Monday, September 21, 2009

Test play for our new LL adventure

Saturday's test play for the full-length The Lost Staves of Maurath was a blast! I don't think I've ever ran a game that was so crazy and by-the-seat-of-the-pants as was this one. We were having so much fun that the group didn't want to stop, turning the evening into a seven hour long Labyrinth Lord marathon!

However, I find that when you don't know when to say "when", and the party is near the adventure finish line, people start making foolhardy mistakes when they're tired. Although Jason, a PRG test-player regular, did some very smart and innovative role-playing throughout the evening, a fatal mistake was made in the very last room. His thief died...again. We'll mourn his lack of hit points here...again.

I'll admit that we should have stopped a couple hours earlier and saved the big stuff for another night. This saves the party from just trying to "push through" to the end just so that we can reach the end (in our group's defense, our gaming sessions are rather far between, so we'd probably not be able to continue the adventure soon enough to keep its momentum).

So now the tweaking, writing and art shall begin in preparation for publication. Those of you familiar with the one-page dungeon from which this adventure is expanded, much has changed! I'm excited to get this one out, and like the other PRG adventures, it will be available as a free download.

I'll keep you posted.

Friday, September 11, 2009

The Lost Staves of Maurath revamp and other goodies

Things will start to move right along. Next weekend is our next scheduled gaming session. We will be playing a revamped and full-length version of my one-page dungeon The Lost Staves of Maurath. This version includes an expanded temple and an all-new third level.

The plans are to make The Lost Staves of Maurath for levels 4-7, so the critters will be bumped up from the original if they have any hope of giving the PCs some serious boo-boos.

Again, like my previous adventures, if all goes well with this one, it should be the next Labyrinth Lord module release for PRG.

After this one is finished, I'll continue on a module that I am really excited about titled The Fierce Foes of Fire Peak Mountain. This Labyrinth Lord adventure will be for higher level characters (around 6-10) and will feature some hard-hitting baddies.

PCs will venture through seven or eight small levels full of Fierce Foes as they travel up toward the Fire Peak, including some "abandoned" ruins, a security fort, a village and its graveyard, and a vast labyrinth of caverns that will lead characters to the peak.

Typical stuff? That's right! Fire Peak Mountain is going to be a 100% old-school dungeon crawl (take a gander at the cover to the original D&D Dungeon Geomorphs for the type of flavor I have in mind). While that might not be for everyone's taste, hopefully we can win the naysayers over. After all, free-of-charge adventures are hard to beat!

One last thing: I still have my sights on an X-plorers rpg mission module release. This will happen (or my test-playing crew will string me up). Whether this will happen before Fire Peak is released is all up in the air right now.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

New Goblinoid Games site is up!

For those of us who have been waiting with a drooling mouth for the new Goblinoid Games web site, the wait is finally over.

The new GG site is up and running. It's well-organized and after navigating through, I had the urge to break out the dice and role-play a game (but at 2:45am, it's highly unlikely).

I want to thank Dan at Goblinoid Games for the "shout out" in the site's our partners section. I'm happy to support Labyrinth Lord and I look at this acknowledgment as a thumbs-up directly from the source.

One last thing -- I must say that the copy on the main page is perfect, especially the line, "It's time to wipe the high gloss off your gaming table and take a journey leading to gritty old-school adventure."

Amen!