Rekindling (A)D&D

[Necron 99]

So, I haven't really given an after-con report, but I will say that I had an absolute blast while at GaryCon this year.

I played in six games, even though I was registered for eight (too tired or unmotivated to play in the other two) and all of them were a lot of fun. Of the six games I played, two were DCC Weird Frontiers (supernatural-western), one was a DCC Skull and Crossbones (pirates), one was an aquatic themed B-X/OSE adventure, one was a Hyperborea adventure, and the last one was a D&D BECMI dungeon crawl.

I had a great time playing in them all, but one thing that I took away from the convention was how much I really missed and enjoyed playing Basic D&D. The adventure was a straight forward dungeon crawl in which our characters were hired to delve into the ruins of a long destroyed citadel, called Wyvernmoore. While delving into the first two levels, we encountered an NPC halfling who had been enslaved by mercenaries to help plumb the ruins, said group of NPC mercenaries of whom our party dispatched, several well placed traps which rendered a couple PCs either out or dead, a toad demon who wanted to eat our halfling thief, a gelatinous cube which nearly wiped the party, some large rats, a mob of skeletal prisoners which did wipe out most of the party, and a high priest of the demon prince, Orcus, along with the priest's guards, which we managed to defeat and stop from opening a large door which had carved images that depicted some really bad ju-ju.

We didn't have to really think about anything other than what we wanted to do in the dungeon with the resources given us. We had simple weapons and armor, was using THAC0 and descending armor class which I've really missed. There was of course old-school saving throws, simple attribute checks for related tasks (roll under stat score) and simple class abilities, like the Elf's spot secret doors which came in hand for finding a couple. Our thieves' used hear noise, remove traps, along the way and pick locks which helped open some doors and chests. We used both torches and hooded lanterns and we even had a character using a 10' pole which helped detect at least one trap on some stairs and also helped avoid the gelatinous cube before a couple characters walked right into it. We found a few minor magic items like potions which were eventually used during a couple fights. For the elf, mage, and cleric, we had standard Vancian spell slots and simple 1st and 2nd level spells to manage and cast.

And best of all, everything fit on one side of a single standard basic D&D character sheet.

And not to knock other games, especially since I own several of them, but this wasn't DCC, it wasn't C&C, it wasn't some other variation of the game I first started playing back in the mid-80s, or that I've enjoyed for so many years in college and years later. And this definitely wasn't any WotC derived edition of the game.

This was pure TSR D&D and it was just point-blank, fun.

The Wyvernmoore game was my Sunday game, the last official game I played in for GaryCon. The DM was great, his name was Jeremy Hall, and this was his first time attending GaryCon. I'll definitely look for his games in the future if he's offering more Basic D&D. Even now, almost 2 weeks later, I'm still in the D&D zone after playing it. I have DCC and C&C and I've enjoyed both, but playing old-school D&D again after so many years, really brought back the spirit of the game in a way that I've missed.

I've started reading through some of my TSR era material again. With the 50th anniversary of D&D coming up next year, I may have to rescind my idea of running all non-d20 games and work on a TSR-era adventure to run in addition to any other games.

[Ancalagon]

I didn't get in on any (A)D&D this go 'round. The AD&D events of interest were practically wiped out during gold badge registration which left 1 ticket in games for silvers. Slim pickings there so I went after C&C games. I had a lot of fun with the C&C games (Swords & Chaos included since it is a C&C variant) but I think next year I'll snag a gold badge for a much better chance at some AD&D goodness. The only time i ever get to actually play AD&D is at Gary Con so I intend to get in at least one session that sounds interesting.

I've started reading through some of my TSR era material again. With the 50th anniversary of D&D coming up next year, I may have to rescind my idea of running all non-d20 games and work on a TSR-era adventure to run in addition to any other games.

You make a good point about the 50th anniversary. I may have to give this some consideration.....

[Necron 99]

Yeah, maybe you'll have an easier time grabbing some.

Been reading through some Basic D&D PDFs and then jumped into some 2E material, about to jump into my 1E books. Still thinking of using the DMG to randomly create a dungeon and it's contents, maybe two or three levels, and run it next year.

And speaking of dungeon crafting, I spoke with Michael Shorten (chicagowiz) that Sunday up in the Legends of Wargaming room, he was running a Chaos Wars miniature battle. But he was telling me he is doing this year long challenge for 2023, designing a mega-dungeon, where you create one room of a dungeon each day, every day for a month. At the end of the month, you have one level with roughly 30 rooms already fleshed out. Then the next month, you start over again with a new level. At the end of the year, you would essentially have a 12 level dungeon.

Pretty ambitious for sure, but seems like a cool way to go about it.

[grodog]

I’ve started to think about next year’s events, too: I’ll likely revisit Erelhei Cinlu and drow PCs for the next con season.

And, in case you’re inspired, the third “no artpunk” dungeon design contest has been announced too: https://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/vie ... =3&t=17979

Allan.

[Necron 99]

I’ve started to think about next year’s events, too: I’ll likely revisit Erelhei Cinlu and drow PCs for the next con season.

And, in case you’re inspired, the third “no artpunk” dungeon design contest has been announced too: https://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/vie ... =3&t=17979

Allan.

Guess I'm out of the loop, what is "artpunk"?

On another note, I've already been getting the itch for the next GC. Been having random thoughts about systems and adventures of late. Nothing to concrete just yet, just inspirational thoughts or fluttering ideas occasionally popping through the grey matter. Still not sure if I want to do non-d20 games or include them since it's the 40th year for D&D.