Keep On Hommlet-ing The Borderlands
Using oracles to freshen up T1 "Village of Hommlet" and B2 "Keep on the Borderlands" B/X solo campaign
First off - an apology for the lack of articles lately. I’m staying active in the Notes section, but haven’t had much time or energy to write a lot. Between the holidays, work, and some hiccups in my recent Kickstarter fulfillment…
I got a bit sidetracked, distracted, burned out, disheartened - call it what you will.
For the first time in quite a while, I found myself not wanting to draw, DM, solo play…nothing.
This time around, I just decided to listen, and took a bit of a break from creative stuff. I watched a few movies in my spare time, read a couple books, enjoyed my spare time with family, all that good stuff.
Predictably, the itch came back eventually, and I decided what the hell, new year new me, new campaign, why not?
Also predictably, the agonizing questions of what system, what style, what setting began to plague me at once. I would throw different rulesets in my work backpack, thinking, yep, this is the one, only to stare at them and feel that feeling of “maybe not.” I’d pack them back up on my work breaks, and nothing was played, nor sketched.
The peasants did not rejoice.
Finally, I decided to do something I never usually do - to play vanilla fantasy B/X, and to force myself to do nothing (well, almost nothing, I’m not perfect!) to mess with setting, worldbuilding, or any of the other stuff that always sidetracks me from actually playing the damn game.
I selected only Moldvay and Cook’s B/X, my home printed banged up copies that live in a plain black three ring binder, with no oracles or tables outside that.
Next, I grabbed my copies (also home prints) of T1 “Village of Hommlet” and B2 “Keep on the Borderlands,” and decided I would just mash them together. Ask questions later and let the gods of little plastic polyhedrons sort it out.
This kind of “just pick up and play” is hard for me, but ultimately gets me playing rather than burning out with tons of “elves aren’t actually elves in this setting” kind of stuff and never slaying a single orc. I know. It’s a problem.
Anyhow, armed with these venerable booklets and my usual red vs. white D6 oracle (yes vs. no. Tie means something unexpected), I began by rolling up PCs.
Here’s where I changed just a bit. I used Welsh Piper’s B/X Class Builder for a single one of the characters - a Necromancer named Algyrnon. A tough XP curve there, but given time and money he can make golems/constructs, and gets a nifty little vampiric drain ability.
Knowing how brutal these modules are firsthand, I was not worried about overpowered PCs, since I planned to use only 4.
Joining Algyrnon, his brother Ingolf, a woodsman. For this I just use the Halfling class and make a couple flavor adjustments to the mechanics, but run it more or less as-is. I like hobbits in Tolkien, but not my D&D game. Sorry, halfling fans.
Added to this - Cromlech of Har-Cruach, a dwarf, and Feydras the Bull, a human fighter with a 16 STR!
Got some good rolls using 3d6 and assign wherever.
A few house rules in play - damage is by hit dice rather than all d6 or using the alternate damage tables from B/X.
When reduced to 0 hp, the PC gets a single saving throw vs. death - if it fails, they die. If it succeeds, they live, but with a permanent “scar,” for which a d6 is rolled to select a random attribute to subtract 1 point from.
I did a few cursory sketches on the character sheets for bad luck, wrote a single sentence for each PC’s “backstory,” since I lean into levels 1-3 as the PCs actual origin story instead of having to make it up, and was off to the races.
So - the PCs are at the Keep.
Hommlet is just to the south at the split in the road, and the Moathouse is on the edge of the swamp.
I changed the scale as well to make things bigger - each little hex or square is now 1 mile, so it’s about 12 miles from the Keep to the big river on the map, and more like a day’s travel to the Caves of Chaos.
As usual, I scattered the caves around the map instead of doing the monster hotel thing from the original module. It just makes things more fun and makes more sense to me.
You can use a dice drop method for this easily enough, or throw darts, or read entrails or whatever your preferred oracular style.
From here, I let the dice do things on the fly.
Meet someone new, ask a question about whatever strikes my fancy.
Does the smith need help in some way? Yes? Is it a shortage or equipment? Yes? Ok, cool, makes sense. Raiders are knocking off wagons on the road, so that adds up.
Is the original Castellan running the Keep? No. His son? No. Ok…a daughter? Yes! Ok, interesting. The Lady of the Keep became an Eowyn type of NPC, capable, good, a bit haughty, and just a little out of her depth.
Asking these fast questions led to lots of cool stuff happening that sort of built out the sandbox a bit. Is this faction connected to this one? No? How about this other one? Ok, cool, the Guild is actually good guys this time around, and loyal to the Castellan? Nice change from the last time I ran it, where they were profiteering scum working with the cult.
Letting the dice make the call, but not trying to do it all on the front end made for a good time, and allowed me to be surprised.
In my first session, I went south of the river to deal with the Raiders, who, this time around, are holed up in a ruined old fort called Buzzard’s Roost. A sleep spell and a few crits later, and my little crew was victorious, and had their first “in” with the Castellan.
I explored a bit of PC motivation at this point, asking myself “in one sentence, what does this PC want?” I also used the oracle for this.
Algyrnon wants to learn from the wizard in the Keep, who is an advisor to the Castellan, a sort of Merlin type. A series of rolls also uncovered that there is a connection between this wizard and the mad hermit, to be determined. His former pupil?
Feydras is looking for valorous opportunity, plain and simple - a former soldier, he wants to earn fame and a title, and land in the process where he can have a family.
Ingolf is devoted to his younger brother Algyrnon, whose work with the black arts worries him greatly - his loyalty is complete, and he would give his life for him.
Cromlech has come from his home, Har-Cruach, to attempt to get some kind of assistance from the Keep for some issue affecting the dwarf settlement. Sounds like a further adventure - I didn’t sweat the details.
From here, the party decided to try to find clues to whatever is stirring up the local orcs and assorted humanoid tribes by going to the Moathouse. Four yeoman were hired and outfitted.
Giant frogs were bested, bandits battled and conquered, giant spiders left the hell alone, giant snakes run away from, rats burned, and huge ticks avoided on the upper level. (Those who’ve been here know how much of a bastard this module is on low level parties.)
The second excursion took the PCs and their hirelings into the guts of the place. Slimes were avoided and burned, zombies were battled and beaten and burned…but the noise alerted the man-eating ogre in room 7.
A surprise attack felled Feydras, my best warrior, in one blow. He luckily makes his saving throw, but loses that sweet point of strength and is reduced to a 15, also losing that +2. Bummer. War is hell.
Cromlech and Ingolf and the archers make an awesome stand, battling the ogre over Feydras’ fallen body, and a clutch critical hit from the dwarf drops the ogre. Only a snake eyes roll on the ogre’s 2d4+5(!!!) damage to Cromlech saved the day, otherwise I think it would have been curtains for both my tanks.
I didn’t have a thief, nor did the PCs wish to make a ton of noise smashing the doors to rooms 2 and 3, so the stockpile wasn’t discovered. Neither was the secret door in area 5, nor the secret door in the ogre’s room, so the PCs rescue the folks from the ogre’s larder (who I noted as potentially recurring quest givers), and head back to the Keep with Feydras’ body on the pack horse.
They plan to return to investigate these brand new locks on doors 2 and 3 which seem very suspicious.
In my next article, I’ll try to make a list of quest givers and side quests I’m using for you to throw into your own run at B2 or T1, and give some more “usable” stuff from my solo style.
Hopefully you enjoyed this little look into my new campaign - and hopefully these PCs make it long enough to see some of their goals realized. I wonder what’s happening back at Har-Cruach, and if there’s a big maze of barrows somewhere between here and there.
(I just bought the print version of Barrowmaze and I’m hoping to make it somewhere I can delve at leisure as the campaign goes on.)
Good gaming to all, and keep your blades sharp!
- Castle Grief
Great write-up!
Always good to do a return-to-form to invigorate those creative energies.
I love the simple solve for the monster hotel - easy and replayable.
Great journal! You do a great job of showing how asking a series of questions and then oracling answers really shakes your solo play.
I find it funny that you find "just pick up and play" difficult, since that is Kal-Arath's greatest strength. Once it arrived for me, i went from reading it, to rolling up s charger, to playing my first session within minutes. I literally think i was playing a brand new RPG within an hour of opening the book.
Was that intentional? Did you design it that way, specifically because you find it hard to just get going?