Back in The DM's Seat Again

It's been a while but I finally have a regular RPG session again. Surprisingly, this one is with my own family.

With my daughters now 13 and 9 and still interested in gaming, and with a gamer wife it's too good an opportunity to pass up.

I have been trying to get such a game going for a while now, but with the end of summer, the beginning of school and life in general it's been hard to pin everyone down. In fact, it was so hectic a start, that I even hesitated to blog about it until I could see that it really was happening. In the end, I was finally able to get characters made and the game going.

My wife and youngest daughter both made dwarfs, Gerta and Halfa. My wife is playing a fighter and my 9yr old is playing a cleric. She wanted a spell-caster but I was afraid a magic-user would be a little too stand around for her to keep her interested. Clerics are bashy and have magic and so it was the obvious choice without the fiddly neutrality of Druids or the wait for it nature of Ranger or Paladin magic. Don't get me started on Bards.

My oldest wanted to play something different and asked if she could play a "kitty person". I took this as a challenge and created an exotic race of cat-folk that live on an island in the remnants of their once mighty civilization - the Shathra. I worked out a culture, back story and even dredged up some cool art online to illustrate them. I wrote them up from scratch, no re-skinning and ultimately....

They were kitty-people...

Such is the world of RPGs with teenage girls, I suppose. She made the character a fighter as well and so we set out with two fighters and a cleric, none of which are humans.

So far the sessions, of which there have been three, are going really well. We have integrated them as the climax of our regular "Screen-Free Sundays" as a reward for surviving all day without TVs, video games, or even computers. The girls have a knack for gaming which is mostly my oldest girl's doing as she has been running her own light weight D&D/Labyrinth Lord games for over a year now. For both of them, this is their first time playing in a "serious" campaign.

They are still in the middle of the first adventure but have already had a few surprising role-plays and some good ideas come out of it. I have even had to edit the original adventure concept to go along with a few good ideas, the girls had, that I felt deserved capitalizing on. This has lengthened the adventure beyond where I had originally written it but will also allow them to gather some more X.P. before adventure number two.

-Eli

D30 Lizardman Variants

When orcs, goblin, bugbears and ogres are old or the weather is a bit too warm for hairy brutes, A DM can always count on a little help from his cold-blooded friends the Lizardmen. Lizardmen are an exotic addition to any adventure and can add a little bit of spice to the humdrum. But do all lizardmen need to be alike?

There have been some variations on lizardmen that have been done over the years, but many of them are total rewrites of the the creature. But a few simple tweaks here and there can certainly add a little variety. Presented here are some quick tweaks to the basic lizardman that a DM can use on the fly.

1. Horned: +1 additional gore attack for 1d6 damage.
2. Light Absorbing Scales: Hide in Shadows as a 4th level thief.
3. Horny Hide: +1 AC bonus
4. Acid Spit: Spit acid up to 10' inflictig 1d4 acid damage per turn.
5. Blinding Spit: Critical hit with this attack causes blindess for 1d4 turns
6. Leaping: Pounce attack has a 3 in 6 chance of knock opponent down.
7. Venom: Poison bite attack.
8. Carrion Eaters: Attacks cause disease on a 3 in 6.
9. Savage: Berserk in combat.
10. Agile: +1 AC vs missile attacks
11. Chameleonic: Limited invisibility
12. Poisonous Skin: Physical contact inflicts poison.
13. Stink: Horrible odor causes nausea. All opponents -2 to hit.
14. Prehensile Tail: +1 weapon attack
15. Arboreal: Move through trees at normal movement rate.
16. Regenerating: Heal 1d4 HP per round.
17. Weapon Tail: +1 attack; 1d6 damage
18. Large: +1 HD; +2 damage
19. Huge: +2 HD; +4 damage
20. Armored: +3 AC Bonus
21. Independent Eyes: May see in two directions at once. Never surprised.
22. Sticky Tongue: Grab attack up to 5' away.
23. Spiky Hide: Grappling attacks against the creature inflict 1d4 damage.
24. Climatic Adaptation: The lizardmen are adapted for a climate that is not suitable for them.
25. Enhanced Natural Weapons: Possessed of more effective natural weapons. +2 damage to non-weapon attacks.
26. Natural Spell Like Ability: Pick a spell of level three or less. Can be cast 2/day.
27. Sonic Bellow: Special attack causes confusion.
28. Gaping Maw: Special attack swallows on a 1 in 6.
29. Roll twice.
30. Roll thrice.

[Labyrinth Lord] Elwyren - PC Races II

Now that I have had some time to play with my new world of Elwyren, I have been able to define the specific changes to some of the ordinary races that usually haunt the classic fantasy worlds. Even though most of my new gaming group is new players or players coming back to the hobby after a long time away, I didn't think that changing up the races would be too hard on them. Besides the reskinning of the halfling, gnome and half-orc into new races, I modified humans, dwarves and elves to be a bit more unique in this setting.

Presented here are the descriptions of these races as they are in my game world, along with the specific game mechanics I have come up with for them. Some of this material is reposted from part one of my post on Elwyren races, but I've included here again to cut down on the need to flip back and forth between posts.

Human

The humans of Elwyren are the newest of the races, having only arrived in the world in the last few thousand years. The humans of this world all come from the same root culture, having divided into variations on the basic people depending on region. In most cases they can communicate on a common linguistic level even if they may not speak each other’s distinct dialect of their original language.

 

Humans have gained an innate magical sense when their ancestors pasted through the veil between worlds and entered Elwyren. This allows them to sense the presence of magic in an area, even if they cannot determine its exact location. With practice and experience they can refine this ability to allow them to determine the general and then later the precise location of magic.

Game Mechanics: Detect Magic 2 in 6. This ability allows them to automatically sense magic in an area but not it's specific location. It is an innate sense and will be triggered by the presence of magic items and spells or innately magical creatures within a 30' radius. The die roll is to allow them to pinpoint specific sources of magic or to filter out the magical energies of their own spells or magic items.

 

Elf

Elves have lived in the land of Elwyren almost as long as the beast folk and have developed a kinship with the natural forces of the land nearly as deep. The elves are a diverse people, having long adapted to a number of regions. Though they often have their own tribal or place names, they are often referred to by the type of terrain they dwell in – wood, desert, mountain, etc.

 

Elves have long memories and a sort of magical link to those who have preceded them. In fact, elves speak with their ancestors in a sort of memory recall that gives them a subconscious access to centuries of experience. Because of this elves often seem to have a supernatural sense of intuition as these ancient memories provide them with insight on current situations. This same long memory allows all elves to speak the same language, though local accents and minor dialects still exist.

Game Mechanics: In additional to their normal elfin abilities, the elves of Elwyren can draw upon the experience of their ancestors. This is done unconsciously and is an innate part of the elves' spiritual being. Once per encounter or event, the elf may choose to re-roll the results of a single die roll. This can be done for any roll whether or not the initial roll was a success but the elf must accept the second roll.

 

 

Dwarf

The dwarven people are a gregarious, but also stoic people with a strong sense of kinship and honor. They are robust, dwelling in areas strong in natural resources and are rather industrious beings. Valiant warriors with an indomitable will, dwarfs have long held a status as heroes of the land. Dwarves are very fond of heirlooms and traditions and it is not uncommon for a young or inexperienced dwarf to be found wielding a weapon which might seem, to others outside of dwarven society, beyond his status.

Game Mechanics: The starting primary weapon of a Elwyren dwarf adventurer is a magical weapon of  +1.

Pechi (Mouselings)

One of the beast folk races left in the world, the pechi appear to be anthropomorphized mice, standing anywhere from 2-3 feet tall. They are homey and shy, but friendly. Pechi are found throughout the land in small enclaves with a very tight community structure. They live in underground burrows often finished and outfitted inside as others might do with a surface dwelling.

Game Mechanics: Pechi are treated as halflings with the additional ability of a natural ability to climb and escape snares and holds. Pechi use their natural claws, ill-suited for combat, to aid in climbing and gain a +25% bonus instead of the normal halfling penalty. The mouselings also possess a 3 in 6 chance of being able to wiggle, squirm and disjoint their bodies out of any snare, gripping trap, hold or bindings.

 

Hurgeons (Hedgers)

Another of the beast folk races and the second most common after the Pechi, the hurgeons are a simple, reclusive folk who can be found in wild forests or even among the hedge rows of more civilized areas. They are robust, quick-thinking and hardy and very resistant to many forms of magic and poison. Unlike pechi who tend to freely mingle with other races, hurgeons do tend to keep to value their privacy, but will mingle when needed or when visitors call.

Game Mechanics: Herbalism - hurgeons are masters of herbal medicine, healing and apothecary arts. With this the hurgeon gains the ability to brew minor, non-magical mixtures, unguents, and ointments with a 25% chance of proficiency increasing by +5% per level of experience. These mixtures take a full hour to complete per dose and may have one of the following effects -

• heal 1d6-2 points of damage.
• neutralize poison
• sleep poison (for weapons)

Hafgir

Strangely similar to humans, but a race of their own, the hafgir are brawny, bristly beings standing from 6-8 ft tall with a very hard exterior. Their corded bodies ripple with raw physical power, their angular features making them look severe even though they may not be. Excessive body hair, wild head and facial hair, gives them a slightly bestial appearance, even though they are not in any way an animal hybrid. The hafgir are actually descended from an ancient race of giants. Hafgir tend to be slightly less intelligent and slower witted than other races.

Game Mechanics: Earth healing - the hafgir are able to draw on an ancient connection with their world and use it to heal their injuries. A hafgir, rooted in place with his bare feet on raw stone may heal 1d6+2 per level worth of hit points damage once per day.

 

 

Quick and Dirty City Gazeteer Maps

As I am going into my second week with a nagging cold, I haven't had much energy or focus to sculpt or paint, never mind a lack of stability due to being worn out and coughing all the time. Because of this, I've been trying to do up a few bits and pieces for my Labyrinth Lord campaign which is supposed to be kicking back in gear following the holidays here. This has mostly entailed me going through various resources and printing out the bits I'd like to have at hand but I've also been cobbling together some play aids. It's amazing what you can do with a few maps pulled off the Internet and a little cut and paste.

The first few things I did were simple flash map style, gazetteer blurbs for different districts in the "home town" of our mostly sandbox campaign. A good, solid starting place with a little detail serves well to keep players grounded in the setting and also adds a bit of attachment as this place develops and grows. To make these maps, I just took three maps of blank city maps, gave them names and wrote a couple of paragraphs of flavor text on each. These were then printed out and put into the campaign notebook. I have left them blank for now and will number and detail as needed, keeping with the whole sandbox style of play.

So far I have done three -

High Ward - wealthy district.

Merchant's Quarter - center of trade and commerce.

Blackwytch Quarter - bad area of town.

They're nothing overly special, but I think they will prove to be a simple and effective tool for letting the players interact with the game world a bit more. This will be especially useful as none of my players are overly experienced gamers.

I've started another OSR game recently. This time I'm playing with my oldest daughter, her dad (she's a step-child, technically), and his girlfriend. Overall this is a group put together for her benefit with the adults being there to back her up.

Anyhow, the first adventure I ran them out on, I decided to go big and have fun with a serious dungeon crawl. I went with this map (shown right) that I found on A Character for Every Game. This is an amazing dungeon with a lot of interesting character and some complex twists and turns.

As of the end of the first sessions they had entered the dungeon through stairs at the middle of the lower part of the map and fought their way past the hobgoblins, goblins, and kobolds that were standing guard in that first cluster of rooms. They barricaded the well after hobgoblin reinforcements tried coming up it and had just headed westward where they encountered an ogre supported by a shaman.

We had to end there but we had a great time and using this wonderful map made my job as DM all the more entertaining.

Game on!

-Eli

[Labyrinth Lord] Elwyren - PC Races

When thinking over the world of Elwyren, I very much wanted to depart from the traditional fantasy races. Part of this comes from a long-standing dissatisfaction with haflings and gnomes, but there was also a desire to make the world a bit more diverse and enchanting for my younger player. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone, making halflings and gnomes into anthropomorphic animals - mice and hedgehogs respectively.

As I was looking at the other races, I figured I might take a stab at half-orcs as well. I initially planned to re-theme them as classic fantasy barbarians, leaving them statistically the same but "re-skinning" them. As I developed the idea, I decided that rather than having them be just another race of near-humans - much the same issue I have with halflings - that I would change them into a race of their own.

The final change came about with considering the origins of humans in this world. Humans are not from this game world originally and do not dominate it in the same way that they do in other fantasy worlds. Instead they are descended from refugees from another fantasy world who passed through a magical veil between worlds. This gave me some room to perhaps expand the scope of humans' abilities.

Below are a few more specific notes on the concepts behind the races in Elwyren...

[Labyrinth Lord] Elwyren - A New Beginning

I have been asked to run another Labyrinth Lord game at home, but this time I will be including some of the extended family, i.e. my oldest daughter Anna's real dad (she's technically a stepchild) and his girlfriend, both of whom are old gamers from way back. This isn't as odd as it sounds as they come over to the house just about every weekend anyhow and Anna's dad and I are friends, pretty good ones in fact.

Anyhow, enough about my mixed up life.

Not one to take anything lightly, I have begun cobbling together a new setting to run this new campaign in. I've already run Anna through the basics and she's run them herself with her friends, so now it's time to amp it up a bit. We're not taking the dial to eleven just yet, but I thought that adding such things as separate race and class as well as a few tweaked rules wouldn't be a bad thing. I want her to see that RPGs are what you make of them and not let her develop a "rules are everything" attitude while she's still learning what gaming is about.

I started by putting together a quick, possibly overly detailed map...

The map depicts the central area from whence all adventure shall spring. It shows the human-settled lands of the southernmost part of the main land mass of a land called Elwyren. Here I have laid out several cities, towns, and villages. There are roads, forests, rivers, mountains, hills and even a swampy area. There is even a great chasm that creates a natural barrier in the north which is flanked by two man made walls that breech the gap between the chasm and the mountains that border it. All of this should frame out a nice starting place for adventures.

There are some other ideas in mind for the setting, but I'll go into these in a future post.

-Eli

[Editor's Note: I mistakenly put in the wrong world name for this setting. I have since corrected the post to bear the proper name of Elwyren.]

The Power of Who?The Power of Uhul

In the cold mist they call

Ooohoo

In the shadows they hunt

Ooohoo

With sharp beaks they kill

Ooohoo

Your skin they tear

Your flesh they share

Your bones they wear

Ooohoo ooohoo ooohoo

-Anagochik chant

Uhul

Statistics by Will Wood & Eli Arndt

No. Enc.: 1d6 (4d6)

Alignment: Neutral (Chaotic tendencies)

Movement: 120' (40)

Armor Class: 6

Hit Dice: 3

Attacks: claw/claw/bite or by weapon type

Damage: 1d3/1d3/1d4 or by weapon type

Special Attacks: If the Uhul successfully strikes with both claws in one round, the Uhul also squeezes their prey in a powerful hug that does an additional 1d8 points of damage. Uhul are quite strong and when they use weapons crafted by their own people (and thus designed for their clawed big hands) they do an additional +1 point of damage. In spite of their relatively large bulk Uhuls are quite stealthy and will surprise their opponents 50% of the time.

Save: F3
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: XXII

Hoo? Uhul...

The silent trees cast their skeletal shadows across the still, winter snows blanketing the forest floor. Clear sky and a nearly full moon allowed his eyes to see near as well as daylight, but the pallor of the land at this time of year and the confused crosshatch of shadows broke any shape into an unintelligible jumble. Arnkor, The Hunter tightened his grip on his spear and took his next few steps forward, followed by Nikapik and the dwarf Skafor.

The tracks and remains of their missing herd had led to this place but it was no place he or his fellows wished to be. At the sight of a tree, naked except for the tussle of trophies, scalps, bones and charms, Skafor let out a low whistle of amazement.

“Curse you, dwarf,” spat Arnkor. He knew of the creatures who called this place home and it was just such sounds he had been taught to listen for before they came.

Skafor grumble out a misty series of muttered curses and drew his oaken shield in close, the silver inlays sparkling in the moonlight.

Nikapik, a lanky youth and a member of Arnkor’s hunting band drew up close to his elder’s side and whispered, “This is their place.” His eyes darted about to make sure his words had not carried and been noticed, “We should not stay here.”

Arnkor understood the youth’s hesitation and respected his fear, but if anything remained of the missing score of reindeer, he owed it to his people to find them. Winter had already been harsh and deadly. People starved in other villages and stories moved, with travelers, of villages reduced to unspeakable means of survival. He would not see his children and kin reduced to ghoulery. He would brave the tangled wood that was their hunting ground and home knowing that they too must be starving and hungry.

A shrill, scraping shriek broke the still and sent the trio spinning to find its origin. Casting eyes from one limitless shadow to the next, fighting hard to not lose their focus in the tangled thicket of mooncast shading, Arnkor and his party froze as they finally saw what they feared so much.

Looming unseen save for the glowing circlets of their unblinking eyes they surrounded the party. Whistles and ghostly hoots passed from one hidden foe to another, shining eyes bobbing and wavering like bedeviled fireflies. Though he knew they drew closer, Arnkor could hear nothing that marked their passing. Even his best hunters could not pass so close without some sort of noise.

As they grew ever closer, Arnkor braced himself, setting his eyes on a cluster of glowing eyes that marked three of them. He felt Skafor and Nikapik close in behind him, forming as close as they could manage to a circular formation. It was as he feared. They were surrounded. He gritted his teeth, filled his chest with cold night air, muttered words to his totem spirits and ancestors, hearing his fellows do the same. Skafor grunted something in his people’s tongue that almost sounded insulting in its tone and directness.

“Do not let them wear my bones…” whimpered Nikapik.

Update

Hey All,

So life trudges along and I am stiull in the process of getting settled into the new home. Though we have the essentials and some of the luxuries unpacked there is a lot to do before we will be back to having a lived in home. This also means that it has been difficult for me to get any projects started or posted.

Much of my gaming/hobby stuff is still in boxes in the garage and though I know where it is, I do not have a suitable place to store it just yet. My wife and I agreed to try to keep stuff packed until we had the proper storage materials for it so we could avoid cluttering up the place like we had in the apartment. I also have a bit of a draft and moisture issue to try to tackle in the garage before I start to take stuff out of boxes.

I have managed to scrape together a regular Thursday gaming group with my brother and one of the members of my old gaming group. So far, we have done a lot of warm up stuff to try and get the group gelled but we may be playing some superhero RPG stuff soon. My oldest daughter, Anna, has been the real gaming powerhouse around here. Since she hit summer break she has has her cousins around a lot and is obsessed with running them on Labyrinth Lord/D&D games.

So far she has run three or four sessions and I am impressed by her ability to DM on the fly. She has been coming up with some wonderful adventure hooks, encounters, puzzles and traps. Much of it she draws from her own interests outside of gaming, such as the sea serpent hunt that her party was contracted for. This was drawn from her love of dragons and draconic mythical creatures. Her party has found a dragon egg too and is in the process of adventuring to get treasure to build a proper nursery for it. One of her puzzle, obstacle encounters presented the party with a way to get across and underground lake to an island in the middle that involved figuring out the right combination of moving rocks to jump from. Anna is still a bit bossy when she runs games, but her players seem to enjoy it and I'm sure she'll tempor with experience and age.

I hope to be getting back int othe swing of things soon and do have a few projects lined up for the coming weeks/months, but this depends on money and time. I am also having to seriously rethink my hobby budget and how I am using the resources I have available to me. Need to rope in the oo shiny, stop thinking too big for my britches and work on projects that are within my means both monetary and timewise.

You all take care and worry not, the adventuring Emu is not fading away.

-Eli

[Labyrinth Lord] Anna's Game - A Sad Development

Despite her good solid start, it looks like short attention spans won out. Todays game session fizzled for Anna when her friend playing the fighrer decided that she was tired of sitting around, talking, and rolling dice. Anna's did make an attempt to keep her player but alas the group has already fizzled. the remaining players seem to have been turned off the game by the conflict and have gone on to play their own game of live-action role-playing.

Unfortunately, I think Anna's controlling personality may have come into play here. The one friend was not wanting to play today and was rather strong in her opnion. Anna, being the girl she is, tried to fight for what she wanted and pressed the issue more than she should have, escalating what should have been a simple case of "okay another time". The friend left the group badly and the other two were left a bit off-put by the situation.

I have talked to Anna and explained to her a few ways she might salvage the game. The girls are all still friends, even though moods may have soured on the game for now. I suggested to Anna to give it a bit of time and offer the option to pick the game up at another time. Hopefully she'll be able to salvage some part of this and return to the fun it's supposed to be. Evidentally, the girl that voiced the initial disinterest has a tendancy toward modo swings and Anna thinks even she might be salvaged as a player.

The big bummer to this whole story, however it plays out, is that this summer we are moving away from the area and Anna will no longer be going to school with these girls. I'd be alright with them visiting the new home, but parents in this area are a bit wierd about their kids and tend to keep them on pretty short leashes.

Stay tuned folks,

-Eli

[Labyrinth Lord] Anna's Game - First Session

"Veeeelcome to my dungeon!"

Hey all,

Anna was a bit too shy to write her own game report so she gave me a quick and dirty report. I'll try to fill in the blanks based on some of the conversation we had about it on the way home. I have to say that I think she has gone beyond GMing 101 already has already started to GM on the fly, modifying monsters and creating treasures on the go as suits her adventure idea.

The three girls who are playing created a fighter, a magic-user and a thief. Anna had each of them write a one page background blurb explaining where they came from and who they are. The fighter, Full Moon, who's parents were killed by an ogre on the full moon and she has only a ribbon to remember them by. The rest of her memories are lost to amnesia. Anna approved a request for a special ability for the fighter who beserks if the ribbon is taken. The only person she will not attack is the thief, Kori, who is her only trusted friend.

Kori, was raised as a thief by her thief father without a mother. She was often in trouble as a child and even spent some time in a reform school of sorts, earning a nickname of "The Rat".

The magic-user is Rose who was born in the forest. Her mother died soon after her birth. She never new her father and was raised by woodland sprites. Rose had magical powers from birth.

The three characters have been friends since they were around 10-11 years old and have lived in the village of Monteruso together for years. The adventure began when the village was threatened by night time raids by a tribe of morlocks that had moved into some old abandoned mines in the hills. Taking an old map of the mines, the party decided to venture forth to try to save their home.

On the journey to the mines, the party was stalked by a cougar who failed to surprise the party. When the cougar attacked, Kori managed a spectacularly acrobatic manuever and thrust her dagger into the chest of the cat as it beared down on her. The party skinned the cougar and kept the pelt.

Anna decided to throw in a few accent creaturees on the way to make the party nervous, allowing them to see flights of bats flittering about. The bats drew the attention of a giant carnivorous fly that upon seeing party decided that they were a much more tempting prey. The fly attacked the party but failed to kill them. As the party was cleaning up the mess from the fly attack, the dead beast drew in another monster in the form of a giant ferret. The ferret lunged at Full Moon, trying to claim the kill, but the furious fighter was quick and managed to score a critial hit, taking the ferret's head off in one clean blow.

Once in the mines, the players used a prop map provided by Anna that depicted the known tunnels of the mines. Anna had her own GM's map with notes on monsters, traps and treasures laid out. Before the end of the session, the party had encountered their first morloacks, slaying both of them and finding a treasure chest that The Rat had to pick opn. Inside they found a dancing dagger (createdo n the fly by Anna) that would float and fight freely of its own.

I asked Anna how she did with handling the game and she said it went pretty well. She said she had to look up a few things like monster stats but she had read the combat system four times a few nights before and had it down pretty well. She had taken my advice to heart and tried to focus on fun and rulings instead of rules. In all the party suffered minimal damage (1/0/2 hp each).

She has informed me that the next session will bring the party in contact with the Morlock leader and his bodyguards. The Rat is hoping to get behind some of the bodyguards to backstab them. The party plans to let the dancing dagger loose on the rest of the morlocks while they remove Full Moon's ribbon and send her into a beserk rage again the morlock leader. Rose will remain in support wither her new favorite spell, Magic Missile.

What can I say but wow. For the first time out o the gates on her own and in the driver's seat I think she did really well. I gave her a little advice on her planned continuation of the game, talking her out of throwing 28HD worth of morlocks again a party of three first level characters, but that is really just about all the coaching I have given her except for the basics we discussed ahead of time.

[Labyrinth Lord] That's My Girl!

Following in her daddy's footsteps, my oldest daughter has got herself her first gig as a GM. Today she took her Labyrinth Lord Book to school and pitched the game to three of her friends. They were all down for the game and she did some quick and dirty character generation getting a Fighter, Magic-User and Thief out of the mix. Her teacher okayed them playing during free time in class (her teacher is awesome). One of her potential players was noted as saying, "OOOO...a bugbear. I'd like to fight one of those"

So, on the way home from work tonight I got hto hear her plans and shed a little wisdom on introducing players to the game and hpw to streamline their first experience to maximize fun and not get bogged down in rules. I explained rulings not rules and advised that she keep the adventure short and pretty straight forward.

What we came up with for her first adventure is a basic dungeon crawl trying to clear out some local abandoned mines of a morlock menace. She is going to provide a partial map of the old mines to the players and then keep her own GM's map showing the unexplored/unknown areas.

This should be fun and exciting for her. I hope she and her friends have a great time. Ten years old and she's already got her own group!

-Eli

[Labyrinth Lord] Journey to Cyrel

We had a chance to get in a quick session of Labyrinth Lord tonight. My oldest was quite intrigued with the after adventure logisitcs of what happens to the treasure and what became of the spoils of the dungeon so I decided to use this little time to show her some of what playing the between adventure time was like.

They had already had most of the non-coin treasure assessed in the local town near the dungeon, but the community was really to small for them to cash out much of it. They paid for the services with a piece of jewelry and then set to picking up supplies for hundred mile trip to the nearest city of notable size, Cyrel. It was there that they hoped to find enough wealth and the right tradesmen to be able to sell off or trade some of their gems and jewels and to find out if any of the items they found were magic or not.

Recruiting a couple of local swords for the rather hefty sum of 5gp per month, they set out to the south and fortunately encountered nothing of note on the way save for some halflings relocating north. They continued on and crossed the bridge across the Luko river where they joined the queue of travellers waiting entrance to Cyrel.

It turns out that though Cyrel is not fortified, it is surrounded by a retaining wall that controls traffic in and out of the city to the few guarded gates. Tall enough to discourage casual climbing across, the walls featured no permanent defensive works but the gates did feature fortified guard houses. The northern gate that the party was entering from was accessed by a fixed wooded bridge that crossed the Luko. A fair bit of role-playing occured at the gate.

The city guard approached the party, asking them where they came from, what they were in town for, and other probing questions. When Nermal, the cleric, said they were there trading goods, the guards became a bit suspicious finding fault with that answer considering the party of six armed adventurers and only a single pack animal among them. When Nermal explained that the items for trade were very small, the guard became intrigued but conceded that point and moved on to the issue of admittance to the city.

The party was informed that if they wished to carry their weapons into the city that they would have to pay a sword tax of 1gp per individual. The alternative was to surrender their weapons to the city guard who would store them at the city's armory until they departed. There was some discussion about this policy with the halfling and cleric surrendering their weapons while the remainder of the party paid the 1gp. Those that surrendered their weapons were given colored and numbered wooden tags that matched tags attached to their weapons. Those who held onto their weapons were given token that they were to wear, displayed, at all times. They also learned that all weapons trade was done in a sperate part of the city with its own gate to the outside of the city. All newly purchased weapons would be collected through this gate and required a seperate tax to bring into the city.

Having surrendered their weapons and paid their taxes they took rooms in the Drunken Eye inn who's symbol was an intoxicated beholder. They then set out finding the proper folks to turn their loot into more liquid assets. They were only able to get 50% of the the value on their gems and jewels but were able to get a price at 75% when they offered to trade for that price in other gems of lesser individual value.

That was about as far as we got, but the party now had a bit more fluidity in their wealth and could set out to try and improve their equipment and seek another adventure. Anna is really wanting to try a city adventure, so maybe I'll cook one up for her.

Take care all,

-Eli

Art by David Revoy, http://www.davidrevoy.com/?static3/concept-art

Meet The Carebolds

Cursed by the gods, these few kobolds have been destined to try to fight their "better" nature and spread cheer, good will, and positivity to the world. Each of them has been gifted with a specific aspect that grants them particular powers byond those of typical kobolds. These aspect of each of the Carebolds, as they have been named, can be easily determined by the symbol emblazened upin their abdomens.

The shame these good will marks have brought these kobolds has turned them into bitter beasties, but to deny their curse is to consign themselves to an eternity with it. Only when the gods have determined that they have spread enough psotivity and good will to make up for the malice they perpetrated will the curse be lifted.

Any attempt to hide the marks on their abdomens will fail, causing clothing to burn away, armor to fall to pieces, mud to cleanse itself, etc, etc. This has made their plight even more miserable as they cannot conceal their natures nor can they really protect themselves with protection enough to keep up their usual mischief.

What is worse is that this condition seems to be contageous to other humanoids and there have been several other creatures afflicted with the curse. Orcs, bugnears, and even gnolls and hobgoblins are now counted among these "Carebold Cousins".

The following aspects of good will and positivity have been identified and provide the following spell-like abilities. All abilities are considered at 10th level where level is needed and save vs spell does apply against any of the effects. Other effects may exsist, but thse are the only ones to have been identified at this time.

Luck (clover): luck, as the spell 3 time/day. This effect is automatically granted to creatures other than the Carebolds themselves who come in contact with the creature marked with the clover symbol.

Friendship (rainbow): the creature marked with this symbol radiates the effects of a friends spell in a 30' radius.

Happiness (smiling face): this creature creates an aura of happiness and good cheer in a 30' radius. No hostile action can be taken within this radius.

Love (heart): all creatures within 30' of this creature feel a sense of love and brotherhood with one another.

Wish (star): this creature can use the wish spell once a day.

Sunshine (sun): a creature so marked radiates continual light within a 30' radius at all times.

I hope you have enjoyed this humorous bit of monster making. The drawings were simply doodles that caught on and I figured it might be fun to give them some sort of game mechanic.

[How Umber is Your Hulk?] - The Umber Hulk

Hello all,

This is the first in a short series of posts on monster variations. Monster variants are a great way to freshen up your campaign and keep your players guessing, but a lot of times monster variants are done in ways that leave them feeling like flat, plug and play monsters. I feel that variants are always best when they have as much theme and character built into them as the original monster. Often these monster variants end up becoming monsters in their own right, taking on roles greater than simply "fire breathing giant toad".

Things I tend to consider when designing variant monsters is origin of the variant. Are they sorcerous hybrids? Regional sub-species? Perhaps they are a more primitive proto-species? If a creature variant has a breath weapon then I feel I should say something about why. D&D 3.5 had a great idea with templates, but far too often these templates were used to create bland, stat-stuffed monstrosities with no greater purpose than that of a secret weapon against players and their characters. What I am proposing is a bit more individual and creative than simple templating.

As my first example, I will offer the umber hulk, stated up here for Labyrinth Lord (because it's not already in there!) and then two variants I have come up for the creature. It should be noted that these variant hulks go back to my D&D 2nd ed and 3.5 days.

Umber Hulk
No. Encountered: 1-4
Alignment: Chaotic
Move: 60' (20'), 10'-60' burrowing
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 8+8
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/Attack: 3-12/3-12/2-10
Save: F8
Morale: 10
Horde Class: V
XP: 1200

Umber hulks are subterranean predators. Their iron-like claws enable them to burrow through solid stone at 1" per turn and through loam at fully 6 times that rate. Their prey includes young purple worms, anhkheg, and similar monsters. However, the favorite prey of umber hulks are humans. They attack with claws and their powerful mandibles. Worse still, any intelligent creature which views the umber hulk's four eyes squarely must save versus magic or be confused for 3-12 melee rounds. These creatures have their own language.

Umber hulks are black, shading to yellowish gray on the front. Their head is gray on top, and the mandibles are ivory colored. Because of their dark color they can easily be mistaken for some humanoid creature at 40' or more distance.

Scarab Hulk
No. Encountered: 1-4
Alignment: Chaotic
Move: 60' (20'), 10'-60' burrowing
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 8+8
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/Attack: 3-12/3-12/2-10
Save: F8
Morale: 10
Horde Class: VI
XP: 1500

Scarab hulks are specially bred umber hulks that are used as guardians of tombs and catacombs. Raised on a diet of corpses and carrion, they become accustomed to death. When still young they are sealed inside tombs where they serve as guardians.

In addition to the normal abilities of regular umber hulks, scarab hulks carry deathly diseases and tomb rot that they pass onto their victims. If wounded by a scarab hulk a victim must save vs poison or contract a deadly rotting disease that inflicts 1d3 hp of damage per day.

Scarab hulks differ in appearance from the common variety in that they are almost completely black in color with irridescent carapaces that reflect light like oil. They are oftenfound with bits and pieces of tomb treasure or even ceremonial wrappings draped about their bodies.

Tremor Hulk

No. Encountered: 1-2
Alignment: Chaotic
Move: 60' (20')
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 10
No. of Attacks: 3
Damage/Attack: 3-12/3-12/2-10
Save: F10
Morale: 10
Horde Class: None
XP: 1350

Tremor hulks are a rare, surface-dwelling cousin to the more common umber hulk. Larger in size they possess the ability to pound their massive claws against the ground, creating localized tremors that radiate around them, causing destruction. A tremor hulk can spend an entire round not attacking and instead pound its claws into the ground, creating a quake. Those within 50' of the hulk must save vs. paralysis or be thrown to the ground. The hulk can maintain the quake for up to three rounds. Tremor hulks do not possess the confusing powers of common umber hulks

Tremor Hulks have very subdued coloration, appearing quite stoney and earthen. Colors range from greys to browns with speckling and mottling common along the claws and main body.

[Labyrinth Lord] End of the First Adventure

Last night was the first regular session of my family Labyrinth Lord game. The introductory/test dungeon I was running my girls and the wife through was intended to be a short, fundimental adventure to let them test the waters of RPGs. Both girls are having a blast and my wife is having fun playing along, though she does have to hold back and not drive the part sometimes. Last night's game was also the end of the first adventure and it ended with a bit of tension and some good treasure.

The main tension of the session came when the party barely squeaked by a carrion crawler in the main ostuary chamber of the ancient temple they were exploring. They didn't fight it but left it behind when they pressed on to the final chamber in the dungeon.

After successfully making their way through the obstacles in the chamber and looting what they could before getting themselves into trouble, the party fled back the way they came and found themselves between the carrion crawler and whatever was lurking in the water in the chamber they just left. Having no choice but to fight through the beast, they set to the task of some quick sword work. By the end of the three rounds of combat, two of the party were paralyzed, leaving the goblin and the NPC dwarf to drag the cleric and the other dwarf, as well as the loot out of the dungeon. Fortunately for the party, they had been better about cleaning out the rest of the dungeon.

It's funny how the girls are shaping up as players. Anna (10) was immediately concerned  with what was next after the first adventure ended. She wanted to head off to the city to sell their goods and to seek the next adventure. Looks like she's the sort of some good sandbox play.

Nimue (6) is already learning her dice and also using her character sheet to practice learning her reading. Nim, is also showing signs of being one of those deep role-players. She always wants to do everything in character and actually gets quite insistant about everyone using character and not player names at the table.

I look forward to running the next adventure.

-Eli

"I'm Not Fighting Them! You do it!"

Ah, the words of neophite gamers.

This week, with the girls out of school for Spring Break, I have been able to get in two sessions of Labyrinth Lord. Continuing the introductory dungeon crawl we started a month ago, they have now started to explore the lost tomb they had been seeking. This is a loose, off-the-cuff affair and so I have the advantage of altering things as I go, but haven't really had to yet.

The last session really saw the girls (6 and 10) really getting how things went. I've finally managed to get my youngest to stop trying to tell her own story in the middle of the game and for the oldest to start thinking about the setting and what I'm describing. She had been playing in a very passive way. Jenn, my wife, has been playing with us as the party's cleric and doing a fine job of prompting but not taking over.

I think one of the high points of the session was hwn Anna, my oldest, figured out a trap that my wife was about to blunder into. She figured out that the four stone monster faces in the dome circular room with the glowing gem eyes and the soot stained hole in the center of the ceiling must mean a fire trap of some sort and she took to drawing out a diagram of the room to show where she figured (accurately), they could move and minimize their vulnerability to the fire.

A funny point came later when the party triggered another trap/encounter by trying to loot seemingly unprotected reliquary boxes. One of the boxes was trapped and caused all the boxes to sink into their platforms while the eight pillars in the room rotated to reveal what appeared to be savage, mummified, carnivorous apes (using zombie stats). At first the initial shock of suddenly finding themselves surrounded by undead guardians was overwhelming to my daughters who were heard to remark at one point, "I'm not fighting! You do it." I can't recall exactly which of them said and to whom, but it was funny. They did end up defeating them by dividing the number of attackers active at once through the cleric turning half the creatures. They beat the four that weren't turned and then regrouped to finish off the rest.

It was great fun and though they wanted to keep going it was late. We now have a regular biweekly game night planned with the possibility for pick-up games here and there. Looks like I've got my own little in-house gaming group.

Take care,

-Eli

[Labyrinth Lord] New Monster - Dire Flumph

Dire Flumph
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: -2 top, 5 underside
Hit Dice: 6
Attack: 1
Damage: 1d10 + 1-6 acid or acid spray
Save:  F8
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: IV
XP: 650

It was only a matter of time before some twist of magic, fate, or cosmic justice twisted this passive, misunderstood creature into a monstrous perversion of itself. To date, there has only been one appearance of such a creature and nobody knows who or what spawned it but where it goes there is much suffering.

The dire flumph appears much like its natural brethren but with the addition of a more extreme appearance including barbs and boney knobs on its main body and a gnarled undulating tendrils that lack the smooth, harmless appearance of a natural flumph. The mouth of the dire flumph is more monstrous and moved more to the front of the body making it more able to devour and bite.

In melee combat this creature strikes with wicked hooked tentacles or its toothy maw all of which secrete a burning acid. The dire flumph also strikes at range by ejecting a gout of sticky acidic goo that splatters its target and adheres, making sure to continue burning at a rate of 1d6 damage per turn.

Labyrinth Lord With the Girls

Last night I stayed home from my regular Friday game night to get some time in with the family. This wasn't one of those pressure things or anything, just a decission based on the awareness that I had been spending a bit too much time on the gaming front and not so much on the family. My oldest, Anna, had a friend over for a sleepover and so I ended up with an extra 13-yr old for then night. Friday is my wife's usual night to play WoW so she was fiddling around with her thing and I was killing time on the computer waiting for things to settle a bit. That's when Anna and her friend asked if I would run Labyrinth Lord for them.

I was bit reluctant at first, having stayed home from gaming to spend time with the family, but with Anna, her friend, and my six-year old all wanting to I asked Jenn (my wife) if it would be alright and she not only said yes, but agreed to play with us. A flury of character generation, some quick print-outs and a hastily drawn dungeon map with no less than a fat, red, Crayola marker on the graph paper and we were ready to go.

Anna's friend had never played before but both she and her little sister had played Tales from the Wood with me before. Jenn is an old 2E player from her childhood and had played in my 3.5 games but is now semi-retired from RPGs. I kept the adventure idea pretty simple and straight forward and short. Stocked the dungeon with some of the usual suspects and made sure everybody had print-outs of quick reference sheets. We ended up with the two older girls playing dwarves (Aheli and Onyx), my youngest playing a halfling which she decided was a goblin (Serfina), and Jenn playing a cleric (Nermal), not because she wanted to but because the party needed one.

The adventure opened with a narrative describing how the four adventurers had been travelling for some time together, seeking fortune and fame. They had stumbled across tales of an ancient tomb located under the central hill referred to as "Magda" of a trio of hills called "The Three Sisters". The three hills were said to be a holy place to a long-gone people and were thought by those frolk to be the worldly embodiment of their three goddesses. The party had investigated, to no avail, two previous likely sets of hills and had now arrived on the edge of a wide plain in the middle of which could be spied three grand hills.

I went on to describe the plain. I told them how the grass moved and what animals they could see moving about it. I described the presence of ancient stones graven with images of some ancient people, leaning and forgotten. It was at this time I noticed that the two older girls looked like they had dozed off. Thinking they might have bitten off more than they could chew and were more tired than they had first thought, I asked and both Anna and her friend told me they were closing their eyes to picture the scene. Anna said it was cool because she could feel her legs go all tingly as I described the setting. Needless to say, I was grinning.

With a little guidance from my wife, the party of four set out across the plain and reached the foor of the hills by dusk. They set up camp and the two dwarves went out to hunt some game for dinner. They returned, ate their fills and then established a watch. Aheli's watch was uneventful, but during Onyx's watch something was heard hunting and prowling the edge of the firelight. Then, a second of whatever it was was heard skulking just out of sight where it growled menacingly. Onyx woke the group and they readied themselves. Nermal, believing it to be just a wild animal, scooped up some of the leftover from supper and threw them into the darkness where the growling was coming from. Whatever it was seemed satisfied with leftovers and bolted into the night. I thought this was a good demonstration to the neophite gamers that not all encounters had to be resolved through combat.

The next day, the party set out along a rutted trail marked by animal tracks and grooved by the rains of centuries. They wound their way up through the brush that had grown over the old hill and discovered that as they followed this winding route they came across a series of stone markers, all carved with similar ancient runes and symbols to those that had decorated the standing stones on the plain. This path led them up and around to the back side of the hill where they found that it wound its way down into a little grotto formed by the meeting of the three hills. At the bottom of this grotto was a grand pool around which grew all manner of ancient trees and shrubs. It was also at this point that my youngest really had lost interest and was sent to bed.

Following the path down into the grotto, they found that it ended in a great carved slab of stone that formed a platform at the pool's side. Aheli suggested that they might want to replenish their water supply at the pool but Onyx was suspicious, as they had heard a loush splash on the other side of the pool under the brush, and wanted to check the pool for inhabitants. With Aheli and Nermal at the ready, Onyx held her lantern down to the water and tried to see any signs of large fish or other beasts in the water. All she saw were water bugs.

At that point, Nermal moved to the water to use her priestly knowledge to make sure the water was drinkable. As she knelt down and began her work, a great splash was heard anf a low croaking as the fat body of a great toad landing heavily on the stone slap. Nermal fell to her backside and the goblin scattered to the safety of the brush (she was asleep) with Aheli and Onyx races to defend the fallen cleric. The party got the jump on the beast and set to taking down the warty menace. A solid cut from Aheli, a grazing slash from Onyx and a finish mace to the head dispatched the great toad before it had a chance to cause any real harm. There was discussion among the dwarves of eating the toad, but the cleric thought better of it and advised that all toads are not the best for eating.

Now the party had a bit of a problem to solve. They had reached the end of the path with no sign of an entrance to the tomb that they were now sure must be here someplace. The stones, the markers, this platform all seemed to indicate they were in the right place. The goblin was sent into the thicket that surrounded the pool to scout any possible entrances hidden under the growth, but found none. At this point, Jenn reminded the girl of some of their dwarven abilities and so both dwarves checked for hidden construction, a seam in the stone platform. They cleared the seam of centuries of dirt and discovered a slab that was seperate from the other engravings in the platform and was surely the entrance they sought.

The girls playing the dwarves came up with the idea to bry one end of the slab up, which they would then lever further up so they could tied their ropes around one end. The rope was them tied to their mule and horse and lifted open. Nermal suggested that they try to turn the slab so they could lay it flat to the side instead of running the risk of it falling. The opening reveal a deep dark hole, dank with age and the wetness of the earth of the grotto. Descending into the hole were stairs.

At this point our guest asked if we could call it and as it was 1:00 AM I thought it might be a good idea. They had made characters and set out for adventure. They had found the tomb and stopping just at the point before they entered and started their dungeon crawl seemed like a good, almost cliffhanger-ish way to go. I reassured the girls that this wasn't the end of our gaming and that now that they had characters ready, the next time we had a chance to play it would all be play time. This also gives me some time to flesh out the dungeon a bit and give it a solid write-up.

I can't wai!

-Eli