I’m happy to announce that my over-the-top, trap-laden killer-dungeon, The Barbican of Blood, was made a finalist in the second annual Adventure Site Competition by Coldlight Press. The collected eight finalists and winning dungeon have now been released as a PWYW document on drivethru RPG. You can click the image below to download it and bask in its dungeon crawling goodness.
Thanks to all the judges for their comments and feedback. My dungeon seemed to be divisive in the scoring, and that makes sense. It is baroque, linear, and wants player characters to die. It falls into the great tradition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons killer modules; assholish, PC-slaying dungeons from back in the day. The kind spearheaded by the likes of Gary Gygax, then perfected by Rob Kuntz. It is also inspired by the ‘world first’ early modules of the Judges Guild – like Citadel of Fire – where an adventure location exists in a milieu; uncaring, brutal, and inflicting woe unto all who discover it.
I sat down to write the Barbican of Blood over two four hour sessions during the Christmas break 2024. I had recently re-read the three little brown books of the original game, and was wistfully day dreaming about the system’s untethered possibilities. Those who have read my ASC II entry and are familiar with the original edition will notice that the upper works use the castle encounters in 0e as their basis, where a Lord will ride out and challenge fighting-men to a joust. I settled on mixing this with a vampire lair as I’m a big Gothic fiction fanboy. I also wanted to use a monster with good reason to guard its lair with ridiculous traps. Vampires, being incredibly protective of their coffin (essentially the key to their immortality), was a perfect fit for the concept. A vampire’s charm ability allowed me the use of a Lord from 0e castle encounters, though transformed into a Renfieldesque slave.
The traps in the dungeon were something of a mental exercise. A test to see how far I was able push my creativity. I wanted to avoid traps like those found in later AD&D modules, and in supplements like Grimtooth. Instead I leaned towards the strange magical traps found in the labyrinths of the early Dungeon Game, circa 1976. I also enjoyed coming up with novel uses of standard spells in environmental traps. I recall the dungeon The Hyqueous Vault was very inspiring in this regard.
Restormel Castle. Basis of the Barbican.
My favourite trap in the Barbican is a cursed magical room. In it, all forms of melee will totally miss unless the character throwing the attacks calls out their own name. I had originally come up with this idea whilst rereading Elric of Melniboné by Micheal Moorcock. The impetus for this trap was the scene where Elric battles pig faced creatures, who can only speak a single word, ‘thing.’ In this scene Elric becomes enraged and suddenly starts yelling his own name whilst smighting the mutated chaotic creatures.
Hopefully you Dungeon Masters out there will find the elements of the dungeon useful. Even if you have to get Burroughsian and give it the cut-up treatment.
I will soon be taking the material and ideas from the Barbican of Blood and creating a less brutal, but larger module intended for tournament play.
Thanks to Attronarch and never_plays_elves for reading the dungeon in its early stages. Thanks also to Goldigger who ran a play test of the Barbican, his play report can be found here. The largest thanks goes to Gogon Velvet who illustrated the villain on the cover page, which you can see below.
There are still a few Easter eggs hidden in the text, which are as yet are undiscovered. Can you find them?
After having such a fine time at the Cauldron convention 2024, I’ve decided to try and attend more such gatherings and attempt to spread my bristling love for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1e.
My first such adventure of 2025 was Grogmeet, a meeting of – as the name suggests – a bunch of grognards. I’d like start my documentation of Grogmeet by giving a shout out to James Knight, who brought this fine and genteel meeting of minds to my attention. Cheers James!
Grogmeet is self described as a casual meet-up for fans of the entertaining Grognard Files Podcast, and not really a gaming convention in the purest sense. However, with over twenty games on offer over a long weekend, with many different game systems being played, I will go so far as to say that it was indeed a convention, and a fine one.
I booked my ticket in December and as a GM this cost me £5. Not bad. I decided to run the most recent dungeon, to give it a good play test with some fresh eyes. This dungeon is called the Haunted Bordello, and I hope to release it as a module later this year. I soon realised that I needed to whip up some sort of advertisement art for sign-ups. So with a hurried ten minutes, lo and behold, witness my last minute poster for the game. Marvel at its wonky aspect ratio:
The Manchester based event took place across two lovely locations: Whitworth Locke (a fancy hotel), and Fan Boy Three (a very nice hobby shop I have visited once before). I grabbed my dice, books, and binder and headed out on my three hour train journey Friday morning.
Friday
When I arrived there was already a tournament style game of Call of Cthulhu unfolding. Unfortunately this game was already sold out when I signed up, and during my arrival I soon became aware why. I witnessed several tables of grognards playing a massive combined scenario designed by Call of the Cthulhu 7th Edition designer Paul Fricker. All manner of chaos was unfolding before me; players were being dragged off to one side and given secret notes, then returned to different tables. From my observations, it seemed like there was some sort of mind swap invasion going on by the Great Race of Yith. It looked like heaps of fun, and I was more than a little disappointed I couldn’t get involved. But there is always next time!
Grogs Meeting
Later that evening I played in a Delta Green game ran by a nice guy named Wid. I believe the scenario is something published by a third party and Wid had altered it. Us player characters were all trapped in a snowed in gas station somewhere in rural America. There was a corpse in the bathroom, and some sort of computer next to the cash register running streams of random numbers. If you’ve not played Delta Green before, it’s basically Call of Cthulhu meets the X-Files, and sure enough, soon after the game started, shit started getting spooky fast. Over the course of the game we found ourselves trapped in the gas station with laser sights trailing us from beyond the road. Corpses started animating and spinning in the air. One of our team soon became mind controlled by the incessant numbers on every communication device. We had to solve the bizarre download coming in from beyond Sirius, before we all kicked the bucket. We did so, and somehow with not one of us dying. Huzzah!
This game was a lot of fun and it reminded me why I enjoy horror games as one shots.
Later that night there was much boozing and chatting at a local pub, and I got acquainted with some great guys. I got talking with a few guys who run a long term Tunnels and Trolls game that I’d love to play at the next event. The socialising was definitely a highlight of the weekend. The only down side to these events is that there is never enough time. You can’t play all the games on offer.
Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up with only a slight hangover and mooched my way over to Fan Boy Three for my first game of the day; A new Call of Cthulhu Gaslight scenario GM’d by Paul Fricker. Paul asked us not to talk too much about the scenario, as it was a play-test for a future book. What I will say is that it was a great distraction from my hangover. There was much sawing off of shotguns and chairs thrown as improvised weapons. I will apparently get a play-test credit on the document when it is released, which is always nice.
Come midday I had to rush across the freezing gulf of the city for the start of my own game. I grabbed a sandwich and a snickers bar and managed to scoff these down with not a moment to spare. I set up my table and my players began filtering in. I handed out my nifty fake golden rod character sheets and we all introduced ourselves. I gave out a few hooks to the location and we were off. Playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
The Haunted Bordello
There was Malitar Kreen, a half-orc fighter/assassin. Eljas Tammi, a human fighter armed with a glaive. Helmut Scond, a lithe half-elf thief. Then cunning Fulrad Falk, a human illusionist. Finally there was the human cleric Isto Jantuten, worshiper of Ilmatar the Mother Goddess.
The characters arrived at the wailing wood after travelling across the vale of Tarn. They soon heard in the distance some strange barking wails they had heard rumours about. Ghosts? Who knows. They marched through a woodland trail and soon discovered a bluff with an old ruin atop it. The half elf thief climbed up alone and stole a gander. He returned with news that a few rough looking men were sat in the round tower at leisure. The party climbed up and surrounded these fellows. After the illusionist tried to hail them, the party lost their edge of surprise and the bandits nocked a few arrows. Charges were made. Arrows were loosed. The party slew two of them outright. The other one fled down a trap door and into a nasty arrow trap.
After some searching on the ground level they found a second entrance into the dungeon. A coal shaft of some kind. The thief tried to descend it but slipped in the rough soil, and tumbled down the slide and into the nest of three nasty badgers! With his weekly rations thrown to the ground he managed to get out without so much of a nip. The party then went down into the dungeons proper. They found the pleasure rooms of a sinister Bordello, long abandoned. After a bit of snooping around they found a secret door in a wash room. Beyond this there was a viewing room with many one way mirrors overlooking several boudoir. Inside was a shadowy figure of pure malice. After watching him for a while they learned he roamed from mirror to mirror. The thief took a chance, sneaking past him. He managed to steal a scroll from a shelf at the far end of the room. And narrowly avoided contact with the apparition. The party went on exploring the rooms. Unfortunately, a turn undead attempt in one of the bedrooms caused the shadow to attack through the mirror, slaying the offending cleric.
They continued on a little, killing a squad of goblin guards and two orcs fighting over a halberd. Falling into a pit trap sent them back to town for a few days rest. Later they returned to the Haunted Bordello with a new companion; an elf fighter/magic user. They had an interesting encounter with a complex portcullis trap that took the life of their illusionist. Finally they found a fine throne room, and broke the chair from the floor only to be attacked by a mess of giant rats. No match for their power, the party slew the rats and carried their treasures back to town. And glory to them says I!
It was great sharing my enthusiasm for 1st edition. Some of the players had played the system as kids, and it was like a hit of nostalgia for them. Some had never played the game before. And others were regular AD&D enjoyers. Some of the players expressed excitement that we actually got to use the grappling table and the lift gates percentiles, which made me chuckle. I also now have a real appreciation for the golden rod character sheets. Using them to roll up the pre-gens forced me to take closer looks at carry capacity and non-lethal combat rules. Good stuff.
A group of Adventurers surviving the Haunted Bordello
After my game I went back to the station for the long journey home. There were so many interesting games on display at the event, that I can’t wait to go for the next one to try out something new. The verdict is in, Grogmeet is a hell of a lot of fun and stocked with great people. I look forward to the next one!
I haven’t posted here for a while. Not since February. That’s a shame. I had many plans for this blog, many ideas for articles and discussions about the hobby I really love; old-school Dungeons & Dragons. Unfortunately, those things have not come to fruition, and it’s not been for a lack of trying. I just haven’t been able to focus on much.
See, over the last year I have been experiencing all sorts of weird symptoms; fatigue, dizziness, headaches, and brain fog. It’s been steadily getting worse. The more I exert myself, the worse it’s gotten. I’ve been forced to drop many interests and hobbies. I’ve not been able to do quite as much as I used to. I’ve been forced to prioritise the small amount of leisure time I do have when not resting. If you would’ve asked me three months ago what could possibly be the cause of all this fatigue, I would have shrugged and felt frustrated. I’ve just been soldiering on as best I can. I’ve been forced to make hard decisions on what to do with my time. So I’ve prioritised gaming with my friends, learning Ad&d, and reading and writing fiction. That’s all I’ve really been able to muster outside of working my day job. A lot of the time I’ve just been zombified. So I haven’t really written anything for this site, and I haven’t put any more modules or materials together in publishable form.
I did, however, have one excursion. In October this year I attended the Cauldron OSR convention in Germany. I can say with no exaggeration, it was one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. I met many interesting people there, and got to meet the men behind so many internet handles I’ve become familiar with since learning and playing Ad&d in the last two years. I made some amazing memories at the convention. I got to meet some of my good friends from my gaming group in person for the very first time. We’ve been playing Ad&d together for over a year and half now, and for a lot of that time we played twice a week. I made new friends there as well. I got to play in epic games of Braunstein, and a huge naval battle using Od&d and chainmail rules. I even slew two dragons. All these things I won’t soon forget.
The whole time at the convention I was struggling with my fatigue. I managed somehow to power through with a little help from beer and pure grit. Gaming has become something of a distraction for all these issues I’ve been experiencing. Something which allows me to put the symptoms I’m suffering to the back of my mind. I love playing old school D&D. I love the challenge of it. I love the idiosyncrasies of the rules. I like emergent adventure. I like the fact I can be cunning, and think outside of the box. I love that the rules allow for that. I love the camaraderie of adventuring with other like minded gamers, guys who want to score a big haul and beat the odds. Guys who want to win. Honest to god Grognards. I love the amazing talents of dungeon masters who create whole worlds, who can really test my metal. I love the whole thing. So at Cauldron I was able to push myself through the fatigue and keep on adventuring.
When the convention came to a close, there was a ceremony of sorts. All the participants gathered in the grand hall of Schloß Hohenroda and the organisers handed out prizes. Then we came to the Most Valuable Player award. That’s when I heard my name called out. I was in total shock. I never expected to win such a thing. Perhaps my enthusiasm for the game had really made an impact on those around me. I accepted the award, kind of flabbergasted. It now rests on my mantelpiece, its a big cauldron with MVP etched on it. I’m looking at it right now as I write this, and it makes me smile.
The truth is, the day before I flew from the UK to the convention, I’d been laid out in a huge metal tube in a hospital radiology department. Some technician had been taking magnetic images of my brain. I kind of guessed the results weren’t going to be great. This was the second scan I’d had in two weeks. When I got back from the convention, I just crashed out. I was euphoric from having such a great time gaming. From meeting so many awesome people. From meeting my friends in person. But there was a letter waiting for me on the kitchen counter. So before I totally passed out, I just had to opened it up.
When you read the words brain tumor, you kind of freeze up and go cold. It doesn’t feel quite real because those words are from procedural TV shows and news reports. They aren’t meant to refer to something inside your own head. But there it was in black and white. My first thought was; so does that mean I’m going to die soon?
I’ve had a few more tests since then. Apparently these kinds of tumors are 99% benign. The major complications with them are that they can mess up your hormones and if they get big enough they can crush your optic nerves and make you blind. Luckily both of those things have not happened to me. My hormones are within normal limits except for my cortisol levels, and my vision is currently unaffected. Which the doctors seemed a bit surprised by. As of writing this, I’m awaiting the hospitals decisions for what my treatment will be. Most likely there will be surgery to remove it. This is that quite likely to resolve my symptoms and within a short space I time I might well return to normal. The probabilities are in my favour. Like any good gamer, I always ask the probabilities before I make a roll.
So I just wanted to make this post to explain that this blog is not dead. It’s just on hiatus whilst I’ve been unwell. I’m still gaming. I’m going to keep gaming so long as I’m able. I love it too much not to. I will be back here and writing soon. Post surgery, I think I will have a lot of sick leave mandated.
I want to thank all the guys I’ve gamed with over the last year. Particularly Niko, Bill, Magnus, and Brett. You guys have helped keep me sane during one of the darkest years of my life. Let’s all get our characters to the highest levels imaginable! I want to say to all the Cauldron / ADDKON guys, thanks for running an amazing convention and for giving me something to look forward to next year. I managed to get Cauldron 2025 tickets and I will be there. I also want to give my appreciation to Gary Gygax, for his genius, and for his writing a set of rules that have totally enraptured me and captured my imagination, and attention. In my darkest hours, his works have kept me busy, entertained, and sane (but not when I attempt a grapple!)
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 Horsemenwith 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.
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.
Goblin Set up
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.
Elves Set up
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.
movement complete
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.
Down into the dungeons!
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.
Dog meat
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.
orders from Mordor
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.
Bumrush
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.
