Monk-Herbalist class for OSE

Inspired by the classic monk-ish stories featuring the detective monk Cadfael, I crafted a new class for Old School Essentials, if you like the sound of that please check out my Monk-Herbalist.

Hold Portal potion

In OSR games it can be very advantageous for thieves and adventurers in general, but mostly thieves, to have a potion of "Hold Portal". The idea, being that the thief can be making it away with his ill-gotten gains, dodge through a doorway, splash the doorway with the potion and seal it against any that pursue.

It would also be handy for sealing pockets, panniers, and trunks I suspect. Not to mention closing that bottle of wine against your friend that's drunk too much already.

So, how do you get the potions?

The thieves guild sometimes have them for sale, 2 in 6 for availability, and then a cost of 150gp.

Magical stores have them on a 3 in 6, and charge 200gp.

White Box , Silver Arrow

I recently picked up White Box and was sitting in bed reading the booklet last night when I got to the equipment list and was brought up short by the classic "Silver Arrow".

It's listed as Weight 1, cost 5gp. That's fine, but when compared to standard arrows which are 20 for weight 1, costing 5gp.

How the heck does a single arrow with a silver head cost 50 silver pieces? How on earth does it encumber the same as 20 normal arrows. I'm assuming that a normal arrow has an iron head on it.

I put on my "rationalizing head". 

I would expect a standard silver arrow head to maybe be the equivalent of 2-3 standard coins, so there must be much more to this silver arrow than just a silver head. It cant be that the entire arrow is made of silver, that would meet the strange weight statistic but there's no way that would fly from a bow, far too heavy.

So here's what I suggest. The head of the arrow is silver, but also, silver is inset in a thin line along the shaft of the arrow too. This should prevent the monster grabbing the shaft and pulling it out, as the silvered shaft would make that too painful. So now we have a delicate jewellery-level inlaid silver shaft and a silver arrow head. 

Whereas a standard arrow can take a lot of bouncing around in a quiver, this arrow needs protection from the buffeting of adventuring. Therefore the cost of the silver arrow covers the cost of the effort put into its production, as well as a special lined and padded leather holster to keep it safe.

Deliberately Breaking Rules

 No, I'm not talking about cheaters, nor am I talking about fudging the dice behind the GM screen.

What I AM talking about is choosing to break the rules as a group. I think anyone who's played RPGs for a while will have played in a game where the players have house ruled some aspect of the game, but I'm not talking about that either.

What I am talking about is breaking the rules in a defined way. I guess the best known game that does this is Magic the Gathering, which has some basic easy to follow rules, but then every other card that gets played introduces a rule breaking change. Another card game that's similar is "Killer Bunnies".

Those are card games but what about RPGs you say?

The first time I heard about this in an RPG was a game of "Heroic Cthulhu" being GMed by Logan Horsford. In that game he had/has a vast deck of cards. Following a few simple rules players get a hand of cards, and through play at the table they play the cards and get given new cards.  This is all in addition to the normal role playing, not a replacement for it.

The card themselves break the rules of the game, or rather allow the players character to break the rules of the game. The simplest of cards would be something a "+10% chance on a skill check." Other cards might grant automatic success on a combat roll, a headshot with a gun, automatic pick pockets, or spotting a weakness. Each card modifies a rule, an action, scenario, plot point, and everyone effectively breaks the accepted rules.

Other cards are even more meta, allowing players to swap cards, or draw a full new hand. The entire concept of playing these cards during a game is meta, and becomes a game within a game. Its a fun thing to do, and once everyone gets used to how to play with the cards the actual playing of them doesn't get in the way of the game. The cards are an empowering thing, as a player you have a way of breaking the rules, getting past the limitations of normal play and do what would otherwise be impossible.

You can knock up a set of cards to use in almost any RPG. If you go for it, don't rush to produce the cards. Its easy to make far too many that are just +1 or +2 as those are easy to come up with. Think about it for a while, try to make as many cards as possible unique, and allowing you to do things you wouldn't normally be able to do.  For instance in D&D you might have a card  saying "You convince your target". or "You hear the trap firing and get out the way."

Now the real pitch. I made a set of cards to use in Cepheus Engine or Traveller games.

 

Going solo with 2 PCs in Scarlet Heroes

I've upped my first character in Scarlet Heroes to level 2, and now its time to create another character in a different class to see how that feels. I wanted to try a wizard, but I'm guessing that a lone wizard is going to be very (too) squishy, so I've opted to run two PCs. This way I can put my level 2 halfling fighter in front and use the wizard for DPS.

What's nice in Scarlet Heroes is that they can use missile weapons and any melee weapon. However they only ever roll 1D4 for damage. I love this, now I can have my "gandalf" wielding a sword like the man in grey himself! With a bow, this upcoming wizard is entirely capable especially at low level. He only rolls 1D4, true, but that means his hits have a 75% chance of taking out a 1HD creature on one shot. that's pretty powerful especially when safely done from a distance..

As I'm mixing Basic Fantasy and Scarlet Heroes, I'm picking spells from BF. That's not because I dislike the Scarlet Heroes spells, indeed, I haven't even read more than one or two, its because I know the standard BF spells better. As a new wiz I need to pick three spells that my wizard knows at level 1...

My first thought was "Magic Missile", you know for firepower, but then I thought about that bow I plan on using. Magic missile does 1D6+1, meaning a result of  5-6 would mean the wizard could do 2HD of damage. that's good, but it is just one shot. Is that one-shot worth a spell slot? I kept this in my back pocket and looked through the 1st level options. 

In the end I've opted to take "Shield" which gives the PC some protection, especially against missiles, and considering  the Wiz is going to be at distance if at all possible it makes sense. I'm also taking "Sleep" as that can effect more than one target. I pondered Magic Missile again, but in the end that one-use issue ruled it out for me, and I've taken Read Languages. I want to be able to find more spells, so being able to read alien languages in a library seems like something a wizard would want.

Poor old wizard (no names at first level, what's the point) has a horrendous AC of 9 and only 4HP. Eek!

OSR rule for Consumables

I was breezing over the rules for The Front today, as I'm thinking of writing another scenario for the

system. Actually I was looking for a mechanism to hang a scenario on (that's a little tip for anyone wanting to get into scenario writing). I found my attention drawn to the "consumables" rule.

This rule is a way of tracking anything that can be "consumed", be that rations, bullets, grenades, or hot water. Its very handy for bullets, as in modern games tracking bullets-left can be terribly burdensome, way worse than arrow counting in your average fantasy game.

The core rule is that a consumable is allocated a die, for our example lets assume the players bullets are assigned a D6. After each round firing, the player rolls the consumable die. If he rolls a 1-2 then the die is reduced to the next smaller die, so in this case it would be exchanged to a D4. If you roll 102 on a D4 then that's it, you've run out of whatever it is. The assigned consumable die can be any of the standard polyhedrals, so the companies ammo supply might start with a D20 consumable. Then each time the company is engaged the referee can roll the die and reduce it through the all the dice 

D20 > D12 > D10 > D8 > D6 > D4

I think you could steal this rule and drag it back into fantasy games too. You could track arrows, oil flasks, food, water. Also if you want to stretch it a bit you could use the same mechanism to track the energy supply of a broken down horse the players are relying on. Its cool for this because everyone can see the die roll and will be bought into watching the bones slide across the table.

OSR has a problem with Levels

So I've had a bit of annoyance with OSR games for quite some while, and nearly all of them are guilty of it! I remember when I was a nipper and looking over the old old Basic D&D rules I ran into the problem that everyone knows. Levels. The word, not the implementation.

Levels is used to describe character progression, and that's all fine and dandy. BUT, its also used to describe spell usage, such as "Magic Missile is a first level spell". This re-use of the same term for two different things in the game confused the heck out me, and I've seen it do the same for every new player I've dragged kicking and flailing into a game.

Its retarded to use the same word for two different things in the same manual. If you came across that in a washing-machine manual you'd be rightly pissed at its lack of clarity. If I came across this confused nonsense in a boardgame rules set I'd get righteously angry over the stupidity of it. Yet in game after game, especially in OSR games the author does the same thing. Pulling out the tired confusing , patently stupid, dual usage of "levels".

No more, I say! Its time to move on. I've got a few options you might consider:

• Circle (sounds nice and magical, and I think they use this in Earthdawn)
• Ring
• Rank
• Grade
• Stack
• Power

Please, authors, especially OSR authors, don't Dual Wield Levels.

Nerin Returns to the Goblin Dungeon

Once again we return to our solo Scarlet Heroes game. This time with the freshly named 2nd level halfling Nefin Tossmeadow. He's been to the dungeon twice and been beaten back twice. here's how it went...

Nerin decides to return to the goblin cave, he concludes that there's only the big goblin left and leaving him alive is leaving an enemy with a grudge. Better to leave no enemies to curse your sleep.

Nerin sneaks up to the goblin cave hoping to spy out but trips and falls out of cover into view of anyone in the cave entrance. (1-2 Goblin is there,5 no goblin). Fortunately the goblin is not there.

Moving into the entrance with his bow out and ready  Nerin moves up to edge of the pit trap. He's concerned that the goblin might appear as he edges past the trap, but sees no option except to grimace and bare it. He puts the bow up and edges past the trap.

Spear at the ready he edges up to the T-junction, (1-2 Goblin is there,3 nope) its clear and so he moves up to the doors. He listens at the door's crack (1-2 Goblin is there, 2 yes) and hears knocking or banging. he sneaks through the door and spots the big goblin using a mace to smash at the constructs in a destructive rage.

Nerin quietly edges out his bow lines up the shot and lets fly but arrow misses and cracks into the wall. The goblin looks up, grabs his halberd and charges!

Nerin stands his spear against the charge but the goblin sweeps it aside with a blow that sends our hero bowling across the cave floor.

Rising to his feet Nerin meets the goblins next charge only be sent tumbling across the floor but fortunate in not being further injured. 

The goblin comes in, over confident and Nerin takes advantage with jab into it arm pit.

The goblin is wary now and they circle each other, and then with a swiftness unlooked for, the goblin jabs with the halberd and smashes Nerin into the wall. It screams its delight!

Nerin levels his spear quickly to keep the beast at bey, and they circle each other again.

The goblin jabs again but Nerin has seen that before and knocks the thrust aside with his shield.

Nerin reverses the circling movement and gets his back to the doorway. The change in direction causes the goblin to misstep and Nerin thrust his spear in under the goblin's chin, it drops dead.

With a sigh, he drops to the ground and tries to staunch the bleeding (+2HP).

He thinks the place is empty but isn't sure, so he edges into the next room where he first encountered the big goblin. Fortunately the place is empty of foes, but the bodies of the goblins he killed last week are laying around partially consumed.

Nerin looks around the room and sees an interesting chest. He ponders if it might be trapped, goblin are evil like that. He nips back to the big goblin,  grabbing its halberd and comes back and starts using the halberds great weight to smash the chest from a distance. 

With it splintered apart he find it contains 400gp, 326cp, 168sp and two glass bottles (smashed on 1-3, 5,1) one of which is smashed. He pops the lid to sniff one and it smells foul. It may be magical. He takes the gp and sp and the bottle. Back at the body of the big goblin Nerin removes an engraved golden ring from its finger and returns to town.

Cowpunchers, Western RPG

Cowpunchers is a straight Western themed RPG. With a PDF running to only 25 pages its clearly on the RPG-lite end of the game spectrum. This base game is entirely "straight" that is to say, there's no "weird", there's no Cthulhu lurking in a cave.

The system itself is quick and easy to get into, I see it as perfect for a one-shot game, or for anyone that doesn't want to be looking up rules for every situation. Generating a PC is quick and easy with only 3 characteristics  Vigor, Finesse, and Smarts which are each rolled on 3D6.  That covers the physical and mental aspects of the character. As with most OSR type games the value of each stat is associated with  a bonus. In most OSR games that would be a +1, or +2 to a die roll, but as Cowpunchers is D6 based, the bonus effects the number of D6's you get to roll when making a check against the stats. 

There are a number of skills in the game, and starting characters buy skills and they're about ready to go.

Skill and Stat checks are all rolled by trying to roll a number of successes, with each 5 or 6 on a die being a success. This simple straight forward system is again an appear to new players or those who just want the system to get out of the way.

I mentioned one-shots, but Cowpunchers provides character advancement, by gaining levels the character gains new or improved skills. Its worth noting here too that each level gets the PC an extra Hit Point. That's important as it means that characters stay squishy. These PCs are not becoming super heroes but they will become crack shots on a par with "The Man with no Name". And talking of shots, there are enough gun stats in this book to keep the gear heads happy too.

The end of the book includes a scenario to get you started, but I have published the first supporting scenario for the game, called Pink Gold.

The art is evocative and on-point, drawn/painted by the author Jonathan Torres a.k.a. "The Basic Expert" 

Fallen Justice, RPG

Fallen Justice is an OSR inspired RPG where you get to play the part of a vigilante, not a super hero, but a real person who's willing to put two-fisted justice into the gaps left by the officaldom.

I picked up the 84 page PDF from DriveThru and I have to say, I'm impressed with it. The comic book style art on the cover is used throughout the book and creates a ambiance of the gritty violent bloody mood the game presents. This mood is supported by the included fiction extract, that features blood and teeth shooting everywhere as fists, bats, and bullets take down the bad guys.

Being a OSR game is has the expected standard six stats from every OSR game, but has an additional one called "Infamy" which represents the notoriety of the PCs vigilante character. 

Characters also have to track Stress that the PC encounters. This is important to the game play, as increasing stress pushes the character towards their "Breaking Point". If the PC breaks through the break Point they pick up a behavioural trait, which might be have a Mindless Rage, or turning to substance abuse.  In this way the Stress can become a kind of "Alignment".

Your character can be one of ten classes, including "The Crusader" who's out to clean the streets, and "The Marksman" who uses guns over fists. Each class has a number of special abilities , for instance "The Colossus" class has a "Granite Chin" that can turn critical hits suffered into normal hits. 

For money the system uses $, but I found the various costs of the hero-equipment were really cheap. Only by reading further into the rules did it become clear that this is not real world money prices. For instance if your PC were to take a hit-job from one underworld criminal to hit another the fee would likely be in the many thousands. But that kind of money would allow you to buy up all the game equipment. So if you are refereeing a game keep this in mind, and the money supply low.

This game is gritty. You play the part of someone who's been wronged, badly wronged, and the justice system has failed. Your character is driven by a revenge motive that will likely evolve into a desire to clean up everyone out there doing wrong. Play should include lots of descriptive play, When you smack an NPC with a baseball bat, make sure all the players know what it sounds like. Keep it visceral and unpleasant and you'll be on-target for the mood the game wants you to have. I liked everything I read in this book, it was on-target and meaningful.

Scarlet Heroes: Solo session 2

This is my second journey into a solo play of Scarlet Heroes, using the same PC, returning to the same dungeon.

Halfling spends a week lodging at the inn for 3gp, and heals back up to full HP.

Halfling decides to return to the same dungeon. 1-3 chance the goblins have replaced the guards, no guards. 1-5 goblins have armed the pit trap, they have armed it. Halfling attempts to edge past trap, success. He deactivates the trap.

Halfling turns right and tries to sneak through the double doors, success. The 10 goblins are still there. Rather than leap into the fray like last time he plans to knock one down with his sling, then retreat back outside and sling any others he can see. He takes his shot, hits but does no damage. He sprints for the exit and runs over the trap and stops just outside.

The goblin mob charges after him, he gets a shot off and misses.

Halfling stabs at a nasty looking goblin but misses, but while laying about himself he knocks down two gobbos. The goblins swarm our poor hero but he fends off all but one attack and takes a point of damage.

His aimed spear attack misses again in the next clash, but he unintentionally takes out a goblin with the spear butt as he pulls it back. The goblins keep swarming, they wont give up as they are defending their home, three of them hit him!

Badly hurt but determined, Halfling strikes running his target right through and stabbing another goblin behind! Shocked at the horror, only one goblin manages to hit Halfling and the blade just slides off his shield.

With only three goblins still on their feet Halfling shouts his war cry and stabs one goblin through the throat  and slicing open two others with a wild swing on the spear.

Gasping for breath Halfling binds his wounds (+2HP). He searches the dead and gathers up 7 daggers that he slides out of sight under a bush, and 19gp that he slips into his purse.

Halfling heads back into the cave and through the doors to where he encountered the goblins and find 3 Hobgolins coming at him! (Actually I misread the room, these should have been mixed in with the goblins, lucky for Halfling!)

A hobgoblin dodges his spear thrust, but the trusty shield-bash took out another. One of the two remaining goblins smashed its mace into Halfling's armoured arm nearly breaking it.

Angry and in pain Halfling quickly spears the hobgoblin that hit him, and slashes the other one.

Halfling rests up again (+2HP), stashes the three maces and finds another 8gp. He goes back into the cave to search the goblin's cave. He sees some constructs but nothing of interesting so follows the tunnel that extends beyond.

He finds himself confronted by 5 relaxing goblins waiting for the stew to cook! he jumps 'em. One is speared before he can get out of his cot, and another dies as Halfling stomps him through the bottom of his cot. The last goblin, a sneaky git(!) stabs Halfling under the armour. Halfling can't bring the spear into line in time, so shield charges and crushes the goblin against the wall.

Spending another minute or two he binds the wound from the goblin (+1HP) Rifling a few filthy pockets he turns up 11gp. He decides he doesn't want any more of the goblin daggers so leaves them.

The tunnel goes on so Halfling sneaks along as he can hear goblin voices. At the corner he dares a peek and sees a big goblin in a chair, and two more, one of them looks like a shaman.

Halfling prepares a sling stone and steps round the corner and fires at the shaman, he hits the shaman right in the spell book doing no damage! The big goblin and his pal charge. The large one is wielding a dangerous looking halberd that's bigger than Halfling.

Halfling drops the sling and wades into combat. He tries to take out the big guy, but the second goblin takes the blade in the chest to protect the big one. The huge goblin attacks but catches his pole arm on the roof. The shaman fires off a magic missile that hurts Halfling.

Halfling attacks back, but the big goblin blocks the thrust, but fortunately the shaman leaves himself open and pays for it. The huge goblin sweeps his weapon above Halflings head.

Halfling's thrust goes uselessly between the Goblin's legs, but it does throw off its aim.

Halfling swings wide in his next attack, missing and the goblin does likewise.

Halfling makes a weak thrust as he tries to back off missing his target, but also getting clipped by a halberd swing!

Another spear thrust goes wide of its mark but the goblin smashes a blow in Halflings Armor drawing a gush of blood.

Finally Halfling gets a solid strike into the goblin's leg, but at the desperate cost of another serious wound. Halfling's nerve finally gives, and he streaks for the door.

Goblin will pursue on 1-2, does not follow.

Halfling stands outside gasping for air, holding a sling in case the beast chases, but it soon becomes apparent he's not being pursued. He binds his wounds, picks up the daggers and maces before heading back to town.

Halfling sells the daggers/maces for 1gp each. As he sits down to his first meal at the Inn, he realises he's got his second XP and is now 2nd level. He's very happy and he's now worthy of being given a name!

I decide a level 2 character does indeed need a name, thus I dub him Norin Tossmeadow. I also spend some of Nerin's gps to upgrade his sling to a short bow.

Two sessions in and I'm really enjoying the experience of using the Scarlet Heroes for solo play in combination with Basic Fantasy. There is still that large goblin in the cave, so perhaps Nerin might head back when he's healed up.

Scarlet Heroes: Solo session 1

I played a mini solo game to learn how Scarlet Heroes plays out. I created a Halfling fighter (no name as he's level 1 and level ones are so prone to death in OSR games it aint worth the effort of naming them). Wearing scale armour with shield and spear. 

I decided to hit up ”Gold in the Hills” from the Basic Fantasy Adventure Anthology 1. I'm also using the implied background of Basic Fantasy as I haven't read the background material in the book yet.

Halfling approached the cave entrance sneaking up on the two goblin guards, they spotted him and fired arrows one of which hit the mark. Then Halfling was in among them and took out one with a spear hit and the other with the Fray die. Going through pockets and pouches got Halfling 6gp and two daggers for loot.

Halfling spotted the trap and edged around it and got to a T-junction. To the east double doors, to the west a tunnel leads to a big hole in the floor. Opting to clear the western room before opening any door Halfling went down that way. The hole was uninteresting, so it was back to the doors.

Listening at the door our hero heard sounds of digging and goblin voices. Halfling slipped in through the doors and saw 15 goblins across the way. Being the “heroic” sort he decided to sneak up on them before jumping into their midst. 

He speared one goblin, and Frayed another (perhaps smacking a goblin in the face with his shield). The remaining 13(!!!!) goblins drew daggers and dived at Halfling, more than a few stuck their pins in. 

Halfling bloodied but not downhearted struck back. 

He ran another goblin through with his spear, and Frayed another two (a shield into the back of one head, and spear butt into the crutch of another). Then the remaining 10 goblins attacked. Many missed but not enough. Poor halfling was reduced to 1 HP. 

Brave Halfling ran for it!

Having returned to town Halfling earns 1XP, and sells the two daggers for 1gp each giving him a total loot of 8gp.

Here's Halfling's stats...

Halfling STR16 DEX 15 CON 12 INT12 WIS 12 CHA 16 HP 9

Traits: Halfling stealth, Popular cook, Twisted firestarter, Make your own comfort

Camp gear, rope, rations 3 days, lantern, 2 oil flasks, waterskin, backpack, scale armour, shield, 8gp, 8sp.

Scarlet Heroes: First thoughts on the rules

I picked up the Scarlet Heroes RPG because of its touted awesomeness for single player OSR style roleplaying. A few years back another GM ran me (my character) though a single adventure. it was really a learning experience for him, but I remember having a good time.

Anyway back to the present day, and I now have a soft back copy of the game myself. Reading the rules for the first time certainly made it look suitable for solo play. In fact it IS designed for one player and a GM, but I think it could easily handle two players. However I would have to think twice before moving to three or more, I'm not so sure that would work, and here's why...

At first level your PC is a bit of a bad ass able to leap into battle with as many as ten goblins. It'll be close, but you'll likely win. With a second PC, you'd wipe the floor with them. With a third PC it wouldn't even be a challenge and I'd be surprised if it lasted beyond a single round of combat. 

So what would you do as a GM to increase the interest level for these three PCs? Adding more goblins would seem the obvious choice. But this leads to a huge number of gobbos to track and a bucket of dice, which would bog the game down. The next option would be to place beefier monsters in the dungeon to batter the PCs. BUT the players PCs are pretty squishy without a large number of hit points. One, maybe two hits from a bigger monster could lay them out dead. So that seems like a bad idea. Maybe there's something else to do, but it escapes me for the moment.

The rules of the game are presented first and only take up about a third of the book, with the remained being the well laid out background for the world. The rules are based in an OSR framework and indeed you can use these rules to play in any OSR world, not just the one presented in the book. I have done this and will make a separate post about that.

There are two main changes away from your average OSR title that make you're PC a bad ass, and that increase the single-PC dynamic preferable. 

The first is that hits your PC does to the monster, are done to hits Hit Dice (HD) rather than its hit points (it effectively does not have hit points). Therefore one hit point of damage done to a 1HD monster kills it. Whoa, don't panic. you roll your damage as normal, for instance 1D6 for a spear, then reference the result on a simple chart. A 1 on the D6 does no damage at all, 2-5 does one point of damage and 6 would do two points. Thus, a result of 2-6 would kill a 1HD opponent, and a result of 6 would be able to kill a 1HD or a 2HD opponent.

The second bad-ass trick is the "Fray" die. This is like secondary damage. In each round of combat you roll this extra die and check the number of damage the result does on the same table. These "extra" points of damage you can allocate to other opponents of your level or lower that are in the same combat. If your PC is in combat with ten goblins, you roll to hit one on them, perhaps skewer it with your spear, BUT you also roll well on your Fray die scoring two hits, meaning in the same round you also take out a couple more goblins. The Fray die results represent the general melee that takes place around and close to the main target.

I've run a couple of mini solo sessions, and I'll be posting about them shortly, but the TLDR of those sessions was "Nice!".

D&D - clearing the basement

Last night I DM'ed my first game of actual basic D&D in quite a few years. It was a good mixed

party of first level characters, Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Elf , and surprise of surprises there were no characters deaths. Unthinkable for 1st level adventuring!

In the town of Sift is the Filter Inn, which has an annual event of sorts where young adventurers put themselves forwards for a 100gp bounty. All they have to do is clear the Inn's extensive basement of the "things" that have moved in. There is great honour to be had in achieving this goal, as well as the money, hence our brave PCs volunteered (read that as rail-roaded by the DM).

The Inn-keeper lead them to the basement, cleared the barrels out of the way told them the secret knock (the only way he'd open the door to someone on the other side) and shoved them down the steps.

They lit a torch and examined the first room. There was the body of a man there with shield and sword and even a few gold coins which they promptly liberated. Then commenced a series of door listening rolls that carried on all evening.  With the fighter and cleric leading the way they started  the clearing operation.

After moving through a bunch of empty rooms the only things they'd found was a small chest containing a vial of unidentified liquid and a barrel filled with salted fish. Somewhat disappointing for them, but things were soon to get interesting. The next door revealed another body. When they approached, the obviously dead individual rose to its feet and tried to strangle them. The cleric boldly stood forth and proceeded to not turn the creature. They laid into the corpse with swords, maces, arrows, sling stones and daggers. They managed to knock it to the ground a couple of times but it just wouldn't die. The cleric took a serious hit and risked drinking the vial they'd found earlier which fortunately turned out to be a healing potion.

When they came to the conclusion that the monster just was not going to die the elf came up with plan 2b. Rushing back to the salt fish barrel, he emptied it and dragged it back to the fight. The fighter slammed the beastie to the ground and they stuffed the thrashing dead man head first into the barrel and sat on top, pinning it in place. The only problem being, someone needed to stay on top of the barrel!

Looking around they found the monster had been laying of a sack of copper coins, one thousand of them. So they hoofed that on top of the barrel to hold it in place. reluctantly they left the money to hold the undead thing and moved on.

Their next encounter was a pit-turned-pool that housed two giant frogs. The first arrow fired caused the frogs to leap to the attack, but it was a fly-less effort (that's frog speak for fruitless) as they were soon clobbered into a greasy paste,

The very next door was a wandering monster. HUZZAR! They found themselves facing a man who blinked at their torch light and begged them to lead him out of the dungeon. They offered to take him out but became suspicious when he insisted on wanting to be at the back of the party. Then when they questioned him, he became agitated, then angry and then violent. The man transformed into a man-rat and attacked. He ended up not being too much of a threat and he was soon downed. When dead he transformed into a simple big rat.

Suspicious of the dead end corridor they found themselves in, the elf did his elfy-searchy-thingy and revealed a hidden door. Listening at it told them there were many strange voices beyond. Carefully they opened the door and surprised a horde of kobolds setting up camp. The kobolds tightened their grip on their weapons but did not attack. There was no way to talk with them so the party made conciliatory noises and even offered them hunks of rat and frog meat. That settled it, although not friends they were at least not enemies. The PCs ducked back out of the room and heard the kobolds hammering the door shut.

They examined their map looking for another way round and headed for the next unopened door. What they found was a tiny room with another door and when they listened at that, they again heard kobold voices. When they carefully opened they door they discovered the same kobolds, so backed out of the room. Once again the kobolds started hammering and sealing that door.

Back to the map, back through a few rooms to the next door. Kobold voices again. Peek. yep, it's them again. Irate kobold remonstrations about the disturbance as the PCs backed out. Hammering sounds as the kobolds sealed yet another door.

Onto the next door. It revealed a large room with a raised stone platform at the far end with a coffin on it. Between the PCs and the coffin, eight armed and animate skeletons which turned to attack. Realising the enemy could outflank them the PCs pulled back to the doorway as the elf cast his magical shield spell. The cleric warmed up his magical symbol to turn the skeletons but alas he must have left the key at home as it failed again. The skeletons attacked. Swords proved rather poor for this work but the fighter made up for that by managing to clobber all of the weak enemies. The cleric did his macely duty and the elf and thief sent a hail of missile fire into the foes.

In next to no time the skeletons were dust, and they investigated the coffin. Fearing Dracular himself they opened the box and discovered it empty. When they moved the coffin however they found a recess below and inside that, 600gp and a gold-inlaid dagger.

Here ended the session. The basement was by no means clear of monsters. The kobolds were contained (by themselves), the undead thing was barrelled, the skeletons, frogs and rat-man disposed of. They decided to retire for the night back upstairs and lick their wounds.

Next time, the adventure continues...

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.

Scarlet Heroes, a first session

Last night was a night of nights as they say. It was my first time playing a game of Scarlet Heroes and the first time in the longest time, of playing a game with one player (me) and a GM.

I'd glanced at the free Qquickstart, so knew it was an OSR inspired game but not a lot else. At the start of the session  I had to throw a character together, and during this discovered that the rules actually have a section for handing one-on-one games, this was getting more interesting by the minute.

Having rolled the six stats and picked my traits I moved onto starting equipment. I managed to get spear, buckler and chainmail...but in typical OSR fashion there was no mention of clothes, so the session became subtitled...

The Quest for Underwear, and Maybe a Shirt

In the village of Rumbly Belly lived a Wanderer who was an Escaped Slave and ex Miltary Scout, who although well armed had nothing on under his chainmail. He really wanted something on underneath, if only to stop the chainmail plucking his hair and chaffing his bits. Fortunately for him a creepy tower was nearby and rumour had it that it used to be inhabited by a wizard of huge power and massive underpant-hamper. So guess where the wanderer went!!

Through the creepy woods, to the tower, circle around, assault the door. Empty room except for handy glowing mushroom light source.Stairs up, stairs down...which way? Bedrooms, and hampers, probably upstairs. Up we go!

The first level contained a living room, somewhat run down. An attempt to fashion a loin-cloth from the leather cover on the chair failed rather miserably. So the first door was opened. Opened just a crack for a bit of peek inside. Uh oh! It was a  mouldy library but there was a crystal statue guardian which raised its arms and attacked. I tried to close the door but it was ripped open, meaning it was spear-time!

The combat raged backwards and forwards, book shelves were upended, books were thrown but soon I was backing up the stairs just trying to fend off the crystal beast, when a lucky thrust finally put paid to him. After listening at the door and stairs to see if anything else was moving, my hero retired to the musty couch for a rest.

A quick scout around the library revealed no underpants, so I moved to the other door and discovered a bedroom. As we all know underpants accumulate under beds so I flipped the bed to find... no pants. But there was a trap door. Could this be where the pants were kept?  When I eventually prised it open all I found was a locked metal box. I dragged this outside into the sun and broke it open. Unfortunately dying because of the poison needle trap...

... Hey! No,  I didn't die, die. Just died. Which is not as lethal as you might expect under the Scarlet Heroes rules. I'm fuzzy on the rules here, but I rolled a die and survived. Apparently this "die" gets bigger each time you die (from d4 to d6 to d8 etc) and that's bad but I'm not sure why.

I was in a quandry. The box contained 40gp and 400sp but I had no bag/sack. I toted the box over to the wood line and hid it quickly under woodland rubbish. Then back to the tower. Up the stairs again. On the next level was a strange room with maps and drawings on the walls and ceiling. I tore down a map or two to discover they were star maps of some sort, but they didn't hide anything behind.

The stairs led further upwards and a listen check revealed "something sensed rather than heard". Mysterious!  Could it be the warm hum of a hamper full of dirty underpants, the possibility was a lure! Cautiously moving upwards I had sudden visions of far away worlds (Vargr inhabited?) caused by the mysterious drawings on the ceiling, before reaching the top floor.

Here I found a floor covered in drawings of demonology and the "hum" was stronger, and...and what the heck was that huge big eye-thing over there? If my character had any underpants, this is the point at which he would have need to change them. In the absence of a change of clothing, I backed slowly down the stairs all the way to the ground floor.

The stairs down led to an ancient roughly made dungeon. Cautiously moving along the tunnels I found a few odd things. A cave full of bones...a series of empty cells, and a torture chamber! Here I acquired an old rusty knife which was slid into my belt. A knife is always handy.

The next room was used in ancient times for one of, cooking, making witches brews, or rendering down bodies I can't be sure. Whatever it was, the Ghoul that leapt out of a cauldron at me was angry that I was there. The fight was brutal. Cauldrons were knocked over, ladles were used as vicious nasty weapons, there may even have been a little spear action. When finally the Ghoul was down I peaked into its hidey hole and found a sack full of coin. When I grabbed the sack, it set off a trap of some sort and the roof began to cave in. If only I'd thought to don one of the smaller cauldrons as a helmet! I was twice smashed by rocks while running for the surface.

Back at the trees, I upended the sack of coins and cut leg holes in the bottom. Thus fashioning a rather snazzy, if itchy, set of underwear. Joy! Bliss! Warmth!...Itchy.

The final act was to pile the coin into the metal box and head back to town for some clothes shopping.

A really enjoyable game, and the rules seemed to work rather well. I may have to keep an eye on this game and maybe add it to my wish list. The one-on-one session went really well and the rules, especially the not-dying part, made an OSR game survivable for a single PC.
 

I'm an author, I write adventure game books.