Lost Baronies of Lendore Isle - Session #1

The characters found themselves standing on the docks of Restenford with only a small amount of their personal property and a writ from the Ten Islands Trading Syndicate worth 100 gold if presented to the right persons. The rest of their equipment was on board the Harlot's Due, missing at sea since the storm separated the 4 ship convoy.

After some discussion and asking for information from some of the local fishermen, they decided to visit the abbey of Phaulkon, god of the seas and good weather, where Pedro a priest and devotee of the deity would try to exchange the writ for gold.

Meanwhile Fred Stone, Tok, and Seamus made their way to a dockside bar named Falco's Tavern to gather information about local places to buy new equipment and to find lodging for the night.

Out on the dock, two hapless laborers were being harrangued by a smiling dwarf as they struggled with unloading goods from a boat. Pausing, he introduced himself as Gap and suggested they go inside and talk to his brother Falco who would be behind the bar. He also quietly told Fred that Falco would serve him a special free drink, being a fellow dwarf.

Meira, Rowena, Elanna, and Samson decided their time would best be spent exploring the town.

At the abbey Pedro met with Almon the Curate who explained that Qualton the Abbot was away on church business.

After the writ was exchanged they passed some time discussing Pedro's mission and local matters affecting the church. Almon explained that the Baron did not look favorably on the church after a prolonged series of events during which he felt the priesthood failed to aid the town in a sufficient manner. He also warned Pedro to beware bandits that have been troubling travelers to and from Restenford.

At Falco's, Seamus watched with amusement and Tok engaged in some wagering with some of the patrons as Fred tried to chug beer from a large stone flagon the size of his head, and ended up drenched in a potent beer reserved for dwarven customers. Falco, sufficiently amused, quietly offered Fred "room and board for a mere 4 silver", while his "usual price to non-dwarves is 11 silver and still the cheapest in town", although he has few rooms available. Fred also inquired with Falco if he knew anything about an ancient dwarven stronghold named Crackhelm*. This seemed to amuse Falco, but gained no useful information.

Meeting back up, the party went on a shopping spree to get some gear. Left with very little money, they decided it might not be a bad idea to try to find the bandits, defeat them, and gain some loot with which to support themselves.

Off they went looking for the bridge the Curate had indicated as the main ambush site where the bandits seemed to operate. This proved to be their lucky day and their plan to walk into the ambush and win went better than expected with all 7 Orc bandits dead and not a single injury among the party.

A well placed sleep spell, combined with good rolls for the party and bad rolls for the bandits made this a very quick and lopsided fight.

The party came away with no coins, however there were 4 gems, a scroll with two second level arcane spells, and plenty of equipment to either keep or sell.

The session ended with the party tossing the looted Orcs into the river, bundling up the weapons, armor, and other items, and heading back toward town.

* Crackhelm is something I am developing for possible publication.

Playing even when only two players show up.

Lost Baronies Session #5 is over and done with, and the time to begin preparing for #6 is approaching.

Due to some very odd scheduling issues this summer, there have only been two players (the same two each time) at the game for sessions 3, 4, and 5. The schedule is going to get wackier yet, though it should settle down when fall arrives.

With a party of 10 characters run by 6 (was 7, see an earlier post) players, many people would be inclined to play something else or cancel the session. In the past I would have done the same.

The differences for this campaign are that it is not heavily plot driven, being a sandbox style game, some of the players travel an hour or more to play, and I don't want to lose momentum and have the game die off as some past games have done.

When this happened for session #3 I was caught off guard, not having heard from anyone that they couldn't make it. Since then I have made a point of clarifying with everyone what their schedules are like for the foreseeable future.

The game is scheduled, and has been since before the start, to run regularly on the first and third Saturday of each month. Players can easily mark their calendars for it. Despite this, it has become routine now to send a reminder sometime during the latter part of the week before the day of play.

According to the players, unless things change, there should be 3 to 5 players for the next session since a new player is expected to join. We shall see.

Lost Baronies of Lendore Isle - House Rules

All games seem to start with and gain or lose house rules as they progress. These are the current house rules for the campaign, some sent at the start, others having been added during the first few sessions so far. More are sure to be added.


All characters begin play with maximum hit points for their class die and constitution bonus.

Thieves:
Thieves use a d6 to determine hit points instead of a d4.

Thieving skills - thieves may add 5% to the percentages on the chart if they have a dexterity of 16 or higher.

Clerics:
Clerics can use the weapon of their deity.

Turning undead can be tried once per encounter plus an additional number of times per day equal to wisdom bonus.

Clerics can either pray for spells in advance, or leave slots open and use a full turn to pray for them later (a turn is 10 minutes). If enough slots exist they can pray for some ahead of time and leave other slots open.

Death:
Characters reduced to zero hit points exactly are considered unconscious or incapacitated and can live if treated, bandaged, or healed. Characters reduced below zero can make a save vs death once combat ends to see if they are stable and can live. Characters in both cases that survive are treated as being at 1 hit point, modified by any healing performed.

Sheild using classes (some may recognise this as inspired by "Shields Shall Be Splintered", to be properly lauded in a future blog post):
Special Rule - when you take damage you can opt to say your shield absorbed the force of the blow or aided in your save against a damaging spell that allows an appropriate saving throw. The shield is considered damaged beyond repair. In the case of the saving throw it doesn't prevent all damage, instead acting as a successful save for half damage. Magical shields lose a plus of value instead of shattering outright. Eventually even a magical shield can be ruined. This rule does not help in the case of massive damage.

Magic Users:
No double dipping. To ensure more variety of spells in play, magic users may not memorize the same spell twice in their allotment. This should also inspire creation or purchase of scrolls, potions, or other magic items. (That's right, no loading up on multiples of sleep, fireball, etc.)

Identifying magic items (not potions). (this rule was created on the go during play and will be discussed in detail in a future blog post).
This is done by the use of a lengthy and dangerous ritual that all arcane casters know how to perform. The ritual takes 8 hours and leaves the caster so physically and mentally drained that immediately afterward another 8 hours of uninterrupted rest is required. If the required rest is not completed, a save vs paralysis is required with failure indicating collapse of the caster into a coma for 6d4 hours.
At the time of the ritual the caster must succeed on a save vs spells to know what the item can do. Failure gains no knowledge. A roll of natural 1 on the saving throw results in the caster immediately falling into a coma as above. The caster may only try to identify one item at a time.

This is how to do it right: withdrawing from a campaign the mature way.

Interrupting the planned flow of posts (was going to go over house rules).

Tomorrow will be session #5 of the Lost Baronies campaign. This afternoon I received an email from a player that is withdrawing from the game.

Because of how politely this was done, and how detailed the player's reasons are, I decided that it warranted a blog post.

No names or other details will be given, however this is the core of the email:

"I actually do not think I'll be playing in the campaign anymore . . . I do not like the game system . . . and I seem to have a different playing style than your usual group . . .I usually just want to fight stuff and solve mysteries . . . but they seem to want to role-play much more than I do. Thanks again for the invite and the hospitality!"

There was more to the email that wasn't focused on the campaign so it isn't relevant to this post.

That, OSR fans, is a mature and proper explanation of reasons for dropping out of the game. No beating around the bush, no trying to avoid hurting feelings, just complete honesty that really helps everyone understand what is happening.

I will miss the player being there and have indicated that the invitation remains in place should a change of mind happen.

And now back to our regularly scheduled mayhem . . .