingered hand print to get by.
Every time.
You have to describe it all. No skipping ahead. If a passage is blocked and needs squeezing through, or a Will roll, or whatever, you have to make them.
Every time.
Why?
Players sit up and take notice when they change.
If I only ever mentioned the new things, and glossed over the repetition, they wouldn't have the same impact. You can argue this, but I used to do the "gloss over" thing. I pretty much told you what to pay attention to, because I only told you what was new and different.
But since they are always hearing the same things . . . and then hear different things, it piques their interest. It makes the dungeon feel more alive rather than just a series of connected encounters you can fast-forward to once you've dealt with what's beyond.
They don't always notice. There were signs, for example, that some people took residence in the dungeon for a while. The players didn't really pay too close attention to the differences in descriptions of noises and sights in the upper levels of the dungeon. A few months on, the NPCs finished what they wanted to finish, and left. The PCs did eventually find their camping grounds, but never when they were there or what they did. I said a few things, no one thought they were important ("Stay on target!"*), and they missed something. But equally, they've noticed very small differences in the dungeon and made real progress out of them.
Your choices matter.
Did you smash up the portcullis near the main entrance to block some monsters from using it? Now you can't use it, either. You killed off some monsters to get rid of a problem that slowed you down? You get the benefit of having smoothed out your travel path.
This has forced the players to spend time re-opening entrances. It gets people checking little mysterious oddities every time, hoping they'll provide a distraction, a reward, or a shortcut. It gets people trying to solve problems that annoy them on the regular. Yeah, the orcs were a problem for a long time. The PCs smashed them repeatedly. Why? Because they annoyed the shit out of the players every session they had to pay a toll, or deal with orc patrols, or blockede. If getting deeper in the dungeon was just a quick, "We pay our toll and now we're on level five!" or whatever, they wouldn't have done it. They cleared the well to make their path deeper easier. They make lots of decisions based on the repetitions.
I know for a fact this has cost me players. Not everyone has stuck my game out because of this. But it's okay. I like the two benefits I get. And if it costs me some players, it's okay. My style of game isn't for everyone. I don't try to make it so. I think it's how megadungeons function well. And it's how Felltower has evolved to be, and I like it.
Sunday, April 19, 2026
Monday, April 13, 2026
GURPS DF Session 221, Felltower 140 - Second GFS Assault, Part I
Date: 4/11/2026
Weather: Mild and sunny.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (367 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (355 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (347 points)
Rogar Thane-Blood, human barbarian (259 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (373 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)
The PCs gathered in town, swapped rumors, and commiserated over Thor's new shield being delivered tomorrow. They suggested wait a day or two before going into the dungeon, but decided not to [when the GM said, "Okay, see you guys on Tuesday, then!"].
The group used the well entrance, and made their way down to the "gate level." They noted the air was fresh, not the stale air they're used to.
A few rooms later, they opened up a door to a chamber with a black hemisphere on the ceiling. Inside the room, guarding a nest, where a pair of horse-sized eight-legged lizards, with bright blue hides tinged with white. Shock slorn! The slorn hissed, the PCs attacked, and a short fight erupted. Rogar and Thor rushed in, along with Percy, and Vlad and Hannari contributed ranged attacks. Chop and Duncan whipped Resist Lightning spells on themselves and likely targets. The slorn didn't last that long. A zap of lightning apiece and they got shredded. Percy and Rogar bashed one's skull apart, and Thor stabbed the other to ensure it was dead. A quick (and cheap) pair of Prepare Game spells left them a pile of hides, bones, and meat. They took the hides and a pair of eggs they found in the nest. The room was especially breezy, and the air felt light and fresh, if a bit ionized.
They noted the black hemisphere didn't shoot them, so they left it alone and headed to the "Will Wall" - an illusiary that required a Will roll to pass through. After a few tries and some Strenthen Will spells, they all made it through. There they deposited the shock slorn hides and eggs.
Next they headed down the second GFS, and into the door beyond the first landing. They were hit with two spaced out Dispel Magic spells which wiped out a lot of ligthstones, but they managed to get off their Walk on Air spellstones and moved into the rooms. The exits were blocked with a gossamer, smoke-colored but opaque material hanging directly from the walls and ceiling. Thor cut the first and second down with his sword as they moved to their left, a faint and low chime going off the whole time.
It was here they first encountered the enemy. From behind, four norker brutes charged up, yelling loudly. Vlad wounded one and the others continued on, as the party revered to face them. As they did, trorkers backed (way back) with a few "Gith" moved up to join them, coming from the corridor opposite the stairs. Then a half-dozen golden swordsmen appeared from the direction the party had headed originally.
They melee'd a few norkers and trokers down, right after Hannari put down five of them with a sleep grenade. Duncun put up a wall of earth, 1' thick, to cut the "rear" area down to a single hex width. Hannari rushed into the gap. But then a Gith tossed a blinding dust grenade and blinded Thor and Duncan, each for 1d minutes - Percy made his HT roll by enough to resist it.
Blinded Duncan turned his wall to stone, Vlad shot a golden swordsman only to have it parry his arrow with ease (the other missed with a 17, a rare normal failure.) Hannari deployed a flash nageteppo but it didn't bother the golden swordsman. The whole fight had gone earily quiet except for the sounds of metal hitting flesh or shields, as the norkers quieted down.
We ended there as it was 6 pm, our preferred cutoff time.
Notes:
- We knew this would be a multi-session delve. The new rules for multi-session delves, with a +1 XP per session after the first, has really taken the sting out of longer fights.
- Good rolling on a DX potion and high stats has put Hannari at DX 26. Yeah. Ironically, Chop was maneuvering so Hannari could fight Trokers - with Affect Spirits on one of his weapons - and Persistance could fight the golden swordsmen - with their swords, weak defensively against his flail, which currently lacks Affect Spirits. Oh well. His his DX will certainly help.
- Prepare Game is ridiculously fast and cheap, especially for a spell which completely eliminates the utility of a bunch of skills. Typical.
- MVP was Hannari for suggesting they stash the shock slorn hides and eggs "beyond the Will Wall" to ensure nothing bothered them that couldn't pass that. Good thinking, honestly. It could have been Duncan's player, for suggesting that "Sword of Slorn" is a great band name. I suggested that "Beyond the Will Wall" - their second album - was clearly SoS's best work, if a real departure from the standard death metal of their first album and a more lyrical, psychadelic rock opera approach. And yes, someone AI'ed up a logo for them and we all kind of want t-shirts for them. "Name three songs!" should be a fun exercise for that shirt.
Weather: Mild and sunny.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (367 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (355 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (347 points)
Rogar Thane-Blood, human barbarian (259 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (373 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)
The PCs gathered in town, swapped rumors, and commiserated over Thor's new shield being delivered tomorrow. They suggested wait a day or two before going into the dungeon, but decided not to [when the GM said, "Okay, see you guys on Tuesday, then!"].
The group used the well entrance, and made their way down to the "gate level." They noted the air was fresh, not the stale air they're used to.
A few rooms later, they opened up a door to a chamber with a black hemisphere on the ceiling. Inside the room, guarding a nest, where a pair of horse-sized eight-legged lizards, with bright blue hides tinged with white. Shock slorn! The slorn hissed, the PCs attacked, and a short fight erupted. Rogar and Thor rushed in, along with Percy, and Vlad and Hannari contributed ranged attacks. Chop and Duncan whipped Resist Lightning spells on themselves and likely targets. The slorn didn't last that long. A zap of lightning apiece and they got shredded. Percy and Rogar bashed one's skull apart, and Thor stabbed the other to ensure it was dead. A quick (and cheap) pair of Prepare Game spells left them a pile of hides, bones, and meat. They took the hides and a pair of eggs they found in the nest. The room was especially breezy, and the air felt light and fresh, if a bit ionized.
They noted the black hemisphere didn't shoot them, so they left it alone and headed to the "Will Wall" - an illusiary that required a Will roll to pass through. After a few tries and some Strenthen Will spells, they all made it through. There they deposited the shock slorn hides and eggs.
Next they headed down the second GFS, and into the door beyond the first landing. They were hit with two spaced out Dispel Magic spells which wiped out a lot of ligthstones, but they managed to get off their Walk on Air spellstones and moved into the rooms. The exits were blocked with a gossamer, smoke-colored but opaque material hanging directly from the walls and ceiling. Thor cut the first and second down with his sword as they moved to their left, a faint and low chime going off the whole time.
It was here they first encountered the enemy. From behind, four norker brutes charged up, yelling loudly. Vlad wounded one and the others continued on, as the party revered to face them. As they did, trorkers backed (way back) with a few "Gith" moved up to join them, coming from the corridor opposite the stairs. Then a half-dozen golden swordsmen appeared from the direction the party had headed originally.
They melee'd a few norkers and trokers down, right after Hannari put down five of them with a sleep grenade. Duncun put up a wall of earth, 1' thick, to cut the "rear" area down to a single hex width. Hannari rushed into the gap. But then a Gith tossed a blinding dust grenade and blinded Thor and Duncan, each for 1d minutes - Percy made his HT roll by enough to resist it.
Blinded Duncan turned his wall to stone, Vlad shot a golden swordsman only to have it parry his arrow with ease (the other missed with a 17, a rare normal failure.) Hannari deployed a flash nageteppo but it didn't bother the golden swordsman. The whole fight had gone earily quiet except for the sounds of metal hitting flesh or shields, as the norkers quieted down.
We ended there as it was 6 pm, our preferred cutoff time.
Notes:
- We knew this would be a multi-session delve. The new rules for multi-session delves, with a +1 XP per session after the first, has really taken the sting out of longer fights.
- Good rolling on a DX potion and high stats has put Hannari at DX 26. Yeah. Ironically, Chop was maneuvering so Hannari could fight Trokers - with Affect Spirits on one of his weapons - and Persistance could fight the golden swordsmen - with their swords, weak defensively against his flail, which currently lacks Affect Spirits. Oh well. His his DX will certainly help.
- Prepare Game is ridiculously fast and cheap, especially for a spell which completely eliminates the utility of a bunch of skills. Typical.
- MVP was Hannari for suggesting they stash the shock slorn hides and eggs "beyond the Will Wall" to ensure nothing bothered them that couldn't pass that. Good thinking, honestly. It could have been Duncan's player, for suggesting that "Sword of Slorn" is a great band name. I suggested that "Beyond the Will Wall" - their second album - was clearly SoS's best work, if a real departure from the standard death metal of their first album and a more lyrical, psychadelic rock opera approach. And yes, someone AI'ed up a logo for them and we all kind of want t-shirts for them. "Name three songs!" should be a fun exercise for that shirt.
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Felltower pre-summary
Full summary tomorrow, but:
- a crew of seven PCs entered Felltower
- they killed a pair of Shock Slorn and found some slorn eggs
- they made it through the "Will Wall" and down the second GFS
- they got into a brawl with norkers, trokers aka thorkers, Gith, and Golden Swordsmen.
It's going to be a long fight, so we ended it on time and we'll spend the next session(s?) resolving it.
- a crew of seven PCs entered Felltower
- they killed a pair of Shock Slorn and found some slorn eggs
- they made it through the "Will Wall" and down the second GFS
- they got into a brawl with norkers, trokers aka thorkers, Gith, and Golden Swordsmen.
It's going to be a long fight, so we ended it on time and we'll spend the next session(s?) resolving it.
Monday, March 2, 2026
What color is paut? Sigh.
I think when you've played with a group long enough, and they've asked every question imaginable, they imagine up new ones to torment you.
Actual question from game on Sunday:
What color is paut?
My answer? I don't know. And I don't want to rule on it because, somehow, this will come back to haunt me. It'll be a specific color and then people will ask if it's paut because of the color, is this paut colored, if it's paut colored is it magical, can I get poison that is paut colored, can I get food coloring for my paut so it's a different color . . . aargh.
Look, it's probably blue because of Diablo. But honestly, I don't care. It won't matter. If people really need to know the color - in this case, so they can tell the casters what color the paut is in their bag in case they're unconcious and the casters need to sort the paut from the other potions - they can just tie ribbons of a specific color on the bottles or label the freaking bottles PAUT in large, friendly letters.
But geez, what color is paut.
Oh brother.
Actual question from game on Sunday:
What color is paut?
My answer? I don't know. And I don't want to rule on it because, somehow, this will come back to haunt me. It'll be a specific color and then people will ask if it's paut because of the color, is this paut colored, if it's paut colored is it magical, can I get poison that is paut colored, can I get food coloring for my paut so it's a different color . . . aargh.
Look, it's probably blue because of Diablo. But honestly, I don't care. It won't matter. If people really need to know the color - in this case, so they can tell the casters what color the paut is in their bag in case they're unconcious and the casters need to sort the paut from the other potions - they can just tie ribbons of a specific color on the bottles or label the freaking bottles PAUT in large, friendly letters.
But geez, what color is paut.
Oh brother.
Sunday, March 1, 2026
GURPS DF Session 220, Felltower 139 - A brief foray
Date: 3/1/2026
Weather: Mildly cold and wet.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (367 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (355 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (373 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)
We started off in town, with the PCs hoping for Percy and Rogar but neither could be found - Percy was way and Rogar was sick.
They decided to head down to the beholder's cave area, and explore the humanoid-filled nearby tunnels.
That's what they did - they headed down, first checking to see if the Lost City gate was open, and then heading down past the fire gate.
They found the tunnel, hidden by a curtain of hide. A quick Glasswall spell at the curtain revealed noisemakers on the far side. They put Silence over it and Thor tore it down. Vlad moved past the rest of the group and into the narrow tunnel beyond. He moved around a tight bend sideways to fit through and saw and stepped over a cord at ankle height covered with noisemakers. Beyond was a small group - a pair of gnolls with bows, a pair of norkers with stone axes, and a distorted-looking orc with warped features. Vlad put two arrows into one of the gnolls, dropping it, and the norkers closed in. The other gnoll loosed an arrow at Vlad but he dodged, hemmed into place by the ankle-height cord he'd stepped over. He stepped over it and backed up as the norkers swung at him. A critical hit by one sliced him badly, and then a normal hit he failed to dodge crippled his left leg. He fell just in view of the other PCs, still standing in the Silence zone. They launched into action.
Hannari tossed a hatchet at the norker he could see but it deflected the toss with its off hand. Thor rushed forward. Chop healed Vlad from the back ranks. And Vlad, prone, shot the norker with a pair of arrows (Heroic Archer allows a lot.) One hit and the norker dropped back, onto the tripwire, and a deadfall fell on Vlad. He rolled away, just as the stones fell.
They gave up on the humanoids, also fearing the noise would bring the beholder and gargoyles. Not wanting to be boxed in, they fled to the stairs and back up to the level above.
They headed back to the gate level and around the level, lit with light stones but also - critically - Thor's flaming sword. They took a shortcut through a cave marked as having an "acrid smell." Vlad went in, Thor followed with his flaming sword, and FWOOOOOOSH! The "air" burned, inflicting 14 burn on Vlad and setting him on fire. A quick Resist Fire saved him, they had a big laugh, and headed on . . .
After that, they headed to the second GFS, and down to the level where they fought their last big battle with the Gith and Trorkers. They did a brief exploration and headed back (see below.)
Notes:
The raid on the 2nd GFS first landing wasn't supposed to be short. But the headed off the edge of the battlemap, and I tried to expand it . . . and this frelled up the whole map. The walls got moved off, the PCs dumped in a corner, ugh. I had to delete the whole map and re-do it. I couldn't do that during the session, so we ended early. I gave the players a choice - take a re-do, undo the expended potions and so on, and get back to town . . . or stay in the dungeon and do the whole "roll to see if people can join in" approach of a split session. They went with the leave and come back, since they can arm up and if we're delayed enough, get some ordered equipment. Fair enough. I shouldn't have been trying to play with the scene during play.
MVP was Thor for setting Vlad on fire.
Weather: Mildly cold and wet.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (367 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (355 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (373 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)
We started off in town, with the PCs hoping for Percy and Rogar but neither could be found - Percy was way and Rogar was sick.
They decided to head down to the beholder's cave area, and explore the humanoid-filled nearby tunnels.
That's what they did - they headed down, first checking to see if the Lost City gate was open, and then heading down past the fire gate.
They found the tunnel, hidden by a curtain of hide. A quick Glasswall spell at the curtain revealed noisemakers on the far side. They put Silence over it and Thor tore it down. Vlad moved past the rest of the group and into the narrow tunnel beyond. He moved around a tight bend sideways to fit through and saw and stepped over a cord at ankle height covered with noisemakers. Beyond was a small group - a pair of gnolls with bows, a pair of norkers with stone axes, and a distorted-looking orc with warped features. Vlad put two arrows into one of the gnolls, dropping it, and the norkers closed in. The other gnoll loosed an arrow at Vlad but he dodged, hemmed into place by the ankle-height cord he'd stepped over. He stepped over it and backed up as the norkers swung at him. A critical hit by one sliced him badly, and then a normal hit he failed to dodge crippled his left leg. He fell just in view of the other PCs, still standing in the Silence zone. They launched into action.
Hannari tossed a hatchet at the norker he could see but it deflected the toss with its off hand. Thor rushed forward. Chop healed Vlad from the back ranks. And Vlad, prone, shot the norker with a pair of arrows (Heroic Archer allows a lot.) One hit and the norker dropped back, onto the tripwire, and a deadfall fell on Vlad. He rolled away, just as the stones fell.
They gave up on the humanoids, also fearing the noise would bring the beholder and gargoyles. Not wanting to be boxed in, they fled to the stairs and back up to the level above.
They headed back to the gate level and around the level, lit with light stones but also - critically - Thor's flaming sword. They took a shortcut through a cave marked as having an "acrid smell." Vlad went in, Thor followed with his flaming sword, and FWOOOOOOSH! The "air" burned, inflicting 14 burn on Vlad and setting him on fire. A quick Resist Fire saved him, they had a big laugh, and headed on . . .
After that, they headed to the second GFS, and down to the level where they fought their last big battle with the Gith and Trorkers. They did a brief exploration and headed back (see below.)
Notes:
The raid on the 2nd GFS first landing wasn't supposed to be short. But the headed off the edge of the battlemap, and I tried to expand it . . . and this frelled up the whole map. The walls got moved off, the PCs dumped in a corner, ugh. I had to delete the whole map and re-do it. I couldn't do that during the session, so we ended early. I gave the players a choice - take a re-do, undo the expended potions and so on, and get back to town . . . or stay in the dungeon and do the whole "roll to see if people can join in" approach of a split session. They went with the leave and come back, since they can arm up and if we're delayed enough, get some ordered equipment. Fair enough. I shouldn't have been trying to play with the scene during play.
MVP was Thor for setting Vlad on fire.
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Felltower updates
I did a wee bit of Felltower work today.
- updating rumors
- restocking prep
- double-checking the maps
- and planning for our next game . . . on 3/1. Yeah, our pace has slowed down a bit. But we'll keep gaming.
- updating rumors
- restocking prep
- double-checking the maps
- and planning for our next game . . . on 3/1. Yeah, our pace has slowed down a bit. But we'll keep gaming.
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Thorker Research
The PCs captured and returned to town a thorker. They paid a sage for research on the critter, and this is what they got back.
Thorkers – probably more correctly called trorkers, are a form of hobgoblin with armored skin and nictitating membranes over their eyes. Their blood strongly resembles that of trolls. While they are definitely living creatures, they have traces of undead traits about them. The sages posit they are a strange mix of norker and troll, with infusions of the essence of wights.
- They are strongly magic resistant vs. wizardly and bardic magic. Sleep effects ignore this.
- Their touch paralyzes (resisted by HT), and direct skin contact isn’t needed.
- They’re exceeding hard to kill but sufficient damage will kill them.
- They shrug off a lot of injury (i.e. they have Damage Reduction) but this can be bypassed with fire, direct magical damage (like Dehydrate or Frostbite, for example), or using Affect Spirits.
- They regenerate quickly – slower than trolls, but only a little slower.
- They’re fearless and don’t seem to have any “human” reactions to anything – pain, included.
- They’re unaffected by poisons.
- They can see in the dark via Infravision.
Notes:
- Yes, they're inspired by Thouls from Basic D&D. I took them my own direction.
- The sleep effect was a thrown-in so they'd have some interesting weakness. I have a reason why that's the exception, but I doubt it'll be discovered. I always like the idea that you couldn't just get good mutations, you also get bad ones, in games like Gamma World. I like downsides to upsides.
Thorkers – probably more correctly called trorkers, are a form of hobgoblin with armored skin and nictitating membranes over their eyes. Their blood strongly resembles that of trolls. While they are definitely living creatures, they have traces of undead traits about them. The sages posit they are a strange mix of norker and troll, with infusions of the essence of wights.
- They are strongly magic resistant vs. wizardly and bardic magic. Sleep effects ignore this.
- Their touch paralyzes (resisted by HT), and direct skin contact isn’t needed.
- They’re exceeding hard to kill but sufficient damage will kill them.
- They shrug off a lot of injury (i.e. they have Damage Reduction) but this can be bypassed with fire, direct magical damage (like Dehydrate or Frostbite, for example), or using Affect Spirits.
- They regenerate quickly – slower than trolls, but only a little slower.
- They’re fearless and don’t seem to have any “human” reactions to anything – pain, included.
- They’re unaffected by poisons.
- They can see in the dark via Infravision.
Notes:
- Yes, they're inspired by Thouls from Basic D&D. I took them my own direction.
- The sleep effect was a thrown-in so they'd have some interesting weakness. I have a reason why that's the exception, but I doubt it'll be discovered. I always like the idea that you couldn't just get good mutations, you also get bad ones, in games like Gamma World. I like downsides to upsides.
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