[AD&D] A Mass Battle using Chainmail

February 23, 2024February 23, 2024 / Dread Lord / Leave a comment

I’ve been fascinated by the various methods Dungeon Masters use to tackle mass battles for some time, from hand waving them as a background event to the use of one roll resolutions like BECMI’s Warmachine. I’ve always been most interested by the use of miniature figures and wargaming rules to resolve these battles, having originally come into table top gaming by way of Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

So, several months ago, I made a conscious decision to try out all the various war gaming rules I’ve seen recommended for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (my current rules set) until I find one that best suits my current campaign and tastes.

I have currently played through the introductory scenarios in the 1E Battlesystem supplement solo and found it has some interesting mechanics and integrates well with standard Ad&d play, but the attack resolution mechanic is just a bit too bloated for me – it has a massive table that to use you must first calculate an Attack Rating, and then do arithmetic each attack and search through the many rows to find the casualty number. Not too bad really, but after a couple of rounds of play it becomes tedious and saps the excitement out of the game.

After that I set out to try all the other methods; Chainmail, Swords & Spells, Delta’s Book of War, and regular Ad&d combat resolution scaled up.

This week one of my players was unable to make my regular game, and so with two fistfuls of painted minis I set up a battle for my two players, and we did a bit of play testing; player vs player with me judging.

This is a write up of that game, and a description of how I ran it.

The Armies

I decided to roll up two humanoid forces using the 1e Monster Manual. My reasoning was that if I want to use wargaming rules in my campaign there would be plenty of asymmetric armies cropping I play. The random generation method of the MM seemed a good way to test how Chainmail handles such unbalanced battles.

I opted to use Wood Elves vs Goblins and rolled up their numbers and weaponry as if it were a random encounter in the wilderness. Then I had to make conversions, matching up weapons, and lumping the forces into sets of 1:10 for their model ratios.

Partially the reason I chose these two monsters was because in Chainmail one is clearly superior to the other. I decided to make large changes to the way they present in Chainmail rules, and have them more in keeping with the statistics found in the Monster Manual. More on these changes later.

Goblins

200 goblins with spears and slings – 20 Light Foot models with spear and sling
50 wolf riding goblins armed with morning-star – 5 Light Horsemen with morning-star
30 strong goblins (orc) with swords – 3 Heavy Foot

Elves

40 wood elves with bows (and sword) – 4 Archers
40 wood elves with spear – 4 Heavy Foot
2 Fighter Lvl 1
2 Fighter Lvl 2
2 Fighter/MU Lvl 2/1

Rule Changes

My plan is to play this as if it were in an Ad&d campaign. The rules in Chainmail are not really fit for purpose as given. Most obviously, the Chainmail rules were written before 1e, and the abilities for these creatures were both vastly changed by 1978. Some of the strange differences found in Chainmail include Goblins hitting as Heavy Foot but defending as Light Foot, and all elves constantly being invisible and all carrying magic swords. These are rules designed to counter other fantastical beasts in the Fantasy Supplement, and they have no use for me.

These are the main rule changes I made:

Goblins are light foot.
Elves fight and move as they are armed; spearmen are Heavy foot, and bow wielders are Archers.
Classed NPCs fight and move as per the rules found in Anthony Huso’s updated cheat sheet for chainmail, which I believe uses material from Delta Book of War.
Elves can split move and fire.
Elves are invisible until they first attack, but not after that. This follows how they are written in the monster manual where they are able to blend in with grass and trees until they attack.
I am using simultaneous initiative for this game, which means the two players write down their orders and I adjudicate the moves as if they were concurrent.
I use the alternative rule for Morale, pg. 17 Chainmail; Instability Due to Excess Casualties.
Spells are identical to how they are found in Ad&d, and so only as effective as they might if all the men were individual tokens. These spells take effect in the Artillery phase.
Slings are the same as found in Ad&d RAW: 20″ range, ROF 1.
No measuring allowed by players.
I changed the turn order to this:

1. Write Orders
2. Simultaneous Movement (passing fire, split fire)
3. Artillery (magic)
4. Simultaneous ranged attacks
5. Melee in weapon speed order.
6. End.

The Set up

I created a scenario with a simple goal. The goblins need to spend two turns taking a ruin. The ruin is atop a hill and if they spend two concurrent turns on it unmolested, they descend into the dungeon below and win the scenario. The elves must stop this from happening, and either wipe them out, or make them flee, or hold them off until the end of the twelfth turn.

1. The yellow sheet is the hill, the black lines are the gradient of rising levels: moving uphill is at half movement, you cannot charge uphill, it blocks LOS.

2. The white sheets are woods; cavalry cannot pass, moves are at half pace, they block LOS.

The goblin player set up on the southern edge with this order of battle:

the five wolf riders.
fifteen goblins in a single unit, two ranks deep.
the three strong goblins on the left, as a unit. Five goblins on the right in a single unit.

The elf player set up on the northern border with this order of battle:

S. Spearmen
A. Archers
1. Fighter 1
2. Fighter 2
FM. Fighter/MU

The set up was written in secret and handed to me, then I placed all the units on the table. The elves were invisible and the goblin player had no idea where they were. The photos below were taken afterwards, during the game I lined the elves table edge with die as tokens, and told them which ones represented what. I didn’t think this would be clear to follow in a blog post, so I reshot the battle afterwards.

Turn 1

Goblin ranks at the top, Elves at the bottom, ruin in the centre atop a hill.

Goblins orders: Wolves rush and circle the woods. Strong Goblins move towards hill. Remaining Goblins move into woods towards the hill.

Elves order: March into the woodland as a single unit, at the fastest pace possible.

The elves all moved in a single formation, but since the fighters move as Armoured foot they didn’t quite make it into the woods. The wolves have a very fast move, but used some of it pivoting.

Turn 2

Goblin Orders: Strong goblins and wolf riders take the hill. Other goblins get forward as fast as possible.

Elves Orders: I didn’t make it to the woods? Get inside those woods!

End of the round there was no firing with all the missile troops in wooded areas. The wolves pivot and get to the base of the hill, they know they will reach the top next turn, though they are totally unaware where the elves might be.

Turn 3

Goblin Orders: Wolves and strong goblins take the hill, the others follow up behind as quick as they can.

Elves orders: I want the archers on the edge of the wood looking at the hill. The Fighter/Magic users will go towards the hill. The spearmen and other fighters will move directly south and try to exit the woodland, next turn they will turn to face the hill.

The wolves take the hill, their leader fast footed behind them. As they reach the top of the hill however, the invisible archers catch sight of them at the edge of the forest. The Elves have moved almost 50% of their allowance, so that means they can make one round of shots.

They kill thirty wolves and their goblin mounts in a hail of arrows. The elves are now visible in the tree line. The remaining wolf riders see their fallen comrades and must make a morale check. The player fails the roll and the remaining wolf riders break and are removed from the game.

Turn 4

Goblin orders: The strong goblins shout back for their men to reach the hill and ready their slings, they charge forward.

Elves Orders: The archers will remain and pepper the hill. The Fighter/MU will move forwards, invisible. The spearmen and other fighters will take the hill from the east, invisible.

The strong goblins have run too far forward, moving closely to the written orders, and the elves shoot into them. Luckily for them, only ten of them die, they later succeed their morale check. The other goblins are slowly climbing the hill, their 9″ movement significantly reduced. The elf spearmen, keeping pace with the armoured foot of the Fighters, still struggling their way through the woodland. The two F/MU go towards the hill, still invisible.

Turn 4

Goblin Orders: Those light foot will take the top of the hill, the smaller unit screening the large one, they will shoot their slings into those archers. Strong goblins stay where they are.

Elves Orders: Archers are shooting at the powerful goblins in front. One magic user will use Light, and target the commander of the heavy goblin’s eyes. The other magic user will move invisibly towards them. Those spearmen will get up the hill.

The goblins now have the hill, if they can keep it by the end of turn six then they will enter the dungeon complex and win the scenario. The Magic user closest to the woods on the left uses Light on the goblin leader, he fails his spell save, and effectively reduces one of the strong goblins effectiveness down a grade to light foot in all the confusion. But now he’s visible to the goblin player. The elves shoot into the strong goblins but cause no deaths. The goblins return fire with their slings and cause no injury. The battle continues.

Turn 5

Goblin Orders: hold the hill and shoot dogs!

Elves orders: The spearmen and Fighters take the hill. The archers shoot. The magic users charge the ones atop the hill.

The magic user charges and becomes visible. The powerful goblins die from a volley of arrows. The spearmen finally reach the hill. The slings of the goblins still do no damage. The fighter/mu kills ten goblins in the melee.

Turn 6

Goblin orders: shoot and hold.

Elves orders: the second F/MU will close to combat. The spearmen will do the same. The archers will fire into the rear mob.

Both the goblins and elves had to shoot over the heads of the melee as in the turn before, and this really reduced their effectiveness, but this turn the goblins got very lucky and wiped out thirty elven archers. During the morale phase the last ten archers fled. The spears and F/MU didn’t have the movement to mount the hill or get into combat. Its very tense.

Victory – Turn 7

The goblins begin to enter the complex and win the game. As I was running the game I totally missed this, and we played another round, caught up in the drama of it all.

Goblin orders: I split my rear unit into two and fight on.

Elves orders: If the spearmen can combat the back rank, do that. The fighters will fight the front rank.

The spearmen are able to meet the back unit of goblins, and the two effectively wiped each other out. The spearmen lost three, and the goblins lost three, then they both failed their morale checks. The elven fighters and fighter/mu’s were totally untouched by the goblins and easily wiped them out.

The remaining sixty goblins managed to escape into the dungeons below the ruins of the chaotic temple.

End

This was an incredibly fun game and only took about an hour and a half to play through. Afterwards the players asked if the levelled elves could descend into the dungeon to hunt the goblins. I think that sounds like a great idea, and will write something up for that.

The modifications I made seemed to help bring the rules into line with the goblins and wood elves of the Monster Manual. The rules that I used from the Huso Chainmail Screen made the fighters really powerful though. They fight as two armoured foot per level, which allowed them to smash through goblins like they were paper dolls, whereas in Ad&d they would only have two attacks a round vs the goblins, not twenty.

In all this seemed to work well and I might well use these rules to play out mass battles in the future. But I would like to run the same scenario using a swords and spells first.

I hope to play another game soon and post more play reports like this. If you enjoyed this, or have any comments or questions please get in touch.

[AD&D] The Making of a Milieu

January 4, 2024January 4, 2024 / Dread Lord / 3 Comments

During the last two months I have been thinking about starting a second Advanced Dungeons and Dragons campaign. This campaign would be played in person, around a real table, which is quite a rare way of playing for me these days. The main reason for this is that I’d like to spread my enthusiasm for the game, and maybe generate a bit of interest for the old game in my local hobby scene.

This blog post is the collected notes of a brainstorming session I had whilst attempting to invent a purely Gygaxian Milieu for this new campaign. It is Gygaxan because it takes into account the assumptions generated by the three core books of AD&D, and is taking liberal inspiration from the Appendix N fiction of the Dungeon Masters Guide.

I eventually decided not to use this milieu, for reasons I will state in the conclusion of this post, but I thought it might make for interesting reading for new Dungeon Masters looking to create a world of their own.

Beginnings

To facilitate speedy development of this campaign world, so I can begin playing as soon as possible, I have opted to use an existing game board, bypassing much of the labour required to create a campaign map. Using a previously made map is also a tradition in itself.

The map should, at least in part, do some of the developmental work for me. If regions are named, and there are cultural clues in settlement names, all the better. This will all be valuable information in generating ideas.

Owing to the previous point, I have deemed the outdoor survival map an inferior choice. It contains only terrain hexes. No geographic information. No settlement names. No Gygaxian fluff. Also, the outdoor survival map does not have hex numbers which would aid my writing.

So, after searching through a bunch of old hex and chit wargame maps, I found the board from the 1978 SPI game Swords & Sorcery. The pdf for the map and rules can be found for free at the company’s website: https://www.spigames.net/rules_downloads.htm

The excellent thing about the Sword & Sorcery game board is that its features fit very neatly into the assumptions of AD&D. In fact, whilst flipping through the game’s rulebook and design notes, I found that the game world was originally created for an AD&D campaign. Many of the adventurer cards within this game are converted player characters apparently. This fact made me excited.

A glance across the map will reveal a litany of obvious tropes pulled directly from Appendix N. Sinkholes, altars of evil, old gods, orc towns. The map also uses hex numbers. I became very excited.

I printed and laminated a large version of this map and prepared myself for play, reading the section of the Dungeon Masters Guide entitled ‘The Campaign,’ and began brainstorming.

Rules for Creation of this Milieu

An emphasis on using the three core rulebooks of first edition AD&D.

Playability takes precedence. Do what is necessary and move on.

The campaign will use 1:1 time and an open table.

Inspiration is to come chiefly from Gary’s Appendix N, with a leaning towards the usually avoided sources (Leigh Brackett, Jack Vance, Gardner Fox, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Michael Moorcock, H.P. Lovecraft, myths, etc.) The less of Tolkien, the better.

Map Scale

The first thing to deal with is the map itself. It is beautiful, even if there are many jokey references – Evalyn Woods I’m looking at you. The issue that becomes immediately apparent is the scale of the thing. What scale should its hexes be?

The geography of the river and capital suggest a scale far too small than is appropriate for a long term campaign. In fact, the game Sword and Sorcery is scaled to a valley, with each hex being enough space to contain a cohort of men. At this scale the map could be traversed in a single day. This hardly lends itself to a good campaign map. The map must have depicted a local area akin to the maps from T1, albeit more detailed.

Given that a campaign map should ideally cover large swathes of land, I will try my best to see if I can scale up this map to be usable in a longer campaign, given the topography available.

I have therefore decided that each hex will represent three game inches. This equates to a league, or three miles. This also pairs up well with the sub hex searching mechanics found in the Dungeon Masters Guide for when PCs decide to ‘clear’ a hex.

Whilst the scale of one league means that the map is not massive, I can design a scale of increasing deadliness as one travels north on the map. Hopefully this lends it some longevity as a region of adventure, even without the usual massive world map.

The 3 mile scale gives us a fairly substantial sized region, but makes some of the features appear strange. The river depicted is suddenly very wide, an estuary perhaps, and the bridges crossing it are colossal, six miles wide in some instances. I fight the urge to give up on this project and power through regardless. We are playing a fantasy game so we can hand wave away this scale issue with a simple piece of world building: the giant bridges are structures of an elder race of Titans. Job done.

The other features with preposterous proportions are the two cities in the north and south. Rather than having the walls illustrated represent literal city walls, in our version of the map they are ancient battlements akin to Hadrian’s wall, built to keep out the nasty chaotic barbarians and such. The city hexes are settled lands.

Movement

Whilst traversing roads, movement will be at 24 miles per day whether mounted or walking. That’s eight hexes a day. Horses may move at double pace but will have increased surprise odds.

When moving off the roads, we will use the basic inch movement in miles as per the Players Handbook. In clear terrain the speed can be used twice a day. In the other terrain types the movement speed can be used once. In the mountains it is halved.

E.g. a party with a movement speed of 6” can traverse four Clear hexes a day. The same party can move two hexes of Forest a day. It takes them one day to move through a single mountain hex, if possible.

Note: as I was writing this, Settembrini posted a very interesting essay on movement speeds which was very serendipitous. Find it here: https://hofrat.rsp-blogs.de/2023/12/01/inch-by-inch-its-all-a-cinch-by-the-yard-its-hard/

Regions

The map has several regional delineations (the red dashes) that we can use to aid in our brainstorming. We will make them political areas of control and assign them some cultural attributes, making sure to keep in mind the needs of the campaign.

What are the needs of the campaign? AD&D is human centric, with demihumans being isolated and strange. There is a general mediaeval flavour to the system that has to be attended to, but its influences range from Nordic, Hyperborean, Sword and Sandal, and of course Planetary Romance. There must also be locations that attend the various races and classes. There need to be places for druids, monks, Paladins, assassins and magic-users to train.

Luckily the designers of the board game we are using have similar influences, so next I assign some brief lore to the regional areas in a way that can be player facing, so as to inspire exploration and make later placement of adventure locations easily themed.

The World

The world is a large planet with a red dying sun and two moons. Civilisation is small and weak, humanity is the most numerous intelligent species on the surface, but still small in number. The old technological empires fell long ago, their technologies lost or hidden and rediscovered as magic. The Lords of Chaos influence the world through the beastmen, and much of the planet is wasteland.

The mapped area is the northernmost tip of the world, close to the swell of chaos, where the underworld burrows up most frequently.

The Empire

This is the northern tip of a feudal society. To the South, for many hundreds of leagues, the green pastures are governed feudally under an immortal Emperor, whose vassal kings rule over the largest swathe of cultivated land on the planet. The city of Urf Durfal is the northernmost city under his banner, but has become corrupt and decadent, influenced by the treasures and magic dredged from the chaotic barbarism beyond the Northern Gate.

Urf Durfal
Population: 10,000
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Leader: King Asmond the Grey, LG Fighter 10
Region encounters: 1:12 per check
– 1:4 a patrol
– Otherwise an inhabited area random encounter in plains.

Aardvark Wallow

These broken steppes are the hunting ground of several nomadic tribes of horse folk. They winter at their mountain capital in yurts. Their seasonal raids against the empire continue throughout the summer seasons, and they are often paid as mercenaries against the Empire’s southern enemies.

Strakhenville
Pop: 1-3,000 in winter
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Leader: Altan Khan, Fighter 10, CN
Region encounters: 1:12 per check
-1:4 a patrol of steppe Nomads MM pg 68.
-Otherwise an inhabited area random encounter in hills

Capella

A sea of rough scrub and tundra. Small villages litter the old road. The area is ruled by a petty bandit king named Sirius who wanders the waste from his gilded caravan. His ragtag soldiers harass the road, extorting tolls and protection money from travellers, or taking to outright thievery.

Region encounters: 1:12 per check
-1:4 a patrol of bandits MM pg 66.
-1:4 a merchant caravan MM pg 69.
-2:4 inhabited area random encounter in plains.

N’Dardia

This wasteland is said to be ruled from a secret Keep hidden upon the great flat karoo. The leader of this keep reigns not with armies, but with hidden assassins. Some call him the old man, some call him the Second Emperor, others call him myth.

Region encounters: 1:12 per check
On a road
-1:4 a patrol
– 1:4 bandits.
– Otherwise, uninhabited area random encounter in suitable terrain.

Ka-Chunk

Shielded by the perilous broken steppes lay an isolated religious society of great antiquity, best known for their Amazonian warrior women. This region is ruled by the religious city-state Corflu, whose ancient oaths bind them to guard the haunted tomb of the damned. In the north is the hill of Avalon, where the tomb of Arthurius is said to lay hidden, and from whence he will rise again when the planet is in dire need.

Corflu
Pop:4,000
Alignment: Lawful Good
Leader: Archpriest Simeon, LG Cleric 15.

Region encounters:
1:20 in per check in cultivated area
– 1:4 a patrol.
– 3:4 inhabited area random encounter in plains.
Otherwise 1:8 per check
-uninhabited area random check in hills or mountain

The Swamp

A vile area said to be ruled by a vicious troll king. No right minded man travels there.

Region encounters: 1:8 per check
-Uninhabited area random check in marsh

Minotaurus

Home to barbarian tribes, raiders, berserkers, and beastmen, this wasteland region is shunned by the lawful, for venturing into it’s barren flats is sure death.

Region encounters: 1:8 per check
– Uninhabited area random check in scrub or broken

Endore

The King of Endore rules from castle Grund, aided by a council of nine arch-magi. The warrior caste of Endore, mailed knights on chargers, see themselves as the last bastion of law, and lord over a society of serfs. The Endorians are isolationist and paranoid, many of their guilds and societies are said to be infiltrated by agents of chaos. Their wars with Krasnia and Zirkast are legendary.

Castle Grund
Pop: 2,000
Alignment: Lawful Good
Leader: King William, LG Paladin 6

Region encounters: 1:12 per check
– 1:4 a patrol
-Otherwise inhabited area random check in plains

Rhiannon

This forest is said to be inhabited by a confederacy of half-elves and half-orcs, outcasts led by a mysterious figure called Dylan.

The mountains in the west are famed in Folklore as the site of the downfall of the Lord of Law, Rhiannon, who is said to have betrayed the elder gods by handing their technologies to the snakemen of old.

Region encounters: 1:8 per check
– inhabited area random check in suitable terrain

Evalyn Woods

A great expanse of woodland and dense forest. They say an elven citadel rules here, working in alliance with a circle of druids who keep the mysterious Fountain of Health. The rangers of the circle keep back the forces of chaos and strive to maintain balance. The bards of this region sing of a legend, that the once and future King of the North will be crowned by the lady of the pool.

Region encounters: 1:8 per check
– Inhabited area random check in forest

Neitherworld

Woe unto he who doesn’t pay tithe to the self proclaimed Black Baron who rules here. A vampire of ancient lineage who rules from a ruined tower in the blackened hills.

Region encounters: 1:8 per check
-1:4 on the road of a patrol of vampire thralls (men)
-Otherwise uninhabited area random check in mountain

Nattily Woods

A dark and gloomy woodland, known to be haunted by all manner of beasts. They say there is a city of wild men presided over by a werewolf king.

Random encounter: 1:8 per check
– uninhabited area random check in forest.

Vynar

In the high North forest there is said to be a ruined city ruled over by a terrible ancient dragon.

Random encounter: 1:8 uninhabited area random check in forest.

Krasnia

Some of the knights of old fell to the seduction of chaos. The kingdom of Krasnia was where they drew the dividing line, segregating themselves from their brothers in Endore. There are two leaders here, the Dark King Andros leads his knights from Battleaxe Stronghold, and a city of barbarians and beastmen is ruled over by the sorcerer Zardoz.

Balkathos
Pop: 1,200
AL: LE
Leader: Zardoz, LE Illusionist 10

Random encounter: 1:12 inhabited area random check in suitable terrain.

Outer Krasnia

They say the true power behind Krasnia comes from the mountains, where sunken cities, whose stones were hewn before antiquity, harbour the secrets of demons.

Random encounter: 1:8 uninhabited area random check in mountain.

Dwarfhaven

Hidden deep are the old halls of the Dwarf Lords, who were long ago destroyed by the forces of chaos. Their ancestors roam here still – haunted, bleak – mining metals from the hills and seeking their legacy.

Random encounter: 1:8 uninhabited area random check in hills.

Kanathar

A bleak region of barren scrub and dust. The old tribes found here war against their distant cousins east in Zirkast. The Kanatharians are recognised by their tall bronze helms, which they capture from tombs found in their region. They share the deadened waste with lingering ghouls and terrible bat faced goblins.

Random encounter: 1:8 per check
-1:4 berserkers
-1:4 goblins
– 1:4 undead table
-Otherwise uninhabited area random check in scrub.

Zirkast

Old blooded reavers and slavers dwell along the river, jealously guarding their lush capital, which is shielded from the bleak northern winds by a marble gorge. Jarl Ulfr rules the region from his iron fortress and sends his river raiders south.

Nuara
Pop: 700
AL: CN
Leader: Jarl Ulfr, CE Fighter 10

Random encounter: 1:12
-1:4 buccaneers
– Otherwise inhabited check for suitable terrain

Ithilgil

Known as the passage to hell, this area is currently under the dominion of Uldrak the Chosen, a terrible foe. He has united four orc clans into a force bent on destruction.

New Orc City
Pop: 900 Orcs
AL: LE
Leader: Uldrak the Chosen, CE half-orc Assassin/Cleric 5/5

Sorcerak

The gloomiest forest, where light hardly penetrates. Little is known of the area, but many beastmen and giants roam the darkness, where they say a terrible altar to evil lay forgotten.

Convivia

The evil altars and temples of Rykalla poison the world with their followers. The terrible giants of the mountain descend, trading secrets from the depths of the earth. Slaves are sold here in their droves, and the sages say that there is a citadel of brass in the mountains.

Graumthog

A bleak tundra of ragged rocks where degenerate yetis roam. There is said to be a citadel of ice where the ancient frost giants dream hazily of their forgotten empire.

Intas

The gateway of evil is said to be a black tower under the dominion of a lich. This lich was once a magus who sought to control the powers of the citadel of blood, but was consumed.

Citadel of Blood

When the Titans ruled the planet, bowing before their elder gods, it is said they built a fortress from the bones of their vanquished enemies, and filled a moat with blood. This relic still stands today. What treasures the Citadel contains no man can say, as none have returned from that Isle of doom.

Bridges

The massive bridges of the Titans are mysterious. Some stand nearly one hundred feet tall at their apex. It is well known that trolls lair in their hollow piers, and often extort tolls from those passing through, hiding away their coins within the deep shafts inside the bridges foundations.

Random Encounter: 1:4 whilst crossing.
-1:2 trolls
– 1:2 gargoyles

Starting Area for Play

Now that is out of the way we must choose a starting area. Somewhere that low level PCs can dungeon delve and return to civilisation quickly.

There are a few notable locations that jump out straight away:

Hex 1752: The Bottomless Plungehole. This area sounds like it could be a perfect caves of chaos megadungeon. It’s placement on the map however, in the broken steppes, is probably a bit too dangerous.
Hex 1931: over one of the giant bridges, at the far edge of Endore’s controlled lands, a town on the edge of evil. This could work, there are lots of areas to probe into from here.
Hex 3443: on the crossroads next to the hill of Avalon, a day’s walk to the tombs of the damned, which again sounds like a great place for adventure. Perhaps a village with a shrine to Saint Arthurius. The city of Corflu nearby, and a road to help movement speed. This could be the perfect area.

I think that Hex 3443 is the preferable location. It has the Tombs of the Damned within a days journey and that would be our starting megadungeon, with perhaps ten levels. The perilous mountain roads leave a good opportunity for bandit encounters. The city is in a good distance for getting to training and buying supplies.

What’s Next?

development of a starting village, rumours and random tables.
the first two dungeon levels of the Tombs of the Damned.
5-10 local lairs and ruins in the immediate play region.
Then play can begin.

Conclusion

This was one of several brainstorming sessions I undertook during October and December. Finally I decided against using this map and material because I just couldn’t get over the strange topography. The rivers being massive yet called streams was frustrating to me. The map is very nice though, and perhaps this map can later be used as a smaller regional map in my campaign. I now have the thing printed out so I might try playing the wargame Swords & Sorcery.

I eventually decided on using the game board from Lords & Wizards for my campaign map, another chit wargame from the seventies. That brainstorming project has progressed much further than this one, with a town fully stated out and four dungeon levels spread across three locations. I won’t be sharing that work here though as players may well read it.

Whilst writing this I was reading several inspiring works. Rob Conley’s How to Build a Fantasy Sandbox completed on kickstarter so I ordered his Blackmarsh setting. Echoes from Formalhaut #11 by Gabor Lux also came through the letterbox. Both have been very interesting reading and have inspired me to no end.

I hope this rather rambling blog post inspires someone, somehow. I’d love to hear how others have made their own milieu. If you know of any good resources, or blog posts of your own, please post them as a comment below. Here are some I have found useful:

The Gygax 75 challenge: https://rayotus.itch.io/gygax75
How to make a fantasy sandbox, by bat in the attic games: https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-fantasy-sandbox.html
Hex Crawls: A Simple Guide, by Gabor Lux: http://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-hex-crawls-simple-guide.html
Inch by inch it’s all a cinch, by the yard it’s hard, by Settembrini: https://hofrat.rsp-blogs.de/2023/12/01/inch-by-inch-its-all-a-cinch-by-the-yard-its-hard/

[AD&D] My Time Tracker

December 9, 2023 / Dread Lord / Leave a comment

You need a time tracker, I need a time tracker, we all need a time tracker. Well, here I am to give you your medicine. Behold, my new AD&D tracker in use at the table.

Time is of the Essence

I’ve been running old school games for a while now, and one thing that differs from other types of roleplaying games is the importance of game time; it’s passing and the necessity of recording of it. We all know that a classic fantasy campaign looses much of its meaning if strict time records are not kept. The reasons are multifarious; daily healing rates, spell acquisition, travel times, and the frequency and odds of random encounters. The list is long and has to be accounted for.

Essentially, time is an important game resource. I don’t want to bang on about this and play at being the broken record, if you’ve played older editions of D&D then you know very well how important this is. I just wanted to post the campaign tracker I’ve made for my current AD&D campaign, since I was unable to find one that fit my needs exactly.

There are plenty of trackers out there, hell, a scrap of paper would probably do, but none of the trackers I’ve found had exactly what I was looking for. Here are some of the specifics I wanted on my tracker sheet.

Segments

I wanted to have a segment tracker on my sheet. Though they don’t necessarily come up in every combat, having them on my sheet helps me adjudicate certain situations quickly.

For example, when a spell is cast with multiple segments times, or if there are player characters with readied missile weapons.

An example in a recent game was when a fighter was standing at a door with a net ready to throw (+2 segments as per their DEX bonus), during this round another player character was casting a spell, and before both of them were three charging ghouls.

The tracker sheets I’ve found online that do have segments usually only supply them up to ten rounds. That makes sense mechanically, since there are ten rounds to a game turn, but what if a combat goes beyond ten minutes? What if you have multiple combats in a game, do you need to use multiple sheets?

I want to use only one tracking sheet per game if I can help it, so I tried cramming as many rounds and segments onto my tracker as possible. When a combat ends, I strike a line below that round and the next combat to occur is recorded below.

I circle which group has the initiative where its labelled P (party) and E (enemy), or both if its simultaneous.

Turns and Days

You often see check boxes used for recording game turns on tracker sheets. I like that, and I’ve done nothing different here. I just also happen to use the same check box area for the passing of days. I have put a small space next to the rows of turn boxes to record whether the row is recording the passing of days, turns, or hours. There is nothing revolutionary going on here really.

I have a separate game calendar, so after the game I check how many days have elapsed on this sheet and update it.

Simplicity

I wanted the sheet to be clutter free, easily printable on A4 paper, black and white, and have enough space for me to record a whole session. We’ll see how that goes over the next few months.