Gaming weekend in Clemmons

The entire staff of Gaming with Chuck (except for the two Battle Cats, who stayed behind at GwC headquarters, to defend against the encroaching hordes) took a journey from Columbus GA up to Clemmons NC, to engage in a weekend of Bacchanalian Ludo-Revelry.  The games played included a variety of board and card games, as well as loads of roleplaying.

Roleplaying Games

The roleplaying consisted of two sessions of Labyrinth Lord, and one session of D&D Next.  Yours truly ran the sessions of Labyrinth Lord (on Friday evening, and also during the day on Saturday).

Dan Proctor's wonderful clone game, that copies early D&D so very well

The Friday night session followed a character building session for folks who didn't have characters.  That included two GwC staff members (Anita and Heidi) as well as.  It was to be the first RPG session ever for Heidi, although she has grown up playing all sorts of games, and hearing her parents and all the friends of the family talk about the RPG aspect of the hobby.  She chose to create, and play, a 1st level Gnome Thief.  The session involved a bridge crossing (with a goblin ambush), some outdoor encounters, and was going to culminate in a short dungeon adventure, but the evening ended before the gaming did.  The action was loosely based in the Gran March of the World of Greyhawk.

Section of the phenomenal Darlene map for World of Greyhawk

Heidi's character, the Gnome Thief (named Trixie) was not the only newly created character for the evening,  the other players all had new 1st level characters - including Anita rolling up a 1st level female Dwarf fighter named Badb Bigaxe.  Carol had a half elf Ranger called Dil (her name was much longer, and extremely elven, but Dil is a nice nickname).  Marcy played an Elven Druid called Glengaraeth.  Rachel also played a Druid called Aerilyn.  John played a Magic User.

The Saturday day session, featured an installment in the ongoing Greyhawk campaign (detailed, moderately, over at the Sword and Potion blog) that I run.  This featured four of the five regular weekly players being present face to face, as well as one player being present via Google Hangouts (he couldn't travel to Clemmons).  In addition to the Wednesday Night All Stars, we had some additional players.  Heidi and Anita had their characters, Trixie the Gnome, and Badb the Dwarf, upped to 2nd level (for survivability reasons) and they joined the fray.  Also, Dil and Aerilyn joined the group, allowing Carol and Rachel to join the game (they were also bumped to 2nd Level).  John and Marcy are regular players on Wednesday nights, so they switched over to their regular characters (John plays a halfling thief named Flinders, and Marcy plays an Elven cleric named Rhysgil).

Saturday's adventure was a continuation (and part sidebar) of this much larger group, along the main campaign quest, to investigate a curious dungeon located inside the Rushmoors.  The Rushmoors is a swamp that lies over what was once the heart of the Occluded Empire of Vecna.  One of the most noteworthy locations in the Rushmoors is the Black Tower (or Rotted Tower), which was once the capitol of the Empire.  The characters in this campaign, however, are seeking a curious spot inside the fetid and evil swamp, where a curious dragon ship has crashed into the heart of a huge and ancient cypress tree.  This ship has opened up a portal to another world, and is called "The Ship between the Worlds" - also the name of the adventure path the players are following.  This sidebar adventure is inside the Rushmoors, but the dungeon is one where a curious little tribe of fishmen (not too different from Kuo Toa) have an underground temple.  The players invaded, began investigating, and disrupted the nest of evil.  The adventure wasn't finished, but it was a fun time for a long Saturday afternoon of gaming.

A different version of Greyhawk, this time showing the Rushmoors, lower left.

Sunday's gaming was run by John, and was a short adventure using the latest playtest package of D&D Next.  I made up a character - hailing from the city of Dyvers, at the northern edge of the Gnarley Forest, named "Robin of the Gnarley Wood".  The character has a heavy Errol Flynn influence and was quite fun to play as a swashbuckling bravo!

Robin of the Gnarley Wood

There were all new characters around - Steve with a wizard, Rachel with a Druid, Marcy with a Cleric, Heidi repeating her Gnome Thief, Rowdy with a Monk, and Carol repeating her Elven Ranger.  It was fun to play, but it still doesn't feel like AD&D (or D&D) to me, yet.

Board Games

A wonderful weekend of gaming, that also included some board and card games.  We played a game of Eight Minute Empire.  This is turning out to be quite a fun little game, I can't wait for the release of the successor (which I backed) to come out - Eight Minute Empire Legends from kickstarter.

We also played a game of When Zombies Attack. This is a new dice game based on the players trying to survive a zombie attack.  Slightly different than the (superior) Zombie Dice game from Steve Jackson Games, where the players are themselves Zombies, trying to collect Brains.  This game has the dice representing Zombies, and the players trying (through dice rolls) to get rid of the Zombies.  If a player survives a whole round being zombie (dice) free, then they are the winner.  In one or two respects it is superior to Zombie Dice, but in general, I think it will not surpass the original.  The biggest advantage, is not having to keep score.  But, I have heard that it is easy to keep score in Zombie Dice, if one uses little plastic brains or skulls (or similar) instead of writing the score on paper.  Must try.

Finally the group played a round of The Resistance.  This was a fun game as a filler between the long Labyrinth Lord session on Saturday, and the evening activity (which was a ctered BBQ dinner and a group viewing of "The Avengers" at Steve's wonderful home theater at his house in Greensboro).  We had a great time playing Resistance, even though it was a new game to most of the players.  Everyone fell into it right away, with lots of accusations and paranoia out of the gate.  It was a seven player game, and the Government Spies won!!  Treachery!

Old School game set in Greyhawk

So, I have been DMing a Labyrinth Lord (Advanced) game for a number of weeks now (about two months), every Wednesday when we can all get together (the game is online, using google hangouts).  It has been a great game so far, set in the World of Greyhawk.  It has generated enough demand for online document reference (maps, info, character sheets, etc) that I am going to start another blog dedicated to that game, called Sword & Potion.

It has really brought back to me how much a simple dungeon crawl game can really satisfy.

Chuck's Greyhawk Webpage

Wow - my old Greyhawk Campaign website (on Geocities, back in the 90s) disappeared a number of years back (2002? 2003?). Little did I know that all (or most) of those old sites were saved by the Web Archive Project. So, I took a look, and lo and behold, there is a live Archive of my old Greyhawk campaign website.

It is not perfect - some of the images and linked pages are missing (curious), but most of it is there. I've since scraped it all, and am in the process of reformatting it for publication in a better format. I planned at one time to include lots of individual maps of countries, towns, geo-features - maybe I'll get around to it in the next 20 years or so. Also, the posting of military information in terms that a Wargame can make use of (DBA? BattleLore?)

Chuck

Tags: World of Greyhawk

World of Greyhawk miniatures

Greyhawk Grognard has a great article on the old Minifigs line of World of Greyhawk miniatures.

Okay, so they looked a little wonky, but they had something that today's batch of fantasy miniatures usually lacks - individuality and creativity.

I loved the Elves of the Valley of the Mage, and the forces of the Great Kingdom. I still have a good sized contingent of Amazons from the Wild Coast, and I recall having a bunch of those Cairn Hills Cavemen (although in all the years of running World of Greyhawk role-playing games, I don't think I ever populated the Cairn Hills with Cavemen). For a map of the Hills see the great collection of WOG maps at Maps of Greyhawk (a great site).


Good stuff, and thanks to the Greyhawk Grognard for posting the pix.

Tags: Greyhawk, miniatures, wargaming

Castles and Crusades Campaign Headlines - Glacial Grotto Complete

Following the previous adventure, the group encounters a Drow monk - an outsider of typical Rakers Drow society - who agrees to join the group and stay with them. This is Leigh's new character, replacing his fallen dwarf, Nords.

Our Castles and Crusades session last night had a great finish to a tough adventure. The players received their adventure experience points, and progressed the campaign.

Those present were:

• Marcy - Annalise of Ehlonna
• Elliott - Jacques Guerrable (The Pope of Pain)
• Craig - Gilmore Badgerbreath
• Leigh - Dromeda
• NPC - Viney Badeloch
• NPC - Hilda Ironbottom

In addition to fighting another TOUGH group of greater goblins, the group explored an underground fungus garden, and discovered a group of women who were being kept as slaves by the goblins. Liberating both fungus and women, the group proceeded to delve into even deeper regions of the goblin outpost, to find the goal of their quest. The portal to the dungeon in Keoland (where, presumably, the Goblin Chieftain and the Kreftring are to be found) was discovered. After testing the portal, the entire group went through, and are now deep in the depths of the "Forgotten Dungeons of the Shadow Rose"

Future updates to be posted, but here is a list of all campaign updates so far.

• The Death of Nords
• Ice Spiders, Lava Lizards, and Ogres - Oh My
• Up the Mountain, Down the Glacier, Out the Other Side
• World of Greyhawk Campaign Continues
• Pope, Gilmore and Nords - On the Road
• Goatboy Joins Adventuring Group
• Expedition to the Rakers

Once the players are in Keoland, expect some more run-ins with Drow Elves, as the main plot of the campaign (and the secret of the League of Sorcerors) begins to reveal itself.

Glacial Grotto of the Ice Hunter Goblins - Completed
Tags: castles and crusades

Castles and Crusades Campaign Continues

We will all mourn for the passing of a great and noble warrior. Nords the Dwarf has passed to stone, in the fashion of the Dwarf people. He was slain while fighting Great Goblins in the Grotto of the Ice Hunter Goblins - hot on the trail of the goblin chieftain that the heroes are pursuing to retrieve the Kreftring. In the bottom of the multi-layered Grotto (a mountain dungeon system built in the Southern tailbone of the Rakers, at the edge of a glacier) is a gateway that leads to mysterious dungeons beneath the Fortress of the Shadow Rose (a castle in Keoland! halfway around the world, but it is where the Goblin chieftain is hiding out).

The players were sorely tested, even though Viney Badeloch took a co-role in performing "rogue" abilities with Clematis, the halfling.

The evening of adventure started out pretty good. The party had been holed up in a room where they had slain some ogres and giant spiders. The group was in uncharted territory, so they had bolted shut the doors and spiked them closed. Then they took turns watching while all got some rest (about 8 hours) and while Annalise (the female cleric of Ehlonna) got enough rest to concentrate and meditate on getting her spells back.

Finally they were rested up and proceeded out from their room into the wider dungeon. The group faced down a number of undead (ghouls, zombies, and skeletons) until coming to a room tha was heavily guarded by Great Goblins and Ice Hunter cats. A fight broke out and the heroes were victorious. Along the way, however, Nords passed along. He was facing down two great goblins, having interposed his body in front of Annalise so that she could pull back from the front line of fighting. The maneuver was successful, but it left Nords (exposed in the room) facing off against two Great Goblins and being shot at by a couple of Goblin archers.

The two Great Goblins were too much. Especially when one got a critical hit. Nords was down to 4hp left, and he didn't bother to tell ANYONE (how infuriating - he might still be alive if he had but asked Annalise for a single healing spell. But he did not. One of the great goblins (as mentioned) got a Critical hit, and Nords took an additional 24 points of damage (which made him go approx 20 points negative, certainly dead and not coming back).

Tags: Castles & Crusades

Castles and Crusades - Campaign Update

Castles and Crusades campaign continues last night, to the gleeful delight of the Castle Keeper (who is writing this from deep within his fortress of rectitude), and the mild amusement of the players.

First, a list to earlier posts (from oldest to newest, in order) of the campaign updates for the game so far.

• Expedition to the Rakers
  
• Goatboy joins the Group
  
• Pope, Gilmore, and Nords - all on the Road
  
• World of Greyhawk Campaign Continues
  
• Up the Mountain, Down the Glacier, Out the Other Side
  

Last night, the players, still in the Glacial Grotto of the Ice Hunter Goblins, pressed on ever deeper, looking for the portal that leads to the Fortress of the ShadowRose in Keoland. Along the way, in the Glacial Grotto, the group met up with acid-spitting Ice Spiders (the small variety), fire breathing Lava Lizards, and finally Ogres.

There was a little trouble in jumping across a 10 foot pit, but it got worked out. Then there was the instance where a magical crown was found, and the group decided to not bother, once Gilmore started describing its history ("created by a vengeful Efreet lord", "designed to kill mortals", "all will perish", etc - the normal stuff).

This led to the intimidation and "intensive questioning" of a goblin guard - a process that derived some sense of direction to delve deeper into the dungeon. At which point, it was time to shut the doors on a defensible chamber, spike them shut, and hole up for some sleep.

Next time, it is deeper into the dungeon, where the group will no doubt encounter some undead, more undead, and even more undead, and some really big lava crabs.

The Ice Spiders are still out there, my friends. Still lurking and awaiting their chance to make you their next frozen dinner.
Tags:

Campaign Update - Up the Mountain, Down the Glacier, Out the Other Side

The Castles and Crusades campaign, set in the World of Greyhawk, continued last night with a great little game. We only had two players show up (Elliott and Marcy), but I hope we all had as good a time as I did.

So the players traveled, once they cleared out the Norker bear-cult nest, on to the Dwarven city of Kreftheim. Analise (cleric of Ehlonna) is now firmly a member of the party, with her two followers (Byron, starry-eyed bard; and Hilda Ironbottom, reformed Duergar fighter). There they met the lovely wife of Nords (one of the party members, a Dwarven Fighter of no small renown), and the High Priest of Clangeddin Silverbeard. From these two, it was clear that the Dwarven Kingdom is in turmoil - with the Old King wanting to keep up good relations with the new Baroness (that the players are questing for), and the young Dwarves (swayed by Great Kingdom gold) who want to sever ties with the Humans, and deliver them up to the Great Kingdom.

In the turmoil, the players left the city, under cover of darkness, and rescued one Viney Badeloch, along the way. Viney has knowledge of where the Kreftring is - the heirloom treaty ring that the players are questing for. It seems as if the ring has been stolen, and taken (by a Goblin warchief and his body guard) through a gate clear across the continent to Keoland.

Following Viney up the mountain, to the base of the glacier, the players find a cave, the entrance to the Glacial Grotto of the Ice Hunter Goblins. Once down in the cave, they uncover a grand dungeon (obviously not built by these primitive goblins), with a thriving subterranean eco-system. Viney remembers little of his trip through here (he was on the run) but does recall numerous undead and vast plains of edible fungus. The first tentative explorations by the players meet with combative goblins and ice-hunter cats.

Tags: greyhawk, castles and crusades

The World of Greyhawk Campaign continues

The World of Greyhawk campaign progresses...

The adventurers (Pope of Pain, Nords, Gilmore Badgerbreath, and Annalise of Ehlonna) completed clearing out the dungeon of the norker Bear cult that they had uncovered last time. Some good treasure was found, and lots of evil was vanquished. Annalise, the new member of the party (a Half-Elven Cleric of Ehlonna, with a habit of bringing home strays . . .) fit in very well with the group.

In addition to dodging traps (poison needles, iron cages dropped from the ceiling, hordes of infected giant rats, nauseating gas clouds) without a thief (good thing for the Dwarf in Plate Mail), the group fought a diverse group of vile monsters - ranging from norkers under the influence of diabolical, sorcerous maggots; giant bears; acid covered zombies; and a wild eyed primitive shaman bent on cutting out the hearts of our heroes, and dining on their livers. All for some lousy pieces of Dwarven Platinum and a crummy set of magic horse shoes. All that is gold does not glitter, my friend.

Next week - on to Kreftheim - the Dwarven mountain town in the Rakers.

Tags: greyhawk

All my gaming can be blamed on Tolkien

DM of the Rings I: The Copious Backstory Like many gamers my age, my ideas for gaming (especially fantasy gaming; but equally fantasy roleplaying and fantasy wargaming) come from a heavy dose of Tolkien, and Tolkien imitators.

Sure there are the others - Fritz Lieber, Michael Moorcock, Jack Vance, Robert Howard, and the others - but Tolkien looms largest.

My initiation into fantasy gaming came around the end of the 70s, which saw a resurgence of Tolkien-mania in the US - with the release of the Ballantine paperbacks, and also the Hobbit animated TV special, the Bakshi movie (terrible now, but oh I loved it then), and finally the Return of the King TV special. It all made me gooey and weak in the knees.

Around the same time, I was reading (and rereading) the Tolkien stuff, I was also reading Greyfax Grimwald, Peter Pevensey, Thomas Covenant (still don't like him), and Shea and Flick Ohmsford. But Frodo Baggins stuck with me. As did uncle Bilbo. Only later did Fafhrd and Conan and Elric and Cugel come into my quarry of literary foundation stones for writing and gaming.
Even today, my current (although still fledgling) Castles and Crusades campaign that is based in the World of Greyhawk has strong themes that are quite Tolkienesque. There is (unbeknownst to the players - and you who are reading this know who you are) an overriding evil presence in the campaign, who through lesser agents seeks to subvert various neutral forces in the world towards evil; the Dwarves are an old (but not as old as Elves) race that are quite suspicious; the Orcs and other goblinoid races are created in a much lesser sense then Man, Elf or Dwarf were created (and for evil purposes); the current crisis for the world will be solved by a quest on a personal level, despite the engagement of mighty martial forces on all sides.
It is a good basis for a worldview of the fantastique. I do not regret it at all.

Tags: Tolkien, Role Playing Games, Castles and Crusades, World of Greyhawk

Matrix Game for World of Greyhawk skirmishes?

Matrix Games


Why not, I say. The only thing is that I would have to find a willing victim to play against, since the idea of coming up with arguments and counter arguments seems like a little too much Sybil level schizophrenia to me.

But consider, the next time in your RPG you have a local Baron getting uppity against his feudal overlord, and it comes to a skirmish, battle, or war. Using a matrix game to resolve it could be really interesting, can be accomplished quite quickly, and could generate some really interesting side results to affect the RPG campaign.

Tags: wargaming

More Castles and Crusades - in two weeks

Castles and Crusades continues for the adventurers, in two weeks, with more dungeoneering and then back on the road to Kreftheim.

Expect heavy spiders, with a spot of giant bears, and continued norker influence. That is the weather report.

Tags: Castles and Crusades, rpg, norkers, spiders, bears

Pope, Gilmore, and Nords - on the road

Castles and Crusades campaign update.

The Pope of Pain (Jaques Guerrable, Paladin of Ehlonna) and Gilmore Badgerbreath (Gnome wizard of no great stature) traveled along the Rakers mountain pass from Vanehold Castle towards the Dwarven stronghold of Kreftheim in our Castles and Crusades game. They were joined by Nords the Dwarf.

Along they way they met Goatboy, and rescued him from a bear trap.

Then they were ambushed by some giant ticks. Then they fought a great bear. Then they killed some norkers (goblinoids), and looted a dead Dark Elf.

All in all, a good night.


Tags:

Expedition to the Rakers

Ratik (RPGA version)

Well, I've kick started the Castles and Crusades campaign (set in the World of Greyhawk) once again. I love this stuff. I am starting out, as I did last August, in the country of Ratik. Ratik is a great little state, set on the northeastern portion of the Flanaess (the subcontinent of Oerth, commonly referred to as the World of Greyhawk - the 1979 TSR D&D gaming world written by Gary Gygax).

In the current RPGA Living Greyhawk, it is about 20 years in the timeline past when I like to host my games. I really like the World of Greyhawk right up until the time of the Greyhawk Wars. Everything that occurred in the "From the Ashes" campaign setting, and after, is great source material for me, but I don't like my games to follow that time line. Too depressing. I just want a very interesting, complex, world in which to drop adventures. The histories and backstory that my players and I come up with together makes up the plot for our campaigns.

The player characters signed on in the city of Marner to escort a large caravan of empty wagons back south and then through Loegrimm, up the valley to a small barony called Vanehold. Upon reaching Vanehold (after several adventures along the way), the players find that Baron Ridalcar Vane has been murdered, and the long-standing pact he has with the Ukamanini Dwarves is in grave danger. The seal of the treaty between the Vane household and the Ukamanini Dwarves at Kreftheim is an ancient magical object called the Kreftring. It has been stolen, and the Dwarves suspected the humans of foul play. Probably this is because of the prejudice shown to the Demi-Humans (Dwarves, Gnomes and Elves) by the new stock of visitors from Aerdy and the North.

The new baron of Vanehold is the son of Ridalcar, Ridalcan. Unfortunately, he is off on some quest (he fancies himself a Knight Errant), and Ridalcan's younger sister is left to take over. She pleads with the players to go off into the Rakers mountains, to seek and retrieve the Kreftring. Secrecy (especially from their feudal lords, the Loegrimm family, and also the ArchBaron Lexnol at Marner) is of the greatest importance on this mission, but also diplomacy (with the Dwarves at Kreftheim) and speed.

The game should be good. Currently looking to increase the number of regular players. We had 8 at the inaugural game in August, but these days it might be hard to get more than 3 or 4 for a regular Thursday night.

Tags: role playing game, greyhawk, castles and crusades