Accidentally Old School

ardenvul

Kicking off a new campaign with an established table is largely administrative.

I showed the players around Quest Portal – how to access the Players Handbook I've started putting together for the game, how to use the in-game character sheet, that kind of thing. I also got them a fillable PDF character sheet and a Google Sheets version as well. We're all old dudes – I can live with people using the tool that works for them. I'm trying to break the Foundry/Roll20 mindset where I need direct access to their character sheets at all times.

Instead, I've got a small tracker built in Quest Portal and at the start of a session, I'll just get everyone's HP, AC, &tc. and even that's just there to give me a sort of general sense of the current state of the party.

Character creation was predictably chaotic – we're using a new system and a new interface, but soon enough we had our starting party. A couple of thieves, a fighter, a magic user, and a cleric. We did 3d6 right down the line, of course, and everyone understood they shouldn't get too attached. We're playing this strictly old school

I did think it was interesting that although I gave them a decent summary of the history and peoples of the Archontean Empire in the world of Arden Vul, every single one of them picked a background other than being from the dominant Empire. I love the Sunday Night Dirtbags.

Because this was more of a dress rehearsal and shakedown run than it was campaign kickofff, I picked a well-known module – Skerples' Tomb of the Serpent Kings – just to have something to run them through. I wanted to work out the technical issues, system questions and GM fumbling with procedural shit before we get to the good stuff.

That said, this module did exactly what it aims to do – introduce a very specific play style. We had a PC death in the very first room, and it happened exactly like the author said it would. That, combined with Goblin Punch's Underclock (a mechanic I've been dying to introduce and which, when triggered, resulted in a random roll for a very fun monster picked out of the Swords & Wizardry book*) made for a very fun night where one guy died and the rest of them made very little progress due to general trepidation and low hit points.

They dodged a couple traps, made a little gold, and racked up a paltry amount of XP. The session ended with a skeleton getting surprise. Looks like this week, we'll take that side-based, phased combat for a spin.

I couldn't be happier. This is going to be good.


*Piercers – basically stalactites that fall and spear you from above. Fit perfectly as they figured out how to get down the god damn hallway...

#osr #ardenvul #swordsandwizardry #dirtbagfantasy

After wrapping up a 3 ½ -year campaign, I’ve started planning the next one and hope to cross another thing off my TTRPG bucket list: a mega-dungeon. And it just so happens I grabbed The Halls of Arden Vul when it came up in a Humble Bundle, so we are good to go, right? Let’s roll ‘em up and get delving.

One small hiccup: what system do I use? WHAT SYSTEM DO I USE?

I mean, the plan was to just use good old B/X. We used that earlier this year for our playthrough of Keep on the Borderlands in honor of D&D’s 50th anniversary, and we all had a blast. The simplicity, the flexibility, the ease of character creation after the first party inevitably got bodied…plus, I still own the original books!

But then…I also have the Basic Fantasy 4th edition rulebook. People rave about that and I am super into the whole open-source mentality.

But then people also rave about Old School Essentials, and that’s on my Christmas list.

Plus I have Hyperborea 3e and have been dying to try that. Hell, I’ve still got my original AD&D Players Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide, so why not just keep it legitimately old school? Arden Vul was made for OSRIC, after all. Hell, maybe I should look at OSRIC?

And I just downloaded Swords & Wizardry because the PDF was 5 bucks and I have a job.

Plus, let’s be honest, I’m going to tinker a little here, graft on a mechanic there, steal a bit and make some shit up at the table and whatever system I choose isn’t even going to look like itself after four sessions.

I’m agonizing over this decision, and it’s stupid, because they are all the same god damn game anyway.

I mean, obviously they’re all iterations of the same rules, which were themselves iterations of each other due to contract weirdness and interpersonal beef between Gygax and Arneson. At the end of the day, it’s six attributes, hit points, roll the dice, steal the treasure, and hail Satan. And in the age of the virtual table top, a machine’s going to handle the rough stuff anyway, right?

Somewhere I read a piece about TTRPG essentialism, the gist of which is that every TTRPG is actually the same ur-game anyway. Basic or Advanced or 5e or Traveller or literally whatever, it’s all just a re-statement of some Platonic role playing game that exists independently of our attempts to codify it.

That may be true, I don’t know. But for some reason, Swords & Wizardry gets me excited to play when I read the rules in a way that Basic Fantasy doesn’t. I don’t know if there’s some grand philosophical reason or if it’s just because the font choice and artwork resonate better.

I think maybe that’s really the dragon I’m chasing: that excitement. The same excitement I experienced the first time I cracked open that Player’s Handbook and this whole D&D thing opened up in my mind like a fever dream. Some systems hit and some don’t, and I’m sure what lights me up leaves someone else flat.

All that to say, right now, I think we’re using Swords & Wizardry, with Goblin Punch’s Underclock bolted on, played on Quest Portal, starting in about a month, at which time, I’m sure all of the above will have changed.

#osr #dnd #ardenvul #ttrpg #swordsandwizardry