I'm going to choose Purify Food/Water, as it helps address basic human needs. Light is luxury. :D

Could I get a ruling on how Cure/Cause Light Wounds targets? Is it:
- Only cure self
- Only cure one other target
- Cure other target OR self
- Cure other target(s) AND self

Or something else completely?

I have no strong opinions or preferences, simply seeking clarity. :)

If I had rolled more than 3hp I'd perhaps consider Cure Wounds more seriously; as it is, one hit is likely to kill a lot of things, so healing doesn't seem as immediately crucial. Hope I'm not wrong!

Good choice for a prayer.  That will definitely come in handy. :)

Cure/Cause Wounds can effect either yourself or one target you can touch. When using it offensively no additional roll aside from the spell casting check will be required. The Wisdom check will also serve as the attack roll.

Thanks!!

Just a few comments on the house rules.

7) "Affect" not "effect" -- effect as a verb means to bring about or cause. My wife is always confusing those two. Please don't think I will make a habit of these types of edits. I used to teach writing so it's an old reflex of mine--sometimes controlled, sometimes not.

8) All five senses? Are you sure? That seems like sensory overload to me :). Maybe we could swap out a sense or two if we make decent use of figurative language or verb choice.

12) I do post on weekends. I'm usually pretty relaxed after a gym+lunch and in the mood to post.

Game setting and set up looks great so far. I'll have a look at the White Box rules tonight. Are you writing this adventure yourself?

In reply to Sancho (msg # 11):

Thank you for spotting that error. I'll go and change it.

Honestly, I'm not going to be too hard-nosed about all five senses. What you suggest sounds fine to me.

This is a home-made adventure. I've been listening to youtube videos by Runehammer and Dungeon Craft for years now and decided to put that knowledge to the test. I'll be pulling inspiration from a lot of different modules of the old and new schools. I'll also be making use of a lot of fun resources like the Tome of Adventure Design, The Mother of All Treasure Tables, Dark Sun Boxed Set, Rappan Athuk, and others. There will be plenty of material to keep us going for a while should we desire.

Y'kar'us, I took the liberty of doing a short write-up of your character's former temple based upon the information you've given. Please let me know if that meshes with your imagination. I'm happy to change things around until you are satisficed.

We shall begin, soon...
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:08, Thu 04 Mar 2021.

In reply to The Darkness (msg # 12):

Read the Order write-up, looks good!

Two things I'll add: rather than a single deity, the Order is dedicated to preserving all temples of all deities. Kind of an order of "clerics for clerics." Think sort of a blend between the pantheon of Gods like ancient Greece and the rich tapestry of major and minor deities in Hinduism.

Second thing re: temple's destruction. Forgot to add earlier, all family and friends were wiped out in that massacre.


Re: starting...

I'm patient, so definitely no rush, but if everyone else is rarin' to begin, I'm ready.

I'm curious to see how these 3d6 instead of d20 rolls shake out! :)

In reply to Y'kar'us the Wight (msg # 13):

Thank you for the feedback. Please check the revised description at your convenience. :)

Also, I added the -1 modifier next to your Con.

Honestly, I'm pretty much ready to go. I'll start working on the opening post and then put it up when Sancho is also ready. Please don't rush yourself, Sancho, because I won't let you get left behind so quickly.

I've run several games with 3d6 instead of the d20. Most of them were for kids and teens. You tend to spend more time with the lower tier monsters and thinking about strategy. Tailor made for this style of game.

Well, mathematically, the average result will still be 10.5 but while you would have a 25% chance of rolling 16 or higher on a d20, I think 3d6 will produce a 16, 17, or 18 less frequently. And let's hope we don't get any 19s or 20s with those dice. That would be unsettling.

The maths are simple, but will Lady Luck like it? ;)

So far Lady Luck is not favoring you two. I did two quick rolls to see if you could retain your selected items and both failed. Perhaps it was confiscated by a Black Guard at the last moment? Or, vanished while they were within the portal? I made both rolls public so you can check them.

The good news is that I should be finished with the first post soon.

My sweet chernips! Lol.

As DM, I trust you to make rolls as appropriate. No need on my part for them to be public at any point, if you prefer "behind the screen" rolling. No personal preference on the matter.

So it begins...

Are we together?

That's one of the sad things about being American. We don't pluralize math. It's always mathematics. I so prefer "maths."

Yes, you both are together. I figure we can start you two out as a group and then see what happens.

In reply to The Darkness (msg # 21):

Ah, I thought we were separate, apologies!

Maybe we want to do max hps for level 1? I'm not sure if we want to make this game quite so asymmetrical. Obviously, rolling a 1 brought this into focus for me.

Now I'm not feeling quite so sad over my 3hp! :D

Also, feeling *much* better about not choosing Cure Light Wounds. :|

I've been thinking about HP carefully today.

The intention here is to run an dangerous and deadly game. However, I hear you that playing a 1 hp character just stinks.

If you can stick it out for a bit and see how far that 1 hp will carry you I've put something in the dungeon that will help with that.

Also, I didn't want to mention this until the time came, but your characters will get to re-roll their HP each time they level up. So, at second level, you both will roll 2d6 with Con adjustments and that will be your new hit point total. If your roll is equal to or less than your current total after mods are taken into account then you will still gain 1 hp.

In other news, congratulations on your first posts! In addition to the mentioned items and XP you each also gain one Luck. You can use this Luck at any time to re-roll any one dice roll that you make. Once used it is gone. More Luck can be earned as the game progresses by overcoming great obstacles or reaching millstones in your character's experience of The Oubliette.

Excellent! Great job running the game thus far! Kudos! :)

Added/updated PC sheet with xp, luck, items. While doing so, I caught an error: I had my saving throw listed at 14, but it looks as though it should be 15. Made the correction.

Re: hp. I'm cool however everyone wants to run it. Low hp/extreme danger is fun in this kind of setting imho; but I'm also not the dude with 1 hp. ;)

I could be wrong, but after not partaking in rpgs for over 20 years, it seems to me as though the games have really geared themselves towards over-powered, feel-good-about-yourself sort of first level PCs. It's fun and refreshing to see people playing it old-school, where your PC is expected to die horrible deaths which is fun because then you can roll up new peeps to run through the gauntlet. I realize this style only works well if everyone is on board with it. It makes it much more fun and rewarding when you have a really successful character. Or even just survive. ;)

Just rambling pre-coffee post-loong night. :)

Lots of old-school games on RPOL.

link to another game
link to another game
link to another game

For a few. The challenge is to find the right GMs.

D&D, as it has progressed, has become increasingly spongy. Everything takes longer and becomes more taxing. But it's still great if you want to play a tactical fantasy combat simulator. I don't any longer. Dunno about the ego gratification part, though.

Re the 1 hp conundrum. I love rogue-like video games. I played the original in 6th grade.

1 hp works if you're giving your character a comic turn or if you're playing a particular type of character. Sancho's not much of a humorist; as a wanderer with 12 con, he should be pretty hearty. As it is now, his cirrhosis maybe more advanced than he had realized.

As far as I'm concerned, this is just stuff we're chewing over. No changes needed. Some possible remedies down the line. I'm easygoing.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:03, Sat 06 Mar 2021.

Appreciate the links!

This is my first real game playing as a PC and not DMing. I had another game I was in die out before it really got started, so that doesn't really count.

I had not heard of OSRIC prior to joining this game, otherwise the second game linked would have been right up my alley. I even remember looking at it briefly a while back, saying to myself, "I have no clue what this OSRIC is...NEXT!" :D

I have a 20 year k-nowledge gap between basically the end of 2e through til this year. One of the big appeals was: D&D 5e was free! That price sounds about right to me...didn't realize the whole back-to-basics movement took place with this style of free-rules open-game systems.

Dumb question: is wanderer a class or something I'm missing, or is that just how your character refers to himself?

Is there supplemental material to the S&W:Whitebox download I should be aware of?

Thx!

It was from the list of available classes from the Character Creation section. As I work with the formerly "chronically homeless," it looked like an amusing choice.

Why would you stop playing RPGs for 20 years? What set of calamitous decisions could have cast you into that desert?

Sure, free things are nice. But they really don't matter to me like they might have 30 years ago :). No change in that respect for my wife.

Thank you for the links Sancho. I'll take a look.

Man, I remember playing a 1 hp Magic user in a Rules Cyclopedia based game. At least I think it was Rules Cyclopedia. He got lost alone in the dungeon. Sadly, that game ended before he managed to escape back to the surface or find the rest of the party again. :) Good times.

There have definitely been a lot of changes to the game between 2nd and 5th. I find that I generally like playing 5th ed. Your characters can really feel powerful and obstacles don't loom as large. I just really dislike DMing 5th ed outside of carefully selected groups of people.

I went down the 3.0-3.5 min/max path for a while. It was a lot of fun at the time. I even dove head first into Pathfinder. However, I ended up playing with a group of people who were so deeply into optimizing their characters that it became impossible to DM for them and have fun.

After that I retreated back to the Rules Cyclopedia for a few years. Around when 5th came out I was diving deeper and deeper into Swords and Wizardry as my preferred family of retro-clones. it was similar enough to the Rules Cyclopedia that I could use it to run games while pulling the other options from the RC that I liked.

These days I switch back and forth between 5th D&D and S&W. I've also been branching out into other systems like Monte Cook's Cypher System and Numenera.

So, there are 3rd party supplements for Swords and Wizardry: White Box available from Drive Through RPG. I'll post some links. You don't need to buy them for this game. I'll happily share any needed information with you should you want to make a character using those classes.

Wanderer is a class that is part of the White Box Gothic book. It offers a few interesting options designed to make an exploration game easier. He'll really be able to help the party scavenge resources.

here are some links for the curious.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/p...bus-Swords--Wizardry

This is the White Box Omnibus. It contains the rules for the Bard, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Ranger and Thief. There are also options to customize the three core classes from White Box to create the Healer, Undead Slayer, War-Priest, Marksman, Swashbuckler, Weapon Specialist, Illusionist, Necromancer and Scholar. I used those as the bases for custom making the Reaver and renamed the Weapon Specialist into the Weapon Master. There's also magic items, monsters, and an entire setting and mini-campaign.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/p...-II-Swords--Wizardry

This is where I got the Acrobat, Barbarian, Cavalier, Duelist and Jester.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/p...hic-Swords--Wizardry

There is where I pulled the Monster Hunter, Metaphysician, Spiritualist, and Wanderer from. It has other options that we are not currently using and focuses on running gothic horror games. Pretty neat if that is your thing.

Re: wanderer. Whitebox Gothic, gotcha! Thanks! :)

Re: reasons for not playing. I don't know, I guess I went to college and nobody I knew played, and before I knew it LIFE had happened, lulz. Ended up going down the MTG route pretty hard, which is nice, cuz it ended up paying the down payment on my house. :)

Material returns such as those are difficult to pass up for non-payout games like D&D, especially when you're younger. It just worked out that way, and I got lucky.

When winter rolled around this year I started going stir-damn-crazy with quarantine and whatnot, so free rpgs online really appealed. I had never heard of pbp before, and that really sold me.

I like DMing, world building, etc. But I'm no actor, and I'd be just really embarrassed DMing for a group of adults. Which is weird, because usually nothing like that fazes me. DMing behind a screen with time to think and plan and write is super ideal.

I'm actually pretty glad I didn't keep playing: 3.0 had just dropped and I remember all that maxing/mining and it just wasn't my play style. I haven't heard one good word re: 4.0 so I assume that was some hot garbage as well??

So, better late than never! :)

Edit: re links: Super, thank you so much!