Bergummo's Tower

I've loaded the adventure into Roll20 for my playtest sessions, which I hope to begin soon. This is the illustration of the tower's exterior I made for the landing page.

The Expeditioners Guild

"We are Expeditioners. We are the keepers of lore, and the agents of discovery. We are the light in the darkness, and the unblinking watchmen. We are the bulwark against an evil tide, and the vanguard which drives it back."

The Guild Member's Oath

"I am an Expeditioner. I vow to find and explore the lost corners of the world; to destroy monsters wherever they appear and raze their awful lairs; to defend those who appeal for my help; to conduct myself in a way that honors my guild; and to come at once whenever my guild calls upon me."

 

Bergummo's Tower -- The Vaults Below

I finished the second map for the next adventure I intend to publish called Bergummo's Tower. Below the ruined tower is an arcane vault holding some of the wizard Bergummo's greatest treasures. The entire complex is a series of puzzles to open the various vaults, and has a good mix of problem-solving, ability checks, and combat.

I've recruited four of my veteran players to playtest it, which I hope to do in the next couple weeks. Here is the map.

The Heroes of Brackleborn -- Game-Play Report (Session 2)

04/08/20

Previously...

While relaxing in the Hogshead Inn, the heroes heard a scream from the cellar. The party leapt into action and killed three giant rats accosting the innkeeper's wife. The rats apparently dragged her young son Mortimer into a dark hole, newly-appeared in the floor.

D&D 5e House Rules

When my first D&D 5e campaign kicked off in 2015, I committed myself to running the rules as written (RAW) because I intended to publish content I developed over my four decades of playing and running the game. I wanted to ensure that I understood the game as intended and that any house rules or incorrect interpretations didn't bleed their way into my material. I also wanted my players to be confident that what they read in the PHB was what they experienced over Roll20.

This worked well except, over time, I grew increasingly dissatisfied with the game's default "easy" mode. So many elements are rendered trivial by the designers' desire to make the game "safe" and survivable, that much of the risk (and fun) is removed. That might be fine for brand-new players, but my veteran players were used to the difficulties of earlier editions, and became frustrated when they would, for instance, finally land a spell effect on the BBEG, only to have the target shrug off the effect on its next turn.

Now that we all have a few years under our belts and know the RAW version, I've begun incorporating a few house rules to address some of the things I don't like.

The Heroes of Brackleborn -- Game-Play Report (Session 1)

A little over a year ago we started this campaign (just before my state locked down due to Covid). At the time, I wasn't expecting my four players -- all brand-new to D&D -- to play more than a session or two, so I didn't put a whole lot of effort into setting something up. We spent the first session rolling up characters, and by the time we were done, it was nearly time to stop for the night.

I started them in a new area of my campaign world, away from the campaign I run on Tuesday nights, and just made up some names. The girls also made up a few details about their character backgrounds, and I supplemented them with some on-the-spot motivations (which I expanded upon in the week between sessions, most of which is reflected in the write-up below).

I laid out a quick ad hoc scenario to let them experience combat. I had no idea where we were going and I had zero information for them other than what I was pulling out of my ass as we went along. Everyone seemed to have a really good time, though,  and when it was over, they all wanted to play a second session.

So, here we go..

Bergummo's Tower

I'm preparing my second adventure for sale on DM's Guild (my first being Elf-bane), and this is the first part of the dungeon map -- the crumbling tower of a long-dead wizard. 

When I first started tinkering with Roll20 in 2015, my friend John, whom I've played D&D with since my freshman year in college and who lives in a different state, popped on and rolled up a character. I built an adventure on the spot and ran his new wizard character plus an NPC fighter through "Bergummo's* Tower." It's what hooked both of us on the potential for online gaming to allow us to play together again after many years.

Despite being created pretty much on-the-fly, the adventure really worked. It laid the initial groundwork for what would become a 5-1/2-year long campaign that, at one point, had 8 players. The campaign concluded in epic fashion after 118 sessions back in August of 2020.

I always regarded the initial adventure as a great success, so I've gone back and retooled it, expanded it quite a bit, and created new maps. I'm pretty proud of how it's turned out, so here's a sneak-peek. I'm going to run my Tuesday night Roll20 group through it as a playtest, then I'll make any necessary tweaks and publish it.

*Bergummo is an obscure name I pulled from something. If anyone knows the reference, I'll send you a free pdf of the adventure.
 

My Girls Love D&D

A little over a year ago, I had the pleasure of introducing four brand-new players—all women—to D&D. The first was my girlfriend, Rachel, who often listened in on my regular Tuesday night campaign on Roll20. She was intrigued by it all, but I've been playing with most of those guys since 1985 and she was reluctant to dive into that game. She isn't well-versed in the fantasy genre other than The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter (books and films), all of which she loves. I don't think she's ever once played a video game, and she doesn't watch a lot of television that isn't BBC comedies or Bob's Burgers.

My other three new players were a little more familiar with some of the fantasy tropes. For years, we'd gotten together every Wednesday night for dinner and TV, and we'd just finished watching the unfortunate conclusion of Game of Thrones. I'd discussed with them how GRRM and the showrunners were all D&D players. We had also watched Freaks & Geeks during previous TV nights, which featured D&D in several episodes (and, coincidentally, depicted roughly the same era in which I first began playing the game, when I was roughly the same age as the characters in the show.)

The girls (my best friend, Marie; her wife, Cameron; and our mutual friend, Emily) didn't really get it, but they at least understood the basic concepts--that it was a game in which you went on adventures, rolled dice to determine success/failure, fought monsters, and found treasure. While walking one evening with Marie, she mentioned listening to a podcast that discussed using D&D as a means to rehabilitate prisoners. The show went into great detail about how the game worked, and she was interested in trying it out. I offered to run a game for my TV night gals plus my girlfriend, just to show them what it was like.

An Introduction to This Blog

In 1979-80, I was already smitten by Tolkien's Middle Earth and voraciously read any sort of fantasy books I could find at the library. I had a giant comic book collection and was a fanatic for everything Star Wars—the movie having blown my 10-year old mind just a few years prior. Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Godzilla, Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica, Micronauts—all of these things were important touchpoints for my fertile imagination. I was also into staging huge battles with army men or action figures (fireworks included), as well as building and painting model cars, planes, naval ships, etc. 

My neighbor's older brother was an advanced modeler who not only helped refine my painting skills, but also gave me a huge stack of Military Modeler mags. I devoured every page of those magazines, including the many ads for wargames and the "new" sensation, Dungeons & Dragons. To the best of my recollection, this is how I became aware of D&D and began what would become a lifelong obsession.