Back to the Well
Robert The Heel is sleeping soundly tonight knowing his pupils in the BroXT have finally reached their full potential. The organization has completely embraced Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and its members all seemed to make the switch to 1e simultaneously. Title Champ RumpDM led this charge with #BROXER, and while I feel embarrassed that I can’t claim this accomplishment, I am proud to be a part of this hard switch to 1e.
That’s right! My home table is back to the greatest game ever made! We had five players of mixed levels of AD&D experience.
Character building was grueling and an incredibly un-fun portion of the session. Five people creating PCs simultaneously and only 2 of them with limited AD&D knowledge, it took 2 hours. This will get better with practice, but I am very tempted to purchase Dungeon Delver’s CROM tool. It instantly creates PCs and has many other useful features. I’ll continue to consider this because I know how to make a PC, but do I want to repeat this process every time I get a new player?
For preparation, I named a town on an unoccupied hex in our world map. Created four NPCs, one for each of the core classes, and an eleven room dungeon. I threw in tons of treasure and magic items for each of the core classes because I assumed every class would be represented in some way.
I laid out a massive blank paper and with crayons, drew a town. The players then each added something to this map. These drawings will be brought to life in future sessions. The idea is, why should I create content when the players might not have any interest in those areas? Instead, they place a landmark, strange magical phenomena, or monster lair. At the end of session, they pick something they created and that’s what I focus my prep on delivering in the following session.
For their first session, they explored the nearby Shrine of the Founders. Someone broke into the landmark and violated their town’s traditions. Inside, they found a burial chamber, the dead reanimated as skeletons.
The cleric pulled off a well timed Turn Undead, hitting all the enemies. Quite easy to destroy the skeletons after that. The thief got unlucky with some giant ants burrowing into the library he was investigating, but he killed them both before the others could catch up!
Inside the tombs, the founders’ magic items and treasure were untouched, but the remains were rifled through. The players concluded something was taken of great value from each of the ancestors.
They met a homunculus named Martel who clued them in on the invaders and the missing trinkets (four pieces of the Rod of Seven Parts). He aided them in disarming a couple very lethal traps, and, in exchange, they are to keep him safe and deliver him to a library filled with new books to explore.
A gaping hole was blown into the floor, and a droopy skinned devil was waiting in ambush. It beat the mess out of the curious thief, but he was saved by the cleric and the magic user casting their spells. They saw a cavernous second level, but short on time and heavy on treasure, they made their way back to town.
The PCs have committed to tracking down these pieces and bringing to justice the thieves in black flame masks. Next session, they’ll follow the trail leading into dungeon level two.
The players were having so much fun, and they made an absolute killing. It was a great re-introduction into AD&D.
PC Grades-I broke my own rule of only one Exceptional grade per session, but these guys earned it…Don’t get used to this generosity!
Zhou-Ritz NG Fighter-Exceptional. Incredible session. Made everyone love his character. Funny but dependable. Xp: 2000 GP: 2,900
Tom-Filbo NG Thief-Poor. Complained too much. Spoke over others. New player at the table. Took a risk on inviting him, but it did not work out.
Alex-Ten Aaron LG Ranger. Exceptional. Great having this guy back at the table. Was a team player and motivated the players to keep the action rolling. Xp: 2250 GP: 2,900
Taylor- Reet LG Cleric. Exceptional. Total Chad. Needed zero assistance with PC generation because and I quote: “I can read.” Amazing. Xp: 1500 Gp: 2,900
David- Basil LG MU. Exceptional. Helped so many people with PC generation. Rules support. The game is so much easier to run when I can have solid support like this. XP: 2,500 GP 2,900
Treasure
Two Healing Potions
Scrolls of Sleep, Charm, and Bless
+1 Spear
+1, +2vsUD Hammer (Defender)
+1 Shield
?? Staff
Gloves of Dexterity