This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 16: Pelagic Nightmares
Characters:
Ander Hornraven: A level 3 beserker barbarian, Ander used to be a ocean sailing raider (and sometimes trader). One of the small fishing villages he used to be on friendly terms with has asked for help against kuo-toa raids.
Hope: A level 3 tiefling cleric of light, Hope vows to help people in need and the common fishermen obviously need help against the blasphemous kuo-toa.
Galanodel Mei: A level 4 half elf monk, Mei has heard that kuo-toa practice the martial arts and so is curious to see their technique.
Shanairra Liadon: A level 4 elf druid of the land, Shanairra is moved by the village’s plight and hopes to save them.
This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 15: Devils again?
Characters:
Kanithar Dyenina: A level 3 paladin, Kanithar has been carefully monitoring cult activity in the area. He has recently learned that a cult of devil worshippers has moved into the old temple to Asmodeus from adventure one, so he organizes an expedition to kick them out.
Galanodel Mei: A level 3 half elf monk, Mei agrees to support Kanithar and lend a hand.
Kellen Garrick Oneshoe: A level 3 gnome bard of lore, Kellen has recently attached himself to the most heroic party member (Kanithar) to chronicle all his heroic deeds.
Shanairra Liadon: A level 3 elf druid of the land, Shanairra is not as traditionally religious as Kanithar, but recognizes devils as a threat to the natural world and so agrees to follow along.
This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 14: Snake Eyes
Characters:
Dain Ironfist: A level 3 dwarf fighter, Dain is approached by a minor baron, who requests that they bring him a magic shield so that he will be ready to fight alongside the duke of swords when he revolts from the central kingdom. It is in an abandoned elven temple built on top of a small mesa.
Ander Hornraven: A level 3 barbarian, Ander gets recruited by Dain to help find the shield.
Hope: A level 3 tiefling cleric of light and founding member of the party, Hope and Dain have become good friends and she agrees to come as well.
Roscoe Greenbottle: A level 3 halfing warlock of the old ones, is in debt to the party since they caught him committing fraud. He adventures with them and always claims that it is because of the debt, but he actually worked that off months ago.
This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 13: Love and Ettins
Characters:
Ovak: A level 3 half-orc ranger, she began an ongoing romance while carousing a while back. She has been seeing a dwarf named Harbek for a few months, but his caravan was attacked by an ettin and he and a few others were carried off. Ovak gathers a group for a bold rescue.
Kellen Garrick “Oneshoe”: A level 3 gnome bard of lore, Kellen cannot resist this tale of love, rescue and adventure! He simply must take part.
Dain Ironfist: A level 3 dwarf fighter, Dain agrees to help out Ovak and, of course, a fellow dwarf in peril.
Galanodel Mei: A level 3 half-elf monk of the open hand, Galanodel has little time for love, but sees that Ovak is deeply concerned and joins her.
This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 12: Rescue from the Hobgoblins
Characters:
Kanithar Dyenina: A level 3 paladin of devotion, Kanithar is commissioned by an agent of the County to locate and hopefully rescue a recent patrol sent to investigate hobgoblin raiders.
Climber: A level 3 dragonborn sorcerer, Climber worries about the potential weakening of the county in light of recent unrest between the Duchy of Swords and the central kingdom.
Shanairra Liadon: A level 3 elf druid of the land, Shanairra recently fought corruption in the nearby forests. She dislikes hobgoblins as much as anyone and agrees to come along.
Fodel Marsk: A level 3 abjuror, Fodel is concerned as well about an increase in monstrous activity. Recent goblin attacks, rogue green hags, and corruption among the town guard all point to danger.
Roscoe Greenbottle: A level 3 halfling warlock, Roscoe, was a swindler and forger before he turned to a servant of the mad Old One. No one trusts him, but his power is valuable and he hasn’t betrayed them yet.
Ander Hornraven: A level 3 barbarian beserker, Ander fights alongside didn’t feel motivated to join this expedition, but when Roscoe questioned his bravery, immediately accepted the challenge.
This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 11: The curse of Grelda
Characters:
Caelyn Evenwood: A level 2 half elven rogue, Caelyn is the newest member of the group. Hoping to gain the other’s trust, she comes to them with some rumors that she has heard of a group of corrupt city guards making deals with evil entities outside of town.
Kanithar Dyenina: A level 3 paladin of devotion, Kanithar is furious with the idea that city guards might betray their duty and agrees to help investigate.
Ovak: A level 3 half orc ranger, Ovak is the logical choice to guide them should they enter into the wilderness. She is unhappy to be leaving her new lover in town, but agrees that it makes sense.
Fodel Marsk: A level 3 abjuror, Fodel is nervous as as rumors of rebellion and potential reprisal from the central kingdom become common. He follows to make sure that this is just some petty corruption and not something more nefarious.
This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 10: Following up on Fey Foes
Characters:
Shanairra Liadon: A level 3 druid in the circle of the land, Shanairra was disturbed at the blights that attacked her and Climber last month. She knows that there is something deeply unbalanced in that part of the wood and convinces Dain and Hope to come investigate with her.
Dain Ironfist: A level 3 dwarven fighter, Dain was one of the original founding members. He is a little on edge going into an adventure probably centered around magical woodland spirits, but he doesn’t let it show.
Hope: A level 3 tiefling cleric, Hope found new purpose adventuring with the party after being forced out of her original temple. She strives to show that she is worthy of her god’s blessing.
This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 9: Trouble Brewing in the Duchy of Swords.
Characters:
Surina “Climber” Norixious: This level 2 dragonborn sorcerer goes by her childhood nickname of Climber. An ex-mercenary, she has joined with the group to make ends meet as she explores her draconic bloodline and unlocks power.
Shanairra Liadon: A level 2 druid in the circle of the land, Shanairra prefers the forest to the city of Kerring. Regardless, she has joined the group on some adventures and is always willing to help out. She isn’t proud of her past (and she doesn’t share it) but she tries to become a better person.
This is a relatively terse report of the occurrences of a long scale 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign with a roster featuring one member of each class in the basic Player’s Handbook. I used the random tables in the Dungeon Master’s Guide extensively to generate dungeons and adventure seeds. It is very hack and slash in style.
Adventure 8: The Search for Mei
Characters:
Kellen Garick Oneshoe: Level 3 gnome bard of lore. The enthusiastic and self-appointed chronicler of the group’s exploits, Kellen is distressed when they return to Kerring and find that Galanodel Mei has not returned from her meditations. The others shrug, since Mei is frequently gone for stretches of time, but Kellen decides to investigate.
Galanodel Mei: Level 3 monk of the way of the open hand. Mei spent the last month at a wilderness shrine, meditating and contemplating her true self. When she tried to leave, she discovered that a strange magical field prevented her from leaving. Being the stoic person she is, she simply decided to continue meditating until something changed.
Instead of a regular journal dump, this week I am going to talk a little bit about how I am running this campaign, the resources that I use and how it works. I have found it very enjoyable and so others might be interested.
Core Mechanics: GURPS
GURPS is my favorite overall gaming system due to its incredible flexibility and descriptive mechanics. This campaign only really uses the two basic books: Characters and Campaigns. I used a handful of equipment from Low-Tech because I needed neck armor which is almost totally absent in basic. For those who play GURPS, I am notably not using Dungeon Fantasy or Magic. Those are great books, but this campaign is meant to be very vanilla in content.
The characters use no template, I just built them all on 200 points. They each fall into classic fantasy class archetypes, but are less specialized and powered than the templates in Dungeon Fantasy. The titular Ardbrin, as a cleric, uses magic rules with Power Investiture taking the place of Magery like suggested in Basic.
World: World of Greyhawk
I collect a lot of old RPG materials and one of the best pieces is Gary Gygax’s 1983 Guide to the World of Greyhawk. It contains a massive map, descriptions of history, political divisions, climate, culture and more. Rather than build my own world at great expense (time is money) I decided to just use Greyhawk.
To be honest, I don’t know how Dungeons and Dragons has played with the setting since these original books, so I figured I would not have to follow any particular plot and could just do what I liked. I wanted to rely extensively on random generation since I am playing solo and like most of Gygax’s stuff, this has tables for everything.
Notably, I use the map and background material and calendar. I wrote a Python script to automate the weather generation system so I use that as well. That might actually just be my favorite part. I also use the encounter tables there as well as in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons DMG, although I do the encounters a little differently.
This website contains a well-thought out system for randomly generating fantasy adventures, journeys, dungeons and towns. (In fact entire worlds, although I already had my world set). I use the system to run the dungeons and generate adventures. I have also used his alpha-draft town adventure system to run the urban encounters. I really can’t say enough good things about how it works.
The system is occasionally goofy, like any random system, and I do not use the random monster generator because I use the Gygax tables. This does make me convert the Monster Manual stats over to GURPS, but it is not really that hard for most and I try and balance them against the party and peril level.
I use the Roll20 system with the GURPS character sheets and it works pretty well. I used to do it on physical paper, but the work flow for me is much easier if every aspect is online so that is my approach now.
Basic production:
I normally first generate weather for a day and, if the party is traveling, I make all the foraging and hunting rolls to determine how many rations they use. If they are in town, I calculate their cost of food and lodging instead. Most dungeons don’t take many days to do, so I keep track of food only as needed there.
Then I roll for encounters (I use the AD&D tables for that instead of the collaborative gamer style journey encounters). Most of the time, there are none, but sometimes there are and I roll them up.
In a dungeon, I follow the collaborative gamer system very closely and I have found it very good. It keeps me from getting bogged down in mapping or details and lets me focus on what happens.
I record most everything in a document which I later write the journal entries from. I decided to write from Ardbrin’s perspective since he is a foreigner and so would be more likely to explain things that a native character would already know. In addition, as a cleric he knows how to write and since traveling is part of his duty, it seems plausible he would also record his journeys.
Ra's Head 