DCC #100 arrived!

I just got a shipping notice today . . . not terribly long before I got a delivery notice from the USPS. This will climb to the top of my reading list as of this weekend, when I should have time to open it up.

It was pricey once the shipping kicked in . . . so I better run it to make it worth it!

Looks good so far!

Felltower Regrets 1 and 2

A big pair of regrets I have with Felltower are as follows:

1) I didn't make the upper levels and surface area a starting area for beginning delvers instead of using the Caves of Chaos.

2) I didn't add a lot more connections between the upper levels and one another, and then to the lower levels from there.

Let's look at those in turn, as a lesson to would-be megadungeon GMs.



1) One issue I've encountered again and again is the need for side areas for starting groups to explore. But I started the game with the Caves of Chaos because it was the fastest way to start.

The downside to that is that there is always a temptation to go look for a "side area." There is always a pull toward going back to the Caves, or the Lost City, or the Cold Fens, or some unknown additional location. It's a fallback, and a megadungeon game works best when the megadungeon is the main pull. Given a chance to play again, I'd burn my ships at the shoreline and commit the group to the megadungeon and nothing else.

That does mean more work - you need to have basic details for everything the PCs can get to in the first session or two before you start and furiously map and prep ahead of them. But in the end it should be a better game.

2) I made the top level of Felltower a little too tight. Yes, it was meant to be a fortress and had chokepoint entrances. But it should have expanded behind that to 3-5 ways to pass between each and every level for the top few levels at least, and a central way down to the deeper levels accessible from the start. I had one for the top few levels, but it would have been better to allow it access to even deeper levels - I could have used magic to restrict access deeper, instead of doing a Wizardry-inspired pair of staircases (although Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord used two elevators.)

Allowing for more too-and-fro access would have resulted, in my opinion, in a better delving experience and less "we can't go there!" b.s.

Just a couple of thoughts on Felltower for today.

Fantasy General - trying to restart my saved game

I gave Icewind Dale a spin, but I wasn't really enjoying it. I had fun back in the day but it's not what I want now.

What I do have, partly played, is Fantasy General. I got stuck on a big, big battle, big enough that getting back into it is rough. I figured I'd just give it a go, starting tonight.

I'm out of practice enough that I'll likely get mauled pretty badly - it's a tough fight. I might lose some of my best veteran units in the process of victory. But I am not playing in Ironman mode. I will just give the battle a playthrough and win at all costs - and then save the results. I'll reserve the right to go back and play the battle again and try for better results. It's tough to take a break from a game that requires a bit of player skill and has long-term costs to pay for errors made today.

Just try to win the battle no matter what seems a good way to break back in, without starting over.

Friday Random Links & Thoughts - 9/15/2023

Weekly roundup.

- I've mostly back on a regular posting schedule. I'll be trying to keep it up.

- Next game is in about a week and change. It'll be Vic's game again.

- HANS posted about Bergmann submachine guns.

- A character for the Psi-Wars game. I'm looking forward to reading session summaries.

- The End of Calidar. I left D&D/AD&D earlier than it came out, so I don't carry a lot of nostalgia for it. I like flying ships and whatnot, but clearly the fanbase isn't large enough to sustain the game. That's too bad - and I know it's something true about some games I like now, too. They have insuffienct critical mass . . .

- I played a bit of Icewind Dale . . . and it wasn't as fun as I remembered. I'll leave it off to the side for now and concentrate on other work.

Oh yeah, I bought Icewind Dale at some point

In this week's feature of "Oh, yeah, I bought that," I was perusing my collection and saw I bought Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, as part of my bundle with Planescape: Torment. So what the heck, I should install it and play it?

It's been years, and I'm not sure it's going to hold up my interest . . . but I'll try it. Should be a useful way to blow 30-40 minutes here and there when I'm waiting on a process to finish or a client to show!

More notes from last game session

- Our wizard rolled an 18 on Invisibility. The critical failure table - which I generally don't like much myself - just had it stun him. He didn't fall down stairs. Huzzah. Not really that thrilling. If it's worth rolling to see if you could succeed, fail, critically succeed, or critically fail . . . then those should all matter. If they won't matter, it's probably just worth saying spellcasting not under stress is just a normal success without bothering to roll.

But if you do roll, a 17 should suck and an 18 should critically suck. Harmless results shouldn't be allowed otherwise it's really just a check between success and critical success.

- It's bleeding odd that you can torso shoot a skeleton with a cutting arrow for full damage. Shoot a rib off? Crack the sternum? I aimed for the skull just because I didn't want that to be a thing.

- Handsome has like a hundred arrows or something laying around for him. I'm probably just going to grab a few extras and toss the rest. I don't even have quivers for them all, or the need for them all.

- Handsome, by the way, still has no armor. I'd expected to loot some by now but then again, having DR 0 hasn't been such a big deal. It might be later, but it's been fun living dangerously.

- I'm enjoying playing but I'm curious how I'll make the transition back to GMing when that comes around soonish.

Felltower Adjacent - Session 4 - Skeletons and Zombies and Draugr, oh my

The group did some stuff last time, and Hannari Ironhand and Handsome wandered up to join them.

They took pains to explain how we're not going to get a share of last session's loot because we weren't there, which is fine with Handsome. I plan to not split loot with people not there myself. We also had a discussion about how, if we happened to find a Very Fine Orichalcum Katana, instead of giving it to Hannari, who uses one, the smart move would be to sell it so everyone can upgrade their weapons and armor and Hannari could buy a not-as-good katana. Seriously. We spent time on this, like there is a VFOK out there and we need to pre-decide this. Or that Hannari won't just grab and use it because holy crap why would you sell that if you found it?

The we headed into the dungeon. They'd slaughtered everything on the upper level, and found three flights of stairs down. Handsome suggested going right down to the next level, slaughtering anyone or anything down there, then coming back up to deal with anything down there that chose to come upstairs.

So we did that. Heading down, we immediately found a bunch of sarcophagi. Naturally, as Handsome walked into the room, they opened and skeletons emerged. Handsome ran back loosing an arrow as he went, and then the skeletons engaged the fighters. They were destroyed pretty quickly, as all they had were sharp bony claws and that wasn't sufficient to bother our fighters. They trashed all of the skeletons.

We amused ourselves by hoping these were Sarcophagi of Infinite Undead but they weren't. We moved on, and found two alters to Bahumet, which is how they worship the Good God here. Meanwhile Handsome stood guard down the hallway to the side. Our bard prayed at the altars. There were double doors but Handsome said, "Listen! You smell something?" He smelled the rot, off an army of zombies!

Before we hit the doors, we headed after the zombies. The intersections were blocked with painted floors of evil runes. We basically jumped them once Walk on Air proved they didn't affect those who didn't touch them (low-rent traps.)

We eventually found the zombies, which came at us from both directions. Handsome was in the back, and missed one and wounded another of the ones from the back with a head shot as they closed in. Splurg or Splink or Spluck or whatever his name is, the goblin they picked up last time, decided to back off (Goblin Cowardice) and leave Handsome facing the zombies from the rear alone. The fighters up front fought the zombies, who used Move and Attack and got butchered.

But Splink was backing off even as Hannari moved up towards us and the zombies. Handsome said, "If you don't engage these zombies I'll shoot you with my next arrow." Someone described that as a threat. For Handsome, it was a statment of intent for next turn's actions. Splik decided to engage the zombies after all.

The zombies didn't last long after everyone was pulling their weight. We mopped up.

We explored more, and smelled more zombies. It was a dead end, though, so Handsome checked the wall . . . and it was an illusion. Thor jumped through, and found four zombies. Handsome and Hannari both rolled 17s and missed their targets but the fighters butchered the zombies in short order, although one destroyed itself by missing a slam and hitting a wall too hard. Handsome voted the wall MVP.

We found a largely empty armory. There was a plaque on the wall and it challenged us with a riddle. Handsome shouted out "Reputation!" to answer the riddle. It could have been your name or your honor, I suppose. Handsome wasn't paying attention (well, I wasn't) and didn't hear the whole riddle but it was an easy one. The success turned a ratty old suit of armor into a new, gleaming suit. Thor took it.

Handsome checked the walls behind the empty weapons racks and found a loose stone. It wasn't trapped, and he found a sack. He gently handled it and handed it over to the bard to check. It was a bottomless purse, with 500 gp in it ($10K). Nice.

We went back to the double doors and through. We met a draugr with a sword who was very chatty. We told him we were killing undead Orcus servants and eventually promised to fulfill the quest he failed. Turns out that the draugr had a job and blew it and killed his whole family as well. Even Handsome isn't that guilty. Anyway, the bard took his sword and gave it to Thor and made him promise to do the thing he'd do anyway.

We took our stuff and headed up to the level above, and found the stairs to the third level of this place. We'll stomp whatever is down there next time.

Notes:

- Yes, I'm going to link to that Lars Fredericksen song every time I smell the rot off an army of zombies. Deal with it.

- MVP was Handsome for finding $10K and other stuff.

- We got 7 xp, otherwise. The fights were all fodder fights. Zombies and skeletons aren't real threats.

- Handsome legitimately was going to kill that goblin for running. Pull your weight or else!

- Want to know what actually happened in detail? Probably read Doug's blog post since it writes it as we play.