The Wizardawn Dungeon Door for Tunnels & Trolls was a great success. I enjoyed it more than my two attempts at 4AD. I printed off the Dungeon Door page that was generated, rolled up a Deluxe T&T character and headed in.

The Dungeon Door has a list of 16 Exceptional Items among the many possible treasures you can find. I decided my goal was to collect as many as possible, with the end game goal to be able to survive long enough to find all 16. I also decided spur of the moment that there could be no more than 4 Exceptional Items per floor.

I ran only one character, Gery the Rogue. He explored a good deal of the first floor (I don’t run off the page, so the edges limit the size) and found 3 of the Exceptional Items before running into 2 Ogres ahead and 15 Bats behind. He chose the Ogres, and paid the price. They obliterated him in the first round with their 7d6+30 and multiple doubles rolled. I was feeling pretty good about the magical armor bracelet I’d found in the room prior. Turns out 6 armor (bracelet plus leathers) wasn’t enough. I had also forgot to cast Vorpal Blade before I left the room, which I’d intended to do since my magical dagger required me to check for Wandering Monsters wherever hallways meet, which they did just as I left the room.

I also implemented a simple Rations system slightly inspired by Dungeon World. To head back to town I needed to expend 1 Ration. To head down to the next level of the dungeon I’d need to expend a number of Rations equal to the Floor Number I was leaving. To rest in the dungeon I had to expend a Ration, rest for 3 hours minimum and check for Wandering Monsters every hour. This was all to put some sort of outside pressure and cost on traveling around. If at any point I would expend a Ration and didn’t have any I’d take a 1d6 bit to Constitution. In the end I only needed to expend a single Ration, so I don’t know if it’s useful or not.

I also used Wizardawn’s settlement generator to create Delverton. I wanted a port in the storm to head back to when I needed to patch up, off load loot, or resupply. It worked very well, and could offer some additional RP depth if I decide to move beyond the Exceptional Item gathering goal.

The next installment of my d6 Star Wars campaign is up, wherein the PCs make a daring escape down the ice river as the blaster bolts fly about them.

I’ve included the battle maps I used to keep trrack of this, as there were 19 combattants. Each combat round is written out in narrative format, followed by the round’s game mechanics in a separate chunk in order to make it more readable. I left the mechanics more-or-less unedited, so it’s a good look behind the scenes.

Continuing on the idea of using Elder Sign location cards to frame a Cthulhu Hack RPG, I’ve never posted any of my plays before so I’ll give it a try. Hopefully this will not be like watching another person’s vacation pictures.

Walter Marshall, archaeologist, 34 years old and lives in Arkham.

Strength:14 Dex:10 Con:13 Wis:15 Int:12 Char:9

(In Cthulhu Hack for a check you must roll under these numbers on a D20)

Items: Pistol, smokes, lighter, flashlight,

Special abilities: Swings & Leaps, Steady hand, Scrounger

He is just out of school and made an incredible discovery of mummified bodies in South America. The Miskatonic Museum in Arkham took a chance and gave him a modest space to set up an exhibit. Being his first dig, this could be his big break. He spent a lot of time, resources and money on this, and it cannot fail. Walter left the dig site early to oversee the exhibit, and left his friend and partner back in South America at the dig site. Just last week this partner suddenly disappeared without a trace.

First location card is below.

(I decide that this would be a book that comes in the mail)

Walter is researching at the library when he overhears colleagues talking about strange things that are happening at the museum: strange sounds, lights, things moving around by themselves (the usual creepy stuff) no one has seen anything yet, but there is a lot of rumbling. This intrigues Walter, this exhibit could be his big break and it cannot fail, he has too much time and money invested in it.

He decides to head over to the museum; besides he hasn’t been through all of it yet, and now would be the perfect opportunity.

(GME: Does he know any of the other exhibits there? Yes/ Is it open? Yes/people inside? Yes)

He walks in and the receptionist gives him a package that came in the mail for him.

(GME: Suspicious? Yes / Large? Exceptionally No)

Walter looks over the package and it looks to be hastily wrapped, and is small, the size of a small journal. He carefully tears open the brown wrapping paper

(GME: Anything happen? No)

Inside is a small, leather bound journal with a note hastily taped to the cover. He recognizes the handwriting of his partner, but the note and the cover look to be stained with dried blood.

The note says: “Keep this safe, hide it, and DON’T READ IT!”

Why write that? As an archaeologist his partner knows that he cannot resist the temptation of the unknown…but does he take the chance and open the book?

Walter cuts the string and attempts to open the book

(Flashlight roll: 1 FAIL, steps down from a D8 to a D6, Flashlight is used for the investigate and research)

The book is somehow locked and will not open, but it seems to possess his mind and he quickly becomes obsessed with the book, it lures him, then torments him. (Lore from the card)

(Sanity roll: 2 FAIL ) Suddenly horror and fear grips his mind, and he becomes hysterical, screaming at the top of his lungs…one minute later (this is the Hack consequence for failing the sanity check) he comes to his senses sitting in the bathroom on the floor covered in sweat, still holding the small journal in his hand. He looks closer and indented in the leather is the symbol of a skull surrounded by lightning.

Walter had never felt peril (from the location card) like that before, and he shivers thinking what could have happened had he opened the book. He buries it deep in his bag and leaves the bathroom.

(GME: Anyone hear him? No / Is he alone in the bathroom? Yes)

End scene

Finally got a little game time in this afternoon. It’s been a busy month, so it was nice. I picked up an old project of mine that involves converting wargame tropes to Fate Accelerated rules.

This is my first full game with my draft rules. It got a little crazy, because my rules were a little too loose for creating Aspect Zones. I had to abort, because the entire area around the objective zone was covered in special created terrain.

One thing I started doing at random was adding blood spots each time wounds were dealt. It was kind of a neat visual.

The terrain tiles were my Heroes of Normandie boards under Plexi. The minis were from Krosmaster Arena. I love the miniatures, I’ve never got around to buying the base board game they were intended for.