GM Questionnaire

Zak S of D&D with Porn Stars posted this questionnaire for GMs, so while I am working on a long review of Isle of the Unknown, I thought I would take a crack.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

I think Zak is talking about a monster, trap or magic item. To be honest, I guess I would say my re-working of Ramsey Campbell’s Great Old One, Eihort, for an unpublished Call of Cthulhu scenario.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Last Friday, for my Old School Wilderlands D&D game.

3. When was the last time you played?

Gencon before last? On Sunday morning, I played a Godlike game. When my character was offered a choice between reading a secret report or studying maps, I quipped “Little Orphan Annie” and got a will point out of it.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Character are required to re-construct an ancient dirge to keep an evil God/Dragon/Great Old One from awakening, using clues found in various dungeons and other adventure sites.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Depends. If they are enjoying themselves through role playing I try to keep my mouth shut, and do prep that I haven’t completed. If they are bored or frustrated I’ll try to prompt them based on what their characters might come up with, like “Bob, doesn’t Zaffo the Bard usually visit Mona the Priestess while in town? Perhaps she knows where the McGuffin might be hidden...”

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

I try to stay away from food, cuz i can’t role play real well while I am stuffing my mouth, but a drink (usually root beer or fruit juice) is a must.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

More mentally exhausting, but after I stop I am usually tired. At a con, I start to lose my voice.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

I assume Zak means what interesting thing one of my players did while I was GMing. To be honest, I am never very surprised by what players do. Some always seem to tinker with their builds (depending on the system) in order to freak me out by what they are able to beat up, but I am never very interested in this sort of thing. One of my players recently refused to go deeper into a Dungeon, because I described a cold, fetid air rising from a stairwell, stating “No Undead air-conditioning!” I thought this was funny, and am always delighted with players that role play fear, rather than mindless bravura or braggadocio.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

All the time. All the time. Frankly, I end up encouraging them in this sort of thing through the use of funny voices. Nowadays I just let them go off, or try to riff off of what they are making fun of. I don’t remember a case where they took seriously a something I intended as comic.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Depends on the background. In Pendragon, they’re sly fey tricksters, who when caught, morph into feuding muppets. In my current D&D campaign, they’re vile, creepy little bastards, who cry out “Eat your eyes, eat your eyes!” in combat, and dangle little bits of fallen enemies from their weapons and armor.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

I converted the Peter Watts novel, Blindsight, into a BRP scenario for a university project. Got an “A”.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

I was in all-Drow mini campaign, and played a Drow seductress. One of the other characters complained about me not following orders, and I replied (in character) “I didn’t hear any complaints the last time I was under you.”

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

Death Frost Doom. I am re-reading it to run it at a local con soon.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

David A. Trampier

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Yessssss. Being a CoC Keeper forever will do that to you.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

A series of Greg Stafford’s Pendragon mini-adventures, which were Old School before there was an Old School.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

I vary in my opinion of this. Sometimes I want a full game room with a Sultan game table and a full set of resin dungeon pieces (along with fully painted minis) and sometimes I want the kitchen table and some maps.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

Robin Laws’ Kaiin Players Guide and Bob Bledsaw’s City State of the Invincible Overlord.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

For my D&D game? Tolkien and Moorcock, for literary influences, I suppose, and Bledsaw and Robin Laws for gaming ones. (Scratches head.) I dunno.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

#1, A player who plays nice with others. #2, This quote from Luke Crane, "I want the players to take the character and do what they think would be cool for the character, not what they think the character would do."

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

Being accosted for money by indigents at Gencon. I turned that into a tournament scenario where the characters are indigents in the real world and who are heroes and monarchs in Lovecraft’s Dreamlands. I called it Kings in Disguise.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

A couple: A faithful retro-clone of Gamma World, 1^st and 2^nd edition. A Middle Earth RPG with Pete Fenlon’s original MERP maps, a complete (and completed) version of The Enemy Within campaign. Gygax’s original Greyhawk dungeons and notes, Jorune with better rules, and 2^nd edition of Empire of the Petal Throne. About 10 that I would like to write.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

“Sorry, I can’t do X with you. I’ll be playing D&D that night.”

Another Old-School Rant...

I just happened on a link to older Grognardia blog entry, where James M. talks about rhetoric used in describing the 'Old School' movement/renaissance/phenomena/whatever. In one of the comments, Carl talks about a more specific definition:

"Some of the suggested defining features of old school that have been mentioned above are:

- ease of character generation and a corresponding tendency towards higher character mortality rates,

- the absence of player entitlement (i.e. the DM decides what happens and the game itself does not lead the players to believe that they are entitled to specific rewards, etc.),

- a very rules light approach that leaves much if not most of the non-combat mechanics up to DM adjudication and

- a relatively uncomplicated combat system that allows for swift resolution of even large melees with multiple opponents.

These characteristics combine to give old school games a distinct character that is often lacking in new school games which have far more exhaustively written rule sets; namely, the rules of an old school game seldom if ever impinge upon the fun of the game, while many a new school game session is constantly interrupted by players and DM's alike referring to the rules to keep the game moving forward. While that may not be a definition that could be agreed upon by everyone, I think it is a good start..."

This is, I believe, the essence of what I have written about in earlier blogs. I note that at least one of the players in my current (non-old school) game has responded that Old School had much more to do with style than substance of the rules used. He may still hold the same opinion, but it is nice to know that some people out there do see what I see.

There is one possible argument against this approach that may have some merit: that this way of playing is more appealing to GM, than it ever would be to a player.

As a GM, I absolutely believe that it is my responsibility to provide an entertaining and occasionally thought-provoking experience to my players. Job #1 is providing an experience that makes them want to come back to the table. But this also has to be balanced with my fun, or I won’t want to come to the table in the first place.

So my answer to this argument from players is this: come to my table, try playing it in this manner. You might be surprised at the results.

Wilderlands Campaign House Rules

I know I said I would continue the saga of my players today, but got caught up working on my list of house rules. You will note influences from other games, as well as some new character classes. I'll post the classes this week, but most of them are based on already existing texts, so I may need to include the OGL and and send a notice before I post them. Please feel free to critique and comment on these house rules. I would be interested in knowing if other OSR GMs bother with anything this wordy.

Wilderlands Campaign House Rules

1. Swords & Wizardry are the rules we are using to run the game. S&W is a retro-clone of Original Edition D&D (the box set and the first three supplements, plus selected material from the early Dragon magazine). While this is the base, don’t be surprised if you run into things like spells and classes that are different in my campaign.

2. For attacks, we are using the target 20 system. Add your attack bonus and the armor class of your opponent to a d20 die roll. If the total is 20 or greater, you hit.

3. Criticals and Fumbles – if you roll a 1 or a 20, you may get a critical hit or a fumble. There aren’t any charts for this; I simply describe what happens based on the circumstances. The normal result of a critical is +1 to damage. The normal result of a fumble is that you fall down.

4. Every human character has a social class. Roll a d6 and consult the following chart:

1 – Noble

2 – Gentlemen

3 – Military

4 – Merchant

5 – Guildsman

6 – Peasant

The top three classes are considered ‘Noble’ and possess the right to bear arms and invoke High Justice. They may be trained in using Noble weapons on the weapon chart.

Merchants and Guildsmen are considered yeoman, and may bear yeoman weapons in a time of war or while traveling, which they may be trained in. They may invoke justice by Magistrate in the city of their origin and sometimes allied cities to their own.

Peasants may only bear peasant weapons, and only while travelling or in a time of war, and may be stopped, questioned and imprisoned without recourse.

If you want to know the exact status of your father and family within their class, ask me, and I will determine it randomly.

5. To generate a character, get a sheet of paper and roll 3d6, in order: Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha. Re-roll the lowest characteristic. High stats do not matter as much in this version the game. If you don’t meet the minimum for a class, talk to me and we’ll talk about adjusting the characteristics to allow you play the class you wish to. Roll 3d6 x 10 to determine your staring funds in gold coins.

6. The following classes are available to play, along their minimum statistic requirements.

Fighter (str 9)

Cleric (wis 9)

Thief (dex 9)

Magic-User (int 9)

Ranger (con 15, int 12, wis 12)

Paladin (cha 17)

Monk (str 12, wis 15, dex 15)

Druid (wis 12, cha 14)

Assassin (str 12, dex 12, int 12)

Amazon (str 12, dex 12, con 12)

Bard (cha 14, str 12, dex 12, int 12)

Elf (dex 12, int 12)

Dwarf (con 12)

Halfling (dex 12)

You will note that various non-human races are also a class. In order to be a particular race, you must also take the class. There is no multi-classing in the game.

Please note that these are the classes in their original form, which means there are real differences between these classes and their 1st Edition AD&D versions. For example, other than Fighters, all classes have a maximum +1 bonus to hit for high strength. Other differences exist.

7. If you are a cleric, you will have a custom list of spells and other abilities depending upon your religion. Most will be unique.

8. If you are a magic user, you will be given a grimoire with many spells and perhaps other magical knowledge. Most of these spells will be unique, and not listed in the rulebook.

9. Once a day, you may invoke a god or other being to receive a game mechanic benefit. You must speak the invocation in character (and get it right) to receive the benefit. This doesn’t cost any money, you just have to know the invocation and use it correctly. Invocations can be learned from a priest after making a minor sacrifice at a temple. If you go to a temple, you can ask the priest to make a sacrifice for you, and receive a Great Blessing which you can then invoke later. Great Blessings are like one-use spells, and vary considerably from temple to temple, even those worshipping the same god. The sacrifices involved are usually very expensive.

10. The weight of items is not tracked. Instead, items are divided into two categories, Encumbering and Non-encumbering, and are listed on your character sheet. The sheet tracks how this affects your encumbrance and movement.

11. There are two types of skills, Background and Adventuring. Backgrounds skills are descriptions, like Blacksmith or Fletcher, and describe skills you might have picked up in the past. No die rolls are needed. Either you have the skill and can accomplish the task, or not. Adventuring skills are possessed by most characters, and are rated on a 1-6 scale. 1d6 is rolled when exercising the skill, and if you roll equal to or under your rating, you succeed. Various classes may also have exclusive skills, such as thieves, bards or rangers, and these are usually checked using percentage dice.

Wilderlands Campaign write-up, Sessions 2 - 4

Well, it’s been a long time since I posted, which I blame on my return to the university as a student. That isn’t quite true, but it did burn enormous amounts of free time, which were not then available for gaming or blogging. The truth of the matter is that I got out of the habit of it, which is the secret to any writing and most of life.

In the interim we had five sessions of the campaign which I will try to summarize. I am mostly going to comment on how OSR-matters arose during play, but also give some character highlights as well.

2^nd session. The second session followed almost immediately on the first, and revolved around a return to the dungeon that I had placed immediately north of Brushwood, in the same hex (Hex 4015 of the City-State map). The players decided descend deeper into the ruins, and encountered some dead bees, as well as a large amount of honey. On the next level, they found some rooms, which they slowly explored. I don’t believe they explored the entire level, but they managed to find a little treasure, and avoided the serious fights. They found a staircase which led to a lower level, with a chill wind emanating from it. Garion (the priest of Mitra) initially said that he would refuse to travel into an area with “undead air-conditioning” and had to be talked into descending further. On the next level, they found an area with metal corridors and metal hatchway style doors, which continued to creep them out.

3^rd Session. In one of the first rooms they ventured into, they found a metal desk, bolted to the metal wall, which had various knobs and button on it. On the wall above the desk were various windows, which seemed to be ‘scrying portals’ to other areas in the dungeon. They fiddled with the knobs (of course) and found themselves confronted with a ‘demon’ face, which waved its hand, turning all the ‘scrying portals’ black.

After this episode, they continued to explore the other areas, once again blundering their way into areas where no monsters were.

I had been fairly strict in my timekeeping, rolling random encounters as dictated by the ‘once every two turns’ rule, but I usually chose the result based on what made the most sense to me, in terms of pacing and mood. Much of the time that ended up being a mysterious event, as much as a monster.

During the last encounter, in some sort of ruined kitchen, Freedrick stirred up some yellow mold, but it was poor Thaddeus Silverkin who died as a result.

The first death of the campaign, from a failed save vs. poison. This was a bit of a shock to Thaddeus’ player, as he was I think expecting some sort of way out.

The rest of the characters decide to return to Brushwood, where Thaddeus was from, in order to return his remains to his family.

4^th session. As the characters returned, and took care of their duties to their fallen comrade, they discussed taking on new members of their company. Soon, they made the acquaintance of an elf named Lexorus, who stumbled into town with little equipment. He claimed to have been set upon by Goblins to the south, in the midst of the Brushwood. These goblins slew his companion, stole his equipment and left him for dead. He desired revenge, and convinced the other players that the caves of the Goblins in the depths of the Brushwood held much treasure.

This was R’s new character, who decided on an elf before seeing all the details on how I run elves in my game. Basically, I use the Basic/Expert approach, where the elf is its own character class. I don’t allow PCs to cast spells in armor unless they access special elven armor through play. So right now (since he borrowed money from the party for armor) he’s a fighter who can search well.

KY decided that her fighter was a knight, based on my use of the Judges Guild social class tables. Or at least she was trained as a knight, but is not yet a knight, her father being still alive. I mention this because she asked about gaining a follower, which I decided to work into the back ground of one of the other characters.

The High Priest of the local temple of Mitra (and de facto leader of Brushwood), when he hear that Garion had returned, took him aside and questioned him about his recent activities. After hearing about how dangerous Garion found the whole experience, the High Preist said that he had a nephew, who needed work for benefit of his soul, and would KY’s character be willing to take him on as a squire? The characters agreed, and the nephew, Geoffrey was summoned from the inn where he was sleeping of a drunk, pockets emptied from a card game the previous night.

KY had inquired about getting a thief henchmen, and so I quickly generated him on a 3x5 card, and said he was her new squire. To my delight, I rolled abysmally low for Geoffrey’s morale, which I use on a regular basis to figure your what the NPC henchmen really do when they get ordered around.

After rousting Geoffrey, the party proceeded into the depths of the small Brushwood forest, one hex to the south of the village (hex 4016, I believe). Along the way, they encountered some very careful woodsmen, who claimed that they had seen Goblins recently, of a strange grey color. The party also had a rumor card stating that there was a new tribe of goblins in a large hill/small mountain in the middle of the woods. As they approached, I called for bushcraft checks, so they were able to discover to sneak up on the entrance, with two goblins guards outside. They dispatched these fairly easily, and proceeded into the cave complex. Just inside the entrance, were carved warning in elvish about not awaking a sleeping evil inside the cavern. Lexorus recalled that he was told this cave complex was taboo, and that none should enter it. Disregarding these warnings in his desire for revenge, he pushed the party onward.

Of course, once inside, they fell into their first ambush.

More tomorrow. Really.

The First Session: Success!

Last night inaugurated the first session of my OSR D&D campaign.

I’ll get to the action in a moment, but the first thing I have to say is that it was a bit of a struggle at times to not interrupt the other players, jump in, and have an NPC declare “Orcs are attacking the village!” or some other such nonsense.

The campaign should run at the player’s speed, and not mine. So I kept stuffing my mouth with chocolate chip cookies and waited for some to want to talk to an NPC.

As it was, I still got to play various NPCs and I had a good time without stepping on anyone else’s spotlight time. I did prompt them once or twice when I thought they were at loss, but everything went very smoothly.

All but one of the players who had committed showed up. That included.

N. who played Freedrick Rogersson, a mage.

KT, N’s wife, who played a female dwarf named Thump Waymaker

R. who played a bard named Thaddeus Silverkin

Sandra, my wife, who played Garion Cerdic, Priest of Mitra

R.’s wife, KY, wasn’t able to show up tonight, because their child was being extra-fussy. I expect she’ll join us for the next session. She currently has a no-name fighter rolled up.

At the beginning, I handed out Excel based character sheets (I love making character sheets) which had every conceivable number and modifier listed. I know, it goes against the grain of the OSR but some old habits are hard to break.

I had told them I would hand out one-line note cards for backgrounds, but I wasn’t able to finish these before the game began. I did finish sixteen rumor cards, and handed out two to each player, except for the bard, who got five. Most of these were keyed to various local adventure locations, though some were keyed to areas they may never, ever see, like Rappan Athuk or the Dungeons under the City-state of the Invincible Overlord. I also seeded a few duds or red herrings.

Freedrick, the Mage, got a Grimoire with a number of spells. (Note: I am using a variant of the core rule system for mages that is more ‘Vancian’ and less D&D-ish.) Thump, the dwarf, got a warehouse full of goods that she is supposed to set up a trading post with in order to open a new market for the dwarves of Thunderhold, while Garion, the priest, got a Surya (permanent scroll of protection) vs undead and was due to be exiled from the local temple for angering the high priest. Finally, Thaddeus did not get much besides the burning desire to leave the Podunk town he was born in, as well as the access to the Bard character class which people tell me is waaay too powerful. Haven’t seen it yet.

After some discussion of the campaign background, I handed them a blank Wilderlands City-state map, and hand-drawn Grand Tactical map of hex 4015, which contained the village of Brushwood, as well as the surrounding area.

So they knew a little of the surrounding area, but I still need to write up the half page handout for both the Wilderlands and Brushwood.

I said they could determine how they knew each other, and Thump immediately jumped at the option of hiring guards to protect her goods. The other characters wandered up and offered their services, but after a time it became very clear that most of them had absolutely no money to spend, and so they eventually turned to the rumor cards to determine where to get more cash.

Most of the role playing was established in the inn during the interviews, and the characters learned about each other in that way.

Thump Waymaker presented herself as a no-nonsense cash n’ carry type of gal, who kept looking for a way of selling her goods and starting up the trade post. In this she was frustrated by Freedrick, who claimed to be the 6^th son of a noble family, who would surely pay for weapons and armor if Thump would transport them there. Freedrick also claimed to have been abandoned by a servant, Liam, who absconded with most of the wealth that has been entrusted to Freedrick by his father. Freedrick seemed to have plenty of wealth despite this claim, and kept having to have his large denomination coin broken for change.

(In a time I weakness some months earlier, I had sprung for a large amount of fantasy coinage, which I distributed, along with dice pouches to carry it in, among the PCs according to their post equipment wealth. This seemed to work out well, as people actually seemed to enjoy fddling with the coinage, asking for change, etc.)

Thaddeus inveigled his way into the group as a cook, dishwasher and guard, while Garion offered to make sacrifices to Mitra for Thump, in order to gain admittance to the forming company.

I had asked that all the characters be between 16 and 19 (except for the dwarf, who is of equivalent maturity) and they all played this to the hilt, with episodes of acne, greed, laziness, etc. as appropriate.

Freedrick then spent some of his wealth (10 GP!) on hiring a 0-level retainer, Arnulf, who I portrayed as a spiritual relative of Don Knotts. Morale rolls (which he actually all passed) are remarkable for the amount of comedy they generate.

Much to my surprise, they decided on the rumor I hoped they would, which led to a dungeon (available on the internet, but I won’t say which, before they finish it) that was located in the same hex. Once there, they fought some giant bees (no–prize if you can identify the dungeon from that hint), which nearly killed two of the characters, but for some lucky saving throws. Wow, poison really is icky in OD&D.

They then took the stingers they collected (without entering the dungeon first) and went to claim the bounty on the bees from a local citadel, in the hex immediately to the north. (Hex 4014, Gasconfold Citadel, for those of you keeping track). After a night at the inn in the village by the citadel, they returned to the dungeon, and scouted a bit. They were considering smoking out any remaining giant bees, when they found a large tree near the tower ruins (which contained the entrance to the dungeon) that contained a small door. Opening it up (and frightening Arnulf, who complained about spooky gnomes who would come to curse them) they found a cramped stairwell leading down.

Abandoning that passage, they resolved to go through the stairs in the ruined tower, redolent with the smell of honey, to the depths below.

That’s where we ended it, for the night. An excellent time was had by all, and I am really, really looking forward to next Thursday (we will be playing on alternate Thursdays and Fridays).

For Those Not in the Know: Resources I

I have had a few requests from those unfamiliar with the OSR for information about resources that I have been referring to. So if you are already familiar with the OSR, these next few pots might seem a bit blasé, but for someone unfamiliar with the movement, who didn’t know where to look, I am hoping this will be useful and informative.

Blogs

To list blogs as a resource might seem a little strange at first, but in many ways blogging is the heart of the OSR movement. All the main creators (i.e. people who produce useful and game-able resources, not just opinions and reviews) post on blogs, often providing links to pdf dungeons, charts, even whole campaigns. Frankly, the ‘idea’ posts are of even more value, once you begin to delve into them and begin to see how to apply the ideas to your game.

I’ll just list a few of the more famous ones, along with a brief note about each.

Grognardia http://grognardia.blogspot.com/

James Maliszewski writes the premiere old-school blog. He’s generally very thoughtful and interesting, but only occasionally serves up the red meat of resources in the way many other blogs do.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess http://lotfp.blogspot.com/

James Edward Raggi IV produces the LotFP RPG, which is an adaption of Labyrinth Lord in the Weird Fantasy vein. He’s got a bit of a bay-boy rep, but his works include some of the best old school dungeons available, not to mention fantastic work for LotFP.

Playing D&D with Porn Stars http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/

Speaking of bad-boy reps, Zak S. happens to GM a game with his GF (wife?) who just happens to be a porn star. And most of his other players are porn stars as well. Ya know what? That’s not the most interesting thing about his blog, it’s the tons and tone of useful, gameable old-school resources that he posts every week. Author of the acclaimed Vornheim: the Complete City Guide, which is probably the best fantasy city campaign guide published since The Kaiin Players Guide.

Society of Torch, Pole and Rope http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/

Michael Curtis has written three works, each one of which would grant some lasting fame to any RPG writer, but he wrote all three, and they are really as good as the hype says they are. The Dungeon Alphabet, filled with incredible old school art, Realms of Crawling Chaos, Lovecraftian fantasy written with Dan Proctor, and his sublime Stonehell Dungeon.

Sham’s Grog & Blog http://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/

Dave Bowman produces many excellent short PDFs of excellent utility, such as Time in the Game, the One page Dungeon template, marvelous little works like d6 Dungeon rooms and many other tables of use.

Rules

As you might guess, the OSR is all about the original rules, but that is actually a little more complex than it seems.

The first set of ‘rules’ that can be called a true RPG is debatable, but for most, the white box Dungeons & Dragons is considered to be the first true RPG rules published.

Four core supplements were profited for this version of the rules.

White Box Swords and Wizardry emulates the box rules alone, and not the supplements

http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/whitebox.htm

Swords & Wizardy Core emulates the Box rules plus the first supplement, Greyhawk.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=62346

Swords & Wizardry Complete emulates it all, plus two classes as they originally appear in the The Strategic Review, precursor to Dragon.

http://www.talesofthefroggod.com/index.php/products/swords-and-wizardry-complete-rulebook

Next: more rules.

Time, Travel, and Exploration

One of the most ignored and overlooked aspects of original Dungeons & Dragons (besides encumbrance) is the emphasis on time, traveling and exploration.

Yet, as Davis Bowman http://shamsgrog.blogspot.com/ points out, these are indelible elements of the game, linked to other parts in an organic system; taking away one part wrecks the whole.

Consider: the amount of time one spends in the underground (or dungeon, or place of mystery, or mythic underworld) is directly proportional to the amount of wandering encounters a party must engage in.

(Theory interlude begins.) The conventional Narrativist argument against wandering monsters is that it disrupts any sort of story that you, as game master (storyteller, referee, DM, etc.), wish to tell. But if we assume that narrative arises from play, rather than being imposed on play by the referee, a different paradigm emerges where focus and economy in exploration of the dungeon rewards players for clever, quick and strategic play. This can be certainly called Gamist, and strictly speaking it is, but if we assume that narrative arises from play then the nature of that narrative is substantially up to the players and is entirely dependent on their style of play, which they have the freedom of choice to determine as they go along. That’s the freedom of the ‘sandbox’ style, in a nutshell. If the players want nothing to do with dungeons, then there are countless other activities they and the referee can engage, so long as all are willing. (Theory interlude ends.)

So the quicker you make it through the dungeon to get your rewards, the less danger you are exposed to. This is why gp translates into xp, and in fact provides the lion’s share of xp in an old-school game. The point is to get the reward and get out, while being exposed to danger for as little time as possible.

You can’t properly have this work in the game unless you keep strict track of time, which requires rules for movement and time spent for activities in the dungeon. Hence the following rules, which are adapted from a number of sources, including Dave Bowman’s PDF on time, Labyrinth Lord (which are derived from the Basic/Expert D&D rules) and Swords & Wizardry, a retro clone of original D&D.

Time and Travel

Each day, the party may spend up to ten hours in travel or exploration. This is usually broken up into the following schedule:

7:00 – 8:00 AM Strike camp/break fast

8:00 – 12:00 Travel or exploration

12:00 – 1:00 Break for lunch

1:00 – 5:00 Travel or exploration

5:00 – 7:00 Set-up camp/dinner

7:00 – 11:00 1^st Watch

11:00 – 3:00 2^nd Watch

3:00 – 7:00 3^rd Watch

Failure to take a rest after 4 hours of travel results in a -1 penalty on all rolls until next rest, cumulative.

Each day one person consumes one day’s rations or fresh food, one skin of water, and requires eight hours of sleep. Failure to fulfill one of these needs results in a penalty of -1 to Con, cumulative, for the next 24 hours or until the need is met.

Each day of travel & exploration, your party may take one of the following options:

· Travel for a number of miles based on his or her encumbrance, modified by terrain.

o Scavenge for food while you travel. Roll 1d6. On a 1, you find 1d6 days with of food.

· Explore a five mile hex completely (i.e. get the Grand Tactical map for it).

· Hunt for food with no travel. Roll 1d6. On a 1, you find 2d6 days worth of food.

· Search a hex for a specific place based on a rumor, directions or treasure map.

· Restock and rest at a center of civilization like a citadel or village.

· In a city, take a city turn.

In the underworld, time is broken up into turns, which are ten minutes in length. Each turn, you may do one of the following:

· Travel 120’, modified by encumbrance, while mapping.

· Search a 10’ by 10’ area for traps or secret doors.

· Engage in one combat and clean-up.

· Run 120’ for up to five rounds, modified by encumbrance, and then rest for the balance of the turn.

You must rest once every six turns or gain a -1 penalty on all rolls until next rest, cumulative.

Remember, as referee, the standard check for wandering monsters is made every six turns of exploration, with additional checks for combat, loud noises made by the party, etc. In addition, the party must rest one turn out of every six. I have abstracted the amount of time for some common occurrences, such as combat and running away, in order to make time keeping easier. A single page chart summaries underworld movement thusly:

Underworld Time Track

7:00 – 8:00 AM Strike camp/break fast

8:00 – 12:00 Travel or exploration

8:00 __ __ __ __ __ R WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

9:00 __ __ __ __ __ R WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

10:00 __ __ __ __ __ R WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

11:00 __ __ __ __ __ R WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

12:00 – 1:00 Break for lunch

1:00 – 5:00 Travel or exploration

1:00 __ __ __ __ __ R WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

2:00 __ __ __ __ __ R WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

3:00 __ __ __ __ __ R WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

4:00 __ __ __ __ __ R WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

5:00 – 7:00 Set-up camp/dinner

Nightly WM Check □ 1 - 2 (d6)

(Conduct once a night, then roll 1d6 to find the watch it occurred on)

7:00 – 11:00 1st Watch 1 - 2

11:00 – 3:00 2nd Watch 3 - 4

3:00 – 7:00 3rd Watch 5 - 6

Codes: E = Explore S = Search C = Combat and Recover R = Rest N = Negotiate

Enter a code in the line corresponding the activity conducted by the party, and you easily have a mini-record of the exploration conducted by the party for each day.