Thunderhall / Magremore

[magremore]

Thanks, Admin Pete, for inviting me to post rules and campaign info here. The rules have only been used in games with my kids, and all we've really done is one-off adventures, so a lot of the stuff is, I guess, theoretical only. Of course, none of it is really that original, but that's fine by me. I'd rather stuff work than it be different for its own sake. Fun trumps rules, and I learned early on in this return to the game that if my kids hatch a good plan I'm not going to let a roll spoil it for them. Now if they were older, maybe—I see no problem with fitting rules to player expectations.

Anyway, here is the rules document: Thunderhall: Unoriginal Rules for Fantastic Adventures in Dungeons

The unfinished historical and geographical notes for my potential game world are also online: Magremore. The notes therein are (mostly) older and very likely subject to updating if and when I rotate back to that project. And since I can’t draw worth a darn I also have, instead of a world map, a location chart. I guess it's a kind of goofy abstract map. Thunderhall is probably in the northern badlands known as The Hauts, on the border between Malihaut and Stromhaut. It is, of course, the ruins of a once-mighty castle set over a vast network of subterranean corridors and caverns. 

The latest addition, as yet untested, is my Unoriginal Spells document. There is a heavy Delta influence (specifically from his Spells Through the Ages posts) and also from many discussions perused over at the odd74 boards.

EDIT: Fixed the "Magremore" link above.

[Admin Pete]

Hey, if this is the game you run with your kids that is fantastic. Perhaps you can share some of what they have done. I know there are a lot of other people that play with their kids and perhaps your sharing will encourage them to share also. I think all of us want to play like kids again. Back before the world tried to put our imaginations in straitjackets. For the google docs i followed the link and sent you an access request. Odd it let me access the location chart.

[Maximum Forest Ranger]

magremore this is some really good stuff here. I was unable to access your "unfinished historical and geographical notes" is there any chance that you might cross post those here into the thread?

[magremore]

Thanks, Maximum Forest Ranger. I updated the post with what should be the correct link now.

[magremore]

Thanks, Admin Pete. Sorry I missed your reply until now. I think all of the links are working now. I'm new to using GoogleDrive and sometimes I copy the url for the page I'm viewing rather than get the share link. Maybe I'm just getting old!

Latest attempt to playing with the kids was using d6-only mini-rules put together for vacation. It didn't go well—we never even got to test the actual rules because we got hung up on dungeon creation. We've often enjoyed coloring in hex-colored paper together and making fictional worlds so I thought creating a random dungeon as we went along would be fun with one kid rolling, me finding the result, and the other kid mapping, but it was a fail.

Our two gaming sessions before that were my daughter DMing one of D&D's rpg-board game hybrids, Dragon Strike or something (I forget what it's called and too lazy to go upstairs to see what it is exactly). The rules are, well, the rules, but the encounters drive me nuts. Anyway, I enjoyed seeing her run the game, but she seems to be becoming attached to having a real rule book to refer to (I have just a print out of the LBB + a dozen versions of my house rules), so if I can't talk her back into home brew I may bust out the B/X and just try to convince her of the great simplicity that is Target 20 and d6 for HD. 

[Admin Pete]

How old are those kids?

[magremore]

Admin Pete, my daughter is 11 and my son is 8. We've not played too frequently, but we have been at it awhile. Thanks to the wonders of computers I can pinpoint our start in playing (and therefore my return to D&D after some 20+ years) to September 2010, so she would have been 6.5 and he just barely 4. Yes, he was mostly along for the ride at that point. It was basically house-ruled B/X (glancing back at the rules doc I see I called it “Triumph and Treasure”—good golly!). I modified a choose-your-own-adventure type of mini-adventure I found and called it VA1 The Messengers—sorry to say I can’t recall where I picked this out from or even if that was the original title or not, but I think I did quite a bit of re-skinning for it. The elf sisters mentioned in the first paragraph were my daughters two characters (those were her names she came up with). My son played a fighter and I worked that into the story somehow so that he accompanied the elf sisters.

Of course, me being me, I also created (or started to—another habit of mine is not finishing what I start) a larger setting in which the brief adventure would take place. The plan was to run a campaign in the same setting, but I bailed on that world. It was called Verterra and it was dominated at the time of the adventure by The Crowmarian Kingdom. Some of the place names were reused in the Magremore setting.

[Admin Pete]

magremore, did I drop the ball here? Do you want me to start you a forum for this campaign?

[Irish Warrior]

magremore, this is fantastic and we would love to see more of it. Post away! Have an Exalt!

[magremore]

Nov 8, 2015 0:11:06 GMT -5 Admin Pete said:

magremore , did I drop the ball here? Do you want me to start you a forum for this campaign?

Nope, you dropped no ball. I cycled away for a while. Thanks for checking though.

[Admin Pete]

Cool! Just let me know when you are ready.

[Admin Pete]

Hey magremore, how is your summer going? Are you getting to game with your kids or are you like many and just swamped?

[Admin Pete]

Hey magremore how about an update on gaming with the kids? Any update on the settings or other cool things you might share with us?

[magremore]

Kind of you to ask Admin Pete. . Not too much to report.

My daughter and I still roll up characters every once in a while, but we haven’t played in a while.

I mentioned in another thread (the thief one I think) a little about the game my son and I had a few goes at, back before his soccer season started. Kind of a D&D/Dungeon! mashup, but party-based more than character-based.

Most enjoyable was watching him run it. That, and introducing him to the HP-regenerating Troll! That was good for a TPK. The game basically was my son stocking three levels, each with outer area, inner area (bigger chance of treasure), and boss dragon in the center. We tracked treasure with lego pieces and when it got to look like too much, the party had to make it back to the start (wandering monster checks after every turn), stash their cash ,and then re-enter. He made it a competition to see which party could win the most treasure. The first two parties we ran were wiped out on level one (one by a wandering troll, the other by the dragon), but the third party cleared all three levels.

I guess I said more there than I figured I was going to.

Other that, a bunch of unfinished projects. The only thing in my fictional world, though, was I started a story (involving a couple of the characters my daughter and I came up) in my version of Portown. I hope to get back to that one of these days.

[magremore]

Updated core rules for next campaign = LBB + Great Plains thief + additions/changes, interpretations, and other sources noted: Things Better Left Alone.

Dungeon is started, but slow going with RL schedule getting more hectic lately. 

Gist is to start simple/generic and let story emerge from play...

The mighty stronghold Thunderhall was overrun in the Great War. A generation has passed and the Great Kingdom finds itself in a time of relative peace. Adventuring to Thunderhall is outlawed out of fear of disturbing the beasties and badlings that settled in the dungeons under the ruins. But legends of lost treasure troves and potent magic items still tempt some brave or foolhardy souls to seek fortune and power in the dungeons where none have succeeded before.