New Campaign Character Creation Page

Find rules for creating a new adventurer in the new Eldritch Earth: Five Hacks campaign here! Choose from one of fifteen archetypes in this retroclone games based on D&D 5th Edition.

Twenty Years

It was a really great moment to be able to celebrate twenty years of the Lords of Hack. Thanks to everyone who came out to play!

After Action Report: Janu 13

Marlon, Bob and Dave did board game night on Sunday.

We played 2 cooperative board games:

"Agents of Smersh", which we've played before, but which we flailed around blindly trying to remember how the rules actually worked.   About half way through we got it all under control and managed to win relatively easily.

"Escape from 100 Million BC" where we crashed our time machine and had to search the prehistoric wasteland for missing pieces, and rescue castaways (including Daniel Boone, The Mona Lisa lady and Teddy Roosevelt) who had been sucked into time vortexes, and send them back.  We very narrowly won that one, but returned to a modern Earth that had been covered by flood waters due to all the paradoxes we caused.

Bob also showed us some of the products of his new 3-D printer, which were pretty swell.   I was looking at "Thingiverse" and thought that making a bunch of dungeon tiles might be a good use for the thing.   We'd then have a light-weight but modular way of setting up dungeon games.   I saw a couple types that might be perfect.

ACTION SHOTS: KRONDOR 19

These shots were taken following the liberation of Herculaneum.

Session 11 Action Shot

Owlbears attack the village of Berrywood!

Session 10 Action Shots

Here are some photos from the last game.

Now Available at Mort's Mining Supplies

Crackers & Bacon

1gp

1 pound

Acts as 1 day's rations. Tieflings and humans suffer 1 point of acid damage. Elves and half-elves suffer 1 point of piercing damage (crackers are sharp!) Dwarves and gnomes inflict 1 point of poison damage to all those within 5' for one hour after this food is consumed, and all other characters suffer 1 point of bludgeoning damage from the weight of this awful meal.

Campaign Ideas - More Paths to Adventure

I've been considering alternate ways for our PCs to get involved in adventures in Krondor. Dave and I have populated the Job Board with public-ish missions for our characters, but it occurs to me that perhaps we might offer alternate paths to adventure that are secret or character-driven. With that in mind, I will endeavor to also include a Current Events card draw for each session to spur the adventurers to action as well as a deck of Rumors appropriate to be heard in Newport and its nearby settlements.

Action Shot

Wun Hung Lo takes the fight to the kobolds right at the entrance to their mine!

The Smirkenburg Mines

The Smirkenburg mines are a complex of natural and man-made caves abandoned over a century ago. It was started by colony of early settlers from a northern city-state named “Smirkenburg” who had settled areas throughout Krondor only to abandon them unexpectedly. There are rumors of other ruins from antiquity that might be found across the island. The mines are tucked in the rough cliffs and highlands above the rocky western shores of Newport Bay. Each of the The twenty-six mine entrances are identified simply by a letter. They are spread across a two-mile square area just above the cliffs overlooking the bay.

I expect we'll have the "Smirkenburg Temples" or "Smirkenburg Caverns" as well. Basically anytime we want some sort of randomly generated content we can all play. For Sunday, I've got an assortment of 26 random caverns for us to explore.

Next Game

If it interests all of you, I would like to volunteer to start play "in medias res" with this job offered by the Harbormaster.

"About an hour's boat ride out is a beacon built by the Royal Krondor Trading Company just in the past decade to keep ships from joining the graveyard of trading vessels who have run aground navigating in rocks just below the surface in the dark. It has been manned by a keeper and his servant, and would receive supplies weekly to keep the beacon burning each night during sailing season. This season alone, the beacon has already been attacked twice. Each time the keeper was found murdered and the beacon sacked of all obvious valuables. I think it's an inside job since the past two servants were halflings - probably associated with the pirates who regularly sail these waters! Also, some really valuable stuff was left up on the high shelves. Those punters are short!"

"I can't station a whole garrison of troops there. They would be too obvious, and the pirates wouldn't make their move. Instead, I want a group of rat-catchers like yourselves to hide in the beacon and counterattack once something smells fishy. Take the fight back to these pirates! If you can keep the beacon lit throughout fifth-month, you can keep anything you take from the pirates and I'll see that those of you who last are paid 150 gold each."

If we have time after this adventure, we will do a "lightning round" discussing what we all want to do with our downtime characters, and perhaps mount an expedition to the abandoned Smirkenburg Mine directly to the West across Newport Harbor (SQUARE V29).

Action Shots

Weak Magic Items

As we decide how to create our magic item deck, take a look at this page dedicated to helping to create weak magic items. Do you guys suppose we might be able to incorporate more of these types of magical weapons and armor rather than just the traditional +1 sword?

Mapping Krondor

Let's sketch the outline of Krondor next Sunday as well, pointing out the location of Newport, the volcano, and the mouths of a few rivers. If we use a 1 square = 10 mile scale we could easily fit a PA/Iceland sized island on a piece of 1" graph paper.

Once we've got a rough sketch, I'll be able to create a digital version appropriate for displaying in our logs. With any luck, I'll have the Lords of Hack website back up and running by then and we can start to wiki about things we find on the island and the world of the Great Ocean.

Climate of Krondor

The climate of Krondor is temperate, not unlike that of Pennsylvania. Prevailing winds come from the East, and there is heavy precipitation in the South of the island in the Spring and Fall. Snow accumulates fast on the island in colder months, but ocean borne currents melt large deposits within a week. Winters are often bitterly cold and dry, with biting winds - particularly in the highlands to the North where there is less precipitation.

Session 15 Highlights

Here's a selection of photos from the last game.

Scene

Mr. Cheavers enters the second floor conference room of the Team C headquarters building.   He sits down and calmly looks around.

Cheavers:   "Good morning, Mr. Chains, Mr. Malju, Mr. Keys, Mr. Cop.   Where is Captain Freemont, he was supposed to be here."

(Freemont's voice from down the hall):  "I'm on the phone."

Cheavers: "If you would be so kind..."

Freemont (to phone):  "Listen, ma'am, I've told you, Dr. St. Giles isn't here."

Cheavers:  "Are you coming?"

Freemont (to Cheavers):  "Just a second, sir."

Freemont (to phone):  "Miss Weinstein, I told you I'd leave Dr. St. Giles a message, there's nothing else I can do.   This is a firm good-bye."

Freemont (to himself):  "How did that dame get this number?  What was Rhombus thinking?"

A dumb question

How the hell to I get to my character to edit stats and shit. Bitch.  Got this cool pic for Friday Jones.

Scoreboard Update: Queen of Fate

After the Queen of Fate Adventure, the Sons of David gang have increased their damage score to 67, our new leaders as most busted up.   Their condition, however, remains standard, the iron hand of Izzy Mandelbaum keeping the gang on course.   Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum, Mandelbaum!

Scoreboard Update and More

1--Scoreboard Update:


As predicted, the Disciples of the Bound Devil passed the 50 damage mark and I rolled on the chart.   They have become Demoralized and have a -1 to all Spirit Checks from now until they next have to roll.


2--Action Shot 1

 The Disciples approach from one side, while the Ghost Dragon ninjas on the other, the Wound Raven Gangsters are in Real Trouble

3--Action Shot 2:

Suds O'Brien and his top men return to their cars after robbing the Silver Moon, but wait, is that the Rhombus Mobile they hear in the distance?  They might be in for trouble.

Action Shot 3:

Here is the artist's rendering of the horror that Dr. Rhombus saw emerge from the Grimsby Building. What could this dread monster be?