B2: Keep on the Borderlands tomorrow, advice?

[BiggusGeekus]

We're having a Gygax tribute game tomorrow, playing oD&D, 3d6 in order, with module B2. I'm allowing the guys to use any meta-knowledge they might have. So if they can navigate the Caves of Chaos from memory, I'll let them do it. After all, it is a tribute.

I've run B2 a dozen times, so I'm familiar with it. However I'm open to any thoughts. So, given that it is a one-shot game, does anyone have any thoughts, ideas, or even just wacky memories?

Thanks!

 

[Greylock]

By any chance, you wouldn't happen to also have B2 - Little Keep on the Borderlands by Kenzer & Co. would you?

That's my suggestion, if you do. A little mix and match.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

By any chance, you wouldn't happen to also have B2 - Little Keep on the Borderlands by Kenzer & Co. would you?

That's my suggestion, if you do. A little mix and match.

Heh. No, I don't, but I have a feeling that the PCs won't be wanting for carnage. I'm making them roll 3d6 in order and they have to roll for hit points. So if the dwarf has 2hp and the magic-user has 5 ... well ... guess who's the arrow shield?

 

[Greylock]

Then you need Little Keep on the Borderlands now more than ever.

About a year ago, my DM did a mashup of the original with the Kenzer version, and it was a blast. Familiar yet occasionally very weird. My character ended up with a deeply personal vendetta against the poop-flinging lemur. Stood guard duty every damned night trying to kill it; snuck off whenever other party members weren't looking, just to kill it; getting hizzouwnself almost killed, dozens of times, trying to kill it.

Very interesting combo. Half dead serious, half trash ogres sitting on a pot. I don't think I would have cared for the Kenzer version straight no chaser, but with a mixer it was dandy.

 

[GeorgeFields]

I've ran this several times myself.

Early in my gaming career, I killed an elf with the gelatinous cube.

Advice? Have a BLAST with it! Don't worry about rules calls. As it's a one-shot tribute, go ahead and rule in the PCs favor for questionable calls.

Hell, you might have enough fun to turn it into a somewhat rules-light campaign. I've seen this happen to one-shots before.

Oh, yeah...make the medusa HOT! Give her nice sexy legs...

 

[Filcher]

Oh, yeah...make the medusa HOT! Give her nice sexy legs...

Didn't everybody do this? I thought it was in the Official House Rules memo.

 

[Vague Jayhawk]

Start at the caves. Don't waste any time in the town.

Bree Yark!

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Encourage the PCs to hire men-at-arms, linkboys, and such. Go in with a big party. That used to be really common, but has fallen out of fashion, and they might not think to do it. With the older rules, it's not such a headache to manage a really big party, and there's a lot of opportunity for cool things to happen with the NPCs. (role-playing, loyalty checks, unexpected heroics from linkboys, betrayals, et cetera.)

It'll also give you a pool of fallback PCs in case of character death, with no need to stop the action and go back to town.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Start at the caves. Don't waste any time in the town.

For a one-shot, that's really good advice.

 

[GeorgeFields]

Didn't everybody do this? I thought it was in the Official House Rules memo.

Yes, but that was released over 25 years ago. He might have lost the memo.

Encourage the PCs to hire men-at-arms, linkboys, and such. Go in with a big party. That used to be really common, but has fallen out of fashion, and they might not think to do it. With the older rules, it's not such a headache to manage a really big party, and there's a lot of opportunity for cool things to happen with the NPCs. (role-playing, loyalty checks, unexpected heroics from linkboys, betrayals, et cetera.)

It'll also give you a pool of fallback PCs in case of character death, with no need to stop the action and go back to town.

Oh, hell, yes. Great advice! I remember those days as a pre-teen: hiring several men-at-arms and killing them before returning to town so we wouldn't have to share the loot or XP. Back then, we (DM including) never thought to care about the towsfolk reaction to the NPCs never returning with us. I wonder if Elaith Craulnober was modeled after us?