Pathfinder 2e remaster beginner box session report/ review

Our current GM was ill this week so I rummaged out myS Starter Box collection for something to run and we decided to try Pathfinder 2e.

To save time my players picked from the pre-gens provided so Valeros the Fighter, Kyra the Cleric and Ezra the Wizard prepared for their first adventure.

The basement of the fishery in Otari had been broken into and the owner sought out the help of some adventurers. The party, suspecting bees were the culprits, readily agreed to help for some gold and ventured into the basement.

The session ran for a couple of hours or so and in that time a couple of obstacles were overcome and three battles were fought.

The beginner box contains lots of useful material- a complete map of the dungeon below, standees representing all the PCs and monsters, cards showing all the actions covered in the rulebook, pre-gen sheets, dice etc. all of it seemed quite well constructed.

The box also contained a players rulebook and a gm’s rule book. The players book has a choose-your-own style solo adventure at the start and the GM book has the dungeon crawl we started.

The books cover a fairly complete set of rules for running a game and also generating characters (albeit from a limited selection). In many ways this is much like the D&D basic set from the 1980s. 

The adventure itself is a bit basic… literally starting with rats in the basement. It’s no Lost Mines of Phandelver. On the other hand it meant I could run it with no real prep - I had only skimmed the scenario hook and first room before starting.

There were a few clunky bits - the fighter didn’t have a shield listed on their character sheet even though they clearly used one. The party tried a couple of obvious things that would have tripped up a novice GM trying to run it from the text.

There is also the issue that one of my players had the older 2e books which aren’t totally compatible with the remaster rules.

However, we all seemed fairly impressed with the system and want to try some more. However, I probably wouldn’t continue the adventure for my group and dig something else out for some PCs made with the full rules. Unless they really want to find those bees.

So on the whole I think this is a really good product. It’s almost up there with the Call of Cthulhu starter set for me. The pathfinder box is a bit more expensive than other starter sets but is packed with a lot of good stuff.

As for the pathfinder 2e rule system - it seems good to me. I suspect I may like it more than D&D 5e.

2026 plans

Firstly, a recap

So last year I said I would learn Pathfinder 2e and/or Warhammer Imperium Maledictum. Well that didn’t happen (although I did buy stuff and played through the PF beginner box solo scenario).
I also said I would finish my reading pile before starting anything else, which lasted around 3 months and then I just bought loads more books.

I did run some modern-setting horror-related sessions, except it was Brindlewood Bay which was not in my plans at all at the start of the year.

So seein as though my 2025 plans were so accurate (cough) it’s time to talk some plans for this year.

Gaming

Most anticipated game is Warhammer The Old World. Unlike last year’s game, it should actually arrive this year (I’ve already preordered the books). Will it finally be the wfrp game that’s actually got good (as opposed to sort of ok) rules?

Other games of interest include The Lands Remaining, which is Jason Cordova’s Carved from Brindlewood version of Elden Ring. An idea so mad it might just work…

There’s also Cörk Børd, the scandi-noir game from Just Crunch, which, if I recall correctly, has a “what kind of knitwear does your detective wear” table.

As to what I’ll play - probably the same as last year. I may run some more Brindlewood Bay but might try something else… but probably not 5e. 

I do have ideas percolating… I keep looking from the pile of pathfinder books to the pile of Enemy Within books and pondering… can it be done? Should it be done? Can I be arsed to do it?

Other stuff

I’ve already started my first book of the year (Mercy aka The Keeper of List Causes aka Dept Q off of Netflix by Jussi Adler-Olsen). I’m not going to keep count but hope to make a decent dent in the reading pile that is and the reading pile that will be.

Podcasts I’m looking forward to include The Lovecraft Investigation’s Crowley kickstarter which I’m assuming will appear this year (it’s most been recorded) and also Our Wars have Ended by the Silt Verses people.

As to everything else? Who knows. Any recommendations welcome.

2025 review

 So that was 2025 then. Already.

Gaming

From looking back at the blog  seems I ran 15 sessions of D&D and 5 sessions of Brindlewood Bay.

In my two gaming groups I played lots of D&D, a few sessions of Dr Who, quite a bit of Pathfinder 1e and a couple of sessions of Starfinder. Also a session of Troika. At the start of the year, we also got to a pause in the ongoing Space 1889 saga with us planning to take out several  war-of-the-worlds-type Martian bases.

I also managed to get play through one scenario of the Arkham Horror Card Game and one game of Gloom of Kilforth. 

On the video game side of things I managed to finish The Excavation of Hobs Barrow. Good folk-horrory, cosmic-horrory game. 

Visual Media

I managed to go to the cinema once this year (actually the first time this decade) to see Weapons, which was… well it’s a fine line between clever and stupid (RIP Rob Reiner). Anyway Weapons was highly enjoyable. 

I can’t remember if I watched anything on streaming that was new this year apart from the new Knives Out film which was quite good.

It wasn’t a great year for TV really. Severance series 2 had some good bits (goats, ORTBO). Adolescence was technically brilliant but as I don’t have kids I kind of didn’t get the same emotional punch that other people got. The new series of Stranger Things is… well just more Stranger Things but has at least continued the Derek renaissance started by Shrinking.

So my actual favourite TV show of the year was Dept Q, the dark Scottish crime show based upon a dark Scandi-noir book but also quite funny and with MVP Akram, the ‘civilian’ assistant.

I’ve also had a subscription to National Theatre At Home this year as we’re stuck inside for… reasons.  I’ve watched some good stuff on too - a sweary play about the Bronte sisters starring Gemma Whelan, one about Nicola Walker teaching Welsh Miners and London Tides, based on Dickens with some epic music by PJ Harvey’s.

Audio media

This year I have almost exclusively listened to 80s bands - Propaganda, The Cardiacs, Half Man Half Biscuit, Swans, Nine Inch Nails (they count just) - and Doom Folk (Lankum, John Francis Flynn)

I’ve listened to a fair few podcasts too. I noticed that my backlog was up to 324 hours so I’ve made an effort to get through them. And now it’s only… 377 hours.

Anyway, I’ve listened tti lots of good stuff - actual plays of The Between and Brindlewood Bay, Grizzly Peaks Radio (Cthulhu) plus the usual monthly smart party/grognard files/Jackson Elias. 

However, I think the best thing I listened to this year was… The Silt Verses (which finished a year ago I know). Truly excellent nasty horror satire. The river rises!

Books

I’ve managed to read quite a lot this year. I’ve already blogged about Tana French. 

I managed to read a variety of stuff - some of the British Library tales of the weird series. Some Alan Moore and M John Harrison weirdness.  

Also, more conventionally, the children of time books by Adrian Tchaikovsky and some books by Emma Newman (who also do a rather interesting podcast together about books and things they like).

Bargain of the year was probably the Raymond Chandler book I got from poor dead WH Smiths for £1. Look out for this guy - he can write. 

I’ve also picked up a few graphic novels/comics this year. The Power Fantasy by Kieron Gillen was pretty good as was In the trees where nobody sees. I also liked Helen of Wyndhorn and Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King and Bilquis Everly.

Other stuff

 I signed up for another OU module on Statistics. Sort of wish I hadn’t now but slowly working my way through it.

I ought to have compared what I blogged with predictions for the year ahead with what actually happened I suppose. Maybe next time but that’s probably enough for now.

Brindlewood Bay: The Jolly Bad Baking Show, final part

Part 1

Part 2 

Having been ushered away from the filming site the Maven opted to review the information they had gathered. 

There had a number of clues but the problem was fitting them into a coherent narrative. Rosemary and Margaret both came up with theories.

Rosemary' slightly outlandish theory was that the whole situation was a set-up by Sheriff Dalrymple, who was fed up with the Mavens showing him up all the time. He had gar as far as ensuring that all four of them had made it to the final of the show (which had admittedly been somewhat unlikely) and faking two murders and an attempted killing. Unfortunately, this theory did not explain why the trained medic Laura had not noticed that Paul Riviera was not dead.

The group were left with Margaret's more prosaic theory that Donna Riviera had plotted the entire thing to get rid of Paul, his ex-lovers (Scott and Melanie, the two contestants) and also to get a presenter job on the revamped show by getting Buck to shoot Timothy. Scott had been saved by Daisy noticing the deliberately frayed cable leading to his oven and Laura had saved Melanie. 

With the benefit of hindsight, this theory was not much less outlandish than Rosemary's. Nonetheless, Margaret went off to she the sheriff. He was unsure and reminded her of a case 120 years ago, when a local man had somehow escaped justice for murdering a dozen people despite the overwhelming evidence that he was guilty.

Eventually, he was persuaded and the suspects were gathered. Buck crumbled first, blaming Donna and it was fair to say that their affair was probably over. Donna was unable to run due to her stilettos but Buck tried to flee. However, he tripped over another stray cabled and they were both taken into custody. Luckily, the filming was in America rather than the UK, or else the HSE would have had a field day.

And thus, another mystery was solved. 

GM Notes:

I think this mystery went better than the first case I ran as everyone had a better idea what the game was about. We could have started a new Mystery but I thought we probably needed a bit of a break to recharge our batteries.

I we do continue at some point, then the Mavens will be invited to an event at the local museum.  

 

 

Brindlewood Bay: The Jolly Bad Baking Show, part 2

 Part 1

 The TV show continued with the cake round.

Rosemary made a Vietnamese cake to commemorate her husband’s death there (falling off a bridge while on holiday), Daisy made a version of her daughter-in-laws wedding cake, Margaret made a frightening black cake as a tribute to Paul Riviera and for some reason Laura made fish-cakes.

Margaret snooped around the tent and found a baking tray on a dresser to the side that was sprinkled with something odd. Spotting a nearby empty tub of rat poison she put two and two together but unfortunately was not quite careful enough and became a bit nauseous.

A makeshift judging team of Jane Leaf and the two presenters, Sue and Timothy, rated all of the maven’s cakes quite highly - Tim was especially impressed with Margaret’s got his cake, but in the end Daisy’s local baking rival, Melanie Blair, was judged to be the winner.

After filming ended, Laura and Margaret decided to question the other two contestants (Melanie and Scott) while Daisy decided to go back to investigate the tent. (Rosemary had gone home to sort out her phone)

Scott told Margaret that Paul’s wife Donna was apparently having an affair with Buck the cameraman but then Margaret’s nausea got worse and she had to visit the ladies restroom.

Meanwhile, Melanie started coughing up blood and collapsed. Luckily, she was saved by Laura’s medical training but a suspicious Sheriff Dalrymple arrived on the scene and misunderstanding the situation, arrested the maven.

Daisy entered the tent to search for more on the rat poison but only found a cake with “You’re next!” written in what she hoped was red icing. Still shaken from earlier events she retreated from the tent and finding everyone else gone, she decided to head home.

Laura managed to patiently explain the situation to the police who finally released her and drove her home.

Finally, Margaret had discovered she was locked in the restroom and everyone else seemed to have left for the night. Undeterred she attempted to escape via a small window. It seemed disaster would strike and that she would fall face first onto the concrete below but she was saved by a timely commercial break (for a local lumber merchant).

The next morning the mavens spent the morning reinvigorating themselves via their hobbies before heading back to do more investigating. This gave Laura the opportunity to remember she had picked up some paper that Melanie had dropped- it was the missing page from the cookbook.

Returning to the crime scene,  an eventful afternoon ensued talking to the cast and crew. Sue Mellon revealed that Melanie had asked her for money and a fairly fruitless discussion with Heath Hendricks, the producer, was interrupted by a commotion outside. In the excitement of leaving the production van, a smashed Britty award was spotted.

Margaret had been attempting to interview Timothy Boosh but just before he could reveal any useful information he was shot by persons unknown.

The police ushered the Mavens off-site for "their own protection" and they were left pondering what they had learnt.

TBC 

. 

 

Brindlewood Bay: The Jolly Bad Baking Show, Part 1

 Cast:

Rosemary, Margaret, Laura and Daisy

We started with Daisy received bad feedback on the Jolly Good Baking Show from judge Paul Riviera for serving him an underbaked pie which contained a live weasel with an eye in its mouth.  However, this just turned out to be a nightmare.

So after a bit of a cosy montage of the Mavens preparing for the show we moved onto the mystery. All the mavens had somehow made it to the televised final of popular British TV programme, "The Jolly Good Baking Show" and they were working through the pie round.

A pear, walnut and blue cheese pie

Daisy's Pork and Apple pie was obviously a triumph (as baking is her cosy move) but Rosemary's pumpkin pie also went down well with the judges due to the large amount of rum included. Unfortunately, Margaret's custard pie had a soggy bottom and was deemed to be a bit of a disaster even though judge Jane Leaf said the fruit preserve was delightful. Finally, Laura's fish pie was also marked down because she had missed the brief that it was meant to be a fruit pie.

Cast, crew and contestants broke for lunch but then disaster struck. Paul Riviera had been found dead in his trailer by producer Heath Hendricks . After a bit of snark about which person's pie had killed him it was determined that he had been murdered by person's unknown. Most of the crew had left the site for lunch, taking Daisy's pork and apple pie with them.

The suspects plus the late Paul Riviera (from the Brindlewood Bay card and dice set)

The mavens sprung (as much as elderly ladies can) into action. Laura grabbed her medical bag as an excuse to examine the corpse. It appeared Paul had been poisoned despite also being tied up and his face covered in flour. She was then ushered from the trailer until the authorities arrived.

Margaret went to the perimeter to determine that the local police force, led by Sheriff Dalrymple had done a surprisingly competent job of keeping people out of the site, limiting the suspect list to the remains judge, two presenters, the contestant, the producer, a cameraman and Paul's wife Donna.

Rosemary went to comfort Donna, who seemed to be taking events in her stride although in need of a stiff drink of cooking sherry plus a ciggie. 

Finally, Daisy went to check on the main marquee, where she found cameraman Buck setting up some establishing shots. Looking around she found that one of the electrical cables in the tent looked dangerously frayed.

She then moved off to the judge's tent but upon entering a mysterious figure attempted to push a dresser on her before fleeing the scene. Visibly shaken she was comforted by Jane Leaf who also revealed that Paul had been putting in unreasonable contract demands that was putting the future of the series in doubt.

Rosemary attempted to find more information about Paul using her phone but it ran out of charge.

Margaret had arrived at the scene of the crime with Sheriff Dalrymple. She scouted around the trailer and discovered an abandoned recipe book. It was authored by Jane and Paul but one of Paul's recipes was missing.

Heath had wandered off but was eventually found to allow Laura to view the outtake footage. He was slightly suspicious of her motives and insisted the Sheriff accompanied her. It seemed despite the perceived friendliness of the show, there was a lot of needle between various cast and crew members.

At that point is was time for the final round of the show (hey, if they won't stop cooking shows due to sexist behaviour of the hosts, why stop when one dies. Plus think of the ratings!). So the bakers prepared for the cake round.

To be continued... 

Part 2

 

Day 7: Journey

 It’s better to travel hopefully than to arrive.

Whoever said that obviously never had to use a rail replacement service bus or had to commute to work.

Let’s face it most journeys are tedious and soul destroying . So that’s another thing that The One Ring gets right with its journey rules.

Otherwise, it’s best to decide on some events for a journey and leave it at that.

In case you had t realised, I don’t really like travelling.

Day 6: Motive

As every amateur detective knows, any scenario needs three things: means, opportunity and motive.

Means: the actors and resources that are in place to challenge or aid the characters.

Opportunity: where and when the scenario occurs, i.e. the setting and timeline.

Motive: why is all this happening? What will happen if the players don’t go blundering through like bulls in the china ship.

Not a bad little theory that I’ve knock up in 5 minutes….

Day 5: Ancient

 What would RPGs be without ancient things?

There’s hardly any games where Ancients don’t feature… Twilight 2000? James Bond?

But otherwise, Sci-Fi (Twilight’s Peak), Fantasy (lost shrines, hidden valleys, dread isles, stupidly long histories), Horror (most stuff for Cthulhu) - Ancients have  been there since the hobby started.

Let’s face it, investigating places or finding things or fighting things that are hundreds,  thousands or even millions of years old is what drives many great adventures. 

As an aside this also reminds me of the bit in one of the new Star Wars films where Han says it’s all true, like it wasn’t just 30-odd years ago. Thatcher, Reagan, Deeley-Boppers… it’s all true…

And of course ancient civilisations feature in my favourite D&D adventure Night’s Dark Terror.

Plus ancient things make me feel less old…

Day 4: Message

This prompt reminds me of the message the players get near the end of Shadows over Bogenhafen, which takes them to the man who tells them what’s going on and where to go, thereby rendering all the investigations they have done so far rather pointless.

Otherwise, I've not got much for today's prompt. 

RPGaDay Day 3: Taverns

 Firstly, a link to the autocratic blog: https://www.autocratik.com/2025/07/announcing-rpgaday2025-in-august.html

 And the picture to remind me what's what.

 

RPGaDay prompt bookshelf

So day 3 is tavens. You meet in a tavern and all that I guess.

As a player you always know something bad is going to happen when the GM starts describing the tavern in detail.

Anyway, I'm going to mention a different kind of tavern, The Gmaing Tavern. A UK based forum of RPG’s and related nerdery.

An impressive number of RPG creators, bloggers and podcasters post there and all kinds of games are discussed, which may be surprising as most of the members are Generation-X grognards.

Unfortunately, the UK government’s crackdown on children accessing user generated content on the internet means that you can’t register there any more.

RPGaDay 2025. Days 1 and 2, or the ballad of cussing Goldberry.

 Oh it's RPGaDay again and as I've got a blog, I may as well answer some of the prompts.

Albeit late.

Day 1: Patron

So Patrons then. An unkind blogger may say that Patrons are just a way for the GM to railroad the players (It's not me making you fight the dragon it's that shady wizard you work for) but lets ignore that.

So I was thinking about patrons and how I hadn't played many games with hem then I remembered The One Ring, which seems to do patrons right. And also I can talk about my adventures in the Shire. 

Anyway we were playing online and getting close to the end of an adventure but also it was quite late at night. We had encountered Tom Bombadil and Goldberry who had offered up a song that would help on the quest but we the players were messing around instead. 

So the frustrated GM, in Goldberry's voice, said something along the lines of "Look, take this fucking song and sing it at [redacted quest location]" to much hilarity.

And thus Sweary Goldberry was our new patron. 

Day2: Prompt

So the prompt is prompt. How meta.  Let's roll some dice to get some more inspiration: Why, Envious, Lesson. Doesn't help much.

Hmmm... why am I envious of GM's with players who are prompt when it comes to their turns? Is there anything I can learn from them? Probaby. But would I? Probably not. 

Ars Magica - review, retrospective ?

 Imagine a medieval Europe where everything that people believed then existed or could exist. Magic is real, Dragons are real…

No wait… come back… this isn’t Game of Bloody Thrones.

This is your actual Europe with France and popes and all that too. Welcome to Mythic Europe.

I heard Adrian Tchaikovsky (off of books) talking about Ars Magica the other day and, with the imminent release of the definitive edition, thought to myself, why not spew forth a load of pixel words on the subject.

So Ars Magica (which as we all know is Latin for Anus Sorcery) is commonly held to have the best magic system of any TTRPG. The deceptively simple combination of 5 verbs and 10 nouns that allows you to define pretty much any spell you could think of.

But there is much more to it than that.

Much like Traveller, it has a fairly simple dice mechanic that is then used to power a range of sub-systems adding complexity to the game, from researching spells to improving your covenant (i.e. base).

And you are in for the long run. Pendragon may have campaigns that run for generations but your wizard can live for 300 years. Typically the game will start in the early 13th century but I am aware of campaigns where the mages had relocated to the new world.

The setting does pretty much cover everything that people thought was real in Medieval. So your wizards will have to deal with petty nobles, malevolent faeries and the church. And yes, God is definitely real here but similarly so are demons. And both are likely to be bad news for mages. 

There is a wealth of setting material covering Iceland down to Africa and from Iberia to the Middle East (albeit some books are nominally for earlier editions).

Another thing that makes the game out is that it pretty much invented the idea of troupe style play, where each player has multiple characters to play - a mage, a competent non-mage companion or one of a shared group of red-shirted soldiers and servants called grogs.

So why play these non-magical characters? Well Ars Magica is a fairly unique RPG in you don’t really get more powerful from doing adventures. You get more powerful from doing research. In fact, going off on adventures just wastes valuable experimentation time.

In most scenarios I played, much of the first session would be the mages bickering about who would have to go and do the adventure. Once that bit was settled, the unlucky mage plus the other players companions and a bunch of grogs would head off to do the adventure.

Furthermore, nobody likes mages much - this is an effect of the magical ‘gift’. So you tend to need companions and the like to help with interactions  with normal people.

When I played we took the troupe style play to its extreme and rotated the GM role too. This had the advantage that everybody got to play all the roles but the downside was that… well I was pretty terrible at GMing it.

So what about the downsides. Well some of these may turn people off.

Well it is quite a daunting game. There’s a lot of setting (albeit one you are likely to have some idea about) and there’s a lot of maths involved - some dice can double and there’s a lot of point buying with numbers that can get quite high. I think the latest edition (5th) is slightly less complex than the 4th edition I played but it’s still likely to be an issue for any maths-phobes.

It’s also fairly easy to make yourself a Magus who is a load of crap. Particularly, if you are a new player. I think the 5th edition character creation helps with this and indeed many disadvantages you pick up can drive the story forward.

There’s a lot of Lore too. The 5th edition is “complete” covering almost the entirety of the setting in 40-odd books (with any exceptions covered in earlier lore books). However, I found a lot of these to be fairly dry reads. On the other hand you can ignore it - we played for over two years using only a core rulebook, an AA roadmap, a couple of errata printed from the internet and what we knew about the Middle Ages.

The game is designed for campaign play so a one-shot is unlikely to show it off in its best light. 

None of those issues were big problems for us. In fact, Ars Magica gave me many of my favourite gaming moments.

So in summary, should you meddle in the affairs of wizards and play Ars Magica? Well yes… if you have the time to play a campaign.  The new revised rules are pretty pricey but there’s a lot of game there if you want.

As for me… well,  it would be good to GM it properly. Maybe I’ll play around with the rules a bit.

Hey, if you’ve got any questions or comments get in touch.

Maven Mayhem Part 2

(Part 1)

We resumed the investigation into Albert Krause’s death after a brief recap and a flashback to a dream that Daisy had about a bridge between two Brindlewood Bays and dead fish saying the word “Void”.

Daisy and Rosemary were visited by Emily Krause as expected but also her annoying brother David (dressed rather improbably in the hind legs of a pantomime horse and a shirt designed to look like it was made of straw).

The Mavens spotted the David was carrying a concealed gun and that Emily was engaged in an intimate text conversation with an illicit lover. Daisy was also convinced that one of Emily’s Pokémon tattoos had evolved into another one.

Meanwhile Margaret and Laura headed to the yacht using the ploy of delivering some sympathy flowers from the townspeople. This seemed to work and a number of clues were discovered from snooping and talking to Alison Krause (Albert’s wife) before the butler became suspicious and politely asked them to leave.

The Maven all met up and compared notes. The clues all pointed to David being the culprit - Albert had discovered he was involved in an art scam and had died following a confrontation.

Then they gathered the suspects at the fish market. David tried to escape but fell into a fish cart and was promptly arrested.

Afterwards they had a rather strange encounter with the yacht captain who said his family had been living in Brindlewood Bay for many years and gave the Mavens a warning (threat?) that people in Brindlewood keep dying or mysteriously disappearing…

GM notes: the players seemed to want to track down every clue imaginable so I had to encourage them to Theorise. I struggled a bit this week with role playing all the suspects but we seemed to muddle through.

We’re going to play Starfinder next week but the Mavens are likely to return…

Maven Mayhem

So I ran my first session of Brindlewood Bay: Dad Overboard

Cast:

Rosemary, Margaret, Laura and Daisy

After a pre-credit dream sequence involving a masked figure, Daisy woke with a start. Then the Maven’s got on with their cosy day.

But later Sheriff Dalrymple interrupted the Maven’s book club to ask for help proving the death of a financier was foul play (although he specifically told them not to solve the murder or interfere with the body) otherwise he would have to release the body.

It turned out one of the victims daughters, Emily, was a friend of Daisy’s daughter. She phoned her up and invited her around for cake the next day.

Rosemary and Laura went to the tourist fish market where the body was being stored. Using the ruse of looking for Rosemary’s cat they managed to make their way into the cold storage. Inside the body’s suit pocket they found the results of a paternity test suggesting somebody had a different father than expected and also overheard some locals saying they had seen two of the siblings arguing violently.

Margaret went down to the seashore to inspect the sight where the body washed up. The area was cordoned off but nearby she found a dead cod with a dead rat in its mouth. Strange…

Daisy tried to get one of her late husbands political contacts to pull some strings to stop the Krause’s yacht from leaving. Unfortunately, the contact was a close personal friend of the Krause’s so would help with that but did reveal that somebody had been uninvited from Allison Krause’s big charity fundraiser party.

The next morning, Daisy was telling Rosemary how to make flower decorations for cakes when the phone rang… Emily had accidentally redialled Daisy and they overheard something that led them to believe Emily had other issues on her mind apart from her father’s death.

Meanwhile, Margaret was in the process of preserving the cod and rat explaining to Laura the process. Comparing notes from the evening before, they realised that the person who found the body said he was still alive when they phoned the police and ambulance.

With that we wrapped up for the night with a mid-credit grisly scene sting of some mysterious eye gouging cultists.

Keeper notes: it took us a bit of a while to get the hang of this. It took a while for the players to understand that I wouldn’t give them more details on the existing clues but instead give them new ones. I had a bit of trouble distinguishing day/night moves from meddling moves.

May Ramblings

Just an update on what’s been happening lately

Gaming

So I’m back to being a player now.

My Monday online group has been playing 5e - I’m a Firbolg Nature Paladin. We’ve been fighting demon cultist nobles. We’ve sorted them out so we’ll be back to Doctor Who and Hero System Space 1888 for a bit. Then maybe Starfinder.

On Fridays I’m playing pathfinder 1e - specifically a half-orc fire oracle called Keef. After some encounters with some elves and kobolds he’s decided he really hates elves.

Current plans - try to persuade one of my groups to play Brindlewood Bay. Possibly try to run some Pathfinder 2e. 

Good News

I was lucky enough to win a box of technical paints from Moonhopper games!

As a thank you here’s a plug for them… they do a wide range of basing materials, paints, minis… loads of useful stuff if miniature games are your thing.

Willow inspecting the paints

https://moonhopper-games.com/products/big-box-of-technical-paints

Bad news: now I’ll have to paint something.

Kickstarters

So a few kickstarter things have arrived in the past month or so (drivethru links are affiliate ones, sorry)

Darkened Hill and Dale. A great collection of system-neutral English folk horror scenarios.

Outgunned Adventures, the Yahtzee pulp game from Two Little Mice (and Free League).

Bit odd init - a one-dice game from Cakebread and Walton. A game about teens living in a weird English village.

Chill air by Blue Fox Comics, I heard about this via Julian Simpson’s Cartoon Gravity/Pleasant Green community. This one surprised me with how rapidly it delivered. I ordered a load of other stuff as part of this and have read Clodagh (a dark fantasy series) and the mountains of madness so far - good stuff.

I’ve also have a huge pile of preview pdfs from other things: Shadowlands games CoC scenarios, Handiworks game 5evil, Lemurian Chronicles, sanction…

Reading

After deciding earlier this year that I would not buy any books until I finished off my too read pile… I decided to sign up to a subscription to the British Library’s Tales of the Weird. So far I’ve read Medusa, which is 18th century sea-faring tentacle-y horror adventure that was originally published in the same year as Call of Cthulhu, and also ploughed my way through Return of the Ancients, which is a collection of stories about ancient gods and myths breaking their way into the 19th-20th century. 

Conventions

I managed to spend a couple of hours at Portsmouth Comic-Con at the start of May. Lots of people seemed to be having a good time and I picked up a few interesting bits and pieces.

I would like to get to a RPG convention later in the year but it looks like I won’t be free when any are on so maybe next year…

Nights Dark Terror - Review, links and thoughts

Review 

At long last my run through of Night’s Dark Terror is over.

36 sessions over 10 months. Each session around two to two and a half hours long. YMMV - I thought I’d be done by Christmas when we started. 3 PCs and many monsters dead.

I think it went quite well given my lack of experience behind the screen. I made a few mistakes along the way and I was lucky that my players knew the rules so could help me out.

But is the module actually any good?

I still think so. There’s some great set pieces, the first half is particularly good as there is the siege and then loads of places to explore.

The second half is more of a railroad and I think my players struggled with the plot - we were selling horses but now we’re looking for treasure somewhere.  Why is this NPC tagging along again? And why are you killing off our mules?

There is such a variety of stuff in this module that with a bit of work you can fit it all together. And there is a lot of adventure for your money as can be seen from the number of sessions.

In comparison to modern adventures, the short descriptions can be a bit of a pain but on the other hand they give you hints to improvise - I could play up the trader aspect of Fyodryll (and also decided she was the half-sister/black sheep of the family of Prestell in Riflian).

 From a 5th Edition D&D point of view, some of the fights are a bit unwieldy. In particular, there was a fight between the PCs and their allies in the Lost Valley that ended up as me pretty much playing against myself, which was no fun for anyone. 

I do have some ideas for some changes to make the whole thing more cohesive. I'll stick the at the end of the article as they'll likely include spoilers.

I do heartily recommend this adventure. I’m not sure all the encounters are needed when you run the adventure but there are a lot that would work as short standalone encounters or adventures - elves tormented by pixies, strange tombs, gnome mines and even with a little expansion the Threshold bits that I didn’t run.

 

 

Useful links  - Note that DTRPG/DMs Guild links are affiliate links (sorry)

 

The complete module can be purchased here as pdf and/or POD:

 https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17119/B10-Nights-Dark-Terror-Basic?affiliate_id=307673

 

 Some  5e conversions are also available to buy, which I found very useful:

 Classic modules today (DMs Guild)

 Iconic Encounters (DMs guild)

There's lots of useful free stuff on the Vault of Pandius, including:

https://pandius.com/B10_Nights_Dark_Terror_5E.pdf - a free conversion document

Maps for VTTs in Italian

Many other maps...

And it's also worth checking on The Piazza Forums

 Mystara forum at the piazza

Possible changes to the adventure... (probable spoilers ahead)

From the module as written, several months before the adventure starts, the Traldar defeat the Hutaakans and force them from this temple. It is implied that this prevents the Hutaakan from conducting the rituals required to stop the dead from rising in the valley.

The majority of the undead are not dangerous - instead just mindlessly repeat actions they carried out during their lives.

Now what happens if this doesn't just occur in the lost valley - there are sightings of strange undead activities in the wilderness regions of western Karameikos. Now the authorities in Kelven may not be too bothered but the homesteaders (possibly also gnomes and elves) are concerned and ask the adventurers for help.

Meanwhile, Golthar is also interested. I've got this vague idea of the Iron Ring's goal is to unlock the forbidden secrets of the Nithians or maybe they're all ghouls and thouls. Maybe they only have half a tapestry and think Xitaqa is where they need to be. 

Anyway, they need prisoners for some purpose and trick the goblins into attacking the homesteads to get them. And then the PCs arrive at Sukiskyn...

NDT session 36: This is the end

 Int. a cavern below the temple.

The battle against Kartoeba (totally not a Shoggoth)

The party descended down the pit into thaw cage to the cavern below. It smelled foul and was ankle deep in slime.

They decided that they just would leave but before they could find an escape route, Kartoeba emerged, all oozy and tentacly.

Ham was swiftly grappled but despite this was able to cause significant damage to the beast. However, others were also restrained by the tentacles and Han was badly bitten in return.

It became apparent that attacking the tentacles was futile as it seem to have an endless supply. In the end, Ham, aided by healing from Xianti caused most damage and the creature was slain.

A key was found in it’ remnants - it looked like it would fit the secret door in the temple. In another cave there was a trapdoor in the ceiling with a ladder leading up. And up. 

Eventually they emerged in a room they hadn’t been in before - full of treasure. The stuffed as much as they could  in their bag of holding, and another magical sack they found , then left. (Unfortunately, the second sack was a bag if devouring but they still had a sizeable fortune).

They emerged from the temple, blinking in the noon-day sun. Stephan was outside, he had fetched the Hutakaans to help free the PCs from the Traldar but the adventurers ignored him and left.

After travelling a few hours, it still seemed to be noon. And even when they felt tired it was still noon. They found some shelter to sleep and the next day they reached the edge of the valley. The statues allowed them to pass but outside the gates… things were different.

After following a pass for a short way they turned a corner to behold a stunning view. Below them was a lush jungle but more bizarrely the horizon wasn’t there. Instead the world seemed to curve up around them until all was lost in haze…

The End.

The Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French -review/inspiration

Over the past few months I’ve been reading the excellent Dublin Murder Squad novel series by Tana French

Unlikely most crime fiction, each novel is told in a first-person point of view of a different detective (except The Secret Place which is half flashbacks told in third person). However, the protagonists aren’t isolated - for example,  the main character in The Likeness is the partner of the lead in Into The Woods. And the lead in Faithful Place has a significant role in a couple of the other books.

Each story has a crime that has a personal connection to the detective - they all end up changed in some way. And the stories don’t have happy endings that are tied up in a neat bow.

However, the main draw is the writing. I really felt engaged with the characters and plots and have read them all at a rapid pace (at least rapid for me lately).

Finally, from a Role-Playing Game point of view most of the books have ideas that you could steal for investigation or horror scenarios. Why is there a large animal trap in the attic of the house where a murder occurred? What actually happened to those kids that disappeared in the woods? Why does the murder victim have the fake identity of an undercover cop?

NDT Session 35: A family reunion

 After deciding there were nothing further to explore in the temple the group decided to leave to find if the Traldar or Hutaakans had the key to the treasure room.

However, outside a different band awaited - the Iron Ring, including a mage who looked very similar to Golthar and the mysterious dark haired priestess who had been following them.

It appeared Stephan had been somehow coerced into aiding them but on admitting that he failed to find the treasure he collapsed holding his head and screaming.

After a brief negotiation where neither side agreed to surrender a battle started. Things went well for the party as a fire ball and a hasted Ham ploughed through most of the evil slavers forces. However Rosie was unable to damage a bunch of wererats and Ham was stopped in his tracks by the dark haired priestess who suddenly shapeshifted into his missing ‘wife’ Keothi, the Goliath. 

The reunion was not a happy one Keothi heaped abuse on Ham saying he wasn’t really married to her and he responded by beating her unconscious with the flat of his sword.

The rest of the Iron Ring members were either dead, or had surrendered or fled. Angus and Rosie had been badly bitten and Stephan had been stabilised.

However, any questioning of Keothi was put on hold by the bulk of the Traldar warriors arriving to ‘request’ that the party enter the pit in the temple to deal with Karteoba. 

The PCs managed to convince them they need to rest overnight but they awoke to find themselves in the cage over the pit…

DM notes: this entire battle was sprung off of Ham and Rosie’s back-story (and also because they didn’t hang around in Threshold to meet the Iron Ring there) and seemed to work quite well (well not combat wise which was a cakewalk really but that wasn’t the point).

I’m not sure about my railroad to the finale afterwards… the PCs (2 of them on the way to becoming evil wererats ) now want to get revenge on the Traldar.