ODND "Callastor" Campaign: Session One
First session report of ODND with my own Outdoor Survival based world
Hey all -
Excited to share what I believe (knock on wood) will be the first of many session reports from my new campaign.
This is an ODND/Delving Deeper campaign with some of our own house rules, which I’ll go into as I write this.
Rather than simple session reports, these will also serve as a look behind the curtain on how I prep, DM, and go about running satisfying sessions in a long-term campaign.
In this first one, I’ll discuss why I went with ODND, and my campaign preparation methods and so on. Next time, I’ll jump into how that all came together, and how I use the first campaign session to inform the next one.
I’m working on getting the Outdoor Survival map (commissioned by me from Valterink) edited a bit, at which time I plan to release it for free to my followers on Substack and elsewhere. The current plan is for the world of Callastor to be put together into a series of zines for use at your table with the OSR game of your choice, but based on the original edition of the world’s most popular RPG.
I plan for the format of these to be regional hexes and their accompanying subhexes, with areas of interest, brief lore and setting info, house rules, and adventure hooks and so on.
With that out of the way, let’s proceed!
THE SYSTEM
Beginning a campaign is always an exciting but somewhat daunting prospect. Sandbox style games are a subject of much argument and debate these days, but its always the style my table has preferred since we were kids. The freedom of the game was what always drew us to it instead of console and computers.
I knew this one was going to be special, as old friends schedules had finally solidified for the forseeable, and the request was put out in our group chat:
We want to begin a long term campaign - ruleset negotiable, weekly play even if some miss the session, with downtime handled between sessions via text.
We are all “in-person” players, so for the stars to align this way is always an amazing feeling, and I set to work to fulfill their request.
I already knew I was going to make a decision between three rulesets, and that they would be D&D - this is largely due to familiarity, nostalgia, and the game’s early edition’s excellent support of tough and rewarding advancement - the three in question were 1974’s original edition, clarified with Delving Deeper, my favorite ODND retroclone; original B/X; and AD&D.
The reasons for these being the three choices are myriad, but all the players are “old school,” and none of them care for newer editions (we’ve played 3e and 5e and it wasn’t to our taste). ODND is dead simple and makes for a fast running game - we especially enjoy the experience curve of ODND making the first couple levels a bit faster due to the 100xp/HD reward.
Only having to use d20’s and d6’s at the table is great for the few new players who joined before the campaign began, as it keeps things moving quickly.
B/X is a terrific game and I honestly would’ve been just as happy to use it, reflavoring the “race” classes as this is an all human campaign that has human “cultural” stand-ins for dwarf, elf and halfling.
AD&D is what we decided to leave on the table if we decide to add complexity later in the campaign - the transition from ODND to ADND is sort of the natural progression, rather than ODND to B/X.
So - we decided. ODND using Delving Deeper for clarification.
The house rules:
XP for coin spent, not simply earned. This was a deliberate choice to keep the inevitable piles of coin limited, and to encourage PCs to “invest” in the campaign world. One shots and short term play is one thing, but long term games often require the idea of domain play or “subgames” the players enjoy to keep things moving and the campaign world pliable and fun for the PCs to interact with.
We also added a bolt on d6 skill system. This one I wasn’t 100% about but we all agreed to give it a day in court for a few reasons: although the x in 6 style of skills exist already in ODND and B/X, there is no built in progression for them. I don’t like the idea that getting lost is the same for a 7th level fighting man played as a ranger type as it is for a level 1 greenhorn.
Thus, we decided to give it a shot and to scrap it if it doesn’t serve the purpose of the day: deeper enjoyment of the game and campaign.
There’s some other house rulings we are using as well for things like combat, spell components and the like (AD&D PHB is being brought in already for material components and so on), but I’ll touch on these as they arise in gameplay reports.
CAMPAIGN PREP
Prep is another buzzword in the online TTRPG space these days. “No-prep” play is certainly 100% possible, and I’ve done it before plenty of times for short games and one shots - laying out a blank hex map and using Sandbox Generator or ShadowDark or another game with robust tables to just wing it. I love doing this.
With a long term campaign, however, at a certain point, you’re going to have to do some in-between session work. Cultures will have certain textures. Thieves Guilds and Factions will need a bit of work in order to feel cooler and more coherent with what’s going on.
None of this need be done whole-sale at the beginning of a game, and I’d agree with extensive lore and the like is largely a waste of time if its unlikely to be engaged with by the players…
However.
For me, this is where personal preference and my proclivities as a solo player come in.
I developed the basic concepts for the campaign world by playing solo on the Outdoor Survival board map after a re-read of the classic “The Original D&D Setting” by Wayne Rossi.
I knew I wanted sword and sorcery, clashing cultures, law against chaos, dark sorcery, diverse orders and knighthoods riding fantastical beasts, and all that good stuff.
Callastor is essentially sword and planet, as it is a small world whose history and mythology is replete with references to law and chaos gods from other worlds and stars battling for supremacy with Callastor as one of many battlefields to wage their wars.
It is far, far in the future of these conflicts, but their effects are still felt.
My prep was developing 5 basic cultural concepts and an incredibly brief history of them, and the current situation now.
I didn’t worry a bit about “filling the map” or even knowing city names - I wrote down a big list of names for people and places before starting session one and picked from it at random. Having a list of place and people names that fit the campaign is one of my “always have it” at the table rules.
I like for players to be able to hear a place or person name and associate it with an area or people after playing the campaign long enough.
My other prep was to print a few dungeon maps out, a couple small ones and a huge one, and jot down a couple random encounter tables, some cool “found in the dungeon” ideas, a few traps, and my dungeon-crawling procudures from Delvin Deeper.
Ditto for outdoors/overland travel.
Armed with these, I knew I was ready to begin the game and make most of my decisions as reactions to what the PCs decided to do, and where they wanted to go.
The first game was four players, two less than we had planned for (even perfectly aligned stars can go awry) - two veteran players and two newer players who were in my last B/X Keep on the Borderlands campaign.
Characters were rolled using 3d6 then assign where you like for stats…
We wound up with 2 neutral fighters, and 2 chaotic magic users.
The stage was set, and we were ready to dive in.
TO BE CONTINUED.
I'm hooked. Thanks for sharing a behind the screen loom. Can't wait to read more and that Map is fantastic!
Great read as always! I’d be interested to hear more about the skill system you are using, is it the same one you spoke about in one of your solo session reports?