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Friday, June 10, 2016

Dem's barbarians in those hills! - Old School Session 4

Just finished up a really fun session the other day.  I decided in my silly wisdom to level up all the PCs to level 2.  Mostly so I can throw bigger bad guys at em.  The one thing I did which was highly stupid and it was partially because I was distracted at the time, was allow ability score re-rolls.  Here's the kicker, I had read that some DM's do this with old school play, but they only allow ONE attribute re-roll per level up.  Basically the gist is you get to re-roll the stat with 3d6, if the result is better than your current score you use that.

major moron DM move- I let them re roll ALL THE FRIGGIN ABILTY SCORES!

Alright, so bad move.  I told the players afterwards, that's not happening again.  Next time they level up they will have to find an appropriate trainer as well as they get to re roll one stat only.  WHOOPS! Shit happens chalk it up move on.

Another thing we noticed whilst playing basic fantasy, is that every thing in the game is basically roll 20, higher the better for the most part.  Except! the thief skills, those are still the traditional way, roll under and its a success, we are talking about re-writing that table to be the opposite.

On to the adventure, one of the players was working that evening, so we decided he shacked up a with someone for the balance of the adventure.  The players read over the "brymassen howler" and decided to go in search of the barbarians.  ah player paranoia!  I had actually intended for the barbarians to be good guys.  oh well.

So the PCs's go off in a westerly direction towards Elerd's keep (see previous map post).   I had originally planned on using a specific set of encounters for the road to elerd's keep, however they shot holes in that idea.   The PC's stumble upon a statue of Odin on the side of the road.  Written in common was "pray for guidance".

Only one of the PC's decided to do this.  I had him roll a 20.  If it was over 15 he would get a certain vision, under a different vision.

I took him aside and told him what he saw.

Hordes of hobgoblins destroying the countryside, all of them had patches that were circular with a red toadstool in the centre, they were lead by a fierce hobgoblin warlord.

One of the PC's backgrounds is "shunned by the gods".  he's actually been keeping a journal of what has happened from the perspective of his character, which is friggin awesome!

I decided a small bolt of lightning would hit about a foot from him as he walked away.  :)

The PC's go off the grid and walk north into some hills close to the forest of Autumnwood.  from a far they see a pile of dust and a rather large humanoid.  One of the PC's hands me a scrap paper of what his character is going to do.  Basically a quick close up to see what's happening.

He notices that a group of barbarians are fighting a hill giant!

I quickly write up stats for the barbarians and the PC's now become barbarians fighting the giant.

As well, their actual PC's watching what is happening.

This whole thing was supposed to go the other way.....   I had thought the PC's would help the barbarians, but instead they decided to fight them, and help the giant! AHAHAHAH! oh well.

So here's the battle, the PC's players are firing arrows at the barbarians, while they are playing barbarians fighting a giant.  yes it was confusing as old hell, but a PILE of fun!  In the end the barbarians died of grievous wounds but not before one of them said to find their father. 

The intention was for a rift between to competing tribes of barbarians, one leader is the father of the other one!  I'll see what I can do about re-working that storyline.

Now the player i mentioned that wasn't able to show up, well he showed up in the midst of the barbarian fight on a horse he "borrowed" from brymassen.  (gotta roll with the punches).  So I filled him in, and then I took him aside and asked about the altar to odin.  He decided he would pray, he rolled under 15.  (I seriously jumped for joy at this!  although I could have just told him the other story, its great that it worked out the way it did).

He saw.... 3 witches killing a barbarian, cutting out his heart and eating it.  (things have taken a turn to the weird, I'm liking it).

The player promptly had a side bar with the other player that had a vision.

player who was at the game the whole time, saw the first vision came up to me and said....

"I have chills literally.... see my arm... your fucking on tonight!".

The PC's talked with the giant and found out where a tribe of giants are.  (remember this for later shane!).

After a brief rest, the PC's decided to head off to the tomb of gardag....

one player said "this sounds really heavy metal".  I said "yes it will be".

That's where we left off for the evening, after one of the PC's got zapped by the front door.

a few brief side notes: 

While the 5e is screen is basically no help with OSR stuff I like it, because I can see the players, rather than the usual 8.5 type screen.

EDIT:  Because of it being a bit short, and having one fairly tall player, he is able to see over the screen.  The player was double checking my math while we were going.  

I have a few older screens, one second edition one and one from a boardgame (not dragon strike, but dragon something).  I plan to create a home made Basic fantasy screen with a few of the more important things on it.  I've talked about this before and have sort of done it but not finished.  now is the time!

last time we played I had printed off some Dyson Logos sheets from the basicfantasy.org site.  This time I decided to go with the James West ones,  to which I owe him a snapshot of.  I'm on it buddy, sorry its taking me so long.

And now I have to re-write encounters for the road to elerd's keep whenever that happens.





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