It has been some time since my last post on this blog. While there is much to catch up on (check out the Chainmail-inspired HellMarch on DTRPG), this is a special guest article written by Rdubs, in coordination with my ongoing #DiplomacyByX campaign, where I am running the classic game of Diplomacy, Rules As Written. On this most recent turn, “downtime orders” were issued by one of the players. In BrOSR fashion, I reached out to a fellow Bro who was interested in playing out this assassination attempt.

This campaign is set largely, but not strictly, based on historical notables and events of the time. In the previous turn, a “Christmas Truce” had been posed to all Christian nations, and only France and Italy held to the truce. Notably, France lost territory to England, leading to these events which follow. The results of this experiment have role-playing implications on the Diplomacy campaign, but will not necessarily affect the board state. After all, role-playing in Diplomacy is RAW!

This interesting (and excellent) writeup by Rdubs details the events of the assassination, as well as a breakdown of how this was played out using the 1e AD&D assassination rules.

-AlchemicRaker

On April 26, 1904, King George and Queen Alexandra embarked on a goodwill visit to Ireland, sailing across the Irish Sea to Kingstown. Their itinerary, widely publicized, included a journey by the Great Southern and Western Railway to Naas, where a grand reception awaited. The royal train, its engine adorned with flags and streamers, carried the monarch in a luxuriously upholstered carriage, a symbol of British prestige. Yet, beneath this veneer of celebration, a sinister plot brewed.

French intelligence, spearheaded by the cunning Deuxième Bureau, saw the King’s exposed journey as a golden opportunity. Agents, trained in the arts of sabotage and deception, were dispatched to Ireland under the guise of merchants and journalists. Their mission: to derail the royal train, ensuring the King’s demise in a tragedy that could be blamed on Irish radicals or mechanical failure. To bolster their chances, the French courted disaffected members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), offering coin and promises of support against British rule. The IRB, eager for disruption, provided local knowledge of the railway’s vulnerable stretches, unaware they were pawns in a greater French scheme.

The plan was meticulous. Overnight, two French operatives—seasoned assassins with nerves of steel—slipped into the rural darkness between Kingstown and Naas. Under the cover of a moonless sky, they tampered with the tracks, loosening critical fastenings and planting a small dynamite charge disguised as a railway tool. The device, timed to detonate as the royal train passed, would ensure a catastrophic derailment. As a fallback, a lone gunman, armed with a concealed revolver, positioned himself among the crowds at Naas station, ready to strike if the sabotage failed.

On the morning of April 26, the royal train steamed toward Naas, its festive decorations belying the doom that awaited. At a quiet bend in the tracks, the French agents’ handiwork came to fruition. The dynamite exploded with a deafening roar, shattering the rails and sending the train careening off its path. The luxurious carriage, carrying King George, crumpled in the wreckage, engulfed in smoke and flame. The King, revered as the spiritual and temporal leader of England, perished instantly, his life snuffed out in a moment of calculated treachery.

The disaster sent shockwaves through Ireland and beyond. At Naas station, where a large crowd had gathered to greet the monarch at 12:30 PM, jubilation turned Schmidt to horror as news of the crash reached them. The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), poised to salute their King, scrambled to the scene, but it was too late. The Leinster Leader, which had anticipated a welcome “whose generosity could not be exceeded,” instead prepared to mourn a national tragedy. The Kildare Observer, expecting to report on a “clamorous greeting,” faced the grim task of chronicling the King’s demise.

In the days that followed, Britain reeled from the loss of King George. The government, led by a shaken Prime Minister, vowed to uncover the truth behind the catastrophe. The RIC, alongside Scotland Yard and military intelligence, combed the wreckage for clues. Initial suspicions fell on Irish radicals, given the simmering tensions in the region. However, a meticulous examination of the site revealed telltale signs of foreign involvement.

Fragments of the dynamite charge, bearing chemical signatures uncommon in British or Irish explosives, pointed to continental origins. A captured IRB informant, under interrogation, revealed French intermediaries who had supplied funds and materials, though he knew them only as shadowy figures. Most damning was a coded message, recovered from a discarded satchel near the tracks, bearing the hallmarks of French military encryption. Deciphered by British cryptographers, it linked the operation to agents of the Deuxième Bureau.

By early May 1904, British investigators concluded that France was the mastermind behind the assassination. The revelation sparked outrage across the Empire, fanning the flames of anti-French sentiment. In the halls of Whitehall, diplomats drafted fiery condemnations, while the British press decried France’s “cowardly act of war.” The Church of England, bereft of its head, rallied the nation in mourning, transforming King George into a martyr for British resolve.

RESULT: Partial Failure Train Sabotage: Pick Pockets and stealth successes prior to crash. Stealth failure after crash. The British are aware it was a French operation.

Spring 1904 - Assassination Attempt on King George

Setup and Rolls

Sabotage Team: Planting the Explosive or Tampering with Tracks

The sabotage team (two French agents, level 5 thieves) aims to place an explosive or tamper with the railway tracks overnight before the April 26, 1904, train passage.

• Agent Stats:

  • Level 5 Thieves:

    • Move Silently: 40% (15% pass)

    • Pick Pockets (track tampering): 50% (13% pass)

    • Move Silently (Detection of attempt by British): 40% (97%)

Challenges:

• British Intelligence Vigilance - If detected security moves up and shifts assassination attempt from level 7 down to level 6.

• Rural Terrain: The tracks are in a quiet, open area, but night work risks detection by railway workers. No modifier to Pick Pockets, as the task is technical but not crowded.

• Detection Risk: If either agent fails Move Silently or Hide in Shadows.

Success/Failure:

• Success: All checks pass. The explosive is set or tracks are tampered, triggering the sabotage attempt during the train’s passage.

• Partial Failure: Pick Pockets and stealth successes prior to crash. Stealth failure after crash. The British are aware it was a French operation.

• Full Failure: Pre Crash Stealth fails, and the patrol notices. The agents flee, but the sabotage is aborted, and British security is alerted, tightening protection at Naas.

Gunman: Assassination Attempt at Naas Station

If the sabotage fails or as a backup, a single French gunman (level 6 assassin) attempts to shoot the King at Naas station during the 12:30 PM greeting, amidst the RIC guard, band, and loyal crowd.

• Gunman:

  • Level 7/6 Assassin:

    • Assassination Attempt: 65% (King George Lvl 4 noble)

    • Escape (Move Silent): 40%

• Challenges:

  • RIC Guard of Honour: The RIC (modeled as 3rd-level fighters, AC 7, HP 18 each, 10 guards) forms a perimeter. This imposes a -20% penalty to Move Silently due to their alertness.

• Success/Failure:

  • Success: The assassination roll succeeds, killing the King instantly

  • Failure: The gun man fails to conceal the revolver. The RIC apprehends him, aborting the attempt and alerting British security.

The heart of Kildare, and indeed the entire Empire, lies heavy with sorrow as we report the unthinkable: His Majesty King George, Sovereign of the United Kingdom and revered head of the Church of England, has perished in a catastrophic train derailment near Naas on April 26, 1904. What was to be a day of joyous welcome, with our county poised to greet the King with a generosity unmatched in all the Empire, has become a day of mourning, etched forever in our memory. The Leinster Leader, which anticipated a celebration to rival any in the realm, now bears the solemn task of chronicling this grievous loss.

On the morning of April 26, King George and Queen Alexandra arrived at Kingstown, their arrival heralded with the respect due their exalted station. They boarded a train of the Great Southern and Western Railway, its engine bedecked with flags and streamers, its luxurious carriage a fitting conveyance for royalty. The journey to Naas promised a triumphant reception, with a large crowd gathered at the station by 12:30 PM, joined by a guard of honour from the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), ready to render the customary salute as a band prepared to play “God Save the King.”

But fate, cruel and unyielding, intervened. At a quiet stretch of track, not far from our town, a violent explosion rent the air. The royal train, caught in the blast's fury, was hurled from its path, its carriages reduced to a tangle of shattered steel and flame. The King’s carriage, at the heart of the train, was engulfed in the wreckage. Despite the heroic efforts of railway workers and RIC officers who raced to the scene, His Majesty was found lifeless amidst the debris, his noble life extinguished in an instant. Queen Alexandra, by the grace of Providence, survived, though her anguish, as reported by those present, was a sight to rend the stoutest heart.

The news reached Naas station as our citizens stood in a festive array, their cheers silenced by the tidings of disaster. The RIC guard, their salute unoffered, joined the crowd in stunned silence, while the band’s instruments fell still. Church bells tolled across Kildare, their mournful notes a lament for a King who was to have been our honored guest. In the streets of Naas, men and women of every station wept openly, their loyalty to the Crown unshaken even in this hour of sorrow.

The Leinster Leader extends its deepest condolences to Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, the Royal Family, and the Empire. We commend the people of Kildare for their steadfast spirit, which, though tested, remains resolute. Our county, prepared to offer a welcome “whose generosity could not be exceeded,” now pledges its unwavering support to the Crown and its pursuit of justice.

As we mourn, troubling whispers of foul play emerge. The RIC and military investigators, sifting through the wreckage, have uncovered evidence of sabotage: fragments of an explosive device, foreign in origin, and a coded message hinting at a sinister plot. While some point to Irish discontent, the growing consensus in Dublin and London points to a foreign hand, with France named as the likely culprit. The Leinster Leader joins the call for a thorough inquiry, trusting that those who have struck at our King and our hospitality will face the full weight of British justice.

Let Kildare stand as one in this time of trial, honoring King George’s memory with unity and resolve. To our readers, we urge attendance at memorial services, where we may pray for our fallen Sovereign and seek strength to carry forward his legacy. The light of our King has dimmed, but Kildare’s loyalty burns bright.

News article courtesy of our special guest, Rdbubs, in coordination with AlchemicRaker’s ongoing #DiplomacyByX campaign.

I am proud to announce the release of The Old Lords of Wonder and Ruin, a retroclone of “Chainmail”, the wargame upon which OD&D is based. It is a massive reorganization and restating of the rules, with a focus on accuracy to the core rules, and making the fantasy portion of it immediately usable with Original D&D.

The question pressing in most readers minds must now be: who exactly is this for?

First, it is for those who wish to play OD&D the way it was originally written to be played: with Chainmail being used simultaneously with the more popular “Alternative Combat System.” While it is obvious that OD&D can be played without Chainmail (we see the evidence of that to this day), bringing Chainmail / The Old Lords to the table immediately reveals a much deeper and more heroic game that has gone unnoticed for over 50 years.

Second, it is for wargamers interested in playing Chainmail, who value a high degree of accuracy, but with a superior layout and organization. The core, non-fantasy portion of the game is the most faithful retroclone of Chainmail that is currently available.

You can find the PDF available on DriveThruRPG, freely available as “Pay What You Want.” Within the next month, a nice Print on Demand, saddle-bound Zine option will also be made available through Lulu.

You can also get a preview of The Old Lords from my appearance earlier this week on Rollin’ Bones with Ryan Howard:

I will be making more articles about The Old Lords specifically in the future, but to kick things off I wanted to post this essay (which is also included at the end of The Old Lords) which addresses questions people have when they’re coming from D&D and wondering what “wargames” bring to the table for them.

Wargames and TTRPGs

The rules included in this work reflect the specificity (or lack thereof) of the rules for fantastic medieval wargames from which this work derives. It is clear at once that the rules are, in a sense, “incomplete.” This was intentional, as the originally intended audience was one which was already familiar with wargaming, and would have already had their preferred rules with which to “fill in the gaps.”

This allowed for the creation of a concise product, which is unfortunately obtuse to outsiders of the hobby wargaming of old. Within these rules are simple and compelling ways of handling mass combat, which works easily in tandem with fantasy role playing games. But how can an outsider utilize these rules? And won't these old wargame rules drag down the heroic atmosphere of the role playing game it is used with?

Firstly, medieval fantasy TTRPG enthusiasts may be shocked to learn that they are likely already familiar with a fairly complex wargame already, that being the rules in their TTRPG, and the battles they play out on a physical or virtual grid. Initiative, movement, and various kinds of attacks and actions, these are a skirmish wargame already. What rules are not included in this work, can be derived from the TTRPG it is being used with.

Second, the modern TTRPG enthusiast may again be shocked to learn that the heroes of the oldest editions of their beloved fantasy TTRPG were actually even more heroic than their modern day incarnations. Though unapologetically lethal at the very lowest level, by the second and third levels, old school heroes are already surpassing the strength of their modern counterparts. With the strength of three men, a third level character may actually fight three average soldiers simultaneously and still be marginally favored by the odds!

But what of the low level mortality rate of heroes? A level one character may actually prefer to fight in the ranks on a battlefield, as Heroic characters are the last members to die in a unit of troops. This is not a special case introduced by myself, for the pity of the modern audience. No, this traces back to the original rules of this game. As troops are far more likely to lose morale and retreat than to be entirely slain, it is quite likely that heroic characters, player characters, will still live to fight again even after a loss on the battlefield.

It is easy to see how the heroic characters from this wargame became the Fighters found in TTRPGs. In fact, the original rules advised for the use of these wargame rules for all “land combat”, and the ubiquitous d20-based combat system was reserved for “heroic fantasy combat”, which is quite similar to the Man to Man combat described in this work, except the combat is with fantastic creatures instead. In this heroic combat with a fantastic creature, combat advances in 1 minute increments, where each combatant is generally making a single attack against the other per round, again comparable to how a Man to Man duel would play out.

Monsters received a rule in Book II of the 3LBB, where they can make as many attacks against “normal men” as they have hit dice. This behavior exactly matches the rules for Fighting Men that we’ve already discussed: against common soldiers, the monster can make a great many attacks, but against a heroic opponent they will make only a single attack.

These are all the rules of the Lume Campaign as they stand now, on April 13th 2024.

Character creation options are limited to the PHB, with some additional restrictions listed below. The DM is also using the DMG, MM, XGE (random encounter and name tables), TCE (random faction tables), Arcana of the Ancients (science-fantasy creatures and treasure tables), Path of the Planebreaker (extra-planar adventuring), and Veins of the Earth (an Underdark alternative).

• RAW Optional Rules and Variants (from PHB and DMG)

  • Gritty Realism Rest Variant (short rest of 8 hours, long rest of 7 days)

  • Speed Factor Initiative Variant (weapon and size modify initiative)

  • All “Action Options”

    • (Climb onto bigger creatures, Disarm, Mark, Overrun, Shove Aside, Tumble)

  • Cleaving through Creatures

  • Morale

  • No Feats

  • XP for Noncombat Challenges

    • Gain 4 XP for every 1 GP gained from adventuring

  • Downtime Activities (from XGE)

• Cantrips, except Eldritch Blast, can be cast a combined number of times per day equal to your Spell Attack Modifier

• Roll HP at level 1 (add con bonus as usual)

• At every level, roll all of your hit dice (and add con bonus as usual) to find your new max HP (at minimum increasing your Max HP by 1, from a previous level)

• Falling to 0 HP causes exhaustion

• Game time passes 1:1 with real time between sessions of play

• During sessions, 1 hour of actual time = at least 1 hour of game time has passed (no effect if more than an hour of game time already passed)

Character creation is RAW, but with Class-Race-Alignment restrictions inspired by 1e, and characters may only be humans and half-humans initially, unlocking other races as their settlements are located by players within the game.

The “hit dice” in stat blocks is one less than the number of dice listed (or halved dice size, if only one is listed). For example, a hobgoblin has 1d8 hit dice. This speeds up battles and keeps monster HP on par with the PCs, as far as level/hit dice is concerned.

Other combat rulings:

• Having a bow drawn, spear in hand, glaive set, etc, counts as those weapons being readied for attack upon entering combat (so attacks with those weapons may be made as a reaction before the character’s first turn in combat)

  • Spells can be readied too, noting that readied spells require concentration

• “Until the end of their next turn” effects happen at the end of the next round

• You can change your declared action, but if it has a slower speed factor you will be delayed accordingly (Switching weapons this way means dropping the first weapon)

Campaign Rules - Goals and Review

After five months of play, including five sessions and the downtime between them, topped off with a Braunstein in session 5, I feel like it's a good time to review the rules of the Lume campaign. Some rules have proven to be very successful, and others I'd prefer to scratch entirely, or at least modify to be closer to RAW.

My goal is to have the minimum amount of deviation from RAW 5e in service of this campaign, so that what I share here can be most universally useful to the readers, and to allow the 5e rules to excel naturally however they are able to do so. 

My initial rules were chosen in an attempt to make 5e play more “old school”, restricting the vision of the PCs, reducing HP and slowing healing, etc.

In the remainder of this post I'll review these decisions, and share any new perspective my group and I have gained.

Gritty Recovery

Gritty Realism Rest Variant

This official variant has worked very well for us so far, I think. In practice it means that while we may roleplay multiple days in one session, only one of those days is really an adventuring day. 

One of the players pointed out that Wizards and Warlocks have a significant advantage over other casters, with this variant, in that they're still able to recover spells every day, while other casters need a week for the “long rest”.

Campaigns which play on a weekly basis may want to consider combining this with the optional “Slow Natural Healing” rule from the DMG, to invoke time jail with official rules instead of adding training-time-to-level-up house rules.

Verdict: Great, keep it!

PC Darkvision Requires Dim Light

All darkvision for player races requires at least dim light, except Drow

This rule applies to all playable races except Drow. In practice, this hasn't had much effect on our campaign.

This is one of the changes specifically made to reduce 5e to feel more like 0e. 5e doesn't lean into the nuances of dungeon exploration to the degree that 0e and 1e do though. 5e has plenty of Zero Prep support for adventuring outside the dungeon, so I don't think there's need to try and double down on the ubiquitous darkvision unnecessarily.

This also isn't an official 5e rule variant. Ineffective and not RAW, we're ditching this campaign rule. If your group wants to get everything out of gritty dungeon crawls, this rule is still alright I suppose.

Verdict: Poor, use RAW instead.

Limited Cantrips Per Day

Cantrips, except Eldritch Blast, can be cast a combined number of times per day equal to spellcasting modifier, min 1/day

This campaign rule removes the ability of cantrips to replace torches and basic weapons for casters. It has been effective in this regard, though it is more restrictive than I intended, and more restrictive than it needs to be. 

Player feedback also supports the raising of this limit, without removing the limit entirely, in order to maintain the flavor this limit places on the campaign setting. Wizards will still desire to carry around darts or a crossbow in order to preserve their cantrips, or for when they inevitably run out. 

The new rule is simply to add proficiency bonus to the number of times cantrips can be used per day. We will reference the Spell Attack Modifier, for simplicity.

Cantrips, except Eldritch Blast, can be cast a combined number of times per day equal to your Spell Attack Modifier

Ultimately this decision comes down to campaign setting preference. There's nothing inherently wrong with leaving Cantrips unlimited in your Zero Prep 5e Campaign.

Verdict: Good start, needed improvement.

XP for GP

Gain 4 XP for every GP gained from adventuring

This XP reward is not exactly RAW, unless you consider Treasure Acquisition to be a “Noncombat Challenge” measured by the quantity of treasure gained. Regardless, it is based on the amount of treasure that heroes are expected to have found through every tier of play, so this is actually a good analog to the XP for GP rules in older editions. 

This rule is good and we will be keeping it. I need to remember to still award XP for combat encounters though, a prize for surviving the risk of combat.

Verdict: Good, works as intended

Identify Spell as Lesser Legend Lore

The Identify spell functions as a 1st level variant of the (5th level) Legend Lore spell, for an item the caster must be holding or wearing, as though you knew nothing about it.

This campaign rule was intended to encourage experimentation in order to discover magic items uses. However, 5e does not concern itself with that sort of play in general. Rather than strongarm it into 5e, I'm inclined to revert the Identify spell to RAW. Players will still have to deal with curses, and Identify doesn't remove all mystery from magic items, especially because in this campaign they will be predominantly sentient.

Verdict: Poor, use RAW instead.

No Feats

No Feats

This one is simple: Feats are an optional rule in 5e, and I believed the game will work fine without them. I was correct.

This campaign is about more than just combat, and the increase in combat complexity doesn't interest our play group. I'm sure the game works fine for campaigns using feats as well.

Verdict: Great! 

Starting HP and HP Growth

Roll HP at level 1 (and add con bonus as usual)

At every level, roll all of your hit dice (and add con bonus as usual) to determine your new max HP (at minimum increasing your Max HP by 1, from a previous level)

This is part of a larger set of changes I'm using as a DM, where I am adjusting the HP of monster stat blocks as thus:

The Hit Dice of a monster is one less than the number of listed in the stat block. Ignore the flat numeric bonus to HP.

For instance a creature with listed Hit Dice of 4d6+15, I will use 3d6 instead. 

This has the effect of greatly reducing the amount of Hit Points of monsters, so combat can go faster. Having players roll HP at level 1 helps balance this out: max dice value at level 1 is comparable to a monster starting with two hit dice.

So monsters HP gets brought into a traditional range, and PC HP does as well. 

In addition, we reroll all hit dice on level up as described above. This has the effect of keeping PC HP marginally above average in the long run, even if they have low rolls along the way. A barbarian starting with 1 HP can possibly find themself at 24 HP at level 2. And on rolling only average at level 3 (~18), their HP increases only one point to 25, and so on.

Our group enjoys the increased threat of combat, and does not enjoy combats which run long, so this campaign rule has worked very well for us, and we'll be keeping it. 

Verdict: Success! 

Exhaustion at Zero

Falling to 0 HP causes exhaustion

This change discourages players from treating 0 HP as Okay just because they know they'll be healed soon after. PCs are still quite resilient due to having death saves, which reset every time they hit zero again as per RAW.

This rule is simple and doesn't interfere with other systems and mechanics, and achieves its purpose well enough. It's not RAW, but it's a rule I would recommend for any campaign where you don't want the PCs to be invincible.

The “Injuries” / “Lingering Injuries” rule in the DMG is a RAW alternative for this house rule, accumulating skill penalties when characters hit 0 HP, some of which require high level magic to recover. We’re enjoying the house rule already, so it won’t be used in the Lume campaign, but this is a good RAW way to stop 0 HP shenanigans.

Verdict: Good house rule.

Old School Side Initiative

Side initiative: declare actions at the start of a combat round, then each side rolls d6, highest roll acts first (sides act simultaneously on ties)

This was another attempt to make 5e feel more old school. This rule (not to be confused at the “Side Initiative” variant listed in the DMG) actually works very well with 5e. However it does not jive with the current play group, so we will be reverting this campaign rule and returning to RAW.

The DMG includes this Speed Factor initiative variant, which adds much more nuance to weapon choice. Rolling initiative every round of combat means that faster characters get to better decide engagements throughout the entire combat, instead of just at the start. I've run a two year campaign with initiative like this (in a different, crunchier system) and it really didn't slow down combat. It helps to write your initiative bonus with each of your weapons on the character sheet.

After discussion with my players, we’re all interested to try it out in our Lume campaign. We’ve already established some rulings for making this work:

• “Until the end of their next turn” effects happen at the end of THE next turn

  • This makes many boons and conditions more potent, on the whole making combat more deadly, which is the preference

• Your can change your declared action, but if it has a slower initiative modifier you will be delayed accordingly

  • Switching weapons uses your free action to draw, so the prior weapon must be dropped (This appropriately penalizes starting with a fast weapon and deciding to switch to a slower one)

Verdict: Great in 5e, but we are switching to normal initiative with speed factor

Training to Level

Characters must train for a week with a mentor, or pay 1,000 gold in self-training, in order to level up (as players will prefer the former, this encourages character ties to world factions at early levels)

This campaign rule is… underwhelming. Because there is 1:1 downtime, and players have been using it (more on that later), PCs have already started to drift and grow into their own individual characters. Even without training-induced time jail, my current group is already inclined to roll up new characters for various opportunities.

This rule was also supposed to help ensure players engaged with factions in the world. That is happening plenty already, without needing this rule.

That said, if you're playing weekly, some version of this which forces time jail when leveling up may be what your group needs to start playing multiple parties in the same campaign. 

Verdict: a wash. My group will revert to RAW, for the sake of RAW.

No Folk Heroes

No Folk Hero background (implies too much adventuring background/backstory)

I nixed this background originally because it did not tie characters into a faction in the world. But I was wrong. It ties them in to a local village or town. It's fine, and it shouldn't break anything.

Verdict: Unnecessary, reverting in favor of RAW.

1:1 Time Between Sessions

Game time passes 1:1 with realtime between sessions of play

The signature of BrOSR play, this rule has had a big, mostly good impact on the campaign. The bad, is mostly due to everyone adapting to the new play style. For instance, you will need to focus and be decisive in order to make significant progress exploring a dungeon, when your session is only three hours and you have to be out by the end of it.

Luckily, there is plenty to be done outside of dungeons that functions more naturally, and 5e DMG and XGE have lots of tables to support outdoor and wilderness adventuring. And even dungeons can still be explored, especially if you hire NPCs to aid you between sessions.

As for the positives, this has worked fantastically with Zero Prep DM'ing, and has allowed the players to adventure across the world as independent characters, as well as coming together as an adventuring party for play sessions. 

The players were skeptical about this at first, but have increasingly noted that they're enjoying it, in spite of the constraints it places on things like large scale dungeon exploration.

As a campaign rule, this one doesn't override anything RAW in 5e. Instead, it has made RAW 5e even better. I highly recommend this even for single play groups who are skeptical of it. Play RAW and give 1:1 time a fair shake.

Verdict: Great success!

1:1 Time In Sessions

During sessions, 1 hour of actual time = at least 1 hour of game time has passed

This rule is in the spirit of 0e, 1e, and has an equivalent effect of Shadowdark’s “1 hour torches”. It means that while adventuring, if the players have a fifteen minute combat and spend 45 minutes hiding the bodies, distributing the loot, and talking amongst themselves in real life, then that all took their characters an hour in the game as well: time never pauses in the dungeon.

Fast forwarding time during the session is fine (there is no need for players to sit around the table doing nothing), but game time doesn’t pause for discussions between the party members. If players are having to coordinate, so are their characters.

This rule is framed in terms of “1 hour” increments, because it’s not about tracking every single second, it’s just enough to inform the overall pacing of play time.

We haven’t played with this rule enough to have come to a strong verdict on it yet. I believe that, like 1:1 downtime, it will be a success.

Verdict: Tentatively positive.

Race, Class, Alignment Restrictions

Limiting the race, class, and alignment options helps to define the setting of the campaign. Humans and Elves pursue the arcane magic as wizards, while Drow and Tieflings make deals with lords of evil and chaos as Warlocks.

For a Zero Prep campaign, this has been an excellent campaign rule, in the form of 1e’s own race, class, alignment limits. It helps the races to feel inherently diverse, and that carries on to help PCs to have a place in the world, without needing to “tie them into the story” or anything like that. It is a good example of “setting implied by rules.”

The chart was revised only slightly, to bring it more in line with Elves as presented in RAW 5e: rather than having to be aligned with Chaos, Elves may now choose to be Neutral, but are still prohibited from being Lawful.

Verdict: Great success!

Old School Reaction Rolls

As 5e does not have a functional equivalent (DMG Chapter 8 “Social Rules” are not the same), I have been using “old school” reaction rolls, by rolling 2d6 for random encounters. A result of 7 indicates the most predictable disposition for the encountered creatures, while higher results are more favorable to the players, and lower results are worse for the players. In addition, I roll this way when the party negotiates with NPCs for which I do not already have established lore; this helps ensure every NPC has their own nuances, and fleshes out the world as a whole.

These roles are always context sensitive. A “4” when encountering bandits means they will probably attack on sight. But if you’re on good terms with their boss and are trying to make a deal with them, a “4” could simply mean the boss has taken insult or refuses to continue the deal.

Verdict: Great success!

Old School Random Encounters

The 5e DMG has rules for the probability of rolling random encounters, but not much in the way of procedurally generating those encounters. XGE has random tables for eleven different environments, with four tables (based on encounter levels) for each environment. This has been instrumental in running 5e with the Zero Prep style.

5e notably lacks random encounters for dungeon environments specifically. This is a real shame.

XGE’s level-based encounter tables include randomization which provides a variety of NPC strengths even at low level, this has been nice. It usually feels like resulting combat encounters are too easy, but then it also includes dragons and giants on those level 1-4 tables, so it seems alright.

The XGE encounter tables are for parties of 4 PCs. Drawing on old school (0e) auto-scaling difficulty procedures, a party with 5 to 8 members should have double the number of encountered monsters (because they’re making proportionally more noise and attracting that much more attention), 9 to 12 has triple, and so on.

The higher tiers of XGE tables should be used as players descend deeper into dungeons, or farther into the wilderness. In this way, the players have some control on how much risk they are willing to take in their adventures.

In cases where the XGE random encounter tables are not used, for instance to build a random encounter with hobgoblins, you can use the dungeon or wilderness level (first dungeon floor = level 1) x d6 to get the number of hit dice in the encounter. For example, on the second floor there is an encounter with goblins, so you roll a d6 (result of 5) and multiply that times the floor level (2) to get 10 hit dice of goblins encountered. You could pick some number of goblins, hobgoblins, goblin pets, and so on, to build a coherent goblin encounter. If the party has 5 to 8 members, roll 2d6 instead, 9 to 12 members roll 3d6, and so on. The average result is slightly weaker than the party, and the difficulties will range in scale from 25% to 150% of the average results. Note that the difficulty scales based on dungeon (or wilderness) level and party size, not on the party’s level.

This approach has worked very well in the campaign so far, and I am inclined to continue using it.

Roll encounter checks for every 20 minutes in a dungeon, for every 4 hours of travel, and at least twice per night spent in the wilderness. Roll even more when players draw attention to themselves, like when they make a ruckus in a dungeon. Since about half of these encounters are going to have positive reaction rolls, and a third of these encounters are going to be significantly weaker or stronger than the party, six hours of random encounter checks is only going to produce one or two combat situations the players are going to have to deal with.

The majority of adventure in the campaign so far traces back to utilizing random encounter tables and reaction rolls.

Verdict: Great success!

Closing Thoughts

Close-to-RAW 5e D&D has been a lot more stable than I was initially expecting it to be. Allowing the rules to shine as a whole, without tweaking all the “broken” spell combos or whatever, has worked out well. Minimal interference with the RAW seems best.

The combination of Zero Prep and 1:1 time puts a huge emphasis on player preparations. Efforts the players take, in terms of researching their goals, gathering equipment and resources, etc, are highly rewarded in this style of play. This leaves players at the forefront of play all the time: they are traveling the world to do things they are interested in doing, they are going on sidequests for preparations they want to make, they are dealing with people they want to deal with, and so on.

5e is not my favorite edition of D&D, but it is more than functional for a group of group of modern players to have fun playing rules-based D&D, allowing everyone to enjoy the stories that emerge from it. And obviously: Don’t. Ever. Fudge.

If you’ve read this far and appreciated the post, please leave a like. And if you have questions about these rules or the campaign, leave a comment!

I knew already that faction activities in the campaign were coming to a head in the giant ruins where most of this campaign has taken place so far. Players want to know what’s going on with the hobgoblins and the mysterious man that was seen with them. The human military of Lume established a forward base to root out the hobgoblins, as the hobgoblins continue to be spotted in the area.

A Humans versus Hobgoblins Battle Braunstein seemed like the most obvious way to handle this: there are two players, so give one player the human side, give one player the hobgoblin side, give each side some number of goals they’re trying to achieve, and see how it plays out. My players however were not as keen on the outright PvP aspect of that. Slightly disappointing, but it was alright, because I had a third faction as a backup plan: the Druids.

The Druids are aligned with the humans on the surface level, but the goal they serve here is to create balance in the Alignments. The Lawful Good humans, versus the Lawful Evil hobgoblins… Law is going to gain power either way. So the Druids had a hidden agenda of their own, to empower Chaos through the deaths on the battlefield. More on this later.

The players were happy with this arrangement. One player would play the human faction, and the other player would play the druid faction. In addition, they would each be playing their own PCs (two each), which largely followed the human forces around on the battlefield. I would be playing the opposing force, the hobgoblin faction.

Battle Braunsteins so far, that is to say Braunsteins (where players represent various factions) which are focused on aggression, seemed to be more PvP focused. Here, there is clearly still a focus on aggression, but the players would be able to function cooperatively against the DM-played faction for most of the session. Also, it’s a Braunstein with only two players (plus the referee). Pushing the boundaries of what counts as both the “Battle” and “Braunstein” aspects of the idea, perhaps, but that’s what we’re here for. And I’ll be running it all in 5e!

The human and hobgoblin factions will receive 100 hit dice worth of troops. The humans had the option of how to equip these, with infantry being 1HD and cavalry being 2HD. Hobgoblins had more options, with goblins and hobgoblins at 1HD, wolf riders at 2HD, worg riders at 4HD, and rat keepers at 5HD.

I talked with a third party to decide on the Hobgoblin’s strategy. “So you're a wizard, you've got a bunch of these goblins, and you need to find this hidden thing in these giant ruins. There's humans stationed there trying to stop you. How would you do it?” Half rat keepers doing the searching, escorted by worg riders. The other half hobgoblin infantry. “You probably need to travel to it once it's found, to dispel it. How?” Disguise magic, and invisibility. Done!

Resolving Downtime

This session was played April 6th and 7th, 2024. The previous session was March 9th, so 4 weeks of downtime need to be resolved.

Mol (Half-Orc Cleric of Nature) will relay information about the shrine, researching the shrine and lizard motif.

I decided this research would reveal that there’s a wraith in the lair, and that the shrine was a primary point of contact to it. Having gone insane over its years of being trapped in the lair (where it is still trapped, to be clear), its personality is a bit haywire, though it still has the desires of a wraith, including the desire to create specters. I also imagine that the wraith was worshiped to some degree, and was thus stronger than the basic wraith stat block in the Monster Manual. With the Grove of Rhythm’s cooperation, several basic human mooks from the Grove were sent into the jail cells in the lair, where the wraith was able to partly possess them and affect their blades: so that their blades would raise specters for the wraith in the upcoming battle.

Mol, being an acolyte of the Grove, was in on this plan, and would be able to signal for support from the druids or cultists, who would be staying off the battlefield until opportunities presented themselves.

This downtime resolution, I probably did the least amount of justice. What did the lizard motif research reveal? Nada. I forgot, and the player didn’t follow up regarding it.

Serinde (Half-Elf Druid, Sage) downtime task: To search for the Spring Court and socialize.

The Spring Court is a court of elves on the West end of Lume. Giving two weeks of travel and searching for the Grove (the location of its forest being known, but its exact position needing to be discovered), that left just over one week for vacationing, before returning to the Grove and giant ruins for the next session.

I am reminded of the elves in Three Hearts and Three Lions when I think of a vacation with the Elves, so I look into the DMG regarding the Fairy lands… and it delivers! Breaking the barrier between the Material Plane and the Feywild would be a good way to introduce it to the campaign, and I come up with ways to rationalize it (the Winter Court causing mischief in the Spring Court’s forest). This invokes the effects of “Feywild Magic” described in the DMG. In addition to time warp fun, this introduces another adventure hook the players may want to pursue.

Being a half-elf, Serinde is unaffected by the potential for memory loss, but she is still subject to the Feywild Time Warp. A d20 roll reveals “days become weeks”. Without interference, Serinde would lose ~8 weeks in the Spring Court. I worked with the player on this: After 2 weeks, Mol would notice that she hadn’t returned, and would notify the Grove. Word would reach Serinde on her third day in the Feywild, after which she would leave, that being April 13th on the calendar, and one whole week past the upcoming game session on the 6th.

Ottmar (Human Barbarian, Hermit), go to Suul to learn more about the time traveling wizard from the wizards who “discovered a world.”

This was a fun one to resolve, and I was able to play through parts of this one-on-one with the player. Here I leaned into Rhialto the Marvellous for inspiration, to come up with the ring of higher level wizards active in Lume, in its central city of Suul. Thus was born the Chartreuse Concordat, and its five presently active members, who would spend their days in petty squabbles and contests with each other, all the while playing with the greatest magics known to mankind.

Ildefonse the Pedant, leader of the Chartreuse Concordat

Gilgad the Illusionist

Sophocles the Third, who is currently missing (the others coordinate from other planes and places, it is unknown even to Sophocles how many others of him there are)

Orbed-Hast

Acolyten of Am’Duat, who lives in the Telaclast Cathedral by the river West, attended by acolytes

I also recalled a fantastic creature from Arcana of the Ancients, who’s portal-head contains another dimension. Taking more inspiration from Vance's Eyes of the Overworld, I put this gargantuan creature below the surface of a swamp, near the wizard Acolyten. This other dimension would be the “discovered world”. As per the Latos’s description, the dimension would be long deserted, but not necessarily uninteresting. Within the muted colors of the Latos’s dimension, a color-shifting tear in the sky would stand out, that being the trail of the Planebreaker, an opportunity for the players to go plane hopping if they so desire, and an obvious goal to pursue in the dimension.

Tying the wizards together a little, I decided that Sophocles the Third will have gone into the dimension, reported back, and then disappeared inside, not seen since. Acolyten reveals as much to Ottmar, and offers to aid him in learning about the time traveling wizard, if Ottmar can find Sophocles the Third, or otherwise help to explore the dimension. Ottmar further learned that the time traveling wizard (Bartholomew) was also a member of the Chartreuse Concordat, before they went missing.

The player was really excited about this lead and opportunity, and enjoyed establishing some contact with the wizard ring in general. Ottmar’s player was excited to reveal all of this to the other player as well. I have a hunch that Session 6 will be heading in this direction.

Aridhel (Half-Elf Ranger, Soldier), staying at and aiding the forward base, mentions the shrine for possible investigation.

The shrine investigations got handed off to the Grove, so that the Lume military could stay on guard at the forward base in the ruins. As hobgoblin sightings and activities increased around the periphery, Aridhel is able to aid the military in finding several entrances into the tunnels below the ruins, as well as determine where the highest amounts of hobgoblin activity were occurring. This also affords the human faction sufficient time to get their troops into the desired position before the Braunstein begins.

Before the Session

Before the session (and all of the Braunstein planning), I first confirmed what the players actually wanted to be doing (as they now have interests in several places at this point), rather than just forcing them to be present for this showdown in the giant ruins. But they were most interested in the big battle, being invested in its outcome, and wanting to see and affect how it pans out, so the Battle Braunstein was confirmed.

After determining which factions were involved, and who would be playing what, I had each side determine their army compositions and determine starting positions. Because of the advantage the humans had, they had a general idea of which sides of the battlefield the hobgoblins had been amassing, and were able to deploy accordingly.

I reviewed the rules of this battle and battlefield with the players:

• Hexes are 100 ft across

• Time, size, and turns are scaled 10:1, so that a creature which moves 30 feet, moves 300 feet (or 3 hexes) in one combat turn, and one combat turn represents 1 minute of combat

• Troops will prioritize fighting other troops, and heroes will prioritize fighting other heroes

• There will be fog of war

  • Units can normally see 1 hex away (giant ruins obscure seeing much further)

  • Units in a tower can see 3 hexes away

  • Archers with longbows can shoot 4 hexes away (per distance rules) but will require a spotter

  • Forests obscure visibility of whatever is in them, except from other units in the same hex

• Stars on the map are entrances to the tunnels which run below the ruins

• Unless there is an active engagement, players should just give overarching orders, and not worry about counting hexes; as referee I’ll interrupt them with engagements as necessary

The following rules of combat were revealed during play (as they seemed most reasonable to quickly resolve combat in interesting way):

• Units of troops (usually in multiples of 10) make one attack and one damage roll, which is multiplied by the number of attackers in the unit

• Units of troops use average HP, so a unit of 10 with 4.5 HP, would lose one troop for every 4.5 damage sustained

  • Remainders were not tracked

• Heroes attacking units of troops, will target troops randomly, and will use the “Cleaving through Creatures” rule from the DMG

One of the usual PCs would not be available for this session, so that player rolled up the wizard which Captain Galloway had been trying for weeks to requisition from the Lume military. I allowed the player to roll them up at level 2 for this session. And so the Human Wizard Athure, a Chaotic Neutral Outlander and Spy, joins the ranks of PCs. Of note, Athure does not carry his spellbook with him on this occasion, he has kept it somewhere safe and off the battlefield.

Army Composition

The Lume Military, “The Humans”

• 20 cavalry, with spears and longbows

• 60 infantry, with spears and longbows

  • 20 “archer” units stationed on towers with longbows ready

  • 40 “guard” units stationed at ground level, with spears ready

The Grove of Rhythm, “The Druids”

• 5 Druids stationed equidistantly in the woods surrounding the ruins

• 20 Cultists, with wraith-blades

  • 10 started hidden in the tunnels

  • 10 started hidden in the South East forest

The Grey Wizard and Hobgoblins, “The Hobgoblins”

• 5 rat keeper + worg rider units

• 50 hobgoblins

In addition, the PCs and Captain Galloway would be heroic units on the side of the humans. The druids and rat swarms were functionally heroic units, without being labeled as such. The Hobgoblins also have a Hobgoblin Captain.

The Battle Braunstein

As the battle began, players were provided the following map, which I had drafted up in about 5 minutes. Blank tiles here are still full of “giant ruins”, but the icons that look like broken towers are the “tower” tiles, where units could be stationed for increased visibility of the battlefield. Southeast of the center is the Forward Base, and South of that is the (vacated) Hobgoblins Lair.

The human player needed to position their units to start things off. The PCs were provided horses from the military, and so could flexibly be a part of infantry or cavalry units, as they mainly wanted to fight on the side of the Humans. Mol would be secretly in contact with the druids and cultists, able to signal when and where they should make an appearance.

As referee, I played the side of the Hobgoblins flexibly. I could use most of my knowledge as the referee, as the Grey Wizard had a Crystal Ball, and would be scrying all around the battlefield during this time. The Grey Wizard would be hidden and operating from the centermost tower. There are 9 towers on the map, so I used a d10 to pick from these areas on the map: where rat keepers would be searching, and where the goal actually was (near the Northmost tower). The 20 hobgoblins and the captain were stationed in the Southeast forest, 20 were in the Southwest tower (0621), and 10 were hiding in the tower Northwest of Center (1311).

First Contact

The first engagement was between 20 hobgoblins and 20 cavalry in the southwest, the hobgoblins getting surprise and initiative and swiftly killing 8 cavalry. On the backswing, the cavalry, and Athure’s cast of Burning Hands, wiped out the 20 hobgoblins.

At this point, the druids began detecting the rat keepers and worg riders in the Northwest of the map, which was relayed by a Grove representative in the Forward Base. Shortly after, archers stationed in the Center-Northeast tower reported sightings of the swarming rats as well.

Now the race was on: the rat keepers were searching for the site of the ancient ritual, by which the druids had turned the ancient undying hobgoblin army to stone, and the humans trying to stop them and drive off the hobgoblins for good. The humans were not yet sure of what exactly the hobgoblins were looking for.

The First Rat Keeper

Many more sightings of swarming rats, and two of the PCs (Mol the Cleric and Athure the Wizard) rode with the remaining 12 cavalry for a while, heading next to a central tower where rats had been spotted. Upon spotting the rat keeper goblin, Mol immediately charges and sounds a signal, calling 10 cultists up from the tunnels to surround the rat keeper and his swarm. Infantry from this tower join in as well. The infantry and cavalry fare amazingly against this rat swarm. The rat keeper goblin doesn’t stand a chance: after being tackled by Mol, the cultists perform a wicked ritual of cuts before executing the goblin and creating a specter. This was the Humans first clue about the Druids goals.

The Southeast Battle

The cavalry head Southeast, dropping off Mol and Athure at the Forward base, and picking up Aridhel, Ottmar, and Captain Galloway, in pursuit of a worg rider heading east to the forest. The players suspect a trap (correct!), and so manage to engage at the edge of the forest without being ambushed. A druid (hidden in a tree) entangles the 20 hobgobins here, though the hobgoblins pass their save, they still are in difficult terrain. The hobgoblins switch to their bows, but do no damage to the cavalry who have found cover; counterfire from the cavalry drops 9 hobgoblins.

The Hobgoblin Captain emerges from the ranks and challenges Captain Galloway (“Veteran” stats), who very willingly accepts the duel.

Ottmar rages and runs right into the ranks of hobgoblins, critting and killing 5 of them in one go.

The cavalry proceed to be utterly untouchable while dropping 6 more hobgoblins, as the Captains duke it out, both rapidly losing HP. The hobgoblin captain knows this is a battle he won’t win, and so runs for the trees, eating an opportunity attack from Galloway (hit) and Ottmar (whiff), and a readied shot from Aridhel, but successfully taking cover at the tree line. Ottmar has a feeling that he should have hit, but somehow missed. On the next turn, Aridhel catches up (on horseback) and executes the hobgoblin captain with a critical hit.

Cultists emerge from these trees now, claiming the bodies of the hobgoblins, while the cavalry receive reports that the Forward Base has lost contact with the guards stationed in the Northeast.

Lost Contact and a Rogue Rider

The cavalry head back to the Forward Base to regroup, as the PCs plan to investigate the tower which they lost contact with. The rat keepers had finally found the temple they were looking for near the Northmost tower, and so the Grey Wizard had rode North, disguised as a human soldier. The four surviving worg riders, and all remaining rat swarms were summoned North as well. The players decided to investigate the Northeast tower first, as it was still along the way.

Athure investigates the tower with his raven familiar, spying the ten dead guards, and glimpsing hobgoblins hidden in the tower before the raven was shot dead. Rat swarms surround the human cavalry and infantry, and the ten hobgoblins emerge from the tower to try and finish things here. A spell is used to quiet about 1/3rd of the rats, but as they are impossible to distinguish from the rest of the rats swarming over them, the advantage is not as much as the player hoped it would be.

Cavalry trample and slay one swarm before the hobgoblins show up. After that, the cavalry and infantry stay occupied with the rat swarms, while the barbarian, ranger, cleric, wizard, and veteran heroes face down the ten hobgoblins. Bolstered up to 18 AC each, Aridhel the Ranger and the wounded Captain Galloway intercept the goblins. Initiative is tied! Aridhel slays two hobgoblins, Athure kills a third with darts, and Galloway strikes down five more. But one attack drops Aridhel to 0 HP, and two more attacks drop Captain Galloway to zero as well.

The players suddenly regain their fear of hobgoblins and how nasty their martial training actually is. Two hobgoblins still stand, the fallen ranger and veteran at their feet. From this point on, I make death saves in secret, while the players scramble to salvage the situation. They can probably kill the hobgoblins in time, but these rat swarms are proving much more resilient than the one they dealt with before, and have eaten four infantry already.

Next turn, the hobgoblins have the initiative. Resigned to their fates, these hobgoblins chant curses and strike the fallen, an automatic failed death save for each of them. Aridhel makes their death save, and Galloway fails, one save away from death.

Mol and Athure drop one of the remaining hobgoblins. Ottmar rages, but fails to slay the last hobgoblin.

Heroes win initiative. Aridhel fails this one, and Galloway succeeds, leaving them each at 2 fails and 1 success. Athure drops the final hobgoblin with darts. Mol casts Cure Wounds, and Ottmar uses his herbalism kit as a medicine kit (established in a prior session) to stabilize the other.

Two more guards are lost, leaving 4 guards and 12 cavalry. Mol casts Cure Wounds again, bringing both of the fallen heroes back to consciousness. The Ranger heals himself (to 12 HP), and Galloway drinks two healing potions (to 19 HP). The rat swarms are finally beaten back as well, and the group heads North.

The Giants Temple

Entering the area, the players recognize these as the streets they explored in the first session of the campaign, which lead to the Giants Temple they had aided the sprites in finding. Now they could see that temple in the distance, swarmed over with rats, and patrolled by four worg riders.

With tied initiative, Aridhel shoots a magic arrow at the rider who noticed their approach, and the rider blows their horn. The rider was slain, but the alert was already sounded.

Heroes win initiative. Athure and Mol fire at the next visible rider as they approach the temple, while Aridhel and Ottmar ready to shoot into the temple from afar. As they approach the steps, they spot a horse tied nearby. Athure, who had the last 2 minutes remaining of a Detect Magic spell, noticed magic emanating from a saddle bag.

The Grey Wizard makes his first mistake and peeks out the entrance of the temple in surprise. Two shots, and he’s down to 16 HP, from 30. Mol casts Burning Hands and the Grey Wizard would have failed his save, but a swarm of rats leaps directly in the path and he makes the save after all, expending his second use of “Portent” for the day. The Grey Wizard turns invisible, and Athure detects it to be illusion magic.

Athure jumps on the tied horse and rides off; the Grey Wizard’s second mistake. Ottmar rides in, raging, but unable to attack until the next turn because he had been so far away. Mol moves in to try and touch the wizard’s cloak by tackling the wizard’s last known position, and succeeds in casting the Light cantrip. The wizard is now invisible, but their position is roughly revealed. Outside, the worg riders are being easily picked off.

The Grey Wizard throws off his light-cloak, so that he can move away and escape untraced; however this is also his third mistake. As the invisible Grey Wizard retreats on foot in disgrace, the rats scatter, Captain Galloway and his men secure the giant’s temple, and Mol collects the cast-away cloak.

Braunstein End

The Braunstein ends here, having easily played for 8~10 hours over two days. The druids and military confirm the number of kills to match the estimated numbers of enemy forces, and the human forces being reduced to 24 infantry and 12 cavalry.

Any side which achieved their goals gets to level up:

The Humans drove back and destroyed the hobgoblin forces, securing the area, and preventing the resurrection of the Merkadian Soldiers. Success! Aridhel, Ottmar, and Athure level up.

The Druids achieved their goal of maintaining the balance of alignment, by empowering the Wraith for Chaos. Dozens of specters will now haunt these ruins. Success! Mol levels up.

The Hobgoblins took massive losses and did not succeed in resurrecting the Merkadian Soldiers, or in driving away the humans. Failure!

Loot

The saddlebags contained the Crystal Ball, a Very Rare magic item which the Grey Wizard was using to coordinate the hobgoblins. I decided it to be an Intelligent Magic item, and had the players roll for it for me. It is Chaotic Evil, seeks to destroy its creator, and seeks to destroy everything Lawful Good.

The wizard would likely have more mundane treasure as well (potions, I figured), so I grant them one roll on the Individual Treasure (level 5-9) for coin, which they rolled highly on, and one roll for magic items on the Treasure Hoard (level 0-4) table, on which they rolled a 100. Roll on the magic item table… a Canaith Mandolin (Instrument of the Bards, Rare). It was fun last time, so this one will be intelligent too. The players roll. It’s a strongly aligned Lawful Neutral Mandolin.

The review of this loot didn’t occur until the return to the forward base. Athure felt spitefulness pressing on him as he handled the crystal ball. But when the Chaotic Neutral wizard handled the Mandolin, he lost the contested Charisma check, and the instrument took control of him. He was later found in the store room, having stripped himself of his wizardly paraphernalia, searching for and being made to drink holy water, before being relieved of the instrument and its hold over him.

On that note, we called the session end. As we picked up, Ottmar’s player told the other all about his downtime with the mages of Lume, drafting aid for their planned venture into the new dimension.

Downtime Assignments

Arthure:

• Scout the upper level of the tunnels in the ruins, using his familiar to gather intel without putting himself in great danger

  • He knows Disguise Self, so he can avoid drawing unnecessary attention

• Secure the crystal ball his lair (location / alliances undetermined) and then use it to divine the location and habits of the evil wizard from the giant's temple

• As a side hustle, scour the local taverns for active bounties, scry for location and clues, and sell this information to bounty hunters and the local militia

Serinde:

• Return from her trip, relay her timey-wimey findings to the druid circle and Mol, and catch up with the latest warfare and gossip over tea, purchased as a souvenier

• I'm forgetting details, but there were rumors of another time mage and she'll connect the dots and relay her findings, in an attempt to work out if her recent misadventure is related. Restoring normal time flow to the area would become a high priority for her

Mol:

• Touch base with the cultists and learn the full extent of the ritual they performed, and as many additional details on their plans with this chaotic spirit as they are willing to share. In particular:

  • Does the local populace need to be informed of any new dangers? The abby is happy to continue to offer healing services, but prevention is the best cure, after all

  • If the spirit's designs are fully realized, will the balance be tipped too far in the other direction? If so, are there plans to limit its success? Should those fail, is there an available counter?

• Take up Mandolin lessons, learn to play the magical artifact at a basic level of competency, and keep an ear out for any local bards that swing through the area. In addition to likely being good teachers, they might be able to offer some insight into the item's other properties

• (Mol is happy to assist Arthure with the scrying, as he has the cloak stolen from the wizard, but he'd like to keep the cloak once that's done. It looks neat.)

(Aridhel and Ottmar’s downtime haven’t been submitted yet)

Feedback and Retrospective

Got a bunch of written feedback from Mol and Athure’s player (the less conventionally experienced one), on the session:

This session was way too long, but on the flip side, the accelerated combat allowed us to much more rapidly discover world-building strings to tug

I was thrilled to finally put eyes on the wizard we have literally been tracking from session #1

His interaction with the world felt completely natural, just like an actually prepared campaign

Knowing it was not prepared made that even more fun

It wasn't, "oh this is a setup for a puzzle we have to solve"

It was "oh shit, this very real person is panicked and in escape mode, what would he be capable of trying? We have to strategize accordingly!"

And we did, and we threw the book at him, and he slipped away mostly due to the dice

It felt like that could have gone either way

And it also felt like we could try interesting things, because we weren't denying you a prepped setup in the process

This feedback is generally mirrored by the other player as well. The long session length (8 to 10 hours) was a shared issue across the board, as well as sentiment that while it was fun, this isn’t the sort of session that anyone in our group is interested in playing more of anytime soon, due to it mostly being one big long wargame. Adventures are much more of what we want to play. So while it is likely we will revisit “Braunsteins” in the future, “Battle Braunsteins” are going to be a pass for a while, at least.

From the player of Aridhel and Ottmar (the more experienced-with-5e player):

I feel like side initiative is okay, but it makes planning a little harder, especially if we were to do planning on a grid instead of theatre of the mind like we did

I mean the close quarters combat we did was theatre of the mind so it was okay, but if we were managing those in a grid it would be harder to plan as everyone moves at the same time

Using RAW means the battle is always in a well defined state, Even when there's uncertainty (fog of war, enemies around corners, etc.)

And apparently, cleaving (overkill damage to an enemy can spill to another enemy in range) is already an optional rule in 5e

Galloway being reckless certainly forced me to commit more than I naturally would have

That I really liked

Here the other player chimed in:

Which was great; Galloway's recklessness was rather well telegraphed by hints in previous sessions

The rules of the wargame not being fully clear from the onset was also cited as an issue. This is a failing on my part.

The players later realized they had achieved something else in this campaign via their downtime pursuits:

... wait a sec; didn't Serinde just go and visit the elves? Does that mean elves are now available to PCs?

The players have now unlocked the “Elf” race for PCs, which will come from the Spring Court in West Lume.

I guess I'm surprised to learn that elves are chaotic

After some talk regarding my initial rationalization of Elves as Chaotic, I referred to the rulebooks. Many fey sorts are Chaotic, but others are simply Neutral, Including Drow, which are Neutral Evil. I’ve amended my Class-Race-Alignment chart, to categorize Elves simply as “non-Lawful”, and changed Drow to “must be Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil”, to better adhere to their natural alignments in 5e RAW.

Pondering this Braunstein

I learned after this session that the DMG contains Morale rules. I really wish I had known that prior to this session. I remembered only that there were Loyalty rules, which aren’t the same thing. I’m not sure it would have changed much in this session… it would have been more likely that the cavalry broke morale at some point, I think.

The division of the factions worked out really well. Despite the focus of the Battle Braunstein not being on PvP, the fog of war and differing, hidden agendas made it an interesting thing to play out. The players were both quick to adopt their roles as faction directors at the table.

Outsourcing the plans for the hobgoblin faction was a great choice. Better than I would have come up with, and much quicker.

Thoughts on Alignment

Alignment has been awesome to lean into. These are natural, overarching factions to play with, that shape the world, creating all sorts of emergent narratives and adventure opportunities.

I can already tell that Sentient Magic Items are going to be a fun addition to the game. I’m not sure if all magic items are going to be Sentient, or only magic items which are Rare or rarer (so that there are some magic items that are simpler to work with). Sentient magic items have alignment, which means they will only want to cooperate with a subset of characters. They also have varying purposes, which are constant pressures on characters which want to use them.

For instance, despite a Crystal Ball being introduced to the campaign at a very low level, it is aligned with Chaos and Evil, and it's in the hands of a Chaotic Neutral wizard, who is using it to sell intel for profit. The crystal ball will be able to enact its influence on the world through the information it shares with the wizard. This is the stuff adventures are made from.

I was so dedicated to zero prep, that I forgot to buy dry erase markers for the hex battle map. As a result, we had to manage troop movements on a computer screen kept near the table.

Morale would have improved the wargame, but I can't help but think Chainmail would have been even better. When you're just using scaling in 5e, the mass combat still plays by skirmish rules: weapon vs armor matchups. But mass combat is better served with mass combat rules, considering unit type vs unit type matchups. I don't want to overhaul 5e rules in this campaign, so I'm going to make do with Morale skirmish rules going forward.

Now is a good opportunity to review the campaign rules and determine if there's any that would be better to revert, so that we're playing even closer to RAW. I'll probably collect those thoughts into another post, along with a full list of the campaign rules as they'll stand going forward, for those following along who may want to use them as well.

I wanted to try getting more action in between sessions, so for certain of the downtime activities, I reached out to the players, presenting a choice point or new information, and allowing them a chance to act on the new information with the remaining downtime. I got sick almost immediately after initiating this, and it really threw me off from following up the way I had hoped to.

I set about addressing my underuse of the Arcana of the Ancients, by reading through a portion of the monsters, and sorting them into potential encounter tables. I was able to use what I learned from this during the session, to explain some loose threads which the players were currently investigating. The party’s current location should have a much higher chance of AotA activities, so keeping that in mind was a focus of mine for this session.

I also wanted to introduce one new rule to the campaign, which will be detailed below.

Going into Session 4

I reviewed the Session 3 writeup, and the downtime activities which had been pursued. I figured I could make the best of it by letting players finish resolving their downtime at the start of the session, so everyone could see and learn the sorts of options open to them during that time, as well as witness how I handle it in general.

Session 4, Resolving Downtime Activities

Starting with the easiest, the druid Serinde had spent 2 weeks training lock picking, and made a trophy from the head of a hobgoblin that she took down in the last session. All of this was easily accomplished. She probably could have done more in this time, but such is the nature of unoptimized downtime use. 9 more weeks of training will be needed to learn lock picking, but money is currently a limiter.

The next easiest was Ottmar the barbarian, who foraged for herbs, for his herbalism kit, which I had previously ruled that he could use as a makeshift healers kit, due to him being a barbarian. I ruled that he could find a d6 uses worth of herbs per week, as he was foraging in a suitable area.

Because the local druids were suitably superstitious, and because we're playing with 1:1 time, and because Ottmar was foraging outdoors at the time, the druids warned Ottmar about being outdoors on the night of February 24th… the night of a full moon.

Being outdoors for 5 weeks, in the midst of ruins, I rolled up the most interesting ruin the barbarian had spotted during that time. A lone mausoleum in a well groomed forest clearing, with a dozen metallic eyes floating in the air and actively circling around it. Asking the druids, it is explained to be “The Mausoleum of the Iron Gods”, and said that the eyes shoot fire at those who approach, but that they are otherwise quite passive as long as the mausoleum is not approached. This is likely a small dungeon or vault of some sort, but the players did not want to pursue it yet. The players suspect the eyes to be ancient technology, which is probably true.

Aridhel’s downtime is next. As a soldier of the kingdom, and finally having evidence of the growing hobgoblin presence (thanks to being ambushed by them in the previous session), Captain Galloway is finally able to start taking action and demanding reinforcements. A forward base is set up in the giant ruins, in a high spot to keep watch over the hobgoblins coming and going, especially from the known lair location. Aridhel helped with these efforts personally, which greatly sped up the timeline of activities. A total of 60 soldiers are now stationed there. No wizard is available, currently.

The cleric, Mol, is locally researching the tribe of hobgoblins and their motives. She learns some lore sourced from the Monster Manual, that they're ancient enemies of the Elves. For further information, Mol traveled to the City of Suul to meet an older Elf, and old friend of the grove, named Beiro Nilo. This elf shared what he remembered from 600 years prior, of Merkadian Soldiers (undying hobgoblins) being brought to the surface as allies of the “Redguard” hobgoblin tribe of the time. They had fought side by side, until the local druids completed a ritual, turning all of those hobgoblins to stone (sidestepping their “undying” by not technically killing them).

Merkadian Soldiers (AotA) are not strictly a single base race, but their alignment is Lawful Evil. Hobgoblins are also Lawful Evil, so it doubly makes sense that normal hobgoblins would want to resurrect and cooperate with Merkadian Soldier-hobgoblins.

Session 4, Mid-Session Feedback

As we finished resolving the downtime activities, as the first segment of our session, one of the players asked to put a pin in things so that they could “provide feedback”, (as they know I do write-ups and reviews of this campaign). We don’t record the sessions, but I wrote up the main statements at the time, near verbatim:

Thought would dislike time passing between sessions, but time passing between sessions has been really interesting.

Story gets to advance without me, but we get to catch up as a group; seeds so many other things you could do during the session.

Encourages doing things that take time.

This feedback was primarily from the player with several years of history playing in convention 5e campaigns. Regardless, it is of course great to hear positive feedback.

I was also asked “How much of it was planned? [it is] hard to tell”. I think mainly in reference to the stone hobgoblin thread, and how that information has all come together in a fairly coherent way, despite not being architected in advance. Players noted that they enjoyed to what degree they helped to shape the world as well, mainly in regards to their backgrounds and related factions, and that this campaign was “making a whole lot of order from chaos.” We discussed this a little bit, but I did not want to pull back the curtain and show the seams of what was planned vs what was random at the time, so not much more was said on that. I take this as mostly positive feedback? Let me know if you think otherwise.

At this point, 70 minutes had passed since we started playing.

Session 4, One New Rule

Before getting into the current session, I let the players know I wanted to try out one new rule in this session, and that we can review it or nix it going forward depending on how it goes:

1 hour of play time = at least 1 hour of in-game time

Meaning, if less time would have passed in game compared to real life (the players aren’t doing a lot in-game, but they spend a long time discussing something), then their characters are spending that much time as well, so that 1 real life hour means at least 1 hour has passed in game. But if game time goes faster, that’s perfectly fine, and there’s no need to wait in real time.

This is comparable to, but more generic, than Shadowdark’s real-time torches, which I find to be incredibly in line with 1e D&D’s mentality on time.

Session 4, Back into the Dungeon

Players decided they wanted to resume investigating the lair, starting from the forward base that had been set up in the giant ruins during downtime. A 1 in 6 random encounter check yielded nothing, so players started playing at the entrance to the lair. Aridhel is assigned 10 guards, 1 scout, and a sending stone (the match being in the hands of whoever is in command at the forward base). The druid grove provided no support for the party this time. Players determined their 10’-wide marching order, and set off exploring the lair.

They discovered a rusted metal door had been disturbed, though it was currently closed. They know there are rows of rooms beyond that door, according to their map from the sprites, but have not been there themselves. Ottmar uses a javelin to wedge this metal door shut.

They discovered the pit trap (in front of the burned-away door) was open, and contained a dead kobold and dagger.

As the party descended the stairs, I now had to break out 5e’s Appendix A for the first time. I called out aspects of the room as I rolled them up, while players took notes. I handled drawing the map, but I should delegate that to the players next time.

To the right, the players found an octagonal wine cellar with rotting floors, 3 exits on the far walls (one blocked by the rotted floor), and only 3 racks of wine still intact. The players ordered the guards to quietly empty one of those racks, and use it to construct a simple bridge for the pit trap, which they could use to be able to quickly but safely retreat if necessary. Small, slimy lizards scattered from this room as the party approached.

At this point there was some mix-up and clarification regarding the 1 hour game time : 1 hour actual time rule, as it would take 10~20 minutes for the guards to complete their assignment. I think the players are now clear on how it's supposed to work, and they’re on board with it.

They discover a shrine of the wraith at the end of a hall, made of demonstone. The players were immediately suspicious of it, even moreso after they made (and passed) wisdom saves to resist it from talking to them telepathically. The wraith harmlessly begged for help and company, but was ignored. The players are not aware that this is the resident, long-trapped wraith from upstairs, they just think the shrine itself is evil, which is fine.

In a large dining room, the players discover more of the slimy lizards, this time running towards a particular corner of the room, and Serinde immediately moves to intercept and capture one of these creatures. She succeeds, and casts Speak with Animals to try and communicate with it.

While neither a fan of being grabbed, nor of the smell of textiles, the reaction roll upon establishing verbal contact was still quite high, and so the druid was able to have a short conversation with these little reptiles. Due to its small size, CR, being a beast, and having only a basic movement speed, the druid is also able to add this creature to the list of forms she can take on with Wild Shape: a Laak, from Arcana of the Ancients.

From the limited communication abilities of the Laak, she learned that both big and small creatures had been seen about a week ago; that those creatures had been going up and down here, but not so much anymore; now those creatures go up and down in other places. She also stated outright that the party was not here to harm the Laaks.

At this point we are starting to run short on play time, so the party decides to start wrapping things up, 2 actual hours into the dungeon exploration process. The soldiers pack up the bridge, Ottmar retrieves his javelin, the party shares their findings with each other, and Aridhel reports on the shrine to his chain of command.

This is the state of the whiteboard in roll20 at the time of wrapping things up, including smells which the players had queried about, which did prove useful in deciding what direction they wanted to go. I pulled out the 1e DMG for the Odors table there, but after the session I realized that the 5e DMG has an Odors table as well. I must work on my Book Control!

The players were lucky this session, in that no wandering monster checks turned up positive, and the resident monster encounters were neutral or friendly in nature.

Session 4, Downtime Assignments

Mol will relay information about the shrine, researching the shrine and lizard motif.

Serinde downtime task is pending; To search for the Spring Court and socialize.

Ottmar, go to Suul to learn more about the time traveling wizard from the wizards who discovered a world.

Aridhel, staying at and aiding the forward base, mentions the shrine for possible investigation.

Session 4, Feedback and Retrospective

Took a short round of player thoughts at the end:

Liked talking with the lizard

Like how open ended it feels, things make sense

Fun being able to run two very different characters

Enjoy having a group of men to command - delegation

It was okay, kinda weird waiting in real time.

This last bit prompted more discussion about the intent of that rule, only being used to speed up in-game time, but not used to slow things down in actual time. I probably did a very poor job explaining this all up-front. The players are fine to keep using it for now. If it continues to cause misunderstandings I will nix it, but otherwise I think it served its purpose during the current session just fine: standing around discussing things as players has an in-game time cost. These players are the cautious/intellectual sorts, and so recognize and appreciate the check that this puts on having such discussions in the middle of a dungeon.

As a note to myself: I need to finish making the encounter tables for Arcana of the Ancients.

Later, assorted thoughts from the more experienced player:

Liked the randomized character generation, compared to all the options and classes in 5e. Explained that he doesn’t enjoy character generation in general.

(on Mars and lasers in OD&D) “Why didn’t that part stay in D&D?”

And from the other player:

It's a bit irritating to have to pause a dungeon crawl just when it's gotten going, because the session is out of time

So far, having to physically walk the characters back to camp for no discernable in-game reason is a bit tricky to RP

Like we all brought tents and bedrolls, and we're only leaving because our IRL time expired

"the third expedition, roll for complications, if there aren't any, you arrive with soldiers in tow at the entrance to the floor you were exploring last time"

I fully agree with the player that it has been frustrating how relatively little progress is being made through the dungeon during sessions, and that backtracking has attributed to that. I’m also very much feeling the limits of only having 3~4 hours of playtime per sessions. In the past, I played in weekly sessions as long as 6 to 8 hours on a regular basis, which is what I’d like to be able to do again. OTOH, I’d also like to learn how to maximize shorter (3-4 hour) sessions, as that will be a good skill for me to have in the future.

At this point I did note that while I had always intended for (resuming sessions the way the player described) to be an available option, I have obviously done a poor job in making that clear, so I will revisit that at the start of the next session as well. This is obviously an unfamiliar mode of play still, so I fully expect road bumps like this to exist which will need to be addressed.

I have been trying to not make assumptions about what actions the players want to commit to, which has certainly contributed to the slow starts at the beginning of each of these delves. Treating the player feedback as character intentions as well, I think next session can get off to a much quicker start that the players will be prefer.

I’ve added Path of the Planebreaker to the list of DM resources for this campaign. I don’t expect to need to use it any time soon, but being able to easily handle players deciding to jump through random portals is valuable to me as a DM. In an earlier session, it was mentioned that some wizards “had discovered a world”; if players decide to pursue this further, I will be able to use PotP to handle that on the fly.

In particular, Path of the Planebreaker includes lots of random tables for planes, tables of general extraplanar encounters, and encounter tables for many of these planes. These planes get especially weird and abstract, which is exactly the sort of thing I imagine the planar travel experience to be: Vancian. As a hard requirement for me, it works out of the box with 5e’s RAW plane traveling spells and magic items, and does not require session prep to be able to use it.

I had promised to have a VTT for this session, so the night before, I got Foundry installed and ready. I also read the previous session notes and retrospective, to refresh my memory on things.

The morning of the game, I was made aware of a local Internet outage. Initially I was hopeful that this would resolve quickly, as it usually does, but this outage ended up lasting the whole day. I had to tether my laptop to my phone to be able to DM today.

Game Session

The session began with an equally rough start, as we first had network issues trying to host Foundry through a cell phone tether. We eventually resolved this with reverse tunneling and a VPS (magic), and proceeded to learn that Foundry would not actually work for our intentions (a shared whiteboard with tokens, for zero prep play). So we pivoted. I tried Owlbear Rodeo next, but found it to be much worse (“updated”) then when I last used it. Finally tried roll20, which was exactly what we needed, but now it has some awful ads at the start. Fine. Whatever. Two hours had passed at this point, and we just wanted to play.

Leveling Up

During that two hour process, we got players fully leveled up to level 2. Here there was some discussion about gaining HP on level up. Since HP is one of the few things already being ruled differently for this campaign, and because the players agreed to it, we changed the rule on HP to this:

at every level, roll all of your hit dice (and add con bonus as usual) to determine your new max HP (at minimum increasing your Max HP by 1, from a previous level)

This rule comes from Worlds Without Number, and I think it feels appropriate for 5e, giving players marginally above average HP in the long run, but still plenty of chaos at the lowest levels, and still below 5e’s default HP growth.

This raised the barbarian from having 3 HP at level 1, to 21 HP at level 2. Players noted that clearly he had spent his downtime training.

Rumors

While the players were figuring out roll20, I took the opportunity to roll up some world news, in the form of a catastrophe and discovery, each from a random direction:

Within their own Kingdom of Lume, wizards claimed to have discovered the “location of another world.”

Players questioned whether time travel was involved, harking back to rumors of a time wizard in session 1. The answer was no, the rumor didn't include such language. (But that doesn't mean it's factually unrelated)

The second bit of news was of a fiery meteor in the south east, in the barbarian lands.

The barbarian’s player then inquired how the barbarian might interpret this, from a religious perspective. Answer was that it indicated trouble or the end of a bad leader’s reign. One player commented that it's too bad they weren't there to help dethrone the ruler. …next session? Maybe!

Downtime Resolution

The druid Serinde investigated locally, regarding the identity of the fingernail potion. The grove’s apothecary did not know, but recommended the apothecary to the North in Sule, a town near the center of Lume. Players confirmed the location of this on the map. (1712)

Ottmar the barbarian had his salvaged longbow repaired and purchased arrows for it, and trained very hard, clearly.

Ranger Aridhel fails to secure any more support from the military, but maintains the support of the local captain, who is adamant about getting more proof so he can throw more military resources at wiping out the filthy goblins and hobgoblins. Ten guards are once again assigned to Aridhel.

The grove's elder pulls the scout, which had previously been assigned to the party.

Session Goals and Party Prep

The players wanted to return to the ruins, checking on how the inhabitants may have responded to finding the trapped door burnt down. They really want to find proof of the hobgoblin presence, so they can get more backup and equipment for exploring the dungeon.

Mol and Serinde both purchase healing potions, and the party does some general shopping. They buy thieves' tools now, so they can pick locks and disarm traps, which they discovered are a real threat in the previous session.

Their marching order will now have the barbarian, one guard, and the cleric in front, three ranks of guards in the middle, and the druid and ranger in the back.

The Party Heads Out

There's only a 1 in 6 chance of an encounter on the way to the ruins, but I give a 50% chance that the encounter would be with hobgoblins. I also began rolling up an Appendix A dungeon entrance during the 2 hour VTT mess earlier, since it seemed likely they'd be exploring there this session.

So of course that 1 in 12 chance of encountering hobgoblins is exactly what happens first. Now I also use a d6/4 to determine the relative size of the encounter (in hit dice), old school style. At a 3:4 ratio, the hobgoblins would be willing to try that fight, if it were a successful ambush, so I quickly built the encounter from the Hit Dice budget: 6 goblins and 5 hobgoblins.

Now I rolled for surprise, negative on both sides, so they'll discover each other at the same time. How? An arrow loosed eagerly by a goblin up ahead, giving away the ambush before the rest of the enemies were ready.

The battlefield:

In the middle of the forest, difficult terrain!

Somewhat difficult visibility due to all the trees, so I rule that targets more than 30ft away receive partial cover from ranged attacks.

Since the party has a ranger, I rule the path immediately behind and ahead is not difficult terrain for the party.

None of this area is difficult terrain for these goblins and hobgoblins, as they've been preparing in this area.

Positions:

Party in formation

Three goblins, and three hobgoblins behind them, on the left flank, 40ft away.

Two goblins, and two hobgoblins behind them, on the right flank, 20ft away.

One goblin in a tree 40ft up ahead, its body roped to the tree to hold it up as a lookout.

14 + 9 = 23 total combatants, in this first combat of the campaign!

Round one, declaring actions:

Serinde the druid will cast fairy fire on the 6 hob/goblins on the left flank

Mol the cleric will move forward and fire at the rope with their crossbow, attempting to break the rope so the goblin falls

Ottmar and Aridhel fire their longbows at the goblins on the left flank

Aridhel orders the guards to cover their flanks, and for the three guards with shortbows to also fire at the goblins on the left.

Players win this initiative, so everything goes as planned.

Fairy fire hits all six opponents in the left flank… outlining them in violet, and giving all attacks against them advantage!

With disadvantage, the cleric rolls an astounding 22 on their attack, severing the rope and dropping the lookout goblin to the ground (falling damage!), where they fall prone.

Aridhel, Ottmar, and the three archer guards rain arrows with advantage. While most of these missed, one shot crit, so that the three goblins at least were killed.

Four guards formed a spear defense on the left flank. Three guards formed up on the right flank and advanced with their spears, killing one of the goblins there.

The goblin and hobgoblins all fire on the party… dropping one of the guards which advanced on the right flank, and wounding Ottmar. Most actually miss (their rolls were pretty awful).

Round two, declaring actions:

Aridhel orders the archers to support the right flank, and Serinde wants to change shape into a panther and flank the two hobgoblins on the right.

Mol runs ahead, to apply their mace to the prone lookoutgoblin’s face.

Aridhel and Ottmar are going to fire at the three hobgoblins on the left flank.

The one remaining goblin in the right flank is now more scared of the party than of their hobgoblin superiors, and plans to disengage and dash away. Similarly, the prone lookout goblin plans to crawl around its tree and hide in the chaos.

The hobgoblins are no longer confident in their ambush, having lost almost all of their underlings, and almost half of their side’s hit dice in a single round, while doing almost nothing to the party in return. The hobgoblins plan to dash away, leaving the goblins sacrificially to their fates.

Round two initiative goes to the hobgoblins. The one goblin manages to disengage and run, dodging even the blades of the angry hobgoblin behind him (the players now became aware of the sort of relationship by which goblins and hobgoblins operate)

The lookout hobgoblin rolled a natural one on their attempt to hide, and so stumbled and fell prone again.

The hobgoblins all dashed and ran.

The Cleric clobbered the miserable lookout goblin, finishing it off.

Aridhel and Ottmar fire at their targets despite the distance, utilizing the advantage they received from fairy fire. However, the 18 AC and -2 due to the partial cover was rough, and so they scored no hits. The three archer guards were also left without targets this round.

Round three:

The guards are told to stand down. Ottmar, Mol, and Aridhel all go to tend to the fallen guard, with cure wounds.

Here the barbarian wonders about using their herbalism kit as a makeshift healer's kit, given their class. I rule that they can, but it would expend the entire kit, because it wasn't really built for that kind of thing. Now they ask if they can use their survival skills when they're traveling/during downtime to gather herbs for the kit, and I rule again that yes they can, so they can give it additional uses, making it equivalent to a healer's kit for that class.

Serinde, in panther form, loses the initiative this round, and spends her time catching up to the two hobgoblins, and one goblin, that she is pursuing. She's undetected at this point, and ends her turn where she can at least make an opportunity attack against the hobgoblins when they run next turn.

Round four:

Serinde wins initiative, and I give her a 3 in 6 chance of being able to line up the straight 20ft line she needs to pull off a “pounce” attack. She succeeds and pounces on the hobgoblin, knocking them prone. The hobgoblin holds off the claw swipes with his shield, but the panther gets a good lunge in and bites the hobgoblin’s shoulder, leaving them quite wounded (7/10 HP).

The hobgoblin is abandoned by his allies, who continue dashing in their escape.

Round five:

The hobgoblin stands up from prone and pulls their longsword, but this round yields no progress on either side. The hobgoblin knows they can't outrun this panther, and that they'll need to kill it in order to survive.

Round six:

Serinde again bites the hobgoblin, leaving them at 3/10 HP, while their longsword connects with the panther’s body, leaving them at 8/13 HP.

Round seven:

Simultaneous initiative! The panther again lunges at the hobgoblin’s neck, and connects, dodging the hobgoblin's piercing strike, and securing victory in this duel.

Combat End

The hobgoblin’s head is taken as proof, and which the druid intends to preserve as a trophy of their first kill. Guards cut off the ears of the goblins, too.

5 goblins and 1 hobgoblin killed

Players roll individual treasure:

20 silver coins are looted from the hobgoblin, and 27 gold coins are looted from the goblins.

Session Wrap

We're nearing the end of our play time, so guards ask if this is enough proof, and if they can head back to town now. The players are in agreement on this point, that this is a good place to wrap things up.

One more roll confirms no encounters on the way back to the grove, so we end things there, and I ask players about their downtime plans.

Aridhel - requesting troops and supplies (with hobgoblin head and proof)

Mol - requesting info on this tribe of hobgoblins, looking for motive

Serinde - making trophy from hobgoblin; 2 weeks of lock picking lessons at 25gp per week (will require 11 weeks of training total)

Ottmar - foraging nearby to charge herbalism kit

Session Retrospective

A bit disappointed that the session ended so soon, but with the two hours burned at the start, that's just how things panned out.

The actual game session was two and a half hours long. The combat started about half an hour in, and lasted most of the two remaining hours.

For a 23-character combat, our first combat of the campaign, and us all being rusty at 5e combat in general, I suppose this isn't awful. But I want to do better. Because the enemies were split up across multiple locations, there wasn't much opportunity for me to roll more than two or three attacks at a time to bulk process NPC attacks.

Side initiative didn't seem to save much time, but I only have one data point currently, so I'm not going to start making changes on this speculation alone. The players are interested in trying side initiative some more as well.

Learning the characters and simple practice may speed up play over time.

After round 3, only one player was still active in the combat. At this time, I could have given him the hobgoblins to play. He affirmed that that would be fun in the future, but also that he had fun this time just watching as well. (“Just”. He was actively commenting, helping reference rules, etc throughout the combat, even though he didn't have any characters in it himself, so it’s not like he was doing nothing the whole time)

Going forward I intend to continue using roll20 for this campaign. One of the players will experiment some more with Foundry, to see if it can meet our needs. I personally am not hopeful on that front, its “whiteboard” functionality was entirely lacking as far as I could tell.

There is interest in D&D Beyond integration. I'm not excited about this, but I'm not stopping it either. The players have physical character sheets already, which they know are authoritative. I may revisit this if problems come of it, but with this particular play group I suspect it will be fine.

Players commented that it was cool establishing more about the world in this session. “Things just happen”, it was “nice to hear rumors”, “That was cool! I did like that!” Figuring out what their characters think about events, and tying them together is cool.

After the session, the topics of Zero Prep and 1:1 time came up, so I'll wrap this up with these quotes from the players. This is all from chat logs, so emphasis is theirs.

That's honestly part of the fun

Instead of the DM crafting stuff just for us (which can turn out super cool, don't get me wrong) stuff happens and we figure out together how it impacts our characters

It's even more collaborative storytelling, which is super cool

Oh! One thing I'm appreciating about forcing some in-game time between sessions - it encourages downtime activities!

I feel like in most D&D games, in-game time pauses between sessions, so downtime doesn't really make much sense

But since we're effectively forced to have downtime, it matters a lot more

I tend to be relatively underprepared for D&D things. I'm very much not one to write 20 pages of backstory for a character before I even play them

I very much like to discover who a character is and how they tie into the world

Which makes zero-prep D&D perfect for that kind of thing

For a set of zero prep solo play rules that are closer to my usual preference, check out the Campaign Prep section of my Zero Prep 5e campaign.

I will be including my thought process and noting which tables I’m rolling on, so that my approach may be most fully understood, and I hope it will help you.

Preparing to Play

I will be playing in my usual fashion, using only a document on my phone, a dice roller, and digital copies of the 5e sourcebooks and 1e DMG. For player options I will be limiting myself strictly to the PHB, even though as a DM I will be using XGE and TCE.

I would like my party to be a cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard, all human men. I will be rolling attribute scores (4d6 drop the lowest), of course, and Roman names from XGE. I will roll for Ideals in their backgrounds, so that they can gain inspiration for playing to their alignment. Scores will be listed in SDCIWC order. I’ll use background equipment and recommended class equipment and not shop any further yet.

Human Cleric, Acolyte “Aelius”

Ability score rolls: 8 12 13 10 12 12

Ability scores: 13 13 13 11 14 9

Ideal: Power (Lawful)

Skills: Insight, Religion, History, Medicine

Languages: elvish, dwarvish, sylvan 

Equipment: holy symbol, prayer book, 5 sticks of incense, vestments, common clothes, and 15 gp, mace, chainmail, crossbow, 20 bolts, explorer's pack, shield, Amulet of Osiris

Notes: Life domain (Osiris)

Cantrips: Guidance, Resistance, Light

Domain Spells: Bless, Cure Wounds

Prepared Spells: Healing Word, Command, Create or Destroy Water

Below average scores, so he'll probably focus on defensive magic, the sort which won't rely on attack rolls or saving throws. Will put the 14 in wisdom and dump the 9 in charisma. Life domain makes him more useful in that regard, and more sturdy with access to chain mail. In his downtime he studies the teachings of Osiris and serves as a leader of the church.

Human Fighter, Soldier “Claudius”

Ability score rolls: 12 15 10 13 15 14

Ability scores: 16 15 16 11 13 14

Ideal: Greater Good (Good)

Skills: Athletics, Intimidation, Animal Handling, Perception

Tool Proficiencies: dice, land vehicles

Languages: gobbish

Equipment: insignia of rank, dagger, bone dice, common clothes, 10 gp, chain mail, long bow, 20 arrows, two hand axes, dungeoneer’s pack, longsword, and shield

Notes: Dueling fighting style

Classic fighter, with pretty good rolls. Can't complain! Will be looking to acquire one or more dogs to train, and a horse. Claudius is a sergeant of the town guard, with rank to command up to 10 soldiers in that capacity.

Human Rogue, Outlander “Germanus”

Ability score rolls: 8 13 13 15 10 9

Ability scores: 10 16 14 11 14 9

Ideal: Honor (Lawful)

Skills: Athletics, Survival, Acrobatics, Deception, Perception, Stealth 

Tool Proficiencies: flute

Languages: thieves cant, dwarvish, undercommon 

Equipment: staff, hunting trap, squirrel skin hat, traveler's clothes, 10 gp, rapier, short bow, 20 arrows, burglar’s pack, leather armor, 2 daggers, thieves tools

Nothing too special here, Germanus is a simple hunter and treasure seeker.

Human Wizard, Sage “Varius”

Ability score rolls: 16 14 17 7 11 15

Ability scores: 8 16 17 18 15 12

Ideal: Power (Evil)

Skills: Arcana, History, Investigation, Religion

Languages: thieves cant, infernal, elvish 

Equipment: ink, quill, small knife, common clothes, 10 gp, dagger, staff, explorer's pack, spell book

Cantrips: Light, Fire Bolt, Minor Illusion

Level 1 spells: Find Familiar, Identify, Mage Armor, Chromatic Orb, Shield

This evil wizard is destined for the schools of evocation or necromancy. Putting high stats in Dex and Con to help with survivability. Going to lean into the sage background to always be pursuing arcane texts and expanding his spell book. His familiar is a bat, whose 60ft blindsight will hopefully prove helpful in dungeons.

Finding Adventure

Already I am imagining that these four will not stick together as a party in the long run, though they will do fine for an initial adventure.

I want to begin by utilizing Varius’s background and Investigation skill to search for dungeons which may contain wizard scrolls, this is the sort of research he does in his downtime. For spell scrolls in those dungeon hoards he finds, a DC 15 investigation check will see if his investigation was successful, and that they are wizard scrolls.

Heeding the advice from 1e, the first adventure will be in a dungeon that's a half day's walk from town.

We're starting at the dungeon, so we'll know a few things about it now.

Dungeon Location roll: catacombs or sewers beneath a city

Cleric (21) and Wizard (11) both make DC 15 History checks, for a chance to roll on the Dungeon History table, cleric passes: site of a great miracle! I'll roll on the Cults or Religious Groups, and then on a mid tier magic item table (G), for the seeds of what may have gone down here: worshipers of a neutral deity, and Belt of Dwarvenkind. Here, I think a neutral-aligned ally of the dwarves beseeched aid from the Allhammer, to vanquish the evil of the dungeon. Now I'll roll a high level Urban Encounter to find out what sort of thing was vanquished: “1 spellcaster vampire or 1 warrior vampire”. I gave each one a 50/50 chance, and ended up with “1 spellcaster vampire”. So, the hero received help from the Allhammer to vanquish a spellcaster vampire that had presumably become quite a large threat. Given that the Allhammer was involved, it's possible that this dungeon was a shrine or structure made by or for Dwarvenkind.

That's a fair amount of information for us to learn at this point. It also makes sense now why Varius would anticipate finding wizard scrolls in this dungeon.

Heading to the Dungeon

Normally dungeons are just outside of town, so I'd roll one encounter check for the walk there. Since this is below the city, I'll say the party is probably having to navigate unscrupulous parts of the city to find a known entrance to this ancient dungeon. 1 on a d6 will be an encounter: 6, no encounter. Party finds the arched, open stairway down into the dungeon, partly but not entirely overgrown.

Roll Call and Marching Order

I forgot to go shopping before heading out, so our starting equipment is what we've got. Varius casts Mage Armor on himself before entering the dungeon, leaving him with 1 spell slot (all of his spells are prepared, at least). Varius keeps his bat familiar tucked away unless needed.

Aelius, Cleric of Osiris, AC 16+2, HP 9/9

Claudius, Sergeant, AC 16+2, HP 13/13

Germanus, Hunter, AC 14, HP 10/10

Varius, Sage, AC 13 (16), HP 9/9

Marching Order: Aelius, Claudius, Germanus, Varius

Marching Order, 10’: Aelius and Claudius in front, Germanus and Varius in back.

Keeping Light cast on both Claudius and Aelius’s armor.

Into the Dungeon

At this point I need to roll the Dungeon Purpose (Mine), and decide on the most appropriate XGE encounter table to use (Swamp, levels 1-4), and using the build-as-you-play encounter table as described previously. This a classic “dungeon below the city”, so the encounter table will start thusly:

The Undermine, floor 1

1. Rats

2. (replace with Swamp encounter)

3. (replace with Swamp encounter)

4. (replace with Swamp encounter)

5. Roll a Swamp encounter

6. Roll a Swamp encounter

Being in such a populated area, the dungeon must be at least moderately active. Encounter checks every 20 minutes.

Roll Starting Area: passage, 10’ wide, 4 way intersection.

So passages lead left, right, and straight ahead; behind lies the stairs to exit the dungeon.

Seeing the dungeon starts with open passages, the party will draw back, and Varius will scout ahead through the eyes of his bat, seeing up to 160’ ahead in each direction.

From the 4 way intersection, looking in every direction (rolling Passage as far as I can see):

Left: 20’, turns right, 10’, (#1)

Ahead: 20’, door (#2)

Right: 30’, 20’, side passage right to (#3), 10’, (#4)

(I will be repeatedly rolling on the Passage table, separating the results with commas, so note how the “30’, 20’, …, 10’” form a 60’ straight passage, with the side passage along the way; I will keep a map so you do not need to follow along roll for roll)

(Map of what I’ve seen so far, numbering the unknowns to make them easier to reference here)

Bat explores down the left path first, starting from (#1).

Path: 20’, side passage right* to (#5), 10’, 20’, side passage left to (#6), 10’, chamber #1

*I think a side passage to the right makes no sense here, so this will be a side passage to the left instead. Discretion must prevail!

Chamber #1, (Chamber) 50’ diameter circle

Bat’s range limit is here, so flying back to check (#6):

Path: 20’, side passage left to (#7), 10’, 20’, side passage right to (#8), 10’, 20’, side passage right to (#9), 10’, (#10) (range limit)

There's a whole lot of side passages on this side of the dungeon. Varius is going to fly his bat back to the entry intersection and check out the passage to the right instead, starting with (#3).

Path: 20’, turn left, 10’, 20’, dead end, 10% chance of secret door

Varius backs up to check the side passage (#4).

Path: 20’, side passage left to (#11), 10’, 20’, door to the right (#12), 10’, 20’, turns right, 10’, (#12) (range limit)

Varius calls his bat back to the entrance, and the party (and myself) review the map to consider a course of action. With so many open passages, it will be easy to get caught by surprise and cornered by monsters. The party decides to begin by checking the door (#2) straight ahead from the entryway.

By this time, 10 minutes has passed.

Observing the door (rolling Door Type) to be iron, barred or locked (locked, because I think that makes the most sense here). Germanus will try to pick the lock (DC 15, the standard for locks in the PHB, with Guidance from Aelius), costing another 10 minutes, and getting a roll of 24 to open the lock.

Wandering encounter check (18+ on a d20): no encounter

The party returns to formation, and opens the door. Rolling Beyond a Door: more passage. Varius flies his bat to peek around up ahead.

Path from door: 10’, T intersection

Left: 10’, 20, turn right, 10’, (#14)

This doesn’t quite fit, so I’m going to have it follow the wall of the existing passage for 30ft. Seems like a prime spot for secret doors, and the passage might curve again and continue further (#14).

Right: 10’, 20’, door to left (#15), 10’, 20’, turn left, 10’, (#16)

Disappointed thus far, the party heads right and checks out the door (#15): iron, locked. 10 minutes to lockpick with Guidance: 15, barely succeeded.

Dungeon clock: 30 minutes total

Beyond the door: passage. 20’, 20’, side passage to the left (#17), 10’, 20’, side passage to the right (#18), 10’, 20’, turns left, 10’, *20’, wooden door to the right (#19), 10’, 20’, side passage to the right (#20), 10’, (#21)

*this doesn’t fit, so I curve the passage to the right again and continue

Opening the wooden door (#19)… reveals a chamber!

Large Chamber 40’x50’, with 3 Chamber Exits

Dungeon Chamber Contents: Empty room

Exploring the dungeon room takes 10 minutes

Dungeon clock: 40 minutes total

Random encounter check: no encounter 

Chamber Purpose (Dungeon: Mine): Barracks for miners

Exit Locations: 2 on the right, 1 on the same wall as the entrance, all doors (Exit Type), wooden, secret, and locked wooden (Door Type)

Here, the locked wooden door on the same side as the entrance makes no sense. I’m going to change it to a secret door instead; and both secret doors locations will be unknown to me. In the future if scouring the room for secret doors, I’ll re-roll their locations at that time.

Will not be using any time to investigate for the secret doors. Will go through the unlocked wooden door. Beyond the door: Chamber!

Small Chamber 40’x40’, 1 exit

Dungeon Chamber Contents: Monster (pet or allied creature).

Time to roll on our little encounter table (d6): 3. So, I'll roll on the swamp table, and add it to our local encounter table as well: 2d6+3 bullywugs

8 bullywugs! (taking the moment to read about Bullywugs in the MM)

Now to roll for surprise (2 in 6 chance they surprise us, 2 in 6 we surprise them): 6 and 3, no surprise.

Now rolling 2d6 for demeanor: 3, quite hostile towards us.

I imagine this area being quite soggy and damp at this point, in these tunnels below the city. The bullywugs feeling right at home here.

I imagine the Bullywug room will connect to #18 somehow, perhaps by a door or secret passage.

Anyway, the bullywugs are hostile and, as they outnumber us, they immediately move to attack. Roll initiative!

Party Initiative: 3, 10, 18, 6

Bullywugs Initiative: 17

Retreat is sounding like a great idea at this point. I'll handle this as a chase instead of a combat, and position the bullywugs so that there are 2 within 10’, 2 within 20’, 2 within 30’, and 2 within 40’. Bullywugs will be dashing at 40’, and can do that 4 times before making constitution checks. Our cleric can dash 4 times, rogue 5 times, and the fighter and wizard 6 times. The humans can easily outrun the bullywugs, but they’ll need to survive the first round of combat first, as the bullywugs will certainly close in.

Following initiative order:

The rogue will dash 60’ away, making it all the way back through the Miner Barracks as well.

The bullywugs can all reach the party in one turn, so they run up to engage the front line. The 10’ doorway can fit 3 abreast, so 3 bullywugs (A, B, and C) engage with our cleric and fighter. The middle bullywug (B) has a 50/50 chance of engaging either one, so I roll… cleric. Bullywugs A and B make 2 spear and 2 bite attacks to hit the cleric, 3 hit (one bite missed). Both attacks from Bullywug C on the fighter missed. Cleric takes 2d8+d4+3 damage (13) and falls to the ground.

The fighter and wizard both see this. The Good-aligned fighter, with “Greater Good” ideals, does not want to abandon his friend. 

Time to figure out if carrying the cleric is going to work, weight-wise! Claudius has 16 strength, and so can lift 240 pounds. The bulk of the weight each of them are carrying is their chain mail, 20 pounds each, leaving 200 pounds to work with if they both drop everything else. Chapter 7 allows us to roll up a height and weight for Aelius: 6’1” tall, 195 pounds!

Dropping everything, Claudius picks up his friend and moves 30 feet away this turn, and provokes two attacks of opportunity from those spears: one hits, gouging him for 8 damage, and leaving him with 4/13 HP.

Varius follow’s Germanus’s lead and dashes away, not stopping to help the others.

Combat Round 2

Germanus, Lawfully aligned and with the ideal of Honor, gives up his certain escape, and instead prepares to pull the outer barracks door closed once his allies are through.

The bullywugs hop into the barracks and start throwing their spears, as their last chance to try and catch the fighter. The first spear hurled is a critical hit, and the 7 damage drops the fighter to 0 HP.

Varius will continue to dash, certain to escape at this point.

Combat Round 3

Germanus escapes.

This round will be the second round of death saves for Aelius, and the first round for Claudius. I roll those now (as I don’t prefer to roll them until other characters are able to check on them, for suspense!). All three of those death saves are successes.

Bullywugs are inclined to take captives and lord over those unfortunate souls in a situation like this. They’ll attempt to stabilize both of their prisoners right away, succeeding to stabilize Aelius on this turn, but not Claudius.

Combat Round 4

Bullywugs start toting away Aelius, a bullywug again fails to stabilize Claudius, and Claudius fails a death save.

Combat Round 5

Claudius is stabilized this round, and will be toted away as well.

In d4 (3) hours, they will wake again, prisoners of the Bullywugs.

Germanus and Varius leave the dungeon, unaware their comrades are still alive. 

Froggy Lords of the Undermine

Following the Unruly Diplomacy segment of the Bullywug entry of the Monster Manual... The bullywugs likely infest these swampy mines, and fancy themselves rulers of it. The bullywugs drag the duo before their lord, forcing them to beg for mercy. The duo yield their crossbow and longbow as gifts, attempting to persuade the bullywug to let them go (DC15). I think this would give them advantage on their persuasion check, but even if they agreed, the bullywugs would demand more, probably a service of some sort. If the persuasion fails, the bullywugs would strip the adventurers and eject them in disgrace, with a 1 in 6 chance of killing them on their way out.

Persuasion check from Claudius (d20+2 with advantage): 18

Thanks to Claudius’s emotive efforts, it looks like the duo will be making it out alive today, minus their longbow and crossbow. Claudius will receive inspiration as well, for risking everything to save his ally.

But what of the bullywug’s demands? Not sharing a language with the humans, the demands will have to be somewhat simple… acted out, or conveyed through pictures. From the DMG Appendix A, the Monster Motivations table gives us “Avoid Danger”. They describe to the duo a threat, which they want the duo to address. I’ll use the Swamp Encounters (1-4) table to roll a threat… rats! The multitude of rats indicated, probably also means there is a giant rat or two that need to be found and slain to appease the bullywugs.

Updating the local random encounter table:

The Undermine, floor 1

1. Rats

2. Bullywugs

3. Giant Rats (remove once defeated)

4. (replace with Swamp encounter)

5. Roll a Swamp encounter

6. Roll a Swamp encounter

The duo are then sent away, and are escorted by a pair of bullywugs to the dungeon entrance, where they return to the inn and rest for the night.

End of Session

This session ends in an interesting place. The party survived, but gained no treasure or XP this round, in fact they lost some of their equipment to the bullywugs. But already threads of intrigue and plots are starting to emerge… if the party helps the bullywugs, they will gain a sort of ally faction within the dungeon, which would be quite helpful.

The party has also made good progress on mapping the dungeon. They will be able to navigate it more efficiently on their next visit, perhaps they'll check out the huge chamber in the top left next time?

It was certainly a lot of adventure for having had nothing prepared in the first place! I also am feeling increasingly comfortable navigating the rulebooks to find the tables and rules I need for this playstyle, which will help in the 5e campaign I’m DMing as well.

Session Retrospective

My first thought was how much longer it takes to roll 5e characters, even compared to 1e; but I will try to keep edition critique light in this retro.

Second, I noticed 5e’s lack of a dedicated “dungeon encounters” table, the way that 0e and 1e have, which means something else must be picked instead which is more environment specific, like Swamp.

As the XGE encounter tables are split by environment, wilderness-as-a-dungeon would work fairly well I think. Every 2 days into the wilderness counting as a dungeon level of difficulty, so that 40 days into the wilderness would be rolling level 20 encounters. Maybe.

The 5e Appendix A is a bit more rough than 1e’s, it was frustrating just how many hallways there were. Then again, I was rolling really poorly and very much against the odds, which would have placed at least ~3 more rooms in this map.

5e’s Appendix A doesn't distinguish between rooms and chambers! All exits are 50/50 a door or passage, which hurts the theming a bit? But I really liked the variety of the Dungeon Purpose table, with a table of room types for each. I would use these to augment 1e’s Appendix A. 1e’s dungeon dressing appendices are included in 5e’s Appendix A as well, as tables (they weren't tables in 1e).

As expected, cantrips made light sources a non issue. The bat’s blindsense was pretty great for scouting as well. All of this with a human party, no darkvision.

Interesting world and goals certainly emerged from the zero prep approach, as expected.

5e’s RAW combat frustrated me compared to the campaign rules I typically use. For those who prefer battle grids, this is really a non issue. For theater of the mind players, I recommend a 10’ grid map (as seen in this post) and my 5e campaign rules which greatly speed up combat.

I was prepared to lose characters in this run, but the bullywugs made things interesting and amusing and, best of all, gave my characters some additional obligations to look forward to playing out.

As a result, this post will touch on a variety of related topics, while I provide the rationale for my approach, so that similar results can be recreated by the dedicated reader.

A rough list of what I'll cover in this post:

• Solo play, gamification, and TTRPGs

• Oracles for solo play

• Zero Prep methodology

• Random tables

• Random encounters

• Solo play procedure

• Campaign rules

In a separate, related post I will be providing:

• 5e solo play report & retrospective

Solo Play, Gamification, and TTRPGs

The concept of solo play has been growing recently, especially around the OSR, but it is all rather disjointed, a melting pot of several different approaches which do not mix well, and ultimately suffers from the same issues which drove the whole recent OSR resurgence in the first place (and which the OSR too fails to address, but that's a separate topic). But as all these ideas are floating around TTRPGs and solo play, I must address them in order to define a starting point.

Firstly, the idea of solo playing TTRPGs is not absurd at all. It's quite possible, it's just simply unusual and not well understood these days. Solo playing D&D is not much different than solo playing both sides of a game of Magic The Gathering. You know the rules of the game, and how you would play each of the decks independently, but now you must artificially limit your knowledge when playing either side, so that neither side has an unfair advantage over the other.

Solo play can be executed in a variety of ways. Once a process such as journaling has been gamified, it can be solo played. Solo play journaling games have seen some popularity when solo playing TTRPGs is discussed, but these are by no means the same thing at all. If the rules of a TTRPG are not being used, but rather an alternative system such as gamified journaling, then that is no longer solo playing the TTRPG, but it is solo playing a journaling game. Whether these other games share a fantasy D&D setting is not important here, as it is the rules which define how a game plays, and wholesale replacement of those rules changes the whole game.

From these assertions we must conclude then that to solo play a TTRPG, we must play an actual TTRPG. TTRPGs which include a plethora of random tables, such as D&D, are especially ideal for zero prep solo play. TTRPGs without random tables, especially without a variety of random encounter tables, will require more work to solo play. 

In order to play a TTRPG, we must know its rules. The conventional advice for people who get this far is to solo play a “rules light” TTRPG. This is very poor advice, especially for solo play. Rules light TTRPGs simply shift the burden which those missing rules would have carried on their own, onto the prospective DM. You are left with more work to do, and less actual game to play.

TTRPGs have been solo played since their inception. Official rules to aid solo playing D&D, titled “Solo Dungeon Adventures”, were included in the very first Strategic Review, before iconic classes like the Thief and Ranger even existed. While more recent games may not acknowledge solo play or account for it in their rules, both possibility and precedent for it remains. In fact, a modernized version of that very same dungeon generator from Strategic Review is included in the 5e DMG, as Appendix A, and I’ll be showing you how to utilize it!

Expect to play a party of characters, perhaps picking one of them to be your “main” at any given time. This is admittedly more difficult in newer editions of D&D, where every character will have an assortment of unique abilities. If you want something simpler I recommend the OD&D clone “Delving Deeper”. Otherwise you'll simply have to bite the bullet and play multiple 5e characters and juggle the dozens of abilities they'll collectively have, or play one 5e character and use NPC stat blocks to fill out the rest of your party. Not using optional rules such as Feats will also help reduce the complexity here. More options to reduce complexity will be discussed in a later section (Campaign Rules).

If your preference is to play a single higher level character, rather than a whole party, I would still recommend you to play that character with a cadre of hired henchmen in tow, but there’s nothing stopping you from giving it a shot.

For the remainder of this article when I use the term “solo play”, you may assume I am referring to solo playing TTRPGs specifically, and not to any of the other sorts of solo play described above.

Oracles for Solo Play 

A common recommendation in solo play TTRPG discussions is about which “Oracle” to use. The explanation is that the Oracle is needed to fill the role left by not having a DM. For the uninitiated, oracles generally are used to answer “yes/no” questions, and for facilitating swings between times of order and chaos; which roughly emulates narrative story structure. In other words, there is a valid purpose which an Oracle serves.

However oracles tend to be generic, and they are unnecessary for Zero Prep Solo Play. D&D contains many mechanics and tables which will offer superior answers to an Oracle’s generic Yes or No. Furthermore, an Oracle's narrative capabilities are a bad fit for Zero Prep Solo Play, which is a sandbox in nature, not an orchestrated story.

In short, there is nothing an Oracle has to offer that you couldn't do by picking a probability of likelihood and rolling a d6 to determine whether it is true or not. That's it. That's your Oracle. And if you can’t figure out what to do next after using it (you’ll know what I mean when it happens), you’re straying too far from the rules of the game and need to get yourself back on track.

Zero Prep Methodology 

The stumbling block of figuring out how solo play usually starts with figuring out how to delegate the DM’s all-important duty of designing some overarching adventure or mystery. The solution is fortunately quite simple: a Zero Prep game is a sandbox experience, not a narrative one. There's no need for a narrative arc to be planned in advance. A Zero Prep DM is able to run game sessions without preparing anything at all. The Zero Prep DM does not need to know what is coming up; but they are able to keep players entertained for 4+ hours at a time anyway.

Zero Prep methodology is thus the ideal way to solo play. As a player you don't know what's coming up next. You don't know what's behind the next door or down the stairs. You don't know what's motivating the mayor or the goblins. You're as likely to encounter a friendly troll who needs your help, as to be betrayed by the porters you left to guard your treasure. This is the stuff adventure campaigns are made from, and at the end you'll have your own cohesive story to tell, despite how impossible all of that may seem right now.

The overlap between zero prep DMing and solo play are so great, that simply by solo playing this way, you will find yourself improving as a DM; or if you are not yet a DM, you may find you very much have the capacity to be one!

Learning the Zero Prep methodology is straightforward. It will require time investment on your part; not in preparing content for sessions, but in reading and becoming proficient in navigating the rulebooks. Instead of preparing content for just one session, this time investment will gain you the ability to generate an endless stream of content, for innumerable sessions.

The requirements of the Zero Prep Methodology:

• RTFM - you must read the rulebooks in order to know what they actually contain

• Book Control - you do not need to memorize rulebooks in their entirety, but you must be able to navigate them with familiarity, to find the rule or table you need, when you need it

• Use the rules, not rule 0 - the rules of the game are robust, use encumbrance rules, track torches, ammo, and time; do not ever fudge dice or ignore rules

• Random Table Proficiency - you must know how to harness the immense powers contained within random tables

• Faith in your Mind - the human mind is amazingly capable of quickly detecting patterns and creating explanations for even the most absurd of circumstances; you will unlock this superpower easily if you just give it a chance

• Faith in the Process - it may seem implausible that a cohesive play session can come about from “just some random tables and dice”, but not only does it work, it works very well

• Do Not Prepare Content For Sessions - solo or otherwise, do not prep!

Required Reading for 5e D&D

For 5e D&D, you must first read the Player’s Handbook from cover to cover, skipping only the second half of Chapter 6 (if you take my suggestion and opt to not use feats), Chapter 11 (spell descriptions), and merely skimming the Appendices.

Next, you must read the entirety of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, ignoring all of its narrative advice (of which there is much), and skipping the list of Magic Item Descriptions in Chapter 7. You will not be constructing a campaign narrative, nor will you be using Challenge Rating to construct combat encounters (you will not be constructing combat encounters at all); however throughout the entire book you will find random tables for all sorts of things: catastrophes, NPCs, adventure hooks, dungeon purposes and themes, and so on. These random tables are your most important tools as a Zero Prep DM, second only to the rules of the game themselves.

Unlike the 1e DMG, the 5e DMG lacks several important tables for solo play, the most important of which can be found on Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, page 92, the Random Encounter tables.

Next is the lack of Wilderness Encounter distances, which can be found on the Screen in the 5e Wilderness Kit. This is frankly ridiculous. Use between 2d6 (in dense jungle) and 4d10 (in mountains) depending on visibility conditions, x10 feet, to determine how far away random encounters occur.

Optionally, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Chapter 2 (Patrons) contains random tables for a number of classic agencies including Military orders, Guilds, and Academies.

Take solace in that while the 5e DMG offers almost nothing in the way of good advice for the Zero Prep DM, it offers a spread of random tables which in many ways exceed even the 1e DMG; and these tables are of exceptional value to the Zero Prep DM.

Required Reading for 1e D&D

For 1e D&D, you must read the Player’s Handbook from cover to cover, skipping only the spell descriptions. Then read the Dungeon Master’s Guide from cover to cover, skipping spell descriptions, magic item descriptions, and monster lists, and following along in the Player’s Handbook as you do (their order correlates highly between the two books). Unlike the advice in the 5e DMG which can largely be ignored, the advice throughout the 1e DMG is pure gold, and should be thoroughly read.

Required Reading for OD&D

For Chainmail + OD&D, you must skim Chainmail, then read Book I, and then Book III, looking to Chainmail for answers throughout the process. OD&D was a supplement for Chainmail, and so can only be correctly understood within that context. You will quickly find that all OD&D clones, including Delving Deeper, take some liberties and make changes to the original formula. My preference is for playing Chainmail + OD&D (just the first 3LBB), and using them with the SOLO DUNGEON ADVENTURES tables included in the first Strategic Review. If you must play a clone, Delving Deeper is currently my recommendation. If you are reading this in the future, be on the lookout for Wight-box by The Basic Expert (not to be confused with White Box by Seattle Hill Games), which is rapidly shaping up to be an even better clone than Delving Deeper.

Required Reading for All Editions

Read Appendix N. Yes, of course, you’ve probably read some Tolkien and Lovecraft. 2 of the 28 authors listed in Appendix N. There is fourteen times as much fantasy that exists in this list alone that you have no concept of. The “fantasy” you understand is narrow in scope. Discover fantasy all over again in Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, and again in Fritz Leiber’s Swords Against Death, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Princess of Mars, Robert E. Howard’s Hour of the Dragon, Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions, Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter, and Michael Moorcock’s Stormbringer.

Every step of this will grow your appreciation for bits of D&D that you might not have recognized or understood before. It will also demonstrate, repeatedly, that what you worry about being “too absurd” in the results you get from random tables, are actually not as far fetched as they seem.

Recommended Reading for All Editions

• 1e DMG - especially if you’re playing 5e. The 5e DMG is an advice-void, and Gygax’s advice in the 1e DMG is transferable to any edition of D&D, not just 1e, and is even helpful for other TTRPGs all together.

• The Monsters Know What They’re Doing - adds depth to your combats and world as a whole, as this book teaches you monsters behavior patterns based on their stat blocks, and then goes into detail about specific 5e monsters

Random Tables

Random tables are a central component of zero prep and solo play, filled with the themes and tropes you would expect from pulp fantasy stories. By using these tables, you distribute these themes throughout the campaign world, which is an amazing thing to think about. Without having to prepare a map, invent tribes, nations, histories, etc, in advance, they all exist in the campaign world somewhere anyway, you may just not know where they are yet!

Most random tables are presented with an intended purpose, for example Random Encounter tables are sorted by a variety of environments, intended to be used for deciding what the party encounters during their adventures in those environments. Know where your random tables are! These are answers the designers have prepared and given to you, but you need to know they exist, and be able to find them, for them to be of any value to you.

Random tables are full of answers. And if you know them well, you can use them on the fly to answer questions they weren't intended for, to great effect!

For example, you may use the random encounter table to discover who lived in an area long ago. You may roll on that table again to learn what displaced them or caused their demise. If you encounter an injured NPC, you could use that same table to determine who or what injured them. Need a rumor of something causing trouble locally? The random encounter tables have you covered.

How about the treasure hoard and magic item tables, what else could they be used for? Well, besides using them to determine actual loot, use them for rumors or legends of loot! When I'm rolling up a new random dungeon, I like to roll up a magic item that's rumored to be deep down in there somewhere. When the right circumstances show up in the dungeon to match the rumor, then that's where the magic item turns up. Or what if that doesn't happen? Maybe the rumors were simply wrong, or it was true at some point but things have changed since then.

The encounter tables and treasure tables are excellent for quickly creating interesting rumors to pick from. The 5e DMG in particular has much more specialized tables for this in Chapter 3, starting with tables for Dungeon Goals, Wilderness Goals, and Other Goals, which are goals NPCs may ask the party to pursue on their behalf. The following tables of Villains, Allies, and Patrons establish even more details about those potential adventures. Remember that you'll roll these up right at the table. Cycle through these rumors, even while they're incomplete, as the players are “listening to rumors”, and only when they find one to be interesting, finish fleshing it out with all the other rolls for things the players may need to know at that point in time.

Some tables, like the Adventure Introductions and Ideal Adventure Climaxes, are intended to be used for forcing narrative onto the campaign. Obviously, don't do that! But these tables may still be useful for rolling up prophecies or legends on the fly. Next up is Event Based Villain Actions, which may be useful to determine what any would-be trouble makers are intending to get up to, or perhaps what they're in the middle of doing. Framing Events is full of tropes for events which plots or quests can be centered around.

When you find each table in the DMG, consider what kinds of questions you could use it to answer. Even if you're a very creative person already, you are still prone to biases, and all humans are actually pretty bad at faking randomness. Make random tables your first line of defense, saving your creative juices for when they're required, and you'll be running sessions for hours without having any content prepared from the start.

In effect, these random tables are your specialized oracles, answering your questions with specific, thematic, and varied responses.

It is important to respect tables and their results. Have a specific question in mind before you roll on a table, and when you get a result, do your best to use that result to answer your question. Take this opportunity to connect the result with other context you already have in the world. For example, if the players have found a shrine and you need to determine what was worshiped there, you might roll on an encounter table and get “bats” as a result. You may choose to connect this with a vampire faction that's in the campaign, and further respect the result by noting that bats in particular are prominent in this shrine, or that it serves some special purpose for bats, etc. If it makes more sense in your campaign, perhaps instead this is where vampires were brought and sacrificed, killing them permanently.

Random tables are some of the best preparation you can do for a campaign. Encounter tables for a specific region, city, otherworld, etc, are possibly the most useful of all.

Random Encounters

Random encounters will bring your campaign world to life. Encounters are not always hostile. In fact, at least half of them are inclined to be neutral or friendly in disposition. When any creatures are randomly encountered, use 2d6 to determine disposition: 6 to 8 being uncertain, higher being more amicable, and lower tending towards hostility; 12 and 2 indicating friendliness and immediate hostile action respectively. These dispositions need not match the creatures’ typical behaviors. For example, “amicable” orcs may be tired, wounded, or even distracted, willing to let the party pass without trouble, or they may even be in trouble and desiring the party's aid, willing to bargain. An amicable evil dragon may still consider the party to be his dinner, but is open to playing a game of riddles with his pets in the meantime.

Random encounters need not be interpreted in an outrageous way. For example, shortly upon leaving town, the level 1 party may encounter a hostile dragon. You may take this as an angry dragon spotted in the distance and headed towards the town, there is no reason the dragon would be pissed off at this party in particular. Now, instead of being a TPK, this encounter is an interesting choice for the players: do they want to warn the city and perhaps even help with the defenses, or do they want to make themselves scarce, saving their own hides and leaving the town to its unfortunate fate.

In order to use random encounters, it is necessary for you to keep track of time as it passes. You need not alert the players to the passage of time, until it is something they would notice, such as a torch burning low.

In the wilderness, roll two to four checks per day, depending on how populated the area is.

In a dungeon, track time in intervals of 10 minutes, making random encounter checks based on how populated the dungeon is, and whether the occupants are on high alert or not. Intervals of 10, 20, or 30 minutes are common for this. In dungeons, also make random encounter checks if the party causes commotion, such as by smashing through a door, as these things tend to draw attention.

In 5e, encounters occur on a result of 18 to 20 on a d20, while older editions use a simple 1 in 6 chance. Older editions include encounter distances in their rulebooks, but 5e has only included them on their wilderness DM screen. Within the confines of a dungeon, encounters are better placed based on context.

How Many Creatures Encountered

Some encounter tables will include a quantity, like d3 Giant Rats, these usually presume a party size of 4 characters. If your party is double that size, then double the number encountered as well, as that many characters are likely to draw relatively more attention. Other tables don't include encounter quantities, so here I will share a simple technique which works in all editions of D&D, based on Hit Dice.

Hit Dice are the number of dice rolled when calculating a creature’s HP, not counting any modifiers after that, so 4d8+12 is a 4 Hit Dice creature.

Dungeon Level is what floor of a dungeon you're on, where deeper floors will be more dangerous. You may count days into the wilderness as dungeon level, if you want to treat the wilderness as a sort of dungeon (you should!)

Roll a d6, and multiply it by the dungeon level. That's how many Hit Dice of creatures appear in the encounter. So for dungeon level 2, a roll of 6 means 12 hit dice are encountered. If the encountered creature only has 1 hit dice, then 12 of those appear; but if it has 3 hit dice, then only 4 of them appear.

For a party of 1-4, use a d6 for this. Add another d6 for every 4 after that: 2d6 for 5-8, 3d6 for 9-12, and so on.

Remember to roll encounter distance, disposition, and whether either side has surprised the other.

Gamified Encounter Tables

Encounter tables are a great thing to create live at the table! When the players enter a dungeon, you probably have the seeds for an encounter table already, based on whatever clues led players to the dungeon in the first place. As they descend into the first floor of the dungeon, write the numbers 1 through 4 at the start of 4 lines, title the table “floor 1”, and fill out the first one or two lines with creatures you already know can be found there. Leave the rest of the lines blank, they can be surprises even to you! To use the table, roll a d6. If it's a result from 1 to 4, use the entry on your table. If that entry is blank, roll again on the generic encounter table, and add that to your table too, you'll likely be seeing them again. If the result is 5 or 6, just roll on the generic encounter table, but don't add it to your table, it's just a very unusual occurrence on that floor. In this way, your dungeon floors will have both innate consistency and variety. When the players move onto a different floor of the dungeon, or between regions on a single floor, start a new random table!

If you are creating these random tables live, it has become a part of your game as well. Listening for rumors in town or finding tracks in a dungeon might let you fill out more of the random encounter table (so you better know what to expect) without actually having to encounter it first.

Solo Play Procedure

Have an Overarching Incentive for Adventure

Earlier editions of D&D provided an obvious overarching incentive, by rewarding players with XP for recovering treasure to a safe place. This is a great system even for Good and Lawful parties, because treasure is incidentally gained in the process of successful adventuring. This is a great system for sandboxes (and Zero Prep!) because treasure (and adventure) can be found anywhere in the world. D&D also rewards XP for successful combat encounters, though this is usually secondary compared to the XP reward for treasure.

5e only offers a system for rewarding XP for combat, with other sources of XP dependent on DM fiat. I recommend codifying that fiat as a reward for obtaining treasure, based on the “GP for XP” incentive of earlier editions. Considering the amount of XP required per level, and the amount of treasure the DMG advises will be found at each tier of play, I suggest rewarding 4 XP for every 1 GP of treasure found in 5e. So if a party of 4 finds 100 GP and splits the treasure evenly, every character will receive 25 GP and 100 XP.

Roll Up Characters

Decide what kind of adventuring party you want to play. If you have all of the characters already, that’s great, but some characters may have died in a previous session, or maybe you want a different party composition, or to include a class you don’t have in your repertoire yet. Leave some characters in town, roll up some others to include, etc.

I recommend starting with a party of 4, picking one of them to be your “main” to focus on roleplaying for that session. In future sessions, you may choose to have a larger or smaller party. You may also be able to afford to go on an adventure with a single character, who has hired several mercenaries to help them.

Listen For Rumors

While your party is in town, they are listening for adventure opportunities. Use the random tables in the DMG to roll up the seeds of adventure. Let the party use their skills to learn more about the adventure, where a successful skill check reveals more aspects of the adventure at this point. For failed skill checks, do not roll on those tables; those things will be discovered incidentally down the line, but only once they matter (which is how adventurers would discover them anyway).

For a party’s initial adventure, and especially if this is your first time using the Zero Prep Solo Play method, I recommend taking the 1e DMG’s advice for the first session: adventure into a dungeon that’s within a half day’s walk of town. This will allow your party to return to town at night to rest and resupply, and adventure again the next day. The 5e DMG offers many tables in Chapter 5 to help with this initial dungeon. You may use Chapter 3’s Adventure Villains and Adventure Allies to determine what legend surrounds that dungeon (if any), and roll once on Magic Item Table G to determine a treasure supposedly located in the dungeon. (referee’s note: such a treasure would only be found on or below the 4th floor of the dungeon) Relate the treasure to the Hero or Villain, and consider that the item would probably now be wielded or guarded by a dungeon inhabitant.

Prepare For Adventure

Now is your chance to go shopping and hire any specialized help you think you’ll need. It’s also another chance to switch up the party to something that might be better suited for the adventure you’re going to pursue.

Preparation is a very important part of adventure. Map the course and figure out how many days it will take to reach your destination, how much food and water you need for the journey, and other issues related to encumbrance. Food and water may be less of an issue if you’re journeying through places with sources of water and access to foraging, but environments like deserts should not be taken lightly. Grab some torches, refill your lamp oil, carry along some extra arrows!

A few coins to hire some wagons will solve many problems, and a few more coins for guards can keep things safe. (See the 5e PHB, Chapter 5, Expenses - Services table for hirelings and mercenaries) When you’re in the wilderness, having a safe camp nearby will be a great boon. It’s also a great spot to source some extra manpower or new heroes despite being in the wilderness, if your party’s own ranks thin unexpectedly.

Make it a goal to get back to safety by the end of your gaming session. This will make it easier on you next time you intend to play, allowing you to refine your party and their equipment before they head back out on their next adventure. It gives you frequent chances to pivot to new adventures which you may find more exciting; this is a sandbox and there is no plot you must play through, you are adventurers experiencing many facets of an ever-changing world, and leaving your own mark upon it as you go.

Embark On Adventure

Once your adventure begins, you’ll usually be switching between two main modes of play.

The first is an overland or wilderness travel mode, where you will count off days and make wilderness encounter checks along the way. If the distance is very short, like a half day’s travel, you may make a single wilderness encounter check. Having to retreat at this stage may simply cost you a day, if you are near town; but hopefully you have accounted for delays if you are leading a whole caravan.

The second mode is dungeon exploration mode. Here you’ll track time in 10 minute intervals, as described earlier. Light your torches, and establish two marching orders: single file (for 5ft passages), and three abreast (for 10ft passages). This will make it easier to manage multiple characters, as you can assume they are acting in formation by default.

Establishing Adventuring Play Patterns

Extending on the idea of established marching orders, you will soon desire to establish other default processes as well. Perhaps for every door, you want your rogue to search it for traps, disarm those traps if found, and unlock the door if necessary. List those steps out, and you can roll down that list quickly for each door. If the search for traps is successful, then roll to see if the door is trapped, to get your answer. But if the search is unsuccessful, then wait until the door is opened, to roll to see if the door is trapped.

You want to be able to make unbiased rulings, so how do you decide whether the characters step on a pressure plate, for instance? 1e offers us an easy solution here. Using marching order, front to back, there is a 50% chance each character will trigger the pressure plate, so roll until someone triggers it, or perhaps everyone gets lucky! If the trap is triggered, resolve it accordingly, targeting that character (and perhaps also the characters nearby, depending on the sort of trap it is), rolling saving throws, etc, as usual.

Random Dungeons with Appendix A

The first Strategic Review gave us the “SOLO DUNGEON ADVENTURES” tables, which were included later in 1e (near verbatim) and 5e (with some adaptations), as Appendix A in each. Read the appendix before attempting to use it.

In general you will begin by descending into a Starting Area, which immediately branches your dungeon into multiple directions. Be careful not to roll up any more of the dungeon than you can actually see! Leave the passages unfinished, and the other sides of doors unknown, until you shine a torch down those directions, or until you open those doors.

For OD&D or 1e, you may read my guide on that dungeon generator here. https://alchemicraker.substack.com/p/how-to-solo-play-1e-appendix-a-dungeons The remainder of this section will be for 5e specifically.

Take special note that rooms typically have doors for their exits, while chambers have passages as exits instead. When finding where a passage leads, use the Passage table, and when you open a door, use the Beyond a Door table.

When you discover a room or chamber, then roll up its exits, purpose, and “Dungeon Chamber Contents”. If there is treasure, do not roll it until any monsters have been defeated. If there are traps, those will trigger unless they are found first.

As usual, only roll on tables if the party should now know what the result is, otherwise keep it a mystery. For instance, wait until you successfully parley for an encountered creature’s aid, before rolling a “Monster Motivation” to determine what it wants from you.

As a simple rule of thumb, the party takes about 10 minutes to look around a new room, and another 10 minutes to rummage and loot it. Every door or 10x10 area of floor or wall searched thoroughly, such as for traps or secret doors, is another 10 minutes. Retracing their steps through areas they've already explored is much easier, counting only 10 minutes per ~10 rooms retraced.

Remember to roll random encounter checks every 10 to 30 minutes in the dungeon, depending on the dungeon’s level of activity.

Treasure should never be freely accessible. If treasure is discovered without a monster, then there will surely be traps or hazards protecting it, which must be braved before the treasure can be had.

Session Wrap Up

As I’m often short on time, I tend to wrap up sessions after finding a good treasure haul. 50 coins weigh 1 pound (in 5e), and you'll need to get the treasure back to town before you get XP for it! So after loading up on treasure, we’ll take the shortest path back to the surface and head back to town to collect our XP and spend our gains. Hopefully your dungeon has ended up with multiple paths back to the surface, these can make it very convenient to resume exploring your dungeon without having to walk back through the entire thing every time.

Now’s a great time to level up your characters (if they have enough XP) and do some shopping. If your party has any special weapons or tools they need made, now is a great time to put in orders for those things, so they can be ready for your next session. (Because you’re playing with 1:1 time, right?)

Campaign Rules

The rules of the game are your playground as a player. You are free to roam within them, and when you poke the world, it can react accordingly, without needing fiat at every step. It is important that you follow the rules of your campaign, beginning with the rules of the system you have decided to play. If there are some rules of the system which are truly horrendous, then establish an alternative campaign rule in its place. You will be respecting that campaign rule as though it were any other in the core rulebook, as far as things are concerned.

Do not be quick to remove rules which may seem tedious, such as encumbrance, counting ammunition, and tracking torchlight. Those are not only constraints which emulate the pulp fantasy adventure experience, but they are also rewarding when your planning works out well, and sources of tension and excitement when they dwindle low. Even in Lord of the Rings, Legolas runs out of arrows, and it is quite significant when the hobbits obtain elven bread.

It is good to determine an order of precedence and scope of rules for your campaign, for example my own 5e campaign uses the 5e PHB and DMG, referencing the 1e DMG to fill in any gaps. I’m also using Arcana of the Ancients, with a 1 in 6 chance to use AotA treasure tables in place of the DMG Magic Items tables, and Veins of the Earth, for if the party ever decides to go deep underground.

My own preference for 5e is to make adventure preparation more important, which I solve by limiting darkvision and cantrips. I also prefer faster combat than the HP slug-fest 5e provides by default. You can see my full list of Zero Prep 5e campaign rules here. https://alchemicraker.substack.com/i/139438357/campaign-rules

Gamification and Expanding Campaign Rules

If you find yourself getting into territory not well covered by the rules, large or small, you may resort to augmenting your campaign with additional rules from another existing source, or even designing your own. It is best not to get too sidetracked by designing rules here, or your campaign will grind to a swift halt.

Remember that D&D has you managing many different limited resources, including time, money, and expendable equipment like arrows, torches, and rations. Consider which resources you are spending when you attempt to do things that aren’t clearly handled by the rules. While you cross the island for a specific tool to defeat your enemy, your enemy may very well have escaped or increased their defenses. If you are not sure of an exact time limit, decide on a chance instead, such as a 1 in 4 chance that the thieves guild robs the target each night this week, and so you may need to keep watch on multiple nights before encountering them.

For another example, you may decide that for a mystery you are trying to solve, you will put all the pieces together and head to one location which you hope will be the correct one, but very well may not be. Decide then that every “good and logical” attempt has a 1 in 6 chance of being right, and roll that check each time until you find the culprit; or perhaps you do not find the culprit within a time limit and they ultimately escape! Decide also that finding significant clues along the way increases your chance of success by +1 per major clue. Upon finding and confronting your foe, the gig is up, and if they get away (or if you have to flee), your search will have to begin from scratch. This simple gamification of the mystery can now be run without fiat, and is as much a rule in your game as any other (for the duration of the mystery, anyway).

If gamification is something you are comfortable and proficient with, then you may augment your campaign in this way. Otherwise, you should prefer to play to your choses system’s strengths: where rules exist. It is possible, though unfortunate, that you are not able to achieve the sort of experience you are looking for, with the system you want to achieve it with. You may need to find another system whose rules better emulate that actual experience. I will repeat an earlier warning here as well, that a “rules light” system provides even less support, and thus will probably be even worse for generating that experience you are looking for.

5e Solo Play Report & Retrospective

A solo play example of this playstyle, complete with retrospective, can be found here:

Between Sessions

In the previous session, some fey made a map of the surface floor of a dungeon for the players. This was handed to the party in-game at the end of the first session, and I promised to have it to the players by the start of session 2. Cue the night before session 2, humorously asking myself “why did I promise to prep, in this zero prep campaign?”

(If you are one of my players, skip to the following “Game Time: Downtime” section if you want to avoid spoilers)

(Map made with https://app.dungeonscrawl.com)

I knew I wanted the map to be incomplete, simply leading to the downstairs, pointing out traps the tiny fey would have noticed, and leaving out traps they would have missed. A roll on the Dungeon Purpose table tells me this dungeon is a stronghold, so I'm thinking the entrance will have a guard post and small barracks. I knew already that the building was 150x150’, that the outside was constructed by hill giants (large stone blocks), and that the inside was probably constructed by hobgoblins, or at least for humanoids of their size (brick). Random tables (DMG) further inform me that they worship something here.

I like mysteries and weird stuff, so I'll put an insane wraith in a hidden room near the prison cells, and a crystal egg on prominent display in a shrine, guarded by an invisible, high level ward that will utterly kill any low level creature who touches it. Hidden doors at the back of the shrine lead to a small treasure room. Both the shrine’s treasure room and the wraith room are big obvious areas on the map, suggesting hidden or not yet accessible passage into those areas. Reading the Monster Manual regarding Wraiths, they could normally pass through walls, so the bricks of this chamber will be a different color, some material impermeable to them. Lastly, I'll put two different downstairs and a bunch of smaller rooms for players to search, if they want to invest the time to do so. The fey have put a clear warning about the magic ward on the crystal, and they've also marked an open path where there's an illusory wall. Lots of different avenues for players to pursue or bypass, and still a very helpful map despite being incomplete. The downstairs is left for later, I can fill those with Appendix A if they get there.

A map was all I promised to prep, and I've already exceeded that, so I deliberately stop here.

At the end of the previous session, it was questioned whether a month will have passed since the prior session (actual 1:1 time) or if 1 month = 1 week makes more sense for this campaign, as we're only meeting once a month anyway. Personally I lean towards 1 month = 1 month, but I understand the hesitation, and I'm satisfied enough for the benefits that sessions of play are ending in safe places, and that there's downtime between sessions. I'll be fine being variable with things, 1 week to 1 month passing between sessions. There's only one play group, so it is not necessary to be invariable on the time ratio. A concession I'm willing to make for now. Will I regret this later? This reminds me that the players did have some downtime activities, which I'll be able to resolve using Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Speaking of which…

I'm adding Tasha's to my DM repertoire, for one specific purpose. Over Christmas break I read through TCE on a whim, and discovered the section on “Patrons”. Like the rest of the advice WotC gives, it's almost all bad. However, like the DMG, it includes random tables. Quite a few random tables, for a number of different types of factions and agencies! Similar to how I'm including XGE for its random encounter tables, I'll be including TCE for its faction tables. The rules for players have not changes, they are still limited to the PHB and other stipulations listed in the first session report.

Lastly, we were all coming down from an assortment of flu, colds, etc, and I wasn't sure my voice would hold out for a full session, so I was prepared for this session to be shorter, perhaps 2 hours.

Game Time: Downtime

Our gaming session started with the players looking over the map, and confirming their downtime activities with me. Both players essentially wanted to tap into their backgrounds (Lume military and a druid grove) and request support with their investigations of the hobgoblin threat which they had found. Each player made a charisma roll for this, and I rolled in Tasha's to find out who each of them are requesting help from. The ranger’s request, though subpar, fell upon the ears of a captain with a very deep hatred of hobgoblins, and so a squad of 10 guards was assigned to the Ranger, which was all the captain could do without more evidence of the threat. The grove elder, on the other hand, was much less concerned, but the Cleric rolled alright, and so was assigned a single scout.

Downtime complete!

Return to the dungeon entrance was fast tracked, as the characters already knew the way. Two random encounter rolls came up positive here. One, a group of 3 harpies was trailing the party. The players rolled excellently on a knowledge check at this point, and were informed that harpies were intelligent and dangerous, but would not act recklessly; from which the players determined that either the harpies were waiting for someone to wander off alone, or that they were spying and reporting on the party's activities. The scout was assigned to watch the harpies for clues that they were communicating with anyone else, but no such evidence was ever witnessed. Upon scouting the entrance of the dungeon, a manticore flew in and ambushed the harpies, flying away with one in its maw, while the other harpies dove into the ruins for cover and escape. This event quite amused the players, that “the random encounter had a random encounter”. The threat of the harpies and manticore outdoors loomed for the remainder of the session, though none of them were not spotted again.

Entering the lair, the players decided to start forcing the doors into the small rooms, taking time to search some of those rooms for small amounts of coins. Then they decided to open the double doors into the shrine area, and carefully explore in there. The crystal egg intrigued them, as did the chests in each of the three alcoves. Around this time, the players discovered there was a wall, where on the map there was an open passageway, and discovered the wall to be an illusion (so the fey’s map was correct). One of the alcove chests contained a small amount of treasure, and the next one was trapped (sleeping gas, which knocked out two PCs and several NPCs) and contained only rocks. Once everyone was recovered from that, they checked the third chest and, searching it first and discovering it to be trapped, decided to leave it alone.

Looking into the crystal egg, clutched in metal claws atop an altar in the shrine, the players were now especially wary of the fey’s warning of a “magic ward” on the egg, and besides checking it out with a torch and determining that it was simply refracting the torchlight, they decided to leave it well alone.

The players found the wooden door before the downstairs to be suspicious, as all the other doors had been reinforced, but this one was not. Checked for traps, and found a trap which would trigger upon the door swinging open. Without a better way to disarm the trap, they decided to light the door on fire and let it burn while they explored another area, and return later. The players noted and enjoyed that this was a solution which would not have been possible in (most) videogames.

Next they explored the guard post, small armory room, barracks, and commander’s office. 20 rotted scimitars were taken, though without financial value, to ensure that hobgoblins couldn't use them either. The equivalent of one full treasure hoard was found between the barracks and commander's office. Too easy? Perhaps. But I rolled and determined the place had not yet been looted, and so the hobgoblin’s treasure remained exactly where it was left a hundred years prior. The DMG says the party should find 7 treasure hoards of level 0-4, so there's still 6 more of these to go. Verisimilitude wins!

The players enjoyed being able to make the rolls for treasure at this point, totaling 657gp in value, which they split evenly between the four (as the troops’ pay was already covered), giving each of them 657xp as well (1gp = 4xp in this campaign). The hoard also turned up three magic treasures in the commander's stash: an unidentified potion containing a very large fingernail, a quiver with 20 +1 magic arrows, and goggles of night vision (significant because player races in this campaign do not get dark vision).

It's nearing IRL time constraints at this point, and the players note that they need to return to the grove before the end of the session. They check the door they had burned down before leaving, and found an open pit trap right in front of it, confirming their earlier findings that it had been trapped.

Two encounter checks turn up negative as the party returns to the grove, and there we ended the session.

Feedback and Retrospective

What follows are various thoughts and some feedback received regarding this session.

Firstly, despite my earlier worries, we had no issue playing for the full four and a half hours of time we had available to us.

Over Christmas break I had played some solo Chainmail + OD&D, including a dungeon delve and combats with up to 11 characters, fully Theater of the Mind, without any issue. I figured it would be fine to run this session TotM, despite deciding in my previous retrospective that I would get a VTT set up. As a result, my player who took excellent notes last time, spent much of this session in Inkscape, tracking character locations and torch radius on the map I had provided them. This was criminal. The players want a visual so they can better communicate what's going on, and I'm fine with that, so we'll use a VTT next time, even if it's just with whiteboard features (I will not be making “battle maps”).

Now, let's take a moment to appreciate doors. Especially stuck doors, and opening them. Even 5e makes sure to point out this important task to both players and dungeon masters. From the PHB:

And from the DMG:

Due to my OD&D dungeon delving, I had grown accustomed to rolling strength checks to open stuck and locked doors throughout the dungeon, and appreciated the risk that it posed, as every new door was an in-game time investment (as the player, rolling door checks was extremely fast), with random encounters looming everywhere. I remembered reading that in 5e, Strength could be used for opening stuck doors. Excellent! The area was largely unpopulated, so I gave it a 1 in 6 chance every 20 minutes for a wandering encounter to happen. Opening a stuck door on the first try wouldn’t cost any time, but retries would cost 10 minutes each. Over the 80 minutes and 4 wandering monster checks of dungeon time, there were no wandering monsters. This relates to feedback I received from one of the players, as follows:

deciding who got to open the door and dealing with repeated failure was about as tedious as it gets

the interesting decision was which door to go through, but all of them had a little dice-roll challenge attached

This feedback hits home, in a way, and is something I must consider. Chainmail + OD&D is heroic, but 5e is superheroic. Do superheroes need a door opening roll? Do doors mean anything at all in 5e? The rules do exist for them, at least.

The time and risk of busting down doors still seems like it should be a relevant factor, but perhaps my execution was poor? The Basic Expert’s latest Natural Ones livestream, featuring John McGowen and his new The Living Campaign book, aired two days after this session, and McGowen’s point about the role of skill checks rang true to me. Perhaps it would be better if I (as the referee) were rolling those strength checks for doors? This will be my current plan to try going forward.

The other player named this session “Open Door Policy”, which is quite fitting.

As a week had passed, I should have been rolling a d6 in each room or area to see if things had changed (namely, to see if any monsters had taken residence in those rooms).

I should do more campaign preparation. I need a dungeon clock, and a reminder list for things such as the stale room checks, and for the % chance of rolling encounters and loot from the core 5e rulebooks vs Arcana of the Ancients.

Through both luck and deliberacy, the players have avoided trading any blows in combat for a second session in a row.

Last session I described the sprites’ map as having smells written on it, and I forgot to include those on the map. I should read the previous session notes before running or prepping for the next session.

80 minutes of dungeon time played, over the course of 270 actual minutes. That's 3 minutes to 1 in-game minute, not counting the downtime or expedited travel time.

Unnecessary time sinks fell into two main categories. Firstly was time spent managing the map and tokens in a program ill suited for it. This could be mitigated largely by using a VTT. Managing ten tokens was also time consuming, and could be mitigated managing them with a single, larger token to represent them at scale and establishing a marching order and formation. We did establish those things, to be clear, but managing 15 tokens just to inspect adjacent doors or turn a corner seems unnecessary. I also have a duty to point out when a degree of resolution seems unnecessary for the tasks at hand. I suspect all of this to improve over time with familiarity as well.

The second main time sink was opening doors. Deciding who was trying to open them, role playing every success or failure of those dice, etc. This is something that may also improve with familiarity, but a change in process of some sort may be prudent as well, such as establishing a default order of who checks for traps, who pairs up to try the door first, who tries second, and so on, so that things proceed more quickly. I’m sure that the amount of play time that went into opening doors was too much.

The players were thoughtful about managing their torches. Who was carrying them, and about not casting half the group into darkness due to turning corners and such.

The players were also thoughtful about their goals, especially about finding more solid evidence of the hobgoblin threat in order to secure more support from Lume’s military.

The session was largely a success, but also reveals room for improvement.

Before the next session I need to learn 5e’s Appendix A, the way I have learned 1e’s Appendix A: through using it. I’ll be trying some solo 5e dungeon delving, in this same campaign, to improve my Book Control at the table. As it is topical, I’m inclined to write up my thought process and approach to solo gaming with D&D. Most of the online advice regarding solo play is bad advice, and that needs to be remedied.

Until next time!

In this process I prioritize RAW, and citations are included wherever possible so that you can look it all up yourself. Where the rules are vague, they are left equally vague here. Clear rules for wandering monster checks are absent. The example dungeon adventure has a 1-in-6 chance of an encounter every 20 minutes, but this interval is not strongly prescribed by the rules, so use it as a suggestion for how to handle random encounters in your own dungeons. In addition, remember that a wandering monster check can be made any time the party makes loud noises.

Two liberties or assumptions are taken in the following procedures:

First, many suggestions for procedure derive from the example dungeon adventure that is provided in the DMG. You may decide just how much that information is transferrable to other dungeons. Making only a half-filled, 4 entry random encounter table per floor, for instance, derives from the example dungeon, but is only a suggestion I make for the enhancement of solo play (as opposed to knowing what all monsters are present on a floor from the start). Building up the table as you encounter more monsters is therefore derived from the rules, but is not strictly prescribed by them.

Second, the order in which the party (and thieves specifically) are anticipated to interact with traps is of my own estimations, allowing trap detection and disarming skills to cleanly fit into the solo play experience. This leads to my main disclaimer:

These orders of procedure are simply suggestions, with the goal of allowing you as much of a RAW experience of an Appendix A dungeon crawl as possible. You must defer to the rules of the DMG when adjudicating any situation, and prioritize that over whatever steps I’ve described here. This is intended to be more of a checklist and guide, to help keep the experience smooth and interesting.

I begin with an explanation and reasonings of the procedure. At the end, I include a “Quick Reference”, which is more handy to use when actually playing. All references are to the DMG unless noted otherwise.

Preliminary Setup

Establish marching orders for 5' (single file), 10' (3 abreast), and 20' (6 abreast) wide spaces.

Create wandering monster tables for each level reached, with room for at least 4 entries per list. (p94) If inhabitants are known, include them in the list, and if none are known, I suggest filling out only one or two using Appendix C (which you probably see signs of upon entering the area). When an empty entry is rolled you have discovered a new inhabitant, use Appendix C (p175) to fill out that entry. A dungeon level may have multiple random encounter tables, for thematically differing areas on that level. (p94)

Keep a key for each level, especially for rooms, chambers, and other encountered features, even if they are only partly known (eg. a door implies a room exists on the other side). Information may be later discovered about rooms and chambers, so leave some space for future notes.

An upper level map is expected to be provided by the DM, withing which the entrance down into the first room of the dungeon will be located. (p169) Rolling on the outdoor encounter table may help determine what currently lives there. (p169)

Help set the stage by rolling up the dungeon atmosphere with Appendix I: Dungeon Dressing (p217). Air currents, odors, and air quality imply a lot about the dungeon. Many more tables within Appendix I can help dress the areas you explore, and it is left as an exercise to the reader to determine when best to use them.

Mapping & Procedure of Play:

Always begin in a room, in the center of a sheet of graph paper, with stairs leading down into it (p169). In this process, you will reveal the map as you explore it, within the limitations of the random generation process. Use the party's sight radius (torchlight, infravision, etc) to determine when to reveal new areas.

Entering a Room or Perceiving a Chamber:

Roll room or chamber size (p170 V.)

Roll number and location of exits (doors for rooms, 30' passages for chambers) (p171 V.C., V.D.), if secret doors are indicated, note this on the room key to roll for later.

Roll room or chamber contents (p171 V.F.), if treasure is rolled, note this on the area key to roll for later. If a monster is rolled (p174 Dungeon Encounter Matrix), there is likely an encounter, where surprise indicates superior positioning of the surprising party.

Exploring a Room or Chamber:

Casual examination and mapping of a 20'x20' area takes 1 turn. (Honor system here, since you're already mapping the area.) If treasure is present, roll to see what it is contained in (p171 V.H.). If additional protection is desired, 1-8 indicates a trap (p171 V.I.) and 9-20 is concealment (p171 V.J.). If trapped, note this in the area key for now, and reveal its nature later. The manner of concealment may prevent your party from being able to access the treasure at this time.

If there is nothing to be searched, casual examination reveals all there is to note about the room, and thorough examination is unnecessary (p97).

Thorough examination for 1 turn reveals the specific locations and amount of treasure itself (p171 V.G.). Thieves are assumed to use their skill to detect and disarm traps at this point (p97), otherwise traps will certainly be sprung in this process (p171 V.I.).

Retrieving treasure prior to thorough examination, or if done hastily, yields only a fraction of that room's treasure, and certainly springs any traps (p171 V.I.). If the total amount of treasure is unknown, roll it now (p171 V.G.), so that the weight can be determined.

Secret doors:

If the room contains secret doors, 1 round per 10'x10' area will account for time spent tapping on floors and walls to discover their locations (p171 V.C., V.D.).

Discovery of secret doors does not mean access to the door mechanism has been discovered (p97). Discovering the mechanism is a 1 in 6 chance per turn of thorough examination, or a 2 in 6 chance for elves and half elves (p97).

Listening at a door:

1-in-12 chance there IS a monster (with or without treasure), and only the monster may be surprised in the subsequent encounter (p173). Proceed as normal (p173), noting that even if no monster is heard, there may still be a monster in the room.

Attempting to open a door:

Doors are hard to open for player characters, but generally not so for other inhabitants of the dungeon (p97). Most doors are 8' wide, permitting up to three characters to attempt to open it at once, while a 3' door permits only a single character at a time. Attempts to open a door take time (1 round?), make considerable noise (wandering monster check?), and may be repeated (PHB p9). Chance to open the door depends primarily on strength (PHB p9), where a success from any character opens the door. Chances may be halved for very heavy doors (p97), and may require two or three simultaneous successes to open a locked door (p97). Exceptional strength may allow a single character to open a locked door, though only one such check can be made per character per door (PHB p9). Metal doors will usually be locked, necessitating a lock spell or similar means most of the time (p97). Wooden doors, usually metal bound, require a turn to hack down, and require at least 3 checks to see if monsters are attracted by the noise (p97).

Upon opening a door:

Roll space beyond door (p170 II.), including width of passage for such results (p170 III.A.)

Upon perceiving a (30') passage:

Roll periodic check (p170 I.), side passages indicating branches (30' in each direction, p170 III.), always rolling width of the side passages (p170 III.), and turns indicating 30' further in the direction rolled (p170 IV.).

Timekeeping of Dungeon Exploration (p96-97)

Base movement rate translates to 1 square per 1 factor in a turn (10 minute period).

Traveling along a corridor and mapping its length takes 1 turn per 90’, assuming a base move of 9”.

Examination and mapping of a room or chamber will require about a 10 minute period.

DOOR - search for traps - 1 round

DOOR - listen for noise - 1 round

ROOM - casual examination & mapping of 20'x20' area - 1 turn

ROOM - thoroughly searching after initial examination - 1 turn

SECRET DOOR - simple tapping of floor or wall of 10'x10' area - 1 round

SECRET DOOR - thorough examination for means to open in 10'x10' area - 1 turn

Quick Reference

Entering a Room or Perceiving a Chamber:

1. Roll room/chamber size (p170 V.)

2. Roll number and location of exits (p171 V.C., V.D.), noting secret doors on key.

3. Roll room/chamber contents (p171 V.F.), noting treasure on key, and encountering monsters (p174 Dungeon Encounter Matrix).

Exploring a Room or Chamber:

1. Casual examination and mapping takes 1 turn per 20'x20', revealing treasure containers (p171 V.H.). For protected treasures, 1-8 notes a trap (p171 V.I.), 9-20 is concealment (p171 V.J.).

2. Thorough examination for 1 turn reveals present treasure (p171 V.G.). Thieves now detect and disarm traps (p97), otherwise traps are sprung (p171 V.I.).

3. Hastily retrieving treasure yields only a fraction of it, and springs any traps (p171 V.I.). Roll treasure now if unknown (p171 V.G.), for weight.

Secret doors:

1. Locating secret doors takes 1 round per 10'x10' area (p171 V.C., V.D.).

2. Discovering how to open is 1 in 6 chance per turn, or 2 in 6 chance for half/elves (p97).

Listening at a door:

1. 1-in-12 chance to hear monster (p173), which you may surprise.

Attempting to open a door:

• Each attempt to open a door (PHB P9) takes 1 round and makes noise.

• Locked doors require multiple simultaneous 1s, or exceptional strength.

• Hacking through wood doors takes 1 turn and 3 wandering monster checks for the noise.

Upon opening a door:

1. Roll space beyond door (p170 II.), including width of revealed passages (p170 III.A.).

Upon perceiving a (30') passage:

• Roll periodic check (p170 I.)

• Side passages indicate branches (p170 III.), rolling width (p170 III.)

• Turns proceed 30' further (p170 IV.).

Goal

My goal is to run a campaign with minimal prep, no storytelling, less focus on character builds, faster combat, and minor tweaks to restore the necessity of adventure prep. I am trying for concise homebrew rules, deferring to official rules variations where possible. Players are limited to options in the PHB, with some character creation stipulations listed below. As DM I am referring first to 5e PHB, DMG, MM as resources, XGE for random encounter tables, plus Arcana of the Ancients for fantasy sci-fi content and Veins of the Earth as an Underdark alternative. 1e DMG is referenced as a backup for whatever random tables the 5e DMG lacks, which is less than one might expect.

I will be including Campaign Rules, Prep, and other details about the playstyle and context, so that the resulting experience can be accurately analyzed.

Campaign Rules

-Gritty Realism rest variant

-All darkvision for player races requires at least dim light, except Drow

-Cantrips, except Eldritch Blast, can be cast a combined number of times per day equal to spellcasting modifier, min 1/day

-Gain 4 XP for every GP gained from adventuring (this roughly matches the coins gained from the # of hoards a party is expected to encounter at each tier of play according to the DMG)

-The Identify spell functions as a 1st level variant of the (5th level) Legend Lore spell, for an item the caster must be holding or wearing, as though you knew nothing about it.

-No feats

-Roll HP at level 1

-Falling to 0 HP causes exhaustion

-Side initiative: declare actions at the start of a combat round, then each side rolls d6, highest roll acts first (sides act simultaneously on ties)

-Characters must train for a week with a mentor, or pay 1,000 gold in self-training, in order to level up (as players will prefer the former, this encourages character ties to world factions at early levels)

-No Folk Hero background (implies too much adventuring background/backstory)

-Game time passes 1:1 with realtime between sessions of play

As DM, I am rolling monster HP from the Hit Dice listed in their HP block, ignoring bonuses to that (thanks Crossface!) I am also using 2d6 for reaction rolls for encounters, and 1 in 6 chance of encounters with frequency from every 10 minutes to 4 hours of adventuring depending on context.

Character creation is RAW, but with Class-Race-Alignment restrictions inspired by 1e, and characters may only be humans and half-humans initially, unlocking other races as their settlements are located by players within the game.

(Race, Class, and Alignment table)

Players are asked to tie their background to a faction in the campaign (inventing one if necessary), and/or can tie them to a location on the map (again inventing one if necessary). Soldier’s Military Rank allows requesting soldiers from your faction if you can make a case for it, and Hermit’s Discovery gives you the location of a cool dungeon or magic item that you can seek out.

Campaign Prep

I generated two hex maps with Hex Kit, one for a surface map and one for an underground map (30 mile hexes, so each one can contain one settlement the size of a town or larger). The surface map was touched up to include an arctic mountain range, a desert, and a sea in one corner with some islands. A few settlements icons were added in reasonable areas, and I used the DMG to roll up some government types, for the loosest of domain planning and stage setting:

(Player's view of the Surface Map)

The human Empire of Lume in the center stage (1415 through 2411), the classic feudal setting, with a king who ended a war with the desert kingdom and has recently passed away. (Other details pending discovery)

The human Coalition of Ahriman in the North West.

The gnome villages around the arctic mountain range to the North.

The desert Kingdom of Iskander to the East.

The barbarians to the South East.

An Elven Court in the forest in the West, which would be opposed by a Winter Fey court in the arctic mountains to the North.

The underground map correlates with the surface map, marking regions of Underdark, normal caverns (dwarves), and vaults. I want to include Arcana of the Ancients (thanks KraftyMatt!), so loot from the AotA treasure tables will be used with a 1 in 6 chance in most areas, or a 3+ in 6 chance in areas near vaults. The stuff underground will bias events and content which are generated on the surface.

Players, Char Gen, and Pre-Game Play

There were two players, both old friends, one with prior conventional 5e experience (as a player), and the other one with very limited 5e experience. We played through discord, everyone on camera, all theater of the mind.

One player went all in on quickly generating characters prior to the session, making tables so that even starting spells could be rolled up. He came to the table with 11 characters to pick from, and chose two of them (a nature cleric acolyte and a druid sage, who worshiped in the same grove). We helped the other player roll up two characters at the start of the session (a ranger soldier and a barbarian hermit). For both, we attached those characters to the world: the Grove of Rhythms (1714), an outpost on the Eastern wall of Lume (2411), and an expat from the barbarian lands of the South.

The Hermit's Discovery was the location of a time traveling wizard’s mansion on the peak of a mountain (1708, above the map!)

Coming up with explanations for why characters knew certain languages/incorporating their background helped with building the world as well. For instance, the Hermit’s knowledge of undercommon and dwarven tied in to their discovery, in that the time traveling wizard’s research notes involved mind flayers and related beings.

In the meantime, Q&A from the Cleric+Druid's player revealed bandit activity from a neighboring hex (1815) intruding on the Grove's hex. Pre-game scouting of the area (a survival check, while the other player was making their chars) located an unclear number of tracks leading into the ruins of an ancient giant’s settlement. Within the ruins they spotted many hobgoblins that had been turned to stone. Returning to the Grove to consult with the elder, the elder confirms lore that hobgoblins once had a lair in those ruins, but hundreds of years ago the druids banished them and turned many hobgoblins into stone at that time.

The second player finished making their characters, and we looped him into the Grove (which maintains good relations with the Empire) to begin the session proper.

Session 1, Game Time

Characters: Nature Cleric/Acolyte of the Grove (10 HP), Druid/Sage of the Grove (2 HP), Ranger/Soldier from the wall (6 HP), Barbarian/Hermit from the South (3 HP)

After brief prep the 4 returned to the ruins, where the ranger quickly picked up on the trail (it was established that it was a small group of persons earlier, so a d6 now determined 6 sets of tracks: 1 human, 1 hobgoblin, and 4 goblins), which they followed carefully through the ruins.

The ranger could read Giant, and so learned some lore about the settlement, including the presence of a great temple, and signage which would lead them to it if desired. The druid spotted "Warden Vines" growing along the tops of many of the ruins, noting that their unique growth pattern made them useful for anyone able to speak with plants.

At this time, 3 sprites (from the Winter Court) found the party and rolled neutral reactions, so they stayed hidden to follow the party. The ranger checked the weather, and determined it to be quite clear, in case they wanted to check out the temple and return to the intact tracks later. The distraction was decided against, the tracks would continue to guide their way.

The tracks led the party to the entrance of the hobgoblin lair (which they were all very loath to enter at this point, feeling quite unprepared), where they all happened to glimpse one of the sprites who fumbled in their flight. Introductions went very well, and the sprites agreed to help the party with scouting the lair in exchange for a favor.

Around this time there was a random encounter with a giant poisonous snake. Fortune was on the party's side, as they spotted it from 80 feet away. While the party did think they could kill it if they engaged, they decided not to reveal their presence, and instead they backtracked slightly and routed themselves all the way around it, preferring to avoid it entirely as it offered no real reward for the risk, would delay their scouting, and perhaps draw unwanted attention. Related player quote: "Also, you have us scared for our lives [...] we know what kind of campaign you want to run"

The sprites wanted to locate the aforementioned temple, which had also seemed increasingly linked to the ubiquitous stone statues of fleeing hobgoblins seen throughout the ruins. With the party’s help reading the language of Giants, the temple is located, and the sprites deliver a “special relic” “Winter Leaf” offering into a certain offering bowl. The fey are quite pleased at accomplishing their goal, and reveal to the party the presence of a hobgoblin head that is also in the offering bowl. (The party was too scared to climb and look into any of the bowls, especially after learning that.) This information also contradicted an earlier suspicion that the hobgoblins were turned to stone by something from inside the lair, away from which all the stone hobgoblins appeared to be running.

The fey revealed the number of beings in the lair at this point (16, a detail which they had held hostage from the party earlier, in order to help make the deal), and that the hobgoblins only traveled outside the lair when the human was with them. (Cue more theorizing from the players about plans of action). The fey upheld the remainder of their end of the deal: mapping out the inside of the lair. The sprites map most of the top floor, including a stairway down labeled “more darkness”, which I will roll up and provide to the players in the next session. Having successfully scouted the bandits as per their original goal, the party withdrew to the Grove, and the session ended there.

The ranger wants to use this information to request support from the army (more soldiers, which he could command), and perhaps the cleric and druid will be able to get support from the Grove as well, to eliminate the new residents of the local lair. If they succeed, they will have easier access to the (still trapped and perhaps further defended) lair and its treasures. Also discovered in the ruins was a (giant) pawn shop, which may contain remnants of treasure, but the players opted not to get distracted from their scouting goal.

DM Retrospective

Holy crap was I anxious going into this with so little prepared in the way of actual session content! But before we actually got to playing I already had multiple hooks the players were interested in exploring, and the one player was already doing some scouting prep on the side before the other player was ready. Listening to the players and using the DMG tables on the fly does actually work, just like with RAW solo play.

The players really liked being the leaders of the exploration process and of the party (as each brought a henchman/hireling/sidekick/backup npc), making decisions regarding even scouting and prep from the very start; the initiative to investigate the local bandit activities came entirely from the players, and them setting the terms of their scouting from the start got them immediately invested in the success of the undertaking, and so invested in the entire rest of the session as a result.

Naming the settlements also seemed to instantly invest players in those places, despite nothing else being know about those places except their name and hex position on the map. Being quick to generate details about settlements (using the tables in the DMG) instantly helped them to seem like they had always been real places on the map.

More encounters would have meant more chances for social opportunities in addition to combat. I think I should roll more often for encounters in the future. I believe I rolled them quite frequently today, but the 1's were more elusive than they should have been.

Exploring the ruins would have been enhanced with more points of interest, I should have rolled more on the DMG’s settlement tables.

Theater of the mind made exploration more difficult than it needed to be. A VTT will be helpful in the future, even if I only use it in a whiteboard capacity (as I don’t intend on making battle maps for this campaign)

There was a lot of free time for me while players were theorizing and discussing plans, as they explored the city ruins. Rolling on tables (in anticipation for upcoming questions and details, should they become relevant) was always very helpful at these times. I should do this more in the future. I could also use these opportunities to read more into the lore blocks in the monster manual, for randomly encountered monsters I am not familiar with (such as the Sprite).

I had made it clear beforehand to the players that this campaign would be so player-driven that I was going to be sticking to a “zero prep” ethos. Feedback after the session from each of the players: “Even though I know you were making stuff up as you went, it really didn't feel that way” and “it was freeing to know that no matter what direction we tried to go, you were equally unprepared [...] so we weren't like, dodging ideas”

I answered “whatever’s in the book” while grabbing the book to look up the answers to rules questions from players, often enough that players quickly learned to grab the book and look it up themselves, racing me for the answer.

Reading the PHB and DMG the week before the game was an excellent idea.

I need to take the time and bookmark all of the random tables in the DMG and XGE, including the names at the end of the XGE which came in quite handy throughout the session.