This series has been a play by play report of my first Sword and Wizardry (A retroclone of the 1st, 1974 version of D&D) game. I used Chgowiz’s Quick Start rules and starting adventure that you can find here.
You can find part 3 here.
You Dum Dum! Me Stony!
Hired by the cowardly goblin tribe to investigate the nearby Hall of Statues, the PCs arrived at the entrance of a large chamber filled with statues of humans and other humanoids. All were sculpted as being armed and armored like adventurers. As the party surveyed the room, something a bit like what follows occurred:
Statue # 3: Avast adventurers, be forewarned that trespassing this holy sanctuary will spell your DOOM!
Statue # 5: Good one Pete! Your best performance yet!
Statue #3: You think so? I really felt it!
Party: Wha?
DM Aside: I’ve a silly streak a mile long and when I can’t divine the reason of an encounter, I go for entertainment over internal consistency. From my readings about the way Gary Gygax DMed, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t above doing stuff like that either.
From the way the statues interacted with each other and with the PCs, it seemed that they were ex-adventurers, cursed into talking statues.
Orvat (Fighter) predictably used his grappling hook to try to grab a statue.
Chatty: Huh, sure roll an attack roll vs AC 15.
Franky: (Clatter clatter) Yes!
Chatty: The hook grabs statue #3. It goes ‘Hey!’
Franky: I try to pull it down from it’s pedestal.
Chatty: Sure, gimme a STR check (Roll less than your STR on a d20)
Franky: Yes! I make it!
Chatty: The statue falls down flat on it’s face, protesting vehemently!
Franky: Can I drag it toward us? (Other PCs join him to help)
Chatty: Sure! Roll… (They make it)
Statue #3 : Why you… garble… garble… (sound drowned by statue’s face scrapping the floor, to general hilarity).
This was one of the high points of the day. Having all the players explode in laughter while I described the scene was pure DM motivational gold.
Interacting with the statue some more revealed that they were enchanted to emulate ancient adventurers and that there was no actual curse in the room (I made all this up, like many other things in the adventure so far).
At this point, the room’s description mentioned that one statue had a hidden panel, without saying which one. In classic D&D fashion, I rolled for it… and came up with the Statue that was dragged out.
Chatty: Checking the statue, you find a panel on its lower back.
Statue #3: Hey! Lay off my posterior you Caitiff!!
Franky: For real? Awesome!
Treasure! (A few gems)
Plus,behind the statue’s original position was a door leading southwards.
Ewwww, pass!
The room behind the displaced statue lead to a ruined room filled with trash and whose walls were cribbed with holes. As soon as the PCs opened the door, a large number of Giant Rats lifted their heads from the refuse and ran away into the holes of the wall, evil red eyes peering out from the darkness.
The room’s only other exit was chewed and clawed extensively.
Vince: I say we back off!
The PCs wisely closed the door and moved on.
My! What big antennas you got there!
What followed was the explorations of a series of rooms in the area near the goblins (who, behind the scenes, were working up their courage to ambush the now significantly richer PCs).
In one room, some roots had pushed out of the ceiling, collapsing some of the masonry. When a Orvat announced that his PC chopped one, I described how bright red blood gushed onto the rooms’ floor (again, all made up).
The look of revulsion on the players as their PCs quickly exited the room was priceless.
Another room opened up on a car-sized Warrior Ant looking for food.
Initiative was rolled, the party won…
…and the door was closed and barred real quick!
I love that about classic D&D. Players gauging threats based on looks and potential gains. This is so cool… and since making dungeon rooms is so fast, the DM can enjoy seeing PCs dodge an encounter… it’s not like 3 hours were invested in it’s preparation.
End Game
Chatty: What the hell? Have we been playing this for four hours already? Whoa!
At this point in the evening, the PCs had scored a few hundred gold pieces worth of treasure. Some had taken a few points of damage but nothing serious. While the energy level was still really high (an excellent sign) , I wanted to point out something to the player.
Chatty: You know, you can return to the village with the loot you already have and return later.
Franky (or PM, I forget): We’re good, let’s do one last area, the one near the portcullis to the south of the entrance.
Dun Dun Duuuun.
Foreshadowing anyone?
So the PCs discovered the mechanism activating the portcullis. As they played with it, they started noticing goblins, armed with bows now, skulking near them. The players could feel that something was building up all around them.
Still they forged on…
They found their first locked door.
Vince: It’s locked, so I guess there’s a keyhole (I hesitated, but I said ‘yes’). Okay, then Ubvid looks through it.
Chatty (An evil idea light turning on): You see… a goblin’s face leering back! It jabs a 15 inch needle through the lock trying to pop your eyeball! (Say yes and stick it to them once in a while!)
Vince: What?! I dodge!
Chatty:We’ll see (rolls dice, hits by a few points only). It hits you, but you dodged away some to save your eye, you take 2 poins of damage and you’ll get a cool looking scar!
Vince: Arghhhh, I get out of there!
So the PCs tackled the door down and entered some sort of shrine to the Frog God and occupied by some skeleton, a pair of goblins and a female cleric. Before they could do anything in the room, a pit trap opened underneath the last 2 PCs: Ubvid (Elf fighter) and Aniamo (Dwarf Fighter), stranding Mufti (cleric) and Orvat. On top of the damage from falling, a sleep gas knocked them out, making them look like dead.
Faced with so many foes, some very existential questioning was being done by the remaining Cleric and Figther.
Initiative was rolled and the players won it. Mufti the cleric turned the skeletons…
Chatty: Hey PM, what gods do you revere?
PM: Hmmmm. Given my actions so far, I’d say the Frog God.
Chatty: Splendid! The other cleric offers to ally with you, provided that your companion forfeits all his belongings and that you burn the hearts of your other two comrades to old Frogface.
PM: Hmmmm (thinks long and hard).
Anne: Now I get why you offered us to leave the dungeon before!
Franky: Screw that! I’m running! How large is the pit?
Chatty: It’s 10′ by 10′, not easy to jump. I’d say 1 in 6 chances.
Franky (used to 4e’s feats of athletics and, more importantly, fearing for the life of his PC) : Come on man!
Chatty (channeling his past classic D&D skills): Look man, 10′ is basically from here in the dining room to the Fridge in the kitchen over there. It’s your call.
Franky: Let’s do this. (Rolls a one!) YES!
Chatty: Ortec sprints, jumps toward the middle point of the right wall and Jackie Chans it by using it to rebound to the other side of the pit! You make it!
Franky: I get the hell out of here!!!
Chatty: I’ll be right back with you. PM what does Mufti do?
PM: I accept.
So the cleric readied her sacrificial gear. PM told me that Mufti was watching her intently. Spotting that PM was planning a double cross, I rolled a 2 in 6 chance of her spotting it. She did! So she immediately instructed him to climb down the pit to retrieve the sleeping PCs for the sacrifices.
Chatty: So?
PM: I climb down the pit and start rummaging through their gear.
Chatty: You hear a click, a hiss and you feel sleepy. The last sound you hear is the laughter of the other Cleric.
PM: Ah crap!
Escape!
What followed was a 10 minute scene where Franky ran, backtracked and dodged the whole goblin tribe who were tracking him to kill him (Franky’s PC had most, if not all of the group’s treasure).
Franky is a brilliant player, especially when he’s under pressure. At one point, he was chased by 2 goblins and he used the teleporter to lose them. He jumped over the teleporter tile and ducked in a side corridor. The gobbos hit the tile and appeared 30 feet away… still giving chase to a non-existant Orvat.
In each room entered, I rolled to how many goblins there were (1d6-2 iirc) and Franky was able to make it out alive, with a few nicks and scratches.
As he ran away, I described how each of his former mates were being sacrificed to the Frog God… Such is the fate of foolhardy adventurers.
That’s how you do it. Old School!
The players loved their session, and so did I. We agreed to try it again sometime. I’ll order the S&W book from Lulu and I’m considering starting a monthly campaign to see if the game will remain fun over a longer period of time, once the (re)discovery phase passes.
Lessons Learned
- While the ‘Say Yes’ philosophy applies to all RPGs, it is an absolute necessity to make S&W a fun game. In the absence of rules, skills and formal task resolution mechanics, saying Yes and giving a fair chance of success to players is a must for them to enjoy the true potential of S&W.
- S&W caters to a different sets of player/DM motivation than D&D 4e. To an instigator/Explorer/Butt Kicking/Storytelling (placed in order of preference) DM like I am, I find that I can enjoy both S&W and 4e and I will continue to do so. (Take that Edition War!)
- You can generate a LOT of fun with very little written description and ‘props’. Letting the players do the heavy lifting is really easy with classic D&D. Grappling hook FTW!
- It’s refreshing to play lightning fast combat. Especially to resolve the old Guardian vs Invader combat scenario.
So yes, Chatty DM, the mono-gamist New School blogger has gone full circle and reconnected with what brought him into the hobby the first place. 4e and S&W are the 2 best Role Playing Games I’ve played to date (with 3e a close 3rd and BESM 4th).
I hope you enjoyed these posts, I sure had a blast writing them.
Enjoy your long weekend. Up next is my 4e game report, which just might bring a revolution to the way I used to play D&D.
Image Copyrights: Wizards of the Coast 2009.
I really needed a good smile this morning, after my week, and your game reposts have brought a huge smile to my face. I’m really thrilled that you guys enjoyed the game and the adventure so much! Your players really kicked ass, congrats to them! And welcome to the old-school!
Do you mind if I link to your posts next week?
By all means my friend, feel free to link to them as much as you want, including on forums. I don’t mind helping getting the word out!
That was completely awesome! I love the fact that it was a near total TPK, with the last of the characters acting completely mercenary and hightailing it with the treasure!
The fact that the players loved it, despite the near-TPK, says something about the game (but far more about your DMing)
Anti-spam word: yes, d4, my most favorite of all d’s!
Hi Chatty,
Great, great report. We played one session in Akban today, but did not finish. Six players, two of them had never played an RPG before, and my first non-digital game in many years. Wow am I rusty! Need some practice.
I will be stealing your ideas, like the bleeding roots. And “car-sized ant” is the perfect description. But the silly statues, I already thought of that. 🙂
I am most eager to read about how this will affect your 4e game, because I’m sure it will.
Play well.
@Paladin: All the ingredients were there for a good game. All players embraced the pulp genre I tried to portray, the level of trust between DM and players was at it’s maximum and I could feed from the player’s energy to fuel my creativity.
Also, all the lessons I learned in recent years paid off when combined with my 20 year-old A D&D experience.
@Kevin: I hope your game went well… I’m glad to see that you’re getting your own ideas to shape the adventure to your tastes. Let us know how it went!
Chatty,
No one thumbs their nose at the edition wars like you. Absolutely no one.
Anytime you get that near TPK and everyone wants to do it again, something is going well.
I look forward to future posts about the OSR, and about your postive slants on the different types of games and gamers.
.-= LordVreeg´s last blog ..edited Rules for Magic =-.
Splendid recaps. Brought a couple of smiles and laughs. Job well done.
.-= Zachary´s last blog ..Where I’m At In My GMing =-.
@LV: I hate the Edition war with passion. I decided that I’d spend my time creating bridges between gamers and enjoying the sheer fun of all systems instead of wasting my breath on this most sterile of debates. While I don’t plan to write about the OSR, I will, always write about what I play… and I just bought 4 copies of S&W and one of Matt Finch’s adventures. You’ll hear about that.
@Zachary: Thanks man, I has a blast playing and writing them.
Great game reports chatty,
I’m inspired to set up a casual game using this system in the near future when my current campaign wraps up and the group has a couple of weeks down time before the next campaign.
On a side note, lightning fast combat sounds like a godsend.
Whit
@WhitDnD: Thanks! From the moment that combat isin’t the focus of most encounters in a game, a rapid resolution system is, as you call it, a godsend.
Do play a session using the Quick-Start rules. It’s well worth it.
That’s awesome 🙂 Have you ever played Tunnels and Trolls? The sense of humor in the game seems right up your alley for your style of old school gamin’
.-= Paul Jessup´s last blog ..Coming this week- more art! =-.
I’ve thought of buying it many many times but never went for it. I wanted to play OD&D more and I’m glad that I finally saw the magic of they little confused pile of rules and setting.
But Ken St-Andre’s game is definitively on my list of games to play… like The Fantasy Trip and Runequest.
RuneQuest- now that takes me back! Wow, it;s been ages since I’ve played that…or Call of Cthulu.
For me, T&T was the one game I never gave up playing- me and my wife even played it when she was in HS and Vampire: The Masquerade was the hottest item in town.
Sounds like you’re having a blast though- which is the whole point in gaming, no matter what. I
.-= Paul Jessup´s last blog ..Coming this week- more art! =-.
Ahhh Paul… now you’re just making me feel old. Vampire was cool when I was in College!
🙂
Vampire was also cool when I was in college as well 🙂 It was my senior year of HS, if it makes you feel any younger 🙂
.-= Paul Jessup´s last blog ..Atherbound Art: Cover and more =-.
Awesome writeup! It makes me want to go out and play S&W at once! Interestingly enough, it also sounds a lot like my T&T campaign. I really think you could enjoy that game.
.-= Andreas Davour´s last blog ..Warhammer 40K roleplaying – a few thoughts =-.
@Andreas: Thanks! I think I would enjoy T&T and Castles & Crusades too. I’m going to focus on S&W for some time as I’m preparing a mini-campaign soon. So looking forward to it.