At last - my AD&D campaign has started!

[MerricB]

How do you reconcile new characters on the scene? And, what do you do with the old characters that were already there but now have no player to play them?

In this campaign, each session has been a separate expedition into the dungeon, so it hasn't come up.

However, in general we play with whoever turns up (assuming we have a minimum number), and continuity be damned! Whoever is at the session is at the scene, and whoever isn't is magically disappeared (and will reappear).

By my best count, there have been at least 13 players (not including me) involved in this AD&D campaign! No-one (save me) has played in every session, but with 8 players in the most recent session and two others wanting to play but unable to, I'm offering co-DMing positions to anyone who wants them. They'll design a nearby dungeon so everyone remains in the same world and characters can move between the two dungeons.

It's getting a real early-D&D feel to it!

The players participating have been playing with me and my fellow DMs in our store's D&D Encounters program (which runs on Saturday evenings). We have been running Lair Assaults and a Scales of War campaign after the Encounters, but not every available player plays in those. So, I've started up this AD&D game. And with a few Lair Assaults being cancelled, everyone's been piling into my game!

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

Still not the Duergar Stronghold

Adam and Chris were back this week, and though Reece was playing in Paul's Scales of War game this week, he was very diligent about giving Chris the maps he'd made and before the session began, the two were discussing the difference in their maps.

I looked forward to the group finally making their assault on the duergar lair, but - once more - I was disappointed. The group decided to go north. Oh well, out came the dice once more as I randomly determined what they found...

11 Flocktime, 601 CY
The group started by investigating the north-west section of the map (areas 28-32). Some bandits waiting in area 28 proved a source of new "recruits" for the expedition, and the group were amused to discover an old room filled with old bottles of wine (mostly gone to vinegar) and a cave where a number of edible fungi grew along around a pool of fresh water.

In fact, the cave with fungi and pool is something of a feature of many of my dungeons. It's a nod towards giving the creatures food and water. As the pool extended under the wall, one of the players (Nash) decided to swim underneath it to see what was there. As that player had been the main advocate of taking the bandits as followers, another player took the advantage of his absence to slay the bandits - with Nash discovering this as a bandit's head floated past and the water became discoloured with blood.

Sigh.

After the group stopped arguing about that, they discovered a large number of orcs in #31 and #32 - some of whom they slew, some of whom they talked to. Eventually they'd exhausted that avenue of exploration, and made their way back south.

Finally, they made their way into the duergar lair (and past the misty archway), where they were met with skeletons and zombies. I was increasing the number of skeletons and zombies they were encountering as the campaign continued to account for the time the priest had to create them. Killing those undead was difficult enough that after it was over, the group needed to return to town to heal and recover spells. We were out of time, so the Assault on the Duergar Stronghold (tm) would have to wait yet another week...

 

[MerricB]

We were meant to also have a session of Lair Assault running, but the DM called in sick, so I had a potential 10 players for this game. Although I'm willing to run much bigger tables of AD&D than I would of 4E, 10 players was just a few too many. In the end I settled on a table of 8. Incredibly, in the six session we'd run, 13 separate players had participated so far!

I actually noted down who was playing and their characters for this session, and here's the list:

Chris - Bjorn the Cleric 2
Paul - Grunt the half-orc Fighter 1
Ben - Qoven the Ranger 1
Callum - Meroc the Dwarf Fighter 1
Reece - Grol the Fighter 2
Josh - Asmon the Cleric 1
Adam - Arathian the Elf Fighter/Magic-User 1/1
Lee - Bar the Cleric 2

Rich missed his first session this time (being away at a poker tournament). Nash, Nate, Shane and Jackson were the other players who weren't in this session.

18 Flocktime, 601 CY
At last the group decided to make their way into the duergar stronghold rather than messing about with other unexplored areas in the dungeon. The duergar had changed the combination on the misty portal, so it took the group five tries to get through it this time. This was made a bit trickier because the duergar had posted a couple of guards who shot crossbows at them through the mist.

Once they accomplished that and slain the duergar, they ran into the duergar's early warning system (a potted shrieker) before coming into the main entry chamber which held 6 skeletons and 12 zombies!

The three clerics in the group immediately turned them, but the door behind the undead opened to reveal the evil priest, who commanded the undead back into the fight. Lee commanded the priest to die (well, faint) which he did, and he was dragged out of sight by two duergar. This proved to be a very difficult battle, as you well might expect, and Reece's cleric went down during the fight, only to be healed by the other two clerics.

Chris's cleric had bought a dog, and it was tremendously effective in the combat. Let's face it - it was more deadly than any of the PCs!

After that massive combat, the group were rather battered, and so they returned to town to heal. Once there, the other two war dogs in town were swiftly bought by the group (having noticed how effective Chris's was), and after a few more days, the group set out for the dungeon again.

22 Flocktime, 601 CY
The next expedition was greatly successful as they actually brought the fight to the duergar. The fight in the great hall saw twelve duergar led by a level 5 leader fall to the party - four being slept immediately and then the group storming the barricade the duergar had built against the attack.

From there they headed north where they found a couple of duergar and a number of orc slaves in the kitchen; the duergar were slain and the orcs freed (whereupon they fled back to their home). A chamber where duergar maids lived was found, and then to the east they discovered more duergar guards who fought a losing battle against the group. Another misty portal led eastwards, but first they discovered the passage that led south into a throne chamber of sorts.

Now they consider the portal; it required a code of four symbols, and the group thought laterally about this, or rather Callun's dwarf did: he suggested they put him in a barrel (they'd discovered a storeroom) and roll him through.

Incredibly, it worked: the barrel and his dwarven resistance protected him from the magic of the portal, and he was quickly able to disable the archway from the other side. The way downwards into the deeper caverns of the duergar was now open... and would have to wait until next week, alas!

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I was very gratified when the group explored the passageway to the left and triggered the pit trap. I explained to them that thieves can’t actually detect large traps (that’s what dwarves are for), and that explains the use of a 10 foot pole on the equipment list. Amusingly, with a 2 in 6 chance of each character triggering the trap, only the last to cross it – Nash – fell into the pit. Nash wasn’t so amused, but used the first thief skill of the day: his 90% chance to climb out of the pit succeeded.

I'm going to run my first AD&D game tomorrow, first time since 2E came out that I've done so. I enjoyed reading this recap. Thank you for sharing.

You're the DM so if you say thieves can't find large traps that is how it works in your game. I just wanted to throw out this guideline from the DMG p. 19 for your consideration:

"Finding and Removing Traps: Use the time requirements for opening locks. Time counts for each function. Small or large traps can be found, but not magical or magically hidden traps."

If you're open to modifying your games to fit that guideline it opens up one of the thief's skills just a bit. Just thought I'd throw that idea out there as an option. I like the thief to be able to have an extra shot at finding non-magical traps as a back-up to the trusty 10' pole!

 

[Water Bob]

However, in general we play with whoever turns up (assuming we have a minimum number), and continuity be damned! Whoever is at the session is at the scene, and whoever isn't is magically disappeared (and will reappear).

By my best count, there have been at least 13 players (not including me) involved in this AD&D campaign! No-one (save me) has played in every session....

Well, it sounds like its working for you, so that's all that counts. As for me, I'd loathe players not showing up after establishing a character in my game. If that were the case, I'd correct it. And, if I couldn't correct it, I'd either change the scenario so that different people in and out makes sense.* Or, I just wouldn't play. The story and the characters are very important to me--not just the action of the game.





*That would be an interesting challenge. You can account for a lot of weird things using magic. But the thought came to me--if more than one person were playing a single character--about having that character have multiple personality disorder. Or, some version of that using possession, magic jar, or some sort of soul replacement. This could get real creative.

 

[Mallus]

Glad your AD&D campaign is going well [MENTION=3586]MerricB[/MENTION]!

Mine's on session 8-9 (or so). The 4th-5th level party is currently at war with a thieves guild (and it's 10th level master!). It's going surprisingly well ie, the PCs aren't all dead yet.

So far, the consensus is: we missed AD&D!

 

[Falstaff]

Thanks for sharing this Merric, very inspiring!

I want to share that I'm also starting a new AD&D campaign. Tomorrow night is our first session. I have five players. The campaign is set in the Savage Frontier of the Forgotten Realms and they'll be exploring a dungeon in the Rauvin Mountains.

I haven't been this excited about a campaign in years!

 

[darjr]

Very cool. I have to do this.

 

[grodog]

By my best count, there have been at least 13 players (not including me) involved in this AD&D campaign! No-one (save me) has played in every session, but with 8 players in the most recent session and two others wanting to play but unable to, I'm offering co-DMing positions to anyone who wants them. They'll design a nearby dungeon so everyone remains in the same world and characters can move between the two dungeons.

It's getting a real early-D&D feel to it!

Sounds great, Merric. Out of curiousity, have you considered DMing larger groups than 8?---given your combat mgmt chops, I'm sure you can handle it!

 

[MerricB]

Sounds great, Merric. Out of curiousity, have you considered DMing larger groups than 8?---given your combat mgmt chops, I'm sure you can handle it!

Might end up doing so tomorrow night. Actually, a key problem is table space... it's hard to fit more people around the table!

Cheers!