Back at the RP Haven tonight and tbh our campaign is going well! We've made a whole two days worth of in game progress in the last three months (and a bit).
I'm so glad that the whole party is fine with derailing everything to bwgwr around off topic in the woods.
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.
I've never done an #introduction post on here and I don't have a pinned post, so here goes:
I'm Nick. Pronouns he/him. I live in Toronto and I work in tech as a... technical artist, kinda?
I love to run #ttrpgs and I'm leaning more towards rules-light #osr#nsr stuff. I play far less often than I'd like.
I also talk about parenting, video games, and sometimes (rarely) post my art.
Ran an in-person game of #OldSchoolEssentials at my local #RedBoxRheinMain open table, tonight. I’m so glad that I turned to open table gaming in 2023. Since then, I met a bunch of super nice people at our #valravn online open table. I work full time and have a kid (❤️), but open table gaming helps me pursuing the beloved hobby to an astonishing degree. Can’t spend a whole day playing hours long #ttrpgs on weekends 🥱, but checking in for a 2.5 hrs session on a workday: with ease
@LeviKornelsen <- These folks are the gem of this platform! 😀
My focus is #ttrpgs, specifically old-school #DnD, having been a DM since the early 1980s. Current project is beta testing a solo D&D game, sales of my series of fantasy novels, and my WW2 espionage and spycraft #ttrpg game "Ashes of Isar."
I started out on the fediverse arooooound...I wanna say 2017/18 mebbe? My big start in social media was MySpace. Before that, I had a LiveJournal (which I miss mightily with all my heart). My very first computer was a Gateway PC, back when they shipped them to you in those awesome cow spot pattern boxes. I am trying to de-google my life.
I'm #ADHD and suffer from #dysthymia. I'm currently unmedicated. I can be damned moody at times, so there's your warning.
Religiously/spiritually speaking, I'm complicated. That will be a long post, when I get around to writing it. My general rule is: I have my thing. It's not everybody's thing, and that's cool. Not everybody's thing is my thing, and that's cool. Just don't be a wanker towards those whose thing ain't your thing. OM 🕉
I'm 57 years old and have come to the conclusion that we never truly appreciate the decades we grew up in until we hit middle age.
I'm single and childless, hence my user tag: TheLastOfHisName.
One of the more frustrating things about playing #TTRPGs online is that it's challenging to pivot to another when not everyone can make it to the planned game. Granted, it was only two of us yesterday, but had there been three, we still couldn't have easily played something else.
Can anyone recommend a program for sketching out maps for #TTRPGs. Not necessarily gridded maps to play on.... but say I want to make a map of the country side or a city?
Something with pre loaded icons for things like mountains & forests. Where I can draw lakes & roads & label POIs?
For the next three weeks, $9.95 USD will get you FIVE complete games, plus as a convenience for this particular Bundle of Holding, #FiascoRPG designer @jmstar has curated Jason's Favorite Fiascos, a collection of SEVEN free playsets! #TTRPGs
I love the passion and interest that some people have in #TTRPGs I also love. At the same time, I find it very exhausting. Yes, I agree it would be great if more material were produced for this game. No, I don't think the lack of a single page's worth of errata means the game has been abandoned.
Wednesday & Thursday: I’ll be in Paris for KubeCon EU 2024-- I'll probably be hanging out at the Grafana booth (L6) as much as I can!
Friday & Saturday: I'll be in Utrecht for PKM Summit. On Friday, @zsviczian and I are doing a talk on using Excalidraw for #ttrpgs , and then I'll be at the LYT meetup with @nickmilo. Saturday I'm doing a solo talk on... something. 😅
It was not long after the party formed that they learned they were all extremely photogenic. This made posing for selfies easier, but took away somewhat from the dungeon crawling.
New #introduction post on changing instances: Hi all! I'm an English professor at a university in southwest #Japan. I've lived in #Fukuoka about half my life now. I'm married, with 3 grown stepkids and EIGHT grandkids, all living within a couple hours drive. I love walking and #hiking, playing #TTRPGs, #nature#photography, #dogs, #literature, #scienceFiction, and more. I've been on Mastodon for about 2½ years. Nice to meet you!
Just for fun, I decided to play around with the Vampiric Bats statistics for Dragonbane, so I toyed with both expanding their monster attacks out to six different attacks, as well as treating them as common animals. #TTRPGs#Dragonbane
Here's a video of my friend @leah and I talking about all the #ttrpgs we want to try out in 2024. We're REALLY going to try to get AT LEAST the five that we both happened to put on our lists (right, Leah?)... and we're doing pretty well with that since we've already played one session of the first one we talk about.
For the love of all that is holy...in Blades in the Dark (or all #FitD#TTRPGs I know of) there are not hard lines between free play, downtime, and "scores". Yes, you can only take downtime activities during downtime. But it's not the other way around. /1
also a #videoGame enthusiast, mostly #survivalCrafting but down for anything but sports and realistic shooters, mostly. Also dabble in #tabletop#TTRPG s and other board games but it's hard to find the right balance between "boringly easy" and "so complicated I get too frustrated and give up before the first role of the dice"
#neurodivergent especially #ADHD and "high functioning" autism (I love to carry on conversations and try my best not to do all the talking, but I have a hard time reading peoples' true emotions so I default to thinking everyone's mad at me all the time 😂 )
#queer#polyamorous#bisexual , pro- #sexWorker though not a sex worker myself (despite all my videos getting categorized as "sexually explicit nudity" 🙄 )
love watching movies and shows about #fantasy#sciFi and #horror -- #psychologicalHorror and/or so-called #elevatedHorror rather than guts and jump scares. I used to read a lot of fantasy and romance also, but social media broke my brain so I have a hard time staying focused on books now 😩
also love #comics especially #webcomics and #satire . Not really into superhero type comics, unless they're the newer ones like the "New 52". I prefer self-contained series with a little bit of weirdness to them like Saga, Rat Queens, and a bunch others I can't remember the names of right now. Often I'll go to the library and check out a fat stack of whatever comics they have, mostly standalones though since they rarely have multiple comic books in a series available in sequential order.
Oops I got too wordy again, better cut it off here 😅
Basically, holler at me if you're a progressive, a gamer, or a parent who is also one or both of the other two things!
As a progressive gamer parent of progressive gamer kids, this is my holler. Nice to meet you.
My household is a mixed bag of neurodivergent, queer, creative folks who think the wondrous variety of humanity is awesome and people should be left alone to live their lives (except billionaires and nazis). We do #ttrpgs, #boardgames, #Minecraft, and long convoluted conversations on many topics. My favourite dinosaur is ceolophysis.
This past weekend’s trip to the regional used bookstore revealed this ancient wonder from @SJohnRoss and @muskrat_john priced a full dollar less than a used copy of Savage Worlds 50 Fathoms. The horror! Obviously collectors pricing, despite the game-book shelves looking extremely lean.
Aaahhhhh my nerdy little heart is happy with this stuff.
Having my dice send requests to @homeassistant is an absolutely bonkers thing to do. But it's so fun and the Rube Goldberg machine of tech keeps going!