A while ago I started playing with some people on an online server. That was about the time when I decided that I should maybe be playing more often than just GMing. Unfortunately life intervenes a lot, and lately there haven’t been that many games in the main campaign to keep me busy. I am also co-DMing a Shadowrun game lately, so there’s that, but I am missing the OSR fantasy fare. So I decided to run a game on the server, specifically with MapTool, which I have been hovering around for a while, but never actually used. In fact I never used a proper VTT to play, so this would be a first.
I decided to use Tomb of the Serpent Kings for it because it’s nicely done and available for free, and I already had it played before, and Labyrinth Lord as a game system because that has been my basic system for a while (yeah, I never updated to OSE even though I use some of the material for it).
Game Report
The group consisted of 2 elves (Damion and Eltariel) and a MU (Frondo) with his torchbearer/muscle (Big Boris). They originally were rustled up by the local bailiff to apprehend the bandit Wild Man Roberts and his two not-so-merry-men, who were seen digging somewhere at a hillside a short way off.
The bandits were easily located inside a hole they opened in the hillside. This turned out to be a hallway going into the dark, with the bandits lying dead just a short way in. Having determined they were done in by a simple poison trap in the ceiling they decided to investigate a bit further (and do some not-graverobbing) when they encountered sarcophagi with clay statues of snake-men inside. Inside the statues were small amounts of treasure and snake skeletons (turning it to actual graverobbing). Also poison gas.
A large door at the end of the hallway was trapped by a mechanism, which they devised to disable with various methods, giving them access to a larger room with three wooden coffins. Soon enough those turned out to have skeletons of snake-like beings inside that started attacking the newly minted graverobbers. Unfortunately a series of good attacks cost the life of two of the party (both elves), and the unlife of two snakes, while Frondo and his torchbearer took off almost immediately.
Out of sight of the skeleton the two decided to rearm the trap outside and trigger it after baiting the last skeleton into it’s area. The giant stone hammer coming out of the ceiling took care of the last opponent.
Frondo returned to give his companions a proper burial (and loot their bodies), then turned back to civilization to collect the bounty on the bandits.
Notes regarding MapTool
MapTool worked great until it didn’t. At the end we had some issues when two of us got disconnected while the others still could see things move around. I think I should have restarted the server in that case, but as it was in the very end of the 2-hour time slot we just played out the rest without it.
MapTool now has a function (marked as experimental) that allows to create a server and connect to it directly from other clients. No more futzing around with port forwarding in this case. Unfortunately maybe not as stable as it could be (see above). Still, the lack of such a function was one of the reasons I did not use the software before, as it would have been too much work to get it running with my network setup. Now that problem is gone, it literally has become a matter of creating a server, having players connect (they are prompted for a PIN), and their computers downloading the media files from my computer.
Speaking of media files, MapTool allows to use media files from the players computers to use in the game. Those are also added to the campaign file automatically. In fact it even allows to run a remote server where the campaign file is stored, I just haven’t been able to try that one yet. But other than that? Want to have a new token? Drop a picture in the related TokenTool, make a suitable token, then just add it in a folder and use it as you will. Nice.
I do find the use of MapTool surprisingly convenient. There are a few things that one can’t do in the tool (e.g. animated maps would be nice, but can’t be done in the current architecture), and some stuff that can be done but needs to be configured properly (no one has bothered to create a script framework for OSR games yet it seems), but I have a lot of options to show the players exactly what I want them to see. Still there are a few things that I still have to figure out.
The dynamic lighting in the dungeon is of course the star of the show. One can add a vision blocking layer and have PCs walk through the dungeon and have them see whatever it is that they have a) lit and b) what they can see. This can make for some interesting tactical gaming where some monster or character can see some things, but cannot see others. I noticed that it also takes a lot of mental strain from me as a DM as I don’t need to track either light or walking order in this case.
The other thing that helps a lot is the way one can organize a scenario here. Players can generally see 3 layers on the screen: tokens, objects, and background, and they can interact only with the first one. Another hidden layer is present, but is only available to DMs. This is useful, as it allows you to drop information (e.g. attached to a numbered token) at the appropriate places, and just call it up by going over it on the token layer. As it’s hidden it is not actually visible for players, and you can have your whole adventure in there, slowly following along as the PCs explore. Incredibly useful.
That said, there was an annoying issue with players moving tokens over specific (invisible to them) GM tokens with information, and me not being able to access them then. I think this might have a button that allows DMs to get a hold of tokens under others. but if it has I haven’t found it yet.
Not every part of the lighting system is perfect though. I still can’t make head nor tails out of elevations and depressions. I don’t quite know what to think about them. They don’t update in ways that I would expect from either. I would for example depressions with a light source inside expect to be lit inside, but they aren’t. The lighting system also takes a little to register someone has updated settings. More than once we got stuck in a place with a newly lit lantern not lighting anything because we didn’t move.
Doors are one of the things I will have to get into more. It is possible to create movable doors, but how is still a bit of a mystery to me.
Notes regarding Labyrinth Lord
we were playing by the book, but that might have been a mistake. The game might need to become a bit less deadly, so next time we should use the splintering shield rules, a death and dismemberment chart, and some rule about helmets I should first figure out (stock LL doesn’t seem to have a bonus for helmets
one house rule I already used for XP is XP for exploration: every new room discovered/mapped gives 50xp
I do wonder if I should have used Labyrinth Lord or maybe have gone even more minimal with White Box Fantasy.
Notes regarding Tomb of the Serpent Kings
I already played this one with another online group at the beginning of the pandemic. Unfortunately that didn’t last long, and we never managed to get to some of the more interesting parts of the dungeon.
huh, I just saw that Dan Proctor posted a draft version of the new and expanded Labyrinth Lord rules in the Facebook group.
from what I can see it still looks like LL, but Thieves are now Burglars, there's a Cyclops and Brownies in the classes section, and Halflings are Hobfolk now.
Hmmm... on the one hand there's some new stuff in there, but it doesn't look too different from before.
When playing or writing for old school rules like Labyrinth Lord, Iron Falcon, or my own as of yet unnamed rule set I assume, in line with old school sentiments that somehow got lost over time, that most people in the world are level 0 or at most level 1.
Level 1 is already a professional in any chosen class. E.g. A soldier who already has seen battle, or a wizard who has graduated their apprenticeship.
Level 3 is a highly skilled professional in their class, e.g. an elite soldier, or competent guildsman.
Level 4-6 are people who are at least locally known experts in their field. E.g. master of a guild (in a city), the local commander of the guards, or priests with influence in the whole city. There might be around 100 such NPCs per distinct region.
Level 7-9 are people that have made a name for themselves. These are people that are known in the whole region or even further, even to people who don’t know anything else about the subject at hand. E.g. the bishop of a faith, or a famous wizard. There might be at most 10 such NPCs per region.
Level 10-12 are people that are known on the whole continent, if not most of the world. E.g. The high priest of a whole religion, an archmage, one of the great warriors of the world. There is roughly 1 such NPC per country.
Anything beyond that is people who start to get into the realm of the legends.
This leads to some interesting problems for player characters:
Not every location has everything you need. A specific specialist to make or repair armor might only be in the next larger city, a wizard or alchemist for potions and similar will be located in a city, or conversely, puttering away somewhere in the absolute wilderness.
Raise Dead in particular can only be cast by a name level Cleric, so likely of the rank of Bishop or above. A bishop cannot be found in every podunk little village, and might need to be convinced (with large bribes…eh… donations) to use their one daily 5th level spell to raise an otherwise unknown murderhobo from the dead. If the adventurers even manage to reach the place in time, in most B/X clones Raise Dead has a time-limit depending on the Cleric’s level, a level 7 Cleric can only raise a dead body for 4 days after it died.
Recognition
Starting from level 7 every NPC has a chance of knowing the PCs (same the other way around). Except when disguising themselves any obvious behavior according to their reputation allows others to figure out who they are. They have literally made a name for themselves. Being recognized might trigger another reaction roll if appropriate.
Please respond by saying what sorts of TTRPG things you're pretty likely to either talk about or respond to if you see them.
This can be a list of games (D&D! Tribe 8! Fate!) or categories (the weirdest of indie stuff! NSR! Anything PBtA!), topics (Worldbuilding! Publishing!), stuff you're making, meta-commentary (The State Of The Industry), and so on.
Then maybe share, and if the replies are building up, check them for new people.