Roleplaying Game

Gunderholfen – Bullying the Ogres (session 15)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

First session of Dragonbane/Gunderholfen since september of last year. Shame on me.

Last session the Battle Brothers had persuaded Bayard and his Protectors to make a temporary alliance and fight together against the denizens of Level 4.

Short session, 2 hours.

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (me)

Level 4

  • The two adventuring guilds, ten strong, descend the long slippery stairs down to Level 4, taking their time to decrease the risk of falling. They also devise a plan to fight the ogres which they already know reside very near the entrance of Level 4.
  • Upon arrival they go east and get to the door leading to the ogres’ den. First trying a quiet approach, they try to open the open door silently but it’s blocked from the other side. Letting go of subtlety, Bayard and Forka, the two strongest characters push the door open, displacing a large rock and a wooden beam, the latter falling to the floor with a loud bam. The PCs hear ogres nearby shouting to each other and get ready for a fight.
  • Getting back quickly to the first room, the adventurers get in formation, with 4 of them frontline and mages and archers (and Torch) behind. The first two ogres in are not very efficient (one good hit to heavily-armored Forka) and are assaulted by weapons and magic and are killed just like that. The following ogre is a bit more successful as he rushes in and rams into Bodil the Elf, tossing him aside on the ground while another ogre misses Jedri the Ratman with a big swing of his club. Aracyne hurts the ramming ogre with two arrows to the chest, wounding him badly and Jedri manages to finish him with a deadly two-weapons combo. Efram, one of the Protectors’ mage uses magic to make one ogre fall asleep and now there’s only one left from the five that were coming at them. The last one still has the will to fight though and wounds Bayard with a big hit but get overhwhelm quickly after.
  • They hear a door slam somewhere close but no other ogres are coming for the moment so the mages have time to do healing magic and everyone is healthy anew.
  • There’s three corridors, with the one in front being were the 5 ogres got out. There’s nothing interesting northeast, they go south and walk close to the wall to get past a (non-hidden) pit trap.
  • They see a room full of refuse, inspect a storeroom (nothing but food & water) and then get in front of double doors, there’s a faint odor of woodfire smoke (along with strong body odours and other unpleasantness).
  • The adventurers bash the doors open and see a big room, something like a cooking area, two teenager ogres were ready for them and immediately kick the burning logs, spraying embers directly on Forka and Bayard. Neither of them were quick enough to evade and lose a round removing the painful embers. The two young ogres don’t stand a chance though and after one is killed the other surrenders and pleads for his life. Bodil would have killed him but Aracyne his in a merciful mood and spare hime in exhange of information. They thus learn of some of the closest areas in this part of the dungeon, not much, the young ogre says that their ex-leader, Gorm (from Level 3), knows a lot more more.
  • The adventurers then proceeded to round up the surviving ogres in the other rooms (in this self-contained area) consisting of: 2 adult male ogres, 5 adult females, the teenager and 2 other youngsters. Aracyne tells them to leave Level 4 and get to Gorm in Level 3 if he would take them. They agree to leave on the condition that they could take their stored food and water with them and the adventurers accept.

Closing Comments:

  • Not much exploration this session but a big step accomplished in removing the ogres, as their presence near the entrance of the Level was always going to be a problem each time they passed.
  • 10 adventurers together are certainly a force to be reckoned with. I’m thinking that they must attract more attention than a smaller group obviously and, at the very least, I will adjust encounter rolls to reflect so in the future. Otherwise, in a non gold-for-xp system there’s just no much disadvantage in being that numerous.

My son’s new dungeon (Dungeon of Kargen)

David Skelector Edmond's adventures, Fantasy, megadungeon, my kids, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The Dungeon of Kargen, named after the fantasy city where it’s located, is 10 yo Edmond’s new homebrewed adventure location, with his brother as the unique player. I will try to highlight what happened so far with what they told me.

This is done within a 100% DIY system by the Dungeon Master in which there’s only 4 « attributes »: ranged attack, melee attack, magic attack and Defense. Starting numbers are rolled with a d20 for the main character or d20-6 (min 1) for hirelings (yes many hirelings have pretty abysmal stats…). There’s no cap on levels for characters, each level gives 3 points of attritubes to assign and 5 hit points. Melee damage is linked to attribute bonus but ranged attack bonus is only to hit and not for damage. Magic does more damage but depletes and must be purchased (a new wand). For the moment, magic is just another way of attacking and there’s no utilitarian or any other kind of spells (but that could change I was told).

The main character can bring along a maximum of 3 hirelings, or 5 when he reaches level 10 (and presumably more when of higher level). Also, a nice gameplay rule is that after 5 successful combats in the same area, it is considered « safe » (no more spawning) with the condition that at least one hireling is left in a strategic spot.

Interesting to note I think is what Edmond feels he needs to run his adventure: a list of shops and the items they sell and prices, two pages of hirelings and their stats, a chart of xp needed to advance in levels, a list of weapons and armors and their stats, a chart of bonuses associated with attributes numbers and that’s about it. Everything else he seems to create on the go.

The adventure so far:

  • The adventurer Jean-Paul, an archer, enters the newly-accessible dungeon of Kargen for his first foray and explored the Caves of Riches.
  • He defeats several squeletons and zombies but later on, he almost get killed by a mimic that was near a corpse holding a key in his hand.
  • Back in town he hires Petit Jean (a mediocre fighter) and Rolex (a capable but fast-exhausting magic-user) with the money from the treasures he found.
  • Next foray, the team reaches the City of the Imps. Most imps are non-hostile, they can control monsters to do their bidding and those are sometimes loose and dangerous.
  • They reach the Armory where they have to fight Living Armors.
  • Further on, they spot a throne chamber with a Lich and decide to give it a wide berth.
  • Back in town, he hires Georges (capable archer).
  • Next foray, they find the Area of the Lost Ones. Inhabiting the place are knife-throwing zombies that are fond of torturing people.
  • Back in town, he hires Gengis Khan (average fighter).
  • They find the Prison where a Dragon Skeleton is roaming. There’s many prisoners, all in separate cells. Frees and hires Robert (great fighter) from a cell.
  • They find the Maze and hear the mighty roars of The Minotaur. Find and open a secret door and gets face to face with the Minotaur, who’s in fact the Level’s Boss. They manage to kill it.
  • Gets in a very prolonged fight against 12 Living Armors and a Mimic in which the adventurers get the worst of it and flee.
  • After a stop in town, the team gets back to one of the first area into an unexplored and very long tunnel that leads to a section dubbed the « Mixtature« , inhabited by orcs, zombies, ogres and many other monsters.
  • Find 14 sarcophagi but already looted. Find a large fireplace and get into a fight with a fire elemental. The chimney leads to somewhere else but is haunted by ghosts.
  • Get into a treasure room with a strange statue with one arm extended in front of it, hand open as if waiting to receive something.
  • See a big fight between 3 parties of adventurers (11 total) and 40 orcs, join the fray and help kill the orcs.
  • This is all been happening on the fist Level of the dungeon.
  • TBC…

Time-Travel Mishap – (The Wandering Glade) – Session 17

David Skelector Château des Fausseflammes, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

My nephew Olivier, now seventeen, suggested we return to our Castle Xyntillan campaign.

Last time we played in this particular campaign was more than a year ago and the session led to a most dramatic change as the characters chose to flee Averoigne (through time-travel no less), teaming with the bishop/sorcerer Azédarac instead of fulfilling their mission for the Bénédictins monks and bring incriminating evidence to them. I told the players afterward that we could continue to play with these characters but in another setting entirely. I had in mind something closer to Zothique than Averoigne (still firmly inside Clark Ashton Smith’s cycles stories). But, well, I never came around to put together something satisfying for me and more or less let go of the idea.

But now is time to stop messing around and go back to something that was quite formative for us: Gabor Lux’s Castle Xyntillan. But! Before that, an interlude into a module of the same author – The Wandering Glade, that will, I think, do a proper transition for the events of the campaign.

The general idea is that the adventurers got caught in a trap that was meant for Azédarac…

The Wandering Glade is a point-crawl adventure from Echoes from Fomalhaut #06, by Gabor Lux. https://emdt.bigcartel.com/products

The author’s blog: https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/

Set in Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne

TTRPG System used: Worlds without Number, by Kevin Crawford

Adventurers – Player Characters (PCs)

  • Noah (Isaac), crafts stuff, has a repeating crossbow and a magic sword called Scrupulous, Expert lvl 6
  • Cordélia Lenoir (Marjorie), using the dark arts for Good (probably), Necromancer lvl 5
  • Monmon (Edmond), has a powerful antique spear, Warrior lvl 6
  • Paul Nareff (Olivier), friend and sponsor of the numerous Jean clan, Warrior lvl 6

« He [Azédarac] was the wisest and the mightiest of sorcerers, and the most secret withal ; for no one knew the time and the manner of his coming into Averoigne, or the fashion in which he had procured the immemorial Book of Eibon, whose runic writings were beyond the lore of all other wizards. He was a master of all enchantments and all demons, and likewise a compounder of mighty potions. Among these were certain philters, blended with potent spells and possessed of unique virtue, that would send the drinker backward or onward in time. » (The Holiness of Azédarac, Clark Ashton Smith)

The Wandering Glade:

  • The PCs wake up in a clearing surrounded by some majestic oaks lording over the dense forest. The light of day is already starting to fade. There’s no trace of Azédarac nor of his acolyte Jehan.
  • There’s a statue of a woman, beautiful and proud-looking, and a plaque under it. It says: « Oh Azédarac! Not the place you expected to arrive perhaps? Where were you fleeing this time? Did someone caught you lying and cheating again? We’ll see if you can escape this green labyrinth of mine… »
  • There’s a big boulder nearby but nothing else so they leave the clearing by the only visible path, it goes west.
  • They see another large boulder, this one covered in wild flowers. A faded inscription says: << Wandering Glade >> Clearing of Secrets.
  • They turn right at an intersection and enter a meadow. The pleasant scent has attracted giant butterflies. The PCs turn back and takes another path.
  • They go through an area with old-growth forest, dead wood covered in moss everywhere. A dozen Mossmen jump up from the ground and threaten the adventurers with sticks and stones. PCs gets some light wounds from thrown stones but then obliterate half of the Mossmen very quickly and the surviving ones start to flee. Noah shoots some more with his automatic crossbow.
  • Thence, they go northwest but are soon surrounded by some celtic warriors. The PCs manage to bribe them with gold, they learn that they serve the Enchantress Moriannis and leave peacefully.
  • Going due west now, they get ambushed by several deadly archers. Noah is hit by an arrow. The group start to sprint further in the path and Cordélia gets hit by two arrows in the back and is severly wounded but then both her and Noah shoots back and down one archer and wound another, making them retreat.
  • After that, they walk another 20 minutes and now they can see some sort of big camp and a lot of activity ahead, with fires and tents, and are soon intercepted by the lookouts. Cordélia uses her magic and takes the appearance of Moriannis from the statue they saw initially. She then speaks with the leader of the warriors, Brughaft, and explain that she’s only an « aspect » of the Enchantress and thus lacks the knowledge of her real « self ». Brughaft accepts her explanation and tells her of one way to get out of the Wandering Glade (and abstains from telling another one) – they must follow the spiral path called Morag’s Way, go to the end of the path and offers 3 things to the magic pool: the sap of roots of the night, petals from flowers of winter and blood from lovers. He also gives his bronze key. The adventurers for their part gives him some jewels and precious stones to ensure his loyalty.
  • The PCs also learn of several key locations in the glade but their exploration will resume next morning, after a night of sleep in the warriors’ camp.
  • Next day, the PCs want to find the « wall of trees » somewhere in the southeast. They’re not quite sure which paths will lead there though. They manage to take a shortcut and not get lost and find one of the tallest oak of the forest. There’s a cave mouth that opens between its roots.
  • They enter the small grotto, there’s a pool of silvery water with some rocks emerging with non-precious rocks, small crystals and trinkets laid on them. Paul look more closely onto the pool and sees a vision of black roots hanging from the ceiling of an underground area.
  • Leaving the grotto and great oak behind, the PCs go east in a path. They suddenly hear much noises at their right in the forest, small trees falling, a big claw marks appear on a boulder but no sign of what creature is doing all this damage. They hurry away.
  • They reach the Wall of Trees, impenetrable at first look. Cordélia attempt a spell of Extirpate Arcana (contested against the place’s magic) and succeed but knows it won’t hold very long. They enter the clearing and search the area. Monmon find 10 magical arrows, Cordélia finds a golden sickle and Paul finds delicious berries that seems to have healing capacities.
  • Leaving the clearing they decide to go north along the path, cross the area where they killed Mossmen, turn right and come across a burial site of a sort with thirteen mounds of earth, each having a green sapling on top. Paul puts a spade in one but then corpses start to emerge from every mounds, with each apparently having a sapling’s roots through its heart. Unpertubed, Cordélia goes right in the middle and casts Smite the Dead, slaying all of the undead at once.
  • Further north and then west, the adventurers go to the next area they wanted to investigate – a den of monsters they’ve been told. Sure enough when they approach they can see a cave and bones littering the entrance. Two big Sabretooths get out leisurely of the cave. Cordélia casts her last spell of the day, a Compel the Flesh on one Sabretooth, forcing it to attack its mate. Paul and Monmon both attack it too. Paul is wounded by the big cat’s claws but it soon is slain under the attacks from all sides.
  • Entering the cave they see 2 nervous cubs and Cordélia sends them the controlled Sabretooth mother so they stay calm. There’s not much in the cave except some faded cave paintings showing a vertical shaft and then stick figures seemingly fighting against trees.
  • From there the adventurers go west to get back to Brughaft’s camp because Cordélia wanted to rest to get her spells back, even if it was still quite early in the evening and with much disgruntled comments from Noah, Monmon and Paul.
  • The three non-mages decide to try to explore a bit more whilst Cordélia is resting. To the north, they find strange mossy boulders graven with mesmerising patterns. Monmon feels sick looking at them and they leave the place.
  • They then decide to try to reach the old well that they had heard of, first taking a path going west and south. They fight some other overmatched Mossmen and then reach a stone circle containing heaps of antlers. There’s a runic inscription: « SIGN SHOW, KINSMEN GATHER ». The PCs try a few things, mostly on the silly side, but without results.
  • They leave and, not very far from there, they find the old well. Noah uses his grappling hook & rope and begin to descend after having thrown some rocks in the water at the bottom to see if anything uncanny happened but nothing did. He saw four stone snake heads and was a bit wary but couldn’t see anything dangerous so he continued his descent and reached a bearded face crowned with a wreath of oak leaved, very druidy in appearance. Inspecting it closely Noah finds a keyhole and immediately thinks about Brughaft’s bronze key but unfortunately guess whom has the key, Cordélia! Cursing their 5-minutes day mage, they call it off and go back to camp.
  • Next day, the adventurers go back all together this time, to the old well. The bronze key indeed matches the keyhole, opening a secret door that leads into darkness. Into the Druid Grave.
  • TBC..

Closing Comments:

  • I’ve adapted a bit the adventure for my purpose, added the premise with Azédarac and Moriannis, made the module’s bandit gang as the latter’s followers instead, made them less hostile but also added a bit more stringent characteristics to the ingredients necessary to exit the Wandering Glade. Not much else really.
  • I had half a mind to send out the characters naked or without most of their stuff maybe, going a little Against the Slavers-style, but finally opted to be a non-cruel DM for this rekindling of a campaign.
  • Most of the fights were on the easy side, with one harder (against the « evil scouts ») ending in a stalemate. They didn’t stumbled upon the more dangerous stuff we could say (yet).
  • I think we’ll find a moment in the christmas holidays to continue this one hopefully.
  • XP = Participation 1, Treasures 1, Secrets 2, Total: 4

Dragonbane – rulebook walkthrough pt 3: combat and monsters

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Part 1: character creation and magic

Part 2: character advancement and conditions

Final part of my walkthrough/overview of Dragonbane’s rulebook. We’re getting at the most interesting part: combat and monsters!

Combat system features:

You don’t roll for initiative in dragonbane, you pick an iniative card from the initiative deck (1 to 10 cards). Still a random process but it offers some additional options as players might choose between two cards or swap cards between themselves depending on their abilities, or if they choose to wait before acting.

Combat is lethal. There’s no hit points bloat in DB, on the contrary, the possibility of raising a character’s hit points is very limited. Your character’s constitution score determines your hit points. An orc’s scimitar for example does 2d6 + d4 (str bonus). It does not take a lot of hits to get through your 3 to 18 hps or maybe a bit more (for a long-standing hero with several Toughness say).

The players must be very careful and find ways to mitigate damage.

Armors (and helmets) do help a lot but have some drawbacks too (penalties on skill checks depending on type of armor). For example, a chainmail + open helmet gives 5 armor combined rating and reduce as much incoming damage but gives you a bane (roll twice take worse) on evade, sneaking, awareness.

And then you can also try to parry (with shield or weapon) or evade attacks at the cost of your (only) action, if you don’t have already acted this round. But, if your character has heroic abilities like fast-footwork and defensive you’ll still be able to act after evading or parrying, incredibly useful.

All weapons have features: subtle, long, toppling, piercing, slashing, bludgeoning – depending on type. An halberd for example is long, toppling, slashing and piercing. These add some depth to the combat system, particularly if the optional special attacks are allowed in your game. Indeed if every optional cambat rules are on (shove, weapon damage type as related with armor type, severe injuries when reduced to 0 hp, melee mishap, range mishap, parry movement and special attacks) you have a fairly complex system, not exactly crunchy, but with a lot of options and great verisimilitude I’d say.

Monsters:

The bestiary section of the rulebook shows us 15 classic monsters, a page each. Some are considered « non-monsters » like goblins, orcs and skeletons. The others are, well, monsters… The latter are more complex – they all have a « ferocity » level that determines how many time it can act (how many « turns », with one action and one move per turn) in a round. Thus, the standard giant with a ferocity 1 will act once but dragons with ferocity 3 will have three different initiative cards and have 3 turns in the same round.

In addition, monsters attacks are always rolled on a random d6 table. Taking the dragon again as example, it has 6 possible actions: « Dragon Roar! », « Claw Attack! », « Dragon Wind! », « Tail Strike! », « Dragon Bite! », « Fire Breath! ». You re-roll if you get the same action twice in a row.

Not like this.
More like: « They have a cave Troll »

In practice, with the relatively weak power curve of character advancement, combined with the lethality of monsters, you’ll probably never fight a horde of (true) monsters in Dragonbane. The scene inside the Moria in the LotR movie with the cave troll and multiple orcs is pretty much how I see combat in DB (with one big monster wreaking havoc in the middle of a confusing melee). Which, y’know, isn’t a bad thing at all.

Closing Comments:

  • No hp bloat, armors that reduce damage, good tactical depth – those are all things I like for a combat system.
  • The bestiary section of the rulebook is quite limited. There’s also a Bestiary book, and, it’s fine? It’s no monster bible by any means, I would have like to see more content than that.
  • I haven’t tested much combat with monsters in my campaign to be honest, with most fights being against humanoids or critters, so « non-monsters » to date. I’ll probably add something to this post or another with more experience.

No helmet? (amuse-bouche post)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I will finish my dragonbane rulebook’s walkthrough soon enough. Part III is about how dragonbane handles combat, a strong point of the system in my opinion. In short I think it achieves to strike a good balance between providing tactical options (manoeuvers, weapons variability, heroic abilities and so on), and simplicity.

Armors in dragonbane offers damage reduction, something I’ve always prefered over decreasing chance of being hit.

And it also has helmets… How is there no helmets (except magic ones) in typical D&D? I understand we’re playing a game and not everything has to be realistic but come on!

Resting/camping in rpgs

David Skelector Delicious in Dungeon, Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, musings, Roleplaying Game, RPG

A few years ago, in my D&D 5E campaign in the jungles of Chult, my players fought a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Awesome? Heck no, twas a real snoozefest of a fight. A bit predictable in fact, dinosaurs are pretty bland in D&D, the T-Rex has one bite attack and a tail attack (how does a tail attack makes any sense I wonder) and that’s it – but that’s not really what I want to talk about. One character, Rufb the barbarian, was pretty messed up by the fight, the T-Rex bite attack does hit very hard obviously, and he lost probably more than half his hit points, even with his damage resistance. No worries, one long rest later and he was as fresh as ever – full hps, all his abilities back, etc. And that was with the so-called Gritty option on mind you. He healed, naturally healed – no magic, not even bandages involved, from wounds by a T-Rex bite frikkin overnight…

Now, we know that D&D 5E has definitely a super-heroic style, characters are pretty much like in video games and, yeah, there’s absolutely no sense of verisimilitude.

On the other hand, in many old-school systems for the same long rest all you get is 1 hp (unless you’re a magic-user and much more importantly also get all your spells back!). That’s more realistic for sure, healing takes time, and more in tune with a game of resources management.

But in my opinion also lacking in some way?

I mean, it’s a bit annoying, it goes against what I said about 5E, but I think that the best example of an interesting resting mechanics I can come up with is also found within video games rather than a supposedly more flexible tabletop rpg.

In Darkest Dungeon, in medium and large expeditions you’ll most likely camp along the way. You then spend a bundle of wood and some food to get back some hit points and, more interestingly, also spend from a limited pool to activate camping skills.

Three skills are accessible to every characters, anyone can do an Encourage, a Wound Care or a Pep Talk to help another character.

Every other skills are character-specific. Be it the Anger Management of the Abomination, the Restring Crossbow of the Arbalester, the Zealous Speech of the Crusader, they all are coherent rp-wise and flavorful For example, if the highwayman’s camping skills are about giving fighting bonuses to himself only, the Vestal’s are all about helping others.

A personnal favorite of mine is the Grave Robber’s Gallows Humor which has, for all companions. 75% chance to decrease stress by 20 (that’s good) and 25% chance of increasing it by 10. The Grave Robber herself has an automatic -25 stress. Dark humor is hit or miss, it is well known. A somewhat similar skill is the Jester’s Mockery which decreases stress for everyone at the expense of one companion, the butt of the joke the poor lad.

Now, many of those camping skill gives temporary buffs and that is something that can be portable to ttrpgs if one wishes so. Get your whetstone out of your backpack and sharpen your sword or encourage a low morale henchmen – could be included in any system I think. On the other hand, the examples from Darkest Dungeon mostly work on the premise of the specifi Stress parameter. I guess you must have some resource other than hit points, if not stress then something else in order for it to work. I know that I could borrow some things and implement it into Dragonbane for example because it got a willpower pool and conditions to fiddle with.

Edit: It seems like Tales of the Valiant, a 5E derivative system from Kobold press, has some interesting resting (or resting-adjacent) mechanics involved. Here’s a play report from blogger Blacksteel who uses it to good effect: https://towerofzenopus.blogspot.com/2025/10/valiant-swords-of-greyhawk-session-14.html I still wouldn’t run something similar to 5E but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Edit: Here’s someone who did a real attempt at it as opposed to my halfassed commentary above: A Camping Procedure by Rise Up Comus :https://riseupcomus.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-camping-procedure.html

A note on Parasites

David Skelector Delicious in Dungeon, Fantasy, gygaxian naturalism, jeux de rôles, Monsters, musings, Roleplaying Game, RPG ,

So that’s a bit random but I was thinking about resting/camping in D&D and then how STIRGES should preferably feed on sleeping targets and act more like their real-world counterpart, the vampire bat. And yeah, we might say I got down the rabbit hole…

Am I a bat or am I a mosquito?

The sanguivore stirge should not be seen as predator but in fact as a parasite (it doesn’t wish to eat you, just to steal some of your blood, that’s parasitic in nature). Sometimes the boundary between the two gets blurry, for example many species of leeches in the real world are often both – stealing blood from animals and also swallowing micro-organisms.

I’ll not go into truly gruesome territory over here (there’s plenty of it when we talk about parasites) but suffice to say, I think including parasitic behavior within your fantasy ecology can definitely add some kind of unforgiving nature ambiance.

In my own game, in my Jungles of Chult campaign, I had giant parasitoid wasps (the mounts of wasp-riding goblins) that laid their eggs inside giant spiders and also fed on the spider-like sentient Araneas. The Araneas turned to the adventurers for help against this threat in exchange for precious spider silk vestments.

For you see, I’m a big fan of Gyagaxian Naturalism in my ttrpgs.

Ryoko Kui’s Dungeon Meshi.

And here’s an entertaining video from Unnatural History Channel, highly recommend this channel if you’re into that kind of stuff:

Dragonbane – rulebook walkthrough pt 2: character advancement & conditions

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, jeux de rôles, review, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Part 1: Character creation and magic

If character creation in Dragonbane is a bit different from other D&D-adjacent system, we’re now gonna talk about two mechanics that makes it, hmm maybe not groundbreaking (what is nowadays?), but unusual in a good way.

Character advancement:

There is no levels in Dragonbane. Instead how your character can improve is by increasing his skills (including with weapons), gaining new spells (see part 1) and, less frequently, gaining new heroic abilities.

Each time you roll a d20 and roll a 1 (a dragon) or a 20 (a demon) you check a box next to the skill you used.

In addition, if you answer yes to these questions at the end of the session you can check a skill box of your choice:

  • Did you participate in the game session? (a freebie)
  • Did you explore a new location?
  • Did you defeat one or more dangerous enemies?
  • Did you overcome an obstacle without using force?
  • Did you give in to your weakness (optional rule)

(You can also find a teacher that has at least 15 in the skill you wish to improve and is better than you. The cost in time and money is left to the GM discretion, no direction is given in the rulebook beyond that unfortunately.)

Then, at the end of the session, with all checked boxes you must roll a d20 and exceed the number you already have in order to increase your skill by one. Pretty simple.

Heroic abilities: There’s 2 ways to gain new heroic abilities. The first is if you manage to increase a skill to 18 you immediately gain a new heroic ability of your choice. The other way is by accomplishing a « grand heroic deed », that’s also left to the GM’s discretion but it’s mentionned that it should be a rare event.

Pushing your roll & Conditions:

Now, another fun and interesting mechanics that is actually an optional rule, but I really see don’t why one wouldn’t include it, is the Pushing your roll. If a character fails a skill check he can choose to re-roll but with a cost, he’ll suffer from a condition from now on. Each attribute is linked to a specific condition: Strength >> Exhausted, Constitution >> Sickly, Agility >> Dazed, Intelligence >> Angry, Willpower >> Scared, Charisma >> Disheartened.

You choose the condition you’ll gain and will have bane (roll two d20 take worst) on any skill check linked to the affected attribute. You can’t choose a condition you already have and you’re also supposed to roleplay somewhat the whole deal.

You can also gain conditions in other ways, an environemental effect, a monster attack, etc. To remove a condition (or all conditions) you must do a shift rest (6 uninterrupted hours).

Closing Comments:

  • For me the character advancement system is reminiscent of the Elder Scrolls video games (I’ve played extensively to Morrowind back in the day, didn’t even try Skyrim though) where your stats simply improve with how much you use them. I like this.
  • An unfortunate side-effect though, at least for my young players, is the « I want to roll… » just in the hope of rolling a 1 or 20 and check the skill box. Listening to a door with an awareness check has never been so popular I tell you.
  • I’ve homebrewed somewhat the questions in my game (i.e did you explore a new location? >> did you find an iconic location in the dungeon?)
  • The way we play, my players’ characters suffer from at least one or two conditions each session, both from pushing their luck and dungeon hazards. The way to remove a condition is a bit more arduous than simply shift resting in my game, they must find a way for their characters to have a good time (i.e having a quality meal).
  • The conditions makes me think of my basic military training where I saw several guys vomiting from exertion (sickly!) but still going on, I dunno, makes sense to me.

Part 3: Combat and Monsters

Gunderholfen – Meeting Bayard the Bold and his guild (session 14)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

Battered from their last expedition, the Battle Brothers are back in town to recuperate and do some training afterward – before going back to the dungeon. They bring their new member, another goblin named Grimoire, a friend of Torch that can do magic.

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (me)

Longfelt

Rumor

-There’s a monstrous rat disguised as a person going by night in the thieves’ quarter – hey (pointing at Jedri) wait a minute, y-y you’re a rat!

  • Hearing of this « disguised monstrous rat » they immediately think of their friend Tlali and they go see her at her house. There’s a nice reunion, she explains that she started the process to get back her human form but there’s powerful magic involved (Sethid’s, the Master of the Dungeon) and it will take a while.
  • They do some training and are living at the Hare & the Hound inn for the moment.
  • They buy some supplies, Forka buys a great helm and then, after 9 days in town, are ready to go dungeon-delving once more.

Gunderholfen

  • Travel through the Ganfal swamp is uneventful.
  • They enter the dungeon and when they approach Level 1C they start to see a trail of dead hobgoblins – all missing their ears. The corpses are fresh – recently killed for sure.
  • Forka pick up the scent of non-hobgoblins and tries to track where it goes – more dead hobgoblins on the other side of the (cut) rope bridge that leads to the exit of Level 1. They spend some time reparing the bridge and continue their tracking down in Level 2 and then it goes south and west in an area the PCs already explored (and had a bad time against both zombies and giant ants).
  • They’re near the giant ants’ nest, the insects are clearly agitated. The PCs quickly cross the area and further south, they hear some voices coming from the room with the aforementionned zombies.
  • The Battles Brothers decide to go back the room with broken crates and wait there for the other guild to come their way (there’s no other path). They soon hear the sounds of a battle between adventurers and giant ants though.
  • It seems like the other guild is retreating in order, with a rearguard fighting in the narrow tunnel. The Battle Brothers see an elf, with short sword and buckler in hand, emerging from the tunnel. The latter is surprised and maybe a bit alarmed but then he asks for their help against the giant ants – they’re coming in great numbers.
  • Aracyne hesitates an instant on what his best for his guild (even contemplating murder!) but then he decides to help the other adventurers IF they accept to give his guild some money… The two elves quickly negociate and settle for 80gp to be given after this fight. The other members of the rival guild come into the room one by one, two mages, a hunter and the last being Bayard the Bold, their leader, brandishing a glowing mace and his plate armor covered in insect juices – an impressive sight! His companion informs him that the Battle Brothers will help the Protectors and already the first giant ants enter the room.
  • The ensuing battle is intense, with the fighters type holding the line, at least at first, against both normal worker giant ants and bigger, meaner soldier giant ants. Another wave of monsters arrives though and some get past the frontline and one mage of the Protectors get nearly bitten in half by a soldier ant. The other mage hurries to keep him alive with healing magic. Forka makes good work of his two-hand hammer, delivering massive blows left and right. Aracyne and his hunter counterpart shoot arrow after arrow on the incoming ants. Grimoire, their new goblin mage, proves to be a good addition and incinerates ants with fireballs. Two dozens dead ants are littering the floor and the two guilds seize the opportunity to move away from there, going east and south, with the Battle Brothers knowing their way around, and soon getting behind a door where the ants horde won’t reach them.
  • Now in safety, the Elf from the Protectors (their treasurer named Bodil) counts 80 gold coins and gives them to Aracyne with Bayard frowning at the sight but not saying anything. The two guild leaders then exchange a few compliments, talk about their recent delves and then Aracyne has this idea, he offers to the Protectors to do a joint expedition into Level 4. Bayard, not one to decline a challenge less his reputation for bravery takes a hit, doesn’t think much and accepts.

Closing comments:

  • I had decided when I started this campaign that I would put some emphasis on adventuring guilds interactions. I have written some random tables, erased them, re-written some more, to help me get a sense of what NPCs guilds would likely achieve as competing explorers (the PCs still having a decent headstart, of course it’s still about them). I’m not quite satisfied with this tool yet but it did indeed lead to this, I think, interesting session.
  • Now, dealing with so many NPCs, adventurers with all their abilities to boot, is certainly cumbersome for me as a the DM. In fact, I’m pretty certain it’s the reason why in most campaigns rival adventurers don’t seem to accomplish anything ever and are reduced to discreet appearances here and there.
  • Isaac’s first instinct was to ambush the Protectors while they were fighting the giant ants. A sound plan strategically speaking. Also quite ruthless. I let him choose his course of action but I’m happy in the end he chose to help (with a price attached) instead of killing.

Gunderholfen – Between a harder place and a bigger rock (session 13)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The Screaming Devilkin that the PCs killed last session wasn’t that dangerous in itself but the ruckus he made sure attracted attention!

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Torchbearer, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
  • Ghardeet, hired Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman (me)

Level 4A

  • The Battle Brothers go back at the entrance of Level 4 nearby and there they see someone coming from the south. It’s an orc, grievously wounded but still standing. They decide to capture him so they can interrogate him at their leisure and get more information about this level. They jump on him but right at this moment there’s much noises coming from the ogre lair just the other side of the eastern door.
  • The orc isn’t happy either at the idea of meeting with ogres and they all flee together southward and then east into natural passages – unexplored territory yet for the PCs.
  • There’s boiling sounds coming from the east and it’s also noticably warmer the more they advance. The orc says it’s not a good place, better follow him and get to his home he says. The PCs accept to follow him.
  • They backtrack a little and now they see several ogres (five of them) coming their way. They hurry and turn south and then east, fleeing away from the brutes. After more than an hundred feet they turn north and soon get at the entrance of a large cavern (dimly lit).
  • There’s a lower section in the middle of the cavern with an island in the middle. To the left and right are also elevated sections and five orc archers stand on each side, bow at the ready.
  • The wounded orc shouts: « don’t shoot, it’s Snagrat! » They shoot anyway, the orc get hit by a several arrows and dies. Torch the not-expendable-goblin-anymore blocks many arrows with his nice dwarven shield.
  • The PCs hear the ogres behind them and they decide to they’d be better taking on the orcs and they all try to jump on the eastern section (I’ve messed up with the difference in elevations, that shouldn’t have been possible, oops o_O).
  • They all succeed to jump, except Ghardeet who didn’t react quickly enough (slow iniative) and gets caught by a massive blow from an ogre’s club from behind and he’s down! Aracyne shouts to Ghardeet to get up already (rally) and get with them and the mage makes an ultimate effort, get on his feet and tries a levitate spell but fails, falls down all the way to the bottom of the cliff and dies…
  • The Battle Brothers have lost their hired mage and are now fighting against 5 orcs in melee. The 5 archers on the other side concentrate their fire on the ogres for the moment and kill the closer one, the one who clubbed Ghardeet, forcing the remaining ogres to turn tail. The archers then switch their focus on the adventurers and shoot at them but, in the confusing melee, they hit their comrades as often as not.
  • Aracyne isn’t in melee though, he stays behind his companions with his bow and he kills two orc archers and disable another over the course of the fight. He manages to evade several arrows aimed at him too (good evade skill and fast footwork).
  • Meanwhile, Forka, Jedri and Torch slowly gain the advantage despite being initially outnumbered. They eventually kill all 5 orcs on their side but they’re also all pretty banged up from this fight, with heavily-armored Forka being the least wounded.
  • But now they see a throng of orc warriors coming from the west and they don’t have much choice but fleeing the way they came, with the remaining orc archers shooting at them (but missing fortunately). Forka throws Torch moria-style across the chasm (as his acrobatic skill his poor and he suffers from a condition making it even more difficult) and then himself, Jedri and Aracyne jump back on the southern section.
  • They hurry down the passage to get away from the orc arrows. The ogres don’t seem to have lingered fortunately.
  • They want to go back at the level’s entrance and they go westward but then they see a giant lizard (pretty much like a komodo dragon in my mind, bacteriological-hazard bite included) coming at them from a side-passage (random encounter) and they now sprint to escape.
  • They’re in sight of the entrance, the stairs, with the giant lizard breathing down Aracyne’s neck (last on marching order) and they can see an ogre sort-of keeping watch nearby. They dash for the stairs. Aracyne dodges a bite attempt from the giant lizard and then also manages to get into the stairs. Now the ogre and giant lizard face each other and start fighting harryhausen-style and the adventurers climb up not looking down. Halfway, Aracyne throws up from exertion (sickly condition) and almost fall to his death but he wills himself and soldiers on.
  • From Level 3 they get to Level 2 pretty quickly with the ladder that leads to the secret room and then they’re down to Level 1 in no time.
  • There their hobgoblin allies complain that the blockade of Level 1 isn’t doing that great, the adventurers are inflicting heavy casualties on them. But they also trapped one party into the special room, they’re there right now but one adventurer mage have blocked access with a magic stone wall. By the time the hobgoblins manage to enter the room the adventurers are gone, the portcullis trapping them smashed open. There’s one dead adventurer left in the room, it seems like the Black Axes don’t care that much for each other.
  • Chief Nerulf is in a bad mood and he tells the Battle Brothers that since they lost his mage (Ghardeet) he’ll keep theirs (Hedralynn) as his warriors need a healer.
  • The Battle Brothers leave Gunderholfen to go back in Longfelt and, apart from a few stings from angry wasps, don’t have any troubles crossing Ganfal Swamp.

Closing Comments:

  • Very near tpk territory here. In fact if I hadn’t messed up with the elevation in the orc cavern I don’t think they could have survived.
  • I’m a bit disappointed by myself for that mistake really. Not that they haven’t been killed but I very much like verticality in dungeons, something that is often lacking, so to mess this up is annoying. Less skimming through the rooms’ description I guess.
  • The rally mechanics in Dragonbane allows for a fellow characters to « persuade » another to still act even getting down to 0 hp. I was on the fence about that but I think it makes sense narratively speaking and I’m all for it now. There’s also a « 3 failures- 3 successes » count (borrowed from D&D 5E no doubt) and that I don’t like that much and I’m replacing with the grittier Frail feature from Worlds without Number where one is kept at just another hitpoint from dying unless he receives magical healing.
  • Fleeing in unkown territory is very very risky. Their orc « guide » had his own motives for sure. The issue of whom to trust is maybe a bit too much to ask from my young players though. They have a nice childhood, why wouldn’t they be trustful? Well ttrpgs are good for a variety of reasons, one is to simulate non-favorable situations and learn from those perhaps (i.e not everyone has your best interest in mind).
  • I like the concept of the Screaming Devilkin monster. More of an alarm system than a real threat, it does only light damage but is hard to kill (27hps as per the book). The real threat of course is in having a good chance of provoking a random encounter and possibly alerting nearby denizens too. I’m thinking about making them somewhat more prevalent in the dungeon, that may be a bit evil…