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Post by bravewolf on May 18, 2017 23:56:03 GMT -5
I would like to start a thread/forum documenting my Arduinian AD&D campaign. For the most part, we game weekly and have been going about a month now. This coming Saturday will be our fourth session.
Initially, I will post our play reports, as I already have the first three sessions documented. Following that, I will post some background and commentary on how we are mixing the Arduin and AD&D elements. Plus also more play reports as we complete sessions.
Thanks, and Up Arduin!
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Post by Admin Pete on May 19, 2017 6:58:10 GMT -5
I would like to start a thread/forum documenting my Arduinian AD&D campaign. For the most part, we game weekly and have been going about a month now. This coming Saturday will be our fourth session. Initially, I will post our play reports, as I already have the first three sessions documented. Following that, I will post some background and commentary on how we are mixing the Arduin and AD&D elements. Plus also more play reports as we complete sessions. Thanks, and Up Arduin! , coming right up!  |
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Post by Mighty Darci on May 19, 2017 11:10:41 GMT -5
Hey bravewolf, looking forward to this. Sounds exciting! |
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Post by bravewolf on May 19, 2017 13:57:29 GMT -5
Arduous Adventures in the Kingdom of Arduin: An Open-Table Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Sandbox Campaign
The following is the primer for the campaign. Most of my gaming group are nu skool gamers (3.5 & 5e), so a few words on style and tone seemed indicated. The primer is a work in progress.
If you are reading this document, I have probably invited you to participate in my new Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) campaign. Let me give you the elevator pitch before all of the sundry details. Let’s look at the title to extract the most salient information.
Arduous: The campaign will be challenging for player characters (PCs), players, & dungeon master (DM). Roll up at least two PCs.
Adventures: Exploration! Fighting! Loot! Savoir-faire & skullduggery? Yes! If we are all on our game, it will kick carapace.
The Kingdom of Arduin: The legendary Bay Area world setting by David A. Hargrave and an early Original D&D variant. Expect the odd.
Open-Table: whoever shows up to play, plays. A stable of PCs & other measures will maintain verisimilitude from session to session. More on this.
AD&D: 1st edition! Notes on which materials this entails below.
Sandbox: PCs can go (or try to go) where they want, when they want. I will provide the setting & several adventure hooks - you determine your motivations & goals.
Background
Early in the campaign, PCs will begin in the town of Pavane, Kingdom of Arduin. Arduin is an old country with a 10,000-year-plus history. For most of this time, the kingdom was Elven. Surrounding nations had the notion that Arduin held the keys to control of the multiverse & constantly invaded the Elven fastness. It was only after these power struggles opened gates that admitted extra-planar threats that the denizens of Arduin & its neighbors decided that the kingdom somehow had to be shared among the races. We’ll demure on the specifics of the political & social engineering that ensued from this collective realization; suffice it to say that Arduin is now the most cosmopolitan polity on the continent.
Hargrave’s Arduin is a medieval fantasy setting that is accurately viewed as old-school D&D on steroids. Spell & character levels can go well beyond the D&D norm (though PCs won't know this!). Several non-standard races & a few atypical classes are available for play. Arduin also unapologetically mixes science fiction with its fantasy tropes, though the realm is primarily medieval in its tech level.
Why AD&D, you ask? It was my first & favorite flavor of D&D. I learned to play D&D in a single sitting in 1983 with a friend’s Basic D&D box set. I was nine. For a year or so afterward, I ran my own game based on what I remembered from Basic with elements of the Lone Wolf game books bolted on. The first AD&D book I bought was Monster manual 2. I soon nabbed the core books and AD&D became my jam.
AD&D is very complete in its scope but sketchy in many areas. For instance, unless you are talking racial or class abilities, skills & feats are absent from the core AD&D rules. Roleplaying & puzzle-solving perforce very much fall on player skill because there aren’t finely tuned skill rolls on which to rely. This is not a dig at the skill level of later-edition aficionados. Old school D&D simply favors lower levels of required system-mastery to accomplish some of the same aims. No skill system to speak of also means that character creation is lightning fast! AD&D is highly lethal to PCs as well. PCs are adventurers, not superheroes (to start)!
As adventurers, PCs gain experience (XP) by defeating foes & bringing treasure back to their home base. Treasure XP is awarded on a 1 Gold Sovereign:1 XP basis. PCs also get XP for selling or keeping magic items. Treasure & magic items usually garner PCs more XP for the amount of risk compared to duking it out with trolls & phraints, so allow that to inform your strategy & tactics. The high rate of XP for treasure coupled with high PC lethality should encourage PCs to consider investing in hirelings. Who else is going to hold your torches & haul out your hard-won treasure hoards?
Character Creation
As stated earlier, PCs can & probably will die. So make two or three & wag your head at the PC meat grinder! Arduous Adventures in the Kingdom of Arduin uses the following materials for chargen: The Players Handbook (PHB), Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG), The Arduin Trilogy, The Arduin Grimoire Vol. 4: The Lost Grimoire,The Compleat Arduin, & The Compleat Alchemist. I will help with the source matter; do not feel obligated to go buy these books, but on the other hand, please don't obtain illegal PDFs. There is legal recourse to obtaining all of these products.
At the core, PCs in AD&D are built much like their counterparts in later editions - only about five times faster! Nutshell: 1) Roll your six ability scores; 2) choose your race; 3) choose your class; 4) roll a special ability (optional); 5) record your alignment, hit points, &c.; and 6) buy your equipment singly or in concert with your mates.
In AD&D, always pray for seven things: more Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Cha (and hp). Your ability scores may be generated in one of two ways: 3d6 in order (punk rock!) or 18d6, arrange the points as you wish (still punk rock because loads of dice). The latter method is good if you want to play a particular sort of character. Since you’ll be making at least two PCs, try both methods!
Choose a race: human, half-elf, elf, dwarf, gnome, half-Orc, hobbit, kobbit, knoblin, goblin, phraint, Orc, hobgoblin, saurig, or Amazon. Some choices will affect your ability scores and allowable classes. Note that elves & half-elves are more Tolkeinian than standard D&D. Orcs are an immortal race & half-orcs are long-lived. Humans can dual-class; most other races can multi-class. Most races have level limits. Not humans. Yay, humans!
Have class! AD&D standards: Cleric, Druid, Fighter, ranger, paladin, magic-user, illusionist, thief, assassin, monk, & bard (special). Arduin & non-standard classes include barbarian, trader, techno, & alchemist. Note that some classes have minimum ability score prerequisites & prime requisites. If your PC doesn't have the minimum scores needed to enter a class, don't despair! You can still play that class, but will accumulate XP more slowly (taking a 10% penalty on earned XP). Conversely, if a class has a prime requisite & a PC’s prime requisite score is high enough, that PC earns an extra 10% XP.
At your peril, you may roll for a special ability at this point. It could be excellent (most are pretty good), but real stinkers are possible. Roll up two or three PCs, or play it safe & skip this part.
Choose alignment, name next-of-kin (seriously), roll hp, &c.
Money & equipment. You have two options: take the PHB standard or use The Arduin Trilogy’s method. The latter method involves a roll for social class, roll for legacy (starting goods), & a roll for cash money. The PHB method is somewhat middle of the road & rarely swingy. The Arduin Trilogy method can strap or enrich your PC. No worries - you did roll more than one PC, right?
PCs might opt to buy gear or hire meat shields on an individual basis or by pooling resources. That’s your biz.
Open Table Sandbox Campaigns
We are all busy people, so it can be difficult to get everybody to the same table, in the same party, with any regularity. At the same time, I think most of us would like to maximize game time (guilty!). Open table sandboxes can maximize game time. First, everybody makes at least two PCs, but probably only fields one in their first session. At any rate, everybody should each hold one PC in reserve. That way, if you miss a session or there is a party split, you have playing options that strain credibility less.
Another thing that I will encourage in this campaign is ending each session of play with all of the PCs back in a safe location, preferably back at home base. One of the benefits of this approach is that y’all will earn XP more often! Also, if all the PCs are home or someplace relatively safe at the end of session, & one player can’t make the next session, their PC simply didn't go adventuring that session. Maybe they hung back at the tavern & told tall tales! In fact, I encourage all players in AAitKoA to submit after-action reports to the rest of the group via email or text. They don’t need to be detailed or complete; maybe just something that amused you or that was otherwise memorable. I will also try to write up after-action reports after each session. In any case, our AARs represent the talk of the town, rumor, innuendo, &c. You might miss a session only to hear later that the participants in the most recent game experienced a total party kill - guess your PC avoided an untimely end!
I also like things to happen in my campaign world, things that can alternately benefit or deleteriously affect PCs. That requires time. So, assuming that the party makes it back home at the end of session, however much real time passes between sessions represents the amount of game time that passed in between sessions. This means dickering over the cost of food & lodging, which is usually boring, needs to go. Accordingly, PCs will have to pay out 100 gold Sovereigns per level per month for lodging & food.
At the start of the campaign & as it progresses, I will set y’all up with a few rumors & adventure leads. You choose which to pursue: I am not the boss of you! Note that as a sandbox campaign, the level or challenge of adventuring locations is NOT necessarily keyed to any individual’s or group of PCs’ level. A smart adventurer gathers information before proceeding to a delve! Your first set of rumors & leads will comprise a selection that 1st-level PCs should be able to at least attempt. One of them will definitely keep a doughty party busy for several character levels.
For you new-school players, I heartily endorse the use of hirelings. They can be lifesavers. In fact, they are essential to many, if not most, successful AD&D adventures. You should also know that I will use maps/game boards sparingly on the table - mostly to clarify a truly confusing description. This means you should either have a mapper (hint! hint!) or all have eidetic memories as players. This means that at least one player should take the burden of mapping with pencil & paper. I will even bring the appropriate useful paper for you to use (as long as somebody in your party purchased suitable writing equipment).
Some notes on gaining levels: Once a PC has earned enough experience to advance a level, they must locate a suitable trainer. The PC must spend 1d4 weeks training at a cost of current level X 1500 GS X number of weeks. No adventuring or other engrossing activities are possible while training.
Character Options: Races
This portion of the campaign primer summarizes key differences in the operation of races in Arduin. If you do not see an entry from your favorite PHB race, that race operates the same in Arduin as in the default AD&D world (viz., Greyhawk).
ELVES
Elves are thinner than humans, but not shorter. They are immortal.
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Post by bravewolf on May 19, 2017 14:00:01 GMT -5
I'll throw down the Session 1 play report later today or tomorrow. These posts will be on the long side - call them horse-faced! :-D
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Post by Admin Pete on May 19, 2017 17:22:50 GMT -5
I'll throw down the Session 1 play report later today or tomorrow. These posts will be on the long side - call them horse-faced! :-D Don't hold back, post away! |
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Post by bravewolf on May 19, 2017 17:26:32 GMT -5
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Post by bravewolf on May 19, 2017 17:27:33 GMT -5
I'll throw down the Session 1 play report later today or tomorrow. These posts will be on the long side - call them horse-faced! :-D Don't hold back, post away! Roger that, Admin Pete! Thank you for setting up the forum. |
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Post by Admin Pete on May 19, 2017 19:23:04 GMT -5
Don't hold back, post away! Roger that, Admin Pete ! Thank you for setting up the forum. You are quite welcome! Thank you for being willing to your game with us. |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Oct 2, 2022 7:18:51 GMT -5
I'm catching up on some of the older threads around here. This is sure to be an interesting read.
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Post by Morose on Feb 28, 2023 16:19:36 GMT -5
bravewolf do you have any more play reports. Can you tell us more about your version of Arduin? How big is the territory that you use, cities, towns? How do you run some of the exotic Arduin critters?
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Post by bravewolf on Feb 28, 2023 16:26:12 GMT -5
bravewolf do you have any more play reports. Can you tell us more about your version of Arduin? How big is the territory that you use, cities, towns? How do you run some of the exotic Arduin critters? I do! I will begin posting additional play reports within the week, Morose. Cheers. |
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Post by Morose on Feb 28, 2023 16:27:37 GMT -5
bravewolf do you have any more play reports. Can you tell us more about your version of Arduin? How big is the territory that you use, cities, towns? How do you run some of the exotic Arduin critters? I do! I will begin posting additional play reports within the week, Morose. Cheers. That would really be awesome! I would love to hear more about how you run Arduin. There is really not much around about it. Do you blog? |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Feb 28, 2023 19:02:18 GMT -5
bravewolf do you have any more play reports. Can you tell us more about your version of Arduin? How big is the territory that you use, cities, towns? How do you run some of the exotic Arduin critters? I do! I will begin posting additional play reports within the week, Morose. Cheers. that would be truly awesome! |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Feb 28, 2023 19:02:36 GMT -5
I do! I will begin posting additional play reports within the week, Morose. Cheers. That would really be awesome! I would love to hear more about how you run Arduin. There is really not much around about it. Do you blog? Good questions! |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Feb 28, 2023 19:19:39 GMT -5
bravewolf do you have any more play reports. Can you tell us more about your version of Arduin? How big is the territory that you use, cities, towns? How do you run some of the exotic Arduin critters? I do! I will begin posting additional play reports within the week, Morose. Cheers. I'm looking forward to it!!!!!! |
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Post by bravewolf on Feb 28, 2023 20:07:49 GMT -5
I do! I will begin posting additional play reports within the week, Morose. Cheers. That would really be awesome! I would love to hear more about how you run Arduin. There is really not much around about it. Do you blog? I don't blog but I sometimes post in various groups on MeWe and contribute zines to Alarums & Excursions. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Feb 28, 2023 20:10:08 GMT -5
That would really be awesome! I would love to hear more about how you run Arduin. There is really not much around about it. Do you blog? I don't blog but I sometimes post in various groups on MeWe and contribute zines to Alarums & Excursions. I did not know you sent in stuff to Alarums & Excursions, how long have you been doing that? Is that Arduin stuff or other things? |
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Post by bravewolf on Feb 28, 2023 20:14:12 GMT -5
I don't blog but I sometimes post in various groups on MeWe and contribute zines to Alarums & Excursions. I did not know you sent in stuff to Alarums & Excursions, how long have you been doing that? Is that Arduin stuff or other things? I've been contributing off and on for a few years. My zine Bugbears & Ballyhoo focused on Arduin early on but is less focused now cos the campaign is on hiatus. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Feb 28, 2023 20:27:19 GMT -5
I did not know you sent in stuff to Alarums & Excursions, how long have you been doing that? Is that Arduin stuff or other things? I've been contributing off and on for a few years. My zine Bugbears & Ballyhoo focused on Arduin early on but is less focused now cos the campaign is on hiatus. Is your zine available anywhere else or just as part of Alarums & Excursions? |
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Post by bravewolf on Feb 28, 2023 21:18:50 GMT -5
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Post by Morose on Mar 1, 2023 14:35:35 GMT -5
Wow, that is a long running zine! |
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Post by Morose on Mar 1, 2023 14:36:47 GMT -5
I did not know you sent in stuff to Alarums & Excursions, how long have you been doing that? Is that Arduin stuff or other things? I've been contributing off and on for a few years. My zine Bugbears & Ballyhoo focused on Arduin early on but is less focused now cos the campaign is on hiatus. Any chance you might share some of the Arduin stuff here? |
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Post by bravewolf on Mar 1, 2023 15:30:57 GMT -5
I've been contributing off and on for a few years. My zine Bugbears & Ballyhoo focused on Arduin early on but is less focused now cos the campaign is on hiatus. Any chance you might share some of the Arduin stuff here? I will be. |
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Post by Morose on Mar 1, 2023 15:31:58 GMT -5
Any chance you might share some of the Arduin stuff here? I will be. Have an exalt in advance! |
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Mar 1, 2023 19:30:33 GMT -5
I'm going to be ALL OVER that!!!! |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 5, 2023 17:53:04 GMT -5
I'm going to be ALL OVER that!!!! I'll have to wait. bravewolf do you know what issue you first appear in? |
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Post by bravewolf on Mar 5, 2023 18:38:00 GMT -5
That would be #505. Bugbears & Ballyhoo #1.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Mar 5, 2023 21:51:06 GMT -5
That would be #505. Bugbears & Ballyhoo #1. They left you out of the index at the website for this one, but in #506 they have Bugbears & Ballyhoo #2. |
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Post by bravewolf on Mar 6, 2023 0:55:43 GMT -5
That would be #505. Bugbears & Ballyhoo #1. They left you out of the index at the website for this one, but in #506 they have Bugbears & Ballyhoo #2. You have to go to the second page of the issue index/summary for #505; I had to look it up myself this afternoon! RPGGeek has a very crowded interface, making easy to miss things like multi-page indexes. |
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