World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[jim pinto]

excellent WLD forum/blog

http://www.alphastationimaging.com/asgc/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=17

i can't believe how much work this DM is doing.

he rewrote the intro, is running two groups through the dungeon, and has enough energy to post a report of the dungeon.

brilliant.

thanks for the link, donny

 

[Sulaya]

XP, etc.

Thanks for all the input on XP. I'm glad I wasn't the only one with questions about how to handle it. I've decided to just have them level up when it seems like they need to. We started this morning, and so far it seems to be working.

This campaign is probably a little different than most, as I'm running it as a solo adventure for my husband (he's playing 4 PCs - a party of drow). We live in a very rural area, so we have 3 different gaming groups that get together about every 6 weeks at our place for a 12 hour session. Unfortunately, that's not enough gaming to keep us satisfied, especially as my husband GMs two of those sessions, so he doesn't get to play as much. This way he gets to play a little more often.

Are other DMs finding that players are skipping quite a bit of the map? It might be just his playing style, but at least in region A my husband has pretty much made a beeline straight east and then north, and is about ready to fight Longtail and enter map E. Is that typical? I'm guessing he'll be more interested in exploring many more rooms once the treasure rewards are better, but for now he isn't. Are you having similar experiences? Should I be "gently" encouraging him to explore more of region A? Right now it looks like he'll be heading to map E by the end of this session.

Oh, and from the both of us - we are REALLY enjoying this adventure. Lots of dungeon crawls get so repetitive in room description, but that's not the case here. Personally, I also love how everything you need to know about each room is laid out right in the text, even the monster stats. That's one of the conveniences I missed most when 3rd edition came out. Old 2nd edition adventures always had monster stats right in the text (and for a somewhat lazy DM, that's really helpful! ).

 

[Leopold]

I had a crazy idea. I don't have the book yet but I am working on getting it. Is it impossible to finish TWLD without casters? A wizards and a cleric?

My group is purely fighters, no rogues, no bards, no wizards, no clerics. It's glorious.

And those rat swarms getting old? check out this new swarm from GR:

http://64.17.155.164/gr_files/ab_pre.pdf

time to upgrade those rat swarms a bit! They do very very nicely for a change.

 

[twofalls]

Battlebox

Hey folks, we are still playing but my group only meets twice a month, and we are missing a meeting this weekend so I haven't had anything new to say. We will be playing through the adventure for years to come and I plan on leading them out of the other end, but it will be two weeks before the next session.

Keep an eye out for a new product by Fiery Dragon games called the Battlebox (no I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just like their stuff).

http://www.fierydragon.com/Products/prod-bbox.htm

Its a cool new produt that provides templates for spells and are really useful for gamers who use minatures (like most of us WLD spelunkers). It has templates for fireball, burning hands, lightning bolt, spiritual weapons, mount, a number of other cone templates, etc. It has a number of other items including cards that contain all the rules for one specific combat manuver. So charge, bull rush, grapple, disarm, etc. all have thier own card with the rules explained on them. Saves you from fumbling around the books to find the rules for the five orc grapple happening in the middle of the room... or those pesky Darkmantles... I'm looking forward to using it the next game session.

I picked it up at my FLS for 20 bucks and it was worth every penny (particuarly since my group paid for it out of the treasury ).

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

...However perhaps someone here who does find this appealing can explain to me the allure of watching X number of gamers roll dice... or listen to a group discuss how they are going to exlore the WLD?

Where did this idea come from and how has it survived?

Well, it's an interesting phenomenon. The first recording that the RPGMP3 group did was simply by accident, testing a Mini-Disc recorder with a new microphone just before an RPG Society session of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. We were testing it and forgot we left it recording, I found it on the Mini Disc afterward, thought it sounded novel and later put it online. It's been downloaded thousands of times since then, so people seem to like it.

It's difficult to tell why it's popular, others may be able to answer that, I personally listen to them, (not because I like the sound of my own voice) as it's like having the radio/TV/Fire in the background, something to listen to while doing other things. Some people may find it difficult to play regularly due to time or location and it's an easy way of keeping in touch with gaming. Some may even just find it entertaining (Our Half-Orc "Gerout" seems to be forming his own Fan Club already)? DMs can have fun following the Dungeon with a copy of their own WLD to hand to see how the players handle the rooms.

We did a recording of Chaosium's "The Haunting" scenario and it caused people to dig it out and play again. The current WLD recording already seems to have been responsible for shifting an additional $1000+ of WLD.

But our recordings are not about commercialism, we're just having a good time and thought some people might like to share in that (listen/listen not - the choice is yours). Also having 4/5 members being trained as Archaeologists always gives you that bent for recording stuff for future historical curiosity.

Paul

 

[Arholly]

Well, the initial feedback I've gotten from people is that I seem to have fixed the forum problem on the fan site, as of this morning.

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

I did a quick Google search on RPGMP3, and here's one person's view at least:

Reviews for RPGMP3.com :
5 Stars Inspired Idea! Superb! I have been out of the roleplaying scene for a little while now and I thought I would have a search around to see what was happening and I stumbled across RPGMP3.com I had not realised how much I actually missed playing RPGs until I listened to some of the MP3s on the site. Absolutely worth a visit. Brilliant. As well as quaintly English ( MortgageMan )

Source: http://www.rpgreviews.com/Detail/147113/

 

[twofalls]

RPGing by proxy

Hmmm, perhaps I do forget about what a lucky bubble I live in. I run two groups alternating weeks (so I get to game every week) and my amazing wife is very accepting of my hobby and hasn't ever hassled me over it. I have a two car garage that I've carpeted, heated, lit, and converted into my Study/Game room (complete with three couches and walls of bookcases brimming with rpgs). I have 10 friends who game in my groups and easy access to many more players, and so I think I tend to forget that life isn't this good for all GM's.

I think its great that you guys are providing the audio of your games to everyone online, and I particuarly think its grand that its attracting folks back into the fold. It does make sense that if you love the hobby and don't have the setup to play at the moment why listening to others game could be entertaining. There can't ever be enough role players out there.

Cheers!

 

[haiiro]

Gah! I just combed through this thread again from start to finish, pulling out my favorite ideas and tips for my first WLD session tomorrow night. There's loads of good stuff here -- thanks, everyone!

My Tact-Tiles are in, I've photocopied the maps, my oodles of Fiery Dragon counters are sorted, fiendish (no pun intended) plotting is well underway...I'm really looking forward to this.

 

[Bestopheles]

Hey Guys,

I had my first session on Thursday. It was a hoot. The guys loved it. Several people even broke out their very first set of dice (in some case 20+ years old) to play...I was honored. That said, I came up with a new way to help with the mapping problem. I bought a few pages of "transperencies." You know, blank pages of plastic that you can write on with dry erase markers, then easily erase...teachers typically use them for overhead projectors. Anyway, I bought a few pages of these guys from kinkos at a buck a page, then as the guys zoomed through the dungeon, I just slapped the transparency over the map and quickly traced the rooms, then handed the players the transperance as a map. At the end of the night, I handed off the transparency to one of the players, who copied it onto graph paper for next time. I also messed around with the map downloads in MS paint, and I plan to occassionally give the players copies of the map with rooms that they missed blacked out, just so that we can be sure that the maps are accurate.

Everyone had a blast. Thanks again for all the hard work Jim and sundry writers!

Jason