Review + Actual Play: Winters Daughter

tl:dr; fun old school dungeon with a romance-story core, solid recommend.

Attronarch was selling off some adventures and I seized the opportunity - got a bunch of the OSE classics - completely forgetting I had a copy of Winters Daughter on the way as part of my Dolmenwood order. All to the good, I will probably pass on my extra copy as a raffle prize or the like.

I thought I would run it against my Friday night open tables on the 'off weeks' of my dual mode game. This was an experiment on how old school adventures survive contact with 5e players - in short pretty darn well, would solidly recommend.

So what do you actually get in the book?

Installing Rulers

Of campaigns I have run these past few years, two were open sandboxes and in both of them, after a little poking around dungeons, the partys decided to lock in on some currently non-descript local dweller and get them elevated to a position of power. As the meme says, odd that it happened twice.

Is there something in here about the domain game of D&D being emergent in a convergent-evolution style? Left to their own devices, a party of PCs naturally seeks to instil order, even if it is not to put a crown on their own heads?

Is this just a reaction against whatever the DM is throwing against them - if what they get is a structure plot or obvious hooks, then they will focus on hijinks and chaos creation along the way. If what they get is a pure open sandbox and they can do anything at all, is the reaction to try and impose order and dominion?

These were two completely unrelated groups of players - the first campaign was Southern Reaches where a mix of UK, Ireland and Austria based players playing remotely eventually decided that their goal was going to be getting one of their number elected as mayor of the local big city. The player of that PC had needed to quit so they were effectively a known NPC at that point - no power would have accrued to an active player.

The second time was for my current sandbox, which as running under the name of Realm of the Reluctant King since this effort to crowbar a kingdom in under an NPC is now the main focus. The NPC in question has even told them not to, disavowed any will to be responsible for the locality and fled the region. The current main effort of the campaign is to pry him out of the hands of slavers and bring him back to install at the head of the realm they have hammered together.

Actual Play - Yaksha's Hexfill Method (Part 2)

Closing out a table test a Brian Yaksha's Hexfill method on a 'fill as you go' basis on a previously un-explored part of the map. Written up to follow Jenx first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while continuing the DM commentary addition to the session notes.

This second session had things work more smoothly, I was happy with how it played out. As before, I was working off a single page print-off of all the tables, double column, minimal borders and using that with an overloaded encounter die.

I used an overloaded encounter die so there were both 'encounter, positive' and 'encounter, negative' possibilities plus 'locality' and 'percept' options. Fatigue and expiry results did not require anything from these tables.
1. Setback
2. Fatigue/delay
3. Expiration
4. Locality
5. Percept
6. Advantage

Setup

The party was continuing to try and evacuate a large column of freed prisoners through a swamp. Play picked up with the party catching up with the column of refugees they had let be escorted on ahead by some other adventurers they hired. Approx 175 people in the column, rested but with no food, with four hours left until sundown.

Actual Play - Yaksha's Hexfill Method (Part 1)

I got the chance to table test a Brian Yaksha's Hexfill method on a 'fill as you go' basis on a previously un-explored part of the map, trying this out at table it worked pretty well with a little squeak because of unusual circumstances. Written up to follow Jenx first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while continuing the DM commentary addition to the session notes.

Setup - where the adventure came from

The party was trying to evacuate a large column of freed prisoners through a swamp. The below is very much the 'DM-screen view' version of a session report.

I printed the sites, encounters and flavour elements I had worked up previously on a single page, double column, minimal borders, switching around the order of the tables so they broke cleanly at the bottom of the page. This gave me everything at a single glance.

I used an overloaded encounter die so there were both 'encounter, positive' and 'encounter, negative' possibilities plus 'locality' and 'percept' options. Fatigue and expiry results did not require anything from these tables.
1. Setback
2. Fatigue/delay
3. Expiration
4. Locality
5. Percept
6. Advantage

Session Report: Yaksha's Hexfill Method for the Marsh That Remembers

Actual Play - Hexcrawl25 + Home Reforged

I tested simply dropping a location into my hexcrawl sandbox as a one-shot, with the intention that the journey through the hex-map would be most of the session and the location fairly simple at the end. Written up to follow Jenx first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while continuing the DM commentary addition to the session notes.

Setup - where the adventure came from

This was an open-table on an off-week to my hexcrawl campaign; using the same map and prep. This session was the first open table which was not a formal adventure, this was just a location

Our heroes were
lthmar - Elf Rogue (woodland ranger)
Hilas - Halfling Fighter (local hero discus thrower)
Thorgrimm Embershield - Dwarf Barbarian (WHFRP trollslayer)
Erin - Elf Paladin (oath of ancients ex-soldier)
Martha - Human Barbarian (buff old lady)
Happy - Tiefling Rogue (sneaky)

An interesting bit cropped up at the start - one person was very mechanics focused - wanted specific classes, etc from everyone - another - the tiefling player, told me stuff about tieflings in my campaign world (closer to old archetype of shunned stranger vs fairly well mixed in for menagerie world).

Session was run under an adventurers league style ruleset so everyone would get a level up if they survived and treasure and gold rewards were capped as this was a Tier One (level 1-4) adventure.

Running a beach episode

Home campaign players recently pulled off a substantial win - wanted a vacation episode - effectively a 'played through do-nothing downtime'. Writing it up as per Gorgon Bones Record your hobby experience.

The sorcerer and bard were adamant they deserved a day on the beach. Even the somewhat workaholic cleric of Kord went along as they had been pounded by a clay golem and had a bunch of cursed wounds to deal with.

The practical challenge for me was to set up for this downtime session while being flexible over where they could end up as the wonders of teleport were now theirs to command so which beach they went to could vary for the whole coast. Their intention was to go for a day and be back to sleep. As a DM that meant how to prep enough to support this chill-out downtime session without over-preparing some place that was unlikely to be returned to.

Powerpoint-filter-fuzzed beach photo

Prepping the beach session

So I figured my approach was to prepare an overlay of activities that could then be dropped on top of wherever they went to.

Thus
1. plan out the session in broad strokes that could be tailored to location
2. sweep up known aspects and differences in the southern cities they could go to

Actual Test: Yaksha's Hexfill Method

I saw this on Brian Yaksha of Goatman's Goblet's bluesky feed - and have been looking for an opportunity to test it. Interestingly, on a first attempt it flared out and did not work for me where I already had too many ideas, it worked really well for a different region where I only had some vague ones.

The framework that Yaksha pulled together has the following:
- 1 Unique Encounter
- 2 Tools/Gimmicks for the region
- d10+d4 Local Encounters
- d10 Small Jobs
- d6 Big Jobs
- d20 Scene-setting sights/stage design
- d6 bounties/location implications
- d6 ways to expand/change-up the area set to tone.
- 3d10 names for places (locales/nature sights/crossings.)

The area where it worked (red circle below), I had just a few facts. I had previously attempted to run it for the hex below, the yellow-boxes and it just bogged down for me. I will do a post-mortem at the end on the failure.

For context, the party had just made their way from the bold outlined hex on a rescue, climbing up onto the plateau region (yellow boxes) effecting a rescue at the south-eastern-most yellow box and then dashing for the nearest edge of the escarpment with a large caravan of rescued prisoners. Their theory was that the plateau rainforests were unknown, terrain, home to the people they had just raided while the swamps below were more familiar terrain for most party members and they prefered that, even if it were an unknown part of the swamps.

Working the process

Actual test: hexcrawl mechanics (launch session)

Launched a new campaign, trying to bring hex-crawling to my open tables; I thought I would write it up from a deployment of actual hexcrawling mechanics to see how/if this type of play mechanically differed from 'standard 5e with a map'.

Session log with a mechanics focus

Ducal House Year 6 - DM Challenges

We just kicked off the 6th year of our home campaign, Ducal House, and the players asked me how I was finding it, how it compared to previous campaigns I've done and so on. I needed to check and confirm that it is indeed the longest campaign by sessions, hours and years I have run - and later this year will be longer than the next two campaign I ran stacked together. Two questions came up at the end of the session:
1. What (if anything) am I seeing as an issue?
2. What would I change if I could?

Year in Review 2024

2024 was a great year for gaming - down from last years banner year but I do not feel in any way short-changed.

On running games

Ducal House (3.5e) - got in another 22 sessions, tailing off toward the end of year. This fifth year began with nailing down the altered ducal succession that had nominally been the campaign goal since session zero, a considerable amount of politics after a lot of time saving the realm and then further venturing forth to thwart a foe/potential allies plot. A venture onto the astral finally levelled everyone up to 11. The bard became heir apparent to the realm, unsought. The sorcerer has become fascinated with the potential of lichdom and the cleric continues to restrain them, in person or as the voice of conscience.

Campaign Retrospective: Brancalonia - Bay of Princes

Since a campaign finished, let us do a retrospective Against the Wicked City style as is now traditional.

What it was:

* "Welcome wagon" for friday night open table D&D - catch the newbies with a T1 table.
* Opportunity to bring books I had kickstarted to table - I backed the second one and got the books from the first as add-on

Stats for 27/30 games are here - a year of open table gaming - the last three games did not change the stats - average remained similar at 5.4 players for 4.6 hours on a Friday night. Final total was 77 individual players for 161 slots.

The roster of adventures was 19 games from the Brancalonia books (8 games out of Jinx's Almanac, 6 out of the Macaronicon, 5 out of the Brancalonia core book), 6 from my 'adventure generator' tests, 2 OSR zines (Het Thamsya, Goblin Mail), 2 adventures from Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel and a Dungeon23 snippet (Apocalypse Archive).

Actual Play: Goblin Mail

I tested out the Goblin Mail - a zine about a chaotic goblin post office I reviewed recently. Written up to follow Gorgon Bones first best practice: "Record your hobby experience".

Cover by Evlyn Moreau

Run as an open table at our regular Friday night sessions using 5e, this was a seven player table and we ran a ~4hr session, half of which was Goblin Mail.

Characters were:
Maxi the Tabaxi - a rogue
Gwensora - a cleric
Giovanni Giovanni - a rogue
Hyperion IV - a barbarian
Thomas Wetsack - a cleric
Archie Gruble - a fighter
Balthus Darkcloud - a cleric

Session Report: Goblin Mail

Our heroes received a letter from the Merchant da Pra, whom they helped previously in Pesto Alla Lungarvese. They ask that a package be delivered to their aunt out in the Penumbria borderlands - with the catch that the package needs to first be retrieved from the goblin post office.

Venturing into town our heroes find the ramshackle goblin post office, barge into the office and are directed to customer service. They point them to the boss. After scrambling up the stairs to find a loud and horrible break room they interrupt a card-game-argument to get directions up to the boss. Forging their way through drifts of letters and thieving gremlins they arrive at a second more civilised breakroom and thence to the bosses office.

[DM Commentary - initial interactions with the goblins went well, a lot of barging past the queues of locals but getting to the front did not make the goblins much more helpful. The coffee and snacks in the break-room proved an unexpected attraction and the gremlins among the letter drifts were a good hazard. I played those more as 'save vs effect' hazards rather than combat since the gremlins were so out matched. One was captured and hauled around for the rest of the adventure cursing its captor.]

The boss queries them then sends them to customer service, where the party splits. Half deciding to just try searching the next room - special package storage - and the rest returning to customer servce. Archie decides to follow the 'faster service' ladder and finds Griselda the All-Seeing. Directed from their to the basement and Agatha then venture down and find Agatha who despite the irregularities, directs them towards the special package storage.

[DM Commentary - by this point 'you need to go see the boss' was causing eye-twitch reactions among some of the party as they were failing to distinguish between who is in charge in this room and who is in charge of the whole building. There was much running up and down to try and out-pace the package. The party split into a group led by Archie who followed the Boss instructions and another of Giovanni, Thomas and Balthus who decided to just start searching for the package themselves.]

Arriving first into special package storage, Thomas, Hyperion and Giovanni poke about in the giant stacks of parcels and when Thomas casts a Detect Magic, filching one or two. As the others arrive, and finally bring some light to the gloomy room, a giant book worm is revealed nibbling packages in the far end of the room. Returning (most of) its packages, they are told the latest delivery has already been sent to the roof.

[DM Commentary - the random package generators came in very handy here as the room was searched and random packages pocketted. Eventually someone cast Dancing Lights and the bookworm woke up - they assumed it was staff and did not fight it.]

Scrambling up the ladder they find a giant stork in its nest and a baffled goblin staring in, with a sack of packages abandoned nearby - and a trio of hogmen sneaking up to grab it. Shooing off the hogmen, our heroes attempt to reconcile the stork and goblins confusion over the hatched winged lizards in the nest before Balthus manages to grievously insult the storks parenting skills and they are chased off.

Archie and Giovanni grab the package they are looking for and dash back down the inside of the post office while everyone else follows the hogmen back down their grappling-rope.

[DM Commentary - the random roll for the Stork and Goblins disposition had them confused over the strange hatching of winged lizards - so I made the mail bandits be a group of sneaking hogmen in place of a loud attack. The players managed to intimidate off the hogmen then tried to help the stork figure out what was going on. This turned into an effort to persuade the stork to give up the hatchlings for adoption by the party that was going ok for a bit until it was blown by implying the stork was a bad parent for building their nest here. Cue angry chase off]

Abandoning their plan to deliver the package today, our heroes return to the Golden Cockerel with two packages - one for the Wizard da Pra and another covered in ancient return addresses and warning stickers. Giovanni cuts this open and find a mysterious animated bug which speaks a strange tongue. They give it a lute and it plays music unlike any they have heard before. Deciding not to worry about it, they leave the bug at the Golden Cockerel and set out again to deliver the package.

Session report for Goblin Mail ends

Overall view - it ran more quickly and less violently than I might have thought, people did not dig into the 'why are there goblin post offices' at all. It very much got across the kafka-esque run-around of being endlessly pointed to different desks. By the time the party left they needed to go for an in-game drink.

All in all a nice little drop in module - use it the once for a sessions of have it in the background to be used and re-used. No reason more goblin post offices might not be encountered in the future.

Actual Test: Donjon Adventure Generator

I tested out the Donjon Adventure Generator - "based upon tables from the Dungeon Master's Design Kit by TSR, Inc." - what you get is just collosal, so much stuff. Written up to follow Gorgon Bones first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while continuing the DM commentary addition to the session notes.

I pushed the button twice and then followed my usual adventure generator workflow:
* Thread the pieces together
* Conserve NPCs
* Rewrite/polish

Elements I picked from the combined randomly generated stuff (italics is all stuff from Donjon):
* Plot: Event - a tournament, a holiday, a celebration called by the king, a masked ball - as a backdrop.
* Plot A-B-C Quest - the heros are given a task to perform but they find that they must first accomplish some other task(s)
* Climax: Prevented Deed
* General Setting Cosmopolitan City
* Specific Setting I - Palace of the King
* Specific Setting II - Mansion of a Lord
* Master Villain - Advance Agent - This villain is the vanguard of some sort of invastion
* Minor Villain I - Mistress with a Heart of Gold usually accompanies the Master Villain, but sometimes goes on missions of her own
* Minor Villain II Chief Assassin - favorite killer of the Master Villain - first killing witnesses who might prove harmful to his master, then zeroing in on the player-characters
* Chase: Special Terrain - You can make any chase more memorable by having it take place in a setting to which it is utterly unsuited. For instance, horse chases are fine and dramatic when they take place through the forest, out in the open plains, or along a road -- but they become diabolical when they take place inside the Royal Palace or in dangerous, labrynthine, treacherous catacombs.
* Secret Weakness: Love The Master Villain possesses the "weakness" of genuine affection or love -- probably for some NPC
* Special Condition Time Limit - Finally, the most obvious condition to place on an adventure is to give it a time limit.

A year of open table gaming

Some stat's from the regular friday night open table games I have been running.

Original set up goals
- be the welcome wagon for friday night open table D&D - catch the newbies by always having a T1 table.
- bring books I had kickstarted to table

Set up a 'campaign background' thread on the forum. I decided to use Brancalonia as a start because it seemed fun and I wanted to give the setting a test run. I made it a bit more of a universal socket to whatever weird characters people might turn up with by crossing it over to my menagerie world setting.

The 'intro' goes - "5000 years ago the elves invaded, conquered everything around here. In this world elves teach things they think show promise how to be elves. About 1000 years ago the elves left, and behind remained lots of 'on-the-way-to-elf' groups that stabilised as rabbitlings, badgerlings, all sorts. Half this world is about 1m tall. You all used to work for a wizard, it was good times, then the wizard got into politics and you are pretty sure they're dead now. You woke up one morning to find wanted posters with your names on them and crimes you may or may not have committed. You all fled south, winding up here, at the Golden Cockerel, the southern node of the wizards old network. Rougher runs the place, begrudgingly taking you in. The wine and the stew have been getting more watery every day for the past week and now, after a night drinking, you have all just woken up feeling nothing but hydrated and hungry."

Filling the tables

Basic stats -
27 games from August 2023 to August 2024
Average session length, 4h 40m
Total hours played - 126
5.3 players per table on average (smallest group 4, biggest 9)
Total of 202 players DM'ed for (butts on seats, some repeat folk)
72 different people threw dice at those games

Actual Test: Scarlet Heroes Adventure Generator

Scarlet Heroes has the adventure generators I was looking for in Worlds Without Number, huh. I decided to test run it for my open table games. Out of the urban/wilderness/dungeon options I liked that the urban options had 'mission' structures so I went with those as most appropriate for a one shot. Written up to follow Gorgon Bones first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while continuing the DM commentary addition to the session notes.

I rolled up some 'tags' - Foul Sorcery and Holy Site - and a plot - "An Antagonist seeks to steal something precious to a target."

The plot workflow had a few bits:

Draw or choose either the Antagonist or the Target, whichever your hero is most likely to care about.
Draw an unknown actor to be foundy after a successful Investigation scene spent discovering their identity.
Be waylaid by a hostile Actor with a Clue.
The object being stolen is the Target’s most precious possession or something important to the Antagonist that the Target possesses.
Scenes revolve around finding the thieves, guarding the object, and snatching it back if it is stolen.
- Infiltrate a Location where the activities relate to a Clue
- Trick an Actor into revealing a Clue.
- Convince an Actor ally of the foe to betray them

I rolled up a skilled sorcerer and a paid guardsman as actors and some locations - a Public well and a Fighting pit. Combining those with the tags and thinking through how it ties to dangling threads from previous adventures I rewrote all this as:
- Skilled Sorcerer [quest-giver] turns up looking for help
- Antagonist is seeking quest-gives most precious posession - a Tome of forbidden lore
- Figures they are in the city, this is where their networks are, degraded as they maybe
- seen by public well - start there
- get waylaid by bribed guards [catspaws of Maganza], tickets to local fighting pit in their pockets
- Infiltrate a Location where the activities relate to a Clue (fighting pit, predator)
- investigate there, ancient shrine to predator queen - terror bird
- spot servants of antagonist - need an approach angle
- Trick an Actor into revealing a Clue.
- Convince an Actor ally of the foe to betray them
- Plan revealed need to extract and get word back

I then localised it by combing back through old sessions to refresh my memory on locations and players at large to conserve my NPCs, and came up with:

Actual Play: The Apocalypse Annex

I took a slice - the first twelve rooms - of Bearded Devils awesome Apocalypse Archive to by Friday Night open table as the Apocalypse Annex. It was a little bit of a tone shift vs the usual Brancalonia fare but I think it worked well. I ran some rooms 'as is' but then clipped some of the 'bottled horrors' to make it a harbinger of the main threat rather than the final boss.

Party was Zell - Tabaxi warlock, Francis Loxodon bard, Drog hobgoblin sorcerer, Alex human cleric - system was 5e using Gritty Realism (strictly also Brancalonia rules but none of them became relevant). Write up below is from the post-session report our DMs do after every session on our forum. I have added in DM commentary to give the 'how I ran it' perspective and tag what came from where in the Apocalypse Archive.

Session Report: The Apocalypse Annex

With funds and food running short, Rougher approaches our heroes with a scrap page "recovered" from others of the group at the Golden Cockerel, a page from the Great Red Book marked with dwarven sites from the time of the elven invasion. He points out that all the other sites on the page have detailed catalogs of the contents but this one does not - it must be still sealed and therefore full of treasure! The site lies in the Ditch of Serpents, up near Appollonia - familiar terrain, Rougher assures them that no doubt the job will be easy

[DM Commentary: This is my standard one-shot launch "the stew and the wine are getting more watered down. Today is a grim morning where you had a lot of both last night but wake up today hydrated and hungry. The running gag is Rougher is usually right about there being treasure, dead wrong about the level of hazard]

Sceptical but hungry our heroes hitch a barge ride up the river, noting someone tailing them as they leave and boarding another barge behind them. Laying a false trail that they disembarked at the end of the day at the Rugged Hearth, the riverside inn, they travel on a little more and disembark at the nearest point on the river to the place they seek.

[DM Commentary: We had a four-man party this time - Zell - Tabaxi warlock of some undead patron, Francis Loxodon bard (both PCs with 6+ sessions at my open table), Drog hobgoblin sorcerer (experienced player with new L1 character), Alex human cleric (new guy with L5 cleric of the some twilight domain deity).]

Hiking through the forest to the edge of the Ditch of Serpents as night falls, they spy campfires and move towards them. Finding some common folk from Appollonia in religious festival costumes camped for the night they join their camp.

Asked if they shared their dreams about the New Sun, our heroes lie that they do, put together the Appollonians tale with the festival cooked up by others from the Golden Cockerel a month previously and in the morning tell them they have had further revelatory dreams and lead them to the mapped site.

[** DM Commentary: At this point the players (and PC's) were waiting for Roughers other shoe to drop and probed these cultists pretty hard. They spotted that some of the costumes had bits and pieces from their colleagues, backtracked the timeline and made some decent Religion rolls to twig that while this did look like the thing their comrades had set in motion, nothing any of them were aware of explained how that false festival could have evolved into dreams so quickly.]

After some searching and more digging the find a stubby archaeolith tower, force the door and descend into the pitch blackness. Natural darkvision and gifts from patrons and deities furnish all the party ability to see in the dark but still it is disquieting as they descend.

[** DM Commentary: Actually cracking into the content here although as per standard with 5e, seeing in the dark was trivially easy to solve. The door was Room 1 - Trapdoor Entrance.]

A spiral stair opens to a great ramp, both stained with ancient blood, watched over by a bastion. At the base of the ramp they find another door into darkness so complete even their gifted sight fails. Alek ventures in and plunges from the tilting blocks of the bridge into the frigid pool of liquid darkness beneath. Hauled back out by his comrades, Zell draws on his tabaxi gifts and boons granted by all his comrades and sprints across.

[** DM Commentary: The stair was Room 2 - Staircase, the ramp was made up new and the 'spinning block bridge' was room 5 'darkness bath' with a trapped bridge over it to create a 'darklock' in front of this dwarven bastion. Though they sensibly chose to have someone scout ahead with a rope attached, once the cleric went into the pool (and found it frigid and damaging) they chose to futz about poking at things and taking more damage until their comrades pulled them out.]

Locking the bridge on the far side lets the rest cross and they find a barrack room and a sizzling mutated goblin corpse. Poking at it a bit Zell consults his patron and is told this thing is anathema.

[** DM Commentary: I made the bridge lockable so they just needed to solve it once and I wanted to get everything done in one session. The barracks was a reskinned Room 4 andthey poked the Illumined vessel a bit and got their first failed saves vs. Radiation - enough to clue them in that this bad light is bad. The way the flaming eyes followed them while the body was apparently dead had them pretty sure that 'the light' was bad - their theory was it was a puppeteering influence from some entity elsewhere.]

Covering it with a blanket and trapping it beneath a chest, the party proceeds upstairs to the spiral library. There they find a shelves packed with scrolls that they figure must be valuable and start stuffing them into their bags. Distracted, they are ambushed by two more mutated goblins, these blazing with sickly light. Tipping a shelf and then casting back their physical forms before banishing them entirely, the party wins some quiet to further explore.

[** DM Commentary: The voidskin scrolls were an object of fascination - and they were paying no attention even when I said there were light sources elsewhere so the other illumined vessels got the drop on them. This was a straight port of Room 6 - Voidskin Scroll Archive. The light cast by the illumined was a nice, scary effect and there was some proper panicking while they figured out who of the cleric, warlock, sorcerer and bard was supposed to be in front. In the end the warlock flexed 'Among the Dead' at a choke point where, grace of some failed saves, the illumined vessels got stalled long enough for the cleric to turn them.]

At the top of the library, the top of the bastion they had seen from without, they find a dwarven planning station and glean snippets of the Membrane Wars and the infectious light of a strange sun that spreads to herald its coming. The also find notes that this place is a containment unit and sigh as they realise the have to check whatever it contains is still there.

[** DM Commentary: we flexed the gritty realism rules and let a pair of second level spells get burned off for a casting of Tongues by the cleric so they could decrypt all the books in Aklo, Sidereal script and Dwarven. I figured with no time pressure and some spare spell energy in the tank this was not unreasonable.]

Making their way back down they find that the Illumined vessel they had trapped under a chest is awake and trying to free itself. They fail to snipe it from ambush and then have to sneak up on it from behind light-blocking blankets before dousing it with liquid darkness from the bridge room.

[** DM Commentary: were I meaner I might just allow blankets blocking the light to only provide advantage against saves but I liked the ingenuity and wanted to keep things moving along. Plus I figured they would have to expose themselves to get things done later.]

Fetching buckets of liquid darkness from the bridge room they proceed past many disturbed warning signs and find a pair of mutated goblins gnawing on the biomechanical roots of a great dome within which liquid darkness sloshes. The damage from the gnawing causes brief gaps in the darkness and when those capture the light of the goblins, the chamber blazes with the sickly light. Our heroes shelter beneath a blanket tetsudo and chase the goblins with mage-handed buckets of darkness as Zell stays out, braves the light and acts as spotter.

[DM Commentary: This room was a combo of Room 12 - Ember of the Final Star and Room 8. Captured Beacon - the apparatus was from Room 12 but the thing inside containment was only an infectous beacon. There was a brief discussion about whether invisibility makes you immune to the light, since you cast no shadow, therefore you are not blocking/absorbing any of the light. In the interests of keeping things rolling, I went with yes. This got them an attack from ambush on one of the goblins.]

Finally a mildly irradiated Zell guides the others to dousing the last goblin with liquid darkness and they set to work Mending and Healing the contraption before retreating and shoring up the damaged barriers.

[DM Commentary: I played this as there being periodic full room 'flashes' from the beacon as the sloshing of the partially damaged darkness cascade let the goblins gaze light it up. A couple of failed saves in and Zell was up to second level of radiation with infravision and sparkly eyes. He was thrilled and happy to keep this, then sad when he fell into the darkness bath on the way out and lost it.]

Back at the surface, with flasks of darkness and pockets full of scrolls, they exhort the New Sun cultists that they have been successful, that their work today will cause the New Sun to rise tomorrow but they must never speak of this place. Highly persuasive, the cultists are raised to a pitch of fanatical devotion and vow to take the secret to their graves.

[DM Commentary: this was an interesting one where they actually played their hand really well with the cultists leaving them convinced that something had genuinely happened but that they must never speak of this place. To be seen exactly how this weird little Pelorite heresy will evolve.]

Session report ends

All told this ran well - people said they liked it, we got all this done in 4.5 hours. Probably not as grim an experience as the author might have originally intended but they were properly spooked by the light of the Last Star and were absolutely convinced they had to make sure this thing never escaped so I consider that a success.

Actual Test: Borderland Provinces Journey Generator

Borderland Provinces Journey Generator was a book that came in one of the gigantic Humble Bundles Old School Revival Dragons, Dungeons & Mazes from back in 2020. Since it said generator I thought I would give it a test to create a one shot for my Friday night open tables. I'm writing it up to follow Gorgon Bones first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while trying to refine this template by adding session notes.

Throwing some dice at the various tables we get:
Patron table - Independent Merchant
Motivation - Returning a favour

Complex Journey table
Objective - catch up with someone else on their way to the destination
Location - Fort
Group - Druids
Threat - Local leader of the destination
Object - ownership documents
Complication - Pursuers

Final Wrap up
Major Problem: the delivery, information, or assistance is rejected for some reason (they don’t want the thing, they don’t believe the information, don’t want the help, suspect the characters of treachery, etc.)

Since there was an Inn generator I rolled up:
Roadside Inn: The Rugged Hearth
Wooden palisade-wall, main inn building, stable, outhouse, 1d3 outbuildings (shed, dovecote, etc.), chicken coops and/or pigsties. With no smithy, an inn this size generally does not have any additional horses
Dish horsemeat in cream sauce

I had a think about all this and tied it back to things sloshing around in the setting. There is a big swamp up river, the ditch of serpents, perfect for druids to lurk. A trip up river would also be a nice break after a bunch of sessions sailing down the coast. Druids with documents and pursuers and refused delivery all sounded like the druids had some ancient charter that would mess with the local status quo. The merchant is acting on an old favour to go to them and get their charter registered at the local city and needs some muscle - hence the PCs.

I blocked this out as:
1. Quest giving - merchant employs and briefs them
2. Set out - on the river
3. Pass local Dukes Castle, notice pursuers
4. Night at Inn: merchant reveals intent to detour to swamp
5. Mad Max style barge chase
6. Arrive at druids fort - make contact, get documents
7. Exit swamp (potential will o'wisps) - back to river - avoid pursuers
8. Refused on arrival - don't believe the information - local powers against them

Actual session play - retagged here to match the elements above.

1. Approached by Folbitz, a black-marketeer operating out of the Golden Cockerel, our party agrees to help escort him on a trading run up the river to Appollonia. Our heroes are Missy the centaur fighter, Sylvio the elven cleric annd humans Craig the brawler, Ashington the rogue and Marcillus the gladiator.

2. Setting out on a barge, the party notes some shady characters approaching the Golden Cockerel as they round the river bend out of sight.

3. Further up the river, swiftly driven by the strong efforts of Missy, Craig and Marcillus, they spy guards from Cat Castle also on the watch for traffic on the river but Folbitz has hidden amongst the cargo and they pass unnoticed.

4. Arriving at the riverside Inn of the Rugged Hearth, Folbitz has them stop early for the night then reveals that the real purpose of their trip is to pick up cargo from contacts of his inland. A barge full of obviously disguised river-patrol arrive and the players engage them in cards while Folbitz hides out the back. After taking most of the guards cash, angering the sergeant with talk of unions and hearing that Folbitz is wanted as a trader in hallucinogens and inciter of revolutions, the party venture out back and rough up Folbitz to check his story. Folbitz insists that the facts are the same but the perspective is different - the guards want him because new perspectives cause them to question the status quo. Squeezing him for more money the party ups their promised pay with performance bonii.

Departing the Inn they camp in the forest then venture into the Ditch of Serpents swamp the next day, stumbling over a dreadful Sleech which chews up Craig and Missy before being downed.

6. Arriving to Ironoak, a druidfort, they are welcomed and granted hospitality and guided through the druids various brews and produce before being sent back on their way with cargo and a charter to trade their hallucinogenic mushroom wine.

7. Trekking back across the swamp and around the inn they load their barge and set off up river, getting a good head start before the guards notice and give chase.

5. A long chase up river sees them in sight of Appollonia before they run the barge aground and offload the illicit cargo into the woods. Missy starts and argument with the guards, insisting they need better pay and lighter duties which leaves them arguing on their boat as they drift back downriver.

8. To finally enter Appollonia they spend a day creating a religious parade with wicker costume and sun masks for a festival to Pelor. Marching on the city their convincing display attracts more locals and further persuasive argument wins them entry to the city with Folbitz unnoticed among them. Folbitz delivers the ancient trade charter to the merchants guild then sells the now-legal mushroom wine, thanking the party for their assistance.

Session report ends

All told this ran squeaky due to the table - three of the players hit the beers hard, way up on what we usually get and by the end of it were slurring and slow which was a pain. Worse, early on as soon as they walked into the Rugged Hearth one player (man) went to spike Missy's (woman) apple juice and I just said no, not happening. Can't be dealing with that, but man, having it even come up is a drag. Happily, benefit of open tables is you don't have to deal with this stuff often and I won't have to run for these guys again.

That aside, some bits of my lay out got adjusted on the fly - the barge-pursuit got swapped to a later stage of the river travel, which was fine, and the night ended with a truly preposterous Pelorite heresy with a cooked up religious festival to make their way into the city - but content wise it worked ok. The Borderlands Generator gave enough to work with - I thought it was going to be a little sparse but turned out it was plenty.

Actual Test: Shadowdark adventure generator tables

I gave the the Shadowdark adventure generators a turn to create a session for my Friday night open game. Whenever folk ask about adventure generators it is one that comes up alongside Worlds Without Number and Knave 2e. The Shadowdark one is quite terrain tied with a lot of it being in the 'quest' and 'location' elements backed up by terrain-specific encounter tables.

Throwing some dice at the various tables we get:
Inciting event - runaway wagon
Quest - Spy on the ritual of the Royal Knights
Location - Necropolis of the Enchanted Depths
Opposition - Steel Drakes - known for defeating dragons
Location - Grassland, ruied town


Encounters (grasslands 1) - Beserker hunters that invite you to join them
Encounters (grasslands 2) - Wild boars
Encounters (ruins) - Ogre scrawling grafitti
Encounters (tomb) - wandering merchant trapped in coffin

I also used the settlement generation tools to come up with the destination settlement of Darkwater - those were very good giving me four districts, a handful of landmarks across all of them and enough texture to make the place interesting. Shadowdark being Shadowdark it also has dungeon generation tables but I did not delve that deep for this one-shot session.

Upcycling content - campaign vs one-shot sessions

I gave myself a challenge recently of setting one-shots for other groups in my main campaign world because in theory there are lots of locations that have been visited once where I did a bunch of set up work already and they could just be lifted and replaced, right? Well, not quite so simple but hardly impossible.

The key factors I found are:
- Motivation changes
- Incidental locations
- NPC backgrounds
- Timing

The specific situation I used was a buried but intact temple of Bane.

Actual Test: Fictive Fantasies Adventure Generator

After trying the Oracle RPG adventure generator and finding it a bit sparse, I had more luck with Fictive Fantasies version (link to pdf).

Working through the elements in the adventure generator we get:
Quest contact - rumour overheard
Quest - prevent something - interfere, only you can stop
Something = capture/kidnap someone
Location - island: In the seas they appear randomly and many have never been properly cataloged. Undiscovered islands yield many unknown threats and unexpected surprises.
Victim - Royalty
Mcguffin - Secret: Something hidden, which somebody wants to keep hidden. Kingdoms and royalty have plenty of secrets they want nobody to find out about, and people are always willing to pay for those secrets.
Opposition: Guild or Horde: A group of people with one common belief or oath of brotherhood. Their numbers are great and their intimidation mighty.
Twist - Dodgy ally
Dramatic conflict - Truth: Ultimately the players will have to suppress some great truth, or find a way to tell everyone about some great lie. Either way they’re on the side of deception.

Good stuff to work with from OFTHEHILLPEOPLE - a few more random elements and it all feels slightly more defined and targeted for some reason.

From random rolls to adventure draft