Immersive Ink

The Book of Treasure Maps is a great book, easily in my top 5 from Judges Guild. I don't have time to play more, but so you'll have to kill off Beppo for me to play in it...

I'm interested in your other campaign too. By full range of races and classes, do you mean along the lines of S&W, AD&D, OD&D supplements, OR Holmes (where we may negotiate playing something very bizarre with the DM - slightly hoping this one)?

@Bastet1002 what 'very bizarre' race did you have in mind?

I was thinking of using core '3LBB' rules only (human/dwarf/elf/hobbit, fighter/cleric/MU) and hosting the campaign on odd74 proboards. If we time it right, the PCs would be hitting high level around 2024, which is the 50th anniversary of D&D!!!

@Mushroomgnome I'll let you know what I was dreaming about when I said "bizarre race" later. I'm at work and without any of my unofficial 0e supplements, so I better look through them later to give you an idea.

UPDATE:
Okay I'm back. The unofficial Supplement VII Lost Lore has a build for a Half-Ogre and Gnome. I think the Gnome might be interesting - a smaller more magical variant of the Dwarf? To keep the world light, I thought also a a Sprite or a Frogman?
This is also going outside of the 3 LLBs, but Lost Lore also has interesting Amazon and Barbarian classes.

I could PM you a proposal if you want. But, I understand if you want to keep this a more of a classic campaign...

Bastet1002 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:12 am

@Mushroomgnome I'll let you know what I was dreaming about when I said "bizarre race" later. I'm at work and without any of my unofficial 0e supplements, so I better look through them later to give you an idea.

UPDATE:
Okay I'm back. The unofficial Supplement VII Lost Lore has a build for a Half-Ogre and Gnome. I think the Gnome might be interesting - a smaller more magical variant of the Dwarf? To keep the world light, I thought also a a Sprite or a Frogman?
This is also going outside of the 3 LLBs, but Lost Lore also has interesting Amazon and Barbarian classes.

I could PM you a proposal if you want. But, I understand if you want to keep this a more of a classic campaign...

I like all those suggestions! Probably more so for the fairy-tale mood of this campaign (Hobbet Heroes) than for the new "treasure map" campaign.

My counter-proposal to your "smaller more magical variant of the Dwarf" is the Dwarrow. I always liked, that word, "Dwarrow." It is an alternate term for "Dwarves" that Tolkien was fond of (Goose is to Geese as Dwarf is to Dwarrow) but ultimately for publication, Tolkien went with the more commonly-used "Dwarves" instead.

For Frogmen, I like the Bullywugs from AD&D Fiend Folio.

@Mushroomgnome
I'm excited by both Dwarrows and Bullywugs. So, just a couple of questions.

Could I make a Dwarrow for the upcoming "treasure map" campaign?
If so, the scope of it's racial abilities would need to be worked out. I imagine it could be an MU or some combination of race as class - Fighter / MU - or multi-class as such. Or a Druid that harmonizes only with things of rock and metal rather than living facets of nature. But, Tolkien suggests magic for dwarves is in magically imbuing weapons, armor or necklaces and/or ridiculously skilled craftsmanship of armor / weapons (so smithing), songs sung that enchanted hobbits (possibly a bard-like ability here), rune use (words that appear only in the moon), or magic doors or objects that are warded with a password.

As for the Bullywug, or even a Goblin, would these be better suited for the Hobbit campaign? Could I add one?

Treasure Hunt campaign: I definitely plan to allow dwarvish magic users, I think it's a fun build! I will not be enforcing racial class/level limits, so if someone wants to play a halfling cleric or whatever, no problem.

Hobbet Heroes campaign: You're our newest player, and Robur has only been on one short Adventure. It seems premature, to be having this conversation about retiring your character. Is there something I can do differently as a DM, to make the experience of playing Robur more fun and sustainable?

Selfishly, I've never had a druid/fighter/thief in any of my campaigns before. I've been looking forward to watching Robur develop as a character.

Sorry for monopolizing this OOC thread everyone. I'm just trying to ask some questions about upcoming campaigns. This should be my last post.

@Mushroomgnome
Thanks for writing back. It sounds like the Dwarrow could simply be a Dwarven MU in the upcoming Treasure Map campaign.
As for Robur, I think there is still a lot of gaming left in him for me, and as I mentioned in the PM I sent you, the game has been pretty exciting so far with me playing in it with Robur. As for talking about other characters archetypes, that is just me getting excited about playing your other campaign simultaneously.

Thanks for being patient and hanging in there with me.

My long-term players can back me up on this: There's been a trend in my DM style, through the years. I've become a more focused and disciplined DM, not so much flying by the seat of my pants. But it's a constant, never-ending struggle. I'm constantly fighting my natural 'everything but the kitchen sink' tendency. Right now, in this moment, it sounds really fun to me: "A wizard casts a spell and everyone wakes up as a bullywug! Welcome to Bullywug Heroes of Hornpipe, my froggy friends!" But then the little voice tells me, stop, don't do that. Stay focused. Stick to the plan.

Like right now, for example: I tried to write the two most boring NPCs ever. Darby's favorite color is beige and his favorite food is oatmeal. Mike only says one word. And yet, right now in the moment, my natural DM tendency, that I'm constantly fighting to reign in: Maybe Mike and Darby are secret lycanthropes, plotting to overthrow the government. Maybe there's a secret door in the cellar, that leads to an ancient tomb. And in the tomb is a teleporter that goes to the Moon, which is ruled by talking cats, and the cats ride around on dinosaurs, and the dinosaurs have laser beams...

Which is a long winded way of saying, when I say "no" to something like bullywugs, it's not just the bullywugs... it's the avalanche of other ideas that will come pouring out, if I go off script and lose my focus. It's good for my real-world mental health, for things to be orderly in my fantasy world.

These days, it's more my DM'ing style, that instead of introducing all the bullywugs as a playable race, maybe the party encounters a unique creature, The Bullywug, who becomes an important and memorable NPC in the campaign (like Puddleglum in the Narnia books).

If I made one mistake in retrospect: I intentionally didn't stock any NPCs or sentient species on the 1st dungeon level, maybe I shouldn't have done that. Role-playing conversations with NPCs is an important part of your enjoyment of the game, and I see now, it would have been fun to give you players someone (or something) to talk to on the 1st dungeon level. Don't worry though: There are lots of interesting role-playing encounters on the deeper dungeon levels! You either need to get across the water on dungeon level 2, or down to levels 3 (and beyond).

Um are you forgetting about the creature down the well?

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