Money, Exploration, Stabbing Monsters: Old School Flava

[Anabstercorian]

So, we had the first session. Here's the campaign log, if you're interested - god bless laptops!

[sblock]
SESSION 1
Party:
Player 1: Human Cleric of Joramy, Elven Rogue
Player 2: Dwarven Barbarian w/ Cha 1 ("it"), Halfling Ranger
Player 3: Elven Cleric of Pelor(?)
Player 4: Half Orc Psychic Warrior (Yeah, I forgot it was on the site... He offered to change it but I let him keep it.)
Player 5: Absent (BOO)
Player 6: Absent (BOO)

DAY 1
Meet a mendicant monk of Dalt - he was traveling north to preach in Greyhawk. Cleric of Joramy blows his reaction roll and they get no useful info or spells from NPC.
16 miles towards Quasqueton (48 miles remaining.)
NIGHT 1
No encounters.
DAY 2
No encounters.
16 miles towards Quasquenton (32 miles remaining.)
NIGHT 2
No encounters.
DAY 3
No encounters. 16 miles towards Quasquenton (16 miles remaining.)
NIGHT 3
No encounters.
DAY 4
No encounters.
16 miles towards Quasquenton (0 miles remaining.)
NIGHT 4
No encounters.
DAY 5.
No encounters.
Climbed a tree, spotted what looked like dungeon but wasn't! Traveled four hours towards it.
Moved to Quasqueton. Found front entrance, and decided to search for the secret rear entrance.
NIGHT 5
No encounters.
DAY 6
Enter Quasqueton...
- 0900
Enter the dungeon.
- 0901 Proceed 50 ft. forward
Standing search checks: 7, 21
- 0902 Discover bodies in corridor! (Area 1.) Retrieve 7 gold pieces, Alchemical silver dagger, garlic buds.
- 0906 Proceed west, down corridor.
- 0907 Proceed south.
- 0908 Search for opposite door, in fruitless fashion. However, check for hollow and success.
- 0910 Open door to corridor.
- 0911 Pounced by ethereal filcher! oh snap! Stole 3 gp from Elven Cleric.
- 0912 Whine!
- 0913 Cleric starts walking backward and guarding rear, they approach door near room 20. Open it.
- 0914 Head back out and go west.
- 0916 Continue down dungeon...
- 0918 Reach end of curvy passage.
- 0919 Navigate to end of diagonal kink.
- 0920 No random encounter.
- 0921 Reach intersection NW of 9.
- 0922 Look for that secret door!
- 0923 Keep lookin'...
- 0924 - 0934 inventory the supply room (11).
- 0935 Standing search, 7, 22. Head to room 12.
- 0940 Search and listen door entrance, enter library.
- 1000 Finish searching library. No random encounters.
- 1002 Enter far door, near room 16.
- 1003 Wasting time discussing Greyhawk politics (We got sidetracked with OOC talk.)
- 1004 Head 50 ft. south.
- 1005 Engage in battle! Kill 8 orcs, 4 goblins
- 1010 Run away! Holy ! O.O Arrive at entrance again. The cleric of Joramy sacrificed his backpack (and the rest of his lamp oil) to throw up a fireblock to cover their retreat. Otherwise, well, I probably would have had to fudge stuff to prevent them from perishing! They weren't inclined to retreat until the goblins started pulling out javelins. "Javelins?" "Run away!"
- 1010 Head out to forage for torches.
- 1200 Halfling Ranger encounters Hill Giant - sensibly evades detection!
- 1400 Return from torch foraging! Each character finds one (lame) torch.
Party decides to rest!
NIGHT 6
No encounter.
DAY 7
Gorgon encounter. No contact.
NIGHT 7
No encounter
DAY 8
- 1200 Enter Quasqueton...
- 1203 Reach hallway east of room 20.
- 1210 Exploring Garden Room, find Quaal's Feather Token (tree).
- 1214 Tharzad eats poison fungus, will have agonizing gastrointestinal pains in 1d4 hours. (1514.)
- 1220 Tharzad eats some non-poison fungus and decides to pick some more. 6 days rations worth.
[/sblock]

 

[azmodean]

I've been wanting to run a campaign starring an adventuring company instead of a party for a while now. I see the log only lists one pc per player, did you end up discarding the multiple pcs per player idea or did you just not list the alternates? Will you be posting updates here or elsewhere?

 

[Anabstercorian]

We're continuing with the multiple-characters per player idea, and I may advance on it further in the future. In fact, all but one player had two characters, and the one player out was just behind on his character generation. Everyone should have a 2nd character (and 3rd backup character) by the next session.

I'll continue to post my game logs here unless someone objects. As always, I'm eager for advice.

 

[Keltric]

Yeah, speaking as the newbie player, it's already a lot of fun and this crazy idjit of a DM really seems to have his stuff down. Having lurked on these boards for years, soaking in the fantastic ideas and experience from the thousands of you, I think I can safely say that this style is in fact going to rock.

Oh, and way to be stealthy, Rich. :^)

 

[Anabstercorian]

Oh Snap I Been Caught!

 

[Anabstercorian]

A thought on experience

I thought of an alternative method of experience that I felt might be more encouraging to the players.

Experience points are gained as per the rules.

To 'level up one third', you have to spend a number of experience points equal to your current experience level times 1000. (This is numerically equivalent to the current system.)

The catch is that you have to 'level up one third' three times - once for skills and feats, once for attack bonus and saves, and once for class abilities, for example. Each time you level up, you get to increase one of those, and you can't move on to the next level until you've completed a full level. Then you could multiclass, or start working on the next level.

This would muck up experience only slightly, and not enough for me to really care. I'd have to tweak the balance slightly for different class levels - for example, wizards wouldn't get a whole lot out of increasing attack bonus and saves - but it would slow advancement by precisely one third, and also, perhaps, feel more 'organic'.

---

The more I embark on this escapade of 'old school flavor', the more I realize I don't know what it is I'm looking for. I'm searching for a nostalgia for something I've never experienced, and that I'm not qualified to emulate. The OD&D session I ran was well received by the players, surprisingly, but it felt odd and out of place to me. Perhaps, instead of seeking to recover the old, I should try and re-create the new in it's image.

Then again it's 3:30 in the morning so WHOO I HAVE A HAT!

More thoughts on this later.