Accidentally Old School

dirtbagfantasy

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

Why even are there “adventurers?” Like, seriously, why? It seems like a pretty horrible way to make a living. You risk life and limb and the possibility of having your face eaten by an eldritch horror or some kind of undead grub worm, and for what? Enough gold and gems to pay for another week at the inn that you're only staying at because it's close to the dungeon where you're plundering treasure to pay for your stay at the inn?

I mean, get a job, dude.

If you look at it through a romantic lens, the PCs are kind of like prospectors – the hardy souls who braved the American frontier to make a fortune during the gold rush. The kind of plucky freedom-lovers who couldn't be tied down by something as mundane as a vocation or a farm. And you know, most of whom died broke and shoeless.

I think a much more likely option is that PCs are scumbags who either can't or won't participate in society and for sure aren't interested in an honest day's work. Best case, they think they've found a way to get rich quick. More likely, this is the last option available to them.

Maybe that fighter is a veteran who couldn't re-integrate into civilian life. That cleric got caught drinking the sacramental wine one too many times and finds himself between congregations. That thief...well, thieves gonna thieve. Plundering ancient treasure hoards actually makes sense for them.

For old-school dungeon-delving play, there's an economy based on desperation that lends itself far more to people on the fringe of society than it does dewey-eyed young heroes-in-the-making who, I guess, are going to rob only as many graves as necessary to get their throne-bound life of glamour back on track.

Naw, fam. Dungeon crawling is the provenance of Dirtbags.

Now, they might be dirtbags with a heart of gold – scamps, even. They're not necessarily hardened criminals. Dungeon delving may even represent a way to turn their lives around. But they're surely not honest taxpaying citizens of the empire happy with baking pies or slopping hogs or marching to the hinterlands to die in the mud in the service of the king.

Look, our table is comprised of professional comedians, DJs, writers, actors, and a Canadian, so we gravitate quite naturally to dirtbag play.

Our Low Fantasy Gaming campaign was based almost entirely around the fact that they found some green dragon scales on a random roll and told everyone they'd killed a dragon. Our Traveller characters have destabilized entire planetary governments instead of admitting we had taxable income. Shit, even our Brindlewood Bay ladies were played pretty gritty – definitely a pile of used scratchers in Gertie's glove box, you know?

I guess what I'm suggesting is that if you're going to dungeon crawl, I really recommend embracing the sketchiness of it all. It's definitely a play style unto itself. It's not quite the same as junior high kids trying to assemble a party of goth edgelords – more like a table of middle aged men who have been in enough comedy clubs to be very familiar with the lovable dirtbag archetype.

Delving ain't pretty. Embrace it.

Discuss...

#osr #dnd #ttrpg #dirtbagfantasy