Tamoachan

Notes on Tournament Play:

The purpose of tournament play is to get out of the ruins before time runs out. Choosing less direct paths, arousing monsters, or searching for treasure will cost players precious time. There is a real time limit of 2 hours on tournament play. If a shorter playing tournament is desired, it may be played that when the party reaches room #39 they have reached safety. This shorer version may have a time limit from 1 to 1.5 hours.  The DM should note the time at which play begins and halt play when the predetermined length of time has elapsed...

- From module C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

It's been decades since I've run the C1 adventure. In the past, I've run it as both a "standard" camaign adventure, and in its "tournament" format...minus the time limit.  Having now experienced tournament play (and run several timed tournament sessions) I have a pretty good idea of what it takes and how much is possible when it comes to running such adventure sites.

Tamoachan is too big for the time allotted. That much was crystal clear from the outset.

Still, "nephew" Spencer was coming over Wednesday to play D&D, and by God we were going to give him a game! He picked up Sofia from school, and showed up around 3:30ish...about ten minutes after Diego got home. We sat down to play a bit after 4pm, pre-gens in hand, determined to tackle our "two hour" adventure. Meanwhile, my wife was working in her office, and had already agreed to make dinner (pozole...nummy!) after she knocked off work...figured we'd be eating around 7ish or thereabouts.

Then...at roughly 5:30pm...we heard a distant explosion and all the lights went out.

It's been "atmospheric river" up in Seattle over the last week...perhaps you've seen the images of flooding on CNN through some parts of the state (most notably Pierce County...south of Seattle). Well, it's been accompanied by a hell of a lot of wind, too. An enormous tree took out a swath of power lines and blacked out some 10 city blocks in my neighborhood. Our electricity wasn't restored till 3:20am.

Still...the show must go on. My wife moved out to the car where she could charge her phone and use her laptop to finish sending emails. Pizza was ordered from a place outside the dark zone (still had to go pick it up...but that gave me an excuse to get a six pack of beer). Candles and electric torches were lit, and we continued our game by lamplight, only breaking to eat.  

We finished up sometime around 9:40 (and then played a few rounds of laser tag in the dark house).

So...about four hours? And I ended the thing just after area #39, stating that the stairs beyond led "out" rather than to the slightly more complex (if shorter) 2nd level of the dungeon.

I should point out that the kids are no slouches, by the way, not even Spencer...who has less experience with AD&D than my kids at this point. He is very no-nonsense and decisive, maybe even more so than Diego who, I have to say, had a spot of difficulty wrapping his head around the scenario's parameters ("get out") when he's so used to the usual objective ("get treasure"). But he was able to buckle down pretty quickly, even as he decried the LACK of treasure within the adventure.

Sofia, on the other hand, was quite on her game. Of the pre-gens, she chose Rhialle the fighter (her standard class) which is the only character that speaks "Olman," the language of the various monsters and critters in the adventure. Which is great, because she tends to be a "talk first THEN kill" type player. She quickly won the friendship of the crayfish and guardian crab, scoring an off the charts natural "00" on her reaction roll, and likewise managed to 'talk down' the awakened monks and buy them off with a potion of climbing that she had little use for. She was also quite generous with the Keoughtom's ointment in her inventory and they'd used the entire thing before the end of the adventure. 

Diego, playing as Cair the magic-user/thief, and Spencer, playing Myrrha the cleric, alternated taking the lead for the party, though there weren't many disagreements (the one time they couldn't come to a consensus on a direction, they used augury to make a decision/achieve consensus). Both players ranged from good to great with their chosen characters:

Diego's an old hand at playing "thief types" (usually assassins) and had no issues knowing when to search for traps, picking locks, etc. and he's played plenty of elves and half-elves in the past. What was new for him was playing a magic-user...especially one with access to so many mid-level spells (he just couldn't wait to let that fireball off the chain), but he did just fine: killed the nereid's eel with magic missile, used detect magic on the statue's sword, knock to open the door in the flooded room (in order to safely empty the water), and light once the party ran out of torches (which just got them to the fire beetle chamber...thank goodness!). He did have a chance to use fireball...on the giant slug (in a chamber large enough to take the thing), boiling its hide and collapsing the wall on the thing...a fine use of the spell. And while he got his arm trapped in the beak of the eagle stature, he used his potion of stone to flesh to soften the thing so they could just cut him free without bashing his arm. 

Meanwhile, Spencer was fantastic as the cleric...quickly deducing that slow poison would help them with the poison gas of the place. using create water to wash the silt out from below the stuck door, and using snake charm on the two-headed amphisbaena in the final chamber, as well as the aforementioned augury and (duh) cure light wounds. He also made made excellent use of his wand of secret door and trap detection to (narrowly) avoid the sand box trap and to discover the secret door in the cat-faced wall (after Sofia had already failed her attempt to search for secret doors there) which would eventually lead to freedom...I think he ended the session with only 3 or 4 charges left after starting with 15. Kudos also for destroying 9 of the 15 zombies and knocking down another two with his quarterstaff.

And kudos to the whole group for simply ignoring the gas spore (Sofia did try to talk to it in Olman). Though Diego was tempted to take a swing at it (which would have been disastrous), they decided to simply not waste the time. I should note that NONE of the three players have the slightest idea what a beholder is, having never encountered one in the game (and not being the kinds of kids who fawn over a Monster Manual), so that probably accounts for their nonchalance about the thing.

All in all, the three of them hit some 24 of the 39 encounters that comprise the "lower chambers" and the "first tier" of the adventure. Even though many of these are designed to be easily bypassed or ignored for the sake of expedience, that's still remarkably  good time. Generally speaking, 3 to 5 numbered (i.e. "interact-able") encounter areas per hour of play is what I expect from an experienced group of players. Even accounting for the fact they weren't searching and looting for treasure, knocking down 6 numbers per hour is solid play.

Their scoring (tournament-wise) was pretty good as well. They had +46 positive points and only accruing -14 negative points. Adding +100 for all PCs surviving and the 100 point base, that gives the group a very respectable 232 point score. Not bad at all, despite struggling a bit with the whole nereid encounter and nearly losing Cair in the "plant pits" right before the end.

[to be fair, that one's a little "iffy;" Cair was healed...using the last of the Keoughtom's ointment...at the same time he was being reduced to zero hit points. We diced for initiative but the rolls came up tied, and I allowed him to continue on. Regardless, the PC wouldn't have "died;" he would have been "zeroed out," and still could have been dragged from the dungeon by his companions. Since they entered the final encounter area directly thereafter...and Spencer neutralized the snake threat immediately...Cair being down would not have altered the outcome of the session in the slightest]

Showing the map to the players afterwards, they were incredulous that the scenario could be completed in only two hours. Diego, a solid chip off the old block, was disgusted by the pitiful lack of treasure in the place (although I haven't actually run the numbers yet...). I did explain that treasure hunting was not the actual point of the adventure but, rather, escape...and the PCs could always go back, now that the air was somewhat cleared, and try plundering the Shrine. He grudgingly conceded the point.

[okay, I should probably look at this now: C1 should have an expected treasure yield of around 190,000 g.p. given that is it designed for five to seven PCs averaging 5th level and contains 54 numbered encounter areas. Total treasure count for the place is more like 90K-100K depending on how you want to price the many unique and weird magic items in the place. I suppose you COULD make up some of the shortfall by stocking an excessive abundance of "stucco figures" in area #1 (there's no specific number given, only their value) but an upwards limit of 4,000 g.p. worth seems appropriate. Still...only about half of what I'd like to see, and the upper tiers are especially meager. One podcast review of the adventure I listened to suggested doubling the value of all the ornamental jewelry and gemstones, and that seems like a reasonable (and easy!) fix, if you want to make the treasure count more palatable]

But it was fun; everyone had a good time, especially Spencer who loves "old school" D&D and just does not get enough of it. But isn't that something we ALL could say?

Okay, that's enough...hope I didn't spill too many spoilers on this (nearly 50 year old) adventure!  Cheers!

The Kids

The Busiest Time Of The Year

"Oof magoof," as my man, Chris Crawford would say. It's nuts around here.

This will be a short one: I've got my "nephew" Spencer coming over this afternoon, which means (in addition to having the house cleaned and straightened), I've got to do a little D&D prep work. Pulled out my ancient copy of C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamaochan yesterday, and printed up the pre-gens. For an adventure I bought new in the early 80s (and saw considerable use), the module's held up remarkably well. 30 years of being stacked in a cupboard tucked in a closet (away from natural light), I suppose. Not that I am TRYING to preserve these things like National Treasures...my wife doesn't like me leaving my toys scattered all over the place.

One of the pre-gens got lost years ago, however...had to buy a PDF on DTRPG to have the full roster. Just looking over the thing now (something I haven't done in 20+ years, probably) it seems a little long for tournament play...55 encounter areas in two hours?...but then, the adventure is designed such that players are NOT supposed to screw around, and there are hefty (scoring) penalties for groups that deviate or wander off the preferred track. That being said, it is rather UNlike the tourney section of Dwellers of the Forbidden City, in that there are plenty of ways to get distracted. Eh, we'll see how it goes. Philipp ran this at Cauldron 2025 in a four hour time slot, which seems a LOT more doable (maybe), but I'm probably not going to have more than two hours tonight. Kids like to eat dinner and do homework, after all.

And SPEAKING of the "OSR Euro Con," Cauldron 2026 opened for registration at 9am PST last Saturday...and filled up in roughly 22 minutes. I had all-but-forgotten about it (I've been pretty swamped lately, as said), but I happened to be up (as usual, drinking coffee while the rest of the fam slept in), and was able to grab a roster spot when I saw the note on the Cauldron discord. Not that I had decided to go back to Germany in '26...in fact, I was about 90% sure I was NOT going to be attending. 

However: after mentioning it to my family Saturday evening (after a loooong day of basketball, soccer, volleyball, and Christmas shopping)...I found them all enthused about the prospect, none more so than my wife! Like myself, she's a big fan of Germany, and while she has ZERO interest in gaming, she loves the idea of getting back to Europe and tooling around with Sofia while Diego and I are off at the Con.

Yes, I've got my son signed up, too. 

The whole thing seems, objectively, like madness...just the cost of plane tickets alone! But...hell. It's only money which (IIRC) you still can't take with you. Spending a few shekels for a four day AD&D tournament in Deutschland with my boy? Isn't that one of those experiences/fond memory things parents are always trying to create? 

Hopefully, the memories won't be of his father slurring his way through a game after too many shots of palinka. 

Anyhoo, talked to D about it and he is "cautiously" enthused, once I assured him he does not HAVE to game, but can mingle and observe and such. He doesn't plan on running anything himself, and he thinks he'd only be comfortable playing if he did it alongside me (as a fellow player) or if I was the Dungeon Master. I assured him that this could be arranged. 

I'm going to guess he'll warm up once he's there. My kids, for whatever reason, are like this. Yesterday, my daughter had an audition for Blanchet High School's production of The Music Man (they need a handful of smaller kids for the show) and her nervous "yeah" had turned into second-guessing and outright "I don't want to go to this thing" right up until the day before. After spending the two hours doing the singing, dancing, and side-reading she told me the experience was so awesome she wanted "to do it again!"  Diego was like that when I took him to his volleyball try-outs...I almost literally had to force him out of the car to go to the thing (that he had asked to sign up for). Once he got on the court, however...different story.

[chalk it up to parenting: my wife and I aren't hugely demonstrative of "bold" action in the world. We prefer to stay home, snug and comfy with our kids. But that's because we already did most of our "bold" and "daring" stuff in the decades BEFORE we had kids. A double-edged sword, that]

So, yeah...I've gone from 90% not likely to go to 90% that I'll be on-board an IcelandAir with my whole family come next October. Jeez, what a world....

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be heading to Los Angeles with Diego for a 4-day volleyball tournament. We get home Sunday night and then leave the following Saturday evening (after Sofia's guitar recital) for Mexico. My shopping is done, but the wrapping and the packing and planning and...

[*deep breath*]

It's busy. The book is coming along. I hope to work on that in between matches at the tourney. I'm thinking of junking the first couple chapters and starting from scratch...I'm not sure about the original approach I was taking. I'll let you know once I've made some real progress.

That's all the gaming-related news (I won't bore you with the other hassles in my life). Later, gators!

; )

Tis The Holiday Season

Just pumping out a post 'cause I'm not sure how much time I'm going to have to blog this week. Sofia's out of school, so while he's sleeping in (at the moment), I'm going to be hanging with her in my "free" time. Parent-teacher conferences at the middle school today...it will be interesting to hear what they have to say about my 6th grade daughter. I'm genuinely curious.

I don't talk as much about my daughter as I do my son. I don't know why other than I'm constantly amazed by his accomplishments. Sofia's amazing, too, but her "magic" is so much less demonstrative. I have a feeling that she will probably have the "bigger impact" on the world when all is said and done: she'll either end up some scientist that invents something brilliant or else she's going to wind up being some sort of famous film or music-related celebrity. But none of that is anything happening right now (other than she can astound people when she sits down at a piano in a hotel lobby)...right now she is this incredibly sweet, funny, friendly kid who just likes to smile and snicker and play. Since we brought my mom's piano home, not a day goes by without the sounds of music filling the house at some point. Right now it's a big Christmas piece she's working on. Delightful.

Yes, you heard me...delightful. I'm one of those curmudgeonly types that gets annoyed with people who start their Christmas-ing before Thanksgiving. Usually. This year has been...different. The "yacht rock" radio station that has long been on our satellite car radio...since at least 2019 as it helped soothe our nerves through the entire pandemic...disappeared a couple weeks ago to be replaced by the "Hallmark" channel which plays nothing but holiday music. And Sofia, of course, LOVES holiday music and so we've been listening to it, whenever we're out driving to one of her various things: school, church, soccer, basketball, piano, guitar. Whatever. And darned if I haven't gotten in to it, too. Like the yacht rock, it's soothing on the nerves.

Well, most of it (I'm not really into the "hip hop Christmas" stuff...give me Andy Williams or Nat King Cole any day of the week).

So, yeah. I've started the holidays early. I think we got our first thing of eggnog the week after Halloween? That went fast, and I haven't replaced it yet. Still have our "Autumnal" wreath on the door, but evergreen one is coming. We've got tickets to Mexico for Christmas...took us a while because they're so damn expensive (you can fly to Japan for half the price!). Not sure if that's just because the current administration is only interested in people taking one-way trips south of the border or what (*sigh*), but since they've made damn sure that's my in-laws can't renew their visas till 2027 (*sigh*) we must purchase four tix if we want to see our family, rather than just flying mis suegros up here. Too bad for the local economy, of course, as we'll be doing all our shopping down there...but then Trump has been nothing if not hard on the local economy. 

But enough of that...I've been in the holiday spirit, as I said, and I've been focusing on other things. My son, who I gush about far too much, has his first national volleyball tournament for his club in Los Angeles in a couple weeks, and he and I will be flying down there with the team. The last couple days we were at a local "exhibition" tournament...it was pretty wild. He's a U15, but his team was playing in the U16 division...four matches in the group stage on Saturday with two matches on Sunday in the playoff bracket; when not playing or warming up he and his teammates acted as line judges and scorekeepers for the various games going on non-stop on four courts in an airplane hangar-like gymnasium (they were running U14, U16, and U18 divisions...all men's volleyball). Holy smoke...what an event! And the L.A. one is supposed to be a LOT bigger...I can hardly imagine.

Anyway, their team is great and pretty talented. They ended up winning their division, winning in straight sets for both of their playoff games. They were rotating liberos between Diego and another, more experienced kid (except for D and Jesus, all the other kids have been together for two or three seasons), but by Sunday's championship game it was just Diego, clearly in command, exhibiting presence and leadership on the court, making spectacular saves, picking up his teammates...all the usual "Diego" stuff. When they were down 18-9 in th second set of their first playoff match, Diego came in as a DS to serve 15 straight points and put them up 24-18...he didn't come out after that. Just great stuff from the kid. We had been contemplating trying to get to his soccer game Sunday afternoon and said we'd think about it after we saw how the morning match went...he came of the court and just said "I'm staying for the volleyball." 

[fortunately the club was playing the no-win bottom of their division and got a 4-2 result even without their captain]

But it was an exhausting weekend. Diego had a hard time getting up this morning (he still has a couple days of school before break)...though he's excited because "cousin Spencer" is picking him up from school today! Yes, my 27-year old "nephew" is back in town...all 6'1", 205# of baby-faced kid. He just finished up a year long stint of chefing at some fancy restaurant across the street from the Opera House, and now he's back in the PNW before doing another jaunt, this time in Japan (his dad's originally from Canada so he has joint citizenship and can do a work exchange on the maple leaf passport). Anyway, hanging with us all weekend at the volleyball stuff, he's taking Diego rock-climbing this afternoon (just what my kid needs...to be introduced to another recreational hobby...). Fingers-crossed that Diego doesn't fall asleep in class or on the boulder....

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to run some D&D for Spence while he's in town...I know he digs that. He's heading out to Spokane on Wednesday (Thanksgiving with his mom's mom), so our window is tight, especially with the kids' soccer practice on Tuesday. Wait, wait...just checking and it looks like they might have the night off!. All right, maybe Tuesday evening then. If we DO get our game on, I've already decided I'll be breaking out C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan...a perfect little scenario for Diego, Sofia, and Spencer.

Mmm...looking through Ye Old Blog archives, I don't see I've ever written much of anything abou Tamoachan. It's a decent enough tournament adventure...probably my favorite of all the old TSR tournament modules (looking at both the A- and C- series). I've run it at least two or three times in the past, usually with the three pre-gens designed for the scenario. It's pretty tight, design-wise, and even though it's a fairly linear gauntlet (much like the tournament portion of S1) it has a ton of flavor and a lot of interesting bits and bobs. Though, man...I don't think I've run it since the early 90s (maybe the early 2000s...?). I should probably give it a quick re-read. I have no idea how the thing holds up in my current "paradigm" of game play, but Philippe ran it at Cauldron for some folks who had a good time...it should still work for a one-off.

Other than that....

I'm working on the book. It's slow going. I started writing the section on running combat...turns out this could probably be a whole book, in and of itself. Which is not really what I want, so I probably need to rethink the section. 

It's tough. I'm trying to condense and consolidate decades of knowledge and essays into a practical guidebook that IDEALLY would have a smaller page count than any of the existing (AD&D) rulebooks. It's a rather daunting prospect. This is far less about writing "AD&D for Dummies" and more like a Strunk & White's Elements of Style. Lord, how I wish I'd studied technical writing in college. Maybe I should go back and re-read my Strunk & White...it's still on the book shelf somewhere. 

Yeah. Probably going to end up bigger than S&W.

But I am writing.  A little bit óvery day. Except when I'm at all day volleyball tournaments. But OTHERwise...one brick at a time. Just laying one brick at a time. 

*sigh*

I should be publishing a couple adventures soon, too, depending on my illustrator's time schedule. Hopefully I'll have a couple PDFs out by year's end. We'll see. December tends to fly by when you're in the midst of holiday cheer with friends and family. And  now that my brother's hash is finally settled (he was evicted on the 12th...a day before my birthday)...I need to put the sale of my mother's house into overdrive. Sofia and I might be working on that a bit the next couple days, depending on when I can borrow my buddy's junk hauler. A lot to do but it is finally getting done. Finally.

Mm.

My apologies...did not mean for this post to slide into a downer note. It's the gosh darn holiday season! And I'm excited about all the stuff I've got on my plate right now. Yes, the busy-ness is off the charts. Yes, finding time to take a breath is a challenge. BUT:

- volleyball tournaments

- guitar recitals

- holiday feasts and get-togethers

- trips to see family and friends in Mexico

- school Christmas concerts

- running D&D

- publishing adventures

- writing books

- closing my deceased mom's estate

And just listening to cheerful music as I drive around town on my various errands...man, that is all GOOD STUFF. I am enjoying myself. I am really, thoroughly enjoying myself.

And I'll admit, part of it is that I'm home in Seattle for Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday of the year) and that I get to eat some God-honest turkey for a change. I seem to be the only person in my family that craves a drumstick and a pile of apple-sausage stuffing drenched in gravy. My goodness! I am SO looking forward to Thursday!

Hope ALL of you have a happy one...I pray that all of you find some joy in season, and find a way to share that joy with others. Even a smile goes a long way this time of year.

Cheers.

: )

Cauldron Wrap-Up

It's Saturday morning...not quite a week since the end of Cauldron III. I've been home (Seattle) since Monday night. Things are, more-or-less, back to "normal."

Sofia's (school) soccer season has ended (although we're still going to do some sort of pizza party), and it was a successful one. Our goal, set at the beginning of the season, was to make the playoffs in our first year of eligibility and we did so, being second in our division of ten, and number four of only eight teams selected. Next year, we will set our expectations higher.

Likewise, high school cross-country has wrapped up for Diego; his last meet (Thursday) I got to watch him finish #11 out of some 300+ kids (#4 amongst first year students) form eight different schools. It was not his best run of the season, and he felt he should have placed higher for this particular meet, but this was his first time doing high school athletics, and he had a pretty strong season.

Club soccer continues for both kids. Diego's off to Yakima today.  Sofia and I will be putting together the last touches of our Halloween costumes (normally, I'd be the one on "driving duty" for the five hour round trip, but I'm the Lector at 5pm Mass this evening).  School continues. Basketball season is starting. Etc.

This is my family; this is my life. And I love it. At Cauldron, I may be a God of the Gaming Table and a Creator of Worlds...at home I'm the dishwasher, the chauffeur, and the scrubber of toilets. It is the the way of life, and I wouldn't want to have it any other way. If I wanted it some other way, it would be some other way...we create our own reality, just as surely as Dungeon Masters create dungeons.

Why do I bring this up?

Cauldron is an amazing, incredible experience...one that I feel so blessed to have participated in, one that gives me so much joy, I feel the need to write four or five (long) blog posts about it. For an old gamer like me, it is three days of unbridled bliss...

[sorry, had to pause to feed my kid breakfast before he got on the road: two fried eggs, bacon, sourdough toast, pineapple juice. Dishes can wait]

...much as I find bliss to spend a week on Orcas in the summer. Or to spend two weeks with my in-laws in Orizaba. Or as it used to be to spend Thanksgiving in Whistler, BC with my mom...or the Thanksgivings of my youth in Missoula, Montana.

Cauldron is a holiday. It is not my day-to-day reality.

And I want it to remain so, as something special. The dates have been posted for next year's Cauldron, and it's early enough in October that I could make it work with the soccer schedule; I could do it, I could make it back for 2026....

*sigh*

Since coming home, I've been in near constant contact with the con-goers via the Cauldron discord: checking in, scrolling photos, discussing plans for next year, throwing out ideas of how to make the con even cooler than it already is (as if we weren't already on the edge of spontaneous combustion). Just trying to keep that feeling, that Cauldron "magic" going...even after the thing has officially come to a close. Iudex...a man who reminds so much of my good friend Carlos Chavez in Mexico that it is painful...even suggested (jokingly, I'm sure) that I consider moving to Europe.

Mm. I love Europe. But leave the Pacific Northwest?

No. I'm not quite ready to create THAT reality. For better or worse, I'm a loud, ugly American, proud of my U.S. passport. And for right now, I can't imagine living out my last days...and dying...in any place but the Evergreen state, tasting the fresh piney air and hearing the patter of rain drops (it's been pouring the last two days: typical October weather). I'm not trying to be morbid or a downer...I'm just sharing the real thoughts in my mind. Not just the last few days, but the last couple years. Ever since the first Cauldron.

[truthfully]

If only I could bring everyone out here! Host my own Cauldron...some sort of extravaganza on Orcas in the summer time (I mean, if we're just wishing/dreaming...). Show them MY neck of the woods, feast them on fresh seafood from the Puget Sound and beers brewed from our local hops, wines from the Yakima valley. Hell, avocados! Are there no avocados in Germany?

*sigh*

Pipe dreams. For now, Cauldron must remain overseas and...for me...just an occasional holiday. One that I look forward to, one that I look back on with great fondness.

But I miss the people. There were 80+ attendees at Cauldron this year. I gamed with more than 40 of them including: Settembrini, Prince of Nothing, Iudex, Doof, Grutzi, Michal, MichalS, Mike, Domenico, Henning, Alex, Tamas, Chomy, Sonke, Justin, Cris, Ludwig, DangerIsReal, Butch, James, Orlando, Daniel, Paul, Ollie, Jay, Walid, Dillon, Theo, Dreadlord, Tom, Pangea, and...gosh, so many others whose names (and/or internet handles) escape me at the moment. And then ther are the people that it was so good to see and talk to, even if we didn't game together: BlutUndGlass, Melan, DerOgre, Eria (duh), Ghoul, Lynchpin, GusB, Eric, Yandere, x_y_z, MK...so many, so many good people. 

Man, I truly, truly enjoy spending time with all of you...more than words can convey. 

And with regard to the gamers specifically...those of you who showed up at my table in 2023, and then came back for more in 2025 (sometimes TWICE)...well, it touches my heart. Honestly. That feels much more like the bonds of friendship than just "pick-up games at a con." 

I will be back. But I don't know when. I asked the age of the youngest player at Cauldron this year: twelve. I'm sure she and my daughter would have a blast (Sofia will be 12 in April). And I know Diego would have a good time gaming. I was considering taking them BOTH in '26.

But that air travel.

It's one thing for me to go 14 hours with small catnaps, and then pull my shit together enough to game hardcore over three days before flying home...do I want to put my kids through that?

Mm. 

It would be one thing if my entire family was into gaming...but that's not the case. The only way it would work is if we made it a "family trip" (which my wife would be down with...she loves to travel and digs Germany), and just made Cauldron a portion of a longer excursion.

But she (my wife) wouldn't want to game. And what would she do for three days while we were there? And would my kids want to game three days in a row (they're not as crazy as I am)? And would I be traveling with all my gear while tooling around Germany? 

No. Unfortunately, it doesn't make logistical sense. Which is a crying shame because playing AD&D with Euro kids in Germany would be an awesome experience for them that they'd both love. But it's not just a drive to Yakima or Spokane. It would be...nuts.

You create your own reality.

All right, that's enough discussion of Cauldron 2025...time to turn the page. I want to take a little break from D&D-stuff in general (yeah, right...we'll see how long that resolution lasts!) to get a handle on some other projects. Some of which ARE D&D-related but, well... The POINT is: I've got a couple-three blog posts already scheduled over the next couple days, but after that you can expect fairly light blogging for a few weeks; I've got OTHER "holiday stuff" to attend to.

Have a wunderbar day, folks!

[for ease of access:

Cauldron 2025

Let Slip The Dogs Of War Part I

Let Slip The Dogs Of War Part II

Let Slip The Dogs Of War Part III ]

Awake

2:20am. German time.

Cauldron is over. 

I just slept about 5 hours...a very long, very necessary nap (after my last couple days). As I lay on my hotel bed, typing this, I am sipping water and listening to the Mariners game on my phone ("Seattle Sports" app, for folks who are curious how to hear an M's game in Europe). Trying to relax and unwind the last few days, trying to compose my thoughts.

I am in an odd head space at the moment...not surprising given all the physical and mental stresses my body has been through lately. I have all sorts of "feels." Attending Cauldron for the second time was, for the most part, everything I could have imagined and hoped for. Leaving Cauldron, on the other hand, was bittersweet...not because I wasn't ready to go home, but because I wasn't ready to leave my friends.

No, not just friends. My tribe...my people.

I will talk about that in a later post (which I'll probably start directly after posting this...unless I decide to go back to sleep). But right now, I'm thinking about my other people: my family. My wife and my children. Waiting to get back to them is the hardest thing at this point; I want to be with them right now. Not because I am sad and need to be comforted or anything, but because I am ready for their warm embrace which I haven't felt in days...because I am ready to be back with them, in the "stuff" that are the ups and downs of our life; our highs and lows, the things we share as we live through the day-to-day.

Cauldron is much like that but on a "virtual" or imagined level. Save that thought for the moment, though...file it away.

My wife...I'm not worried about my wife. I know she's been as busy and taxed the last few days as anything...juggling the kids without my help...but she is an extremely tough and resourceful. Like me, she'll be just fine after a couple days of me being home and providing foot massages. The kids on the other hand...

Today was out playoff (soccer) game. It took place at 00:45am, Frankfurt time. It should have ended by 2am. I do not know the result...I am afraid to know the result. I did not want to open my phone because I didn't want to see the text alerts that might pop up...mercifully, there didn't seem to be any (yet). This could mean all sorts of things. Again, I'm trying not to think of it...I'm afraid to think about it. To imagine the possibilities.

Some people reading that might find that odd...that I have bigger fish to fry than the results of a 6th grader's soccer game. Especially a 6th grader who will STILL be playing soccer after this season ends (she is, after all, still playing for her club team and their season goes till March), and who will instead be turning her attention to the starting basketball season and the other activities she pursues. 

It's just a game, right? It's not curing cancer or anything.

No, it is everything. My time with my children is precious. Every minute they get older, I feel this more. Every shared moment, every shared victory (or defeat) or activity is special. Every hug and every snuggle from my children is golden. 

Coaching my children has been the delight of my life. That my son is now 14 and in high school and I will never coach a team of his again is an immense, melancholy feeling for me. Not just because we had such wonderful successes and such exciting, fun times, but because they were opportunities for us to do something together...do something that at the time was immensely important in the moment. And now, I have only one child left to coach...at most, five more seasons (assuming I coach her volleyball team) once this soccer season ends. And so, I don't want it to end...certainly not before I get home.

And I certainly don't want it to end in a loss and a defeat with me not there. With me, not on the sidelines. With me, not with the team. Diego is coaching the team without me (which has ALSO been a delight) and for him to have to go through a loss, on his own, have to do the coach's job of comforting a team just bounced from the playoffs, on his own, and knowing how he is, how hard he will take it, how hard THEY will take it...and not being there for them, not being there with them...

It's heartbreaking to contemplate.

I've been through it before, multiple times with Diego's teams (I've never coached a team that didn't reach the playoffs)...I know how it is, I know the drill, I know how to "spin" things so the players understand the positives and the pride they need to have and integrate the experience into their psyches as something both meaningful and positive, even if its both sad and hard. But this is Sofia's first time. And Diego's first time in a position of responsibility (being a coach...even an assistant coach...carries a lot more weight on the shoulders than just being a team captain). I wish I was there. I do...I really do. 

Mariners are down 4-0 in the game, which is not doing anything to lift my mood. I hate having to wait...patience is not and has never been my forte. I am stubborn as hell (my wife says I'm the stubbornest man she's ever known and, knowing her father, that's a hell of a statement)...but sticking things out because of stubbornness, is NOT the same thing as being able to wait patiently. But I have no other option. What I really want is a damn meal: there were few restaurants open for dinner in Frankfurt on a Sunday evening, and I didn't want Indian or Chinese food. I ended up grabbing a sandwich from a little place with the amusing name of "Hello, Jerry;" it was actually quite delicious, but I'd still have preferred a sit-down meal with some steamed vegetables. Just thinking about another 13 hour plane ride (and the airplane "food") is enough to make me shudder.

*sigh*

All right, that's enough for this post. It's 3:18am (6:18pm in Seattle...time for dinner!). Despite the brief thought of trying to keep my brain/body on "Seattle time," that would mean laying down to sleep no later than 9/10am...and checkout time is noon. Eh. This is the price you pay for the magical ability of crossing half the globe in a day. We live in amazing times.

[you see how I'm trying to change the subject in my own mind? I'm still not checking my phone]

Logan Gilbert gets out of the 4th inning, and the M's have five left to get back in this game. Still have about half a liter of water left...though despite the hydration, I am woefully dry. Maybe I'll take another shower...but, then, I'd have to take off my Cal Raleigh t-shirt. Decisions, decisions. 

This is how it is when you're alone and awake on the far side of the world from your home.

Uh, oh. My phone just rang with a notification from Diego (3:24am). 

Should I read it? Should I? Face my fear? Isn't that what being "brave" is? Not letting your fear stop you? That's what I'm always telling my kids after all. Am I a "brave" man? 

*sigh*

[drink of water]

Okay, I looked. The notification was an auto-notification: Diego asking permission to download the Major League Baseball app for his phone. Jesus H. So, no word on the soccer game results. I could check the league web site, but I want them to give me the news, one way or the other. Perhaps they think I'm still sleeping.

If only.

Game Day

It's 8:36am. I've been up for nearly four hours.

I have difficulty sleeping on game days...well, any day when I'm on the docket for an activity that requires preparation. At conventions (like the one I'll be going to in October) I'm lucky to get four or five hours a night. It's hard for me to get to sleep, and I often wake up hours before my alarm.

Excitement and stress...these can play havoc with one's circadian rhythm.

First day of the (school) soccer season. I am coaching my daughter's team. It has been a madhouse just trying to get practice slots. I've had three since last Friday (the day after I got home from Orcas). Three. The last two were yesterday and Thursday. We'll see how this particular band of misfits performs. 

Of course, I had to be up early for D anyway...he had a cross country meet at 7am. Jeez, these kids. He also has club volleyball this afternoon and club soccer tomorrow. Sofia has her club soccer match this afternoon.

But that's all fine and dandy...that's just driving (and I have a full tank of gas (I mean, since I was up this morning anyway...). This morning's game, I'm coaching. My team. My responsibility. No rest for the wicked/weary.

I'll let y'all know how it goes. It's just nice being back in a sport where I get to yell from the sidelines.

; )

[EDIT: we won, 5-2. Shaky first half, but we pulled away in the second. One in the books]

Top 100? Huh.

Sad news today that Pope Francis has passed on. I barely missed out on meeting the Pontiff when I lived in Asuncion (my wife got to), but I did have the opportunity to hear him speak from about 10 feet away. To me, he seemed a good man and a good Pope; I will miss him.

ANYway...I received an email from a blog database company called Feedspot that Ye Old Blog here is one of the "100 best D&D blogs and websites of 2025." Curious about how exactly I got on this list (I certainly didn't throw my name at them), I emailed the company asking for their criteria for their ranking. Here's what they told me:

Feedspot editorial team extensively searched on Google and social media websites to find the best DND Blogs and ranked them based on several factors such as:

1. Blog content quality
2. Blog consistency
3. Age of the Blog
4. Average number of shares on social sites for your
5. Blog Traffic to your Blog and more.

So, there you go. I mean, I had to admit I was pretty curious, especially considering all the posts about volleyball and Reddit bashing I've been writing this year. "Best D&D blogs of 2025?" Hmmm...

Anyway, I came in at #26, which is kind of cool because that's a number that has personal significance to me (though I'm not going to go into my goofy woo-woo New Age stuff at the moment). Alexis is #24 (appropriate...it would have been a sham if I'd ranked ahead of him), and Grognardia came in at #14 (showing the OSR guru still has some juice), while Dyson Logos, mapmaker extraordinaire, sits at #12.

The bulk of the other sites in the Top 25 seem to be the usual slough of BS, 5E money-making schemers, shills, and sycophants. #1 is D&D Beyond (duh). #2 is that Sly Flourish ("Lazy DM") dude. D&D Sage Advice, DND Wizard News, and ENWorld all crack the top 20. Most of these sites feature substantial advertising and hundreds (if not thousands) of followers across multiple platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Which makes it somewhat amusing that I'm even ON this list, as I use none of those things.

I suppose I would care more if I was actively trying to optimize this blog, or if it provided me some sort of financial incentive. I remember being proud of cracking the Top Ten of "old school" D&D blogs, back when Cyclopeatron used to put out his regular lists of the same, but such accolades mean O So Little to the fractured blogging "community" these days. Just continuing to hang around and make regular posts is a testament of sorts...so many blogs and blog authors have given up the keyboard or fallen by the wayside. Are you still writing anything related to the topic of D&D? You probably deserve some sort of medal if you are...and give yourself a trophy if you can come up with any insight that's new, original, or actually useful. 

Anyway.

Working on re-working I3 today. My opinion of the adventure has diminished from when I last wrote that it was "pretty close to right" with its treasure totals. Nah. I'm re-writing it for levels 3rd - 5th and it STILL needs something more in the realm of 200K given the sheer size of the adventure. Also, I hate the Hickmans' propensity for stocking their adventures with normal humans of 4 and 5 hit dice (Thune Dervishes in I3, "gypsies" in I6, etc.). There's this little book I'd like to introduce them to called the "Monster Manual;" it already has an entry for "dervishes" that work perfectly well in the setting. Just...ugh. They were so young when they were writing these modules...it's hard to be too mad at them (we all make boneheaded decisions in our 20s). 

All right, that's enough. It's my daughter's birthday today and she finally woke up (kids are on Spring Break). Have a good week, people.

They sent me this badge. Yay.

Wee Hours

It's 5:40am. I've been up for about an hour. Been awake since about an hour before that.

Cutting the booze and sugared goodies out of my diet (Lenten resolutions) certainly helps my energy level. But I'm pretty fiery at the moment...pretty fired up. Energized...a live wire.

It's volleyball day.

Our team is rolling through the season. Five wins in a row, two games left to play before the playoffs. Today's game will be the second toughest opponent in our division...a perennial rival of the school when it comes to sporting events. We went out to support the girls team last week and stuck around to scout the boys in preparation for today's match. They're no great shakes: a bunch of big kids with the same hairstyle who get by on their athleticism and some questionable calls from their home line-judge (need to make sure we're on the correct side of the court today).

I'm not terribly worried about losing the game today...losing could be a good check on my players' egos. I'd rather lose this one then our next game (which will be against the toughest team in our division). But if we do win today...which we should...I don't think we'll lose another game this year. Which is my preference, of course: I'm not really into the exhilaration of close, heart-attack inducing, knife edge victories. I'd rather just dominate, shake hands, and go home.

For our little school...that has a tiny trophy case and hasn't won shit in YEARS...it would be a tremendous feather in the cap to bring home the championship. But for the players? I want this so badly for them. For them to be able to say: yeah, we did that. No, it doesn't mean they'll go on to play in the Olympics or cure cancer or get elected President or anything. But it's unquestionably something that you'll cherish in your heart, years from now...as an adult, reflecting on the past victories (and failures and oh-so-close moments) of your youth.

This I know. I know it from my own experience as an old geezer, and I know it from talking to other old codgers. Little things like this stick in your brain...highlights between years of "stuff" that's faded into the grey malaise of lost memory.

Especially this group. Especially with the way they're doing it. The misfits. The "try-hards." The nerds.

In my youth, I would have fit very well on this team. 

I want them to have that photograph in the trophy case so bad. Not a runner-up prize, not a second place finish. A championship. Because they are champions...just to come out and work hard and be good teammates to each other and to play damn good volleyball. I am so proud of each and every one of them. Even the goof-offs and screw-ups that fight each other in practice. Because when they come together on the court, they are one team, one entity. Just Panthers...the team in black. I want them to have that recognition...because it will leave a lasting impression in their hearts of what they can accomplish when they put aside their differences and complaints and come together with a single purpose.

That's a valuable lesson...one I wish I'd learned in my youth. My life, my journey...good as it has been...would have been a lot happier and more joyful along the way.

But it is sport (he writes as he wipes the tears from his eyes and refills the coffee cup), and the finality of sport is that sometimes you lose and sometimes you get bounced from the playoffs in the first round. Sometimes the other team plays better than you on a given day. Sometimes the other team IS better than you. And you have to understand that and accept that and take defeat with as much grace as you can muster. Because the real, hard truth is that life goes on (until it doesn't) and...win or lose...you've got to get up on Monday and go to school or work again. The daily grind goes on, regardless of the high highs and low lows that occur in our lives. 

Which isn't to say sport and competition is useless in the grand scheme of life...quite the contrary! What we learn in sport...especially bits like teamwork, focus, practice habits, effort, consistency, gracefulness (in both victory and defeat)...is directly applicable to our day-to-day lives. Especially team sport...learning to get along with different people with different personalities, different backgrounds, different skin colors, different tax brackets, different talent levels...this is incredibly important. It is one of the most important lessons we can learn for the rest of our lives. One of the main reasons I volunteer to coach these teams is to make sure I impart that lesson to my own kids.

Well, that AND because I'm an insufferably competitive gamer.

; )

Okay, it's 6:40 (6:38 actually). I might try closing my eyes for 30 minutes before I wake everyone. Sofia's volleyball game at 9am (in Edmonds), Diego's at 11, then we're going to a teammate's birthday/pizza party (he invited the entire v-ball team), then Diego's soccer in the afternoon. A full day ahead of us.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Thanks for letting me share what's on my mind.

Last Post Of 2024

Going to be pretty busy today (mostly cooking and cleaning) as we somehow managed to invite 10 people over for New Year's Eve dinner. 

*sigh*  So much for my relaxing holiday.

Ah, well, I'm sure it'll be fun. Plus, I'm not driving anywhere so I don't have to ration my fuel intake (i.e. alcohol consumption). The wife is doing "dry January" this year, and I'll probably join her...want to lay off the liquid calories for a while, not to mention rest the liver.

ANYway, I'm going to keep this one short.

Item #1: if you plan on submitting something for Ben Gibson's Adventure Site contest, this is your last day to do so. Or contact, Ben...I don't know, maybe he'll be lenient with late entries depending on your time zone. I'm going to be one of the judge/reviewers and I look forward to reading everyone's entries. Good luck!

Item #2: our revised Blood Bowl rules have worked great. I lost my first game against the wood elves 6-0 (we have not yet instituted extra points), but it would have been a lot closer if the blizzard conditions hadn't stifled any field goal attempts from my orks. I am now playing the Amazons and am leading 6-0 in the first quarter...although the ladies are driving. 

A couple/few notes:

• The 2E NAF rules calls for four, eight turn quarters (each turn being a "down" of football). This is too many (i.e. the game would take far too long), and so we've cut this time in twain (so that each half is eight turns long). Worries that this would make the game feel less like "real football" proved to be unfounded, especially given A) that the 2-minute rule is in effect the last two turns of each half, and B) a turnover (i.e. a fumble recovery or interception) does not run time off the turn clock. The game still feels like gridiron football (with pressure to score within four downs), and yet it's still Blood Bowl...by the end of the game, both sides were down to ten men on the field (due to horrific bloodletting).
• When it came to roster building we ignored all the price values and just said: everyone has a full team of 16 plus two team re-rolls (that's two re-rolls per half). We also said we weren't going to worry about star players or SPPs...just play with the skills on your roster (5E with regard to orks and wood elves, 4E with regard to dark elves and amazons). Turns out the teams are still pretty well-balanced! Diego needed (and got!) some pretty good rolls to injure as many orks as he did, or I would have really ground him down in the attrition battle. Except for those damn war dancers...those guys are dead-hard to bring down (knocked out his treeman, though).
• We've added the gridiron football rules regarding the line of scrimmage. For those who don't know, this boils down to three basic additions:

1. There must be at least seven players on the line of scrimmage
2. Only the players on either end of the line are "eligible receivers" (in addition to players in the backfield).
3. Only eligible receivers may advance beyond the line of scrimmage on a passing play.

In practice, this has meant that the five interior offensive linemen (the center, two guards, and two tackles) can throw a block to start the down but cannot "follow-up" if the opponent is pushed/knocked over. After the ball is passed (beyond the line of scrimmage), these players are allowed to advance.

2nd Down at the 50 yard line. The orks are
set up in a 4-3 with a safety in the box.

Anyway, it's worked great and we're already considering ways we can spice it up, including calling 'audibles' or pre-snap adjustments, and implementing time outs and play clocks (i.e. time limits on setting your team). So far, though, it's working great. I'll post some photos when I have a chance.

Item #3: I am looking forward to the New Year, but there's going to be quite a bit going on in January/February including getting Diego's high school nailed down, selling my mother's house (which I've decided to do), and coaching volleyball for the kids.  I suspect posting will be rather light, other than ASCII reviews and my (planned) 2024 retrospective. I am working on some D&D stuff (mostly adventures), but I don't want to post about that until after I've had a chance to do some play-testing. My dive/analysis of the Unearthed Arcana is all-but-over, and I'm quite happy with where I ended up on that one. 

All right, that's it for today. Happy New Year everyone!

: )

A closer look at the Amazon team; painted
in the Bills color scheme (very patriotic).

Chasing The Dragon

So, I like podcasts. As a stay-at-home dad, I'm busy (a lot) but usually not doing stuff that takes up too much of my 'mental attention.' Throwing on the headphones while cooking, cleaning, or driving is something I do.

[okay, no, I don't use headphones while driving...but you get the drift]

Most often, it's sports or news-related, but...as often as I can find it...I like to listen to podcasts about gaming. At least, about the type of gaming I do.

So it was Tuesday, that I was searching through my iHeart radio app, looking for podcasts...any kind of podcast!...about 1st edition AD&D. Because I needed something to occupy my mind, and throwing on CNN in the background was not my idea of "relaxing white noise."

And LO I found one: Chasing the Dragon, by a guy named Jason Wood, AKA The Mad Cleric. Started in 2016 (jeez...pre-Covid), he dropped all of six episodes, documenting his "quest" to learn and play AD&D (1E). No idea if he's still playing AD&D...his last 1E-related blog post appears to be from 2017 (though he did attend GaryCon in 2024). His is not a very active blog.

ANYhoo, I listened to the whole series. It's pretty good (very listenable) but also...so, so frustrating.

I'll explain: Jason (or "TMC," as I'll hereafter refer to him) first started playing D&D in 2011 with the 4th edition. Would have been in his mid-20s at the time (a little older than most folks stumble into D&D). at the time of the podcast he was 32 years of age. 

And yet he wanted to learn 1E!  Mainly, he wanted to play all those classic 1st edition adventure modules using the actual system for which they'd been written. It was a gaming experiment...and a pretty cool idea...for a guy who'd never had the chance to play in the heyday of the 70s and 80s.

[ha! Funny thing...the television series Stranger Things came out in 2016. TMC makes reference to it in his final podcast...the serendipitous coincidence of people becoming interested in 1E at the same time]

And me? I feel like a heel listening to this. Because I was so NOT into AD&D in 2016 (remember that it wasn't till 2020 when I finally broke down and returned to 1E). If TMC started his podcast today, I could actually help him and provide him with good information and context for much of the weirdness of the game...but in 2016 it wasn't even on my radar. Hell, I probably would have advised him to play B/X if he'd asked me my opinion back then.

And this is SAD. I feel sad about that. Because when it came to trying to LEARN the game, TMC ended up tapping a bunch of different people for advice, most of whom had no good advice (or very little) to give. And some of whom actually gave him counterproductive stuff...the kind of stuff that, in my opinion, would result in a frustrating, crappy game and (even worse) probably just lead him back into the stifling WotC embrace of 5E.

Does that sound harsh? Uber-hyperbolic? Okay, maybe it is. But yesterday, in anticipation of this post, I was re-listening to Episode 1 and jotting down notes (mainly timestamps) and my son asked me what I was listening to (he was doing geometry homework at the kitchen counter at the time). I told him: I'm listening to an old podcast about a guy trying to learn AD&D and the questions he's asking from these guys who don't have much expertise with the system. Kid asked if he could listen, too (i.e. take off the headphones, papa). So I did. After a few minutes he said: "These guys have no idea what they're talking about! They're just yapping; they're not actually SAYING anything!"

Yeah. I know.

The time stamps I was making note of were questions that TMC was asking his guests...because I figured I'd list them here, on Ye Old Blog, and write out the answers I would have given him. But after seeing how aghast my son was, I decided to do something different: I forwarded the podcast to one of the questions, played it for my son, and then asked him what answer he would have given the interviewer (stopping the podcast so he didn't hear the guests' answers). My daughter wandered into the kitchen at about this time, and I ran her through the same exercise.

Here's the question (from 47:36 of the podcast):

"So, for myself or for anyone else who wants to learn AD&D what advice would you give? And with your advice I'd also ask for your two best house rules that you can remember."

Diego's answer: Advice? Be prepared. Know the adventure you're running. Know the rules. Two best house rules? #1: all dice rolls 'in the box.' #2: no PVP.

[we have a puzzle box lid that we roll all our dice in. Only dice that land in the box "count;" any die that bounces out of the box gets rerolled]

Sofia's answer: Be prepared for anything. Best house rules? No "goofing." No phones at the table.

My kids. So smart. Their answers were ten times better than the ones I would have given. 

SO...maybe I won't harangue and berate and belittle the poor guy for his near-decade old podcast. Hopefully, TMC has continued his 'experiment' and is still playing 1st edition today...hopefully, he's discovered for himself how and why the game works...I mean, nine years? That's a pretty good chunk of gaming under the belt. Plenty enough time to "figure things out."

Isn't it?

For me, I suppose I have a burning question of my own: if a person sits down to learn AD&D with a concept of role-playing shaped by latter day editions, are they going to be able to realign their expectations? Shift their paradigm, so to speak? For myself, who played plenty of "trad" RPGs in the 1990s, I can tell you there were subtle tweaks of reprogramming that needed to be rewired in my brain. You can see it in my older, dumber blog posts. Fortunately (for me), I already had a foundation of D&D play from my youth...I'd been witness to successful D&D play, and it was just a matter of digging out WHY it had been successful.

Which is easier said than done (no one really knew anything about this damn hobby when I was a kid). But after two decades (!!) of speculation on gaming and game design, I've got a pretty good handle on it. Maybe a smarter, wiser person than me could figure this out in half that time, without the foundational play experience? Maybe?

Ah, well.

I know...I know..that I have readers who are going to see this line of thought as incredibly presumptious and arrogant. Because, in a nutshell, I seem once again bent on dragging "edition wars" into this glorious hobby of ours, being judgmental and thick-headed about what makes "good play" or "bad" and yadda-yadda-yadda. Yeah, I know. "D&D has evolved," right? It ain't the same game it was, it serves different needs, the people playing it are different, etc., etc.  Okay, sure...I don't want to fight you folks (much) over the subject. I'm just a salty curmudgeon made saltier by the trends I see in the country I live in.

[and that's all I'll say about the election other than: boy, am I glad I live in Washington State!]

Anyway, I'm NOT (really) trying to come down hard and "judge-y" on people who play D&D differently from me. My frustration...which I feel the need to express...is that there are people out there, who might want to play D&D the way that I do...and who could!...if they only could get the few, simple answers they need. There ARE simple answers! Not easy ones, perhaps, but simple. There is a roadmap to (what I call) "solid D&D play." But getting it into the hands of the right people at the right time (2016! 2016!) is a tough ask.

SO...if you're a buddy of TMC, or happen to have run into him or gamed with him at GaryCon, give him a shout out from me. Tell him there are people who have only just discovered his stuff and are curious to know how it's all worked out for him in the intervening years. We'd like to hear more about his travails with AD&D 1E, and see how much (if any) they mirror our own. Tell him, the system is still being played by folks...many folks...around the world. 

Just let him know. And happy Thursday folks.

; )

[posted Friday because my Thursdays always seem to bog down. Darn it!]

Page Counts

Waaaay back in January, I mentioned Ben Gibson was hosting an adventure writing contest (specifically, an adventure site writing contest), but I absolutely failed to write any particular follow-up post on the subject. My apologies. Here's the skinny: the contest ended and, yes, my entry won. 

However, that latter bit is completely unimportant. What IS important is that the compilation of the best entries was released (um, yeah, back in April dude) and is currently available for FREE over at DriveThru. Would you like a handful of adventure sites to sprinkle into your game world as little side excursions? Well, here you go: 32 pages of PDF consisting of eight "adventure sites," each constricted to two pages of text plus map. Not bad. And did I mention it's free?

Here's the bit that I like about it (besides being one of the entries): it's 32 pages.

There was a time when D&D adventure modules ALL clocked in at about "32 pages." That time was long ago, in the magical time period known as the 1980s. 

[funny side note: my kids have romantic notions of the '80s and have often said they wish they'd been alive at that time. My daughter, especially, has lamented that time travel isn't possible, as she'd want to travel back in time to the 1980s and live her childhood then. It makes me laugh. Yes, there are many things about that decade that I miss and/or that I'm nostalgic about, but having LIVED through them...yeah, no. Mm.  Okay, enough...that's a tangent I could wax on about all day...]

And there's good reason for that number. 32 is just eight pages, folded and saddle stitched. Half the size of the B/X books which (at 64 pages each) were just about the limit for a saddle-stitched printer of the time.

Hm. Okay, I'm making an assumption there: my own printer has told me that 64 pages + cover is pretty much the limit of their capabilities. Not sure what reprographics technology was like back in the early 80s. But all those old TSR game manuals (Top Secret, Star Frontiers, Boot Hill, Gamma World, etc.) clocked in at 64 pages or less.

But TSR's adventure modules were always smaller, maxing out at 32 pages apiece...at least up through 1985. 1985 sees the release of WG6: Isle of the Ape (at 48 pages) as well as the Temple of Elemental Evil "super-module" (although that one wasn't saddle-stitched). Beginning in 1986, larger saddle-stitched modules become more and more common offerings from TSR, including most of the final Dragonlance scenarios, B10: Night's Dark Terror, other BECMI-era modules, the DA (Dave Arneson) series of adventures, etc. Of course, 1986 brought the entry of even more "super-modules" to the market, too (A1-4, GDQ, I1-3, etc.) as well as the infamous H-series (Bloodstone). 

In other words: about the same time adventures started turning bad.

Boo-hiss! JB you suck! I love Mentzer's I11: Needle, and I12: Ravenloft 2 is an absolute masterpiece!

Sure, sure, whatever. I'm sure there are plenty of good adventures published by TSR after 1985...my own purchase of modules post-'85 were very few and far between (unless I was picking up old modules...used...from The Book Exchange in Missoula, MT). Fact is that there was a period of time as a kid when I simply had little access to adventure modules at all...that period being between (roughly) 1986 to 1988. As a kid without income (any "allowance" my parents gave me was pretty paltry and probably spent on the occasional comic book), and no car (few places within biking distance of my house at the time carried ANY D&D stuff...maybe B. Dalton's books), there was simply no real opportunity to even peruse these latter-day modules, let alone purchase any. And by the time I got to high school (1988) I was (mostly) out of the D&D hobby anyway, having discovered actual game stores (in the University District and Capitol Hill) and a plethora of distractions...including other RPGs.

These days, though...

There is a limit to what I will read. That's the truth. My time and, frankly, my attention span is rather limited. A 32 page adventure scenario is pretty much the limit of what I can dig into. Oh, I've picked up other offerings...both from the OSR and those "glory days" of the late 1980s...that are far, far larger than 32 pages. But in general they are a slog to read through. And as adventures, they are tricky (for me) to conceptualize and 'hold' in my mind.

Let me explain what I mean by that: when I DM an adventure I need a good "grasp" of the thing to be effective in running it. I need to be able to keep track of the NPCs, the encounters, the way the adventure 'works' (functions) as a site (or sites, if multiple). I need to be able to hold these things in my head in order to react to the antics of the players in a fashion that is appropriate. And by "appropriate" I mean A) in a way which doesn't harm the verisimilitude of the play experience and B) does not cause a cascade effect of errors down the rest of the adventure due to dereliction or neglect. 

Probably I should give examples...and yet I'm so set in how I do adventures already, I don't have any "bad examples" to provide. Perhaps I'm just lazy: maybe I could take and run a 60+ page monstrosity without needing to look stuff up, flip through pages, get confused, get lost. Maybe. Perhaps I've tried running such an adventure in the past and just...can't...remember.

But here's the thing: an adventure is just a scenario. That's it; that's all it is. It (ideally) has a key of encounters that should be both sensible and appropriate (two terms I'm using very specifically). And (again, this is for me) it should have an overall design concept in which those encounters function together in synchronicity...not like a "well-oiled machine," but more like a healthy living organism. Because when we play Dungeons & Dragons we are immersing ourselves in a world and a world lives and breathes. And the person running that world is also a living organism, one subject to error and illness. 

Ugh. I'm probably not laying this out right. Let me approach it from a different angle: 32 pages is IMMENSE, okay? Considering that you are providing a single scenario for adventure...something that the players may choose to ignore or move on from or spend several evenings delving...there is a LOT you can pack into 32 pages. Ravenloft was only 32 pages...and it has more than 120 keyed areas, AND wasted page count on full page illustrations and fortune-card mini-games. The entire Against the Giant series (G1-G3) was published in a 32 pages, and that can take months to complete.  32 pages is a LOT.

If you need more than 32 pages to pen your adventure module, then it probably needs to be broken up into more than one scenario.

That's my opinion, of course. But it feels like a lot of these huge page count adventures are "something more" than a single scenario. They are "setting guides." Or they are "mini-campaigns." And, especially with regard to the latter, why wouldn't you break them into different sections, different linked/related adventures rather than a single, unwieldy book?

Of course, there are also the vaunted "mega-dungeons": the Barrowmazes and the Stone Hells. I know some folks love these. I know that some folks consider mega-dungeon delving to be the TRUE way of playing D&D based on the examples set down by Gygax and Arneson (with Castles Greyhawk and Blackmoor, respectively). They're not for me. I am nearly as interested...and yet far more invested...in the world outside the dungeon, as in the dungeon itself. The idea of playing through a dozen levels of anything is foreign to my game...why O why would I ever want to purchase such a thing for my table?

Heck, I've never been able to finish reading the Temple of Elemental Evil without dozing off.

So, I've come to a conclusion: I'm not going to write any any adventures with a page count higher than 32. 'Big deal, JB, you don't write adventures.' Well, I'm starting to. And I'm going to set some working parameters for myself. 32 pages, including cover page, appendices, pre-gens, etc. That's it. Truth be told, I am a little disappointed that Dragon Wrack was a whopping 41 pages...however, in my defense it did include six pages of pre-gen write-ups and a three page Chainmail supplement.

No more!

I'm totally serious here (silly as this subject might sound). An adventure should offer maximum playability with minimal prep. A 32 page adventure module can be read and digested in an afternoon, and run in the evening...THAT should be the goal. The adventure isn't the game, after all. Oh, it's a big part of the game, but it. Ain't. The. Game. 

[I feel like I'm writing a lot of sentences like that lately]

32 pages should be an absolute maximum for the adventure proper. Many adventures shouldn't even need that many pages (pick up a copy of classics like S1: Tomb of Horrors or C1: Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan and remove the illustration booklets...count how many pages those are). Just what are we doing these days with the adventures being published. Here's a list of the last 25 adventures reviewed over at TenFootPole:

1. a 60 page "non-adventure"
2. a 17 page adventure with a 7-room dungeon
3. a 32 page "walking simulator" (not an adventure)
4. a 17 page adventure with a single encounter
5. a 30 page adventure with 6 encounters
6. an 18 page adventure with 12 rooms
7. an 87 page adventure with 30 rooms
8. a 100 page adventure with 60ish rooms
9. a 48 page "digest pointcrawl" with 17 encounters
10. a 100 page dungeon of nine levels
11. a 150 page supplement/setting guide
12. a 104 page jungle hexcrawl
13. a 120 page city supplement featuring 3 dungeons ("not an adventure")
14. a 58 page adventure featuring 67 encounters
15. a 34 page regional guide with "nothing of interest"
16. a 182 page adventure (holy jeez)
17. a 31 page adventure featuring 3 mini dungeons of 6ish rooms each
18. a 75 page "Call of Cthulhu-type" adventure
19. a 38 page "not an adventure"
20. a 30 page adventure that seems pretty good
21. a 24 page adventure that also seems pretty good
22. a 24 page adventure with 35 rooms
23. an 8 page adventure describing 12 encounters
24. a 44 page incomprehensible "adventure"
25. a 19 page "adventure" consisting of random tables

[why am I looking at Bryce Lynch's reviews? Because A) he is prolific and experienced, B) he has standards to which he adheres, C) he (tries to) only review things classified as "adventures" and does so fairly indiscrimately]

Of those 25, 14 have too high a page count for (my) practical purposes, 3 more are non-adventures, and 4 of those left have a higher page count than the number of encounters in the thing (which is totally unacceptable). That's 21 of 25 (84%) automatically eliminated from my consideration for running, regardless of how "good" the review might be.

Of the four remaining, #22 and #23 get eliminated due to their ratio of encounters to page count. Yeah, there are more encounters than pages, but nor much more...a designer should not need a whole page to detail an encounter, and even though I realize the number given is the average...well, that's still too much extraneous detail/padding for my taste. Tighten it up, folks!

*sigh*  I'm sure I'm coming off as entirely unfair and/or "out of touch with the times." Yeah, okay. I'm mean and old (and getting meaner and older). But here's the thing: adventures are meant to be played, not read. Yes, I know some people purchase these things strictly for reading enjoyment. Yes, I'm aware that writers publish material with this very criteria in mind (and that's how they earn their bread). Yes, I realize that a shit-ton of people don't really understand this hobby we're in. I get it. Fine.

Adventures are meant to be played, not read. D&D is meant to be experienced through play...not through reading a book and/or watching other people (i.e. on a streaming series). I get that people derive enjoyment from this type of thing, and that's fine (if, IMO, "weird"). But folks that are doing this are NOT "playing D&D."  They are not doing the activity that we call gaming. They are doing AN ACTIVITY, but it is NOT gaming. It is reading. It is watching. It is "fanning." It is consuming.

But it's not playing D&D.

Adventure modules facilitate play of the game. That is: they make it easier. Or, rather, they should make it easier. That was their original purpose. But that's been lost...for the most part. It happens. A lot of things have been lost over the years. Doesn't mean we all need to (or want to) travel back in time to the 1980s.

My parameters are my own. You're welcome to create your own parameters. "32 pages" works for me.