1 Year into the OSR, A Retrospective: Keeping Characters Alive

About this time a year ago, I transitioned my Pathfinder group over to Swords & Wizardry. We have played semi-monthly ever since, around 8 or 9 sessions.

The game is set in a custom campaign setting, but many of my sessions have taken place in the excellent Barrowmaze.

My players have generally loved the campaign. My most recent session had 7 players at the table, out of 8 who get invites. For half of them, this is their first RPG experience. And I am proud that one woman I introduced to fantasy RPG's has gone so far as to start GMing Pathfinder Society games locally.

After a year though, I find myself in an unexpected situation. My players die, often. Of the 8 players, one has a 3rd level Cleric, another a 2nd level Druid, and everyone else is still 1st level. All of the others have had multiple characters die. 

I am not an Evil DM, at least I'm not labelled as such by my players. They know I enjoy playing straight up, and presenting a challenge. All my dice rolls are public (except things they would not know the outcome of, such as some thieving skills).

I have taken great pains to educate them on old-school theory concerning survival, teamwork, tactics, etc. They are usually pretty careful, and the challenges they face are for the most part appropriate for their level. They run when they need to.

They have taken their deaths with great humor, although they all get that "deer in headlights" "I cant believe I am dead" look the first time they lose a character. Soon enough they re-roll and get into the spirit as the other players pat them on the back and regale them with their own gruesome deaths and sad outcomes.

But now I find myself wanting them to survive, to level up, and to explore the world more widely, to be exposed to higher level encounters and different plot lines.

When I was young, I DM'ed Basic & AD&D, and tried to strike the balance of keeping the players on their toes, and engaged, and challenged, but alive. I fudged rolls to guarantee drama, and helped the players create heroes. We were creating a story together, but I was definitely playing the game for my players benefit as much as my own. It was great fun.

Now I find myself thinking back to those days, and starting to reconsider my current philosophy. I like my players, I want them to succeed. I want them to level up and progress. But I also want to keep it gritty, dangerous, and old school in feel. I'm tempted to use the DM hand to get the outcomes we all want.

Anyone care to offer suggestions on how to keep the game real while seeing the players succeed?

My DM Screen

A few folks have asked about the DM screen I showed in a G+ post in the OSR Gaming community.

Pictured above, I made it myself for my ongoing Swords & Wizardry / Barrowmaze campaign. The tables on the reverse side are a mix of S&W, Barrowmaze tables,  & house rules.

I started with 6 pieces of 8.5 x 11 off-white card stock.

On the card stock I printed the following artwork & tables. I could have printed double sided, but using 6 pieces glued together gives it more rigidity.

Screen Tables

Center Panel Artwork

Side Panel #1

Side Panel #2

To construct the screen, I started with a 6 pack of beer. Literally, I took apart the card stock "pack" of the 6-pack and used the hinged corners as hinges for the screen. By gluing the screen panels back to back, with the  "hinged" wings of the separated 6 pack inserted between them, I built a quick & easy screen.

Then I measured out the battlements and cut them out with an Exacto knife & ruler.

The final result:

For Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, I present:

Blood & Battle

1^st Edition – Basic Draft

by Rob Griffin

Sneaking Orcs by Santiago Iborra

Variant rules for running a Humanoid Campaign compatible with the Swords & Wizardry game.

Using these variant rules for Swords & Wizardry, you can create characters who are orcs, bugbears, goblins, gnolls, and half-orcs. Classes available are Barbarian, Shaman, Witch Doctor, Sneak, and Warrior.

This is very much a first draft, with more to be added. Please feel free to comment. Suggestions & feedback are very welcome.

Here are the rules (20 pages):

Blood & Battle 1st Ed - Basic Draft

My next project is to create an adventure for Blood & Battle:

B&B 1 - Against the Halflings!

Also, dont forget today only there is a deal going at Frog God Games on S&W stuff:

Let me tell you how much I love this website/tool:

MEATSHIELDS! The Classic fantasy Hireling & Henchman Generator

Created by +Greg Gillespie , this is the one website I use before every gaming session.

I use it to help populate the tavern where my adventurers base their explorations of the Barrowmaze.

It's so quick and easy, and creates such delightful results.

My players are new to the idea of hirelings & henchmen, and have taken to it with gusto. The first two sessions a 0 level Man at Arms armed with a spear and a deathwish literally saved the group's bacon on multiple occasions. He had the hottest dice at the table, and was bathing himself in glory until overwhelmed by a large group of skeletons towards the end of the second night.

Having a couple of red shirts getting eaten by ghouls, pulled apart by zombies, or having their flesh ripped off by carnivorous flies really sets the tone for the night.

Plus, the (always cowardly) torch bearers running off with loot in the middle of tough fights adds to the fun.

I've got a new group of hirelings prepped for tonight's action. Which ones will survive? Perhaps if a single man-at-arms can actually make it through 2 sessions I will promote him to Fighter, 1st level.

In anticipation of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day on April 17th, I am releasing parts of the variant rules system I am working on. Here I present the Shaman Class for humanoid characters. Let me know what you think!

Blood & Battle

1^st Edition - Basic

by Rob Griffin

Variant rules for running a Humanoid Campaign compatible with the Swords & Wizardry game.

Swords & Wizardry, S&W, and Mythmere Games are trademarks of Matthew J. Finch. Blood & Battle is not affiliated with Matthew J. Finch, Mythmere Games™, or Frog God Games.

Shaman

Prime Attribute: Wis 13+ (+5 exp bonus)

Hit Dice: d6

Armor/Shield Permitted: Leather & ringmail, shield

Weapons Permitted: Any crude melee

Race: All

Finally! Today I finished a campaign map for my Erinmoor campaign using GIMP.  

It's not perfect, but it's the best I could do in about 12 hours haah! I had never so much as opened Photoshop or GIMP before this project.

My original map was hand drawn:

Straight outa the 80's


After reading through some tutorials at the cartographersguild.com I downloaded GIMP and started trying to make a fancy fantasy map.

The tutorial I used is great, although it is a little dated and the newer versions of GIMP have some changes. The thread for it is HERE.


Now to print one up for the group tonight! Maybe crumple it up and spill some tea on it or something first...

In anticipation of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day on April 17th, I am releasing parts of the variant rules system I am working on. Here I present the Barbarian Class for humanoid characters. Let me know what you think!

Blood & Battle

1^st Edition - Basic

by Rob Griffin

Variant rules for running a Humanoid Campaign compatible with the Swords & Wizardry game.

Swords & Wizardry, S&W, and Mythmere Games are trademarks of Matthew J. Finch. Blood & Battle is not affiliated with Matthew J. Finch, Mythmere Games™, or Frog God Games.

Barbarian

Barbarians are savage, primitive warriors. Barbarians glory in melee combat and can intimidate foes with their raging attacks.

Prime Attribute: Str 13+, Con 13+ (+5 exp bonus)

Hit Dice: d8

Armor/Shield Permitted: Leather/ring, no shields

Weapons Permitted: Any melee or thrown

Race: Bugbear, Half-orc, Orc

Barbarian Class Abilities:

Alertness: Warbands with barbarians present are only surprised on a 1 in 6 chance.

Magic Items: Barbarians can only use magical weapons, armor, potions, & rings.

Enemy of Civilization: Humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, and halflings inspire a special hatred in humanoid Barbarians, granting the Barbarian a +1 damage bonus against such foes.

Chop 'em Down: Upon landing the killing blow, a Barbarian may make an additional attack against an enemy within 10'.

Shock & Awe: At 3^rd level, and upon completing a successful Chop 'em Down, Barbarians can put the fear of death into lesser opponents. Creatures of equal or lesser Hit Die to the Barbarian who witness a successful Chop 'em Down attack will fight at -1 to hit and damage for 2 rounds. In addition, if the odds of the fight are turning against the Barbarian's opponents, they must make a morale check or flee from the Barbarian until out of combat range.

Berserker: At 5^th level Barbarians may enter a berserker state once per day. While berserk, the Barbarian receives a +2 damage bonus, at a penalty of 2 to his AC. While berserk, the Barbarian is immune to fear. Berserkers cannot flee from combat, never fail morale checks, and fight until combat ends or they die. Berserkers must rest for one hour after the end of combat, or receive a penalty of 2 on all rolls and move at ½ speed until rested. It takes one combat round for a Barbarian to go berserk, during which time he may be engaged in combat. This effect stacks with Enemy of Civilization.