Upcoming Schedule Lords of Hack

 

LOH upcoming schedule

August 22 — online Thranconia

August 29 - game night Finale of Eldritch Earth

September 5—online Thranconia

September 11 — live Session 0 of new campaign

New Adventuring Skill for Thranconia II

I've added one more adventuring skill to the list to choose from for Thranconia:  BIBILIOPHILE

BIBLIOPHILE: a skill roll allows the detection of book worms in “wormy” books. A skill roll allows the character to appraise the fair resale value of non-magic books found on adventure. Unskilled mages and clerics can attempt these tasks, but it is a 1d100 INT check. The herb vermifuge is the only treatment for book worms.

If you bring a wormy book into your possession, it will destroy all carried scrolls, books and maps within 1 hour.

This skill is of major interest to Magic-Users, of course, but also to Clerics who use spell books in this version of the game (and even Thieves can acquire and use scrolls which are subject to book worm attacks.).  The search of wormy books described in the first version of "Random Dungeon Maker" is now replaced with these rules.

Thranconia Rules Revisions: Omnibus Update

THRANCONIA RULES UPDATE

I’ve been busy doing some sweeping rules revisions for Thranconia (most of it will be rather invisible in most of play, and they should all make things go faster and more smoothly.).   Here is a complete catalogue with links.   

I’d suggest that everyone read the initiative rules and saving throw revisions, and if your characters does a lot of melee, read the weapons and combat maneuvers too.  

I’d suggest everyone who uses weapons, herbs and alchemical products to read through the revised Gear Book.

 

#1—Initiative Refigured

            Doing away with the blocky Blueholme set-up, it was necessary to reconfigure the initiative rules, the weapon details and the combat maneuvers:  see these links:

            Revised Initiative

            Revised Weapon Rules

            Revised Combat Manuevers

 

#2—Maintenance/Living Expenses

            I decided that I liked the Living Expenses/Maintenance we’ve been using for Eldritch Earth better than any we’ve ever used, so I took this opportunity to make Thranconia like that.

            Living Expenses

#3—Buildings (no link) 

            Since we aren’t really using the tabletop models for Thranconia, and I see it being a remote/virtual thing for quite some time, I don’t need to make the buildings match my models.  Instead I made them match with the Blueholme/OD&D set up.  Included in the new gear books

#4—Saving Throws

            My new Saving Throw Calculus is posted here:

            Revised Saving Throws

#5—Business

            The quick and dirty business rules can be found here:

            Business

 

#6—Gear Book Revision

            Since the weapons had to be re-configured, I took the opportunity to re-edit the Gear Book.   A lot of things had gotten muddy in the cutting and pasting from Thranconia to Eldritch Earth and back to Thranconia.   I’ve cleared up with weaponry, alchemy, herbals, and incorporated the building revisions.   The Gear Book and the Revised Combat Cheat Sheet (which I really should have been using more in play, it’s a lot of stuff that is good to know in combat), are both posted as PDFs at this link:

            Thranconia Reference Documents

I'm Doing It, Pulling off the Band-Aid

For Thranconia,   I've been grappling with the Initiative/Turn Sequence for a long time.   I really wanted to give the SR-Rating for weapons a go, I thought it was great in the mass-battle we did before Thranconia I 2 years ago.   But, I found I don't like the blocky nature of the Holmes initiative sequence that I hung the system on.

I instead want to switch to the traditional 1d6 group initiative from AD&D 1e and Basic D&D (and Adventurer Conqueror King for that matter).   

I think it will make dungeon battles go more smoothly and faster.

I've tried to make the weapons charts more interesting and incorporate the RESULTS of the SR system without the numerical framework.   These things will mostly be important to Fighters who want to get interesting benefits from weapons choices, but everyone will likely notice 1-2 small details to their advantage.  

I'll be updating the Gear Book and the Wiki on combat rules in the near future, but the actual changes to game play will be very easy to see and will make things smoother and faster.   For example, the long weapons will often get an Extra Attack at first contact, instead of having to have a melee phase match up, and Charges, Picking things off the ground and Fighting Withdraws will be easier to manage.

Schedule: April 17-18

Looks like no D&D games at all this weekend.   Go outside and play.

Johnny and Prostitutta's Big Shopping List

So Johnny Venice and Prostitutta (and the brick-guards) take a wagon down to Kingston to sell off the Dimensio loot and spend-big time on luxury outfitting for the house.

Prostitutta:

Gown, marvelous    1000gp

Gowns, fine   x2     200gp

Cosmetics 2 sets    30gp

Silk undergarments x260   260gp

Silk , hooded cloaks x2    50gp

Pairs of shoes  x260    104gp          (yes, you read that right, 260 pairs of shoes)

Set of Fine dishes         200gp

Set of silverware                     70gp

Large fine polar bear fur     500gp

Total:  2414gp

Johnny Venice:

Full sized mirror  100gp

Table    15gp

Chairs x6    24gp

Wine racks x2     30gp

Large Painting of Venice   500gp

Wine bottles x30     30gp

14 pints of expensive wine:  100gp (7 bottles)

46 pints of medium wine (23 bottles)   23gp

15 silver candlesticks     150gp

2 crystal goblets               60gp

2 sofas                               20gp

Large bed                          20gp

Cabinets x4                      40gp

China closet   50 gp

Kitchen pots          25gp

Trousers and shirt (good) x2  40gp

Trousers and shirt (fine)   100gp

Leather boots  5 pairs             25gp

Hats x10                                      8gp

Winter cloak x2                              30gp

Hooded cloak x2                            20gp

Bust of Pope Urban II                  100gp

Medium painting of Jesus and John the Baptist having lunch       200gp

200 wax candles                     4gp

 

Total:  1714gp

THRANCONIA new material and coming weekend

April 17-18

I can do either Saturday Night or Sunday Night for the Cat Crew in Thranconia this weekend.   Let me know what's open for people.

I could also do another session, sometime Saturday afternoon or anytime Sunday, for non-Mrow related action.

Two New Thranconia Rules:

Saving Throws:   I've changed how Saving Throws are calculated, roughly same odds, but no more charts.

Saving Throws

Businesses:   I've made a quick and easy set of rules for businesses for Thranconia,  I don't expect it to get much use, but have posted it none the less.

Businesses

Easter Weekend

I've got a fair amount of open time over Easter Weekend.   (Got an eye doctor appointment 3:30 Friday, but that's about it.)   If anyone wants to do anything with Thranconia throughout the weekend, I'm ready.  New characters, old characters, new group, old group whatever.

Especially ready are the Crossroads Tavern dungeons, levels 1-3  and the Pits of Damnation under the city of Emporion, for levels 3+.   But other stuff too.  

Check:  Pathways to Adventure

Sunday's Eldritch Earth

For Sunday's game,  we will be starting almost immediately, game time wise, after last game.   We ended on September 29 and book auction, and need to take up action on October 1, for the Shire Moot to settle the Frogtown question.   (Don't worry, there won't be any difficulties with that, honest,  I mean it.  wink).

You might want to pay maintenance for September 1--October 1.   1 gp per day per hit die of Characters, Retainers, and animals (horses, mules etc) --but not for non-adventuring business employees or farmers.  Half the total for all who have enough living space for their people and beasts.

Feline Friday Fun

We'll see if they indeed never leave Quellintan.   Friday March 19, 6pm, discord.   

Mrow and the bunch wander the caves waiting for Renly to bring them supplies.

Upcoming Schedule and other stuff

Sunday March 14, 4pm  next 5 Hacks Deep, a trip to Kingston.

Saturday  March 13, 5pm,  Thranconia, Mrow to the Caverns part 3 (probably)

Just wanted to say that we've had 10 different sessions among 5 different parties in Thranconia 2, so far.  Pretty awesome.   I open to  a lot of short sessions, so if you feel like playing, let me know.   Generally, it's best for me  Noon-8pm Saturday, and almost anytime Sunday.   Some evenings from 6-8 are okay too (probably not Thursdays).

If you want to see the collected logs so far  they're all at the wiki:

Thranconia 2 log page

I am starting to pile up a fair number of dungeons.   There's a 3 level complex for level 1-3 characters under Crossroads Tavern all ready to go.   I've also finished the upper level of the Pits of Damnation under the city of Emporion, for level 3+ characters.

THRANCONIA: Mrow goes back to the Caverns, Sunday 5

Mrow (with at least Chuggins)  is scheduled to return to the Caverns of Quellintan, on Sunday March 7 at 5pm on discord.   Anyone interested, join him for more Goblin and Dwarf clearage.  

State of Eldritch Earth

I really hope that everyone is enjoying their time in Eldritch Earth. We're getting to a point where we all have things we are building and maintaining in this world of lets-pretend alternate Pennsylvania. I suppose I wanted to get a little bead on where we want to go ultimately. We've got Dillsburg to the West that we need to deal with. There are the monsters of Deadman's Town across the river to the East. Toward the Northern mountains, Dave and I have some ancient Atlantean threats and to the South the Red Lion cannibals are nipping at the heels of anyone who passes to Kingston.

What is the endgame? Do we fight a war against the Danes to the far East? Do the monsters come for us and we have to fight for what's ours? Maybe the king calls on all the knights to take up arms for him? What do we want to do in the future? What sounds fun?

Useful Tools

There are some useful tools that I'd thought I'd post access to here for everyone.

1--Owlbear Rodeo:  the most excellent battle map system we've used for the last few weeks.

Owlbear Rodeo

2--Tactical Tokens: Custom Token Maker:  easy tool to make any picture into a token you can use on Owlbear Rodeo

Tactical Tokens

3--Dungeon Sprawl:  a browser-based dungeon map maker, quick and easy

Dungeon Sprawl

Additionally, I've created some documents to guide one through the process of creating a Random Dungeon for solo or impromptu play, or when you've got no ideas.

4--Random Dungeon Charts

Thranconia Random

Small Example of a Dungeon Scrawl Map.

Thranconia thoughts so far.

As of now, we have had 2 solo parties play adventures (my Up to Gnome Good,  Andrew's Goblin War), one two-player party (Gordon's Alive!  Andrew and I) and 1 multi-player party (Cat's Back:  Bob, Jason, Quinton and Andrew).    All within a week.

I couldn't be more pleased with that result.    We have a bunch of people all doing different things.   Players are driving the adventures.   Andrew picked the goblin war,  Bob the return to Quellintan,  Gnomes are just being gnomes.  

Big thanks to Andrew for finding Owlbear Rodeo.   Having the dungeon map pre-set with counters and covered by fog was absolutely awesome for traditional exploration and with this software amazingly easy.   The token maker is totally great too.

I know that getting used to the turn sequence will take a little time.   It is very 70's miniature warfare based and so seems strange, but given a little time, I think it should be worth it.  I think we can use it effectively to give people serious tactical choices and make them have to make trade-offs, which is part of the point of games.

On the other hand, if people just hate it we can re-work it.    We could simplify to "I do all my stuff, you do all your stuff, bad guys do all their stuff" system if we want to.   We could then tart up the weapons a little to mimic the SR system effects.  I'm open.

If other people want to do some solo play and want me to help you put some things together, let me know.   I'll post the logs and everything.

FIGHT ON!

Thranconia Session Sunday 2/21. 5pm

 Mrow, the feline magician is coming out of retirement to see what has become of Quellintan, the House of Regulus the Binder, after two years and a pounding by Earthquake spells.

Sunday 2/21 at 5pm, meet on our discord. We will be getting right to the action, so either meet up with me on discord to create a character ahead of time, or look over the Thranconia wiki and tell me the class/race etc you want to play and I'll work up your character for you, or just take a pre-gen when we start.  No creating characters at game time.

Characters will start with 2600xp, making them about 2nd level.  We're playing modified Classic D&D not 5 Hacks.

THRANCONIA CAMPAIGN 2 GOES LIVE

THRANCONIA SECOND CAMPAIGN:   OFFICIAL OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT AND PITCH

 

The original Thranconia campaign was run in the first half of 2019 in 11 sessions.   It was memorable, if plagued with an excessively high body-count.    I’ve done a revision of some of the rules to reduce, hopefully, the body-count and am beginning a 2^nd campaign right about now.

This will be a virtual campaign, meeting frequently but on an irregular basis, as individual players feel the urge and have the time.    Because of the virtual nature, I’m especially encouraging former players who are at a physical distance to rejoin us for this campaign. 

 

The Campaign Structure

·       True Sandbox:  we’ve tried Sandboxes before, but it always seems to default to, we show up to the table, whoever DM’s has something specific prepared, and we go with that.  There’s nothing wrong with that method, but used to do sandboxes decades ago and they have their own virtues, fun and charm and would like to see one happen again.

·       No fixed Game Day:   this will not be our regular every-other-Sunday game, but rather a side game.  When someone wants to do something, contact me, or eventually other willing Judges, and do it when it can be fit in.   I see a lot of Saturday evenings, and maybe alternate Sunday evenings being common, but nothing happens unless some reaches out to a Judge or pal.

·       Players Pick adventure:  on the wiki I have a series of Pathways to Adventure which players can pursue.  The status of each at any moment will be described as best as possible, it’s up to the players to pick one OR COME UP WITH SOMETHING THEY JUST WANT TO DO.

·       Multiple Parties: even before the games, beyond one solo one I’ve done, have begun, there are three parties at the ready, and I have at least 1 character in each.  Some parties might be solo parties, some might have characters only from 1-2 players.  Some might start at first level, some at higher level.  I envision various parties acting virtually simultaneously in different places doing different things.

·       Many DM-less games: some sessions will be traditional Judge and players games, some will be Judge-less using various random methods of resolving things, some will be solo games where the single player runs all the characters and the monsters.  As the over-Judge of the campaign, I want some sort of limited say over magic item, gold and XP distribution, so we keep everything in a certain moderate range of might and magic, but if you want to solo, go ahead and we can add your results to the logs and calendar.

·       No overarching story:  Thranconia is a place, not a tale.   Each player or group of players create their own story by their choices and actions.   There’s no meta-plot at all driving the action.

Game System:

·       The game will be played using the Blueholme Journeymanne Rules as its base architecture.  This is available at Drive-Thru.   These are essentially a clone of Eric Holmes 1977 Basic D&D extended to level 20, with a bunch of spells taken from Original D&D and AD&1e.  T

·       I have added a series of house rules, especially for weapons, combat maneuvers and general combat procedures, because the Fighters in Journeymanne are under served.   Likewise I changed how Thief Skills work (ripping off a Gangbusters B/X idea), because otherwise, thieves just toad the wet sprocket.  Look at this page on the wiki:  House Rules 2nd campaign

 

How to Join In:

·       Most games will be done virtually (unless after Eldritch Earth suffers a TPK and Thranconia becomes the Sunday game in a post-vaccine world) using Discord for talking  and Owlbear Rodeo for battle maps.  Contact me for details.

·       Parties will appear on the Our Heroes page of the wiki and email announcements sent out when players are needed.  If you want to make a character for any party let me know and we’ll get it done.

THE BEGINNING:

The following parties have already been formed or are forming:

Up to Gnome Good:  if you are a Neutrally-Aligned Gnome Thief, Fighter/Thief, or Magic-User/Thief, join the expert treasure hunters on expeditions from the Town of Crossroads Tavern out into the ruins of the wilderness about.

Gordon’s Alive:   Squire Gordon of Boarswood is taking up adventuring with some of his friends and relations in order to rectify his crushing debt problem.

The Cat’s Back:  Mrow, a hero of the first campaign, is back in action after a 1-1/2 year research sabbatical.   Who will join this feline sorcerer?

 

Special Game - Feb 6th Saturday

We all loved the last special game, we will do it again. From 5-7 on Saturday let's do a special roleplaying session to sort out things like "Why does everyone think that Frogtown is populated by blasphemers" and "Why can't Father Kildare get a congregation for services in Shepherd's Hollow" among other things. If we have time left over, let's clear out the wood around the Irish Treehouse or attack the troll that lives in Bonecrusher Pond.

Special Game January 23--Saturday

We're going to have a special session of the campaign on Saturday, January 23 from 5-7 on the discord.   It's special not because of what's going to happen, just that it's not our usual day or time, just a 2 hour extra game because I feel like doing something.

We''ll be using the GM-o-Matic, (you know, roll 1d12 and 1=exact opposite) procedure.   It will be a town adventure in Jorvikburg, so you can do some recruiting and shopping if you want.